Prince Edward Uncovers The Royal Secrets Of Richmond & Kew | Crown & Country | Real Royalty

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] it is difficult to believe that on this site once stood a palace which covered 20 acres although all that is left now are the foundations beneath the ground the stories from this vanished Palace still resonate it was a palace favored by Henry VII before Hampton Court a palace from which the succession of the crown was insured and the palace which gave its name to the area we now know as Richmond [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Richmond is better known for being home to the aristocracy of modern music and show business than for its Palace Mick Jagger lives on Richmond Hill and 50 yards away as the home of the who's Pete Town's end it's a far more to do with a monarchy than the kings of rock and roll although there are some extremely colorful episodes in its checkered history this spectacular view from Richmond Hill is one of the most famous in London it was immortalized in numerous paintings by Turner who lived at the bottom of the hill and winding through the middle of the scene as the River Thames with all its Royal associations and countless stories one such tale is that little-known Curiosity eel pie Island [Music] island is one of many along this stretch of the Thames the island now provides a Haven for boat Builders Craftsmen and artists but it was a king who made eel pie Island's unusual name stick Henry VIII had a particular interest in this little island eel pies were produced here and he said he would insist that the very first pie of the Season should be delivered to him at Hampton Court by the watermen of Twickenham before Hampton Court came into the king's possession he favored another Palace which lay a couple of miles further north along the river at Richmond this Palace is Rich with royal stories dating back to the time of Edward III who first converted the manor house of Sheen into the first palace on this site in the 1360s and 70s but for many years one particular story caught people's imagination and has been told over the centuries it is said that after Elizabeth the first died here in 1603 a ring belonging to the queen was dropped from one of the windows of the palace Gateway although it's unlikely the queen actually died in the Gatehouse rooms the rest of the story is based on facts recorded by the man who supposedly caught the ring Robert Carey Robert Kerry was to spend the last few weeks with Elizabeth and wrote moving accounts of his time with her said that when Elizabeth died probably in the part of the palace that is now this beautiful garden her State ring was taken to the window of the Gatehouse and dropped to Kerry who was waiting with his first in a string of horses Kerry was determined to be the first to give the news of the Queen's death to her successor King James of Scotland Elizabeth almost as soon as she came to the throne she started to use Richmond and towards the end of her life she particularly liked to come there in the winter I think it was rather smaller than some of the other palaces and easier to keep warm anyway she is said to have called it her warm winter box history hits is a streaming platform that is just for history fans with fantastic documentaries covering fascinating figures and moments in history from all over the world we've got unrivaled access to the world's leading historians with hundreds of documentaries featuring everything from Boudicca to the British royal family we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and real royalty fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use code real royalty at check Robert Dudley had got to know Elizabeth shortly before she came to the throne he was just about a year older than she was and there is no doubt that she was very attracted to him one evening she went to have supper with Dudley Q added on her way back to Richmond she was talking to the torch bearers who were accompanying her who were Dudley's servants and said I'm going to make your master greater than anybody in his family has ever been now Daddy's father after all had been a Duke so what could be greater the story is about Elizabeth's attraction to Dudley and the her probable intention of marrying him as soon as his wife who was said to be dying of cancer had died were very Rife then came the moment when his wife did die fell down the stairs at her home and broke her neck everybody of course immediately jumped to the conclusion I think quite falsely The Dudley had arranged to be pushed down the stairs or whatever he was banished from Court while investigations went on the inquest found that it was an accident but it certainly completely put paid to any possibility of Elizabeth marrying him there is little now that remains to tell the stories of Elizabeth's time here one part of the palace Still Standing as a row of houses that made up the wardrobe which was said to contain over 2 000 of the Queen's dresses as well as the soft Furnishings from the palace there is even less to tell us of the time spent here by much earlier Kings in their Queens soon after over the third first established the palace here in the 1370s