Hampton Court soon became Henry VIII.'s favourite palace, and from the time when it passed to his possession (1526) it witnessed many historical events of importance. Edward VI. was born in it on the 12th October, 1537, and in it Henry's queen, Jane Seymour, the only one he is said to have mourned, died a few days later.
In 1538 an Act of Parliament was passed for making a royal chase round Hampton Court, that the owner might indulge in his favourite amusement of hunting, without unnecessary fatigue. This chase originally included the manors of Walton-on-Thames, Byflet, Walton Legh, Weybridge, West and East Moulsey, Sandon, Weston, Imworth, Esher, Hampton, Kennington, Hanworth, Feitham, and Teddington. Its boundaries were defined by a wooden paling, but this was removed on the repeal of the Act, after Henry's death.
In 1540 Catherine Howard made her first appearance as queen at Hampton Court, and, three years later, the marriage ceremony between her successor and the royal Bluebeard was celebrated in the same palace.
Edward VI. spent the greater part of his brief reign in Hampton Court Palace, and shortly before his death held a chapter of the Order of the Garter in its hall. His unhappy sister, Mary, and her gloomy husband, Philip, resided in it for their honeymoon, and Elizabeth chose it for the celebration of the feasts of Christmas of 1572 and 1593.
Here, too, in the reign of James I., who lived in it at intervals, met the delegates of the Presbyterian and Established Churches for their great three days' conference, resulting in the translation of the Bible still in use, and here, a little later, the French prince, Francis of Vaudernois, and his suite, were entertained in the same rooms.
It was to Hampton Court Palace that Charles I. fled for refuge, first, from the plague, which raged in London in 1625, and then from the mob which disturbed his quiet in his palace of Whitehall in 1641. To the same place he was brought, a prisoner, on the 24th August, 1647, and he remained there until his escape to the Isle of Wight, on the 11th of November of the same year.
In 1651 Hampton Court Palace and its grounds were bought, with the sanction of Parliament, by Mr. John Phelps, for the sum of £10,765 19s. 9d., but in 1656 they again became the property of the head of the state, in the person of Oliver Cromwell, and the palace witnessed, first, the marriage of his daughter, Elizabeth, with Lord Falconberg, and then the death of his favourite child, Mrs. Claypole.
Charles II., James II., and William III. all resided at Hampton Court, and the last-named monarch partly rebuilt the palace, and laid out the gardens in the prim Dutch style still preserved. The young Prince William, son of Queen Anne, who died when a mere boy, was born in the palace, and it continued to be used as a royal residence until the deaths of George II. and his Queen Caroline.