Buckingham Palace (Buckingham House) London, England Buckingham Palace (Buckingham House) London, England history Buckingham Palace (Buckingham House) London, England Buckingham Palace (UK /ˈbʌkɪŋəm/ /ˈpælɪs/[1][2]) is the London residence and principal workplace of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.[3] Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focus for the British people at times of national rejoicing. Originally known as Buckingham House, the building which forms the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site which had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was subsequently acquired by King George III in 1761[4] as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and was known as "The Queen's House". During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, who formed three wings around a central courtyard.

Buckingham Palace finally became the official royal palace of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the East front, which contains the well-known balcony on which the royal family traditionally congregates to greet crowds outside. However, the palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb during World War II; the Queen's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection. The original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which still survive, included widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle Époque cream and gold colour scheme. Many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture and fittings brought from the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carlton House. The Buckingham Palace Garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September, as part of the Palace's Summer Opening.

History Site In the Middle Ages, the site of the future palace formed part of the Manor of Ebury (also called Eia). The marshy ground was watered by the river Tyburn, which still flows below the courtyard and south wing of the palace.[5] Where the river was fordable (at Cow Ford), the village of Eye Cross grew. Ownership of the site changed hands many times; owners included Edward the Confessor and his queen consort Edith of Wessex in late Saxon times, and, after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror. William gave the site to Geoffrey de Mandeville, who bequeathed it to the monks of Westminster Abbey.[6] In 1531, King Henry VIII acquired the Hospital of St James (later St. James's Palace)[7] from Eton College, and in 1536 he took the Manor of Ebury from Westminster Abbey.[8] These transfers brought the site of Buckingham Palace back into royal hands for the first time since William the Conqueror had given it away almost 500 years earlier.[9] Various owners leased it from royal landlords and the freehold was the subject of frenzied speculation during the 17th century.

By then, the old village of Eye Cross had long since fallen into decay, and the area was mostly wasteland.[10] Needing money, James I sold off part of the Crown freehold but retained part of the site on which he established a 4-acre (16,000 m2) mulberry garden for the production of silk. (This is at the northwest corner of today's palace.)[11] Clement Walker in Anarchia Anglicana (1649) refers to "new-erected sodoms and spintries at the Mulberry Garden at S. James's"; this suggests it may have been a place of debauchery.

Eventually, in the late 17th century, the freehold was inherited from the property tycoon Sir Hugh Audley by the great heiress Mary Davies.[12] First houses on the site Goring House Possibly the first house erected within the site was that of a Sir William Blake, around 1624.[13] The next owner was Lord Goring, who from 1633 extended Blake's house and developed much of today's garden, then known as Goring Great Garden.[14][15] He did not, however, manage to obtain freehold interest in the mulberry garden.

Unbeknown to Goring, in 1640 the document "failed to pass the Great Seal before King Charles I fled London, which it needed to do for legal execution".[16] (It was this critical omission that helped the British royal family regain the freehold under King George III.)[17] Arlington House The improvident Goring defaulted on his rents;[18] Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington obtained the mansion and was occupying it, now known as Goring House, when it burned down in 1674.[15] Arlington House rose on the site—the southern wing of today's palace—the next year,[15] and its freehold was bought in 1702. Buckingham House painted by an unknown English artist c. 1800. Buckingham House The palace c. 1837, depicting the Marble Arch, which served as the ceremonial entrance to the Palace precincts. It was moved to make way for the east wing, built in 1847, which enclosed the quadrangle.

The house which forms the architectural core of the present palace was built for the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 to the design of William Winde. The style chosen was of a large, three-floored central block with two smaller flanking service wings.[19] Buckingham House was eventually sold by Buckingham's descendant, Sir Charles Sheffield, in 1761[4] to George III for £21,000.[20] Like his grandfather, George II, George III refused to sell the mulberry garden interest, so that Sheffield had been unable to purchase the full freehold of the site. When Sheffield sold Buckingham House, it came into the hands of the royal family. From Queen's House to palace The house was originally intended as a private retreat, and in particular for Queen Charlotte, and was known as The Queen's House[21]—14 of their 15 children were born there. St.

James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence.[22] Remodelling of the structure began in 1762.[23] After his accession to the throne in 1820, King George IV continued the renovation with the idea in mind of a small, comfortable home. While the work was in progress, in 1826, the King decided to modify the house into a palace with the help of his architect John Nash.[24] Some furnishings were transferred from Carlton House, and others had been bought in France after the French Revolution.[25] The external façade was designed keeping in mind the French neo-classical influence preferred by George IV. The cost of the renovations grew dramatically and by 1829, the extravagance of Nash's designs resulted in his removal as architect.

On the death of George IV in 1830, his younger brother King William IV hired Edward Blore to finish the work.[26][27] At one stage, William considered converting the palace into the new Houses of Parliament, after the destruction of the existing namesake by fire in 1834.[28] Home of the monarch Buckingham Palace finally became the principal royal residence in 1837, on the accession of Queen Victoria,[29] who was the first monarch to reside there as her predecessor William IV had died before its completion.[30] While the state rooms were a riot of gilt and colour, the necessities of the new palace were somewhat less luxurious. For one thing, it was reported the chimneys smoked so much that the fires had to be allowed to die down, and consequently the court shivered in icy magnificence.[31] Ventilation was so bad that the interior smelled, and when a decision was taken to install gas lamps, there was a serious worry about the build-up of gas on the lower floors.

It was also said that the staff were lax and lazy and the palace was dirty.[31] Following the Queen's marriage in 1840, her husband, Prince Albert, concerned himself with a reorganisation of the household offices and staff, and with the design faults of the palace. The problems were all rectified by the close of 1840. However, the builders were to return within the decade. By 1847, the couple had found the palace too small for court life and their growing family,[32] and consequently the new wing, designed by Edward Blore, was built by Thomas Cubitt,[33] enclosing the central quadrangle. The large East Front facing The Mall is today the "public face" of Buckingham Palace and contains the balcony from which the royal family acknowledge the crowds on momentous occasions and annually after Trooping the Colour. The ballroom wing and a further suite of state rooms were also built in this period, designed by Nash's student Sir James Pennethorne. Before Prince Albert's death, the palace was frequently the scene of musical entertainments,[34] and the greatest contemporary musicians entertained at Buckingham Palace.

