Kings Langley, now a quiet village, was once the site of a 13th century royal palace for the Plantagenet kings of England.

None of the Palace remains standing above ground, but in its prime it had a triple courtyard layout, with royal apartments, a bakery, larder, stables, barns, a hunting lodge, parks and gardens. It appears from excavations that the Palace also had a huge underground wine cellar.

In 1279, Eleanor of Castile, the first queen consort of Edward I of England, leased Langley from the Earl of Cornwall and spent two years developing an impressive garden with fruit trees and vines. Eleanor is warmly remembered as the queen who inspired the Eleanor crosses, a series of 12 lavishly decorated stone monuments marking the nightly resting places along the route when her body was transported to London. Today, three Eleanor crosses remain intact.

The Black Death hit London hard in 1349, killing about 60 per cent of its inhabitants. Symptoms included buboes in the groin, neck and armpits, acute fever and vomiting blood. Most victims died two to seven days after initial infection.

With such a horrible death imminently possible, King Edward III fled the capital and moved his court to Langley Palace, where his young son, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, had been born in 1341. Edmund is a major character in Shakespeare’s Richard II.

Edmund later died in the palace where he was born and was buried there in the church of the mendicant friars. The tomb he shares with his wife, Isabel of Castile, still stands in the Church of All Saints in the centre of the village.

Later, King Richard II celebrated Christmas at Langley Palace. In 1377, he hosted a Christmas feast at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten.

On the top of Langley Hill, north of the Palace, was a Dominican Priory. In 1315, the body of Piers Gaveston was buried with elaborate ceremony in the priory. He had been a favourite of Edward II, and it has even been rumoured that the two were lovers. Gaveston’s closeness to the King provoked several members of the nobility, and in 1307 the King was forced to send him into exile. Edward managed to negotiate a deal with the opposition, however, and Gaveston was allowed to return. Unfortunately, his behaviour became even more offensive once back in England, and it was decided that he should be sent into exile once again. When he returned in 1312, he was hunted down and executed by a group of magnates led by Thomas of Lancaster and the Earl of Warwick. Because Gaveston had been excommunicated by Archbishop Winchelsey, a proper burial could not be arranged for him until 1315, after the King had secured a papal absolution for his favourite.

The Dominican Priory was brought to an end under the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. When the Friary was dissolved it was found to be richer than any other house of Friars Preachers in England. It was revived briefly as a nunnery in the reign of Queen Mary.

Henry IV granted Langley Palace to his second wife, Joan of Navarre, and she lived there for a large portion of her life. She was later accused of using witchcraft to poison Henry V, and was imprisoned in Pevensey Castle, Sussex, for four years.

The Palace was seriously damaged by a fire in 1431 through “insufficient care of a lighted candle”.

The last evidence of the Palace’s use for official occasions was in 1476 when William Wallingford, Abbot of St Albans, held a banquet there for the Bishop of Llandaff. Wallingford is also known for introducing printing to the town of St Albans.

Henry VIII granted the Palace to three of his wives, including Catherine of Aragon, but none lived in it. He also ordered the Palace to be made into a home for the young Princess Elizabeth, but there is no record that anything was done.

The palace fell into decay and most of the royal estate was sold off in the 17th century.

The site is now occupied by the Rudolf Steiner School. Unfortunately, building works have destroyed any chance of knowing the exact layout of the grand royal Palace that once stood in this quiet corner of Hertfordshire.