The Incredible History Of England's Most Celebrated Palaces | Real Royalty

[Music] europe's castles on the trail of the european aristocracy we investigate france's loia valley germany's baden-wurttemberg the south of england italy's piedmont and the castles around lisbon in portugal [Music] southern england for centuries the kings and queens of england sent fleets from its shores on voyages of discovery and conquest [Music] the island marched to its own beat some traditions emerged here earlier and some later than in mainland europe [Applause] england is still home to great dynasties that are fighting to preserve their traditions and their castles castles such as apple.com house on the isle of wight blenheim palace and waddiston manor near oxford and lastly burly house a remnant of the golden era [Music] the isle of wight lies off the southern coast of england [Music] it was above all the setting for many an encounter with the european continent the island was often used as a gateway to mainland england by its enemies romans vikings and spaniards [Music] bears scars from one of the last wars a bomb hit the castle during the second world war [Music] all that is left today is the once resplendent baroque facade [Music] local residents claim the ruin is haunted and dreadful things came to pass within these walls [Music] gay baldwin researches the island's ghost stories [Music] i like the idea of ghosts and the fact that they remain in a house [Music] the history of old houses and objects has always fascinated gay today she knows the island like the back of her hand [Music] when i became a young reporter on the newspaper here on the isle of wight i got the opportunity to investigate some manor houses where there are ghosts and to write articles and features about the ghosts [Music] in the 17th century appledorcom house was transformed into a baroque castle by its owner sir robert worsley however it was his great nephew who gave the houses extraordinary splendor sir richard worsley had married exceptionally well his wife brought 80 000 pounds into the marriage at that time he could never have imagined that his marriage would spark the greatest romantic scandal of the 18th century sir richard worsley lady seymour worsley sir richard the dashing young owner of this house a colonel in chief controller of the king's household member of parliament governor of the isle of wight and his beautiful young heiress and bride the 17 year old seymour worsley he was looking for money she was looking for love seymour bore her husband a son but their marriage remained loveless when she met george bisset a friend of her husband she fell in love and ran off with him after seymour worsley and bisit had eloped richard worsley never forgave them he issued a criminal conversation case against them suing them for 20 000 pounds an enormous sum of money in the 1700s the case was to be held down in london but seymour worsley was told she could not attend she openly admitted to having 27 lovers in court her doctor william osborne revealed that she had contracted syphilis from the marquis of graham but where the case collapsed was when it was made proof that richard had exposed his wife naked in front of bisit in the bath house at maidstone the jury had had enough they awarded richard worsley just one shilling and all three left in disgrace shunned by society seymour worsley fled to her beloved paris and walked straight into the french revolution she took up with a french courtier and died in obscurity in 1818 but what of all their wealth their money their power they were young and beautiful they had it all and they let it slip between their fingers and what of this house and its glorious ruins [Music] that see more worsely haunt this place is she seen wandering through the rooms and is her face reflected in the window staring out onto the lawns looking for her lover and hoping he will return of course we will never know [Music] the count of yarbrough subsequently owned appledocum house he was a founding member of the royal yacht squadron in 1819 in cows each year the club is the starting point for the world's oldest regatta queen victoria the grandmother of europe had a particular fondness for the island and chose it as the location for her summer residence she died in osborne house in 1901 in the arms of her favorite grandchild the german kaiser wilhelm ii the island's inhabitants often refer to the isle of wight as england in miniature because it boasts all of england's historical and natural features or rather almost all the british mainland is home to a wealth of unexpected treasures such as the huffington white horse this figure is said to have been created three thousand years ago by the celts in honor of their goddess epona and it lies beside their village walls [Music] further north lies the largest palace not owned by the british royal family blenheim palace a victory column soaring up over 40 meters marks the glorious victory of the english over powerful french forces in the war of spanish succession it has been owned by the dukes of marlborough since its construction winston churchill and lady diana spencer are the most famous members of this dynasty the palace's current owner is john spencer churchill the 11th duke of marlborough the first duke is