Secrets Of Buckingham Palace - British Royal Documentary

britain's royal palaces majestic it's absolutely dripping in history luxurious the white drawing room at buckingham palace is like a scene from a disney film and packed to the rafters with incredible secrets secrets that the royal family would much prefer not to be made public from loyal courtships to royal births to royal marriages and scandals the palaces have played host to all of that this series goes behind palace walls the royal palaces represent the monarchy and have incredible history we'll learn how these iconic creations were built 16th century kings built with brick in a way that we wouldn't recognize today this is george iv leaving his mark on the center of london uncover the spectacular palace art housed within the royal collection is vast and i mean vast it has more than a million objects spread across all of the royal palaces just imagine what has been collected over a century so this collection is unlike any other collection in the world discover their gruesome stories it's an amazing insight into the royals history but also our common history frankly you're gonna cut the head off a king it's got to be done in a palace and relive the recent events that shaped the modern royal family the whole case was an absolute fiasco and a huge embarrassment the queen was particularly aggrieved that harry had done it in the way that he had this is the secrets of the royal palaces [Music] this time royal security under the spotlight as the queen gets locked out of her own palace nelson's gate wouldn't open the queen was actually locked out of her own house [Music] one of our most loved royals is revealed to the world at balmoral the impact of these pictures was massive they went around the world we explore the blueprints for the most famous royal palace in the world every one of those rooms is a glitzy show-off piece and discover it has unwanted house guests buckingham palace has definitely got a rat problem and we reveal the secrets of one of its historic royal coaches the coach isn't just a way of getting the queen from a to b it's a time capsule of british history across the ages [Music] royal palaces are found in every corner of the uk from balmoral and hollyrood in scotland to windsor and kensington palace in england there's no doubt that the royal residences are unrivalled i think around the world you know you have centuries of tradition priceless artifacts really important pieces of british heritage on display and i think we're very lucky to have them and the history and heritage continue inside the palaces as well as they also house thousands of priceless treasures largest collection of art and furniture and beautiful treasures in the whole world it's really effectively all of these things have been collected by monarchs over the years so therefore it's a brilliant collection that reflects our nation's evolution and historical significance the royal collection tells us amazing things about the last 500 years of british and world history but at kensington palace one of the most historically important artifacts is hidden in plain sight the weather vane sits on top of kensington palace built in 1605 the palace is one of the country's most popular visitor attractions with over half a million people a year walking through these gilded gates i think most people who come to kensington palace are hoping to spot a royal sitting on the roof this weathervane is one of the palace's most incredible secrets a beautiful golden object nestled between the royal chimney pops when you approach kensington palace if you look up on the rooftops you might just make out the glitter of a wet vein but there is more than meets the eye to this thing [Music] in 1689 the new monarch william iii and his wife mary picked kensington palace as their home these were turbulent times crucial battles were being won and lost on the high seas everyone was looking for an advantage and this unassuming weather then would become william's secret weapon he had his navy out at sea at battle and by knowing what direction the wind was blowing in he'd know where the battle would go in his favor or against him [Music] but it's what lies beneath this weather vein that makes it one of a kind what william did was he commissioned a really ingenious object that's somewhere between art and engineering and what it meant was that he didn't need to be outside to see the direction of the weather down in the king's gallery there is a map above the fireplace this map is so important because it became the very center of king williams military operations it's got the four continents in the corner and great britain has been made much larger in scale in comparison to the rest of europe particularly france with whom england was at war at the time it's an amazing work of art but what's incredible also is the metal dial and how that works [Music] connecting the two are a series of please so as the weather vane moves on the roof of kensington palace a dial shifts on the face of the map instantly william could see the direction of the wind and plot his next military maneuver on his map it was a game changer giving him a crucial edge over the enemy william that they created and amazingly it's still in perfect working order more than 300 years later williams weatherbain may be subtle in his way but kensington palace most certainly isn't it's one of the most public and easily accessible of all the palaces for privacy the royals retreat up to scotland to their most secluded palace balmoral located 100 miles north east of edinburgh balmoral estate has been a royal palace since 1852 when queen victoria and