Day 4, May 1, 2013, Wed:
The Queen uses the Windsor castle as a
royal palace as well as her weekend home and it is now often used for
state banquets and official entertaining as Buckingham Palace.
Important to check the website about
the Queen's visit because on those days, the state apartments are not
open for visitors.
We were staying at Premier Inn, Hanger
lane, so we didn’t have to go to central London to take a train for
Windsor castle… We caught the train at Ealing Broadway, and
transferred at Slough to reach Windsor and walked to the castle just
as it was opening for visitors…
This is Queen Victoria's statue.
Her husband Prince Albert died in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle in 1861 and was buried in the Royal Mausoleum, within the Home Park. The prince's rooms were maintained exactly as they had been at the moment of his death and Victoria kept the castle in a state of mourning for many years, becoming known as the "Widow of Windsor", a phrase popularised in the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling.The Queen shunned the use of Buckingham Palace after Albert's death and instead used Windsor Castle as her residence when conducting official business near London.Towards the end of her reign plays, operas and other entertainments began to be held at the castle again.
Her husband Prince Albert died in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle in 1861 and was buried in the Royal Mausoleum, within the Home Park. The prince's rooms were maintained exactly as they had been at the moment of his death and Victoria kept the castle in a state of mourning for many years, becoming known as the "Widow of Windsor", a phrase popularised in the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling.The Queen shunned the use of Buckingham Palace after Albert's death and instead used Windsor Castle as her residence when conducting official business near London.Towards the end of her reign plays, operas and other entertainments began to be held at the castle again.
HISTORY
The original castle was built in the
11th century after the Norman invasion of
England by William the Conqueror. Henry III built a
luxurious royal palace within the castle during the middle of the
13th century, and Edward III rebuilt to produce an even grander set
of buildings
Henry VIII and Elizabeth I used the
castle as a royal court for diplomatic entertainment. During English Civil War, it was used
as a military headquarters for Parliamentary forces and a prison for
Charles I. During the Restoration, Charles II
rebuilt Windsor Castle, creating extravagant, Baroque interiors that
are still admired.
After a period of neglect during the
18th century, George III and George IV renovated and rebuilt Charles
II's palace at colossal expense, producing the current design of the
State Apartments, full of Rococo, Gothic and Baroque furnishings.
Victoria made minor changes to the
castle, which became the centre for royal entertainment for much of
her reign.
In 1917 King George V adopted the name House of Windsor , as the British Royal Family's official name by a proclamation replacing the historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (severing the German association at the time of WWI). It remains the family name of the current Royal Family.
Windsor Castle was used as a refuge for the royal family during the bombing campaigns of the Second World War and survived a fire in 1992. It is a popular tourist attraction, a venue for hosting state visits, and the Queen's preferred weekend home. five hundred people live and work in the castle now.
In 1917 King George V adopted the name House of Windsor , as the British Royal Family's official name by a proclamation replacing the historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (severing the German association at the time of WWI). It remains the family name of the current Royal Family.
Windsor Castle was used as a refuge for the royal family during the bombing campaigns of the Second World War and survived a fire in 1992. It is a popular tourist attraction, a venue for hosting state visits, and the Queen's preferred weekend home. five hundred people live and work in the castle now.
The airport type security screening was
smooth—no questions asked about the picnic lunch we were carrying.
Our audio guide wasn't too useful as we
had read up details on our own.
DOLLS HOUSE:
We headed towards the Doll’s house
and spent almost an hour kneeling down on all the sides and enjoying
the miniature marvel…..
Made to a scale of 1: 12 the house
stands 8ft wide, 4ft deep and 5ft high and features all the comforts
required in a stately home. A gift to current Queen’s grandmother,
the dolls house includes contributions from 1,500 artists, craftsmen.
The carpets, curtains and furnishings are all copies of the real
thing, and even the light fittings are working. The bathrooms are
fully plumbed, with a flushable toilet and miniature lavatory paper.
Even the art is a miniature version by
the original painters (there are 750 works of art) and amazingly the
walnut paneled library’s books are real as well… The library
includes original works by the top literary names of the day, 200
authors, including Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy. Princess Marie sent
blank volumes to writers and poets to fill in and got back a
hand-written leather-bound story from Conan Doyle called, How Watson
Learned The Trick. Kipling submitted a 4x3cm book of handwritten
poems for the walnut-panelled library, some unpublished with his own
illustrations. Thomas Hardy sent seven poems while Robert Graves
penned five. Other contributors included Aldous Huxley, John Buchan
and Somerset Maugham, But Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw
declined the royal invitation. The ghost-story writer MR James wrote
"The Haunted Dolls' House". How appropriate!
There is also a fully stocked wine
cellar filled with 200 bottles Champagnes, wines, spirits and beers.
Amazing!!
And behind a gate in the strongroom lie
tiny copies of the Crown Jewels.
