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if you have to associate the british monarchy with the building you're most likely to picture
buckingham palace located in central london and fronted by the iconic balcony the royal residence
has been at the center of both historical events and tabloid worthy scandals but the history and
longevity of that landmark pales in comparison to today's destination located 23 miles west
of central london this raw palace is the oldest and largest still-occupied castle in the world
this is the fortress to which the royal family owes its name and the home of porty monarchs
and 25 ghosts apparently it has been the background to bitter sieges power struggles
legendary jousting tournaments a devastating fire and more recently
the funeral of prince philip duke peterborough so join me today for
the historic tour of winter castle going all the way back to 1066 in the norman conquest
the story of windsor castle begins with mr watershed of english history himself william the
conqueror after the battle of hastings the norman monarch raised a series of fortifications around
london the site of windsor had great strategic value as it controlled communications between
oxford and southwestern england the initial building was a simple motton bailey castle made
of earth and timber it was only in the 1120s that henry the first replaced the wooden tower with a
stone key after a long period of civil war henry ii plantagenet ascended to the throne of england
willing to restore the power of the crown he invested in the restoration of the castle
a visible symbol of his power between 1165 and 1179 he had the stone keep rebuilt and replaced
the timber palisade with a stone wall henry's successor richard the first the lionheart spent
much time abroad fighting in the third crusade his brother john took the occasion to seize power
and windsor castle when richard died in 1199 john rightfully inherited the crown and windsor castle
which he must have fancied a lot it was not far from here in fact at runny mead that he signed the
magna carter on the 15th of june 1215 pressured by his barons these nobles were still unhappy with
john's rule so much so that they invited prince louis of france to invade england the rebel armies
besieged winter castle between june and september of 1216 but the castle held out thanks to the
valor of constable engelard la signion peace was finally achieved in october thanks to king john's
masterful strategic move his death the keys to the castle now went to henry iii who upgraded
the fortress to a more hospitable palace for his queen elena of provence but little did henry know
that he would be facing a barren rebellion too in 1263 his son edward was caught off guard by
the uprising while traveling out of london so he saw refuge in windsor castle so time for another
siege then the blockade was commanded by simon de montfort the rebel leader who conquered the
mighty keep on the 26th of july 1263. two years later though henry iii had given a good spanking
to the naughty barons at the battle of everson and was able to reoccupy windsor the castle remained
largely unused for the following decades until king edward iii was born there in 1312. this
monarchy clearly had a strong connection with the fortress and invested heavily into it in 1344 he
organized a massive joust at windsor inspired by the arseurian legend of which he was fond on that
occasion he had the inspiration to resurrect the knights of the round table he ordered for
a circular building 200 feet across to be erected in the upper ward of the castle this would be the
seat of a new order of the round table which would welcome 300 noble knights but edwards's chivalric
dreams clashed against that money-sucking attention-grabbing nuisance that was the
hundred years war with france when he returned the idea in 1348 he had to forego premium and settled
for the light version an order of 25 nights to meet within saint george's chapel and college
he had thus founded the order of the garter its symbol is the garter and its motto is something
in french which i'm not going to try and pronounce but it's translated as shame on those who think
evil of it according to legend both the symbol and the motto originated from a minor incident
at a court bull the contest of salisbury lost her garter edward iii retrieved it and scolded those
who had mocked her embarrassment shame on those etc etc but the more realistic explanation is that
the garter symbol derives from the straps used to pass an pursuit of armor and the motto refers
to the english claims over the french throne as in damn you if you think evil of our ambition to
own both nations this motto has worked its way to the coat of arms of the royal family hence
the emblem of the british head of state bears a claim to annex a now friendly independent nation
the castle was next violently contested during the civil war between the royalists and parliament
in 1642 as charles the first cavaliers controlled oxford cromwell's round heads
feared an advance on london thus they launched a pre-emptive strike in occupied windsor castle in
october to block the royalists path cavalry commander prince rupert of the rhine laid
siege in november 1642 but he was unsuccessful and the castle remained in parliament's hands
until the end of the war in 1651. apparently the roundheads had a whale of a time at windsor they
looted saint george's chapel on two occasions seizing the treasury first and later returning to
strip lead from its roofs they even ate 500 deer from the great park but they also held prisoners
there when the prisoners complained about the lack of beds parliament troops replied that they could
have them of course but at their own expense besides hunting the rebel troops used the great
park to better effect as a training ground this is where 21 regiments of the notorious new model army
were first drilled these units contributed in great measure to cromwell's victory and
to the capture of charles the first and windsor is where the king was held in captivity and buried
after his decapitation after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 charles ii invested huge
amounts of pounds and good taste restoring the castle in the following centuries george iii
george iv and especially queen victoria followed his example remodeling and modernizing the
once old martin bailey keep whilst keeping a medieval and gothic style throughout much of what
visitors can see today dates in fact the 18th and 19th centuries at the start of the 20th century
windsor castle had become a luxurious palace worthy of being the primary residence of the