The composer Felix Mendelssohn is known to have played there on three occasions.[35] Johann Strauss II and his orchestra played there when in England.[36] Strauss's "Alice Polka" was first performed at the palace in 1849 in honour of the Queen's daughter, Princess Alice.[37] Under Victoria, Buckingham Palace was frequently the scene of lavish costume balls, in addition to the routine royal ceremonies, investitures and presentations. Widowed in 1861, the grief-stricken Queen withdrew from public life and left Buckingham Palace to live at Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle, and Osborne House. For many years the palace was seldom used, and even neglected. In 1864 a note was found pinned to the fence of Buckingham Palace saying: "These commanding premises to be let or sold, in consequence of the late occupant's declining business."[38] Eventually, public opinion forced her to return to London, though even then she preferred to live elsewhere whenever possible.

Court functions were still held at Windsor Castle rather than at the palace, presided over by the sombre Queen habitually dressed in mourning black while Buckingham Palace remained shuttered for most of the year.[39] Interior The Palace measures 108 metres (354 ft) by 120 metres (390 ft), is 24 metres (79 ft) high and contains over 77,000 m2 (830,000 sq ft) of floorspace.[40] The principal rooms of the palace are contained on the piano nobile behind the west-facing garden façade at the rear of the palace. The centre of this ornate suite of state rooms is the Music Room, its large bow the dominant feature of the façade. Flanking the Music Room are the Blue and the White Drawing Rooms.

At the centre of the suite, serving as a corridor to link the state rooms, is the Picture Gallery, which is top-lit and 55 yards (50 m) long.[41] The Gallery is hung with numerous works including some by Rembrandt, van Dyck, Rubens and Vermeer;[42][43] other rooms leading from the Picture Gallery are the Throne Room and the Green Drawing Room. The Green Drawing Room serves as a huge anteroom to the Throne Room, and is part of the ceremonial route to the throne from the Guard Room at the top of the Grand Staircase.[41] The Guard Room contains white marble statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in Roman costume, set in a tribune lined with tapestries. These very formal rooms are used only for ceremonial and official entertaining, but are open to the public every summer. Directly underneath the State Apartments is a suite of slightly less grand rooms known as the semi-state apartments. Opening from the Marble Hall, these rooms are used for less formal entertaining, such as luncheon parties and private audiences.

Some of the rooms are named and decorated for particular visitors, such as the 1844 Room, which was decorated in that year for the State visit of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and, on the other side of the Bow Room, the 1855 Room, in honour of the visit of Emperor Napoleon III of France.[44] At the centre of this suite is the Bow Room, through which thousands of guests pass annually to the Queen's Garden Parties in the Gardens beyond.[45] The Queen uses privately a smaller suite of rooms in the North wing. Between 1847 and 1850, when Blore was building the new east wing, the Brighton Pavilion was once again plundered of its fittings. As a result, many of the rooms in the new wing have a distinctly oriental atmosphere. The red and blue Chinese Luncheon Room is made up from parts of the Brighton Banqueting and Music Rooms, but has a chimney piece designed by W.M. Feetham.

The Yellow Drawing Room has wallpaper which had been supplied in 1817 for the Brighton Saloon, and the chimney piece in this room is a European vision of what the Chinese equivalent would look like, complete with nodding mandarins in niches and fearsome winged dragons, designed by Robert Jones.[46] At the centre of this wing is the famous balcony, with the Centre Room behind its glass doors. This is a Chinese-style saloon enhanced by Queen Mary, who, working with the designer Sir Charles Allom, created a more "binding"[47] Chinese theme in the late 1920s, although the lacquer doors were brought from Brighton in 1873. Running the length of the piano nobile of the east wing is the great gallery, modestly known as the Principal Corridor, which runs the length of the eastern side of the quadrangle.[48] It has mirrored doors, and mirrored cross walls reflecting porcelain pagodas and other oriental furniture from Brighton. The Chinese Luncheon Room and Yellow Drawing Room are situated at each end of this gallery, with the Centre Room obviously placed in the centre.

The original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which still survive, included widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle epoque cream and gold colour scheme.[49] When paying a state visit to Britain, foreign heads of state are usually entertained by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. They are allocated a large suite of rooms known as the Belgian Suite, situated at the foot of the Minister's Staircase, on the ground floor of the North-facing Garden Wing. The rooms of the suite are linked by narrow corridors, one given extra height and perspective by saucer domes designed by Nash in the style of Soane.[50] A second corridor in the suite has Gothic influenced cross over vaulting.[50] The Belgian Rooms themselves were decorated in their present style and named after Prince Albert's uncle Léopold I, first King of the Belgians. In 1936, the suite briefly became the private apartments of the palace when they were occupied by King Edward VIII.[51] Court ceremonies The Ballroom is the largest room at Buckingham Palace.

It was added by Queen Victoria and is used for ceremonies such as investitures and state banquets. This painting dates from 1856. The polychrome colour scheme has been replaced by mainly white decoration with gold details and red upholstery. Court dress Formerly, men not wearing military uniform would wear knee breeches of an 18th-century design. Women's evening dress included obligatory trains and tiaras or feathers in their hair (or both). The dress code governing formal court uniform and dress has progressively relaxed. After World War I, when Queen Mary wished to follow fashion by raising her skirts a few inches from the ground, she requested a Lady-in-Waiting to shorten her own skirt first to gauge the King's reaction. King George V was horrified, so the Queen kept her hemline unfashionably low.[52] Following their accession in 1936, King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, allowed the hemline of daytime skirts to rise.