The domestic quarters and the rooms
below stairs are great as well…
In the kitchen, a copper kettle made
out of a King George V penny is on the stove and there are even mops,
brooms and a vacuum cleaner.
WOW! What a piece of work!
The idea of the dolls house came from
the Queen's cousin, Princess Marie Louise, one of the top architects
of the time, Sir Edwin Lutyens constructed it. The top artists and
craftsmen contributed their special abilities . As a result, the
dolls' house has an amazing collection of miniature items that
actually work. It even has running water through its tiny pipes.
has these pics:
Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a major
attraction here— we spent 1 hour admiring it in detail. it was
built in the early 1920s for Queen Mary, the wife of King George V.
Some more history:
Queen Mary, and King George V are
current Queen Elizabeth II 's grandparents
George V was a grandson of Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert and the first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II
of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. (George's father was King
Edward VII, Victoria's eldest son). On 17 July 1917, George changed
the name of the British royal house from the German-sounding House of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor. He and all his British
relatives relinquished their German titles and styles, and adopted
British-sounding surnames.
The back story is as follows:
From 1914 to 1918, Britain and its
allies were at war with the Central Powers, led by the German Empire.
The German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who for the British public came to
symbolise all the horrors of the war, was the King's first cousin.
The King's paternal grandfather was
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; consequently, the King and
his children bore that German name. Queen Mary, although British like
her mother, was the daughter of the Duke of Teck, a descendant of the
German Dukes of Württemberg.
When H. G. Wells wrote about Britain's
"alien and uninspiring court", George famously replied: "I
may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien."He changed
the family name as Windsor to appear British and the tradition
continues to this day.
at his death was succeeded by his
eldest son, Edward VIII.
Before the First World War, most of
Europe was ruled by monarchs related to George, but during and after
the war, the monarchies of Austria, Germany, Greece, and Spain, like
Russia, fell to revolution and war.
When Tsar Nicholas II of Russia,
George's first cousin (their mothers were sisters), was overthrown in
the Russian Revolution of 1917, the British government offered
political asylum to the Tsar and his family, but worsening
conditions for the British people, and fears that revolution might
come to the British Isles, led George V to think that the presence of
the Russian royals might seem inappropriate in the circumstances. The
Tsar and his immediate family remained in Russia, where they were
murdered by Bolsheviks in 1918. The following year, Nicholas's
mother (George's aunt) Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) and other
members of the extended Russian imperial family were rescued from the
Crimea by British ships.
In 1922, a Royal Navy ship was sent to
Greece to rescue George V's cousins, Prince and Princess Andrew
(Their children included Prince Philip, who would later marry
George's granddaughter, Elizabeth II who is the current Queen).
Prince Andrew was the son of George's uncle King George I of
Greece, (brother of George's mother Queen Alexandra).
Princess Andrew was a daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg, one of
the German princes granted a British peerage in 1917.
To add to the royal lineage, King
of Denmark was the father of Queen Alexandria, (wife of England's
George V) and King George of Greece and Empress Maria
Fyodorovna, who married Alexander III of Russia (Alexander
III is the huge uncouth king who built spilled blood church on the
spot his father Alexander II was assassinated).
To see the Russian side of
things—-Nicholas II succeded to the throne when his father
Alexander III died at the age of 49.
Nicholas II was 1st cousin to George V
as their mothers were sisters. Nicholas II was the last tsar of
Russia and his entire family with wife, son, 4 daughters, doctor,
cook, maid was assassinated in 1918 by bolsheviks. Faberge the famed
jeweller was spared though.
Nicholas was related to several
monarchs in Europe. His mother's siblings included Kings Frederik
VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece as well as England's Queen
Alexandra (consort of King Edward VII). Nicholas, his wife,
Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of
King George V. Nicholas was also a first cousin of both King Haakon
VII and Queen Maud of Norway, as well as King Constantine I of
Greece. While not first cousins, Nicholas and Kaiser Wilhelm II were
second cousins, once removed, as each descended from King Frederick
William III of Prussia, as well as third cousins, as they were both
great-great-grandsons of Tsar Paul I of Russia. Nicholas and his
wife, Alexandra, were also second cousins, as both were descended
from Wilhelmine of Baden, the wife of Grand Duke Louis II of Hesse.
DOLLS HOUSE:
OK, to come back to the doll’s house,
dolls’ house… don’t know where the apostrophe has to go but I
guess it does not matter as no doll ever lived in this house…it’s
just sad to know no doll held by a tiny hand ever walked around these
magnificent rooms, sat on the chairs or lolled around in the beds…
guess the humble cardboard dolls houses we ordinary mortals used to
play with had witnessed more fun, with our dolls striding through
their length and breadth, sipping out of tiny cups and enjoying the
lovely routine we managed to create for them with trivial
accessories!!!
The next room has 2 lovely dolls
presented to the current queen and her sister when they visited
France when their father was the king—those dolls with their
extensive wardrobe are cool … hope they were played with and had a
great life!!
