Download Buckingham Palace: The History of the British Royal Family's Most Famous Residence AudioBook Free
When people think of the English Royal family, and much more specifically their current address, the first image that often pops into head is that of stately Buckingham Palace, with its changing of the shield and the casual royal coach going out of or stepping into. Others may think of the royal country house of Windsor Castle, a favorite of both Britain's longest-reigning and second longest-reigning monarchs. And there is a period when both royal residences enjoyed second fiddle to a far greater known home, the fashionable Kensington Palace. In his multi-volume work, Old and New London (1878), Edward Walford had written, "It has often been said by foreigners that if they were to guage of the dignity and greatness of an country by the palace which its sovereign inhabits, they would not be able to ascribe to Her Majesty Queen Victoria that happy position among the list of 'crowned heads' of Europe which certainly belongs to her. But though Buckingham Palace is far from being so wonderful as Versailles is, or the Tuilleries were in the past, yet it offers about it an air of solidity and humble grandeur, which renders it no unworthy residence for a sovereign who cares more for a comfortable home than for screen." This is in the end what palaces are about: vitality and impressions. Buckingham Palace is not different, for though it was at first built as a home of an exclusive resident, once a king bought it, its future was covered. Walford persisted, "Indeed, it offers often been said that, with the exception of St. James's, Buckingham Palace is the ugliest royal residence in Europe; and although vast amounts of money have been spent at various times after its improvement and embellishment, it's very far from being worth the purpose to which it is dedicated - lodging the sovereign of the most powerful monarchy on earth. It fronts the european end of St. James's Area, which here converges to a narrow point; the Shopping center, after the north, and Birdcage Walk, after the south, almost meeting before its gates." While this was often true, fortunately it was just as often untrue, as men and women of high and low get ranking worked over time, in times of life and loss of life, and peacefulness and conflict, to make it a home the United kingdom people could be proud of. Buckingham Palace: THE ANNALS of the English Royal Family's MOST WELL-KNOWN House examines the long and storied background of one of England's most well-known landmarks.
