Edward III and his Queen Phillipa resided at Woodstock in the fourteenth century, and it was here that the Black Prince, who figured so largely in English history, was born.  A nice little love story was connected with their court.  The king had a page and the queen had a damsel, who fell deeply in love with each other, and whenever they got a chance walked out in the beautiful park and woods which surrounded the castle, where the young man made some poetry about the “Cuckoo and Nightingale,” whose notes they so often heard amongst the sylvan beauties of Woodstock.  The king was pleased with the poetry, and the young page became quite a favourite with him.  He afterwards became known as the “Father of English Poetry.”  His name was Chaucer, and he achieved immortality by his “Canterbury Tales.”  He was not only successful in his own love affairs, but assisted John o’ Gaunt with his, and was instrumental in obtaining for him the hand of Blanche of Lancaster, who had inherited from her father, the Duke of Lancaster, an enormous fortune, of which Kenilworth formed a part.  Chaucer wrote an allegorical history of that love story in his poem entitled “Chaucer’s Dream,” and John o’ Gaunt being a true friend, as was shown by his protection of his friend John Wiclif, the great reformer, Chaucer had no reason to regret the services he had rendered, for his fortunes rose with those of John o’ Gaunt, whose great power and wealth dated from the marriage.  Chaucer described Woodstock Park as being walled round with green stone, and it was said to have been the first walled park in England.  Richard III held a tournament in it at Christmas 1389, at which the young Earl of Pembroke was accidentally killed.  Henry VII made additions to the palace, and built the front gate-house in which his granddaughter Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of England, was imprisoned by command of her sister Mary, when she wrote with charcoal on one of the window shutters: 

  Oh, Fortune, how thy restless wavering state,
    Hath fraught with cares my troubled witt. 
  Witness this present prysoner, whither Fate
    Could bear me, and the joys I quitt;
  Thou causeth the guiltie to be loosed
    From bonds wherein an innocent’s inclosed,
  Causing the guiltless to be straite reserved,
    And freeing those that Death hath well deserved;
  But by her malice can be nothing wroughte,
    So God send to my foes all they have thought.

A.D. 1555—­Elizabeth, “Prisoner.”

In Cromwell’s time Woodstock suffered severely, and the castle was defended for the king by a great warrior, Captain Samuel Fawcett, who would have been buried beneath the ruins rather than surrender had not the king ordered him to hand it over to the Parliament.

The manor and park continued to be vested in the Crown until the time of Queen Anne, who bestowed it on her famous general, the Duke of Marlborough, as a reward for his numerous victories abroad, so that he might have a home worthy of him.  The nation voted the successful soldier half a million of money wherewith to build a magnificent palace to be named after one of his greatest victories, and Blenheim was the result.