Inside Windsor Castle (2017) s01e01 Episode Script
Tragedy and Triumph (1992-2016)
1
Narrator: Windsor--
the oldest and largest
continually inhabited castle
in the world.
For 1,000 years,
it's been the symbol of
britain's royal dynasties.
For the queen, this is
a palace like no other.
Man: The windsor
castle is her home.
It is a family home as well,
and she feels very
comfortable there.
Narrator: 1,000 rooms,
hundreds of staff,
billions of dollars' worth of
paintings and fine furnishings,
5,000 acres of parkland.
Man: It's a great stage
on which the whole royal
business can be acted out.
Narrator: It's also where the
royal family hides its secrets.
Woman: There are
documents and letters there
that I think probably
every historian
would give their eyeteeth for.
Narrator: It's been the
queen's home for 80 years.
We'll reveal what
really happened
behind the castle's
imposing walls.
It was the toughest
decade of the queen's reign--
the 1990s.
Man: The royals suddenly found
that they were being analyzed,
criticized, and ridiculed.
Narrator: When an
unprecedented disaster
threatened to destroy the castle
and bring down the queen.
Reporter: Five hours on,
the flames still
rising from the turrets.
A whole royal
treasure house at risk.
Narrator: We reveal
how the queen stepped in
to put an end to Charles
and Diana's marriage.
Man: When the queen
was going to write
something as significant as that
about the future
of the monarchy,
it could only come
from the desk at windsor.
Narrator: And we discover
how, in the 21st century,
the castle has
played a crucial role
in reviving the popularity
of britain's royal family.
♪
[Cheering and applause]
In 2016, Elizabeth II
was britain's longest
serving monarch.
She also turned 90 years old,
making her the oldest
monarch in the nation's history.
To celebrate these
two great milestones,
there was only one
place she wanted to be--
windsor.
Robert jobson: Windsor is
at the core of all things royal,
so when the queen turned 90,
the celebration focus
was in windsor castle.
That's where she was.
Narrator: She went into
the town outside the castle
to meet her loyal subjects
and was given a cake from
celebrity baker nadiya hussain.
Since her childhood
days 80 years earlier,
windsor castle has been
a safe haven for the queen.
It played a central role in many
of the key events of the nation.
Andrew Morton: When people
talk about Buckingham Palace
as the family home to
the house of windsor,
they're wrong.
Windsor castle has been the
hub of royal history down the ages.
It's where the royals have met,
married, been
dispatched, and hatched.
Narrator: It's been the
queen's weekend home
ever since she was crowned.
Paul burrell: Fridays are
always an exciting day
at Buckingham Palace
because the queen is preparing
for her weekend at
windsor, her country retreat,
so after lunch on Friday,
we're busy packing up
all her bits and pieces,
the things that she might
need for the weekend.
Narrator: Paul burrell worked
as the queen's personal footman
at windsor castle for 11 years.
Burrell: It's a half-an-hour
drive down the m4
from Buckingham Palace.
That's what the
queen loves best.
She can get into her
little car, unmarked,
get into the
traffic, into the flow,
and be in windsor
in half an hour,
in the countryside with
her dogs and her horses.
Narrator: And there's
plenty of room for all of them
at the queen's country retreat.
With an impressive 1,000 rooms,
the castle covers a
whopping 13 acres.
From the air, the round tower
sits in the middle of
two distinct sections.
The castle's lower section
is dominated by
St. George's chapel
and houses some of
the castle's 350 staff,
but the queen lives at
the other end of the castle,
in the upper section.
Here, the queen's
private apartments
include the royal nursery,
the queen's private study,
dining room, and, of
course, her bedchamber.
Kate Williams: The queen likes
a very simple traditional look,
a very old English look,
so the minute you go
into the private apartments
in windsor castle,
you'd automatically feel at home
because you've
seen that kind of decor
in many houses across britain.
Narrator: But windsor
castle is much more
than a very large, very
fancy private home.
It's also a state building
unique in the world.
Jobson: Windsor castle has
been at the core of this monarchy,
this 1,000-year monarchy,
since its conception.
Narrator: First
constructed as a fortress
just after the Norman invasion,
windsor castle has
1,000 years of royal history
within its walls.
