John Speed's 1610 map of Surrey also shows the palace's gardens with the principle ornaments (see below).

Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey, England; it stood from 1538 to 1682–3. Its ruins are in Nonsuch Park.

Background[link]

Nonsuch Palace in Surrey was perhaps the grandest of Henry VIII's building projects. It was built on the site of Cuddington, near Ewell, the church and village having been destroyed and compensation paid to create a suitable site. Work started on 22 April 1538, the first day of Henry's thirtieth regnal year, and six months after the birth of his son, later Edward VI. Within two months the name 'Nonsuch' appears in the building accounts, so called because it was claimed there was no such palace elsewhere equal to its magnificence. Construction had been substantially carried out by 1541, but it would take several more years to complete. As the Royal Household took possession of vast tracts of surrounding acreage, several major roads were re-routed or by-passed to circumvent what became Nonsuch Great Park.

The palace was designed to be a celebration of the power and the grandeur of the Tudor dynasty, built to rival Francis I's Château de Chambord. Unlike most of Henry's palaces, Nonsuch was not an adaptation of an old building; he chose to build a new palace in this location because it was near to one of his main hunting grounds. The palace cost at least £24,000 (£104 million in 2009^[1]) because of its rich ornamentation and is considered a key work in the introduction of elements of Renaissance design to England.

Archaeology[link]

Only about three contemporary images of the palace survive, and they do not reveal very much about either the layout or the details of the building. The site was excavated in 1959–60. The plan of the palace was quite simple with inner and outer courtyards, each with a fortified gatehouse. To the north, it was fortified in a medieval style, but the southern face had ornate Renaissance decoration, with tall octagonal towers at each end. It was within one of these towers that the premiere of Thomas Tallis' masterwork, Spem in alium was performed. A motet for forty voices divided into eight choirs of five it is rumoured that each choir took position in one of the eight balconies of a tower and sang the piece for the patrons below. The exterior and outer courtyard were quite plain, but the inner courtyard was decorated with breathtaking stucco panels moulded in high relief.

Following the digging of the trenches in World War II, it was reported that pieces of pottery had been discovered in the area, later found to be from the site of the palace.^{[citation needed]} An outline of the site layout was also visible from the air, providing additional evidence in the search for the location of the site. The 1959 excavation of Nonsuch was a key event in the history of archaeology in the UK. It was one of the first post-medieval sites to be excavated, and attracted over 75,000 visitors during the work. This excavation led to a major set of developments in post-medieval archeology.^[2]

Through the ages[link]

A depiction of Nonsuch Palace

The palace was incomplete when Henry VIII died in 1547. In 1556 Queen Mary I sold it to the 19th Earl of Arundel who completed it. It returned to royal hands in the 1590s, and remained royal property until 1670, when Charles II gave it to his mistress, Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine. She had it pulled down around 1682–3 and sold off the building materials to pay gambling debts.^[3] Some elements were incorporated into other buildings; for example the wood panelling can still be seen today in the Great Hall at Loseley Park. No trace of the palace remains on its site today but some pieces are held by the British Museum. There is, however, a discernible rise of land where the old Cuddington church used to be, before it was demolished to make way for the palace. Nonsuch Palace should not be confused with Nonsuch Mansion, which is at the east of the park, nor its associated banqueting hall whose foundations are still visible to the south east of the palace site.

Gardens[link]

John Speed's map of Surrey has an insert depicting the palace and a part of its gardens, including some of the principle ornaments. These are also known from detailed drawings in The Red Velvet Book, 1590 Lumley inventory.

Diana Fountain   Falcon Perch   Pyramid   Table Fountain   Inner Court Fountain

[edit] The Tudors

A depiction of Nonsuch Palace appears in season 3 episode 8 of the television series The Tudors, seen in the distance when Henry VIII rides out to show it to his mistress Catherine Howard. Earlier in the series, the plot asserts that the Palace was designed by the King when incommunicado, wracked with grief over the death of Jane Seymour.

