Secrets of the Royal Palaces

of the British establishment are the royal palaces.

Imposing... (Dr. Ramirez) They encapsulate the very finest architecture, art, design.

(narrator) Lavish... (Professor Whitelock) It was deliberately grand, this most ostentatious statement of absolute power.

(narrator) ...and brimming with hidden gems.

(Lisa) You always feel like there's something new to discover.

(narrator) They're the backdrop to every royal event.

(Susie) Every celebration, birth, death, crisis for a thousand years.

(narrator) In this all new Secrets of the Royal Palaces, we gain exclusive access to these illustrious buildings and uncover their private parts... (Dr. Foyle) The regal bog, that would be used by Queen Victoria herself.

(narrator) ...reveal the extraordinary royal art hidden within... (Dr. Ramirez) The Queen's stamp collection is worth 100 million pounds.

Not a bad return on loads of pictures of yourself really, is it?

(narrator) ...dig up the royal palaces' dark history... (Professor Williams) George builds secret tunnels so no one could ever see him.

(narrator) ...and share fresh revelations about the royal dramas that are gripping the nation.

(Colin) Not a soul got anywhere near that island.

I loved it a bit.

(narrator) This is the Secrets of the Royal Palaces.

(dramatic music) (peppy music) Coming up: The incredible untold story of Princess Diana's secret second funeral revealed by a Kensington Palace insider.

(Colin) The army walked across the bridge carrying, uh, the Royal Highness on their shoulders and lowered into the, uh-- where she was being buried.

(narrator) We reveal the hidden secrets of Her Majesty's oldest and favorite palace.

(Lisa) It's an early 19th century fake.

(narrator) We go below stairs at one of Britain's most flamboyant royal homes.

(Professor Williams) It really was the show kitchen to end all show kitchens.

(narrator) And we uncover the meaning behind a photograph that scandalized Buckingham Palace.

I think Wallis Simpson was well aware of the stir that those pictures would cause.

(regal music) (narrator) Britain's royal palaces are our most celebrated and admired buildings.

They are spaces of beauty and grandeur.

(Victoria) Britain's royal palaces are among some of the most instantly recognizable buildings in the world.

(narrator) These majestic spaces have been the home of some of Britain's most famous and popular royals.

(peppy music) (narrator) When Princess Diana separated from Prince Charles, Kensington Palace became her main home.

Not long after Colin Tebbutt became part of the Princess's new household.

I was walking across the, uh-- the yard at Kensington Palace when a voice suddenly appeared as a, um-- a higher--higher note from me saying, "Colin, are you still a rebel?"

And I looked up and there was the Princess of Wales.

We just had an informal chat just on, uh, what the weather was like.

And, uh--and then suddenly she--she said, um, "Colin, what are you doing?"

She explained to me exactly what she was looking for, a driver minder, and I said, "Well, certainly, Mom.

We could probably work that out."

We used to call her "the Boss."

(narrator) Colin worked for the Princess for two years, but on the 31st of August, 1997, everything changed.

(ominous music) The Princess had been in Paris, away from her Kensington Palace home, when reports began to filter through that there had been an accident.

Diana, Princess of Wales, has died in a car crash in Paris.

(somber music) (reporter) One's heart goes out especially to-- to the young Princes William and Harry.

(narrator) Colin was at Kensington Palace when he heard the news.

(Colin) Everybody was just taken out where we were, you know?

That was really, really bad.

(narrator) As a trusted member of her staff, Colin was sent to Paris to bring back her body.

She was our boss.

We had a small household, six or seven people.

You know, not the Buckingham Palace anymore.

This lady was down to us.

She was our lady.

So I was then beginning to make arrangements to get her back.

(narrator) Once Colin returned to Britain, Diana was taken to the Royal Chapel at St. James's and mourners began to crowd into Central London to pay their respects.

Former TV journalist Wesley Kerr was at Kensington Palace to report on events.

It really was astonishing, um, how many floral tributes there were to Diana.

I described it in my scripts for television at the time as "a sea of flowers, an ocean of grief."

(grim music) (narrator) It was decided that she would have a royal ceremonial funeral, but that the Spencer family would then bury her privately.

(horse hooves clopping) (Julie) The day of the public funeral was something the world had never seen before and probably will never see again.

(narrator) Over a million people crowded Central London and lined the route.