his grandson Richard II took up residence four or five years later he married teenage bride and of Bohemia but it's quite obvious that what started in intention as a dynastical Alliance and a dynastic marriage very rapidly became a love match and they were very much in love with each other and then Sheen became their favorite home the king had a summer Pavilion built on one of the small islands in the river and a special barge to take the couple across to their private Haven but sadly it was not long before disaster shattered this idyllic setting in 1394 the queen contracted the plague and died Richard was heartbroken so much so that he said destroy the palace the place where they'd been happy and he ordered it to be demolished for 20 years the Palace of Sheen lay as an abandoned ruin it was not until Henry V that it came into its own again and not until Henry VII that it became truly great in 1497 Henry VII was celebrating Christmas here when a terrible fire broke out the royal family and household escaped unharmed but the palace was badly damaged the king decided to rebuild on a magnificent scale he renamed the Palace Richmond in honor of his Yorkshire album so From This Moment onwards the palace and the town which is growing up around it took on the name by which it is known today Henry VII died in his new Palace in 1509 and his son Henry VII held a lively Court here until he acquired Hampton Court then the palace at Richmond became a convenient place to house his Ex-Wives both Anne of cleaves and Catherine of Aragon lived here after being abandoned by the king [Music] foreign there is a local specialty named the maid of honor this small sweet pastry was supposedly named by Henry VII after one of his Maids of Honor who later became his wife The Story Goes that Henry VII saw Anne Berlin eating them at Richmond [Music] it was said to have been so delighted with the cakes that he wanted them to be cooked only for him and his household so he imprisoned the unfortunate cook who had invented the recipe and ordered her to prepare them only for those that he chose and to keep the recipe a secret when the pastries were first produced commercially in the 18th century the baker had to pay a huge sum of money to obtain the recipe Maids of Honor also has another strong association with Richmond and one that relates to a later period of Royal residency in the area it's the name given to the beautiful row of houses which stands alongside what was the Medieval jousting Green in Richmond but they got their name because when the prince of walzy then was the future George II moved into Richmond Lodge it was too small for him it wasn't a very big house hunting lodge so you needed somewhere to put his wife Caroline's attendance and they built This Magnificent row of four houses to house these young ladies Richmond Lodge goes all the way back to James the first wanting to make a deer park when he came to Richmond Palace immediately after he came to the throne in 163. George II went as Prince of Wales in 1717 I think he arrived when his father came to the throne as George the first and he moved in and um there were plans to make it more suitable to his status but in fact he was quite bored with Richmond Lodge the small Pokey place he had now all the Royal palaces at his disposal so he handed it over to his wife and said you can have it and she loved it and she then spent a lot of the rather short remaining time of her life improving the gardens with wonderful followers and things two famous ones I mean the first before the Hermitage is very much the fashion in the 18th century to have a Hermitage in your garden ideally with a living hermit in I don't think she ever had that um which was a sort of classical building in Ruins and then she built something called Merlin's cave which was even dottier it had three sort of thatch roofs like beehives and inside were wax work figures of Merlin and a witch and Queen Elizabeth everyone thought it was manipulated but she loved it [Music] King had little time for Caroline's indulgences although he thought them to be nonsense he said he had no control over the way she chose to spend her money it was only after her death it was discovered she owed the king 20 000 pounds ambanos to him it was his money which had paid for her extravagant Follies thank you a rare and important astronomical event was calculated to occur on the 3rd of June 1769 when the planet Venus was due to pass in front of the Sun George III being a keen amateur astronomer was determined not to miss it the whole world with George III the foremost among them was absolute a Gog with excitement this event was going to happen Captain Cook was sent all the way out to Tahiti to observe it there and note it down and George III built this lovely Observer she said he could observe it with his astronomers The Observatory is a wonderful building I think it's one of the most evocative buildings in Richmond because at that time in the 1750s 60s 70s astronomy was actually the rage there were very exciting times 78 years before Edmond Halley had predicted that a comet would return Halley's Comet in 1758 and learn behold it did absolutely amazing to everyone then he had able to predict this