prince albert bought the land and commissioned the cost balmoral is where the royals go on holiday but it's not like the kind of holiday the rest of us have they are woken to bagpipes in the morning they are piped into dinner in the evening they dress up for dinner in formal clothes it's quite a rigid life but between those markers during the day there is enormous freedom it's the one palace they can almost guarantee privacy which is probably why so many royal relationships have blossomed there the duke and duchess of cambridge spent time there when kate was first being introduced to the family but probably the most famous balmoral romance happened in 1980. [Music] prince charles was getting a bit of a reputation as a man about town and was showing no signs of settling down [Music] the first duty of the prince of wales was to find a wife produce heirs to the throne because that's that is their number one priority securing the line of succession after a series of failed relationships pressure was mounting from within his family for him to find a suitable match he was over 30 he had had a string of girlfriends his father felt that it really was important that he needed to settle down stop being a playboy stop playing a field and find a wife and the press was also getting useless going into a feeding frenzy whenever charles was seen out with a lady there was a lot of speculation poor fellow um whenever he was seen with anybody is she the one he did feel pressure there's no question from the press uh from the media and and indeed from his from his own family then in september 1980 prince charles asked the queen to invite his latest girlfriend juan diana spencer to balmoral for the weekend a positive sign that this relationship was important to him but for any potential wife or husband there is a secret tradition that takes place at this royal palace the balmoral test a pretty terrifying moment for any would-be royal girlfriend you're really given the day in one of the royal residences i mean there's a lot of pressure to try and get it right and um other girlfriends of prince charles had fallen down would diana pass the balmoral test this was a make-or-break moment for the budding relationship the queen thought this girl is completely charming and she seems to love everything about the outdoors which of course she didn't at all but she she was really putting on a good show diana was a huge hit at balmoral that summer she fitted in with everything that the royals do up there she went for long walks she fell in puddles of mud and got up and roared with laughter everybody fell for her that weekend they have lots of outdoor barbecues where prince philip usually prepares and cooks the food the queen often does the washing up and diana was very happy to help she rolled up her sleeves by all accounts she absolutely nailed it coming up in secrets of the royal palaces we learn how diana was always one step ahead of the palace paparazzi when i moved to either side to try and photograph her she used the mirror to keep a tree between me and her very clever and we discover how the queen mother dealt with unwanted houseguests she got the gun and she used to shoot them in the ruins of this humble part of buckingham palace [Music] the royal palaces come in all shapes and sizes some are opulent and luxurious while others are more homely and simple palaces like buckingham palace demand attention another backdrop for huge affairs of state while others are just for the family more secluded and secretive in september 1980 one palace balmoral was hiding a secret within its 50 000 acres a secret that when it got out was going to change the royal family forever the royal family have an annual holiday at balmoral it is one of the high spots of their of their year and they are very private there the press normally leave them alone for quite a lot of the time when they're at balmoral but this year they were joined by prince charles's girlfriend diana spencer she had already passed the royals balmoral test and got the family blessing but now she faced the toughest test of all how would she deal with the press the press knew that there was someone around but they couldn't quite identify which of the glamorous uh bright young things who were sort of fluttering around charles was the latest girlfriend was so they kind of got away with it for a bit photographer ken lennox was a regular visitor to balmoral taking pictures of the royals on the moors and around the estate i arrived earlier because prince charles would often do a spot of fishing in the river day as i walked from the car towards the river i saw that there was a young girl there blonde quite close to prince charles the girl saw me and left prince charles and went into some giant fir trees the next thing i saw a compact mirror coming out from behind a tree [Music] she turned her back to them and i think she held up a mirror so she could see them and they saw the mirror glinting in her life diana proved herself savvy she deliberately didn't want to be photographed she used that mirror as she walked away and when i moved to either side to try and photograph her she used the mirror to keep a tree between me and her very clever [Music] i think there's a very good argument for saying that the way she behaved that morning on the riverbank did display an early sign of of her unique savviness when it came to spotting a camera and the activities of the press it must have been dawning on diana now what she was letting herself in for keem to capture this newcomer can return to the riverbank in the afternoon uh range rover arrived and i saw the girl again and this time she turned and