(sobbing and wailing) (Colin) We were very honored by Lord Spencer to invite the staff to the, uh-- to the funeral.

We were in the choir stall, we couldn't have got any closer.

We sat there right at the front with the royal family.

(morbid music) (narrator) After an emotional public funeral, the body was then taken to Althorp with her close family and a handful of her household, including Colin, but the details of this part of the funeral were to be kept secret.

(report) Every pavement filled to overflowing.

A last chance to say goodbye.

More flowers, more people.

(narrator) As the gates closed behind her hearse, the TV coverage came to an end.

Colin would be one of the few people at her burial, and later Colin will shed light on one of the most poignant moments in royal history.

(Colin) Immensely emotional.

Immensely emotional.

Very difficult to take in.

(peppy music) (narrator) The Queen and her family have the use of several palaces and each of their royal homes are special spaces.

(Richard) Those palaces and castles represent the spirit and in many ways all that's good about Britain.

(narrator) But one in particular has a unique place in this history of the monarchy.

(Wesley) Windsor Castle, the largest occupied castle in the world, what an amazing place.

This stupendous building, which is a series of worlds within the buildings.

(narrator) A commanding feature of the castle is the Round Tower, visible for miles around.

But this intimidating tower is hiding a secret.

(Lisa) It might look like the, um, impregnable tower of a great, normal castle.

In fact, it's an early 19th century fake put there by George IV.

(dramatic music) Its origin is, though, very warlike indeed.

The original tower was built by William the Conqueror.

It was a wooden keep.

(narrator) The next development at Windsor was down to William's great grandson.

It was rebuilt in stone by Henry II when he came to rule as monarch.

The Round Tower was key to imposing his authority on his English subjects.

(Dr. Foyle) But when we get to the 19th century this thing is kinda stumpy and disappointing.

The purpose of just withstanding a siege wasn't good enough, it had to look pretty as well, and so for George IV he had 30 feet of extra wall built on the top.

And so the centerpiece is really a comparatively modern piece of building.

(Lisa) This was a swagger project.

It was a way of saying, you know, "Look, I'm here, I'm the greatest."

(narrator) But what the tower protects now is not princes, but part of the royal archive, including priceless letters and documents from the many reigning monarchs who have lived there.

(whimsical music) You have to get permission from the Queen to work there, but it's an absolutely fascinating place to work.

I mean, it's got an atmosphere of so many hidden treasures and you always feel like there's something new to discover.

It's amazing to go because it is literally history all around, it's the paperwork of history now being held and, um, defended in the tower.

It's a treasure house of--of secrets.

(peppy music) (narrator) Coming up: The untold story of Princess Diana's secret burial as told by one of her key Kensington Palace aides.

(Colin) Not a soul got anywhere near that island.

Not a photograph, not a soul.

(narrator) How George IV's palace kitchen defied royal convention.

(Professor Williams) Kitchens in royal palaces are usually hidden away.

That is not the same for George IV's kitchen.

It is a showpiece.

(narrator) And we reveal one of the Queen's favorite palace treasures.

(Jacky) She has over 100 of them and there are secret messages that she communicates through the brooch.

(narrator) Britain's remarkable royal palaces are some of the most stunning in the world and they have been witness to centuries of critical royal moments.

(Richard) So many incredibly important events have taken place within their walls.

They are so much woven into the history of the country.

(somber music) (narrator) Kensington Palace is closely associated with Princess Diana.

It was where she brought up her two young sons.

(Julie) That is the place that she shared a lot of memories with her two boys.

(narrator) But after Diana's death it was her Spencer side of the family who made sure that her final resting place would be Althorp, their ancestral home.

And after her public funeral her close family took her body for its private second funeral.

And Colin Tebbutt, Diana's former driver, accompanied them.

(Colin) Well, we drove to Althorp and Lord Spencer said to Paul Burrell and myself, "You will be joining us at lunch."

Well, that's a bit of a-- you got-- His Royal Highness there and all the family.

He said, "No, no, no, you're--you're part-- part of the household, you'll join us for lunch."

And we walked into the lunch where there was just His Royal Highness, the sisters, their family.

I prefer probably--preferred not to have been there really because it was a private grief of, um-- of that family and they were going through quite a thing.

(solemn music) (Dr. Dunlop) Can you imagine what it must've been like?

Absolutely horrific.

