Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/238

 206 THE CECILS

seat, and died there in 1625. I n 1650 the com- missioners appointed by Parliament to survey the Royal palaces, reported that Theobalds was an excellent building in very good repair, and estimated the materials of the house to be worth 8,275. Notwithstanding, the palace was pulled down in 1651, the proceeds of the sale of the materials being divided among the army. 1

The Manor of Hatfield, which thus came into possession of the Cecils, had already a distin- guished history. 2 Originally the property of the monastery of St. Ethelred of Ely, it became the residence of the bishops of that see, when the monastery was erected into a bishopric in 1108. The palace was rebuilt by Cardinal Morton, who was Bishop of Ely from 1479 to 1486, and of his fine red-brick building, portions, including the gatehouse and the old banqueting hall (now the stables), still remain. In 1539 Bishop Goodrich conveyed the lordship and manor to Henry VIII., in exchange for the site of Icklington Priory and other lands, and the palace became a Royal residence. Here Prince Edward lived with his tutor, Richard Coxe ; and in 1550, in the fourth year of his reign, he transferred it to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, who resided at Hatfield during Mary's reign. Here, too, " under the celebrated oak which tradition has associated with her name, it is more than probable that she learned the news of her sister's death, and her

1 Lysons, Environs of London, IV. 38.

a Brewer, English Studies. See also Gotch, Homes of the Cecils, as before.

�� �