looked at me she turned and looked right into the lanes i took a photograph through some snow and she turned her head away and went into the fishing hut but when i get back despite the bad light and the snow and everything i got a recognizable photograph of this girl lady diana spencer ken didn't know it then but he had just captured the first evidence of a relationship between prince charles and his future wife [Music] i didn't think i've run mines at all at that stage it was when one of the retinues said to me i hear you photographed young diana spencer i said yes i did and he said don't dismiss it ken which indicated that he thought there was more to come and that it wasn't just a weekend thing these pictures were the definitive proof of a relationship between charles and diana ken had a scoop charles's new girlfriend and potential future queen when these pictures were published oh is it a new girl in prince charles's life who is she and she's very much in the sort of balmoral media this this aroused lots and lots of interest and lots of lots of speculation which is which is great for the press but more difficult i think if you're diana the impact of these pictures was massive um they went around the world because at that moment he was the most eligible bachelor in the world and the fact that this girl diana we now know was back there so soon after the first uh spotting obviously was significant she was suddenly front page news and really from that time on from september 1980 onwards for the rest of her life diana was on the front pages and she rarely left them hidden away in the highlands of scotland balmoral had proved the perfect palace backdrop for this blossoming relationship [Music] buckingham palace on the other hand was designed to be seen it's the most famous and most visited of all the royal palaces [Music] it's pomp and circumstance it's royalty it's queen it's the most iconic palace in the entire world buckingham palace is monarchy hq it is the headquarters of the firm the british royal family buckingham palace was the brainchild of one man king george iv george iv was a very self-indulgent king he loved the pomp and pageantry and he wanted a palace that was fit for a monarchy that had growing world significance when george iv came to the throne in 1820 royal hq was saint james's palace in his eyes it was old-fashioned and cramped so he set his sights on a royal building two miles down the road buckingham house george felt it was a building he could transform into a palace worthy of someone of his status this was transformative it was entirely new he wanted to recast buckingham house into a building on a european scale and there was only one architect who could execute george's grand ambitions to build the ultimate palace john nash he'd already built some of the most spectacular buildings britain had ever seen including the theater royal haymarket and brighton's royal pavilion george iv the showman always wanted to show off and nash was the man to do it for him nash had turned the middle of london into a theatrical promenade he was ingenious nash set about transforming buckingham house into george's vision of a royal palace doubling the main block in size and massively enlarging the rest this is george iv leaving his mark on the center of london but only part of nash's exterior remains today and it is only seen by a privileged view those lucky few invited to a garden party say there is an opportunity to see the rear elevations yellowy sandstone sloping down to lawns and beyond them gardens a lake it's a neo-french classical style and it's now of course hidden from public gays however the back of the palace was relatively dull in comparison with george and nash's plan for the front the fiesta resistance was marble arch the arch was built in front of the palace as its grand entrance for a marble from italy every time the monarch swept through there it would be with an imperial grandeur but unfortunately george never did get to sweep through the arch he died in 1830 age 67 before his grand palace was completed the first monarch to move in was queen victoria in 1837 but she felt the palace wasn't big enough and started a major expansion project she added an east wing she basically needed more room for the kids and the first casualty of her build was george's marble arch this arch was basically in the way it needed to be moved for her to extend the palace marble arch was painstakingly moved stone by stone to its current location at the end of oxford street [Music] marble arch used to be the entrance to buckingham palace now it's sort of in a busy roundabout it must have been something of a heartbreaker of a job to dismantle something and then rebuild it for no purpose as what a folly an eye catcher it just sits there it was a monument that no one really wanted [Music] but for all buckingham palace's pomp and grandeur it's been hiding a secret for centuries a secret it would very much like to get rid of rats buckingham palace has definitely got a rat problem when queen victoria moved to buckingham palace queen she was shocked by how many rats there were the rats treated buckingham palace like their own personal playground and when victoria moved in she tried to put a stop to it and really it ended up being a bit of a battle it got so bad that victoria had to appoint her own rat catcher and this was jack black whose title was vr rat and mole catcher to her majesty and he really was the watch whisperer i think that victoria really hoped that he would exterminate the rats for good but i'm afraid he didn't the rats continued to play buckingham palace throughout the reigns of all the monarchs and