A Closer Look at Blenheim Palace and Woodstock Manor

 

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace was built on the orders of Queen Anne as a reward for John Churchill for his in defeating Louis XIV at the Battle of Blenheim, 13 August 1704.⁽⁸⁾ It was here in this palace Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born.

 

Owsley Connection - Winston Churchill and Dorothea Poyntz shared a common ancestry through John Spencer who died in 1479. Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales and Dorothea Poyntz both descend from Newdigate Poyntz who died in 1643. See the OFHS Newsletter of September 1997, p. 60 for a chart outlining this relationship.

Woodstock Manor

Woodstock Manor, whose only remains is a stone marking its original foundation, sat on the bluff across the lake from the Blenheim Palace. No one is quite sure how far back the manor dated, but it is known that Woodstock was a royal manor before the Norman Conquest. In its earliest form it was probably no more than a mere hunting lodge.⁽²⁾ 

 

According to legend "Eleanor of Aquitaine galloping across this landscape in a fury to surprise her husband, Henry II, at this country manor, found him in the arms of his lover Rosamond de Clifford. The poor girl is quickly dispatched with a glass of poisoned wine, and Eleanor is avenged."⁽²⁾  Woodstock Manor was the birthplace of Edward the Black Prince in 1330, eldest son of Edward III and his wife Philippa of Hainault. ⁽⁷⁾  It was also at Woodstock in 1554 that Queen Mary held the future Queen Elizabeth I prisoner. ⁽²⁾

 

The manor meant its final demise at the hands of Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough, who ordered the manor torn down in the 1700s.^{(4, 6)}

 

Owsley Connection -

Woodstock Manor was once the possession of an Owsley ancestor, Edmund of Woodstock (1301-1330), Earl of Kent. Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine are also Owsley ancestors as is Edward III.

 

 References and Places for further Research:

 1. December 1999, September 1997 OFHS Newsletters

 2. http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/journeys/01/feb01/woodstock.html

 3. http://www.blenheimpalace.com/

 4. http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/stately%20homes/

     Blenheim%20Palace.htm

 5. http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/oxfordshire/info/blenheim.html

 6. http://www.aboutbritain.com/BlenheimPalace.htm

 7. http://www.parishes.oxford.anglican.org/bladon- woodstock/pages/

     ws161.html

 8. Historic Houses of the Greater Coswolds, David Gerrard