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BBC News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
The battle that reshaped the course of English history
It has been 380 years since the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Langport, paving the way for one of the biggest changes in England's Somerset battle effectively ended Royalist control in the West Country, a key strategic region. This boosted Parliamentarian morale and crippled their opponents forces in one morning of believe that the battle of July 1645, fought during the English Civil War, marked a turning point that ultimately led to the execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the Julian Humphrys, of the Battlefields Trust, said: "This battle really was the beginning of the end for the Royalists." Lord Goring led the Royalists for King Charles I, while Sir Thomas Fairfax headed the Parliamentarian's New Model Army, known as the Roundheads, who were a skilled, disciplined Humphrys said the Royalist army was different."They weren't the finest of troops you could say… a bunch of boozers really and their discipline was poor, they didn't have much money."They weren't being payed and they lived by nicking things off the local population who didn't like them in the slightest," he added. Lord Goring was holding an area about one mile east of Langport towards the village of Huish Royalists wanted to buy time so their army could pull back to Bridgwater. They planted musket troops along the hedges, with a few guns to protect the ford was then that the Parliamentarians came in with "a bold attack", said Mr cleared the hedges of Royalists at what is now Picts Hill by sending musketeers meant their cavalry could "splash across the crossing and drive the Royalists back".The Royalist troops did not put up much of a fight after the Roundheads crossed the water and were driven back quickly, he Humphrys added that metal detectors are stilling unearthing musket balls and pistol shots from the action. Some local people who were being affected by the war armed themselves and were known as "clubmen".They would defend their area from the army pillaging their homes using things like cudgels and pitchforks."The reality for the people of the time was disrupted trade, the armies were never very healthy so they spread disease, they damaged buildings, they took people's 1645, the people of Somerset were "very fed up of the war", Mr Humphrys added. Oliver Cromwell Mr Humphrys said Oliver Cromwell, the most famous Roundhead, detailed that he was actually there at the time, but "he was more of a second-in-command"."He was a fairly minor east Anglian MP, but it was these victories which got him promoted gradually over time."This led to him eventually commanding the whole of Parliament's army," Mr Humphrys added. When it comes to commemorating the Civil War, Mr Humphrys said "we need to remember these people were our ancestors"."Many of the ordinary soldiers had very little say of whether they fought or not and the cost of a civil war is a huge tragedy wherever it happens.""A greater percentage of the population died from this civil war than in World War One," he said.
Spectator
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Peerless: the purge of the hereditaries
The House of Lords is very old, but not quite continuous. In 1649, shortly after the execution of King Charles I, the Cromwell-ian House of Commons passed an act which said: The Commons of England assembled in parliament, finding by too long experience, that the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the People of England… have thought fit to Ordain and Enact… That from henceforth the House of Lords in parliament, shall be and is hereby wholly abolished and taken away. This measure was nullified, however, by the Restoration in 1660. The parliaments of King Charles II, and all parliaments since, have included the House of Lords. The hereditaries served their country loyally: 59 were killed in the two world wars, as were 316 of their sons. It is in the Lords that the throne sits. From that throne, the monarch delivers his or her speech which opens each session of parliament. Now we are in the reign of King Charles III. As I write, Labour is abolishing all traditional membership of the House of Lords – except, which is interesting, the Lords Spiritual, the bench of Anglican bishops. All hereditary peers might even be out as early as the end of this month. Why is this happening? In 1999, the Blair government abandoned its promise to reform the Lords root and branch, but was still determined to get rid of the hereditaries. Because its other reform proposals had fallen away, it struck a deal with the Conservatives: 92 hereditaries, 'exempted' from the cull of 700 or so, could stay until such time as a full reform package should be presented. More than a quarter of a century later, no package has appeared. That 1999 deal is now being broken. Sir Keir Starmer is making no new active reform proposals, but he wants the '92' (now eroded to 86 by the suspension of replacement