kneeling to britannia who is seated and he's showing britannia the battle of blenheim the victory and britannia gives him the wreath of victory blenheim is named after the small bavarian village of blindheim in 1704 it was the scene of a crucial battle in the spanish war of succession led by the first duke of marlborough the english defeated the french and their bavarian allies as a reward queen anne gave her victorious warlord an entire palace and named it blenheim palace it was england's greatest military victory for over 400 years [Music] the battle cost 40 000 lives and the village of blindheim was almost raised to the ground the spanish war of succession was sparked by france's claim to the spanish throne following the death of the last habsburg king this jeopardized the balance of power in europe and tipped the scales in favor of france at that time the french army was considered to be invincible the first duke of marlborough achieved a seemingly impossible goal caught up in the heat of the moment he reported the victory on the back of a shopping list several items of food have been noted down in french [Music] this message to the queen changed the marlborough family's destiny forever i always say to people that my great ancestor won the battle brennaman one day we're still fighting for blenheim today we'll continue to do that for a long time in the future too of course after the war things changed dramatically and we had to open it to the public because the only by doing that where we're able to keep it for the future another national hero came into the world in this room winston churchill he led england as prime minister during the second world war he not only made a name for himself in the political arena in 1953 churchill was awarded the nobel prize for literature and was also a talented painter [Music] one of his favorite subjects blenheim palace and its park on christmas evening he called me over and said blanford because i was a blatant law blamford at the time he said i have a present for you i said oh i'm convinced i'm very kind what is it and out of his pockets he produced this wonderful girl watch and inside is this in inscription which says to blanford from winston spencer churchill christmas 1937. [Music] churchill never carried the title of duke as the third born his father had not inherited it [Music] the family have a strong artistic vein lady henrietta the duke's daughter follows in this tradition [Music] lady henrietta is an interior designer one of her sources of inspiration are paintings by the fifth duchess of marlborough susan spencer churchill the pictures are over 200 years old i don't necessarily like to use the word traditional because i think traditional is more sort of stuck in a time warp but i think classic can encompass everything from the past to present day but it's sort of respecting various principles of design and i'm certainly a classicist [Music] lady henrietta transforms the flower motifs into patterns for wallpaper and materials using them to furnish entire rooms [Music] lady henrietta is named after the eldest daughter of the first duke as she had no brothers she inherited her father's title and became the duchess of marlborough highly unusual for that time she was a remarkable lady at her time i mean very powerful very intelligent very rich it seemed to be well advanced of her time in terms of what she could achieve and get done i think she was very determined and that's probably quite a sort of churchillian trait um and then actually looking into my american side of my ancestors the ninth duchess consuela vanderbilt she was a very elegant beautiful lady very stylish i think was renowned for her wonderful entertaining so she's certainly someone else i would look to guests at blenheim will be led through the state rooms into the palace library [Music] as a sign of gratitude to queen anne for her generous gift a rather flattering statue was erected in reality the queen had a somewhat more corpulent figure facing the statue is europe's largest privately owned pipe organ during one of his visits wilhelm ii is reported to have said that the organ reminded him of a warship because of its numerous buttons this was shortly before the outbreak of the first world war which came as a shock to the english the royal house was after all of german descent [Music] before the construction of blenheim palace the lands belonged to the english crown in the 12th century henry ii is thought to have expanded the palace for his mistress the fair rosamond years ago there was a pleasure pool here long before blenheim palace was built which had a um a natural spring running in it it was for henry ii and his his mistress every day according to legend rosamund would bathe in a spring whose waters were said to never dry up some saw this as a symbol of the king's eternal love others saw it as a potential source of income drinking water [Music] there are many myths surrounding the beautiful rosamund however some historians doubt whether she even existed and what of her pool did it really exist the legend was there and it was you know it was always a pleasure paul but it was a pool that was for bathing not necessarily for drinking so there was always a risk that in 300 years the water quality had changed shortly after the