Peeps at Royal Palaces of Great Britain

looking beyond the town that clusters round it, gazes proudly over twelve adjacent counties. For more than eight centuries a castle has s

first of the Plantagenet Kings, built his palace there, erecting it upon what is known to-day as the Upper Ward, the castle being divided into three distinct section

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t with extreme bravery, the castle sustained two sieges, the only active warfare in which it took any serious part. Owing doubtless to its almost impregnable situation before the days of artillery, it remained calm and secure, however disturbed other parts of the kingdom might be. One summer day in the year 1215 King John, overawed by the great gathering of

ly with a reign of over fifty years before him, he was able to carry out his extensive building schemes. Deserting the Upper Ward, where all his predecessors had lived, he built his palace on the Lower plateau, also erecting a chap

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of founding an Order of Knighthood that should become as illustrious as that of King Arthur, who was believed to have some connection with Windsor. A Round Tower was built upon the mound, to hold the Round Table,

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there were two captive Kings within the castle, for Edward did not entirely devote his energy to palace [pg 14] building, which merely formed a pleasing interlude to the long and ambitious wars which occupied his life. David II. of Scotland had been captured at Neville's Cross in 1346, and ten years later John, the King of France, joined him at Windsor, having fallen to the Black Prince at Poitiers. It is said that Edward, while

athetically of her last moments. Edward, the bravest knight in Christendom, stood weeping at her bedside as she whispered to him her last requests, that he should pay her debts, carry on her charities, and be buried b

d received a good education at the hands [pg 15] of his captors, who had treated him kindly, allowing him considerable liberty. While at Windsor he met his future queen, then the Lady Joan Beaufort, the daughter of the Earl of Somerse

from his palace windows. In his zealous activity to make this college worthy of the Virgin Mary, in whose honour it had been founded, poor King Henry forgot his kingdom, and found himself deposed long before his schemes were perfected. He lies b

tle. Its glorious fan tracery is only rivalled by Henry VIII.'s Chapel at Westminster and King's College Chapel, Cambridge-all three being built during the latter half of the fifteenth century. But the choir, perhaps, attracts [pg 16] more attention than any other part of the chapel, for there are to be found the richly-carved stalls allotted to the use of t

dsor and often resided there till he obtained Hampton Court Palace from his great Minister, Cardinal Wolsey, rebuilt the main entrance to the Lower Ward which is known by his

s a fine specimen of a Tudor room, with a beautiful ceiling and a handsome stone chimney-piece. It is said that the "Merry Wives of Windsor" was first performed in this gallery, the play having been writ

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importance since Saxon ti

be seen in the picture,

driven from prison to prison, Windsor being his last resting-place before his trial and death in London. Charles must have become aware that dangers were thickening round him, when, having refused to admit Denbigh bearing the last overtures of the Army, all ceremonies of State were omitted, his meals no longer being served to him on bended knee. After the tragedy at Whitehall, the body of the King was brought to Windsor and buried hurriedly one snowy

work still remains practically as it was in the days of the Merry Monarch, for whose dining-room

y of Fanny Burney, we know exactly what the good commonplace King and Queen did and said during their residence at Windsor. So much had Queen Charlotte admired "Evelina," that she thought no greater honour could be done to the gifted authoress than to make her a dresser to her royal self, a condescension which almost overwhelmed shy Fanny Burney, who accepted the post, little dreaming of the drudgery it entailed. Everything went by routine in the Court life: the same things were done

Wyattville, the architect to whom the work had been entrusted, had completed his task, Windsor Castle appeared exactly as it does to-day. The walls and [pg 19] towers had been repaired and refaced, the brick b

re picturesque rivals have either vanished or ceased their careers as palaces, it alone remains a royal residence with a story stretching