Williams: William the
conqueror built windsor castle,
and so when
you're in the castle,
it's not just
about Elizabeth II.
It's about all of the monarchs
stretching right back to 1066.
Narrator: From the
Norman conquest
through Henry
viii, queen Victoria,
and now the windsors,
every British royal has
regarded windsor castle
as their seat of power.
Richard Kay: Windsor castle
represents Great Britain plc.
It is the place that
visiting potentates
want to see above all else,
and that's why it's used
so often as a backdrop
for these great state occasions.
Narrator: And the queen's
90th birthday at windsor
was also a state occasion.
It was marked by a visit
from the most powerful
man on the planet.
But even when the president
of the United States drops in,
he has to respect
the house rules.
Kay: When Obama
came to see the queen,
she instructed American
security that the helicopter
should not land on the
lawns at windsor castle,
and she reminded them
that this was her home
and she didn't want
her lovely green herbaceous
border messed up.
[Camera shutters clicking]
Narrator: And to emphasize
how much it was their home,
once the Obamas had landed,
the 95-year-old Duke of Edinburgh
personally drove the president
up to the castle for lunch.
It was a special picture,
designed to have
impact around the world.
Formal but relaxed, a
popular queen totally at ease.
This was an astonishing
transformation.
The 90th birthday
triumph came at the end
of an extraordinarily dark
chapter in the windsor story.
Back in 1992, royal
popularity had plummeted,
and windsor castle itself was
almost completely destroyed.
♪
Friday, the 20th
of November, 1992,
was the queen's 45th
wedding anniversary,
a day to celebrate.
But the day was to become one
of the worst in windsor history.
At 11:20 that morning,
a work light which had
been left too close to a curtain
started a fire inside the
queen's private chapel
at windsor castle.
♪
Within minutes, the
300-year-old room was ablaze.
[Alarm]
At 11:36, the alarm was sounded.
Five minutes later,
the queen's press officer
at Buckingham Palace
received an urgent phone call.
Dickie arbiter: I'm
in the press office,
and I got a, a phone call from
BBC radio berkshire saying,
"can you confirm the
fire at windsor castle?"
And I thought, "fire
at windsor castle?
What fire at windsor castle?"
I left the palace
probably about 5 past 12.
I could see from the motorway
black smoke billowing,
and if you can see
a lot of black smoke,
you know you've got a big fire.
[Siren]
Narrator: At 12:25, 50
minutes after it started,
arbiter arrived at the castle
and found 225 firemen and
39 engines battling an inferno.
Arbiter: There is a
hive of activity going on.
There's a human chain moving
stuff from the royal library.
Lots of artifacts had
to, had to be saved,
hundreds of years old.
And this they were doing.
They were moving a carpet,
an incredibly long carpet,
which was almost like a snake.
Narrator: In the thick of it,
the queen's second son,
Andrew, coordinates an evacuation.
Prince Andrew: I came
up to see if I could help,
and, yes, I could.
Let's get as much as
we possibly can out.
Arbiter: And he was very good
because he was
able to tell the military
what to do, how to do
it, and where to take it.
Narrator: It also fell to Andrew
to phone his mother
with the bad news.
Man: What was your
mother's reaction, sir?
Prince Andrew: Her
majesty was shocked.
Arbiter: The queen was
due to arrive at windsor
at about 3:00 in the afternoon,
and that's when she did arrive.
And immediately she put on
a long sort of barbour coat,
headscarf, as she always does,
and was briefed by the deputy
county fire chief, David Harper.
He gave her sort of full
background of what was happening
and how they were
tackling the fire.
Narrator: The news wasn't good.
As the queen got her briefing,
the fire moved through
the crimson drawing room
and St. George's hall,
two of the most important
rooms in the castle,
and showed no signs of slowing.
Reporter: Five hours on,
the flames still
rising from the turrets.
Smoke as thick as ever,
the battle for control
still far from over.
Arbiter: By the time
we got to nighttime,
the brunswick tower,
which is in the extreme
northeast corner,
was like a factory chimney
with smoke billowing
out of the top.
♪
Narrator: The following morning,
the full scale of the
disaster became apparent.
The fire had burned for 15 hours
and needed 1.5 million
gallons of water to put it out.
100 rooms had been
damaged, nine completely gutted.