second world war a certain john o'dell decides to get to the bottom of the legend he convinces the duke to drill for spring water on his estate but drilling is expensive and why disturb the legend by probing into the unknown [Music] but the probe is a resounding success they discover a vast subterranean spring with excellent quality drinking water the duke has a water pump system installed rosamond's legacy becomes a lucrative business with trevor roarden at the helm this small plant currently produces over three and a half million bottles of water a year the duke does need a bit of persuasion anything new [Music] his efforts have certainly paid off the mineral water is one of the duke of marlborough's commercial enterprises and also helps keep the memory of fair rosamund and her spring alive [Music] oxford is situated 14 kilometers from blenheim palace home to a university with rich traditions only equaled by cambridge the rivalry between the two universities is not only battled out in the academic arena but also on the playing field [Music] in the 12th century the university underwent a period of rapid expansion henry ii had banned english students from attending the university of paris [Music] merton is the oldest of the 38 colleges it was founded in 1264. one of the oldest competitive sports played between cambridge and oxford is still practiced here dating back to long before cricket football and rowing real tennis [Music] and the day i walked on to a real tennis court when i was a student i come from australia to england i fell in love i fell in love with this complicated game this game that was a bit like chess it was almost like being inside a pinball machine we can hit the balls of all the walls but also what attracted me to the real tennis was it's a game with an enormous history going about five or six hundred years the rules have hardly changed since the 17th century and there's no sport like that in the world the precursor to tennis was the french je de palma in which players used the palms of their hands monks first played the game in the cloister arches it was then adopted by the french aristocracy and subsequently spread across europe [Music] [Music] each tennis court has its own symbol in oxford it is traditionally the unicorn [Applause] i've written a book about real tennis called the first beautiful game and the person on the cover is one of my heroes his name is guillaume barcelon he was the real tennis professional or coach to king louis xv in france in the 1750s he was the king's bowmeister his tennis master and he called real tennis the first beautiful game he called it a beautiful sport a game that was not just an athletic entertainment but something that was so beautiful so gorgeous it had a kind of artistic aestheticism to it [Music] today the ball master and trainer at oxford tennis club is andy davis he fills and sews the tennis balls using traditional methods dating back centuries and art in itself so one of the unique things about real tennis is that the boards are all handmade at the individual clubs um and a good ball will be a certain size a certain weight will have um 50 or 60 stitches um and each stitch is pulled nice and tight so that the end result is a nice firm ball um to be played with the balls will last on a busy court such as the oxford one probably lasts no longer than uh and about uh about a week and after a week the balls tend to go a bit um the covers go loose and they don't they don't bounce as well each ball master gives their balls a unique touch in terms of size and bounce there is no one standard [Music] while the original form of tennis is as good as extinct in france the english have brought the game into the 21st century [Music] here in oxford it is still viewed today as the king of sports and the sport of kings i was the captain of the oxford university team and we played cambridge and we beat them i never lost a set i'm quite proud of that and i hope that that winning streak that oxford had back then will continue into the future [Music] there are now only 5 000 players across the globe roman chrisneric ranks among the best [Music] it's like playing chess it's like doing maths while trying to hit a ball thinking of all the different angles thinking of whether you should be aiming for a shot which immediately wins the point or should you be hitting it very softly or should you be hitting it as hard as you can real tennis players are constantly having to think and getting their minds in knots and i think that's why it's played by so many philosophers [Music] our journey now takes us to the rolling hills of buckinghamshire to a place where europe's most famous dynasty settled 150 years ago the rothschilds baron ferdinand rothschild commissioned the construction of wadistan manor a country house in neo-renaissance style today it belongs to the financial tycoon and art collector lord jacob rothschild he has dedicated his life to preserving waterston [Music] the castles of the french loire valley were the inspiration for waddison manor ferdinand rothschild who grew up in vienna designed it above all with his art collection in mind he came to england to marry a rothschild cousin and she sadly died in childbirth and the child died and then ferdinand from a very very early age had been