Today, there is no official dress code.[51] Most men invited to Buckingham Palace in the daytime choose to wear service uniform or lounge suits;[51] a minority wear morning coats, and in the evening, depending on the formality of the occasion, black tie or white tie. Presentation of debutantes Court presentations of aristocratic young ladies to the monarch took place at the palace from the reign of Edward VII. These young women were known as débutantes, and the occasion—termed their "coming out"—represented their first entrée into society. Débutantes wore full court dress, with three tall ostrich feathers in their hair. They entered, curtsied, performed a choreographed backwards walk and a further curtsy, while manoeuvring a dress train of prescribed length.

(The ceremony, known as an evening court, corresponded to the "court drawing rooms" of Victoria's reign.)[53] After World War II, the ceremony was replaced by less formal afternoon receptions, usually without choreographed curtsies and court dress.[54] In 1958, the Queen abolished the presentation parties for débutantes,[55] replacing them with Garden Parties.[56] Investitures Investitures, which include the conferring of knighthoods by dubbing with a sword, and other awards take place in the palace's Ballroom, built in 1854. At 36.6 m (120 ft) long, 18 m (59 ft) wide and 13.5 m (44 ft) high[51] (120' × 59' × 44' 3.5"), it is the largest room in the palace. It has replaced the throne room in importance and use.

During investitures, the Queen stands on the throne dais beneath a giant, domed velvet canopy, which is known as a shamiana or a baldachin and was used at the coronation Durbar, Delhi in 1911.[57] A military band plays in the musicians' gallery as award recipients approach the Queen and receive their honours, watched by their families and friends.[58] State banquets State banquets also take place in the Ballroom; these formal dinners take place on the first evening of a state visit by a visiting Head of State.[58] On these occasions, 150 or more guests in formal "white tie and decorations", including tiaras for women, may dine off gold plate. The largest and most formal reception at Buckingham Palace takes place every November, when the Queen entertains members of the foreign diplomatic corps resident in London.[59] On this occasion, all the state rooms are in use, as the royal family proceed through them[60] beginning through the great north doors of the Picture Gallery.

As Nash had envisaged, all the large, double-mirrored doors stand open, reflecting the numerous crystal chandeliers and sconces, causing a deliberate optical illusion of space and light. Other ceremonies and functions Smaller ceremonies such as the reception of new ambassadors take place in the "1844 Room". Here too the Queen holds small lunch parties, and often meetings of the Privy Council. Larger lunch parties often take place in the curved and domed Music Room, or the State Dining Room. On all formal occasions the ceremonies are attended by the Yeomen of the Guard in their historic uniforms, and other officers of the court such as the Lord Chamberlain.[61] Since the bombing of the palace chapel in World War II, royal christenings have sometimes taken place in the Music Room.

The Queen's first three children were all baptised here.[62] The largest functions of the year are the Queen's Garden Parties for up to 8,000 invitees in the Garden.[63] Uninvited guests The boy Jones was an intruder who gained entry to the palace on three occasions between 1838 and 1841 as recorded by Charles Dickens some 40 years later.[64] In 1982, Michael Fagan was able to break into the palace twice, and conversed with the Queen on one of these occasions.[65] Reportedly, Her Majesty maintained her composure while the palace police were en route and Fagan made no threatening motions towards the Queen. The garden, the Royal Mews and the Mall At the rear of the palace is the large and park-like garden, which together with its lake is the largest private garden in London.[66] Here the Queen hosts her annual garden parties each summer, and also holds large functions to celebrate royal milestones, such as jubilees.

It covers 40 acres (16 ha), and includes a helicopter landing area, a lake, and a tennis court.[51] Adjacent to the palace is the Royal Mews, also designed by Nash, where the royal carriages, including the Gold State Coach, are housed. This rococo gilt coach, designed by Sir William Chambers in 1760, has painted panels by G. B. Cipriani. It was first used for the State Opening of Parliament by George III in 1762 and has been used by the monarch for every coronation since George IV. It was last used for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[67] Also housed in the mews are the carriage horses used in royal ceremonial processions.[68] The Mall, a ceremonial approach route to the palace, was designed by Sir Aston Webb and completed in 1911 as part of a grand memorial to Queen Victoria. It extends from Admiralty Arch, across St James's Park to the Victoria Memorial.

This route is used by the cavalcades and motorcades of visiting heads of state, and by the royal family on state occasions such as the annual Trooping the Colour.[69] Modern history Visiting heads of state are received by the Queen at either Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle. Here, United States President Barack Obama and his wife are greeted in the first-floor audience chamber in the private apartments in the north wing. In 1901 the accession of Edward VII saw new life breathed into the palace. The new King and his wife Queen Alexandra had always been at the forefront of London high society, and their friends, known as "the Marlborough House Set", were considered to be the most eminent and fashionable of the age.

Buckingham Palace—the Ballroom, Grand Entrance, Marble Hall, Grand Staircase, vestibules and galleries redecorated in the Belle epoque cream and gold colour scheme they retain today—once again became a setting for entertaining on a majestic scale but leaving some to feel King Edward's heavy redecorations were at odds with Nash's original work.[70] The last major building work took place during the reign of King George V when, in 1913, Sir Aston Webb redesigned Blore's 1850 East Front to resemble in part Giacomo Leoni's Lyme Park in Cheshire.

This new, refaced principal façade (of Portland stone) was designed to be the backdrop to the Victoria Memorial, a large memorial statue of Queen Victoria, placed outside the main gates.[71] George V, who had succeeded Edward VII in 1910, had a more serious personality than his father; greater emphasis was now placed on official entertaining and royal duties than on lavish parties.[72] He arranged a series of command performances featuring jazz musicians such as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1919) – the first jazz performance for a head of state, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong (1932), which earned the palace a nomination in 2009 for a (Kind of) Blue Plaque by the Brecon Jazz Festival as one of the venues making the greatest contribution to jazz music in the United Kingdom.[73][74] George V's wife Queen Mary was a connoisseur of the arts, and took a keen interest in the Royal Collection of furniture and art, both restoring and adding to it.