Brother Charles Spencer and ex-husband Charles Prince of Wales are at the same table with not really quite enough people to buffer them from each other.

(Emily) There was a lot of bad blood between the two.

I remember someone telling me that the two men were talking on the telephone about the arrangements, the private arrangements for the--for the funeral, and Prince of Wales said something and Charles Spencer just hung up on him in anger.

So I don't think there was any love lost between the two men.

(narrator) But for the final part of Diana's funeral both men would put aside their differences to walk onto the island at Althorp where her body was due to be buried.

(pensive music) (Colin) Not a soul got anywhere near that island.

Whoever did the arranging to seal off, and there are rolling fields everywhere, you know, that must've been a tremendous thing.

Never--I've never known how they did it, but nobody got near us.

Not a soul.

Not a photograph, not a soul.

(narrator) Diana's close family, her butler Paul Burrell, and Colin were part of an exclusive few invited to the island funeral.

The Army put a bridge up across to the island and the Army walked across the bridge carrying the Royal Highness on their shoulders and lowered into where she was being buried.

The family then did what everybody does at a funeral, in a family funeral, and went to the edge.

I--I stood back with Paul.

And then there were prayers said.

To be included with the household, two of us, with the very last bit of that burial of the box being lowered, and, um, you know, I've-- it's never really-- I've never really grasped it really.

It's always been, "Did it really happen to me?"

Immensely emotional.

Immensely emotional.

Very difficult to take in.

(melancholic music) (Emily) Two funerals, two very different styles.

One incredibly public with the general public massively involved, eyes of the world on Westminster Abbey and the funeral-- long funeral procession on the gun carriage.

Very different funeral at Althorp, quite short with effectively her coffin being interred, buried in the ground.

(Wesley) I think it was very appropriate that she should be in a completely private place because her life had been lived in public and now she was at peace.

(narrator) To this day few have been allowed onto the actual island to pay their respects.

But her two sons, Princes William and Harry, are reportedly frequent visitors.

(Emily) I know that they have been privately to her gravesite to lay flowers or to have moments of silence and reflection.

It can be a private space for them to go and remember their mother in a very private way.

(peppy music) (narrator) Royal palaces are some of the most imposing buildings in Britain, and the art and objects that hang within these spaces speak volumes about the royal family's taste and wealth.

The royal collection is worth billions of pounds.

(narrator) And some of the most valuable pieces are within the royal jewelry collection.

(contemplative music) One of the Queen's personal favorites is this brooch, commissioned by the Queen's great-great grandfather.

(Dr. Ramirez) The Prince Albert sapphire brooch is simply stunning.

At the center you have this 12-karat sapphire, and then around this a dozen 12-karat diamonds all set in solid gold.

It's worth over a million pounds and I think of all the Queen's brooches it really is the crown jewel.

(pensive music) (narrator) The brooch was originally given to Queen Victoria by her future husband.

(Dr. Ramirez) He had it designed as a wedding gift for Queen Victoria and he gave it to her the day before their wedding.

She absolutely loved it and immediately put it on and wore it during her marriage ceremony.

(narrator) For the following two decades Victoria was often seen wearing the brooch while performing her duties of state.

(Jacky) It really was her go-to piece of jewelry, and Albert must've been really delighted that she loved it so much.

(somber music) (narrator) But like much of the jewelry given to her by her beloved Albert, it was rarely worn after his death.

He died when he was just 42 in 1861, and she struggled to cope with it really for the rest of her life, and things like the brooch that were particularly associated with him, she sort of quietly put them aside.

(peppy music) (narrator) The Queen inherited it when she became sovereign, and like Victoria wears it at key events hosted at Buckingham Palace.

(Jacky) She wore it in 1961 to the dinner that was hosted for President and Mrs. Kennedy, and she wore it at the christening of Prince William in 1982.

(narrator) But the Queen has more than one brooch to choose from.

She has over 100 of them in total, and what's lovely is that they are packed with hidden symbolism and there are secret messages that she communicates through the brooch that she's wearing for a particular occasion.

There's the Centenary Rose Brooch which she commissioned for her mother for 100th birthday.

And rather touchingly she, the Queen, then wore it herself just a few months after her mother had died as a direct tribute to her.

And then there are the brooches that are connected to particular places.

So for example, she has a maple leaf brooch that she always wears when she's interacting with people from Canada.

