Amazing and weird facts about Windsor Castle:
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is notable for its long association with the English and later British royal family and for its architecture.
The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror and more than 30 monarchs have called it home. Since the time of Henry I, it has been used by the reigning monarch and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe.
Here are 30 things you might not have known about the royal residence.
1.Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be the 16th royals to marry at Windsor.
In 1863, Prince Albert (the future King Edward VII) married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in St George’s Chapel. Since then, 14 other royal couples have married at the castle, the last being the Queen’s grandson, Peter Philips, and Autumn Kelly in 2008. This weekend, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will become the latest royal couple to wed at Windsor, joining a tradition going back over 150 years.
2. Windsor Castle - was used as a prison.
During the English Civil War (1642-51), Oliver Cromwell often used Windsor Castle as a base of operations, and a prison for captured royalists. After the monarchy was restored in 1660, King Charles II transformed the castle from a military base into a palace.
3. The clocks of the Great Kitchen are deliberately set fast.
Windsor Castle has the oldest working kitchen in England, and has served 32 monarchs. Currently 20 chefs and sous chefs, 3 pastry chefs and 10 porters work in the Great Kitchen, and its clocks are always set 5 minutes early to make sure the Queen’s food is never late.
4. It was commissioned by William the Conqueror.
A few years after the Normans invaded Britain, King William I chose the site of Windsor Castle: west of London and high above the Thames. It was originally built to help defend London, but its convenient proximity to both the capital and a large hunting forest made it a prime candidate for a royal residence.
5. Windsor Castle was devastated by a fire.
On 20 November 1992, a faulty spotlight set fire to a nearby curtain in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel. The blaze spread quickly, destroying 115 rooms. It took 225 firemen 15 hours and 1.5 million gallons of water to put the fire out. Following the disaster, the Duke of Edinburgh oversaw the restoration project, which was completed exactly five years to the day after the outbreak of the fire.
Built for Queen Mary in the 1920s, the Windsor dollhouse is doubtlessly the world’s largest and most elaborate miniature home. It features running water, electricity, flush toilets, elevators, a fully-stocked 1200-piece wine cellar with real wine and beer, and a miniature library stuffed with original stories handwritten by authors such as Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Building it required the handiwork of more than 1500 artists and craftsmen.
Speaking of wine: The royal wine cellar keeps about 18,000 bottles of vino in the cellar. But according to Jancis Robinson, one of the queen’s wine advisors, not all of it is so fancy. Each year, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace host more than 300 events, requiring 5000 bottles of wine. “Outsiders might assume that we spend our time picking out the plums from the world’s vineyards for Her Majesty’s cellar but the reality is very much more prosaic,” Robinson writes. Some bottles cost between $5 and $10.
Windsor is, of course, home to librarians and tour guides and art historians who care for the Royal Household’s art collections. But approximately 150 people live at the castle to help the royal family, well, live! And many have delightfully antiquated jobs. There are fendersmiths who maintain the castle’s 300-some fireplaces, and horologists who care for the palace’s 379 timepieces. It’s also home to a wine butler, countless footmen, multiple gilders, and even a palace steward who measures the place settings with a ruler before each major meal.
Windsor Castle is, first and foremost, a fortress—and it has proved to be a strong one. In the olden days, guards on standby warded off intruders with cascades of boiling oil and heavy stones. In the 1200s, during the Barons War, Windsor Castle successfully withstood a two-month siege. In the 1400s, after King Henry IV deposed Richard II, Windsor Castle was again attacked. To keep the story short, let’s just say things did not end well for the attackers.
If you want to read the juicy bits from Queen Victoria’s journals or the private letters of King George III, they’re all tucked away in the Royal Library and Archives in Windsor Castle. Located in three state apartments that include Queen Catherine of Braganza’s old bedchamber, the royal library contains more than 200,000 items, including the book collections of multiple monarchs.
James Holman was the 19th century’s greatest traveler, covering distances that beat out famed explorers such as Marco Polo, James Cook, and Ibn Battuta. The amazing part? Holman did all of his traveling alone, and was blind. When the so-called “Blind Traveler” wasn’t gallivanting across the globe, he lived at the castle as an official Knight of Windsor. It fact, it was the monarch’s own physician who suggested Holman travel for his health.