Queen Mary also had many new fixtures and fittings installed, such as the pair of marble Empire-style chimneypieces by Benjamin Vulliamy, dating from 1810, which the Queen had installed in the ground floor Bow Room, the huge low room at the centre of the garden façade. Queen Mary was also responsible for the decoration of the Blue Drawing Room.[75] This room, 69 feet (21 metres) long, previously known as the South Drawing Room, has a ceiling designed specially by Nash, coffered with huge gilt console brackets.[76] The Victoria Memorial was created by sculptor Sir Thomas Brock in 1911 and erected in front of the main gates at Buckingham Palace on a surround constructed by architect Sir Aston Webb.

A book published in 1999 by the Royal Collection Department reported that the palace contained 19 state rooms, 52 principal bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms.[77] This is actually small in comparison to the Russian imperial palaces in Saint Petersburg and at Tsarskoe Selo, the Papal Palace in Rome, the Royal Palace of Madrid, the Stockholm Palace, or indeed the former Palace of Whitehall, and tiny compared to the Forbidden City and Potala Palace. A minor change was made in 1938, in which the north-west pavilion, designed by Nash as a conservatory and altered in 1911–13 to a racquets court, was converted into a swimming pool. During World War I the palace, then the home of King George V and Queen Mary, escaped unscathed. Its more valuable contents were evacuated to Windsor but the royal family remained in situ.

The King imposed rationing at the palace, much to the dismay of his guests and household.[78] To the King's later regret, David Lloyd George persuaded him to go further by ostentatiously locking the wine cellars and refraining from alcohol, to set a good example to the supposedly inebriated working class. The workers continued to imbibe and the King was left unhappy at his enforced abstinence.[79] The palace fared worse during World War II; it was bombed no less than seven times, the most serious and publicised of which resulted in the destruction of the palace chapel in 1940. Coverage of this event was played in cinemas all over the UK to show the common suffering of rich and poor. One bomb fell in the palace quadrangle while King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were in residence, and many windows were blown in and the chapel destroyed.[80] War-time coverage of such incidents was severely restricted, however. The King and Queen were filmed inspecting their bombed home, the smiling Queen, as always, immaculately dressed in a hat and matching coat seemingly unbothered by the damage around her.

It was at this time the Queen famously declared: "I'm glad we have been bombed. Now I can look the East End in the face". The royal family were seen as sharing their subjects' hardship, as The Sunday Graphic reported: By the Editor: The King and Queen have endured the ordeal which has come to their subjects. For the second time a German bomber has tried to bring death and destruction to the home of Their Majesties...When this war is over the common danger which King George and Queen Elizabeth have shared with their people will be a cherished memory and an inspiration through the years.[81] On 15 September 1940, known as the Battle of Britain Day, an RAF pilot, Ray Holmes of No. 504 Squadron RAF rammed a German bomber he believed was going to bomb the Palace. Holmes had run out of ammunition and made the quick choice to ram it. Holmes bailed out. Both aircraft crashed. In fact the Dornier Do 17 bomber was empty. It had already been damaged, two of its crew had been killed and the remainder bailed out. Its pilot, Feldwebel Robert Zehbe, landed only to die later of wounds suffered during the attack.

During the Dornier's descent, it somehow unloaded its bombs, one of which hit the Palace. It then crashed into the forecourt of London Victoria station.[82] The bomber's engine was later exhibited at the Imperial War Museum in London. The British pilot became a King's Messenger following the war, and died at the age of 90 in 2005.[83] On VE Day—8 May 1945—the palace was the centre of British celebrations. The King, Queen, Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen), and Princess Margaret appeared on the balcony, with the palace's blacked-out windows behind them, to the cheers from a vast crowd in the Mall.[84] The damaged Palace was carefully restored after the War by John Mowlem & Co.[85] 21st century: Royal use and public access Every year some 50,000 invited guests are entertained at garden parties, receptions, audiences and banquets. The Garden Parties, usually three, are held in the summer, usually in July. The Forecourt of Buckingham Palace is used for Changing of the Guard, a major ceremony and tourist attraction (daily during the summer months; every other day during the winter).

The palace, like Windsor Castle, is owned by the British state. It is not the monarch's personal property, unlike Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle.[86] Many of the contents from Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and St. James's Palace are known collectively as the Royal Collection; owned by the Sovereign, they can, on occasions, be viewed by the public at the Queen's Gallery, near the Royal Mews. Unlike the palace and the castle, the gallery is open continually and displays a changing selection of items from the collection. The rooms containing the Queen's Gallery are on the site of the former chapel, which was damaged by one of the seven bombs to fall on the palace during World War II. The palace's state rooms have been open to the public during August and September since 1993. The money raised in entry fees was originally put towards the rebuilding of Windsor Castle following the 1992 fire which destroyed many of its state rooms.

In May 2009, in response to a request from the Queen to the government for money to carry out a backlog of repairs to the palace, a group of MPs on the Public Accounts Committee proposed that in return for the extra £4 million in annual funds requested, the palace be open to the public more than the 60 days it is now, as well as when members of the royal family are in residence.[87] Thus, Buckingham Palace is a symbol and home of the British monarchy, an art gallery and tourist attraction. Behind the gilded railings and gates which were completed by the Bromsgrove Guild in 1911[39] and Webb's famous façade, which has been described in a book published by the Royal Collection as looking "like everybody's idea of a palace";[39] is not only the weekday home of the Queen and Prince Philip but also the London residence of the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

The palace also houses the offices of the Queen, Prince Philip, Duke of York, Earl and Countess of Wessex, Princess Royal, and Princess Alexandra, and is the workplace of 800 people.[88] Notes Jump up ^ "Buckingham". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 23 September 2014. Jump up ^ "Palace". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 23 September 2014. Jump up ^ By tradition, the British Royal Court is still officially resident at St. James's Palace, which means that, while foreign ambassadors assuming their new position are received by the British sovereign at Buckingham Palace, they are accredited to the "Court of St. James's Palace". This anomaly continues for the sake of tradition as Buckingham Palace is to all intents and purposes the official residence. See History of St James's Palace (Official website of the British Monarchy). ^ Jump up to: a b Robinson, p.

