Peeps at Royal Palaces

PE EPS AT R O YA L PA L A C E S G R EAT BRIT A IN BEAT RI C E H O ME CONTAI NI NG 8 FULL-PAGE - ILLUSTRATI ONS I N COLOUR AND 21 LI NE DRAWI NGS IN THE TE" T LOND ON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1 9 3 ' T H E WE O F ON TO R L DON . PE E PS AT R O YA L PA L A C E S G R EA T BR IT A IN B E AT RI C E H O ME CONTAI NI NG 8 FULL-PAGE - I LLUSTRATI ONS I N COLOUR AND 21 L I N E DRAWI NGS I N TH E TE" T L OND ON AND CHARLES BLACK I 9 1 3 37 c I 7 / PREFACE I F a palace be a royal residence , as the dictionary defines it, then nearly all the famous castles of England would come under that title, for the Norman and Plantagenet Kings were constantly moving from one stronghold to another during the unsettled period of the Middle Ages . Until the fifteenth century, both the English and Scottish d n Kings resi ed in impreg able castles or fortified houses , but their sojourn was never long in one place . After the Wars of the Roses had crush ed the power of the great for nobles, it was no longer necessary the monarch to dwell within a fortress , and it was then that the gracious d l and commo ious pa aces of Whitehall , Hampton Court , and Greenwich , arose in England . The Scottish Kings , having at the same time reached a greater control over n their headstro g nobles, also began transforming their castles into palaces, and to erect Holyrood and Falkland i to grat fy their desire for more luxurious residences . m Within the co pass of this small book, it would have been impossible to detail every castle in which a monarch ever resided , so that it has been thought better to confine n and attention to those palaces which were ow ed , most constantly used by the Kings and Queens of E ngland and Scotland . CONTENTS PA G E WESTMIN STER PALACE WINDSOR CASTLE THE TOWER OF LO ND ON K ENNINGTON PALACE ELTHAM PALACE . GREENWICH PALACE WHITEHALL PALACE HAMPTON COURT PALACE ’ ST S S . JAME PALACE K EN SINGTON PALACE K EW PALACE BUCK INGHAM PALACE VANISHED PALACES EDINBURGH CASTLE DUNF ERMLINE CASTLE STIRLING CASTLE HOLYROOD PALACE L INLITHGOW PALACE F AL K LAND PALACE BALMORAL CASTLE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I N COL OUR T H E TOWER OF LONDON WIND SOR CASTLE HAMPTON COURT PALACE EDI NB URGH CASTLE STIRLING CASTLE LINLITHGOW PALACE BALMORAL CASTLE ’ ST S S . JAME PALACE ROYA L PA L A C E S OF G R E AT B RITA I N CHAPTER I W ESTMIN ST E R PALA CE SCA R C E LY anything remains to- day to remind us of the vast size and the magnificence of the Palace of West minster, the royal residence of the English Kings from the time of Edward the Confessor until the reign of Henry VIII . For five centuries the monarchs of Eng l and on kept their Court the island of Thorney, within the sound of the bells of the great minster raised by the piety of the saintly Edward . Though the early Kings were seldom long in one place, they regarded Westminster as their principal palace , and often kept their Christmas festivals there , a time of general feasting at the royal expense . Cnut is supposed to be the first King to settle at f Westminster, whither he had gone, a ter his conversion Wol fstan to Christianity, to be near his friend Abbot , and we are told that the incident of his rebuke to his courtiers concerning the tide occurred on the shores of the River Thames . At that time Westminster was sur rounded by Water, being built on the island of Thorney, an islet that rose out of the l ow- lying marshy ground overspread by the wide and unembanked river . It is customary to attribute the ruin of the many beau 6 R o yal Palaces o f Great Britain tiful and stately buildings of past ages, to the agency of f o f civil wars , the anatical zeal Protestant reformers , or the carelessness of the Cromwellian soldiers but far more deadly foes than the cannon - balls of enemies or the mistaken energies of religious zealots, were the de structive fires that time and again destroyed the Splendid structures that adorned the vanished centuries . West ' u f s u fiered minster, tho gh immune from other oes , terribly f of rom fires , which have robbed us the greatest part ofone o f . of the most picturesque palaces . Just after Edward I had finished repairing his royal dwelling a huge fire broke out, so tremendous that the palace was rendered uninhabitable, obliging the King to accept the hospitality of of York Place , the London house the