Windsor Castle was never bombed during World War II because, it was rumored, Adolf Hitler wanted to make it his British home. The royal family took advantage of this fact by secretly hiding in the castle. There, the windows were blacked out, the chandeliers were removed, and the bedrooms were reinforced. The girls, including the future Queen Elizabeth II, occasionally slept in the dungeon.
The Queen is under no obligation to pay taxes. But after Windsor Castle caught on fire in 1992, taxpayers complained about paying the bill. From that moment, Her Majesty decided to begin voluntarily paying income and capital gains taxes. She also pays council taxes—a type of property tax—on all of her palaces. Windsor Castle, which has 484,000 square feet of floor space, only costs the Queen about £2365.16 (or about $3200) in council taxes annually.
Queen Elizabeth was one of the longest-established Pembroke corgi breeders on the planet. For nearly 70 years, Windsor was home to her corgi breeding program, which she shut down in 2015. Over the decades, the kennels at Windsor bred hundreds of corgi puppies, many of which were given to family and friends. Her last pet corgi—who died this April—was a 14th generation descendant of Susan, a pup the Queen received on her 18th birthday.
The royal family rarely uses their last name. (Probably because they don’t need to: When you call yourself “Queen Elizabeth II,” is there a reason to specify who you’re talking about?) But before 1919, the royal family’s last name was “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.” As you might imagine, this German surname was a bad look for the British during World War I. So the royals changed it to Windsor (or some variant of it). The word derives from the Old English Windlesoren, meaning “winch by the riverbank.”
Back in the 14th century, Edward III was so fascinated by tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table that he decided to get the band back together and start the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Founded in 1348, the Windsor-based group is the oldest and arguably most prestigious order of chivalry in England: Entry into the club is limited to the monarch, members of the royal family, and 24 other people chosen by the Sovereign. As for the weird name? One origin story suggests that King Edward III was dancing one night when his partner’s blue garters dropped to the floor, prompting laughs from passersby. Edward, ever the gentleman, picked up the garter, pulled it over his leg, and chastised the gigglers.
It is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years.
Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years. It is an official residence of Her Majesty The Queen and is still very much a working royal palace today, home to around 150 people.
The castle is used regularly for ceremonial and state occasions, including state visits from overseas monarchs and presidents. Some of the greatest treasures in the Royal Collection can be seen in the Castle’s magnificent State Apartments. The Royal Archives, the Royal Photograph Collection, the Print Room, and the Royal Library are all based here.
Windsor Castle is also home to St George’s Chapel, the spiritual home of the Order of the Garter – the oldest order of chivalry in the world, founded by Edward III in 1348. Today, the Order consists of The Queen, The Prince of Wales and 24 Knight Companions. The Queen spends most of her private weekends at Windsor Castle and takes up official residence for a month in the spring for Easter Court, and for a week each June, when she attends Royal Ascot and the service of the Order of the Garter.
From the 1350s to the 1370s, Edward III (r.1327-77) transformed Windsor from a military fortification to a gothic palace. He spent £50,000 in the process, more than any other medieval English king spent on any other single building.
Under the direction of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, reconstruction of the Upper Ward began in 1357. An inner gatehouse with cylindrical towers was built, and on the north side of the Quadrangle, royal apartments with separate rooms for the King and his Queen, Phillipa of Hainault, were arranged around a series of internal courts. The King’s aim was to create one large palace containing areas for official business and private use.
The work was not completed by the time of Edward III’s death. It continued for another six years into the reign of his grandson and successor Richard II, whose reign began in 1377. Apart from the modernisation of the King and Queen’s great chambers and the addition of a gallery by Edward III’s great-grandson Edward IV, the late 14th-century apartments survived unchanged until the 17th century.
The Royal Library is based at Windsor Castle. It occupies rooms which were formerly Queen Catherine of Braganza’s state bedchamber, Henry VII’s private bedchamber, and Elizabeth I’s indoor walking gallery.