Changing of the Guards:
We noticed it was nearing 11 and rushed
near the entrance to watch the changing of the guards—lovely music
by the band … visiting school kids marching and dancing to the tune
made the ceremony more enjoyable.
St George’s Chapel:
After the thoroughly entertaining show,
we entered the St George’s chapel and admired the 15th century
ornate ceiling and the heraldic banners of the knights.
St George's chapel...the buttress
columns being extended above the roof is called flying buttress and
is a gothic feature along with the pointed arches.
St George's Chapel dates from the late
15th and early 16th century.
The ornate wooden choir stalls are
decorated with brass plates showing the arms of the Knights of the
Garter over the last six centuries.
On the west side, the chapel has a
grand Victorian door and staircase, used on ceremonial occasions.The east stained glass window is
Victorian, and the oriel window to the north side of it was built by
Henry VIII for Catherine of Aragon.
The vault in front of the altar houses
the remains of Henry VIII, his favorite wife Jane Seymour and
Charles I, with Edward IV buried nearby.
We then traced our way up the hill
toward the state apartments. Sat at one of the benches overlooking
the scenic view of the town sprawling beneath the hill and had our
lunch… we were thankful we did not have to trudge all the way down
to the town for a meal.
State apartments:
A few tidbits about the castle...as
Victoria disliked gaslight, preferring candles electric lighting was
only installed in limited parts of the castle at the end of her
reign. Indeed, the castle was famously cold and draughty in
Victoria's reign, but it was connected to a nearby reservoir, with
water reliably piped into the interior for the first time.
Many of the changes under Victoria were
to the surrounding parklands. When Victoria's son Edward VII came to
the throne in 1901, rooms in the Upper Ward were de-cluttered and
redecorated for the first time in many years, with Edward "peering
into cabinets; ransacking drawers; clearing rooms formerly used his
father Prince Albert and not touched since his death; ... destroying
statues and busts of John Brown (John Brown was Victoria's allegd
lover and servant disliked by her children)...
Electric lighting was added to
more rooms, along with central heating; telephone lines were
installed, along with garages for the newly invented automobiles.
The state apartments were great, we
trooped through an impressive array of rooms admiring the art,
tapestry and royal furniture and accessories....
These pics are from the net.
Fire, 1992:
On 20 November 1992, a major fire
occurred at Windsor Castle, lasting for fifteen hours.
The Private Chapel in the
north-east corner of the State Apartments was being renovated and one
of the spotlights used in the work set fire to a curtain by the altar
during the morning. The fire spread quickly and destroyed nine of the
principal state rooms, and severely damaged over a hundred more.
Fire-fighters applied water to contain the blaze, whilst castle staff
attempted to rescue the precious artworks from the castle.
Many of the rooms closest to the fire
had been emptied as part of the renovation work, and this contributed
to the successful evacuation of most of the collection. The fire
spread through the roof voids and efforts continued through the night
to contain the blaze, at great risk to the 200 fire-fighters
involved. Water damage to the castle caused more complex restoration
problems than the fire.
Following the fire was a political
debate in Britain as to who should pay for the repairs.
Traditionally, as the property of the Crown, Windsor Castle was
maintained, and if necessary repaired, by the British government;
furthermore, like other state buildings, it was not insured.
The British press strongly argued
in favor of the Queen herself being required to pay for the repairs
from her private income. A solution was found in which the
restoration work would be paid for by opening Buckingham Palace to
the public at selected times of the year, and by introducing new
charges for public access to the parkland surrounding Windsor.
There is a nice memorial in the lantern
room where the fire started. An interesting detail—it took 50
soldiers to roll up the Indian carpet in the Waterloo chamber during
the fire—this is the largest carpet without seams.
We then retraced our way through the
same rooms getting a second look and then exited.
Tapestry in the gift shop here.
We took extensive photos in the gift
shop because pics are not allowed when we toured the state rooms..
We made our way through the castle
grounds and past the mall to the station,
took some pics of the replica of the royal train and took the train back to Slough and then onward to Ealing Broadway.
took some pics of the replica of the royal train and took the train back to Slough and then onward to Ealing Broadway.
We had an early train to catch the next
day May 2nd—the 7AM Edinburgh express for a 3 day stay
at Edinburgh.. we packed one bag to carry with us… we had made
arrangements with our hotel to hold the rest of our bags in their
storage room till we came back on the night of May 4th
Lulled by the awesome spell of sunny
weather we had experienced in London for 4 days, I packed our
umbrellas in the bags to be left behind… the Scottish weather Gods
must have chuckled at our foolishness… but we did not hear it and
drifted off to sleep…
Edinburgh report continues here:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/08/uk-trip-report-day-5-edinburgh-royal.html
Edinburgh report continues here:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/08/uk-trip-report-day-5-edinburgh-royal.html
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