She has a fern that she wears when she's interacting with people from New Zealand.

And what's wonderful is that each of these brooches has its own little secret story to tell.

(lively music) (peppy music) (narrator) Britain's royal palaces are some of the most beautiful and iconic in the world.

(Christopher) The palaces and the castles are part and parcel of British royal history.

(narrator) Every palace has impressive state rooms in which the royal family can entertain important dignitaries.

Brighton Pavilion was the favorite palace Of one of Britain's most colorful kings, George IV, and for him there was a room that was far more important than the official state apartments.

Kitchens in royal palaces are usually hidden away, they're secret, they're dark, servants only.

That is not the same for George IV's kitchen at Brighton Pavilion.

It is a showpiece.

(quirky music) Everything in this kitchen is the epitome of George.

It's bling, it's excess.

He went all out for food.

There's one whole room for confectionery, one whole room for pastry.

It really was the show kitchen to end all show kitchens.

And this wasn't how things were done.

Normally the kitchen was somewhere the royal family would never go, but George, he wants to come in, show it off.

He even absolutely transcended convention, brought guests to eat in the kitchens, and he was doing it because he wanted to show he was nothing like the rest of the stuffy royals.

He was so exciting, he was so fun, he was so new.

This kitchen wasn't just big and grand a showpiece.

It was also full of the latest gadgets, the latest technology.

Right here where I'm standing was this gigantic steam table where you put the food on to keep it warm, essentially a Georgian microwave.

Now that blew the minds of his guests, because in most palaces by the time the food gets to the table it's chilly, so George serving up piping hot food, it was a revelation.

George loved food so much that he didn't just have a beautiful kitchen, he got the top staff as well.

He hired international celebrity chef Antoine Carme, who was the man of the moment.

He cooked sometimes 100 courses at a time.

(quirky music) George was getting much bigger.

He actually began to worry that Carme's cooking was going to be the death of him, and Carme said, "My job is to tempt your appetite.

Yours, sire, is to curb it."

Touch.

(bright music) (narrator) George's flamboyant modern palace was a world away from one of the royal family's oldest homes: Windsor.

(Susie) Palaces are the monarchy.

They're not only the symbol of it.

That's where it physically resides.

(narrator) Every year thousands flock to see Windsor Castle and gaze at the deer in the great park that surrounds it.

But there is also a hidden, little-known site to the estate: Frogmore.

Frogmore is named because it was a marshy place where there were a lot of frogs.

(frog croaking) (narrator) The Frogmore Estate is a collection of tucked-away houses and peaceful gardens where royals have long escaped the pressures of court.

But the jewel in the crown of Frogmore is the main house.

(Dr. Foyle) Frogmore starts life in 1792.

It's designed for Queen Charlotte, the Queen of George III.

(Lisa) Queen Charlotte was highly intelligent, she was cultivated, she was a devoted wife.

She was much beloved by her husband George III.

They had a very close and loving relationship.

(intense music) (narrator) But all that changed after George was declared mentally ill.

In 1789, he became violent during his fits of mental ill health.

He was abusive to his wife and daughters, he would hit them, he had to be restrained.

Frogmore was the place where she could go to be secure and safe from her husband.

(peppy music) (narrator) Queen Charlotte wasn't the only monarch who fell in love with Frogmore.

It was also a favorite of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert.

(Lisa) It gave them a chance to live in a more relaxed and informal fashion, to be together without the demands of etiquette that the court imposed.

(somber music) (narrator) But when Albert died Frogmore took on a new significance.

Grief-stricken Victoria began to build a mausoleum for him within its grounds.

(Dr. Foyle) Albert's mausoleum was a remarkable thing, it was quite innovative for the English monarchy, who had really been put in tombs in traditional churches, you know, Westminster Abbey or Windsor St. George's Chapel.

(narrator) Albert's tomb lies in the center of the mausoleum with a sculpture of the prince lying on top, carved in the finest marble.

(Dr. Foyle) It is a monument which stands on its own as a really heartfelt tribute to a--a consort who died too young.

I mean, you can almost read the shock and grief.

(contemplative music) (narrator) The foundation stone was laid by Victoria in 1862 and the full building and decoration took 10 years.

Victoria had started a tradition and many more members of the royal family in Frogmore's peaceful grounds, including Victoria herself, who 40 years later was lain to rest next to her beloved prince.