It was established by William IV in the 1830s, after previous royal libraries had been given to the nation. It is formed from collections of books held by George III at Kew and Windsor, and George IV at Carlton House, and from significant collections of royal books acquired by gift and purchase in the nineteenth century. It now contains over 300,000 items.
There are over 500 volumes of works by Shakespeare in the Royal Library, including the first three Folios, miniature books in Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, and versions of Shakespeare’s works in numerous languages including French, Italian, Portuguese, Georgian and Hebrew.
Each of the fireplaces is tended to full-time by a family of fendersmith that have been doing the job for decades. Needless to say, this castle takes its traditions seriously. Want to feel like you can blend in with those royal traditions?
When British Summer Time (BST) begins, it takes The Queen’s clock maker 16 hours to move every clock forward by one hour. At the end of BST it takes him 18 hours to adjust them back one hour (as he actually has to move them forward 11 hours!).
Ten Kings are buried in Windsor Castle. Having been executed for treason in 1649 Charles I wasn’t allowed a state funeral. Parliament ordered that he be buried without “pomp or noise”. His body rests in Henry VIII’s burial vault in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
King George III loved Windsor Castle and took a great interest in the lives of the people living nearby. He would regularly ride around the Windsor countryside enquiring about the welfare of his tenants – this earned him the nickname “Farmer George”.
William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087)
He was the king who first chose the site for Windsor Castle, high above the Thames and on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground. He began building at Windsor around 1070, and 16 years later his castle was complete. It was originally built to secure the western approach to London, but easy access from the capital and proximity to a royal hunting forest recommended it early on as a royal residence.
Henry I (r.1100-1135)
Henry had domestic quarters within the castle by 1110; his grandson Henry II Henry II Henry II (r.1154-89) replaced the outer timber fortifications with stone. Henry III Henry III Henry III (r.1216-1272) continued the work, rebuilding many buildings and improving the royal apartments.
Edward III (r.1327-1377)
100 years after Henry III’s substantial programme at Windsor, Edward III eclipsed it. The King transformed Windsor from a military fortification to a gothic palace, spending £50,000 in the process. The gothic style of building with pointed arches has remained the predominant architectural style at Windsor for 800 years. His aim was to create one large palace which contained both the state apartments for official and ceremonial business, and the King and Queen’s own private apartments, in a single unified residence. The work was not completed by the time of Edward III’s death, and continued for another six years into the reign of his grandson and successor Richard II (r.1377-1399).
The Tudors
The Tudors made relatively minor additions and alterations to the fabric of the Castle but remain closely associated with Windsor – one of Britain best-known Kings, Henry VIII ry VIII ry VIII (r.1509-1547), is buried in St George’s Chapel alongside his third and favourite wife Jane Seymour. By the reign of Elizabeth I Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603) many parts of the Castle were in need of repair and an extensive campaign of work was undertaken in the 1570s. The timber terrace (today the North Terrace), from which Henry VIII would practise shooting at targets and watch the hunt in the park below, was entirely renewed in stone, and a long gallery was built to provide the Queen with a place to walk during inclement weather – this was incorporated into the Royal Library during the 19th century.
Charles II (1630-1685)
During the English Civil War, the castle was frequently used by Oliver Cromwell as his headquarters and as a prison for captured royalist officers. When Charles II (r.1660-1685) came to the throne in 1660, the year of the restoration of the monarchy, he was determined to reinstate Windsor as his principal palace out of town. He appointed the architect Hugh May to supervise the modernisation of the royal apartments, which became the grandest baroque state apartments in England. Charles II’s transformation of Windsor from military stronghold to opulent baroque palace was complete by 1683.
George III (1738-1820)
The early Hanoverian monarchs followed William III in favouring Hampton Court and Kensington, and it was not until the reign of George IIIthat Windsor became once again an important centre of court life. The apartments created by Charles II survived virtually
unchanged to the end of the 18th century, when, under the direction of draughtsman John Yenn, George III gave several of the baroque state apartments on the north side of the quadrangle a neoclassical dressing. In 1796, the King appointed James Wyatt to transform the
exterior of the buildings into a Gothic palace, while retaining the character of the state rooms. Wyatt’s expertise in the Gothic style enabled the King to embark on a gothic restoration of the external façades and the creation of a new grand staircase to the state
apartments.