The Observatory also gave rise to another myth that has passed into London's folklore and it concerns these two monoliths they're referred to as the Duelists and The Story Goes that the last ever deal in the country was fought here and each pillar marks the spot where the unfortunate government had to stand to shoot however the truth is slightly different the Stone Stand due south of the king's Observatory and were used to align the telescopes after George III's long bouts of illness when he suffered from porphyria the king as part of his convalescent took long walks out Richmond Hill to enjoy the spectacular views [Music] as well as being a fashionable place to live the hill was also the source of the Richmond Wells the spring of an impregnated water was an early tourist attraction and soon Richmond was inundated by London Society seeking to take the waters as it still is today Richmond Hill was always home to the rich and famous in the 1780s it is said that Maria fitzherbert lived here when she was first introduced to the Prince of Wales although twice married she was only 27 when he met her and fell passionately in love with her it was only due to the vicar of Saint Mary's Twickenham that the couple were able to marry eventually he pursued her all over the place she went over to the continent and he pursued it there um and there was a story that he even sort of threatened to take his life um if she didn't um marry him she was around Catholic um and therefore there were a number of problems about any relationship that she could have with the prince the the Bill of Rights which was a 17th century law which laid down that if um an heir to the throne or someone who had a right to the throne mounted Roman Catholic they had to pass that over and also George III because some of his other children had created had had rather disastrous managers um had persuaded Parliament to pass an act which said that no child under 25 could be married without the king's permission and Prince was only 22. so those two things would make it impossible it didn't seem to stop the prince from wanting them to marry this lady and eventually in 1785 in the drawing room of her house in Park Street in London they were married the problem was actually to find someone to marry them so um a number of people were approached and I think certainly a couple had cold feet I mean you really were taking your life in your hands but Robert bird agreed the story is that he agreed for 500 pounds and on that promise he performed the marriage there were two witnesses and the marriage certificate is actually in the Royal archives in Windsor the man who married them avoided the controversy and lived quietly as Vicar of Saint Mary the virgin in Twickenham his part in the affair remained a secret as Maria would never divulge the name of the man who had married her to the prince the whole of fan with Maria fitzherbert was about to come to an abrupt end the Prince of Wales was running up massive debts and as part of a deal to pay them off he was pressurized into a dynastic marriage his cousin Carolina Brunswick was chosen to be the most suitable bride during the turmoil which followed Maria fitzher but stayed here at Marble Hill House it is said that on the days leading up to his wedding to Caroline the prince could be seen riding back and forth in front of the house even though Maria and the prince of Wales never made up their differences she was with him when he died he was also buried with a miniature of Maria which he'd always worn around his neck Marble Hill House had originally been built for an earlier King's mistress Henrietta Howard when both her parents died Henrietta was brought up by the Suffolk Family while in their hassle she met Charles Howard the suffolk's youngest son she was married to him at the age of 18. Charles Howard was a drinker and gambler as well as being prone to violence everyone including Queen Anne was said to be nervous of him as he found it difficult to win favor at court Howard truly decided to go to Hanover and ingratiate himself and Henrietta with the Future King George the first once George the first came to the throne they returned to England with the new King's Court George the first argued with his son the Prince of Wales and he basically threw him out of St James's so the Prince of Wales and his family moved out of St James's to Leicester house and Richmond Lodge and because Henrietta worked with the Princess of Wales she went with them her husband as groom of the bear came to the king actually stayed in St James's so the rift the Royal Rift suited Henrietta very well because it meant that she also was separated from her husband physically which for her was a good thing that's when the Prince of Wales became interested in her and she became his mistress she probably became his mistress about 1720. George didn't really hold a mistress for passion he was a fairly obsessive character he would go to henrietta's Chambers at nine o'clock in the evening precisely and there are stories that he would actually stand outside in the drawing room with his watch and when nine o'clock struck he would then go in for a couple of hours he would then come out and he would actually go back to