obsessed by collecting he was very miserable after his wife's death and i think to consider himself he decided to [Music] build this huge house and to kind of spend the rest of his life collecting indulging in his passion for buying works of art and looking at things [Music] several pieces in ferdinand's collection such as this bureau where even the envy of the king who was a frequent guest at waterston however baron rothschild preferred to be alone with his treasures only relatives from his complex family network in france germany and austria were always welcome at the manor and they all marveled at this gazant konsteverk with its extensive grounds [Music] the land would belong to the duke of marlborough but this particular site where the man was built was a hill so he cut the top off the hill and built the big house here then he didn't want the views to be interrupted so he pulled down 200 cottages so that the view was unimpaired [Music] when he was very young he rather surprisingly he bought a piece of said porcelain i think he was only about eight um so he had a very wide-ranging taste you know he had a particular love of french furniture a particular love of french porcelain particular love of english portraits and that was really what he minded most about once his bike was no longer there this gave rise to a style later known as lagoo rothschild copious amounts of gold brocade and silk clad walls to call it opulent would be almost an understatement [Music] and up above hercules soars through the heavens entering olympus on his golden chariot a symbol of the family's power and prosperity [Music] so as soon as they made money in the 1850s they wanted to show off and after all they built what 45 houses in the 19th century quite apart from the ones that they bought and they wanted to fill them and show that they'd made it much to the delight of all who visited wadiston manor the dinners at the extravagantly laid table were said to be particularly grand especially the decor the crockery from the 18th century is a reminder of the roth's child's origins a german mice and dinner service [Music] each bird was hand painted and is therefore unique baron ferdinand purchased it because of his fondness for birds for this reason he also kept a few real life specimens baron ferdinand brought his guests over from the house and they would enjoy their afternoon in the beautiful surroundings and the peaceful area with the bird song in the background maybe drinking some wine in the grotto and just taking a bit of relaxation out of the hustle and bustle of the times back then [Music] ferdinand modeled the avery on his father's villa in frankfurt the villa grunerberg also housed a collection of birds the tradition is still alive today waddistan's breeding program is renowned the world over ian edmunds mainly looks after the species at risk of extinction [Music] this is a great cheap fly a circular egg a vulnerable species from western china now what i'm going to do is i'm going to remove this egg for hand rearing and then the parents are going to lay another clutch hopefully three eggs and i'll be rearing this trick and they'll be rearing three more [Music] replacing a bird's parents is a full-time job the chicks have to be fed at least every two hours meaning no days off for their carers a number of the adult birds are transferred to zoos or research institutes and a few have already been released into the wild [Music] ferdinand chose a strategic location for his castle in close proximity to two of england's cultural hubs london some 80 kilometers to the east and oxford around 40 kilometers to the west the city of oxford was originally established around an abbey founded in the 8th century by a saxon princess fridas vida had fled from her fiance the count of leicester she decided she would rather live her life as a nun later on she was canonized and is still the patron saint of the city and the university today the university emerged from the monastic schools founded in this era nearly every college still has its own chapel the churches of oxford's residents are often more modest than those of the students saint giles is one of the smaller houses of worship named after the french saint the patron of beggars and the sick [Music] as a result church is named after saint giles are usually situated outside a city's medieval walls in england the sick and the beggars were mostly not allowed to enter the city center saint giles lived as a hermit deep in a forest near neem the history was that he he sheltered an injured animal a deer a ray a hunter had shot it with an arrow and the saint giles stood in the way and stopped the hunter coming to capture it and kill it and so the tradition is that he and the people who followed him would look after weak people [Music] john pusey and a few volunteers meet regularly at st giles to practice an english tradition bell ringing [Music] trouble's carrying [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so at first we do one two three four five six seven eight but then perhaps one three two four five six seven eight one three two four five seven six eight and so on rearranging them and that's where the mathematics comes in on sundays and holidays the sound of church bells rings out in oxford playing a rich medley