Arbiter: St. George's
hall, for example,
the damage to that was from
the smoke and from water.
The walls had been charred.
The ceiling had
completely disappeared.
The roof had disappeared.
Narrator: The fire at windsor
was the worst disaster
in the castle's
1,000-year history.
♪
That Friday was the
queen's wedding anniversary,
but her husband, prince Philip,
was attending a
conference in Argentina.
Kay: The queen was all
alone and looking terribly sad,
and one of her majesty's
coachmen told me
that he was grabbed by
this almost irresistible urge
to go up to her and to
put his arm around her
because she looked
on the verge of tears.
Suddenly it brought
it all home to him
that she was not just
the lofty sovereign.
This was, this was a
mother, a homeowner,
who was seeing her favorite
house going up in smoke.
Narrator: The fire at
windsor couldn't have come
at a worse time for the queen.
1992 had already
been a dreadful year.
Morton: The queen called
1992 her annus horribilis,
and she did so for a reason.
Narrator: In march that year,
her son prince Andrew,
the Duke of York,
separated from his
wife, Sarah Ferguson.
In April, her daughter
Princess Anne divorced.
In June, a tell-all book
about Princess Diana
revealed explosive
details about her marriage
to the queen's
eldest son Charles
and his affair with
Camilla Parker Bowles.
In August, pictures
of a topless Fergie
having her toes sucked
appeared in the tabloids.
And just two weeks
before the fire,
the heir to the throne
had been embarrassed
in a phone-tapping scandal.
Morton: At the end of '92,
prince Charles' stock
was at its lowest ebb.
Not only was he
seeing another woman
and that his marriage
to this fairy-tale Princess,
Princess Diana, was a, a sham,
but also he'd been
caught on tape
making these salacious
remarks to Camilla Parker Bowles.
Jobson: He had hit
pretty much rock bottom.
There were people shouting,
"you should be ashamed of yourself"
when he went on public
engagements around the east end.
I remember it quite vividly.
Narrator: Ten months of scandal
had destroyed the
reputation of the royal family
and even shaken public belief
in the whole idea of monarchy.
Kay: We weren't
turning into a generation
of, of republicans
all of a sudden,
but people were questioning
the point of the royal
family like never before.
Narrator: As bad as the
queen's year had already been,
it was about to get worse.
Just six hours after
the fire at windsor,
the secretary of state
for national heritage
spoke to the press.
In a few words,
he managed to turn
what had been a personal
disaster for the queen
into a crisis for the monarchy.
Peter Brooke: I gave a
sort of general sitrep on,
on what I had seen and what
and what the conditions were
and then made myself
available for questions,
and, of course, the
immediate question was,
uh, who is going to pay for it?
The responsibility
for the royal palace
is one which falls
to my department,
the department of
national heritage.
We will be taking the castle
back to the condition
in which it was.
Narrator: Peter Brooke's
plan was to let taxpayers cover
the nearly $50-million bill.
It went over like
a lead balloon.
Kay: The country
was in a recession,
many services were being cut,
and yet we were being
asked to foot the bill
for this 40 million
salvaging, repair job,
and yet we, the public,
got no particular benefit of it.
It was for the queen
and her family.
It was their home,
but we paid for it.
Man: Who do you think
should pay for the restoration?
Woman: Not the public.
Man: Why should we pay?
The government
don't pay. We pay!
Morton: There was
a huge backlash
amongst the general public,
saying we're not
going to pay for this.
The royal family
can pay for this.
Jobson: The queen
was often at that time
on the Sunday times
list, always number one
as the richest
woman in the country.
There's a sense of
why should people
in a council house
in barkingside
pay for this woman's
residence in royal berkshire?
Narrator: The fire at
windsor had exposed
a popular misunderstanding
about what britain's
monarchy was actually worth.
Arbiter: They had her down
as owning all the royal palaces,
including the tower of
London, Buckingham Palace,
windsor castle, you name it.
If it was a royal
palace. She owned it.
She owned the royal flight,
the royal train,
the royal yacht.
She owned the royal collection.
She owned the crown jewels.
None of which does she own.
Narrator: In reality, the
queen doesn't own windsor
or any of the other royal
palaces and estates.
After her coronation,
she, like every monarch
for the last 200 years,
signed a contract handing
over all crown lands
and buildings and
their vast rental income
to the government
for the rest of her life.
