Simon Thurley, ‘Kensington Palace: an Incident in Anglo-Dutch Architectural Collaboration?’, the Georgian Group Journal, Vol
Simon Thurley, ‘Kensington Palace: an incident in Anglo-Dutch architectural collaboration?’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XVII, 2009, pp. 1–18 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2009 KENSINGTON PALACE: AN INCIDENT IN ANGLO-DUTCH ARCHITECTURAL COLLABORATION? SIMON THURLEY illiam III was brought up in what is often The second was after the death of Charles II in Wtermed the ‘Golden Age’ of Dutch culture, in when William and Mary became next in line to the a country whose intellectual and artistic singularity throne of England after James II. In this period and creativity were recognised across Europe. William’s court, such as it was, was swelled by He came, as King, to a country that Voltaire saw as English visitors and his palaces were enlarged and having made, since , ‘greater progress in all the made more magnificent, both to entertain them, and arts than in all preceding ages’, and having the to reflect his increased status. These bursts of cultural influence to create in Europe the ‘Age of the architectural activity were triggered by the practical English’. The marriage of the two cultures in the requirements of a prince, rather than being the result person of King William was surely to hold great of a love of building and architectural display such as things for the state of English architecture. Yet, in that which drove his grandparents. In Jacob van reality, the English king who spent more on building der Does wrote of William’s grandfather, Frederik than any other in the seventeenth century led court Hendrik, that he was ‘possessed by such a passion architecture into a cul-de-sac.
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