by-elections) out. Lacking a New Model Army to enforce his wishes, he is not proposing to abolish the Lords outright but, Cromwell-lite, is determined to drain from it what has been its lifeblood for 800 years. He wants every last drop. Last week, Lord Roberts of Belgravia (better known to Spectator readers as the historian Andrew Roberts) moved an amendment, which I seconded, to the bill. As life peers, Andrew and I feel we should stick up for our hereditary comrades, most of whom shy away from self-justification and prepare to go with silent, pale-faced dignity to the scaffold. Always, until now, the monarch has had two hereditary peers in the Lords specifically present to look after the interests of the Crown – the Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain. We argued that their roles would be hampered, and the monarch therefore discourteously served, if they could no longer sit there. After all, the core doctrine of our constitution is that of 'The Crown-in-parliament'. Why should the Crown's main representatives be blocked from parliament's proceedings and reduced to the ranks of the 'lanyard classes'? The government's attitude echoes that of King Lear's ungrateful daughters, Goneril and Regan, to the former monarch's 100 knights. 'What need you five and twenty, ten, or five?' asks Goneril. 'What need one?' adds Regan grimly. So, despite our protests, out go the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain. Luckily, our present King remains firmly on the throne and shows no Lear-like desire to give everything away, but the impulse which throws out peers because of their heredity logically extends to monarchs. Presumably that is why, in the days when Sir Keir allowed himself to express his own opinions unguardedly in public, he was in favour of abolishing the monarchy. The government does not enjoy defending this legislation. It prefers sullen silence. But to the extent that it does speak, its view is that hereditary peers 'are indefensible in the 21st century'. That is an assertion, not an argument, very like that 1649 claim that the House of Lords is 'useless and dangerous to the People of England'. The battle is not quite over. Last week, 280 of us defeated the government with an amendment which would allow the hereditary element to perish by the passage of time rather than sudden expulsion. There may also be deals in which a few hereditaries get life peerages instead. (I vote for keeping 25 per cent of the Labour ones, in other words, Viscount Stansgate, the hereditary beneficiary of his anti-hereditary father, Tony Benn.) But there can be no doubt that the hereditary principle in parliament is dead, killed by the convention that the Lords does not block commitments made in the winning party's election manifesto. What is being gained? Well, the loss of the 86 will create a bit more room in what is widely thought to be an overcrowded House. It will also remove what some see as the unfair numerical advantage of the Conservatives and improve the sex and ethnic balance (since all the hereditaries are white men). I really cannot think of anything else. What is being lost? First, a group of people who are disinterested, in the proper sense of that word. None is there for the power or the money (both of which are very small). Unlike under the unreformed, full hereditary system, none is there as of right alone. Since 1999, hereditaries wishing to sit in the Lords must be elected by their peers, some chosen by the whole House. They therefore have to want to do something. They take junior government or shadow posts, are deputy lord speakers, chair committees. The Earl of Kinnoul, the convenor of the entirely independent crossbenchers, more than 30 of whom are hereditaries, is a hereditary peer. Lacking worldly ambition or partisan passions, knowing that their existence is questioned, the hereditaries show, despite their titles, little sense of entitlement. They are polite and benign. We shall miss them – such characters as Earl Howe, who has sat 40 years in the House and served 15 years as a minister, or the youngish 19th Earl of Devon, a recent arrival who has held us spellbound with his well-developed and no doubt accurate claim that the Earls of Devon, who have been around since the Norman Conquest, have done more for Devon than anyone else. (Elsewhere in the magazine, Sophia Falkner – who knows a thing or two about the hereditary principle – looks at some of the others we will lose from the Upper Chamber. More than four-fifths of the 86 men have a background from the private sector or the professions – farming, business, the law, the army; one is a vet – and therefore possess, in the current cant phrase, 'lived experience' of areas of national life almost unknown in the corridors of power. None has passed his life under the protection of that 21st-century iteration of the Establishment, the Blob. All have done the state some service, yet now they are to be collectively attainted. It is sad. Part of the sadness has been peers voting to eject fellow peers – an uncomfortable thing, especially as they are