British Royal Homes: Windsor Castle


Figure 1.--.

Windsor Castle is an official residence of the reigning British monarch. It is the largest occupied palace in the world. The Castle has been a royal palace and fortress for over 900 years and remains a working palace today. William the Conqueror chose the site, high above the River Thames and on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground. It was a day's march from the Tower of London and intended to guard the western approaches to the capital. Since those early days Windsor Castle has been inhabited continuously and improved upon by successive sovereigns. Some were great builders, strengthening the Castle against uprising and rebellion; others, living in more peaceful times, created a palatial royal residence. Nine centuries after its foundation, the Castle continues to perform its prime role as one of The Queen's official residences. Pivotal to this role are the State Apartments, which are the formal rooms used for Court ceremonial and State and official occasions. They range from the smaller intimate rooms of Charles II's Apartments to the vast area of the Waterloo Chamber, built to commemorate the famous victory over Napoleon in 1815. The rooms are furnished with some of the most important works of art in the Royal Collection, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Rubens, Holbein and van Dyck as well as magnificent French and English furniture and porcelain. Windsor Castle provides a step back into history. St. George's Chapel at Windsor was built in the 14th century and one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Britain, within its precincts stands St George's Chapel, the resting place of 10 sovereigns. Founded by Edward IV in 1475 and completed by Henry VIII, the Chapel is dedicated to the patron saint of the Order of the Garter, Britain's highest Order of Chivalry, and ranks among the finest examples of late medieval architecture in the United Kingdom. Many royal weddings have taken place here, most recently that of The Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones in June 1999.

Background

Windsor Castle is an official residence of the reigning British monarch. It is the largest occupied palace in the world. The Castle has been a royal palace and fortress for over 900 years and remains a working palace today. William the Conqueror chose the site, high above the River Thames and on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground. It was a day's march from the Tower of London and intended to guard the western approaches to the capital. Since those early days Windsor Castle has been inhabited continuously and improved upon by successive sovereigns. Some were great builders, strengthening the Castle against uprising and rebellion; others, living in more peaceful times, created a palatial royal residence. Nine centuries after its foundation, the Castle continues to perform its prime role as one of The Queen's official residences. Pivotal to this role are the State Apartments, which are the formal rooms used for Court ceremonial and State and official occasions. They range from the smaller intimate rooms of Charles II's Apartments to the vast area of the Waterloo Chamber, built to commemorate the famous victory over Napoleon in 1815. The rooms are furnished with some of the most important works of art in the Royal Collection, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Rubens, Holbein and van Dyck as well as magnificent French and English furniture and porcelain. Windsor Castle provides a step back into history.

Associated Buildings

St. George's Chapel at Windsor was built in the 14th century and one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Britain, within its precincts stands St George's Chapel, the resting place of 10 sovereigns. Founded by Edward IV in 1475 and completed by Henry VIII, the Chapel is dedicated to the patron saint of the Order of the Garter, Britain's highest Order of Chivalry, and ranks among the finest examples of late medieval architecture in the United Kingdom. Many royal weddings have taken place here. The future Edward VII amd Queen Alexandra were married there, Queen Victoria in deep mourning refused to countenance a marriage at Westminster Abbey. More recently that of The Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones in June 1999.

Frogmore House is situated in the tranquil setting of the Home Park at Windsor Castle. While it has been the country residence of various monarchs since the 17th century, the house is most commonly associated with Queen Victoria. The building and lovely gardens were one of Queen Victoria's favourite retreats. In the gardens is the Mausoleum where Queen Victoria buried her husband Prince Albert and on her death in 1901 was buried herself.

William the Conqueror

Winsor Castle began as a humble a motte and bailey fortification ordered by William the Conqueror as part of a defensive strategy following his stunning victory in 1066. He chose the site with great care. The early fortifications were built at the only natural defensive site on a ridge above the Thames Valley. It was situated high above the Thames on the edge of a Saxon hunting grounds. The castle was strategically placed, a days march from London and guarded the western approaches of the city.

Henry II

Windsor was at first used primarily for defense purposes. Henry II rebuilt the castle in stone. He also significantly expanded the castle as a State residence. Construction of the basic curtain wall and the Round Tower so associated with Windsor were also begun.

Henry III

Henry III strengthen the defenses by adding five circular towers added to the basic curtain wall that his father had built. He remodeled the State apartments and added a new Chapel, an important feature of any important castle at the time.

Edward III

Edward III initiated a major renovation of Windsor. It was a in many ways a symbol of a medieval Christian chivalric monarchy. His new palace buit in the gothic style became the seat of the Order of the Garter, Britain's most important Order of Chivalry. The construction program included the construction of the College of St. George, an inner gatehouse with cylindrical towers, stone-vaulted undercrofts to support new Royal apartments , the Great Hall and the Royal Chapel.