his wife Henry Ash's life changed drastically when the Prince of Wales became king she was treading a dangerously Thin Line she had to please both her mistress the queen and her lover the king as well as keeping her estranged husband at Bay by 1734 the king had grown bored with her and when he grew suspicious that she was seeing another man he refused to speak to her their relationship deteriorated and she resigned from court she lived out her days at Marble Hill and had no more contact with George II foreign [Music] Richmond Park was created by Charles the first when he enclosed the area with magnificent walls the locals tell had access though via Gates and ladders placed against the walls like giant styles however when George II's daughter princess Emilia was made Ranger of Richmond Park things were about to change she thought even the small number of people coming was pretty unappealing and so she virtually clamped down on it entirely and only letting a few friends and at that point Richmond erupted and people began staging protests and demanding to be slept through the gates and the thing went through several lowercases with Princess Emilia always winning until a local hero John Lewis a brewer decided he would really make an issue of this so he took princess Amelia to court and to everyone's considerable astonishment the judge declared that it had always been a public place and it must be and Mr Lewis would he please decide whether he wanted a gate that his friends were going by or a ladder Style again and he decided that a gate could easily be locked so he opted for louder Stars he would climb up and down so the people have gone in and out ever since John Lewis is a hero at Richmond gate one of the main entrances to the park stands the roll starring gutter home it takes its name from a small Inn which used to be here on the main road from London to Portsmouth through successive owners it grew in size and Prestige until the star and got a hotel became synonymous with the best of standards and the height of luxury by the 1860s it was an enormous Gothic structure I mean absolutely massive it called this area known as the Rhineland Richmond on the Rhine it was like a huge sort of Gothic thing and part of it burned down in 1817 another even bigger bit was built and it was the most magnificent sort of fashion where Hotel you could possibly come to a huge banqueting halls and ballrooms and little commands this wonderful view over the river and had lovely dining rooms with this view so to take your friends out there for a day was a very very Posh thing to do and people were complaining all through the 19th century that it was far too expensive as I'm sure it was there's a lovely print showing all the um guests the host probably thought they were not his guests but going to share the bill but the bill arrives and everyone else started and looked in another Direction while he looked at scans at the appalling sun in front of him but that was his reputation very passion very expensive but the days of the star and garter as an expensive and exclusive Hotel were numbered by 1907 the hotel industry in Richmond had declined because trains made Richmond a day trip from London rather than an overnight stay the star and garter suffered and was put up for auction it was brought by auctioneers and estate agents Institute and was later presented to Queen Mary the queen had become concerned for the welfare of disabled servicemen from the first world war she felt that the care should continue for them after they had left the military what was once such a grand hotel was converted into a makeshift Hospital the queen then handed it to the Red Cross with a wish that it should become a permanent home for disabled ex-servicemen [Music] in January 1916 the Royal Star on garter opened its doors to its first 65 patients and his grandiose Ballroom became Wards however the old hotel proved unworkable as a hospital so it was demolished and this purpose-built home was constructed on the site another working Memorial to the Great Wall is also still thriving today at the other end of Richmond Hill this is the Royal British Legion poppy Factory the idea of using a poppy as an emblem of remembrance was inspired by a poem in Flanders Field was written by Canadian John McRae who was a surgeon in a field Hospital during the 191480 war he wrote it in between treating the endless stream of injured soldiers coming back from the front line Mona Michaels an American working for the YMCA was inspired by the poem she instigated the wearing of a Flanders poppy to remember those who had been killed from this first poppy which she wore in 1918 the idea gathered a worldwide momentum now 81 years later and 34 million poppies are produced here each year the factory is still run on the principal setup by its founder major George Housen when he opened the factory in 1922 within a few years he had hundreds of ex-servicemen working for him today this tradition continues at the factory where all the poppies wreaths and Remembrance crosses are made the poppy Factory like Richmond is no stranger to royalty either as visitors or residents even though it is no longer the location of a royal palace although the old