George IV (1762-1830)
The gothic transformation of the castle continued after George IV succeeded to the throne in 1820. Mindful of the symbolic importance of Windsor as a bastion of monarchy and the nation, George IV and his artistic adviser Sir Charles Long intended that the exterior of the
castle should once more be given an imposing castle-like appearance. This entailed the heightening of Henry II’s Round Tower, the re-clothing of the exterior in massive masonry and the addition of towers and battlements. By the time the King finally took up residence at Windsor towards the end of 1828, his improvements to the castle had cost nearly £300,000. Sadly, he was only able to enjoy his new castle for 18 months, as he died in June 1830, aged 67.
Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and Prince Albert (1819-1861)
George IV’s restoration of the castle was so comprehensive that comparatively little needed to be done by his successors. Queen Victoria spent the larger part of every year at Windsor. The Castle was visited by sovereigns, ambassadors and ministers from all over the world and was the setting for a series of splendid state visits by foreign monarchs. In Queen Victoria’s reign Windsor Castle enjoyed the position of principal palace of the British monarchy and focus of the British Empire, as well as nearly the whole of royal Europe, many of whose families were related to the Queen.
King George VI (1895-1952) and Queen Elizabeth (1900-2002)
When King George VI succeeded to the throne, he and Queen Elizabeth were already living at Royal Lodge in the Windsor Great Park, and considered Windsor very much their home. During the Second World War pictures and works of art were evacuated for safe keeping. The King and Queen were determined to remain at Buckingham Palace at the time of the London bombardments, but they joined Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor at evenings and weekends. The Princesses were brought up at Windsor and every Christmas they performed a pantomime in the Waterloo Chamber.
6. Windsor dollhouse is doubtlessly the world's largest and most elaborate miniature home.
Built for Queen Mary in the 1920s, the Windsor dollhouse is doubtlessly the world’s largest and most elaborate miniature home. It features running water, electricity, flush toilets, elevators, a fully-stocked 1200-piece wine cellar with real wine and beer, and a miniature library stuffed with original stories handwritten by authors such as Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Building it required the handiwork of more than 1500 artists and craftsmen.
7. Windsor Castle wine cellar is stacked with bottles — some of them surprisingly cheap.
Speaking of wine: The royal wine cellar keeps about 18,000 bottles of vino in the cellar. But according to Jancis Robinson, one of the queen’s wine advisors, not all of it is so fancy. Each year, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace host more than 300 events, requiring 5000 bottles of wine. “Outsiders might assume that we spend our time picking out the plums from the world’s vineyards for Her Majesty’s cellar but the reality is very much more prosaic,” Robinson writes. Some bottles cost between $5 and $10.
8. It’s a great place to work if you have old-timey job skills.
Windsor is, of course, home to librarians and tour guides and art historians who care for the Royal Household’s art collections. But approximately 150 people live at the castle to help the royal family, well, live! And many have delightfully antiquated jobs. There are fendersmiths who maintain the castle’s 300-some fireplaces, and horologists who care for the palace’s 379 timepieces. It’s also home to a wine butler, countless footmen, multiple gilders, and even a palace steward who measures the place settings with a ruler before each major meal.
9. Windsor Castle was successfully fended off a few attacks.
Windsor Castle is, first and foremost, a fortress—and it has proved to be a strong one. In the olden days, guards on standby warded off intruders with cascades of boiling oil and heavy stones. In the 1200s, during the Barons War, Windsor Castle successfully withstood a two-month siege. In the 1400s, after King Henry IV deposed Richard II, Windsor Castle was again attacked. To keep the story short, let’s just say things did not end well for the attackers.
10. It’s the best place to visit if you want to read a queen’s diary.
If you want to read the juicy bits from Queen Victoria’s journals or the private letters of King George III, they’re all tucked away in the Royal Library and Archives in Windsor Castle. Located in three state apartments that include Queen Catherine of Braganza’s old bedchamber, the royal library contains more than 200,000 items, including the book collections of multiple monarchs.
