II.—The Palace, 1545-1611
During the period from 1545-1611 the Charterhouse became a nobleman's palace, and passed through several changes of ownership. After the suppression of the monastery the buildings were used as a storehouse for the King's hales (that is, nets) and tents. John Brydges, yeoman, and Thomas Hales were placed in charge of the King's property. This arrangement, however, was of short duration, for in 1545 the King presented the site to Sir Edward North, Brydges and Hales receiving £10 per annum by way of compensation. According to Bearcroft[67] the gift was likely to have cost North dear. The historian tells the story on the authority of one of North's attendants:
"Once, early in the morning, there came from the King to Charterhouse, then the mansion of Sir Edward North, a messenger, known to be a friend of his, to command his immediate repair to the court, which message was delivered with some harshness. This was so terrible in the suddenness and other circumstances, as he observed his master to tremble at the delivery of it, who yet, finding it dangerous to use the least delay hasted thither, and was admitted speedily into the King's presence with this his servant attendant on him. The King was then walking, and continued doing so with great earnestness, and every now and then cast an angry look upon him, which was received with a still and sober carriage: at last the King broke out into these words: 'We are informed that you have cheated us of certain lands in Middlesex'; whereunto, having received none other than a plain and humble negation, after some little time he replied, 'How was it then? Did we give these lands to you?' Whereunto Sir Edward answered, 'Yes, Sire, your majesty was pleased to do so.' Whereupon, having paused a little while, the King put on a milder countenance, and calling him to a cupboard conferred privately with him a long time. Whereby, said this servant, I saw the King could not spare my master's service as yet."
The angry monarch was appeased, and North retained the lands. North lost influence with the Protector and declared subsequently for the Princess Mary, who, on her accession to the throne, created him Lord North.
Elizabeth, two days after her accession, rode from Hatfield and stayed at the Charterhouse with this Lord North "many days," and again in 1561 stayed there for four days, as is recorded in Burleigh's diary:
"The Queen supped at my house in Strand (the Savoy) before it was finished, and she came by the fields from Christ Church. Great cheer was made until midnight, when she rode back to the Charterhouse, where she lay that night."
In 1564 North died, leaving Charterhouse to his son, Roger, Lord North. He, some months later, sold the main part of the buildings to the Duke of Norfolk for £2,500, but retained the house which his father had built about twenty years before, together with some two or three acres of adjoining land. This was situated on the east side of the convent church and on the east side of the great cloister.
The property has passed through various hands since that day. It belonged to the Earls of Rutland during part of the seventeenth century, and a reminiscence of their ownership remains in the name of the small street called Rutland Place, issuing from the north-east corner of Charterhouse Square. It was in this house that Sir William Davenant, in the year 1656, was permitted to exhibit stage plays at a time when all theatres were closed by the government. The land is now in the hands of various owners—Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors' School, and others.
Old Porch, Charterhouse.
From a drawing by J. P. Neale (1813), engraved by Owen.
In providing himself with a residence on the property which he had purchased, the Duke of Norfolk adopted a plan very different from that of his predecessor. Instead of building for himself a new residence, he adopted a common practice and determined to adapt to his own uses part of the buildings which the Carthusians had left behind them. The part he chose for this purpose was the little cloister, which had been built probably about fifty years before, and was very easily converted into a sufficiently stately mansion in accordance with the fashion of the day. Fortunately, he was able to do this with a minimum of destruction of the old work. The little cloister was, in fact, a house built round a quadrangle. In adapting it to his own use the Duke did not interfere with the outer walls or floors, which are very substantially built, but merely rearranged the rooms inside. This was the more easy because the inside rooms were probably divided from one another by wooden partitions. The result is most interesting to the antiquary, for he finds at Charterhouse not only an excellent specimen of monastic building in the early sixteenth century, but also a very pure example of the London house of a great nobleman of the same date. The Duke left intact a smaller quadrangle opening out of the little cloister, which had been built also in the sixteenth century for the use of the lay brothers. He also beautified the large room which had been used for a Guesten Hall, and perhaps raised the roof. He certainly built two handsome rooms to the north of the Guesten Hall, on the first floor, over what had been the prior's cell and a small part of the cloister walk. To form an approach to these upper rooms he built a handsome interior staircase, which may be seen in perfect condition at the present day. A tradition exists that in order to give himself a little more room he pulled down the east side of the little cloister, and re-erected it in the same style, fourteen feet in the eastern direction. These works were executed during the years 1565 to 1571, during part of which time the Duke made the Charterhouse his residence.
In the year 1569 Norfolk was committed to the Tower for contemplating marriage with Mary, Queen of Scots, and of being implicated in a plot against the throne and life of Elizabeth. He was released after some months' imprisonment upon pledging himself to abandon all thoughts of the contemplated union. This promise, however, he did not keep. A cypher correspondence was discovered under the tiles of the roof of the house, and other papers were found concealed under the mat outside his bed chamber. For this he was arraigned on a charge of high treason, and executed in 1571.
As the Duke was executed for high treason his land escheated to the Crown. The Charterhouse, however, continued in the possession of his sons. It was first held by the Earl of Arundel, and on his death it passed to Lord Thomas Howard, his younger brother, when it became known as Howard House. Whether this arose from the favour with which Elizabeth was always disposed to treat her great nobility, or whether it was that the Duke had granted leases to his sons, which leases protected the property from "escheat," is not very clear. Certainly, however, the Howards held the property until the younger son sold it for £13,000 to Mr. Thomas Sutton in 1611, for the purpose of founding his "Hospital."