Palace was an important factor in establishing the long history of the crown in this part of the country the Royal Park the hill and the river have all helped to continue that Association from those early days Richmond has been a favorite location for many of my ancestors and it's a very special place in the nation's capital [Music] the heart of our capital is a mere 677 Acres just over a square mile and although the ancient site of London is no longer enclosed by a city wall it is still uniquely separated by its own Customs traditions and financial might this has therefore been vital for my ancestors over the centuries to constantly strive to find a balance of power between the crown and the City [Music] [Music] facing each other across this busy Junction are three of the main buildings which hold the key to the development of the city as we know it today behind the doors of the bank the role exchange and the mansion house are very different but equally important stores at the heart of the city is this money it may be an oversimplification but the success of the city due to the way it has made supervised and regulating money Through the Ages the relationship between the authority the crown and the money men merchants and administrators has always been a complex one but it's a fascinating story which explains much about the city today of course the place where most money is said to be is here at the bank of England the bank is a fortress with gold stored in vaults deep beneath the ground although no one will confirm exactly how much but below these vaults were found Treasures of a different kind Roman Mosaic pavement tiles were found during excavations which suggest that the origins of London as a trading center date from that time over the centuries this tradition has continued [Music] however the story of the bank of England is relatively recent not long after the Glorious Revolution in 1688 the whole of England and especially London was buzzing with new ideas so much so that the period has been called the age of projects one project which was put forward at the time was the idea of a National Bank the country was on the brink of a huge expansion of trade but money to back it was lacking William III had brought with him the influence of his native Dutch banking system which had been successfully running since the beginning of the 17th century the reason for the bank being founded was the fact that the Monarch needed or the country needed money to finance the war against the French the idea had been put forward from early 1690s and a Scotsman by the name of William Patterson Patterson was a london-based Scots entrepreneur described by some as at the time as a pirate but he certainly um had some interesting ideas and one of them was what he called a fund for Perpetual interest in June 1694 a subscription list was opened in other words if you wanted to invest in this new project called the bank of England he went along to Mercer's Hall in cheapside the books there were open and you could invest in it and more than 1200 people did so and the total amount that was invested was 1.2 million pounds quite a large sum for those days the very first entry was for ten thousand pounds that was the maximum you could invest and that was the king and queen William and Mary up until this point money to most people meant coins which was stamped with the Monarch's head to show the man in the street just who was boss but with the Advent of the bank came imaginary money the Forerunner of today's banknote this is the largest denomination note ever issued and it's for one thousand pounds it was in circulation from the mid 1700s until 1943 and in the last year of its issue it had been enough to buy for cash several semi-detached houses in Pinner but perhaps the most surprising thing is there is no sign of the Monarch's head on it we are so familiar with the Monarch's head on our notes today that it's difficult to believe that the only monitor actually appear on a bank of England note is our present Queen the addition of the Monarch's head was introduced in 1960 as one of a number of measures to try to prevent forgery another familiar symbol on our coinage and notes is Britannia and she's also the emblem for the bank of England the version that we see today was drawn from life back in the reign of Charles II and it's actually a portrait of the king's mistress Francis Stewart [Music] the production of coins unlike notes is not the responsibility of the bank they're all mint overseeds coinage although it is still within the city that the ancient trial of the picks takes place this is a ritualized accounting and testing of the previous year's coins a form of monitoring like this has been practiced since Saxon times today the ceremony takes place at Goldsmith's Hall one of the city's many Livery company Halls the Queens remembered to oversee the trial and a jury of eminent businessmen are sworn in there are more than 100 Livery companies which exist within the city today their Origins are thought to date back to the medieval trades places such as Milk Street are in manga Lane poultry and cloth Fair still among the sites where they all began [Music] the early Livery companies earned enormous