11. It was home to the world’s greatest explorer (who happened to be blind).
James Holman was the 19th century’s greatest traveler, covering distances that beat out famed explorers such as Marco Polo, James Cook, and Ibn Battuta. The amazing part? Holman did all of his traveling alone, and was blind. When the so-called “Blind Traveler” wasn’t gallivanting across the globe, he lived at the castle as an official Knight of Windsor. It fact, it was the monarch’s own physician who suggested Holman travel for his health.
12. During WWII, queen Elizabeth II slept in the Windor's dungeon.
Windsor Castle was never bombed during World War II because, it was rumored, Adolf Hitler wanted to make it his British home. The royal family took advantage of this fact by secretly hiding in the castle. There, the windows were blacked out, the chandeliers were removed, and the bedrooms were reinforced. The girls, including the future Queen Elizabeth II, occasionally slept in the dungeon.
13. The taxes to live in the Windsor castle ain't too shabby.
The Queen is under no obligation to pay taxes. But after Windsor Castle caught on fire in 1992, taxpayers complained about paying the bill. From that moment, Her Majesty decided to begin voluntarily paying income and capital gains taxes. She also pays council taxes—a type of property tax—on all of her palaces. Windsor Castle, which has 484,000 square feet of floor space, only costs the Queen about £2365.16 (or about $3200) in council taxes annually.
14. It was HQ for the queen’s “Corgi breeding program.”
Queen Elizabeth was one of the longest-established Pembroke corgi breeders on the planet. For nearly 70 years, Windsor was home to her corgi breeding program, which she shut down in 2015. Over the decades, the kennels at Windsor bred hundreds of corgi puppies, many of which were given to family and friends. Her last pet corgi—who died this April—was a 14th generation descendant of Susan, a pup the Queen received on her 18th birthday.
15. The Royal Family is named after the Windsor Castle.
The royal family rarely uses their last name. (Probably because they don’t need to: When you call yourself “Queen Elizabeth II,” is there a reason to specify who you’re talking about?) But before 1919, the royal family’s last name was “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.” As you might imagine, this German surname was a bad look for the British during World War I. So the royals changed it to Windsor (or some variant of it). The word derives from the Old English Windlesoren, meaning “winch by the riverbank.”
16. At Windsor Castle, chivalry is not dead.
Back in the 14th century, Edward III was so fascinated by tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table that he decided to get the band back together and start the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Founded in 1348, the Windsor-based group is the oldest and arguably most prestigious order of chivalry in England: Entry into the club is limited to the monarch, members of the royal family, and 24 other people chosen by the Sovereign. As for the weird name? One origin story suggests that King Edward III was dancing one night when his partner’s blue garters dropped to the floor, prompting laughs from passersby. Edward, ever the gentleman, picked up the garter, pulled it over his leg, and chastised the gigglers.
17. It is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years.
It is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years.
Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years. It is an official residence of Her Majesty The Queen and is still very much a working royal palace today, home to around 150 people.
The castle is used regularly for ceremonial and state occasions, including state visits from overseas monarchs and presidents. Some of the greatest treasures in the Royal Collection can be seen in the Castle’s magnificent State Apartments. The Royal Archives, the Royal Photograph Collection, the Print Room, and the Royal Library are all based here.
Windsor Castle is also home to St George’s Chapel, the spiritual home of the Order of the Garter – the oldest order of chivalry in the world, founded by Edward III in 1348. Today, the Order consists of The Queen, The Prince of Wales and 24 Knight Companions. The Queen spends most of her private weekends at Windsor Castle and takes up official residence for a month in the spring for Easter Court, and for a week each June, when she attends Royal Ascot and the service of the Order of the Garter.
18. From the 1350s to the 1370s, Edward III transformed Windsor from a military fortification to a gothic palace.
From the 1350s to the 1370s, Edward III (r.1327-77) transformed Windsor from a military fortification to a gothic palace. He spent £50,000 in the process, more than any other medieval English king spent on any other single building.
Under the direction of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, reconstruction of the Upper Ward began in 1357. An inner gatehouse with cylindrical towers was built, and on the north side of the Quadrangle, royal apartments with separate rooms for the King and his Queen, Phillipa of Hainault, were arranged around a series of internal courts. The King’s aim was to create one large palace containing areas for official business and private use.
