Chapter I: Preface

If 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 Kings resided in impregnable castles or fortified houses, but their sojourn was never long in one place. After the Wars of the Roses had crushed the power of the great nobles, it was no longer necessary for the monarch to dwell within a fortress, and it was then that the gracious and commodious palaces of Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Greenwich, arose in England. The Scottish Kings, having at the same time reached a greater control over their headstrong nobles, also began transforming their castles into palaces, and to erect Holyrood and Falkland to gratify their desire for more luxurious residences.

Within the compass 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 attention to those palaces which were owned, and most constantly used by the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. WESTMINSTER PALACE 5

II. WINDSOR CASTLE 11

III. THE TOWER OF LONDON 19

IV. KENNINGTON PALACE 22

V. ELTHAM PALACE 24

VI. GREENWICH PALACE 27

VII. WHITEHALL PALACE 31

VIII. HAMPTON COURT PALACE 39

IX. ST. JAMES'S PALACE 48

X. KENSINGTON PALACE 53

XI. KEW PALACE 59

XII. BUCKINGHAM PALACE 63

XIII. VANISHED PALACES 67

XIV. EDINBURGH CASTLE 72

XV. DUNFERMLINE CASTLE 76

XVI. STIRLING CASTLE 78

XVII. HOLYROOD PALACE 82

XVIII. LINLITHGOW PALACE 87

XIX. FALKLAND PALACE 91

XX. BALMORAL CASTLE 94

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IN COLOUR

THE TOWER OF LONDON _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

WINDSOR CASTLE 17

HAMPTON COURT PALACE 24

EDINBURGH CASTLE 73

STIRLING CASTLE 80

LINLITHGOW PALACE 91

BALMORAL CASTLE 94

ST. JAMES'S PALACE _On the cover_

ROYAL PALACES OF GREAT BRITAIN