wealth from controlling monopolies the fishmongers are one such company who had complete control over the selling of fish within the city well the only fourth of the great twelve they're one of the oldest of the city girls with an unbroken history of 700 years and were known to exist long before their official Charter was granted by Edward the first in 1272. [Music] many years ago sort of the 12th century and well before delivery companies in the city were representing trades and they sort of got together as a group of merchants and whatever they were whether it was fishmongers goldsmiths Mercers and created a level of competence in that trade the Weavers company was the first to gain a royal Charter in 1155. but by the 16th century The Livery companies were squabbling over which should take precedence I think the law mayor of that time said look this is ridiculous and he asked his court of alderman to draw up a great 12 and at that time most of these sheriffs were aldermen of the Mercy's company so of course when he said you know the law mayor said who is getting to vote for the Mercers a lot of people put their hands up hence they're number one but they're probably quite rightly deserve it as well but no that that's where the list came from it was drawn up from Lord mayor's on the Lord mayor's request to try and solve the sort of the bickering that was going on which is where the saying sixes and sevens came from because the Skinner's Merchant tailors argued heavily that they should be one above the other and so they actually alternate each year so when you're at sixes and sevens with somebody that's because you're alternating and I think that's probably where the saying came from establishment of the list of the grade 12 Livery companies with the Mercers who traded in cloths and fabric at the top a pattern and standard of business was formed another expression that is commonly used today also stems from that time delivery companies being in the city that was the the um the center of trade and if you failed either in your apprenticeship or your your quality of workmanship you were sent out of the city so you couldn't trade in the city so the next trading place was Coventry uh so it's probably where you know you've been sent to Coventry came from being the next trading area of England by the 14th century fish was one of the chief necessities of medieval life the fishmongers Monopoly saw their wealth grow and they took a prominent position in the Affairs of the city present fishmongers Hall stands in the area where the 13th century fishmongers first set up shop along the Thames this Hall is the fourth on the site since the first was built in the early 1400s one particular member of the fishmongers goes down in history for supposedly saving the city in 1381 what Tyler led a peasants revolt against the young king Richard II the prime Warden of the company at the time was Sir William Woolworth when the rebels reached London Woolworth met them face to face in the presence of the king in the Rowdy confusion Woolworth felt that the King's life was being threatened and so took matters into his own hands and stabbed Tyler who later died from the injuries the Rebellion faded with him but the dagger is still preserved here in the fishmonger's hall like many other guilds the fishmongers have members of their old family and Senior positions within the company either its prime wardens or Masters the present Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip is a past prime Warden and still a member of the court of assistance for the company Livery members also play an important role in the administration of the city through the corporation of London the corporation has Saxon roots and a very strong sense of its own independence and Power it is said the city never refers to William the first as the Conqueror because he didn't actually defeat them in fact the new ruler quickly recognized the authority of the corporation and made it official in 1067. for over 800 years the Guild Hall has been the home of the corporation of London and it's the oldest Center of government in the country it's therefore appropriate that it's housed in the oldest secular Stone building in London which has survived both the great fire and the Blitz the city gradually won the right to run its own Affairs through a series of Royal concessions and charters as the city was a major source of financial loans to success in monarchs the crown was hardly likely to argue with their demands in fact the corporation was seen as so successful that it became the role model for the eventual National Parliament at Westminster one of the main ceremonies held at the Guild Hall is the silent ceremony which takes place the day before the Lord mayor's show as the name suggests not a single word is spoken except the short Declaration of office made by the incoming mayor the outgoing mayor hands the city Insignia over and the two leave in possession the mayor of London as he was originally actually ran the place you know he he was the boss and London was what is now the city of course it spread enormously since then and the corporation grew out of there it was recognizing in effect in 1215 by King John and there