in world war ii the queen mother used to use the rats as target practice so she had a gun and she was practicing for what to do in case hitler invaded and she was kidnapped so she was using these bats for target practice she got the gun and she used to shoot them in the ruins of this crumbled part of buckingham palace so the rats have always been a problem throughout all of buckingham palace as recently as 2019 exterminators were called in because rats were seen tearing through the royal kitchens i honestly think that the best place to be in london if you're a rat is in palace there's lots of food there's lots of hidden places there's lots of holes because it's such an old house so rats have a good time walking palace and they're historically always lurking under the floorboards [Music] still to come on secrets of the royal palaces nation george's grand front gate has gone the palace's dazzling state rooms more than compensate the white drawing room is exquisite and that's so deliberate it's all about reinforcing the mystery of monarchy and a royal hellraiser wreaks havoc at st james's suddenly his court became one of extravagance of hedonism and certainly of women [Music] [Music] the british royal palaces are as individual as the monarchs they house for good or ill these palaces were lived in by the people that were ruling over us going back over a thousand years so they're an insight into the history of the country into the archaeology into the domestic practices and it's incredible insight into everybody's history the palaces can change as often as the monarchs falling in and out of favour being bought sold demolished or extended but some extensions are more famous than others when you think of kingdom palace you actually think of the balcony ask anybody across the world and the landmark they want to go see the most when they come and visit is the infamous balcony for over a century it's been the focal point for our national celebrations [Music] it is the place where the royal family and the people connect walking out there and seeing the crowds of people cheering must be overwhelming [Music] this stone platform has become the place where we welcome new monarchs and celebrate royal marriages [Music] on this balcony some traditions have been shaped by popular demand prince george of kent and princess marina became the first royals to wave to the crowds in 1934 and in 1981 prince charles and princess diana bowed to the crowd cheers and became the first newlyweds to kiss on the balcony a tradition that continues today [Applause] [Music] the balcony we know today was born out of an ambitious plan to overhaul london's ceremonial center in the early 20th century architect aston webb not only gave the palace a new front of portland stone but also widened the mail and created admiralty arch i think if george iv had seen buckingham palace today he'd say that's what i was talking about it starts with a version of marble arch then the great road of the mao frames a processional view of buckingham palace and then he guides your eye to the very center by setting underneath the focal pediment a balcony and the royal family themselves become the very focus of the end of this long parade of greatness but when webb began work buckingham palace didn't have a balcony at all the facade presented to the world was one that could have been the front of a hotel or railway station or one of london's clubs to transform buckingham palace into a more suitable seat of power webb naturally turned to stockport if you were to take the main part of line park in cheshire and just glue it on you wouldn't be far off what you're looking at today george v oversaw webb's work he made sure that the palace's balcony was front and center so that it could be used on occasions when the king and other members of the royal family wished to show themselves to the people [Applause] [Music] just months after the building was completed world war one broke out and the crowds gathered to seek reassurance from the king but perhaps the balcony's most defining moment came on ve day in 1945 they talked about being draped and crimson and fringed in gold you know across the sort of gray slash that is the frontage of buck powell or is this kind of extraordinary flicker of hope and majesty around which everyone could gather and cheer and say hallelujah because the war was over it gives a focal point if you like for national emotion millions watch the royal family standing on the palace's balcony unaware it's a copy of the stockport stately home but not all monarchs use their palaces to celebrate moments of national pride back in the 17th century a particular hell raising earl used st james's palace to throw bashes that threatened to ruin the reputation of his king charles ii charles had a group of male friends which was perhaps the most shocking group of male friends you could possibly imagine and they were called the merry gang [Music] his court became one of extravagance of hedonism and certainly of women the head of this lot was john wilmot kendall of rochester who we know now through what are the rudest poems in the canon of english literature you will ever find i mean there aren't many about trees and flowers frankly that everyone did go too far and what he did was he wrote this poem called a satire on charles ii and it was savage it savaged the king it savaged the court and it was so disdainful and this is the worst line for me rochester said of the king restless he rolls about from to a merry monarch scandalous and poor so rochester really was never again the king's friend this poem marks the final break that was the end of rochester as being