Last weekend, Will, Kate, George and Charlotte invited us over to their house. Okay, maybe not really, but we did take a tour of their royal residence, Kensington Palace.Unfortunately, you can't see the portion that they live in, but the state rooms in the palace are open for visitors. It's divided into three sections: a view into William and Mary's lives in the Queen's State Apartments; the court of George I and II in the King's State Apartments; and a glimpse into the life of Queen Victoria in her most frequented rooms.
The best part about the tour was not visiting all the rooms, but listening to one of the tour guides give a brief but enthralling recap of the history of the British Monarchy. Some interesting facts we learned:
- William and Mary have been the only reigning diarchy (meaning two individuals are joint head of state). Mary's father reigned before them and during his reign he became Catholic. Parliament did not like this so they approached Mary, who was married to William and living in the Netherlands. They needed her blood line, but they also needed William who enlisted the Dutch army for help. Together, they overthrew her father and dually took up the position of King and Queen.
- Queen Victoria led a very interesting life. Her uncle (William IV) actually appointed her to be Queen before he died overstepping her mother from taking the throne. She inherited the throne at age 18 where she then went onto rule for 63 years and 7 months. She and her husband also had nine children, and after her husband died she went into public mourning, after which she only ever wore black.
- In 1917 the Royal family changed their name. The German-sounding Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was replaced by "House of Windsor" in the midst of WWI.
- Princess Diana lived in Kensington Palace even after her and Charles' divorce, and when she passed away the gates of Kensington Palace became a memorial with over one million bouquets.
A brief, small look into a long, complex history of the British royal family.
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