In return, she receives
a large annual allowance.
[Choir singing hymn]
So, legally, windsor is the
taxpayers' responsibility.
But with the family's reputation
at its lowest levels
in a generation,
the public didn't care.
Woman: I used to like
them a lot at one time,
but now each time you
read all what's going on,
you think, well, you've
gone right off of them.
Man: I think the whole lot
of them should strung up.
Narrator: The queen
realized she needed to act.
She needed to rebuild
both windsor and the
reputation of the monarchy,
and fast.
Something had to change.
Kay: She doesn't like change.
She finds change
unsettling, like all of us,
but she is prepared to embrace
change, uh, albeit slowly.
Narrator: It's not first
time that public hostility
has forced radical
action from the royals.
In 1917, the queen's grandfather
faced a similar problem.
Lady Colin Campbell:
During the first world war,
anything German became
extremely unpopular.
This presented a difficulty,
of course, for the royal family
because the name of the royal
house was saxe-coburg-gotha.
Jobson: The truth is it
was a very germanic name,
but even worse, gotha
bombers in the first world war
were dropping
bombs on, on London,
so there was a sense that they
had to do something to change
that perception of being
a germanic royal family.
Campbell: King George v
very sensibly understood
that he needed to change
the name of the dynasty,
and he very sensibly
chose windsor.
They didn't choose Buckingham,
and they didn't choose
sandringham or balmoral.
They chose windsor
because windsor is
quintessentially English.
Narrator: 75 years later,
public opposition to
paying for repairs to windsor
forced Elizabeth to come up
with an equally radical plan.
Martin conboy: At that stage,
the, uh, the royal
institution closes ranks
and has a real hard think,
and what you see
is a concerted effort
to win the hearts and
minds of the British people.
Narrator: A week after the fire,
the queen called
a secret meeting
of key family members
and trusted advisors.
They formed what's known
as the way ahead group.
Jobson: The way
ahead group effectively is
an uber focus group of
royal household members
that would discuss
the way ahead,
what is the strategy
for the next few years,
because they were conscious
that they had an image problem.
Narrator: The meeting
of the way ahead group
ended with a plan.
Insisting that the taxpayers
foot the bill for the fire
was now out of the question.
Instead, the queen
offered to raise the money
by opening up her London
headquarters to paying visitors.
Kay: It was announced
that the queen
was going to open
Buckingham Palace up
to the public to fund the
repairs to windsor castle.
It was a masterstroke
in many ways.
It defused the whole situation.
And, of course, the backstory is
that they'd been
planning this anyway,
but timing it just after the
windsor castle catastrophe
was a brilliant stroke.
Narrator: In August 1993,
just eight months after
the fire at windsor castle,
Buckingham Palace opened
its doors to paying visitors
for the first time.
Man: Tickets, please
Narrator: It was an
enormous success.
Nearly 400,000 people paid
$10 a ticket to take the tour.
Money was pouring into
the windsor restoration fund,
and public hostility to
the royals began to soften.
[Applause]
Two years after
the devastating fire
at windsor castle,
a huge restoration
program began.
The fire had destroyed
a fifth of the building,
and hundreds of
craftsmen were working
to return it to
its former glory.
The castle could be repaired.
In 1994, the marriage of
Charles and Diana could not.
The bitter war of words
between the royal couple
plunged to new depths.
They'd been separated
for two unhappy years,
and the relationship had
completely broken down.
Charles' popularity
had reached a new low,
with the public
taking Diana's side.
Woman: She doesn't
need him anymore.
Woman: He should give
up all thought of being king.
He should become
like a commoner.
Narrator: As heir to the
throne, the prince of wales
desperately needed to
win back public respect.
A prime-time
television documentary
gave him the perfect opportunity
and windsor castle
the perfect backdrop.
Arbiter: When a
documentary was first mooted
for the prince of wales to do,
it was to be around
basically the prince's
trust and his other charities,
and this was really going to be
a documentary about
what a jolly fine fellow he is.
Narrator: All had been
going well with the filming,
but when the host
arrived at windsor,
the project started to backfire.
Arbiter: He's in St.
