The Banqueting House of Whitehall Palace
…and in the Banqueting-house saw the King create my Lord Chancellor and several others, Earls, and Mr. Crew and several others, Barons: the first being led up by Heralds and five old Earls to the King, and there the patent is read, and the King puts on his vest, and sword, and coronet, and gives him the patent. And then he kisseth the King’s hand, and rises and stands covered before the king. And the same for the Barons, only he is led up but by three of the old Barons, and are girt with swords before they go to the King.
20th April 16611
The scene described here took place in the very room shown in the picture below, now restored to its original decoration and with the throne where worthy subjects presented themselves to the King for ennoblement. The hall was where foreign ambassadors paid their respects to the monarch as well as being the venue for various royal parties and celebrations.
The Banqueting House Interior
The Banqueting House is the last surviving building of the great palace of Whitehall, but was the newest part of the palace at the time of Samuel Pepys’s diaries. Although not a victim of the Great Fire of 1666, the palace succumbed to another fire in 1698, leaving just the Banqueting House remaining. The building was designed by Inigo Jones to the commission of James I and completed in 1622. Built in the Italian Palladian style, it was the first major classical building in England