English Homes and Gardens from Medieval Fortification to Tudor Elegance

The Tudor accession ended the Wars of the Roses, inaugurating a new era in domestic architecture and landscape. Unlike medieval castles sited for defense, new dwellings prioritized pleasant, salubrious locations—often valleys over hilltops—where gardens and orchards could thrive.

Transitional Period: Moats and Courtyards

Early Tudor houses (e.g., Edward Stafford's Thornbury, 1521) retained defensive moats and walls, with gardens featuring galleries and arbors called "roosting-places." Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court was among the last to combine moats with walls; he walked its gardens reciting evensong.

Shift to Ornamental Security

Gradually, battlements and moats disappeared from houses, remaining only to protect gardens from intruders, wind, and marauders. This reflects the garden's rising status as cultivated sanctuary rather than mere utility ground.

Monastic Precedents

Gentlemen's houses echoed monastic layouts: valley sites with expansion room, integrated grounds near the house. The dissolution of monasteries (1530s) likely accelerated this adoption as former ecclesiastical lands entered private hands.

Social Functions

Gardens became settings for entertainment, display, and leisure—peacocks in courtyards, doves in dovecotes, elaborate arbors for dining. The landscape expressed the owner's taste, status, and engagement with Renaissance ideals of harmony between architecture and nature.

This evolution from defended enclosure to designed pleasure ground marks a pivotal moment in English garden history.