being thrown out for no reason other than what opponents of the hereditary principle call 'accident of birth'. Even in the age of mass immigration, most of us are British citizens by 'accident of birth'. Is that such a bad principle? What is lost, though, goes beyond this temporary, dislocating unhappiness. It concerns what's left and what might happen next. It sets a constitutional precedent which the original provision of the 92 was intended to counter. In almost any free country, it would be unconstitutional for the executive to decide to remove a portion of those who sit in one of its legislative chambers, especially if such removal increases the executive's power. That sort of thing gets a country arraigned before the European Court of Human Rights. Such change should be made only as part of much wider constitutional reform, arrived at through broad consensus and/or a referendum. Occasionally, Labour drops little hints that something big might happen, but the evidence of its actions suggests it won't. Even if it did, consensus is unlikely, because people cannot agree whether they want to keep a strong House of Commons or, by creating an elected second chamber, challenge the Commons's power. Get that wrong and you could be laying the ground for the sort of power struggle which this country last saw in the 1640s. So the most likely thing which will happen is nothing much, at first. Except for the poor dear bishops, whose own appointments are now almost wholly in the hands of a separate bureaucracy, the Lords will be almost entirely composed of those appointed by prime ministerial prerogative. They (we – I am one of them) will continue to have some independence, because we cannot easily be ejected. But the idea that our legitimacy will be enhanced without the presence of the hereditaries is absurd. Party animosities will grow. Our fig leaf of traditional respectability will have been removed. Ah, say some reformers, the answer is to take the power of patronage away from 10 Downing Street. Let an 'independent body' – a greatly glorified version of the ineffective House of Lords Appointments Commission – decide who should become a peer. Then the process would have 'integrity'. It should surely be obvious that such a system would replicate all the features of 21st-century unanswerable, bureaucratic, self-perpetuating public-sector Blobbery that have become so disliked and feared. The Lords would soon become, in those original 17th-century words, 'useless and dangerous to the people of England'.
Telegraph
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Civil war begins with ordinary men – this book is proof
In November of 1641, King Charles I met with London's delegates just beyond the city walls, in the fenland of Moorfields (near where the Bank of England stands today). The royal party was presented with tokens of loyalty: £20,000 in a 'great cup of gold' for Charles, and £5000 in a golden basin for his wife, Henrietta Maria. The combined value of these gifts was about as much as it would have cost to run the government of Ireland for a year. It must have felt that the Royalist cause was finally in the ascendant. But as Jonathan Healey makes clear in his energetic and exceptional history, The Blood in Winter: A Nation Descends, 1642, the pageantry of the royal entry disguised a grim political reality for the beleaguered king. Spanning the period between the first session of the Long Parliament in November of 1640 and the moment on August 22 1642, when the English Civil War formally began, The Blood in Winter takes us beyond the disputes in Westminster. The particularly novel parts of Healey's tale show us how common people were well aware of the vicissitudes of royal fortune, and reflect how ideological splintering in the halls of power was felt throughout England long before the battle-lines were drawn. It was those same common people who showed up in droves to witness Charles's homecoming. He had been in Edinburgh since August of 1641, trying to settle favourable peace terms with the anti-Stuart Scottish Covenanters who had defeated him the previous year. His return to London was hastened by the need to distance himself from a conspiracy to kidnap several Covenanter leaders, foiled in October when one of the plotters lost his nerve and ran to the Covenanter Lord General. Meanwhile an unruly Parliament had been circulating early drafts of their Grand Remonstrance, taking advantage of the king's absence to compile a list of grievances that they would present, to city-wide uproar, on December 1. Worse still, rumours were flying that a gang of over 100 Catholics intended to break into Westminster Palace and slaughter everyone in attendance. While Healey's previous book, The Blazing World (2023), offered a panoramic view of the revolutionary century, the narrower focus of The Blood in Winter gives him, a social historian at heart, an opportunity to expand upon the details of everyday life during this uncertain time. The result is a book that bursts with character, a vivid reconstruction of England on the brink. In