house of saks goborg and gota the british royal family with a not so british name naturally at the
height of world war 1 king george v felt the need to change the name of his dynasty to
a less germanic one and so it was that the house of windsor was born when world war ii broke out
king george vi picked windsor castle as the safest place to evacuate his own daughters
it was rumored back then the luftwaffe had orders to spare the castle as hitler had picked it as
personal residents after an invasion of britain more realistically windsor had little strategic
value to the german bomber command in any case just like hundreds of thousands of other young
evacuees elizabeth margaret left london for the safety of the countryside windsor's windows
were blacked out the chandeliers removed and the bedrooms were relocated to the underground vaults
it was from the halls of the castle that princess elizabeth delivered her first public
speech in october 1940. it was an address to the children of the commonwealth broadcast by the bbc
and followed by more morale boosting endeavors newsreels depicted the princesses as they joined
the dig victory campaign growing their own fruit and vegetables in the castle grounds
and in april 1942 elizabeth carried out her first public engagement as a recently
appointed colonel of the guards she inspected the grenadier regiment on duty at that time
she had just turned 16 and the appointment was clearly an honorary one but the future queen would
receive proper military training three years later when she joined the auxiliary territorial service
as a trained driver and mechanic in between those military engagements the royal princess
has staged a string of theatrical productions in windsor intended to raise money for charity
it was during a production of aladdin in december of 1943 that friends and family first noticed
a spark between elizabeth and future husband philip of mountbatten it was only
fitting that the two would spend their last days together in those same halls
a castle so full of history is bound to be riddled with all sorts of unwanted ghostly
guests paranormal enthusiasts claim that there are at least 25 ghosts roaming windsor one of the most
common apparitions is that of a lady dressed in black wanting the queen's library one of the first
recorded sightings took place in february 1897 the witness being lieutenant car glenn glynn noticed
the resemblance of the lady with a portrait of queen elizabeth the first so was the first spirit
the virgin queen returning a book to the library with three centuries delay probably not cause
ghosts aren't real the apparition of elizabeth the first was confirmed decades later by members of
the royal family king george vi saw her on eight consecutive nights before the beginning of world
war ii and his daughters also had run-ins with the black-clad spectre during the early years of the
conflict other deceased roles to have apparently graced the corridors of windsor henry viii the
beheader and charles the first the beheaded who are both buried in the castle and have
made their guest appearances henry viii has been spotted by numerous witnesses dragging his feet
and moaning loudly in the cloisters he appears agitated screaming in agony or fear maybe because
he has to share the afterlife with his vengeful second wife ann berlin haunting the dean's
cloister as for charles the first he has some very good reasons to walk the earth in spiritual
form sometime between 1820 and 1830 king george iv and physician sir henry half had visited st
george's chapel and opened the doom of charles the first the king wanted to peek at his predecessor's
face and so henry wanted to draw a portrait however when the tomb was opened the change
in atmospheric pressure caused king charles's eyeball to explode and so was the poor george
was squirted with a generous helping of decomposed eyeball brilliant that would be enough to enrage
any revenant on top of that the king and halford removed charles's cervical vertebrae the macabre
souvenir was kept in the royal family until queen victoria had it reinterred and speaking
of victoria how could she miss this regal pageant of phantoms her descendant king edward viii and
his lover wallace simpson had plans to renovate the castle grounds their designs involved removing
trees planted by queen victoria and prince albert legend has it that the poor gardeners
in charge were scared off by the apparition of victoria waving her arms and moaning loudly
besides spotting ghosts the soldiers of windsor have more worldly and arguably more important
duties definitely more important protecting the castle and its more prestigious occupants
the royal family the forces on duty at windsor belong to the household troops better known
as the guards who have protected the sovereigns in their residences since 1660. the gods include
five infantry regiments and two regiments of the household cavalry the first infantry regiment
was formed in bruges in 1656 as bodyguard to the exiled king charles ii in july of 1815
they started wearing the distinctive bare skin cap and adopted the moniker of grenadiers since
then they have distinguished themselves in all major conflicts involving the uk most recently
in afghanistan the grenadiers were a tunic which may look the same as all other regiments but if
you look closer you'll notice that their buttons are evenly spaced but i mean what's so special
about that well let's take a look at the second regiment also known as the cold stream guards
their buttons are spaced in twos see the pattern the interesting fact is that the
cold stream regiment was created six years before the grenadiers so they should really be the first
regiment in fact their motto is second to none and the cold streamers have a rich history of service
abroad fighting in numerous battles in both world wars and suffering tremendous casualties so now
for the third regiment whose buttons are obviously spaced in groups of threes they are the scots gods
founded in 1642 so that makes them eight years older than the cold streams and 14 years older
than the grenadiers but they are the third not the first because they were incorporated
into the household troops only in 1686. the fourth regiment is the irish guards raised in april 1900
by queen victoria herself they are the only unit with a regimental pet a huge irish wolfhound who
traditionally parades with the soldiers the fourth had its baptism of fire in world war 1 losing 39
percent of its officers and 24 of its soldiers and non-commissioned officers while in world
war ii they were at the forefront of the forces liberating belgium and the netherlands in 1944.
