The Lost Palace That Was Bigger Than Versailles: Nonsuch

In 1538, Henry VIII ordered the destruction of an entire medieval village to build a palace so extraordinary he named it Nonsuch — because there was to be nothing like it in the world.

Nearly 700 hand-sculpted stucco panels. Octagonal towers unlike anything in England. Italian craftsmen stolen from his rival, Francis I of France. It cost £24,000 — roughly £10.5 million today — and took nearly a decade to build.

Henry visited it three times.

After his death, Nonsuch was completed by the Earl of Arundel, filled with one of England's greatest libraries by Lord Lumley, and loved by Elizabeth I, who hunted in its grounds every summer. For over a century, it was everything Henry had dreamed it would be.

Then, in 1670, Charles II gave it to his mistress, Barbara Villiers. By 1682, she had the entire palace demolished and sold for scrap — to pay off her gambling debts.

Today, nothing remains but a quiet field in Surrey. This is the dark story of Henry VIII's lost palace.
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