The work was not completed by the time of Edward III’s death. It continued for another six years into the reign of his grandson and successor Richard II, whose reign began in 1377. Apart from the modernisation of the King and Queen’s great chambers and the addition of a gallery by Edward III’s great-grandson Edward IV, the late 14th-century apartments survived unchanged until the 17th century.
19. A royal librarian oversees a priceless collection of 300,000 books, prints and drawings.
The Royal Library is based at Windsor Castle. It occupies rooms which were formerly Queen Catherine of Braganza’s state bedchamber, Henry VII’s private bedchamber, and Elizabeth I’s indoor walking gallery.
It was established by William IV in the 1830s, after previous royal libraries had been given to the nation. It is formed from collections of books held by George III at Kew and Windsor, and George IV at Carlton House, and from significant collections of royal books acquired by gift and purchase in the nineteenth century. It now contains over 300,000 items.
There are over 500 volumes of works by Shakespeare in the Royal Library, including the first three Folios, miniature books in Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, and versions of Shakespeare’s works in numerous languages including French, Italian, Portuguese, Georgian and Hebrew.
20. The castle has 300 fireplaces which are tended by a full-time fendersmith, whose family have been doing the job for generations.
Each of the fireplaces is tended to full-time by a family of fendersmith that have been doing the job for decades. Needless to say, this castle takes its traditions seriously. Want to feel like you can blend in with those royal traditions?
21. The Windsor Castle estate (including Windsor Great Park) has over 450 clocks.
When British Summer Time (BST) begins, it takes The Queen’s clock maker 16 hours to move every clock forward by one hour. At the end of BST it takes him 18 hours to adjust them back one hour (as he actually has to move them forward 11 hours!).
22. Having been executed for treason in 1649 Charles I wasn’t allowed a state funeral in Windsor Castle.
Ten Kings are buried in Windsor Castle. Having been executed for treason in 1649 Charles I wasn’t allowed a state funeral. Parliament ordered that he be buried without “pomp or noise”. His body rests in Henry VIII’s burial vault in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
23. King George III loved Windsor Castle and took a great interest in the lives of the people living nearby.
King George III loved Windsor Castle and took a great interest in the lives of the people living nearby. He would regularly ride around the Windsor countryside enquiring about the welfare of his tenants – this earned him the nickname “Farmer George”.
Did you know?
- St George’s Hall is the biggest room in the Castle. It is 55.5m long and 9m wide and can seat up to 162 for a State Banquet.
- The motte on which the Round Tower sits is the oldest part of the Castle. The newest part is the Lantern Lobby in the State Apartments.
- The oldest glazed window in the Castle dates back to approximately 1236. It is thought to have been a wedding gift from King Henry III to his wife Eleanor of Provence.
- The Great Fire at Windsor started on 20 November 1992. It took 15 hours and 1.5million gallons of water to put it out.
- The Great Kitchen at Windsor is the oldest working kitchen in the country and has served 32 monarchs, including Her Majesty The Queen.
- The whisk in the kitchen can hold up to 250 eggs at one time.
- During the reign of George IV, the Round Tower was raised by some 30ft to improve the Castle’s skyline and to fit in with his romantic ideal of a Gothic castle.
- The Round Tower is not actually round, as it has a square southern side. The foundations on the southside are also more extensive than on the north side.
- At Queen Elizabeth’s state dinners, each pat of butter is individually hand rolled and stamped with a royal crown.
- Visitors can see the Changing of the Guard at the castle representing one of the highlights of any visit to the castle.
- Windsor Castle is a popular tourist attraction, a venue for hosting state visits, and the preferred weekend home of Elizabeth II.
The Kings and Queens who shaped the Castle
William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087)
He was the king who first chose the site for Windsor Castle, high above the Thames and on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground. He began building at Windsor around 1070, and 16 years later his castle was complete. It was originally built to secure the western approach to London, but easy access from the capital and proximity to a royal hunting forest recommended it early on as a royal residence.
Henry I (r.1100-1135)
Henry had domestic quarters within the castle by 1110; his grandson Henry II Henry II Henry II (r.1154-89) replaced the outer timber fortifications with stone. Henry III Henry III Henry III (r.1216-1272) continued the work, rebuilding many buildings and improving the royal apartments.