(peppy music) Coming up: How a trip to the Sandringham Estate landed the Queen in hot water with Westminster.

(Susie) The Queen is not supposed to interfere in any way in the politics of a country.

(narrator) Problems with the builders at the Palace of Versailles.

Increasing amounts of his workers are getting syphilis.

(narrator) And we discover why this photo of the Duchess of Windsor incensed Buckingham Palace.

The appearance of those pictures was really almost putting a thumb up to the British establishment.

(lively music) (narrator) Britain's royal palaces are some of the most stunning buildings in the world, but they are also private spaces where the monarch and her family can relax.

Ever since its construction in the mid-19th century, Sandringham has been a sanctuary for the royal family.

It's very much a private home, and perhaps that's why so many generations of the royal family have loved it.

Our present Queen has always adored it.

(narrator) And when the Queen is in residence she likes to take part in local life, including a visit to her branch of the Women's Institute.

(contemplative music) But in January 2019, she was drawn into more than discussions about jam and Jerusalem.

She gave a speech that many thought broke a royal rule when she alluded to one of the most divisive moments in British history: Brexit.

The Queen is not supposed to interfere in any way in the politics of a country.

So she has taken the view, and she's quite right, that she should keep her nose out of, um, political ups and downs.

Politics is for her prime minister who is elected and she has to respect that.

That doesn't stop at having views.

(narrator) For three years the British Government had been at war over how to leave the European Union.

(Bidisha) It was a few years after the referendum vote, but Britain was more divided than ever.

Half of the country was pro-Brexit.

(intense music) The other half was anti-Brexit.

2019 was a horrible year for getting Brexit done.

There was intense debate and argument and quite a lot of rather vicious stuff going on in Parliament itself.

(narrator) But in her speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the WI the Queen said something that many believe was a veiled barb at the political deadlock over the Brexit negotiations.

In her speech the Queen said, "As we look for new answers in the modern age, I, for one, prefer the tried and tested recipes like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view."

In one sense, you could say that the Queen's comments were quite bland.

They were open, they were progressive, they were liberal, "Let's all be friends with each other."

(quirky music) At the same time you could say she was actually making a concerted intervention into the politics of the time.

I don't believe for a second that she didn't know what she was doing, though, because she's-- she's been around a long time.

The Queen always talks in code.

She's never blunt, but to me, this message, which is a private message about WI that was given out publicly by her press office.

This was her calling for national unity.

We've all got to move on and get on together.

For the Queen, this is like making a red hot political statement.

You know, she was just supposed to get on the podium and say, "The curtains were lovely and the tea was very nice."

The entire media was all over it, speculating about whether this was a political statement or not.

(quirky music) (narrator) It's not the first time the press have highlighted clues of the Queen's standpoint on the European Union.

There was a claim that a hat she wore in June 2017 mirrored the EU flag on it with subliminal messaging that she was clearly pro-remain.

There were some people saying this meant she was pro-the EU and others saying she's saying goodbye to it, but all we know is that the Queen never dresses in any way without intention.

I don't think the Queen woke up and said, "I want to look like an EU flag today 'cause it's so flattering to my skin tone."

(Susie) She always knows exactly what she's doing when she's putting her frock and hat on.

She wants to be seen, she wants to wear bright colors, she wants to be noticed, and she does find ways to express an opinion through her clothing.

(Edwina) The palace can say to the blue in the face, "No, the Queen was not actually expressing an opinion."

And Her Majesty would be going... (regal music) (narrator) Britain's royal palaces are some of the most spectacular buildings in the country.

(Jacky) The palaces are each very individual.

There are no two that are alike.

(narrator) But there is a palace on the other side of the channel that is considered one of the most spectacular buildings in the world: The Palace of Versailles.

But building it brought a unique set of challenges.

(dramatic music) As the Louis XIV was building his wondrous Versailles, it really became a hotspot for prostitution.

The builders, all the workers there, they were there all the time.

They needed company, and so women would flock there.

And Louis became particularly concerned that the building of Versailles was being slowed by the fact that there were so many ladies of the night hanging around distracting the workers.

Also, increasing amounts of his workers are getting syphilis.

So first of all, Louis outlaws prostitution.

He says that those guilty should be put in prison until the priests decide they have reformed.

It doesn't really work, it still carries on.