London we learn about dodgy areas such as Turnmill Street in Clerkenwell, occupied by prostitutes such as 'Pocky-Faced Dall' and frequented by listless military veterans and officers known as 'reformadoes'. Many of these men had returned from fighting the Covenanters and now spent their days drinking and duelling, waiting for the next call to arms. Beyond the capital, we're told about the appearance of 'mechanical' preachers: common men and women who would smith, sew, or scythe in the morning and preach fiery religious dogma in the afternoon. Across England a great fear of sects was taking hold: taverns thrummed with hearsay about drunken 'Bacchanalians', mystic 'Saturn-worshippers' and nudist 'Adamites'. While the portrait of Charles is familiar (an indecisive man, spurred to ever-greater escalations by his wife's palpable outrage at breaches to royal prerogative), Healey's narrative is original thanks to a well-chosen cast of supporting characters. Most prominent among these is Sir John Bankes, a lawyer born to a relatively humble background in Keswick in Cumberland who, by 1640, had risen to Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Soon after Charles fled London for York he summoned Bankes, who was forced to leave his pregnant wife – telling his Parliamentary colleagues that he intended to 'push for peace'. The story is that of a family man, who leaned towards the Royalist camp but was initially hesitant to commit. As Charles prepared to lay siege to Hull, Bankes wrote to Parliament suggesting that the two parties could still be reconciled. This seems to me to be a better reflection of a prudent arbitrator than the 'breezily optimistic' figure which Healey observes, but it's an excellent example of the view, held by many, that outright conflict could – and should – be avoided at all costs. In the end, Bankes's family would feel the full brunt of the war. He died in Oxford in 1644, a charge of high treason from his erstwhile Parliamentary colleagues hanging over his head. His castle in Corfe, one of the last Royalist strongholds, held out until 1645 thanks to the leadership of Lady Mary Bankes. After its capture, it was 'slighted' (dismantled) so that it couldn't be put to Royalist use again. It's a pleasure to read Healey's stylish and fluid prose, and he's fantastic at conveying the importance of 'split-second moments' where the tide of history might have turned. What if Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, had not passed on a warning to the Parliamentarians that Charles intended to arrest the Five Members? Or if Edward Littleton, Lord Keeper of the all-important Great Seal, had refused to abscond from London and join the king in York? Don't be fooled by the book's lugubrious subtitle. This is a rollicking history, packed with fire and excitement.
Telegraph
10-05-2025
- Telegraph
The UK's best castles, and how to visit them
Castles come in all shapes and sizes – castellated or moated, ruined or repurposed, fantasy or bouncy – and they've been a feature of the UK's landscape since 1066. One definition might be a battle-station crossed with a domestic abode: the Tower of London, for example, one of Britain's earliest castles, was a fortress and working palace, with a handy private mooring that we now call Traitors' Gate. Castles defended borders and fiefdoms and evolved according to the weapons technology they faced. All this makes them both fun to clamber over and fascinating to find out about. Here's a list of our favourites across the UK. Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight A motte-and-bailey structure built on older earthwork, King Charles I was imprisoned here for 14 months before his execution and allegedly once got stuck in a window trying to escape. Walk the walls, see the former King's private room, then explore the contemporary garden inspired by Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Beatrice, who was also the island's Governor for 48 years. Insider tip: Meet the castle's much-loved resident donkeys, who help to demonstrate how water was once drawn from the well house. Price: Admission from Visit Isle of Wight; £13.10, adult; £8.10, child; £11.80, concession Where to stay: The Bowling Green Apartment in the grounds of Carisbrooke Castle (0370 333 1181) sleeps four from £435 for three nights, excluding breakfast. Warwick Castle, Warwickshire Warwick Castle delivers a hectic schedule of commercial events, from siege engine demonstrations to birds of prey shows. It's great fun (over-10s: risk the immersive Castle Dungeon show if you dare) but there's plenty of serious history on offer, too – this is, after all, a 1,000-year-old powerhouse with pioneering landscaping courtesy of the 18th-century gardener Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Castle accommodation ranges from glamping to tower suites. Insider tip: Climb the ancient Mound for views over the town of Warwick. Where to stay: The Warwick Castle Hotel (01926 406610) has double rooms from £99, including breakfast. Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire Dunnottar crouches on a promontory between two bays, glaring at the North Sea. St Ninian built a chapel here in 400, the Vikings invaded in 900, William Wallace attacked 400 years later, and the Honours of Scotland were kept safe here. Later, stripped bare, it was rescued by the Cowdrays, who still own it. Insider tip: Walk from Stonehaven via the Black Hill War Memorial and get the X7 back from near Dunnottar. Allow 90 minutes each way. Where to stay: Ship Inn, Stonehaven (01569 762617) has sea views and 11 rooms. Doubles from £130, including breakfast. Leeds Castle, Kent This beauty, reflected in its own moat, rose on older foundations in the 13th century and has been much altered, most notably in the 1820s. Associated with many queens, it became a glamorous home in the 1920s under chatelaine Olive, Lady Baillie. Children love the obstacle course and yew maze with a grotto at its heart. Insider tip: 1) It's not in Yorkshire. 2) See the original Norman cellars, used for salted meat, dry goods, wines and candle wax. Where to stay: There's plenty of places to stay in the castle itself, but book early. Doubles from £145, including breakfast. Enniskillen Castle, Co Fermanagh For 600 years, Enniskillen Castle has dominated the waterways south of Lough Erne. Built by the Maguires, it was in English hands by 1609, and its distinctive gatehouse symbolises the Plantation of Ulster. Six buildings include a local history museum and a military museum for not one but two famous local regiments. Insider tip: Ulster ancestry? Book a free 30-minute session at the Fermanagh Genealogy Centre in the former castle barracks. Where to stay: Killyhelvin Lakeside Lodges & Hotel has double rooms from £130 per night, including breakfast. Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire Earl William FitzOsbern built Chepstow Castle in 1067, just pipping the Tower of London to the post. Now ruined, it crowns a ridge with the town of Chepstow on one side and the River Wye on the other. It was owned by a series of magnates keeping a watchful eye on Wales; what survives is the remains of a rare triple bailey, an 11th- century Great Hall and magnificent walls, mostly walkable. Insider tip: Europe's oldest castle doors, thought to be 12th century, are on display inside (today's gatehouse doors are replicas.) Price: Admission to Chepstow Castle is £10, adult; £7, child; £9, concession Where to stay: The St Pierre Marriott Country Club (01291 625261) occupies a 14th-century manor house in parkland, with spa, pool and two golf courses. Doubles from £164, including breakfast. Middleham Castle, North Yorkshire Middleham sits on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and in 1260, via marriage, became a stronghold of the powerful Neville family. Edward IV stayed here with Warwick 'the Kingmaker' and the future Richard III grew up in his household and wed his daughter. See the replica gold and sapphire Middleham Jewel, found here in 1985 (the original is in the Yorkshire Museum). Insider tip: The castle is just near the Middleham Gallops; stop to watch the racehorses and jockeys fly past in training. Where to stay: The Priory Hotel opposite (01969 623279) has double rooms from £155 per night, including breakfast (minimum two-night stay). Burgh Castle Roman Fort, Norfolk That Burgh Castle's flint walls are still guarding the 'Saxon Shore' after 1,700 years is a tribute to Roman builders. It overlooks Breydon Water, which divides the southern and northern Norfolk Broads; three rivers join here on route to the sea at Great Yarmouth and wading birds stalk the tidal mud flats. Perfect for a picnic or a jaunt to the nearby pub. Insider tip: Walk the Angles Way from Great Yarmouth and get the X11 Coastlink bus back. Where to stay: Fritton Lake (01493 484008), four miles south on the Somerleyton estate, has double rooms from £180, room only. Castell Harlech, Snowdonia This hulking beast, standing foursquare over the sand dunes in Harlech (and caravan park) that now separate it from the Irish sea, is an essay in mediaeval aggression. It is one of four Welsh castles built for King Edward I that share Unesco World Heritage status, and at one time was taken by the Welsh prince Owain Glyndwr. Insider tip: Board a train for a coastal journey on the scenic Cambrian Line from Barmouth to Harlech from £6.80, adult; £1.45 child (Anytime Day Return). Where to stay: Penmaenuchaf Hall Hotel (01341 422129) is a cosy, 14-room Victorian country house, 35 minutes' drive away. Doubles from £191, including breakfast. Old Sarum, Wiltshire Talk about value for money: Old Sarum is a perfect Norman castle mound sitting on the perfect ramparts of a 400 BCE Iron Age fort, with the perfect outline of the original cathedral and perfect views of Salisbury Cathedral below. The cathedral moved to Salisbury in 1220, due to friction with the castle's garrison. Insider tip: The loos in the car park occupy a Second World War pillbox and wireless station. Where to stay: The Riverside Salisbury (01722 338388), by the River Nadder, has plenty of parking and doubles from £120, including breakfast.