Edward III (r.1327-1377)
100 years after Henry III’s substantial programme at Windsor, Edward III eclipsed it. The King transformed Windsor from a military fortification to a gothic palace, spending £50,000 in the process. The gothic style of building with pointed arches has remained the predominant architectural style at Windsor for 800 years. His aim was to create one large palace which contained both the state apartments for official and ceremonial business, and the King and Queen’s own private apartments, in a single unified residence. The work was not completed by the time of Edward III’s death, and continued for another six years into the reign of his grandson and successor Richard II (r.1377-1399).
The Tudors
The Tudors made relatively minor additions and alterations to the fabric of the Castle but remain closely associated with Windsor – one of Britain best-known Kings, Henry VIII ry VIII ry VIII (r.1509-1547), is buried in St George’s Chapel alongside his third and favourite wife Jane Seymour. By the reign of Elizabeth I Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603) many parts of the Castle were in need of repair and an extensive campaign of work was undertaken in the 1570s. The timber terrace (today the North Terrace), from which Henry VIII would practise shooting at targets and watch the hunt in the park below, was entirely renewed in stone, and a long gallery was built to provide the Queen with a place to walk during inclement weather – this was incorporated into the Royal Library during the 19th century.
Charles II (1630-1685)
During the English Civil War, the castle was frequently used by Oliver Cromwell as his headquarters and as a prison for captured royalist officers. When Charles II (r.1660-1685) came to the throne in 1660, the year of the restoration of the monarchy, he was determined to reinstate Windsor as his principal palace out of town. He appointed the architect Hugh May to supervise the modernisation of the royal apartments, which became the grandest baroque state apartments in England. Charles II’s transformation of Windsor from military stronghold to opulent baroque palace was complete by 1683.
George III (1738-1820)
The early Hanoverian monarchs followed William III in favouring Hampton Court and Kensington, and it was not until the reign of George IIIthat Windsor became once again an important centre of court life. The apartments created by Charles II survived virtually
unchanged to the end of the 18th century, when, under the direction of draughtsman John Yenn, George III gave several of the baroque state apartments on the north side of the quadrangle a neoclassical dressing. In 1796, the King appointed James Wyatt to transform the
exterior of the buildings into a Gothic palace, while retaining the character of the state rooms. Wyatt’s expertise in the Gothic style enabled the King to embark on a gothic restoration of the external façades and the creation of a new grand staircase to the state
apartments.
George IV (1762-1830)
The gothic transformation of the castle continued after George IV succeeded to the throne in 1820. Mindful of the symbolic importance of Windsor as a bastion of monarchy and the nation, George IV and his artistic adviser Sir Charles Long intended that the exterior of the
castle should once more be given an imposing castle-like appearance. This entailed the heightening of Henry II’s Round Tower, the re-clothing of the exterior in massive masonry and the addition of towers and battlements. By the time the King finally took up residence at Windsor towards the end of 1828, his improvements to the castle had cost nearly £300,000. Sadly, he was only able to enjoy his new castle for 18 months, as he died in June 1830, aged 67.
Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and Prince Albert (1819-1861)
George IV’s restoration of the castle was so comprehensive that comparatively little needed to be done by his successors. Queen Victoria spent the larger part of every year at Windsor. The Castle was visited by sovereigns, ambassadors and ministers from all over the world and was the setting for a series of splendid state visits by foreign monarchs. In Queen Victoria’s reign Windsor Castle enjoyed the position of principal palace of the British monarchy and focus of the British Empire, as well as nearly the whole of royal Europe, many of whose families were related to the Queen.
King George VI (1895-1952) and Queen Elizabeth (1900-2002)
When King George VI succeeded to the throne, he and Queen Elizabeth were already living at Royal Lodge in the Windsor Great Park, and considered Windsor very much their home. During the Second World War pictures and works of art were evacuated for safe keeping. The King and Queen were determined to remain at Buckingham Palace at the time of the London bombardments, but they joined Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor at evenings and weekends. The Princesses were brought up at Windsor and every Christmas they performed a pantomime in the Waterloo Chamber.
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