part of the king's court until his death finally fittingly of syphilis in 1680. [Music] when royal palaces aren't being temples to debauchery they're normally used as working buildings the offices of the monarchy buckingham palace is the queen's main work address it's here she spends most of her weekdays carrying out the duties of state but most thursdays she gets to get away from the office and travel up to windsor the palace she thinks of as home windsor castle is the queen's favorite of all of the royal residences it is the one place that she considers home windsor is the one that means the most to her it's a journey that's made most weeks and should run like clockwork it's all about communication when her majesty leaves buckingham palace they will choose a route and through an encrypted system will inform windsor castle that her majesty is on way and that the eta is roughly half an hour or whatever but on the 5th of march the queen turned up at one of the palace's many side entrances ready to start her weekend only to find the gates of the castle firmly shut the convoy arrived at nelson's gate in windsor it wouldn't open the queen was actually locked out of her own house normally with royalties rather like it's right like the door at number 10 it opens as you arrive simply with royalty arriving at a palace the gates open and then the gates shut after after she's gone in but just didn't seem to happen this particular day which is astonishing really clearly communication went wrong with whoever was charged with opening that door the queen who values punctuality can be seen looking very fed up in the back of her car with one of her dogs company passes by were taking pictures and kind of laughing because the queen kind of sat there like a sitting duck it's all rather embarrassing unfortunately the gates of the castle remained shut even after a little gentle persuasion from one of her protection officers one of the bodyguards got out of female bodyguards i think with the gates not budging they had no choice but to try something else when the queen is in a motorcade you have to keep moving you never ever want to stop that's why they sail through red lights and they've got police outriders because the moment the car with the principal stops they're a sitting target so the protocol is always to keep moving i would imagine temperatures went up somewhat but you are trained to look at plan b and plan c if necessary the cops have to do a u-turn they can't have to do a kind of circuit of windsor while they alerted staff to get the gate open thankfully after a quick trip around the block her security team managed to contact the castle and inform them they had a rather annoyed monarch waiting to get into her own house whether they were embarrassed i don't know whether they were angry uh possibly the queen always says famously get it right i don't imagine the queen would have personally given them a rocket but perhaps the message would have come down that one was not amused [Music] the royal palaces house an extraordinary range of art and design objects and some are as practical as they are beautiful none more so than the queen's collection of carriages a vital and iconic part of any royal celebration carriages are usually reserved for big occasions coronations state visits royal weddings or the opening of parliament the royals have to use these carriages because it's tradition it's what we all remember it's what we see in the history books it's what we envision they form part of that pomp and ceremony and circumstance that we associate with monarchy and that the public enjoy i never want the royal carriages to go away there are more than 100 coaches in the royal collection and the most important carriages are held here at buckingham palace's royal news [Music] the newest coach on the muse is the diamond jubilee state coach which made its first appearance in 2014 as the queen set up from a palace for the state opening of parliament the jubilee coach looks really like a kind of classic fairy tale coach black and gold it's got all the symbols of monarchy it's more than five meters long it's three meters high and it needs six horses to get it going and of course the perfectly clean and large windows allow her subjects a glimpse of the monarch as she passes by we can see them much better if they were in a car it's faster there's you know there's not as many sort of and due to a secret 360 degree camera hidden in the golden crown on the top of the coach the queen gets to peek out at her subjects as they peek in coming up on secrets of the royal palaces we reveal the secrets hidden inside the queen's most luxurious carriage you can see immediately that something special is going on and in our final tour of buckingham palace we take you into the heart of the incredible state rooms dripping with gold and a hidden passageway the white drawing room at buckingham palace is like a scene from a disney film in many ways [Music] which is on the muse at buckingham palace had its first public outing in 2014 the coach made in australia was originally designed for the queen's 80th birthday in 2006. the coachmaker was a man called jim fracklington and i think it's fair to say he was an obsessive he had actually already designed a coach for the queen that was the australian state coach that was gifted to her in 1988 but with this he wanted to do something even more extraordinary franklinton wanted the coach to be history personified and packed with historic artifacts you can see immediately when you look inside the coach that something special is going on it's got this incredible patchwork of different small wooden panels there's a