Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is the oldest royal residence in the world.

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About 1070, when William the Conqueror was also having the Tower of London constructed, he built a wooden stockade at Windsor.

The site of Windsor Castle appealed to William the Conqueror because it was easily defensible and near Windsor Forest, a good hunting ground. William obtained title to the land from Westminster Abbey.

The original motte-and-bailey castle was built with timber. It was designed to protect Norman dominance around the outskirts of London and to oversee a strategically important part of the River Thames.

Henry I of England married his wife, Adeliza of Louvain, at Windsor Castle in January 1121. He was the first monarch to use Windsor Castle as a royal residence. He rebuilt much of the castle using Bagshot Heath stone for most of the work, and stone from Bedfordshire for the internal buildings.

Since the time of Henry I, Windsor Castle has been used by a succession of monarchs and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe.

Edward III was responsible for turning the fortress like building on the north side of the upper ward at Windsor into royal residence apartments. It had become evident by Edward's time that the need for royal comfort took priority over defensive capability. (The castle has been besieged only twice in its history.) To oversee the construction Edward employed William of Wykeham as clerk of works.

Edward III spent £51,000 on renovating Windsor Castle; this was the largest amount spent by any English medieval monarch on a single building operation, and over one and a half times the English King's typical annual income of £30,000. His rebuilding of the palace to make an even grander set of buildings was arguably the most expensive secular building project of the entire Middle Ages in England.

In 1603, 30,000 Londoners died from the plague. Queen Elizabeth I responded to the national crisis by fleeing with her court to Windsor Castle where she had a gallows set up with the promise that she would hang anyone who tried to follow her.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a darkroom installed at Windsor Castle to indulge their passion for photography.

The Lower Ward in 1840, by Joseph Nash,

After Prince Albert's death in 1861, Queen Victoria was called "The Widow at Windsor" as she continually mourned his passing and spent most of her remaining 39 years locked away at Windsor Castle.

A great fire broke out in the Queen's Private Chapel at 11:15 am on November 20, 1992, and quickly spread to the neighboring Brunswick Tower, St George's Hall banqueting space, and the private apartments in the eastern wing of the building. The fire burned for almost 15 hours and caused extensive damage, destroying nine State Rooms and damaging 115 rooms in total. The cost of the restoration work was estimated to be £36.5 million.

The fire was caused by a spotlight that was being used by renovators in the Queen's Private Chapel. The spotlight overheated and ignited a curtain, which quickly spread the fire. The fire was not discovered until it had already spread to several rooms, and it took firefighters several hours to bring it under control.

The fire was a major blow to Queen Elizabeth II, who had been using Windsor Castle as her weekend home for many years. She described the fire as her "annus horribilis," or terrible year, which also saw the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and the publication of Andrew Morton's controversial biography of Diana.

Despite the damage, Windsor Castle was fully repaired within five years. The restoration work was led by the conservation architects Donald Insall Associates, and it was one of the largest and most complex restoration projects ever undertaken in the United Kingdom.

Queen Elizabeth II gave permission on December 6, 1994 for a Canadian-operated company to start exploratory drilling to see if there is, as suspected, a pool of oil under Windsor Castle's grounds. However, the plans were stymied when the Government did not renew the licence needed for exploration to take place.

A popular tourist attraction, Windsor Castle is used as a venue for hosting state visits, and is the Queen's preferred weekend home.

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More than five hundred people live and work at Windsor Castle, making it the largest inhabited castle in the world.

Source Compton's Encyclopedia