Edward IV

St. George's Chapel was founded by Edward IV in 1475 and completed by Henry VIII. It is dedicated to the patron saint of the Order of the Garter, and ranks among the finest examples of late medieval architecture in the United Kingdom.

Charles I

Windsor Castle feature prominently in the English Civil War in the mid 17th century. Parliamentarians siezed Winsor and used it as a prison. King Charles I after his execution at Whitehall in 1649 was buried at St. George Chapel on the expressed order of Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell who assujed the office of Lord Protector. The Commonwealth during which England had no king lasted 11 years but the principle of royal absolutism was forever rejected in England.

Charles II

Windsor with the Restoration of Charles II returned to being used as a Royal Palace. Charles wanted the castle redone for his royal court. He appointed architect Hugh May in 1673 to oversee the outfitting of the interior of the castle with richly Baroque trimmings. He left the fortress-looking castellated exterior essentially unchanged. May installed rounded arch windows, oak wainscoting, magnificent Grinling Gibbons carvings and painted Italian ceilings to make Windsor's State Apartments the most magnificent in all of England. Some of the smaller ones were finished in an intimate rather than grand style.

George I

George I preferred Hampton Court Palace, the favorite palace of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Neither he or George II spent much time at Windsor.

George III

George III who lost the American collonies initiated a project to covert Windsor to a Gothic style. The project was begun about 1789, just as tghe Revolution was breaking out in France. The Upper Ward State Appartments and precints were regularly open to the public, the first time the public was permitted to see parts of the Castle.

George IV

George IV continued the Gothic conversion of the castle's exterior wall. He was advised by Sir John Long who hired architect James Wyatt to supervised the project. Windsor's historic parkland landscape and the picturesque character of the Castle, was largely created by Wyatt who received a knighthood for his efforts and changed his name to Wyatville. Wyatt sought to acgieve Long's vision of enhancing the castle's silhouette by elevating the Round Tower as well as building more towers and battlements, and constructing the new King George IV Gateway. George IV moved into the renovated Castle in 1828. George IV also had the Waterloo Chamber, built to commemorate the famous victory over Napoleon in 1815.

Queen Victoria

Windsor Castle was used by Queen Victoria as the principal palace of the British monarchy. Enumerable fellow minarchs from throughout Europe visited the Queen and were housed at the various State Rooms at Windsor. These visits in part reflected the great improvements being made in transportation in Europe and also the large number of foreogn relatives, many Germans, the Queen had which only increased as she began marrying off her children. It was the "royal mob" as she called them. The construction programs of George III and IV provided ideal facilitues for these visits. Queen Victoria made relatively few alterations at Windsor during her reign, although under Prince Albert two new palaces (Osborne and Balmoral) were acquired for her growing family. The principal additions were the Grand Staircase and a private Chapel (burned in 1992) which were created by Edward Blore. Prince Albert died from typhoid fever at Windsor Castle on December 14, 1861. The Chapel of St. George was subsequently remodelled with marble and mosaic. In the gardens of Frogmore House on the Windsor Castle Estate is the Mausoleum where Queen Victoria buried her husband Prince Albert and on her death in 1901 was buried herself.

Edward VII

Edward VII is of course most associated with Sandringham, but when Queen Victoria died, King Edward and Queen Alexandra moved into Windsor and Buckingam Palace. Windsor Castle was extensively rennovated for Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. They disagreed, however, on the living arragements. She had hoped to live in the State Apartments, but Edward decided to live in the apartments that his parents had occupied and was adament on the issue. She was, however, delighted to rummage through Windsor, discovering many arifacts that had been stored away unused for decades, in some cases even longer. Rather charmingly, while the rooms at Windsor were hung with great masterpieces of English art, Alexandra reserved one small room for her not very sccessful water colors. [Battiscombe, p. 219.]

Queen Elizabeth II

A fire in 1992 did considerable damage to the state apartment, capping a rather unpleasant year for the Queen. The fire appears to have started in the northeast section of the Upper Ward when a spotlight ignited an all too flamable curtain. The fire spread at roof level to surrounding areas consuming the magnificent ceilings of George IV's St. George's Hall and Grand Reception Room and gutted the Private Chapel, the State Dining Room, the Crimson Drawing Room and other smaller rooms. The electrical wiring in the most heavily damaged rooms was being replaced and thus the treasures usually kept there had been moved for safekeeping. A few priceless artifacts were destroyed in the fire because they were too large to move. The Queen, in celebration of the Golden Jubilee, has overseen the addition of a new landscape garden. It was created by the designer and Chelsea Gold Medallist Tom Stuart-Smith. It is the first new garden at the Castle since the 1820s and transforms the visitor entrance and provides a setting for band concerts throughout the year.

Sources

Battiscombe, Georgina. Queen Alexandra (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1969).

Bennett, Daphne. King Without a Crown: Albert Prince Consort of England, 1819-1861 (New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1977).

Woodham-Smith, Cecil. Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times (1972).






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Created: May 14, 2001
Last updated: July 2, 2002