piece of canterbury cathedral there's a piece of carnarvon castle there's something from 10 downing street you've got something from henry viii's flagship the mary rose there's even something from the apple tree that isaac newton sat under the handrails are a very personal touch for the queen because they come to the decommissioned royal yacht britannia the coach isn't just a way of getting the queen from a to b it's a museum on wheels it's a time capsule of british history across the ages [Music] all in all it took nearly a decade and the combined efforts of 50 craftsmen to complete the coach and ship it to the uk missing the queen's 80th birthday by eight years but the final result is truly extraordinary ultimately it wasn't just made to be this wonderful play thing it's actually a serious working piece of equipment so it's very much a working work of art and with its elegant combination of glamour history and modern convenience it's a coach well worthy of its place in buckingham palace's royal news [Music] from a vast expanse of royal mail to the imposing 20th century facade of buckingham palace it's all about showing off when you're walking it's a little bit like the tardis you get past the kind of dull grey exterior and in you go and all is opulent and this wonderful sense of being transported into another world george iv and his architect john nash transformed what was buckingham house into this most face of royal palaces guests enter the grand hall and make their way through to the grand staircase the grand staircase is a double legged staircase that sweeps up to the first floor apartments if you look up to this glass ceiling it's almost like god is shining down on you and of course lest we forget and i'm sure george the fourth never forgot royalty especially was regarded as god's appointed messenger on earth the divine right of kings after the staircase visitors arrive at a series of state rooms the sequence of rooms by design in a royal palace are intended to get grander and grander as you get closer and closer to the heart of the monarchy and the private apartments of the monarch but what's notable here is that they're all splendid the state runes many great treasures from the royal collection including the greatest painting and sculptures through the ages and some of the best english and french furniture in the world every one of those rooms is a glitzy show-off piece grandest of all the state rooms is the white drawing room [Music] the white drawing room is exquisite and that's so deliberate it's all about reinforcing the mystery of monarchy the grandest of the state rooms adorned with french and english finest porcelain and furniture the white drawing room at buckingham palace is like a scene from a disney film in many ways you have these incredible high ceilings everything decorated in gold gold piano enormous chandeliers you know it's what you'd imagine the queen's palace to look like this room holds a palace secret if you look very carefully there are two mirrors and one of them is just to a jar and if you ask very nicely someone might show you that it actually opens slightly and that is the way that the queen accesses her private apartments the queen enters from her royal closet and out she pops there to be presented among the chosen few so really um nash did us proud or rather did her pride with no expense spared buckingham palace has been wowing kings queens presidents and the public for hundreds of years it's the quintessential palace in the heart of london [Music] next time an ex-royal butler accused of stealing from the palace reveals the impact of these shocking charges the bottom of my wall fell out i was heading straight to prison we uncover the secrets of balmoral a favorite getaway for generations of royals this was their patch where they could do things how they liked and tensions rise at the palace as president trump breaks the rules trump knew he needed to be on the very best behavior [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the royal palaces come in all shapes and sizes some are opulent and luxurious while others are more homely and simple palaces like buckingham palace demand attention another backdrop for huge affairs of state while others are just for the family more secluded and secretive in september 1980 one palace balmoral was hiding a secret within its 50 000 acres a secret that when it got out was going to change the royal family forever the royal family have an annual holiday at balmoral it is one of the high spots of their of their year and they are very private there the press normally leaves them alone for quite a lot of the time when they're at balmoral but this year they were joined by prince charles's girlfriend diana spencer she had already passed the royals balmoral test and got the family blessing but now she faced the toughest test of all how would she deal with the press [Music] the press knew that there was someone around but they couldn't quite identify which of the glamorous uh bright young things who were sort of fluttering around charles was the latest girlfriend was so they kind of got away with it for a bit photographer ken lennox was a regular visitor to balmoral take

Channel: Royal Family History

Views: 32,015

Keywords: royal family history, royal family documentary, british royal, british royal history, british royal documentary, history, documentary, queen, queen elizabeth, prince philip, prince charles, prince andrew, princess diana, prince william, kate middleton, prince harry, meghan markle, lilibet, prince george

Id: fff_RZ5zHj0

Length: 44min 4sec (2644 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 20 2021