14 Jump up ^ Goring, p.15 Jump up ^ The topography of the site and its ownership are dealt with in Wright, chapters 1–4 Jump up ^ Goring, p.28 Jump up ^ Goring, p.18 Jump up ^ The Acquisition of the Estate, Survey of London: volume 39: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 1 (General History) (1977), pp. 1–5. Retrieved 3 February 2009 Jump up ^ Wright, pp. 76–8 Jump up ^ Goring, pp. 31&36 Jump up ^ Audley and Davies were key figures in the development of Ebury Manor and also the Grosvenor Estate (see Dukes of Westminster), which still exists today. (They are remembered in the streetnames North Audley Street, South Audley Street, and Davies Street, all in Mayfair.) Jump up ^ Wright, p. 83 Jump up ^ Goring, Chapter V ^ Jump up to: a b c Harris, p.21 Jump up ^ Wright, p.

96 Jump up ^ Goring, p.62 Jump up ^ Goring, p.58 Jump up ^ Harris, p.22 Jump up ^ Nash, p. 18, although the purchase price is given by Wright p. 142 as £28,000 Jump up ^ In 1775, an Act of Parliament settled the property on Queen Charlotte, in exchange for her rights to Somerset House (see Old and New London (below) Jump up ^ Westminster: Buckingham Palace, Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 61–74. Date accessed: 3 February 2009. The tradition persists of foreign ambassadors being formally accredited to "the Court of St. James's", even though it is at Buckingham Palace that they present their credentials and staff to the Queen upon their appointment. Jump up ^ Harris, p.24 Jump up ^ Harris, pp.30–31 Jump up ^ Jones, p. 42 Jump up ^ Harris, p.33 Jump up ^ "The Royal Residences > Buckingham Palace > History". Retrieved 2 February 2009.

Jump up ^ Ziegler, Phillip (1971). King William IV. Collins. p. 280. ISBN 0-00-211934-X. Jump up ^ "The Royal Residences > Buckingham Palace". Retrieved 2 February 2009. Jump up ^ Hedley, p. 10 ^ Jump up to: a b Woodham-Smith, p. 249 Jump up ^ Harris, de Bellaigue & Miller, p. 33 Jump up ^ Holland & Hannen and Cubitts – The Inception and Development of a Great Building Firm, published 1920, p. 35 Jump up ^ Hedley, p. 19 Jump up ^ Healey, pp.137–138 Jump up ^ Healey, p.122 Jump up ^ Allen's Indian Mail, and Register of British and Foreign India, China, and all parts of the East. 1850, Vol. VIII.

Google Book link Jump up ^ John Gardiner The Victorians: An Age in Retrospect, London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007 [2002], p.142 ^ Jump up to: a b c Robinson, p. 9 Jump up ^ "40 facts about Buckingham Palace". Retrieved 18 October 2011. ^ Jump up to: a b Harris, p.41 Jump up ^ Harris, pp.78–79 Jump up ^ Healey, pp.387–388 Jump up ^ Harris, p.81 Jump up ^ Harris, p.40 Jump up ^ Healey, pp.159–160 Jump up ^ Harris, de Bellaigue & Miller, p. 93 Jump up ^ Harris, de Bellaigue & Miller, p. 91 Jump up ^ Jones, p. 43 ^ Jump up to: a b Harris, p.82. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Fact files > 40 facts about Buckingham Palace". Retrieved 18 October 2011.

Jump up ^ Healey, p.233, quoting The Memoirs of Mabell, Countess of Airlie, edited and arranged by Jennifer Ellis, London:Hutchinson, 1962. Jump up ^ Peacocke, pp. 178–179, 244–247 Jump up ^ Peacocke, pp. 264–265 Jump up ^ "Mailbox". Royal Insight Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 January 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2008. Jump up ^ Princess Margaret is reputed to have remarked of the débutante presentations: "We had to put a stop to it, every tart in London was getting in." See Blaikie, Thomas (2002). You look awfully like the Queen: Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-714874-7 Jump up ^ Harris, p.72 ^ Jump up to: a b Healey, p.364 Jump up ^ Healey, p.362 Jump up ^ Hedley, p.

16 Jump up ^ Healey, pp. 363–365 Jump up ^ Robinson, p. 49 Jump up ^ The Guests Jump up ^ Dickens, Charles (5 July 1885) "The boy Jones", All the Year Round, pp. 234–37. Jump up ^ God Save the Queen, Fast Spencer Davidson and Arthur White Time Magazine 26 July 1982 Retrieved 3 February 2009 Jump up ^ Buckingham Palace at the Wayback Machine (archived May 2, 2008) (Museum of London.) Retrieved 2 May 2009. Jump up ^ Gold State Coach at the Royal Collection. Jump up ^ "The Royal Residences > The Royal Mews". Retrieved 2 February 2009. Jump up ^ Nicholson, Louise (1998). London. London: Frances Lincoln. p. 56. ISBN 0-7112-1187-6. Jump up ^ Robinson (Page 9) asserts that the decorations, including plaster swags and other decorative motifs, are "finicky" and "at odds with Nash's original detailing".

Jump up ^ Harris, p.34 Jump up ^ Healey, p.185 Jump up ^ "Buckingham Palace hits right note with jazz fans". London Evening Standard. UK. 3 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2010. Jump up ^ Stephen Bates (3 August 2009). "By royal approval: Buckingham Palace's place in jazz history". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 11 August 2010. Jump up ^ Healey pp. 221–222 Jump up ^ Harris, p.63 Jump up ^ Robinson, p. 11 Jump up ^ Rose, Kenneth (1983). King George V. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 176–177. ISBN 0-297-78245-2. Jump up ^ Rose, pp. 178–179 Jump up ^ Thornton, Michael (1984). Royal Feud. M.Joseph. p. 216. Jump up ^ The Sunday Graphic, 18 September 1939, p. 1 Jump up ^ Price, Alfred.