of rhythms and melodies on special occasions this can last up to three hours demanding utmost concentration it is difficult to explain to somebody who's never heard anything about it why it's interesting why it's rewarding people um they see cartoons in newspapers and caricatures on christmas cards which show you know a hearty man pulling you or a monk sometimes and being pulled up in the air and they think well this is rather stupid rather limited kind of activity i think most people have no idea how complicated it is and of course therefore how rewarding it is [Music] bernhard has a special connection to the church bells he is the only one of the long-standing members who has been blind since birth he has to rely solely on his sense of rhythm to ensure he releases and pulls down on the rope at the right moment for him the chimes are not the only important factor but above all the weight of the bells you can feel when the bell is on the balance or slightly over the balance and you can hold it there for as long as you're required to the first time as with any other learner the clapper is tied in a central position so that the bell will not sound so you can feel it without annoying the neighbours all around with the continuous dong dong dong several years ago the bells were in a dire condition and had to be restored this required a considerable amount of money [Music] quite to our surprise he said well i'm willing to give you a lot of money and in the end that was it was half of what we needed as much more than we would have expected from any one person [Music] the church bells have always played an important role in bernard's life they used to help guide him through the city i have discussed with him how he learnt the more complicated methods and i think in fact he has the same kind of [Music] two-dimensional image in his mind even though he can't see it he has the same picture in his mind as sighted ringers do and i think that goes along with the fact that he was very good at finding his way around the streets in the city i would often see him all over the city all sorts of different places and that he got there on his own [Music] as a young boy bernard would arrange to meet his brother when the church bells were ringing [Music] do [Music] the english renaissance was one of the most significant eras in the nation's history under elizabeth the first england blossomed both politically and culturally more than ever before the queen cleared up the finances of a state verging on bankruptcy the english navy conquered the world and shakespeare reinvented the english language [Music] the most important castle from the elizabethan era is burley house built in the middle of the 16th century it heralded the start of a golden age it was built for the most influential man of the era william cecil [Music] cecil had supported elizabeth's claim to the throne [Music] john culverhouse is the archivist and restorer at burley house the ceiling fresco above the staircase depicts hell for him this evokes images of the hell that elizabeth the first must have endured when her half-sister queen mary the first threw her in prison leaving her to fear for her life every day william cecil always stood by her some see him as a kind of replacement father for elizabeth elizabeth's real father henry viii had ordered the beheading of her mother scottish queen maria stewart threatened elizabeth's place on the throne cecil advised elizabeth to execute her it was a very very major decision and i think one that elizabeth well she regretted she was furious to learn that mary actually had been executed and deeply regretted it but there's no doubt that from the politics of the time cecil was right it was it could be said to be correct it was the right thing to do burly house was thus the scene of many a fateful decision and cecil the man who built it became elizabeth's right-hand man she just took his advice as a father perhaps or an uncle and he he effectively ran england more than a prime minister he he knew everything that was going on throughout the whole country he was a remarkable man john has been the guardian of burley's historic treasures for 28 years ten years ago a serious illness confined him to a wheelchair [Music] john advises a direct descendant of william cecil miranda rock and her family live in the private wing of the castle not a day passes without a visit from john to discuss important decisions about restoration work or simply to talk about the castle's eventful history [Music] if you were a young aristocrat of the time and you traveled in europe and you went to the foreign courts or to into foreign society when you came back to england you were expected to report to sizzle this is how they knew what was going on and maps were all he needed to know the layout of the countries that he was dealing with as enemies and as friends and so for sissel knowledge of of the world and its layout was power elizabeth consulted cecil on all matters she founded the east india company and her fleets explored north america francis drake was sent off on a royal expedition to circumnavigate the globe miranda looks after burleigh house herself in consultation with the other family members some of whom live abroad it is not the first such arrangement john cecil the fifth earl