Telegraph
11-04-2025
- Telegraph
St James's Palace has finally opened its doors, and I was on the first tour
I've always found St James's Palace quite mysterious. As you travel up the Mall from Trafalgar Square, your vision is set so blindly on the glistening pile at the end of the road that it's easy to miss the old red-brick palace, hiding in plain sight behind the high hedges and sycamore trees to the right. Well, the most secretive royal building just got a bit less secretive. As of this week, the 500-year-old palace – for centuries the residence of the reigning monarch – opened its doors to the general public. And I was on the first tour of the season. The tour begins Our 30-strong group, gathered outside the side entrance on Marlborough Road, gave off the aura of the lucky families who had found golden tickets in their chocolate bars. Only, instead of a chocolate factory, we were about to embark on a tour of a royal palace older than ancient oaks. Instead of a flamboyant, tin-whistle-blowing chocolatier, our guide was a royal expert named Sarah who described St James's as something of an 'unknown gem' despite being the principal royal residence. For many centuries, St James's Palace has been closed off to the public, its courtyards and ornate staircases the stuff of the imagination. But then the palace quietly ran small-scale trial tours to Royal Collection newsletter subscribers in the autumn of 2022 and 2023. This year, the opening is on a much bigger scale and has been publicised widely: 2,500 members of the public will pass through the doors in April and May. On entry, we were put through a security check and briefing. Photographs and videos would not be allowed during the tour, we were told. No touching anything, of course. And, somewhat disconcertingly, there would be no toilet stops during the 90-minute walk-around. After passing through the lower corridor, past a very defiant-looking King Charles I (painted while things weren't going too well for him), we entered the Colour Court, half-washed in sunshine. Here, we had a first glimpse of the Great Gatehouse, positioned rather unusually off to the side of the courtyard. Why? Because the architects used the original medieval foundations. The palace, I was learning, is very much a product of the gradual march of change. And fires. Next, we reached the Grand Staircase. Here, the first thing that first grabbed my attention was a wonderful portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Richard Stone, gifted to the Royal Collection in 2015 when she became Britain's oldest monarch. As we ascended the steps, it dawned on me that I was walking in the footsteps of royals spanning from the Tudors to the current era. From Henry VIII to Prince Louis. The rooms where history is made Up the stairs, we reached the Royal Apartments, the rooms where history is made. In the Armoury, part of the old Tudor part of the building, the floorboards creak beneath thick red carpets. 'I always think there's a distinctive smell in here,' Sarah muses, pointing out the geometric displays of guns, spears and swords that adorn the walls. 'Must be the gunpowder.' It is from this room that the proclamation of the Accession Council was made in September 2022: 'The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King.' But, in the absence of a balcony, the glass pane of the window was removed and a makeshift balcony installed. Such improvisation is required of a building that began its life as a leprosy hospital, before being repurposed as a hunting lodge and, only later, a royal palace. In the Tapestry Room, we marvelled at the Mortlake-designed works that tell the stories of Venus and Mars and a fireplace engraved with 'H' and 'A' – Henry and Anne (Boleyn). Then, through to the Queen Anne Room, things get bigger and brighter, and more golden, as the influence of John Nash begins. The room is perhaps best known, in recent popular imagination, as the place where King Charles was invited to join a celebratory Samoan dance with a visiting dignitary during a Commonwealth reception – and obliged. Through the Entree Room, where a Take That tribute band recently performed at a Christmas do (a fact that temporarily dissolved the mystique of the whole affair), we entered the Throne Room. While this is not the throne used during the coronations, when we speak of 'the Throne' in the general sense, this is it. 'It has a touch of immortality to it,' said Sarah, as the group gazed on in silence. Through the Picture Gallery, perhaps one of the more interesting rooms on the tour given the quantity of artworks hanging on the walls, including a fascinating scene including a lion tamer (see below), we reached a balcony overlooking the Chapel Royal. I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to imagine Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, standing, austerely, hand in hand, on the day of their marriage 185 years ago. 