The Battle of Britain Day, Greenhill Books, London, 1990, pp. 49–50 and Stephen Bungay, The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain. Aurum Press, London, 2000, p. 325. Jump up ^ "Pilot who 'saved Palace' honoured". BBC news website. 2 November 2005. Retrieved 18 March 2009. Jump up ^ 1945: Rejoicing at end of war in Europe (BBC On this day.) Retrieved 3 February 2009. Jump up ^ "Sir Edgar Beck". The Telegraph. 9 August 2000. Retrieved 5 June 2012. Jump up ^ There is no reliable public information about the formal ownership of Windsor castle and Buckingham palace. The official Internet site of the Royal Family only says they are "held in trust". They are however not among properties listed to belong to the Queen personally or to the Crown Estate. State ownership is widely assumed. Jump up ^ Pierce, Andrew (30 May 2009). "Queen must open palace more in return for extra funds".

The Daily Telegraph (UK). Retrieved 4 June 2009. Jump up ^ References Blaikie, Thomas (2002). You Look Awfully Like the Queen: Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-714874-7. Goring, O.G. (1937). From Goring House to Buckingham Palace. London:Ivor Nicholson & Watson. Harris, John; de Bellaigue, Geoffrey; & Miller, Oliver (1968). Buckingham Palace. London: Nelson. ISBN 0-17-141011-4. Healey, Edma (1997). The Queen's House: A Social History of Buckingham Palace. London: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-7181-4089-3. Hedley, Olwen (1971) The Pictorial History of Buckingham Palace. Pitkin, ISBN 0-85372-086-X. Jones, Nigel R. (2005). Architecture of England, Scotland, and Wales. Greenwood Publishing Group.

ISBN 0-313-31850-6. Nash, Roy (1980). Buckingham Palace: The Place and the People. London: Macdonald Futura. ISBN 0-354-04529-6. Peacocke, M. D. (1951). The Story of Buckingham Palace. London: Odhams Press. Robinson, John Martin (1999). Buckingham Palace. Published by The Royal Collection, St. James's Palace, London ISBN 1-902163-36-2. Williams, Neville (1971). Royal Homes. Lutterworth Press. ISBN 0-7188-0803-7. Woodham-Smith, Cecil (1973). Queen Victoria (vol 1) Hamish Hamilton Ltd. Wright, Patricia (1999; first published 1996). The Strange History of Buckingham Palace. Stroud, Gloucs.: Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7509-1283-9. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buckingham Palace.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace, Official website of the British monarchy Directory of Buckingham Palace's rooms for virtual navigation (high and low resolution) Geographic data related to Buckingham Palace at OpenStreetMap Buckingham Palace entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses Account of Buckingham Palace, with prints of Arlington House and Buckingham House, from Edward Walford, Old and New London, Vol 4, Chap. VI (1878) Account of the acquisition of the Manor of Ebury, from F.H.W. Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London, vol. 39, "The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair", part 1 (1977) William IV William IV ▼ Primary Sources ▼ William IV William, the third son of George III , was born at Buckingham Palace in 1765. He entered the navy in 1779, and saw service in America and the West Indies. In 1789 he was granted the title, the Duke of Clarence and given an allowance of £12,000 a year. William remained in the navy and by 1811 had reached the rank of admiral.

Like his brother George IV , William rebelled against his father's strict discipline. He lived with his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordon, who bore him ten children. William also against his father's political views. Whereas George III preferred the Tories , William was a Whig , and at once time even considered becoming a Member of Parliament. In the House of Lords the Duke of Clarence supported Catholic Emancipation and showed signs he favoured parliamentary reform. After the death of George IV's daughter, Princess Charlotte, in 1818, there was a royal scramble to marry an heir to the throne. Soon after Charlotte's death, William married Adelaide, eldest daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. The couple had two daughters but they both died in infancy. When his brother, George IV , died in 1830, the Duke of Clarence became king. Like his father and brother, William IV was prone to strange behaviour. On the day he became king he raced through London in an open carriage, frequently removing his hat and bowing to his new subjects. Every so often he stopped and offered people a lift in his royal carriage. His habit of spitting in public also helped to obtain for him a reputation as an eccentric.

At first William IV was very popular. The people were pleased when he announced that he would attempt to keep royal spending to a minimum. People became convinced that he meant what he said when it was discovered that William's coronation only cost a tenth of the expense incurred by George IV's ceremony in 1821. In November 1830 Lord Grey and the Whigs came to power. The king told Grey that he would not interfere with Whig plans to introduce parliamentary reform. In April 1831 Grey asked the king to dissolve Parliament so that the Whigs could secure a larger majority in the House of Commons . Grey explained this would help his government to carry their proposals for an increase in the number of people who could vote in elections. William agreed to Grey's request and after making his speech in the House of Lords , decided to walk back through cheering crowds to Buckingham Palace. After Lord Grey's election victory, he tried again to introduce parliamentary reform but once again the Lords refused to pass the bill. On 7th May 1832, Grey and Henry Brougham met the king and asked him to create a large number of Wigg peers in order to get the Reform Bill passed in the House of Lords.

William was now having doubts about the wisdom of parliamentary reform and refused. Lord Grey's government resigned and William IV now asked the leader of the Tories , the Duke of Wellington , to form a new government. Wellington tried to do this but some Tories, including Sir Robert Peel , were unwilling to join a cabinet that was in opposition to the views of the vast majority of the people in Britain. Peel argued that if the king and Wellington went ahead with their plan there was a strong danger of a civil war in Britain. When the Duke of Wellington failed to recruit another significant figures into his cabinet, William was forced to ask Grey to return to office. In his attempts to frustrate the will of the electorate, William IV lost the popularity he had enjoyed during the first part of his reign. Once again Lord Grey asked the king to create a large number of new Whig peers. William agreed that he would do this and when the Lords heard the news, they agreed to pass the Reform Act . William IV resented the fact that Lord Grey had forced the Reform Act on him. However, Grey was so popular with the general public that he was unable to take action against him.