See also[link]

• Artists of the Tudor court
• Nonsuch
• Loseley Park

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Dent, John (1970) [1962]. Quest for Nonsuch (2nd Edition ed.). Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-105140-1. 
• Biddle, Martin (2005). Nonsuch Palace: The Material Culture of a Noble Restoration Household. (1st Edition ed.). Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-900188-34-0. 
• Biddle, Martin (Summer 1999). "The Gardens of Nonsuch: Sources and Dating". Garden History 27 (1): 145–183. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nonsuch Palace

• A historical record of Nonsuch Palace
• Better version of the Hoefnagel engraving
• All three images, the last after much had been burnt down
• An account of the excavation of Nonsuch Palace
• Contemporary watercolour of the Palace

Coordinates: 51°21′15″N 0°14′20″W / 51.354145°N 0.238958°W / 51.354145; -0.238958

v t e Royal palaces and residences in the United Kingdom Occupied Bagshot Park Balmoral Castle Birkhall Buckingham Palace Clarence House Gatcombe Park Highgrove House Hillsborough Castle Holyrood Palace St James's Palace Kensington Palace Llwynywermod Royal Lodge Sandringham House Thatched House Lodge Windsor Castle Historical Palace of Beaulieu Beaumont Palace Brantridge Park Bridewell Palace Coombe Abbey Coppins Carlton House Claremont Cumberland Lodge Doune Castle Dunfermline Palace Edinburgh Castle Eltham Palace Falkland Palace Fort Belvedere Hampton Court Palace Havering Palace Kew Palace Kings Langley Palace Linlithgow Palace Marlborough House Castle of Mey Nonsuch Palace Oatlands Palace Osborne House Palace of Placentia Queen's House Ribsden Holt Richmond Palace Royal Pavilion Savoy Palace Stirling Castle Sunninghill Park Tower of London Palace of Westminster Palace of Whitehall White Lodge Woodstock Palace

Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.^[1] No contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: the earliest, painted by Gerard van der Gucht, dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no certainty that it is a likeness.^[2]

Life[link]

Early years[link]

Little is known about Tallis's early life, but there seems to be agreement that he was born in the early 16th century, toward the close of the reign of Henry VII. Little is known about Tallis's childhood and his significance with music at that age. However, there are suggestions that he was a child of the chapel royal St. James's palace, the same singing establishment which he later went to as a man.^[3] His first known appointment to a musical position was as organist of Dover Priory in 1530–31, a Benedictine priory at Dover (now Dover College) in 1532.^[4] His career took him to London, then (probably in the autumn of 1538) to the Augustinian abbey of Holy Cross at Waltham until the abbey was dissolved in 1540. Tallis acquired a volume at the dissolution of the monastery of Waltham Holy Cross and preserved it; one of the treatises in it was by Leonel Power, and the treatise itself prohibits consecutive unisons, fifths, and octaves.^[5]

Tallis's next post was at Canterbury Cathedral. He was next sent to Court as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1543 (which later became a Protestant establishment^[6]), where he composed and performed for Henry VIII,^[7] Edward VI (1547–1553), Queen Mary (1553–1558), and Queen Elizabeth I (1558 until Tallis died in 1585).^[8] Throughout his service to successive monarchs as organist and composer, Tallis avoided the religious controversies that raged around him, though, like William Byrd, he stayed an "unreformed Roman Catholic."^[9] Tallis was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit the different monarchs' vastly different demands.^[10] Among other important composers of the time, including Christopher Tye and Robert White, Tallis stood out. Walker observes, "He had more versatility of style than either, and his general handling of his material was more consistently easy and certain."^[11] Tallis was also a teacher, not only of William Byrd, but also of Elway Bevin, an organist of Bristol Cathedral and gentleman of the Chapel Royal.^[12]

Tallis married around 1552; his wife, Joan, outlived him by four years. They apparently had no children. Late in his life he lived in Greenwich, possibly close to the royal palace: a local tradition holds that he lived on Stockwell Street.^[13]

Work with William Byrd[link]