of exeter wanted to spend some time living abroad with his wife [Music] imagine leaving a house on this scale with building works going on filled with great works of art and furniture and pictures and you know monitor of course i'm sure he had a very good steward and people in charge of the house but he needed to make sure that a member of the family oversaw some of the other aspects during his absence john cecil asked his sister lady francis cecil to take care of the house he listed the most important house rules in a small notebook you can tell from this document that he's dealing with the very mundane housekeeping issues like weeds in the gutter and he's dealing with christmas presents for friends and and staff there's more senior staff he's dealing with all manner of concerns but i'm sure this is all indicator of his faith in her [Music] well they um were owned and worn by my grandfather the sixth marcus of exeter he was a great hero of his day [Music] the age of 23 david cecil won the gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles at the 1928 olympic games in amsterdam and these were his running spikes and wicked they are today yeah they're very spiky but they're tiny and light [Music] in 1932 david cecil and his team won the silver medal in the four by 400 meters relay miranda's grandfather died when she was 10 years old she wasn't aware of his achievements what do her own children think of their great grandfather to work quite hard to capture a child's interest we're looking at an atlas but it's lovely to be able to relate things that are happening now to your own family and um you know when the olympics have been happening and they've just at their school been watching videos of their grandfather or dvds their grandfather hurdling and managing the last last olympics in london that's been a great source of pride to them i don't think i'll ever forget it you know doing something like taking a tree down or putting an avenue in um you're not doing it for this generation while you have to move with the times it's important you have any doubts about something to do nothing because although five or ten years might seem like a long time to us actually in the history of a house like that it's nothing and if if we have a derelict building in the park that we don't have use for well so be it as long as it's not getting any worse one day someone will have a good idea and it'll be the right time rather than rushing through something it's a different state of mind yes i think it's conservative yeah you were built we look forever we're steering something through to the future and that's all we're doing really and just making sure that it endures for the cecil family the interior courtyard has been the heart of the house for over 400 450 years and they have no desire to change this tradition burley's park is a typical english garden relatively well kept but with a natural flare a large herd of fallow deer has lived here since the 16th century once hunted as game they have now become a symbol of burley peter glassy looks after the grounds he especially loves the park's extraordinary tree population some of the trees date back to long before the time the spanish armada threatened english shores this is an 800 year old oak tree this is my favorite tree at burley this tree was about 200 years old during the armada it's hollow it's being worked by fungus it's home to over 500 insects and invertebrates it's a miracle of engineering if you just think of this girder these big strong girder ropes holding this tree back this is all the tension wood on the tree and if we walk round to the front of the tree look at all the compression wood the trees loading up trying to hold all this all this weight up you can see the pale colors down here where the tree through adaptive growth is actually pushing all this big limb up peter and his dogs wander through the park every day with his team he plants new trees removes dead ones and cuts them back this is really a job that requires a head for heights yeah what about the removal of this dead wood around here do you want that taking out at the same time that'd be great thank you very much is that health and safety deadwood or are you looking at aesthetics to aesthetics i think it's just a long lever arm on that tree though yeah that branches so i think we'll just shorten it back a bit good okay we'll get on with it thank you [Music] the cedar tree symbolizes immortality and fortitude perhaps this is why these trees were planted 300 years ago to signify the distinctive qualities of burly house around this time queen anne became the first ruler of england scotland and ireland to form great britain she was also fond of gardens and trees like the park ranger peter i prefer the ground and looking up at the trees from the ground because i don't like the heights that's why i have some very good climbers to go in the trees for me [Music] [Music] this avenue of trees in front of burleigh house was planted for queen anne in honor of the first ruler of the united kingdom and very much in queen anne's style subtly elegant and at one with nature and this one could say is the defining feature of all england's great castles [Music] you

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Published: Fri Sep 03 2021