When one was put in prison another one pops up in her place, and then she tells the priest she's reformed, he lets her out, and back she goes to work.

So after that, the next thing Louis does is say that the women are going to be surveyed.

They're going to be watched by the prefecture of police.

That doesn't really work either.

Finally, after nearly 30 years of trying and failing to stop prostitution at Versailles, Louis resorts to extreme measures.

Any prostitute will be whipped, publicly whipped, and her client will have his nose and ears cut off.

(intense music) (quirky music) What I find fascinating is that Louis, he's one of the most sexually licentious kings we've got.

Mistress after mistress.

So it's all right for him to have mistresses and have lots of sex, but it's not all right for the builders, it's not all right for the workmen.

It's them you have to stop.

(narrator) Hung throughout all royal palaces are the faces of history's monarchs and their consorts.

But in Britain there is one king who was barely acknowledged on any of the palace walls: Edward VIII, who gave up his throne, palaces, and royal lifestyle for the woman he loved, the American divorce Wallis Simpson.

(peppy music) (announcer) The King who abdicated his throne married the woman he loved.

The Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson, the King and the commoner became man and wife.

(dramatic music) (Christopher) She was seen as this brash, brittle American divorce who was pinching the King.

She'd beguiled him.

I mean, high society for the most part couldn't stand the poor woman.

She was seen as the scarlet woman who had dragged a prince away from his destiny and forced an abdication, a constitutional crisis.

(narrator) Edward's abdication meant that his shy, stammering brother George VI was forced to take his place, something he did not want to do.

George's wife, the future Queen mother, was furious that Edward had deserted the family, leaving George to pick up the pieces.

But what rubbed even more salt in the wound were these innocent-looking images from an American Vogue photoshoot taken by celebrated photographer Cecil Beaton just a few days before the wedding.

(quirky music) (Susanna) She's wearing perhaps one of the most iconic dresses from the 1930s.

It's designed by the Italian-born couturier Elsa Schiaparelli in collaboration with Salvador Dal, who painted the lobster on the dress.

Famously Salvador Dal's symbol for sexuality.

Wallis was a woman who was considered, um, to be using sex to drag a man away from his destiny and his duty, and here she is in a dress with a symbol on it, an animal on it which symbolizes sex.

(Dr. Pritchard) Her husband had stepped down as King in December of 1936.

The appearance of those pictures soon afterwards was really almost putting a thumb up to the British establishment and saying, "Actually I'm in charge here, I'm powerful, and you can't really get me now."

She's just giving it the whole hog and saying, "Yeah, this is me and I'm a sexy woman.

What ya gonna do about it?"

(Dr. Pritchard) I think Wallis Simpson was well aware of the stir that those pictures would cause.

(narrator) But Wallis's controversial photograph didn't harm Cecil Beaton's reputation with the royals.

It's worth remembering just how good Wallis Simpson looks in those photographs.

Effortlessly beautiful, and she wasn't in real life.

(narrator) The royals had seen what a powerful image maker Beaton could be, and just a few months later George VI's Queen commissioned him to take her portrait.

(Christopher) It chimed with the image that the King and Queen wanted to promote of a fairy tale, a kind of Victorian fairy tale Queen in her sparkling Norman Hartnell crinoline dress and her tiara.

(wondrous music) (narrator) Beaton became one of the palace's favorite photographers.

(somber music) But for the Duke and Duchess it was a different story.

They would never be welcome again across the threshold of a royal palace.

The couple lived out their exile in France in a world far removed from the gilded palaces that Edward had grown up in.

(peppy music) Coming up: How a tragic royal death changed the course of British history.

It would've been the reign of Charlotte, not Victoria.

(narrator) And we reveal the secrets behind Windsor Castle's unique art collection.

(Professor Whitelock) It was an extravagant artistic display of power, of monarchy, and the artwork, I mean, it just hits you.

(regal music) (narrator) Palaces are places of magnificence and wealth, but they have also been the backdrop to royal tragedy and events which have changed the course of history.

George III's main home was Buckingham Palace, where he brought up his young family.

(dramatic music) (triumphant music) (Professor Williams) George III had seven sons and six daughters, and between them they managed one legitimate child, and that was Princess Charlotte of Wales.

She was beautiful and really everyone saw Charlotte as their hope.

George III was descending into mental incapacity and his sons were dreadful.