After Grey resigned in 1834 and was replaced by Lord Melbourne , the king was in a stronger position. In November 1834 William IV dismissed the Whig government and appointed the Tory, Sir Robert Peel as his new prime minister. By this time the king had developed an intense dislike for the Whig reformers such as Lord John Russell and Henry Brougham . As there were more Whigs than Tories in the House of Commons , Sir Robert Peel found government very difficult. Peel was only able to pass legislation that was supported by the Whigs and on 8th April 1835 he resigned from office. The Tories were replaced by a Whig government and once again William had to preside over a series of reforms that he profoundly disagreed with. William IV died on 20th June 1837. BBC - History - William IV z William IV © William IV was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1830. He was known both as the 'Sailor King' and as 'Silly Billy'. His reign saw the passing of the Reform Act of 1832.

William was born at Buckingham Palace in London on 21 August 1765. He was the third son of George III and Queen Charlotte and as such was not expected to succeed to the throne. At the age of 13 he began a career in the Royal Navy. He enjoyed his time at sea, seeing service in America and the West Indies and becoming admiral of the fleet in 1811. In 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence. From the early 1790s until 1811, William lived with his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordan. They had 10 children who took the surname Fitzclarence. In 1811, William's oldest brother George became prince regent (later George IV) when their father was declared insane. The death of the prince regent's only daughter in 1818 resulted in a scramble among George's brothers to marry and produce heirs. The same year, William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. With the death of George III's second son, William became heir and then, with the death of George IV, king in June 1830. He was initially very popular.

His insistence on a simple coronation contrasted with the extravagance of his brother's reign. William's reign was dominated by the Reform crisis. It began almost immediately when the Duke of Wellington's Tory government, which William supported, lost the general election in August 1830. The Whigs, led by Lord Grey, came to power intent on pushing through electoral reform against strong opposition in the Commons and the Lords. Another general election in 1831 gave the Whigs a majority in the Commons but the Lords continued to reject the Reform Bill. There was a political crisis during the winter of 1831-1832, with riots in some parts of the country. The king eventually agreed to create enough new Whig peers to get the bill through the House of Lords, but the Lords, who had opposed it, backed down and it was passed. The 1832 Reform Act abolished some of the worst abuses of the electoral system and extended the franchise to the middle classes. William died on 20 June 1837, without surviving children. His niece Victoria succeeded him.

"Inside the Royal Nursery; Buckingham Palace Celebrates Prince George's First Birthday with an Exhibition Covering 250 Years of Royal Childhood" - The Evening Standard (London, England), July 23, 2014 | Online Research Library: Questia Article excerpt Byline: Philippa Stockley PRINCE GEORGE'S first birthday yesterday is being marked from Saturday with an exhibition at Buckingham Palace celebrating 250 years of royal childhood. As part of the Palace's summer opening, more than 150 items will be on show in the State Rooms, including toys, clothes, photographs, archive film, a drawing by Queen Victoria and even a Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack set up for Princess Anne -- all showing stalwart efforts to give royal youngsters a "normal" childhood. Since George III bought Buckingham House in its then semi-rural setting as a retreat for his queen, Charlotte, in 1762, British monarchs have had a light touch in raising their children.

A gorgeous 1765 Johann Zoffany portrait of the princes Frederick and George, later George IV, shows the tots in their petticoat-dresses, too young for "breeching", in a red floral-carpeted room that looks cosily 19th century rather than 18th. Once Queen Victoria moved in, at just 18, things soon became even more family orientated. She had a nursery wing added for what would eventually be nine children. Unusually, her husband, Prince Albert, attended all the births, and all but one child was baptised in the specially commissioned silver-gilt lily font that will be on show in the music room. Victoria also had a baptismal gown made that, having clothed more than 60 royal babies, was replaced in 2008 by our current Queen. While being born in a palace and baptised at home by an archbishop definitely marks one out as special, succeeding families have made great efforts towards more ordinary childhoods. Prince William was the first English heir presumptive to be born in a hospital -- St Mary's in Paddington, where his son, Prince George, was also born.

… Subscribe to Questia and enjoy: Full access to this article and over 10 million more from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers Over 83,000 books Access to powerful writing and research tools Article details Subscribe to Questia and enjoy: Full access to this article and over 10 million more from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers Over 83,000 books Access to powerful writing and research tools Article details William IV b 21 AUG 1765 - Intriguing History Send to Kindle William was born at Buckingham Palace in London on 21 August 1765. He was the third son of George III and Queen Charlotte and as such was not expected to succeed to the throne. From the early 1790s until 1811, William lived with his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordan. They had 10 children who took the surname Fitzclarence. It is suggested that the current Prime Minister David Cameron is a descendant from this relationship. In 1811, William’s oldest brother George became prince regent (later George IV) when their father was declared insane.

The death of the prince regent’s only daughter in 1818 resulted in a scramble among George’s brothers to marry and produce heirs. William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818. With the death of George III’s second son, William became heir and then, with the death of George IV, king in June 1830. To find out more about the scientific advances being made when your ancestors were alive, follow the theme Science and Innovation Sign up for free to receive historical news, views and resources and let us help you to connect Share this: Buckingham Palace- London Info - London Museums - Parks - Attractionss - London Buckingham Palace To website George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a comfortable family home close to St James's Palace, where many court functions were held. Buckingham House became known as the Queen's House, and 14 of George III's 15 children were born there. In 1762 work began on remodelling the house to the King's requirements, to designs by Sir William Chambers, at a cost of £73,000.

George IV, on his accession in 1820, decided to reconstruct the house into a pied-à-terre, using it for the same purpose as his father George III. As work progressed, and as late as the end of 1826, the King had a change of heart. With the assistance of his architect, John Nash, he set about transforming the house into a palace. Parliament agreed to a budget of £150,000, but the King pressed for £450,000 as a more realistic figure. Nash retained the main block but doubled its size by adding a new suite of rooms on the garden side facing west. Faced with mellow Bath stone, the external style reflected the French neo-classical influence favoured by George IV. The remodelled rooms are the State and semi-State Rooms, which remain virtually unchanged since Nash's time. Many of the pieces of furniture and works of art in these rooms were bought or made for Carlton House (George IV's London base when he was Prince of Wales), which was demolished in 1827.