Archbishops of York . Edward II . rebuilt the palace , which remained the main royal residence until a disastrous fire in 1 5 1 2 v dro e the monarchs away for ever . Though much was ’ re destroyed, a considerable part of the King s house mained , together with the beautiful chapel of St . Stephen and the great hall of the palace but yet another fire 1 8 confla attacked this remnant in 34 . From this last rati on W g only estminster Hall , the crypt of the chapel, and an old tower "now hidden away among the narrow byways of the abbey precincts) survived . d The Palace of Westminster, escribed by Camden as large and magnificent, a building not to be equalled in ” that age , was of great extent, stretching from the abbey to the river . It consisted of a mass oframbling buildings l erected with little regard to any fixed p an , but resulting in a picturesque medley of gabled roofs, carved stone work, delicate window tracery, noble halls , and exquisite chapels . Medieval palaces required to be large, for all ’ the King s work was done upon his own premises . Westminster Palace 7 Bakers, brewers, Chandlers, armourers , blacksmiths, car en ters p , furriers, maso—ns, gardeners, barbers, stablemen, embroiderers , weavers all lived and worked within the i . palace walls, and received wages and lodg ng As Sir Walter Besant tells us, in his fascinating history of West " minster, the palace was a crowded city, complete in itself, though it produced nothing and carried on no trade there were workshops and forges and the ham merings of armourers and blacksmiths, but there were no stalls, no chepe, no clamour of those who shouted ‘ their goods and invited the passengers to Buy, buy , ’ buy . Within this city, crowded within a confined space , dwelt about fifteen thousand people all occupied with ’ the King s business, from the judges, bishops, and high ffi - State o cials, down to humble laundry women . - forti fied A strongly wall ran all round the palace , for medieval Kings needed their royal residences to be places of defence as well as of regal splendour . There were gates leading to the Abbey, to Whitehall , and to ' ’ ri v er where n the , the Ki g s barges lay to take him down to the Tower of London in the city , or up the river towards Windsor. Immediately beyond the busy throng of the palace and the monastic buildings of the Abbey, lay green fields and pleasant rural scenes . Between the o palace and the noisy city, a mile away, sto d palatial houses of the great nobles and bishops, facing the broad and sparkling Thames . Of all the beautiful buildings that once formed the al now extensive palace only the great h l remains , known . 1 0 as Westminster Hall William Rufus built it in 97 , declaring that , large though it might appear, it was but ” a bedchamber in comparison to what he intended to make . But practically nothing is left of the work of 8 Royal Palaces of GreatBritain Rufus , for we learn that three hundred years later, in I 397 , Richard II . ordered the walls , windows, and roof ” to be taken down and new made . The following year Richard , the most magnificent of the English Kings , kept his royal Christmas in the newly finished hall . Dressed an d u in cloth of gold , adorned with pearls precio s stones , Richard entertained ten thousand people, necessitating - S the purchase of twenty eight oxen , three hundred heep, and numberless fowls every day for the feeding of his h guests . He little t ought that a few months hence the Parliament meeting in that very hall would depose him . This famous hall has witnessed some of the most spectacular, splendid , and tragic events in the history of the nation , from the Coronation banquets held within a- its walls, glitter with gorgeous raiment and all the o f pageantry the past, to the sombre procedure of State trials . Perhaps the best remembered scene is that of I the trial of Charles . , who had been brought hurriedly f rom Windsor, and was lodged during his trial in part of the old palace , then used as the residence of Sir Ralph Cotton . Standing , a monarch tried by his subjects , for Charles Stuart remains all time a dignified figure, - not deigning to plead before such a self constituted Court . For many centuries justice was administered from the ' S di fierent hall , j udges itting in parts determining Chan cery cases or those of Common Pleas .

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