Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire

Hartwell House is a country house in the village of Hartwell in Buckinghamshire, southern England. The house is part of the Hartwell Estate owned by the Ernest Cook Trust, and since 2008 has been leased to The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel.

The house is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the village of Stone along the A418, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the centre of Aylesbury, the nearest large town, which is about 40 miles (64 km) from the centre of London via the A41.

The property was first mentioned in the Domesday book and belonged to William Peverel.

The core of the present house was constructed in the early 17th century for the Hampden family and then the Lee family. The Lees, an old Buckinghamshire family, acquired Hartwell c.1650 by marriage into the Hampdens. Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Sir Christopher Lee are amongst their descendants.

Between 1809 and 1814 the owner of the house, Sir Charles Lee, let the mansion to King Louis XVIII of France. The arrival of the impoverished king and his court at Hartwell was not a happy experience for the mansion, with once grand and imperious courtiers farming chickens and assorted small livestock on the lead roofs. Louis's wife, Marie Josephine of Savoy died at Hartwell in 1810 and is the only French queen to have died on English soil. After her death, her body was carried first to Westminster Abbey, and one year later to Sardinia, where the Savoy King of Sardinia had withdrawn during Napoleonic occupation of Turin and Piedmont; she is buried in the Cathedral of Cagliari. The King signed the document accepting the French crown in the library of the house, following the defeat of Napoleon.

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