Henry 11 Research Paper

William chose the site high above the River Thames on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground. It took a day to march from the Tower of London to Windsor and the castle guarded the western approach to the capital.

The wooden castle was rebuilt by Edward 111 in the mid 1300s as a gothic palace and cost him the huge sum in those days of £50,000. Holinshed Chronicles recorded, ‘this year, 1359, the Kyng sette workemenne in hande to take downe much olde buildings belonging to the Castel of Windsor, and caused divers other faires and sumptuous works to bee erected and sette up in and about the same Castel, so that almost all the masons and carpenters that were of any accounte within this lande were sente for …… ‘

The king was very fond of tournaments which allowed him and his court to wear elaborate costumes and crests. One that he wore in 1339 contained 3000 peacock feathers. The banners of today’s Knights of the Garter in the Quire of St George’s Chapel descend from those origins.

Further down the line, during the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell used the castle as his headquarters. When Charles II was crowned king in 1660, the year of the restoration of the

The cost was almost £300,000. Thanks to Henry’s improvements, his successor Queen Victoria didn’t need to do much at all to the castle and it became principal palace of the British monarchy and focus of the British Empire. When George V1 came to the throne he and Queen Elizabeth considered Windsor very much their home. During World War 11 works of art and priceless antiques were evacuated for safe keeping. The King and Queen remained at Buckingham Palace during the aerial bombardment but joined their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor in the evenings and