Editing Blenheim Palace (section)

=== Site ===
[[File:Blenheim PalaceDE.jpg|thumb|An engraving of Blenheim Palace]]

The estate given by the nation to Marlborough for the new house was the [[Manorialism|manor]] of Woodstock, sometimes called the [[Woodstock Palace|Palace of Woodstock]], which had been a royal [[demesne]], in reality little more than a [[medieval deer park|deer park]].<ref name=woodstockpalace>{{cite web |title= Woodstock's lost royal palace |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2007/10/17/glyme_feature.shtml |publisher=BBC Oxford |access-date=29 November 2010 |first=Simon |last=Pipe |date=23 October 2007}}</ref> Legend has obscured the manor's origins. King [[Henry I of England|Henry I]] enclosed the park to contain the deer. [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] housed his mistress [[Rosamund Clifford]] (sometimes known as "Fair Rosamund") there in a "bower and labyrinth"; a spring in which she is said to have bathed remains, named after her.<ref name=woodstockpalace/>

It seems the unostentatious hunting lodge was rebuilt many times, and had an uneventful history until [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]], before her succession, was imprisoned there by her half-sister [[Mary I of England|Mary I]] between 1554 and 1555.<ref name=woodstockpalace/> Elizabeth had been implicated in the [[Thomas Wyatt the younger|Wyatt plot]], but her imprisonment at Woodstock was short, and the manor remained in obscurity until bombarded and ruined by [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s troops during the [[English Civil War|Civil War]].<ref name=woodstockpalace/>

When the park was being re-landscaped as a setting for the house, the 1st Duchess wanted the historic ruins demolished, while Vanbrugh, an early conservationist, wanted them restored and made into a landscape feature. The Duchess, as so often in her disputes with her architect, won the day and the remains of the manor were swept away.<ref name=woodstockpalace/>