during that campaign they fought side by side with the fifth and last regiment the welsh guards
created in february 1915 they barely had time to fasten their buttons spaced in groups of five
before being dispatched to the western front in april 1982 the fifth was about to rehearse for the
queen's birthday parade when once again they were sent to fight this time it was the falklands war
in which they lost 32 guardsmen that's 13 percent of all british killed in action in that conflict
all from a single regiment the remaining troops in service at windsor are those of the household
cavalry divided into the lifeguards and the blues and royals both regiments have a
long and distinguished tradition but they also knew how to embrace
modern warfare in world war one they converted into machine gun regiments while in world war
ii they served as armoured units with their furry hats brightly coloured
uniforms and choreographed moves it would be easy to dismiss the household troops as
glorified government salaried cosplayers it's not uncommon in fact to witness tourists in the
process of mocking or annoying these soldiers but as you may have gathered they have seen
some serious action otherwise they would not be trusted with protecting the monarch so for those
aggravating visitors who are hellbent on meeting corporal punishment here is a kernel of advice
you're likely to be met with charges not the legal kind mind you but rather bayonet charges
as reliable as these guys may be even they could not prevent windsor castle from almost complete
destruction some of you will be old enough to remember it it was the 20th of november 1992
when a fire ravaged the castle it began between 11 and 11 30 a.m in the queen's private chapel
a 1000 watt spotlight overheated in flaming a curtain but it pressed up against the blaze
quickly spread into the brunswick tower and sent george's hall and attacked the private apartment
in the eastern wing at the time winter castle could count on its own fire department of 20 men
they were based two miles south of the castle so they were able to arrive on the scene within
only a few minutes by the time they got there the soldiers of the guards and other staff had already
sprung into action forming a human chain to save all the valuable artwork and antiques their
efforts were coordinated by prince andrew duke of york the winter firemen were soon joined by
200 colleagues who erected fire breaks around the main blaze thus preventing it from spreading to
the whole castle by the early afternoon there was hope that the fire was under control but then the
roof of the state apartments had begun to collapse around this time queen elizabeth ii arrived on the
scene alerted by her son andrew in the meanwhile the floors of the brunswick tower had crumbled
causing the inferno to be revived by 6 30 in the evening the tower was engulfed by flames up to 50
feet high a half hour later it was the turn of the roof of st george's hall to collapse luckily no
more structural damage was suffered the main fire was under control at 8 pm but the last flames were
finally extinguished only by 2 30 am it had taken the efforts of 225 farm and 100 household guards
145 members of staff 125 building contractors one duke and a million and a half gallons of
water but the battle to kill the blaze and save windsor's artwork have been won it was time to
take stock of the damage nine principal state rooms have been destroyed at least a hundred more
were severely damaged equivalent to a fifth of the castle's area but most of the artwork had survived
unscathed luckily most art pieces had been removed from the halls in the days before the fire due to
some rewiring work but the human chain of soldiers and staff had a mammoth task working for hours on
end they salvaged some 300 clocks hundreds of miniatures thousands of manuscripts find
porcelain collections and paintings by van dijk and rubens i expect they groaned at the thought
of transporting by-hand entire sets of solid 18th century furniture but they did and somehow they
even carried onto the quad a 150-foot table and a 120-foot long carpet the morning after the fire
the big question in everyone's minds was who's going to pay for it all in a normal household
the answer would have been the insurance but the problem was that windsor castle and its contents
were too valuable to ensure and technically the castle was owned by the state not the monarchs so
should the government have to pay for the restoration some mps backed by most of the
media debated that the queen and the royal family should have footed the bill as it was an official
residence after all elizabeth ii was presented with a refurbishment quote of almost 40 million
pounds it's no wonder she later described 1992 as her annas horribilis a horrible year
indeed marked by royal scandals in the great fire nonetheless the queen decided to pay she put down
2 million pounds in cash and raised the additional funds by opening buckingham palace to the public
finally the royal family set up a trust for private donations via the queen's bank cootes
with the pounds pouring in the restoration work kicked off and it was completed in november 1997.
so i really hope you enjoyed this video thank you again to conflict of nations for sponsoring
remember if you want to jump into their grand strategy game use the link in the
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you