The north and south wings of Buckingham House were demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale with a triumphal arch - the Marble Arch - as the centrepiece of an enlarged courtyard, to commemorate the British victories at Trafalgar and Waterloo. By 1829 the costs had escalated to nearly half a million pounds. Nash's extravagance cost him his job, and on the death of George IV in 1830, his younger brother William IV took on Edward Blore to finish the work. The King never moved into the Palace. Indeed, when the Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire in 1834, the King offered the Palace as a new home for Parliament, but the offer was declined. Queen Victoria was the first sovereign to take up residence in July 1837, just three weeks after her accession, and in June 1838 she was the first British sovereign to leave from Buckingham Palace for a Coronation. Her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 soon showed up the Palace's shortcomings. A serious problem for the newly married couple was the absence of any nurseries and too few bedrooms for visitors.

The only solution was to move the Marble Arch - it now stands at the north-east corner of Hyde Park - and build a fourth wing, thereby creating a quadrangle. Blore, the architect in charge, created the East Front and, thanks largely to his builder, Thomas Cubitt, the costs were reduced from £150,000 to £106,000. The cost of the new wing was largely covered by the sale of George IV's Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Blore added an attic floor to the main block of the Palace and decorated it externally with marble friezes originally intended for Nash's Marble Arch. The work was completed in 1847. By the turn of the century the soft French stone used in Blore's East Front was showing signs of deterioration, largely due to London's notorious soot, and required replacing. In 1913 the decision was taken to reface the façade. Sir Aston Webb, with a number of large public buildings to his credit, was commissioned to create a new design. Webb chose Portland Stone, which took 12 months to prepare before building work could begin.

When work did start it took 13 weeks to complete the refacing, a process that included removing the old stonework. Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the sovereign, and was first opened to the public in 1993. Entry to Buckingham Palace is via Ambassador's Court on Buckingham Palace Road. The Grand Hall is on the original site of the old entrance hall, dominated by the Grand staircase aptly named, because of its winding proportions and floral gilt-bronze balustrade. George III (r. 1760-1820) | The Royal Family George III (r. 1760-1820) Gàidhlig The Royal Household © Crown Copyright George III was born on 4 June 1738 in London, the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his grandfather, George II, in 1760. He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language.

George III is widely remembered for two things: losing the American colonies and going mad. This is far from the whole truth. George's direct responsibility for the loss of the colonies is not great. He opposed their bid for independence to the end, but he did not develop the policies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767 on tea, paper and other products, which led to war in 1775-76 and which had the support of Parliament. These policies were largely due to the financial burdens of garrisoning and administering the vast expansion of territory brought under the British Crown in America, the costs of a series of wars with France and Spain in North America, and the loans given to the East India Company (then responsible for administering India). By the 1770s, and at a time when there was no income tax, the national debt required an annual revenue of £4 million to service it.

The declaration of American independence on 4 July 1776, the end of the war with the surrender by British forces in 1782, and the defeat which the loss of the American colonies represented, could have threatened the Hanoverian throne. Read a letter by George III on the loss of America However, George's strong defence of what he saw as the national interest and the prospect of long war with revolutionary France made him, if anything, more popular than before. The American war, its political aftermath and family anxieties placed great strain on George in the 1780s. After serious bouts of illness in 1788-89 and again in 1801, George became permanently deranged in 1810. He was mentally unfit to rule in the last decade of his reign; his eldest son - the later George IV - acted as Prince Regent from 1811. Some medical historians have said that George III's mental instability was caused by a hereditary physical disorder called porphyria. George's accession in 1760 marked a significant change in royal finances.

Since 1697, the monarch had received an annual grant of £700,000 from Parliament as a contribution to the Civil List, i.e. civil government costs (such as judges' and ambassadors' salaries) and the expenses of the Royal Household. In 1760, it was decided that the whole cost of the Civil List should be provided by Parliament, in return for the surrender of the hereditary revenues by the King for the duration of his reign. The first 25 years of George's reign were politically controversial for reasons other than the conflict with America. The King was accused by some critics, particularly Whigs (a leading political grouping), of attempting to reassert royal authority in an unconstitutional manner. In fact, George took a conventional view of the constitution and the powers left to the Crown after the conflicts between Crown and Parliament in the 17th century. Although he was careful not to exceed his powers, George's limited ability and lack of subtlety in dealing with the shifting alliances within the Tory and Whig political groupings in Parliament meant that he found it difficult to bring together ministries which could enjoy the support of the House of Commons.

His problem was solved first by the long-lasting ministry of Lord North (1770-82) and then, William, from 1783, by Pitt the Younger, whose ministry lasted until 1801. George III was the most attractive of the Hanoverian monarchs. He was a good family man and devoted to his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, for whom he bought the Queen's House (later enlarged to become Buckingham Palace). They had 15 children, 13 of whom reached adulthood. However, his sons disappointed him and, after his brothers made unsuitable secret marriages, the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 was passed at George's insistence. (Under this Act, the Sovereign must give consent to the marriage of any lineal descendant of George II, with certain exceptions.) Being extremely conscientious, George read all government papers and sometimes annoyed his ministers by taking such a prominent interest in government and policy. His political influence could be decisive. In 1801, he forced Pitt the Younger to resign when the two men disagreed about whether Roman Catholics should have full civil rights.

George III, because of his coronation oath to maintain the rights and privileges of the Church of England, was against the proposed measure. One of the most cultured of monarchs, George started a new royal collection of books (65,000 of his books were later given to the British Museum, as the nucleus of a national library) and opened his library to scholars. In 1768, George founded and paid the initial costs of the Royal Academy of Arts (now famous for its exhibitions). He was the first king to study science as part of his education (he had his own astronomical observatory), and examples of his collection of scientific instruments can now be seen in the Science Museum. George III also took a keen interest in agriculture, particularly on the crown estates at Richmond and Windsor, being known as 'Farmer George'. In his last years, physical as well as mental powers deserted him and he became blind. He died at Windsor Castle on 29 January 1820, after a reign of almost 60 years - the third longest in British history. Share this article:

Question: In 1765, who became the first English King to be born at Buckingham Palace?
Answer: GEORGE IV