In 1636, the German Count of Calenberg established a country estate in Herrenhausen, from which the city of Hannover was supplied with produce. From 1674 onwards, the estate was enlarged to serve as a summer residence. In 1680, Count Ernst August took over as head of state. Deeming it opportune to have a dwelling commensurate with his political standing and ambitions, in 1690 he commissioned work to turn the estate into a palace for which he, himself, drafted the plans.
The plans called for a central structure to be symmetrically flanked by four other buildings. With the count's death in 1697, construction work abruptly ceased. In the same year, Sophia (Electress of Hanover), commissioned the French gardener Martin Charbonnier with the expansion of the baroque garden (now known as the "Great Garden"). Despite extensive renovation in 1704, the palace's basic layout remains unchanged to this day.
From 1714 on, the Electorate of Hanover was joined in a "personal union" with the Kingdom of Great Britain. The electors from Hannover resided in Great Britain as kings and often spent the summer at Herrenhausen Palace, for which purpose the palace and the gardens were well attended to until the Seven Years' War put an abrupt end to this. Maintenance work reduced to a bare minimum until 1814, at which time the Kingdom of Hannover was established. In 1819, the palace was redesigned in the Neoclassical style by court architect Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves.