Queen Mary granted Tallis a lease on a manor in Kent that provided a comfortable annual income.^[14] In 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted to him and William Byrd a 21-year monopoly for polyphonic music^[15] and a patent to print and publish music, which was one of the first arrangements of that type in the country.^[16] Tallis's monopoly covered 'set songe or songes in parts', and he composed in English, Latin, French, Italian, or other tongues as long as they served for music in the Church or chamber.^[17] Tallis had exclusive rights to print any music, in any language. He and William Byrd were the only ones allowed to use the paper that was used in printing music. Tallis and Byrd used their monopoly to produce Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur but the piece did not sell well and they appealed to Queen Elizabeth for her support.^[18] People were naturally wary of their new publications, and it certainly did not help their case that they were both avowed Roman Catholics.^[19] Not only that, they were strictly forbidden to sell any imported music. "We straightly by the same forbid...to be brought out of any forren Realmes...any songe or songes made and printed in any foreen countrie." Also, Byrd and Tallis were not given "the rights to music type fonts, printing patents were not under their command, and they didn't actually own a printing press."^[20]

Tallis retained respect during a succession of opposing religious movements and deflected the violence that claimed Catholics and Protestants alike.^[21]

Death[link]

Thomas Tallis died peacefully in his house in Greenwich in November 1585. Most historians agree that he died on the twenty-third.^[22] He was buried in the chancel of the parish of St Alfege's Church in Greenwich.^[23] The chancel was torn down in 1720, and none of the memorials remain. Strype claims to have found a brass plate with an engraving on it, which reads:

<poem>“Entered here doth ly a worthy wyght, Who for long tyme in musick bore the bell: His name to shew, was THOMAS TALLYS hyght, In honest virtuous lyff he dyd excell.

“He serv’d long tyme in chappel with grete prayse Fower sovereygnes reygnes (a thing not often seen); I meane Kyng Henry and Prynce Edward’s dayes, Quene Mary, and Elizabeth oure Quene.

“He mary’d was, though children he had none, And lyv’d in love full thre and thirty yeres Wyth loyal spowse, whose name yclypt was JONE, Who here entomb’d him company now beares.

“As he dyd lyve, so also did he dy, In myld and quyet sort (O happy man!) To God ful oft for mercy did he cry, Wherefore he lyves, let deth do what he can.”^[24]</poem>

Byrd wrote the musical elegy Ye Sacred Muses on Tallis's death.

Veneration[link]

Tallis is honoured together with William Byrd and John Merbecke with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 21 November.

Works[link]

	Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae Recorded live in Madonna dei Monti, Rome by The Tudor Consort in November 2005 (5Mb) If ye love me (2Mb)
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

See List of compositions by Thomas Tallis

Early works[link]

The earliest surviving works by Tallis, Salve intemerata virgo, Ave rosa sine spinis and Ave Dei patris filia are devotional antiphons to the Virgin Mary, which were used outside the liturgy and were cultivated in England until the fall of Cardinal Wolsey. Henry VIII's break with Roman Catholicism in 1534 and the rise of Thomas Cranmer noticeably influenced the style of music written. Texts became largely confined to the liturgy.^[25] The writing of Tallis and his contemporaries became less florid. Tallis's Mass for four voices is marked with tendencies toward a syllabic (which is a setting of text where each syllable is sung to one pitch) and chordal (consisting of or emphasising chords) style and a diminished use of melisma. Tallis provides a rhythmic variety and differentiation of moods depending on the meaning of his texts.^[26] Tallis helped found a relationship that was specific to the combining of words and music.^[27] He also wrote several excellent Lutheran chorales.^[28]

The reformed Anglican liturgy was inaugurated during the short reign of Edward VI (1547–53),^[29] and Tallis was one of the first church musicians to write anthems set to English words, although Latin continued to be used.^[30] The Catholic Mary Tudor set about undoing the religious reforms of the preceding decades. Following her accession in 1553, the Roman Rite was restored and compositional style reverted to the elaborate writing prevalent early in the century.^[31] Two of Tallis's major works, Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater and the Christmas Mass Puer natus est nobis are believed to be from this period. Only Puer natus est nobis can be accurately dated to 1554. As was the prevailing practice, these pieces were intended to exalt the image of the Queen as well as to praise the Mother of God.^[32]

Some of Tallis's works were compiled and printed in the Mulliner Book by Thomas Mulliner before Queen Elizabeth's reign, and may have been used by the Queen herself when she was younger. Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister in 1558, and the Act of Settlement in the following year abolished the Roman Liturgy^[33] and firmly established the Book of Common Prayer.^[34] Composers at court resumed writing English anthems, although the practice of setting Latin texts continued, growing more peripheral over time.