was a deal down if you like with the with the king um and if you if you look in the Egyptian Hall you will see Magna Carta in one of the rather magnificent stained glass windows so there has been a very long tradition going back in the city the lawmed takes precedence over everyone except the Sovereign to whom the lawmere will seed precedence and we used to have the rather picturesque ceremony at Temple Bar but I didn't think that has been many years since actually taking place but the idea was that the um Sovereign when entering the city would ask permission from the Lord mayor to enter the law mayor would meet The Sovereign at Temple Bar which was the the boundary between Westminster and the city of London and would offer the sword to the sovereign who would touch it and then would continue the the process into into the city when King John issued the chart in 1215 he stated that newly elected Lord Mayors must be presented to The Sovereign or his justices in order for him to swear allegiance to the crown it also became an opportunity to introduce each new mayor to the citizens of London and has evolved into the spectacular pageant we know today as the Lord mayor's show elaborate pageants were common as early as the 14th century and by the 15th these included highly decorated barges to delivery companies which gave rise to the use of the word float for today's Carnival vehicles the status of the Lord mayor is reflected in many small details like sharing with the Monarch the secret password to the Tower of London and in much grander statements like the mansion house this official residence is palatial in its proportions and decoration and was built to impress the most famous of all Lord mares came long before such Splendid surroundings were at his disposal the name of Dick Whittington conjures up images of a poor boy rising to Fame and Fortune with the help of a trusted cat and the sand of Bo Bells but the truth is a little different he was Lord my three times in fact he was almost three and a half times because there was a lord mayor who died in office and the King asked dick Whittington to take over he was not as poor as a church mouse in fact his father was a fairly wealthy Knight of the squires he made his own way in life became the richest Merchant in the city of London so I mean the idea of him developing his fortune is true but he didn't actually start from from the ground zero if you like and he became the main lender of money to the king in a very big way um kept most of his assets liquid rather than having huge amounts of property so it was rather unusual and he was a very nice woman he was one of the most famous men of his day he was one of the richest men of his day and he was a thunder of the state so the name is correct he was an ordinary of three times um but we don't think he had a cat another of the legacy is left by Whittington was the library at Guild Hall it survived until the mid-16th century when all the books were removed to furnish the library of the Lord protector Edward Duke of Somerset it was not re-established until the 19th century when it became a reference library about London it's now used as a reception room as well as holding the Lord mayor's official Banquets and the entertainment of important visitors to the city the Guild Hall has also been the scene of much darker events several State trials have taken place here and traitors condemned to death perhaps the most tragic being Lady Jane Gray the dying Kingdom with VI had been persuaded by the ambitious Duke and Northumberland to name Lady Jane as his heiress presumptive just prior to this suggestion he'd arranged the marriage of Lady Jane to his teenage son Lord Gifford Dudley because Northumberland feared for his own future if the Catholic Princess Mary was to succeed to the throne Jane reluctantly accepted the crown which her father-in-law falls upon her and she was proclaimed Queen after Edward's Death on the 10th of July 1553 but the people of England wanted Mary and not Jane as their Queen and she was deposed just nine days later northumberland's plan massively backfired on him and he was beheaded the following month his son and then Lady Jane were both tried for treason at the Guild Hall dressed all in black she quietly pleaded guilty and was taken to the tower under the sentence of death early in the next year both her and her young husband were executed on the same day [Music] the present Hall is adorned with magnificent memorials to some of the nation's Heroes including Sir Winston Churchill Admiral the Lord Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington but there are two other intriguing figures who have watched over proceedings here for over three centuries they are the figures of Gog and Magog who are giants that have welcomed kings and queens into the city since the 15th century when they were used in state processions they represent an ancient inhabitant of Britain and a Trojan Invader Legend has it that the Trojans under the leadership of the Roman Brutus won Victory and founded the city as new Troy in 1000 BC they look down over the Magnificent Hall adorned with the banners and Coats of Arms of the great twelve Livery companies these would all have