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 monarchy and the focus
of the British Empire as well as nearly the whole of royal Europe. The
Castle was visited by heads of state from all over the world and was the
scene of a series of splendid state visits. On these occasions the
state rooms were used for their original purpose by royal guests. The
visits of King Louis Philippe in 1844 and the Emperor Napoleon III inn
1855 were especially successful. They were invested at Windsor with the
Order of the Garter in formal ceremonies, as on other occasions were
King Victor Emanuel I of Italy and the Emperor William I of Germany. For
the most of the twentieth century Windsor Castle survived as it was in
the nineteenth century. The Queen and her family spend most of their
private weekends at the Castle. A distinctive feature of hospitality
at Windsor Castle are the invitations to «dine and sleep» which go back
to Queen Victoria’s time and encompass people prominent in many walks of
life including The Queen’s ministers. On such occasions, The Queen
shows her guests a specially chosen exhibition of treasures from the
Royal Collection.
The central vaulted undercroft, originally
created by James Wyatt and extended in the same style by Jeffry
Wyatville to serve as the principal entrance hall to the State
Apartments, was cut off when the Grand Staircase was reoriented in the
reign of Queen Victoria. It has recently been redesigned and now houses a
changing exhibition of works of art from the Royal Collection, which
include Old Master drawings from the world-famous Print Room in the
Royal Library. The carved Ionic capitals of the columns survive from
Hugh May’s alterations for Charles II. In cases round the walls are
displayed magnificent china services from leading English and European
porcelain manufacturers: Serves, Meiden, Copenhagen, Naples, Rockingham
and Worchester. These are still used for royal banquets and other
important occasions. There are some famous paintings in Windsor
Castle: Van Dyke’s «Triple Portrait of Charles I» painted to send to
Bernie in Italy to enable him to sculpture a bust of the King; Colonel
John St.Leger, a friend of the Prince Regent, by Gainsborough;Vermeer’s
portrait of a lady at the virginals; The five eldest children of Charles
I by Van Dyke; John Singleton Copley, the American artist, painted the
three youngest daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte:Princesses
Mary, Sophia and Amelia, none of whom left legitimate descendants and
The Campo SS. Giovanniie Paolo Canaletto etc.
St George’s Chapel
is the spiritual home of the Prodder of the Garter, Britain’s senior
Order of Chivalry, founded by King Edward III in 1348. St George is the
patron saint of the Order. The architecture of the Chapel ranks among
the finest examples of Perpendicular Gothic, the late medieval style of
English architecture. Unlike most of the other great churches ,St
George’s Chapel has its principal or «show» front on the south , facing
the Henry YIII gate and running almost the length of the Lower Ward. As
Sovereign of the Order of the Garter, The Queen attends a service in
the Chapel in June each year, together with the Knights and Ladies of
the Order. Today thirteen Military Knights of Windsor represent the
Knights of the Garter in ST George’s Chapel at regular services. Ten
sovereigns are buried in the Chapel, as are buried in the Chapel, as are
other members of the royal family, many represented by magnificent
tombs.
The richly decorated interior is a Victorian masterpiece,
created by Sir George Gilbert Scott for Queen Victoria in 1863-73 to
commemorate her husband Albert. The vaulted ceiling is decorated in
gold mosaic by Antonio Salviati. The figures in the false west window
represent sovereigns, clerics and others associated with St George’s
Chapel. The inlaid marble panels around the lower walls depict scenes
from Scripture. This was the site of one of the Castle’s earliest
chapels, built in 1240 by King Henry III and adapted by King Edward III
in the 1350s as the first chapel of the College of St George and the
Order of the Garter. When the existing St George’s Chapel was built in
11475-15528, this small chapel fell into disuse. Subsequent plans to
turn it into a royal mausoleum came to nothing. In 1863 Queen
Victoria ordered its complete restoration and redecoration as a
temporary resting place for Prince Albert. The Chapel is now
dominated by Alfred Gilbert’s tomb of the Duke of Clarence and Avandale
who died in 1892.
The Great Park of Windsor, covering about
4,800 acres, has evolved out of the Saxon and medieval hunting forest.
It is connected to the Castle by an avenue of nearly 3 miles, known as
the Long Walk, planted by King Charles II in 1685 and replanted in 1945.
The Valley Gardens are open all year round