The mood of the country in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign leant toward the puritan, which discouraged the liturgical polyphony. Tallis wrote nine psalm chant tunes for four voices for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, published in 1567.^[35] One of the nine tunes, the "Third Mode Melody", inspired the composition of Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1910.^[36] Tallis's better-known works from the Elizabethan years include his settings of the Lamentations (of Jeremiah the Prophet)^[37] for the Holy Week services and the unique motet Spem in alium written for eight five-voice choirs. Tallis is mostly remembered for his role in composing office hymns and this motet, Spem in alium. Too often we forget to look at his compositions for other monarchs; several of Tallis's anthems written in Edward's reign such as his If ye love me, ought to be considered on the same level as his Elizabethan works.^[38] This is partially because we do not have all of his works from previous periods; eleven of eighteen Latin-texted pieces by Tallis from Elizabeth's reign were published, "which ensured their survival in a way not available to the earlier material."^[39]

Later works[link]

Toward the end of his life, Tallis resisted the musical development seen in his younger contemporaries such as William Byrd, who embraced compositional complexity and adopted texts built by combining disparate biblical extracts.^[40] Tallis's experiments during this time period were considered rather unusual.^[41] Tallis was content to draw his texts from the Liturgy^[42] and wrote for the worship services in the Chapel Royal.^[43] Tallis composed during a difficult period during the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and his music often displays characteristics of the turmoil.^[44]

Fictional portrayals[link]

A fictionalised Thomas Tallis was portrayed by Joe Van Moyland in 2007 on the Showtime television series The Tudors, loosely based upon the early reign of Henry VIII.

See also[link]

Saints portal

References[link]

• Cole, Suzanne. Thomas Tallis and his Music in Victorian England. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2008.
• Doe, Paul and Allinson, David : Thomas Tallis, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 5 May 2007), (subscription access)
• Farrell, Joseph. Latin Language and Latin Culture: From Ancient to Modern Times. New York Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Gatens. Tallis: Works, all. American Record Guide 68.3 (May–June 2005): 181.
• Holman, Peter. Dowland: Lachrimae (1604); Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Lord, Suzanne.; Brinkman, David. Music From the Age of Shakespeare: A Cultural History. Westport, Conn Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003.
• Manderson, Desmond. Songs Without Music: Aesthetic Dimensions of Law and Justice. University of California Press, 2000.
• Phillips, Peter. Sign of Contradiction: Tallis at 500. Musical Times 146 (Summer 2005): 7–15.
• Shrock, Dennis. Choral Repertoire. Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Steinberg, Michael. Choral Masterworks: A Listener’s Guide. New York Oxford Press, 2005.
• St. James Palace; Rimbault, Edward F. The Old Cheque-Book. Chapel Royal. Westminster: J.B, Nichols and Sons.
• Thomas, Jane Resh. Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. New York Houghton-Muffin Trade and Reference, 1998.
• Walker, Ernest. A History of Music in England. 3rd ed., rev. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thomas Tallis

• BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music program on Spem in Alium and related works
• Free scores by Thomas Tallis in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Listen to free recordings of Latin church music and English church music from Umeå Akademiska Kör
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Thomas Tallis
• Free access to high-resolution images of manuscripts containing works by Tallis from Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
• Free scores by Thomas Tallis in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Thomas Tallis at the International Music Score Library Project
• In Pace In idipsum, edited by quilisma-publications.info

Recordings[link]

• Ceremony & Devotion Harry Christophers, The Sixteen (CORO)
• Tallis, Byrd and Guerrero, The Flowering of Genius The Sixteen (CORO16001)
• William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, In Chains of Gold. Dunedin Consort, DCD34008
• Herald AV Publications – HAVPCD305: Thomas Tallis