• e-mail

A spectacular Jacobean mansion steeped in history, that once hosted King James and King Charles I, and comes with its own deer park, has gone on the market for £10 million.

The stunning, Grade I listed Bramshill House was built on the site of an earlier property owned by Henry VIII, with King James and King Charles I keeping state apartments there in the early 17th century.

After being privately owned for 400 years and also being used as a police training centre, it was bought in 2014 by developers City & Country, who wanted to turn it into apartments.

However, the council ruled that the magnificent ten-bedroom home, in Hook, Hampshire, had to be left as a single dwelling.

The developers have now put it on the market with planning permission pending to turn it back into the ultimate family country pile.

It has 92 acres of parkland and woodland, with a lake also on the ground, and it is being sold by estate agents Knight Frank.

Grade I listed Bramshill House dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, before it was bought by Edward la Zouche, a baron and favourite of King James I. The nobleman rebuilt it in its current form and it is now on the market for £10 million

It was built on the site of an earlier property owned by Henry VIII, and King James and King Charles I used state apartments on the grounds in the early 17th century

Bramshill dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 and it was bought in 1603 by Edward la Zouche, a baron and favourite of King James I.

He wanted to make a statement that he was a force to be reckoned with at court and demolished part of the Henry VIII building before reconstructing it in its present style.

King James used its set of state apartments in 1620 and 1622 and his successor King Charles I used them in 1630.

It was privately owned by several wealthy families for more than 400 years, and is thought to be the inspiration for The Water Babies. Author Charles Kingsley was the local rector and a regular visitor in the mid-1800s.

During the Second World War it was used by the Red Cross as a maternity home for evacuee mothers from Portsmouth.

It was then a home for the exiled King of Romania and his family before it was bought by the Home Office in 1953 and turned into a police training centre.

The main house has 43,002 sq ft of accommodation with a kitchen, multiple large reception rooms, a private chapel, the long gallery - which runs the length of the house - and, with the proposed plans, a gym, disco, wine cellar and cinema room.

It has a range of period features, including wooden panelling, moulded ceilings, marble fireplaces, leaded windows and ornate plasterwork.

There are four rare Flemish tapestries hung in the Morning Room which are being sold with the house, which has a range of period features, including wooden panelling, moulded ceilings, marble fireplaces, leaded windows and ornate plasterwork

Edward la Zouche wanted to make a statement that he was a force to be reckoned with at court and used the mansion to so. He demolished part of the Henry VIII building before reconstructing it in its present style

The stunning Jacobean mansion is steeped in history was privately owned by several wealthy families for more than 400 years, before being bought by the Home Office and used as a police training centre

The main house has 43,002 sq ft of accommodation with a kitchen, multiple large reception rooms, a private chapel and the Long Gallery - which runs the length of the house

New proposed plans for the illustrious property would add to its appeal by giving it a gym, disco, wine cellar and cinema room

The grand entrance hall has a large fireplace and arched stone screen decorated with coats of arms and several of the state rooms are still intact, including the Long Gallery.

There are four rare Flemish tapestries hung in the Morning Room which are being sold with the house.

There is also a Grade II listed former coach house that could be converted to provide further accommodation and a large modern assembly hall which could be a great outbuilding storage for a classic car collection or a home office.

The grounds includes formal gardens, a walled kitchen garden, a lake and park grazed by a resident herd of fallow deer.

This private chapel comes with the house, which also has a Grade II listed former coach house that could be converted to provide further accommodation and a large modern assembly hall which could be a great outbuilding storage for a classic car collection or a home office

It has 92 acres of parkland and woodland, with a lake also on the ground, and it is being sold by estate agents Knight Frank

Emma Cleugh from Knight Frank said: 'Bramshill is one of the largest prodigy houses in England. It's a very well preserved example of a Jacobean mansion and must be one of only a handful in the country that still exist.

'It is now offered for sale with the benefit of consents pending to restore it to its former glory as a single family residence.

'The proposed plans will sensitively transform this spectacular property to create a wonderful home for modern living.

'I think it will either go to someone who wants to make their private family home, perhaps with a large collection of cars that needs to be accommodated, or something like that.

'Or it will appeal to someone who wants to combine their home life with some sort of income-generating idea, such as an events business.

'It has lots of beautiful original features because it's listed - wooden panelling, moulded plasterwork, original joinery - and the deer park is a magical feature of the whole property.

'The plans offer a rare opportunity to live in a mansion that was designed to be fit for a King and entertain your guests in a thoroughly unique setting.'

The expansive grounds include formal gardens, a walled kitchen garden, a lake and park grazed by a resident herd of fallow deer

There is an ongoing planning application filed for the mansion. Emma Cleugh from Knight Frank said: 'Bramshill is one of the largest prodigy houses in England. It's a very well preserved example of a Jacobean mansion and must be one of only a handful in the country that still exist'

She added: 'It has lots of beautiful original features because it's listed - wooden panelling, moulded plasterwork, original joinery - and the deer park is a magical feature of the whole property'

Who was King James I, the 'wisest fool in Christendom'? 

King James I visited Bramsil House on two occasions in 1620 and 1622, while the Thirty Years' War raged across Central Europe.

He was King of Scotland as James VI from July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union.

James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, positioning him to eventually accede to all three thrones. James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months. 

King James I was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland

In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died childless. 

He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. 

He based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617, and styled himself 'King of Great Britain and Ireland'. 

He was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. 

In his reign, the British colonisation of the Americas began. 

He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced great difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and repeated conflicts with the English Parliament. 

Under James, the 'Golden Age' of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis Bacon. James himself was a talented scholar and he sponsored the translation of the Bible into English, which would later be named the King James Bible.

Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed 'the wisest fool in Christendom', a name that has stuck since. The name came about because the King was known as being learned yet seen as clumsy, clownish, awkward and blustering. 

He was strongly committed to a peace policy, and tried to avoid involvement in religious wars, especially the Thirty Years' War that devastated much of Central Europe.  

Who was King Charles I and why was he executed?

King Charles I was born in Fife, Scotland, in 1600 and became king in 1625 following the death of his older brother Henry.

The new monarch favoured a High Anglican form of worship and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, was Catholic. 

After his succession, Charles quarrelled with Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. 

The King believed in the divine right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, particularly the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical monarch. 

He went on to dissolve parliament three times from 1625 to 1629 and decided to rule alone.

This meant the king was left to try and raise funds by non-parliamentary means, which made him unpopular with the British public. He also tried to force a new prayer book on the country.

King Charles visited Bramsill House in 1630, while under pressure from his subjects following his repeated clashes with Parliament. 

King Charles I (with his wife Queen Henrietta Maria) was born in Fife, Scotland, and became king when he was 24 years old 

The king then tried to have five MPs arrested and was involved in other disagreements following tense discussions over who should command an army to defeat the uprising in Ireland and a civil war broke out.   

In 1646 the Royalists were defeated and Charles subsequently surrendered to the Scots and he later escaped to the Isle of Wight a year later.

Charles was put on trial for treason by a number of MPs, including Parliamentarian general Oliver Cromwell.

He was convicted and later executed outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall in London.