Savoy Palace

The Savoy Palace, considered the grandest nobleman's townhouse of medieval London, was the residence of prince John of Gaunt until it was destroyed during rioting in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The palace was on the site of an estate given to Peter II, Count of Savoy, in the mid-13th century, which in the following century came to be controlled by Gaunt's family and then the monarch by right of the Duchy of Lancaster. It was situated between the Strand and the River Thames. French monarch John II of France died here during his "honourable captivity", after an illness. In the locality of the palace, the administration of law was by a special jurisdiction, separate from the rest of the county of Middlesex, known as the Liberty of the Savoy.

The Tudor-era Savoy Chapel is located on the site of the former palace and has carried on the name. The name is also carried on by the Savoy Theatre and Savoy Hotel also located on the former estate.

In the Middle Ages, although there were many noble palaces within the walls of the City of London, the most desirable location for housing the nobility was the Strand, which was the greatest part of the ceremonial route between the City and the Palace of Westminster, where the business of Parliament and the royal court was transacted. Other advantages of the Strand were that a house could have a water frontage on the Thames, the great water highway, and be free of the stink, smoke, and social tumult of the City of London downstream and generally downwind to the east, and its constant threat of fires.

In 1246 King Henry III granted the land between the Strand and the Thames, on which the palace was soon built, to an uncle of Queen Eleanor, Peter, Count of Savoy, whom he created Feudal Baron of the Honour of Richmond. Peter willed the palace to the monks of Great St Bernard Hospice a monastery atop the Grand Saint Bernard Pass in Savoy. The monks sold the estate to Queen Eleanor. In 1285 she passed the estate to her second son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, and his descendants, the Dukes of Lancaster, lived there throughout the next century.

The following extract from the Calendar of Patent Rolls summarises the estate passing from Peter to Eleanor to Edmund.

“Aug. 17.[1285]

Amesbury.

Inspeximus and confirmation of (1) A charter of Eleanor the king's mother, to Edmund the king's brother, dated at Lutegershal, 24 February, 12 Edward I., granting to the said Edmund the houses, garden, plots and rents lately purchased by her of the provost and chapter of the house of St. Bernard, Mont Joux (Montis Jovis), and which were late of Peter count of Savoy, her unele, without the city of London, in the parish of the Holy Innocents, White Church (de albo monasterio). Witnesses: - Sirs Guy Ferre, Robert Pugeys, William de Bluntesdon, Robert de Mahon, Richard Fukeram, Geoffrey de Langele, knights; William de Perey, Hugh de Penua, clerks, and many others.