They were drunk, spendthrift, everyone hated them.

The Duke of Wellington called them "millstones around the neck of the public."

Princess Charlotte, as she grew into her teens, was universally beloved.

She seemed kind and gentle.

She made a happy marriage with Prince Leopold.

And when Princess Charlotte fell pregnant it was a source of huge joy for the country.

They were so excited.

This was the only heir of her generation.

(lively music) But you start and see this cavalcade of obstetric disasters.

First of all, she goes over term and she's very large, and what they think is that the baby's getting too big to pass, so what they'll do is they'll starve her to make the baby smaller.

Now if you starve the mother, all that happens is you weaken the mother 'cause the baby takes its nutrients from the mother's body.

When she went into labor, you read one of the doctor's accounts and he said, "It's going really well and I can tell that because she hasn't really made much of a sound," and you're like, "That doesn't sound good."

The end of a 40-hour labor, a baby is born.

The baby is large, a boy, but stillborn.

Princess Charlotte, she's exhausted and she realizes she's dying.

Her husband is put to bed with an opiate because he's overwhelmed with grief and she only has the doctor to hold her hand as she dies.

(grim music) All of the country and much of Europe was corked by grief.

But if Charlotte hadn't died, we would never have had Queen Victoria.

(wondrous music) It would've been the reign of Charlotte, not Victoria.

(peppy music) (narrator) Although there have been moments of tragedy in royal palaces, there have also been moments of joy, and 1,000-year-old Windsor Castle has witnessed many of these occasions.

(Richard) Windsor Castle still has this sort of mythical, uh, place in our hearts.

You can see the flag flying from the Round Tower from miles away.

It's where the Queen retreats to from the cares of Buckingham Palace each weekend.

(narrator) Hidden behind Windsor Castle's solid appearance is a turbulent and bloody past.

The castle was ransacked by Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads during the Civil War.

But after the Restoration when Charles II became King, he set about returning Windsor to its former glory.

(intense music) (Lisa) He wanted to restore the greatness of the image of the royal family with architectural display.

He spent enormously.

(Dr. Foyle) In 1660, Charles II comes back to Windsor and he sets about remodeling it, not turning it back into a medieval image of what a castle looks like.

He tries to turn it into more of a classical palace.

He turns the medieval St. George's Hall into a much more classical, Italianette-looking thing, much more current, you know, amongst European monarchs.

(narrator) He commissioned some of the most fashionable painters of his day, such as Antonio Verrio, who produced this image of Charles's Queen, Catherine of Braganza, and has a hidden meaning.

In Catherine of Braganza's audience chamber the Queen is shown riding a chariot across the heavens.

So we start to have this fashion where we're all, as kings and queens, riding across the cosmos, you know, joining the great gods of ancient Rome.

It was an extravagant artistic display of power, of monarchy, and the artwork, I mean, it just hits you, and that was the whole point.

It was a feast for the eyes.

It was in a sense a bit-- a bit like saying, you know, "We're sophisticated, we're not this, you know, pathetic northern backwaters squabbling between ourselves."

We've returned and we are powerful.

(uplifting music) (narrator) But Charles's most impressive development was out in the park itself... ...in a feature called The Long Walk.

(Dr. Foyle) The landscape is driven through with great avenues of elms.

The Long Walk is a powerful example of 17th century landscaping.

It's marching straight down toward the refurbished Windsor Castle.

So it really, you know, commands the eye, that kind of landscape gardening.

It isn't cheap, it's conspicuously expensive.

(narrator) The Long Walk was Charles's great lasting mark on Windsor.

Today it is still the perfect place to make a big entrance.

(Professor Whitelock) We saw that most recently with the marriage of Harry and Meghan and The Long Walk was the sort of climax of the royal procession, so in that sense, performing the function which it originally was for, which was for royal display.

(narrator) Next time on Secrets of the Royal Palaces, the forgotten attempt by a royal king to destroy Hampton Court Palace.

(Dr. Foyle) They're saving Henry VIII's great hall, but for the rest of the palace, they can level the lot.

(narrator) We reveal why whistles were played at Prince Philip's Windsor funeral.

(Victoria) He sacrificed his very promising naval career to support the Queen.

(narrator) And we discover how a queen was butchered by royal doctors at St. James's Palace.

(Professor Williams) A decision was made to chop bits off.

(peppy music) (bright music)