been granted by the lesser-known but equally ancient city body the College of arms the college is the oldest of its kind in the world and is home to the Royal Heralds these are 13 people from the Royal household who were selected by the Monarch and who have special responsibilities for armorial genealogical and ceremonial matters [Music] was granted in 1127 to Jeffrey Evangel when he was knighted by his father-in-law there's no definite known origin of heraldry but the descendants of Charlemagne marked their property with some sort of symbols so that the presidents who couldn't read at the time would know that he with the LAN over there earned that property he had marked it with an evil and that Etc the practice for battle was the tournament which began in France at the end of the 11th century and the tournament then became a sort of elaborate pageant and we first read of Heralds in 1170 because it was their task to organize them keep the score act as sort of MC and journalist the reporter of the day could make or break a knight's reputation by shouting out his deeds or even misdeeds so in the tournament obviously part of the pageant was for the the knights to paint probably these hereditary symbols on their Shields and then a century later the crest came into being it was something else to add a bit more Panache to their appearance they'd make it out of board leather or wood and it would be fitted to the top of their tournament Helm there are records here of all known arms and include many great names some from British history like Lord Horatio Nelson to the present day Sahari secum each have chosen unique symbolism to visually represent their standing in society most here are copies except for that of George III his are the original as he did not pay on their completion and so was not presented with them today arms are granted to people of eminence as well as National and international organizations and companies a Herald will oversee the process which includes checking that the requested design has not been used before done outside St James's Palace and then at three public places in London Trafalgar Square Temple Bar and here in the heart of the city on the steps of the royal Exchange the Royal exchange was first proposed by Richard Gresham an eminent 16th century Merchant who saw the need for a meeting place for all merchants Lombard Street was traditionally where they met but it was proving to be impractical to have increasing number of merchants trading along the open Street Gresham had been deeply impressed by the marketplaces or bosses that he'd seen in Antwerp and decided to try to build the same here he enlisted Henry VII's help in finding a site for the project but the negotiations fell through so it fell to his son Thomas Gresham to devote much of his wealth to seeing his vision of a boss become a reality in the Heart of the City a site was found bought cleared and Gresham laid the first brick in 1566. [Music] he approached the queen Queen Elizabeth II and said to her which which he kindly come and do an official opening this was two years after the build he was in operation and she said yes she would so Gresham entertained her at an enormous banquet in his house they then came to the Royal exchange the queen made an inspection of the Harper Pawn the lower Pawn the court charge you met the merchants and she's was very very pleased with what she saw but she said the only thing I do not like is this ugly word boss is it's to be called The Exchange from now onwards and the ride exchange at that and that's how it gets his name [Music] the present Victorian building stands as a bit of a monument to change in progress this once buzzing Marketplace for some 400 years has temporarily Fallen silent lack of space forcing the closure of the Futures Market here and no doubt creating a new trading opportunity in the constant cycle of the city's commercial life it is perhaps appropriate that where the house of Thomas Gresham stood there is now Tower 42. well it was first built in 1980 it was the tallest building in Europe it is fitting that such an extravagant symbol of financial prowess was built upon the house of one of the greatest figures in English commercial history ultimately the city is a place of contrasts it Embraces all that is new and technologically advanced it is also steeped in Tradition and ritual of the last thousand years or more the city has experienced more growth and change than probably anywhere else in the country but nearly always in partnership with the crown [Music] all over the square mile there are enduring symbols of this partnership which are indicative of the special relationship between the cram and the City

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 114,973

Keywords: Cleopatra History, Crown Secrets, Dynasty Legacies, English Royalty, Historical Residences, Monarchical Society, Noble Families, Noble Heritage, Palace Treasures, Queen Boudicca, Queen Caroline, Queen Consorts, Queenly Tales, Real Royalty, Regal Lifestyle, Regal Residences, Royal Decadence, Royal Estates, Royal Traditions, Sovereign History, The Plague

Id: drmGBr4dml0

Length: 47min 40sec (2860 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2023