'Rumour has it that Queen Mary's heart is buried just over there, beneath the choir stalls,' said Sarah. The notion was, over time, accepted as little more than folklore, until recent X-rays carried out during plumbing work showed that there is, indeed, a casket down there. Even today, mysteries of the last 500 years continue to be uncloaked. A new open era for the royal residences Sadly, inevitably, the St James's Palace tours have already sold out. However, I have it on good authority that there will be more in the future. And if you are interested in taking a behind-the-scenes look at a royal abode, there are more options now than ever before. In 2024, the East Wing of Buckingham Palace, including the room adjoining the famous royal balcony, opened to the public for the first time. And Balmoral Castle, understood to be Queen Elizabeth II's favourite residence, opened previously off-limits parts of the castle for the first time last year. There are also now £1 tickets available to Windsor Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Buckingham Palace for those on universal credit. It feels very much as if King Charles has made it his personal mission to close the gap between the royal family and its subjects. What an enlightened decision this is. And what a privilege it is to be able to turn the imagination into reality, if for just 90 minutes or so. Highlights of the tour The Grand Staircase The Grand Staircase forms a key part of a ceremonial route through the state apartments. It is up these steps that esteemed guests ascended, for more than two centuries, to be met with a royal audience. The Grand Staircase looks rather different today from the stone steps built by Henry VIII in the 16th century. In 2025, the Grand Staircase reflects the tastes of Edward VII, who, at the turn of the 20th century, stripped out the floral wallpapers favoured by Queen Victoria with lighter white-and-gold tones. The Colour Court and Great Gatehouse The Colour Court is one of four courtyards at St James's Palace, named after the flag that was once raised to show which regiment of the Household Division of the British Army was on duty at the time. A prominent feature of the Colour Court is Henry VIII's Great Gatehouse, whose clock tower is topped with a bell tower and weather vane, partially hidden by the parapet at the top of the structure. The Tapestry Room On entering the Tapestry Room, your eyes immediately turn to the grand fireplace, which dates from Henry VIII's reign and is inscribed with the initials 'H' and 'A' for Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The room is decorated with tapestries that tell the story of Vulcan and Venus from Homer's Odyssey. Charles I, when Prince of Wales, commissioned nine tapestries to be hung in this room, although after his execution in 1649 these were sold across Europe, along with many other works. Queen Victoria brought some of these back to St James's Palace in the 19th century, to be cut and hung by William Morris and his company. The Picture Gallery Built during the reign of Queen Victoria, the Picture Gallery features a series of striking portraits including Sir Edwin Landseer's Isaac van Amburgh and his Animals. Amburgh was a lion tamer from the United States, and his extravagant performances created quite the storm in Victorian London. Queen Victoria herself attended his shows seven times in six weeks in 1839. The room is used for official purposes, such as during the Accession Council: it was in this room that King Charles III was proclaimed king. The Throne Room The centrepiece of the Throne Room is the exquisite, carved gilt and wood throne, which features the cypher and crown of Queen Elizabeth II. Above is a canopy of state. The silk velvet that surrounds the throne is embroidered with national emblems and Queen Victoria's coat of arms (a lion and a unicorn). After being proclaimed king on September 10, 2022, King Charles III moved through to the Throne Room to hold his first Privy Council meeting. The Chapel Royal Right next to the Great Gatehouse is the busy working chapel, Chapel Royal, built by Henry VIII in the 1530s. Within the chapel you will find a great, coffered Tudor ceiling, and some magnificent examples of silver-gilt plate, including a set of altar candlesticks engraved with the monogram of the Duke of York (later, James II). The chapel has hosted many significant royal events over the years. Most famously Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert on February 10, 1840. The chapel continues to host royal milestones, including the christening of Prince Louis in 2018. How to do it Tours for the 2025 season (1hr 30m; running on Fridays and Saturdays from April 11 to May 31; £85pp) have sold out. However, the palace plans to open its doors again in the future. Check and the RCT e-newsletter for updates on future public tours.
