Claremont, in Surry, the Seat of Prince Coburg.

Claremont, in Surry, the Seat of Prince Coburg. The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir John Vanbrugh for his own use. In 1714 he sold the house to the wealthy Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, Earl of Clare, who named it Claremont. When he died (as Duke of Newcastle) in 1768, his widow sold the estate to Robert Clive, who demolished the Vanbrugh house and commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown and his future son-in-law Henry Holland to build the present Palladian mansion, upon the hill. Clive committed suicide in 1774 the year that the house was finished. Later it was lived in by Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg when he had married in 1816 Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince regent. She died in childbirth 18 months later; he stayed there until he accepted election as the first King of Belgium in 1830.