finest collections of works of art in the world. The Royal Collection is a
vast assemblage of works of art of all kinds, comprising some 10,000
pictures, enamels and miniatures, 20,000 drawings, 10,000 watercolours
and 500,000 prints, and many thousands of pieces of furniture, sculpture,
glass, porcelain, arms and armour, textiles, silver, gold and jewellery.
It has largely been formed by succeeding sovereigns, consorts and
other members of the Royal Family in the three hundred years since the
Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660.
The Collection is presently housed in twelve principal locations open
to the public, which include Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Hampton
Court Palace, Windsor Castle, The Palace of Holyroodhouse and Osborne
House.
In addition a substantial number of objects are on indefinite loan to
the British Museum, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and
Museum of London.
Additional access to the Royal Collection is provided by means of
exhibitions, notably at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, opened in
1962.
WINDSOR CASTLE
Windsor Castle is the oldest royal residence to have remained in
continuous use by the monarchs of Britain and is in many ways an
architectural epitome of the history of the nation. Its skyline of
battlements, turrets and the great Round Tower is instantly recognised
throughout the world. The Castle covers an area of nearly thirteen acres
and contains, as well as a royal palace, a magnificent collegiate church
and the homes or workplaces of a large number of people ,including the
Constable and Governor of the Castle, the Military Knights of Windsor and
their families, etc.
The Castle was founded by William the Conqueror c. 1080 and was
conceived as one of a chain of fortifications built as a defensive ring
round London.
Norman castles were built to a standard plan with an artificial
earthen mound supporting a tower or keep, the entrance to which was
protected by an outer fenced courtyard or baily. Windsor is the most
notable example of a particularly distinctive version of this basic plan
developed for use on a ridge site. It comprises a central mote with a
large bialy to either side of it rather than just on one side as was more
than usual.
As first built, the Castle was entirely defensive, constructed of
earth and timber, but easy access from London and the proximity of the
Castle to the old royal hunting forest to the south soon recommended it
as a royal residence. Henry I is known to have had domestic quarterswithin
the castle as early as 1110 and Henry converted the Castle into a palace.
He built two separate sets of royal apartments within the fortified
enclosure: a public or official state residence in the Lower Ward, with a
hall where he could entertain his court and the barons on great
occasions, and a smaller private residence on the North side of the Upper
Ward for the exclusive occupation of himself and his family.
Henry II was a great builder at all his residences. He began to
replace the old timber outer walls of the Upper Ward with a hard heath
stone found ten miles south of Windsor. The basic curtain wall round the
Upper Ward, much modified by later alterations and improvements, dates from
Henry II’s time, as does the old part of the stone keep, known as the Round
Tower , on top of William’s the Conqueror’s mote. The reconstruction of the
curtain wall round the Lower Ward was completed over the next sixty years.
The well-preserved section visible from the High street with its three half-
round towers was built by Henry III in the 1220s.He took a keen personal
interest in all his projects and carried out extensive works at Windsor.
In his time it became one of the three principal royal palaces
alongside those at Westminster and Winchester. He rebuilt Henry II’s
apartments in the Lower Ward and added there a large new chapel, all
forming a coherently planned layout round a courtyard with a
cloister; parts survive embedded in later structures in the Lower Ward. He
also further improved the royal private apartments in the Upper Ward.
The outstanding medieval expansion of Windsor, however, took place
in the reign of Edward III. His huge building project at the Castle was
probably the most ambitious single architectural scheme in the whole
history of the English royal residences, and cost the astonishing
total of 50,772 pounds. Rebuilt with the proceeds of the King’s military
triumphs, the Castle was converted by Edward III into a fortified
palace redolent of chivalry The stone base was and military glory, as the
centre of his court and the seat of his newly founded Order of the Garter
.Even today, the massive Gothic architecture of Windsor reflects Edward
III’s medieval ideal of Christian, chivalric monarchy as clearly as Louis
XIY’s Versailles represents baroque absolutism.
The Lower Ward was reconstructed, the old royal lodgings being
transformed into the College of St George, and a new cloister, which still
survives, built with traceeried windows. In addition there were to be
twenty-six Poor Knights. Henry III’s chapel was made over for their use,
rebuilt and renamed St George’s Chapel.
The reconstruction of the Upper Ward was begun in 1357 with new royal
lodgings built of stone under the direction of William of Wykeham, Bishop
of Winchester. An inner gatehouse with cylindrical towers was built at the
entrance to the Upper Ward.Stone-vaulted undercrofts supported extensive
royal apartments on the first floor with separate sets of rooms for the
King and the Queen ( as was the tradition of the English royal
palaces),arranged round two inner courtyards later known as Brick Court
and Horn Court .Along the south side, facing the quadrangle, were the Great
Hall and Royal Chapel end to end. Edward IY built the present larger St
George’s Chapel to the west of Henry III’s.Henry YII remodelled the old
chapel ( now the Albert Memorial Chapel) at its east end; he also added
a new range to the west of the State Apartments which Elizabeth I extended
by a long gallery .
During the English Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century, the
Castle was seized by Parliamentary forces who ill-treated the buildings
and used part of them as a prison for Royalists.
At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Charles II was determined to
reinstate the old glories of the Crown after the interval of the
Commonwealth. Windsor was his favourite non-metropolitan palace and it
was the only one which could be effectively garrisoned.
The architect Hugh May was appointed in 1673 to supervise the work and
over the next eleven years the Upper Ward and State Apartments were
reconstructed. The result was both ingenious and magnificent, making the
Upper Ward the most unusual palace in baroque Europe.
The interior was a rich contrast to the austerity of the exterior and
formed the first and grandest sequence of baroque State Apartments in
England.The ceilings were painted by Antonio Verrio, an Italian artist
brought from Paris by the Duke of Montagu, Charles II’s ambassador to
Louis XIY. The walls were wainscoted in oak and festooned with brilliant
virtuoso carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Henry Phillips of fruit,
flowers, fish and birds The climax of Charles II’s reconstruction was
St George’s Hall and the King’s Chapel with murals by Verrio. In the
former there were historical scenes of Edward III and the Black Prince, as
well as Charles II in Grater robes enthroned in glory, and in the latter
Christ’s miracles and the Last Supper. All were destroyed by Wyatville inn
1829. The source of inspiration for the new rooms at Windsor was the
France of Louis XIY, but the use of wood rather than coloured marbles
gave Windsor a different character and established a fashion which was
copied in many English country houses.
William III and the early Hanoverian kings spent more time at Hampton
Court than at Windsor. Windsor, however, came back into its own in the
reign of George III, who disliked Hampton Court, which had unhappy memories
for him
From 1777 George III reconstructed the Queen’s Lodge to the south of
the Castle. He also restored St George’s Chapel in the 1780s.At the same
time a new state entrance and Gothic staircase were constructed for the
State Apartments.
As well as his work in the Castle, George III modernised Frogmore in
the Home Park as a retreat for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and reclaimed
some of the Great Park for agriculture. The King designed a special
Windsor uniform of blue cloth with red and gold facings, a version of
which is still worn on occasions today. The King loved the Castle and
its romantic associations. In 1805 he revived the formal ceremonies of
installation of Knights of the Garter at Windsor.
When George IY inherited the throne, he shared his father’s
romantic architectural enthusiasm for Windsor and determined to continue
the Gothic transformation and the creation of convenient, comfortable and
splendid new royal apartments.
In many ways Windsor Castle enjoyed its apogee in the reign of
Queen Victoria.. She spent the largest portion of every year at Windsor,
and in her reign it enjoyed the position of principal palace of the British
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