George's chapel,
and dimbleby is
standing next to him
and asked him the question
about him and
Camilla Parker Bowles
and the breakdown of
his marriage to Diana,
and did he commit adultery?
And he confessed
that he had done.
Narrator: The film was broadcast
on the 29th of June, 1994,
and shocked even royal insiders.
Arbiter: My eyes came
out like organ stops.
I couldn't actually
believe what I was seeing
or what I was hearing.
Narrator: By attempting to blame
his affair on Diana's behavior,
Charles upped the ante
in what had been dubbed
the war of the waleses.
Princess Diana: Hello.
Narrator: Diana hit back
immediately in a television interview.
Morton: Diana went nuclear
with her interview
with Martin Bashir.
She suggested
that prince Charles
wasn't fit to be king,
shouldn't be king.
She was the queen of hearts.
It was a damning
and devastating attack,
not just on prince Charles,
but also on the
institution of the monarchy.
Narrator: The queen felt
Diana had gone too far.
By saying Charles
was unfit to be king,
she'd challenged a fundamental
principle of monarchy--
succession to the throne is
not decided by popular opinion.
Morton: And as
the queen absorbed
the full import of
what was being said,
she realized that she
had to stop this at the pass.
Kay: Events were
just rolling over them,
and, and the monarchy
was being ridiculed, traduced,
and she had to
seize back control.
Narrator: In December
1995, in her study at windsor,
the queen sat at her desk
and began two of most
difficult letters she'd ever written.
Kay: The only way,
really, to grasp the nettle
was to order a
divorce, and therefore,
separate the house of
windsor from Princess Diana.
Jobson: I think that when
the queen was going to write
something as significant as that
about the future
of the monarchy,
it can only come from
the desk at windsor.
Narrator: On December 20, 1995,
the two letters were
dispatched from windsor castle.
One was sent to
the prince of wales,
and the other, via
a uniformed courier,
to Kensington palace.
Burrell: And I could see
the windsor castle crest
and the windsor castle paper.
I knew exactly what it was.
The letter read, after long
consideration and consultation
with the prime minister and
the archbishop of canterbury,
I think it's probably best
if you divorced for
the sake of the country.
And signed Elizabeth r.
It was a royal command
from windsor castle.
Morton: Windsor
castle is the home
of many significant
royal events,
none more so than her
decision to write this letter
to protect the fabric and
the integrity of the monarchy.
Narrator: The
queen's intervention
ended the public battle
between her son and Diana.
Eight months later,
on August 28, 1996,
the divorce was granted and
was welcomed by the public.
Man: It's about time.
It's a complete farce.
They should have
done it some time ago.
Man: I think it's
sad but necessary.
Narrator: With Charles' divorce,
the queen hoped that the
darkest days of her reign
might finally be behind her.
But within the year, the
nation and the royal family
were stunned by the sudden
and brutal death of Diana.
That fateful Sunday,
the crowds gathered in
London to mourn the Princess.
But the queen was not at
windsor that August weekend.
She was on vacation, hidden
away at balmoral in Scotland,
and she chose to stay there.
Kay: She rarely misjudges
the mood of, of the people,
but there's no question
that in that week in
1997 after Diana's death,
there was a misjudgment.
Woman: Our queen should be
here in London with her people.
This is her nation,
and they should know how
all her people feel about Diana.
Narrator: It's not the first
time a tragic royal death
has led to a monarch's
plummet in popularity.
150 years ago,
when 42-year-old prince
Albert died at windsor castle,
queen Victoria
became a virtual recluse.
Williams: After Albert's death,
she wants to
retreat into herself.
She wants to lock herself up.
She wanted to be at
windsor and no one see her.
And yet everyone was
expecting to see the queen.
They wanted
pictures of the queen.
They wanted her out visiting.
And this caused a
lot of problems for her.
There was a lot of complaint
and growth of republican feeling
because people said, "why
is she the widow of windsor?
"Why is she hiding herself
away? Why is she doing this?
She's our queen."
Narrator: Perhaps mindful of
her great-great-grandmother,
on September 5, 1997,
Elizabeth II finally
returned to London.
Queen Elizabeth: First, I want
to pay tribute to Diana myself.
She was an exceptional
and gifted human being.
Morton: When she came down
and she spoke to people outside,
comforted well-wishers,
she then acted as her
archetypal position demands,
that is to say, she was
the mother to the nation.
Narrator: By mingling with the
crowd and displaying empathy,
the queen had made that day
a turning point in her fortunes.
The worst years of
her reign were over.
There would be new tests,
but none as tough as this one.
She could look forward
to her 50th wedding
anniversary with optimism,
for the most part,
because she could celebrate
this one at home at windsor.
♪
On November 20, 1997,
five years to the day after
the fire that had destroyed it,
the restoration of windsor
castle was complete.
It had cost over $46 million,
money the queen
had helped to find.
For Elizabeth, it was
money well spent.
Woman: I know the queen
is very pleased with it.
She said the other
night at a party here
that it was the best golden
wedding anniversary present
she could possibly have.
Narrator: Elizabeth had restored
windsor's magnificent
edwardian interiors
and had also given her home
a very personal
20th-century touch.
Arbiter: There is
an Elizabeth II stamp
on the restoration
of windsor castle--
a new design for the
ceiling of St. George's hall,
a new configuration from
what was the private chapel
into what is known as
the lantern lobby now.
Narrator: The reopening
of windsor castle
ended what had been a
difficult five years for the queen.
She hadn't lost her dignity,
and her eldest son, Charles,
could now concentrate
on being a king in waiting.
♪
But the queen's
difficulties weren't over.
Now her two other sons were
beginning to cause problems.
They needed to be
brought under the royal wing,
and fortunately, windsor
has pretty big wings.
John goddall: Windsor castle
sits within a great landscape,
like a kind of aircraft carrier,
you know, overseeing
this vast area of land.
Narrator: The windsor
castle estate is enormous.
It occupies thousands of acres,
including forests, golf courses,
Polo grounds, ascot
racecourse, and two huge parks.
The 5,500-acre
windsor great park
is open to the public,
but tucked away in the northeast
is the royal's own very
private 650-acre estate.
It's called home park.
It's a private
playground for the family,
where they can play
golf, relax in gardens,
and hang out in some of the
grandest homes in the country.
Campbell: You
have frogmore house,
you have royal lodge,
so there are dotted throughout
many other royal homes.
They're not palaces.
They're royal homes.
Narrator: In 1997,
the queen moved her
youngest son, prince Edward,
just six miles down
the road from the castle
into a very grand mansion
called bagshot park.
Nigel mccrery: Bagshot
is this very impressive,
imposing sort of gothic house
that used to belong to one
of queen Victoria's sons.
It's very impressive, a
little bit like something
from a hammer house, I have
to say, from, from the outside.
Narrator: Built in 1879,
the huge bagshot property
has 120 rooms and 40
acres of private parkland.
It's a comfortable
retreat for a prince
who had never really
found his place in the world.
Chris Bryant: It
must be really difficult
being an "also-ran"
in, in a royal family.
Because what is the
role of a minor royal?
In one way, you just
want him to go to work.
Why don't you just
get yourself a job?
But it's not maybe
quite that easy.
Narrator: And it wasn't.
Throughout the nineties,
Edward had tried hard to find a job.
Mccrery: He was very keen
to show that royals
could earn their own living,
and there was a lot
of criticism at the time
about them being paid
from the public purse,
not earning their own living,
and he was very
keen to change that.
Narrator: But he didn't
really seem to know
what he actually wanted to do.
First, he tried the traditional
career in the services.
He joined the marines
but quit after three months.
Then he set his sights
on a career in the theater
and failed.
Eventually he started
his own TV company.
Kay: He's caught between
a rock and a hard place.
"Call me Edward windsor."
That was what his, his
gimmick was at that time.
"I'm plain Mr. Windsor."
But these big
television productions
he was interested in making
wanted to make a
huge big deal of the fact
that they'd got the
queen's son behind them.
They didn't want Edward windsor.
They wanted hrh prince Edward.
And in the end, he
decided he had enough.
Narrator: Edward
retreated to bagshot park.
With his newly acquired
title of Earl of wessex,
his wife, countess Sophie,
and two young children,
he could live the
comfortable life
of a country squire
and minor royal,
shielded from the public glare.
♪
Edward wasn't the only prince
given refuge in the
queen's backyard.
Morton: Windsor is very much
prince Andrew's stomping ground.
Narrator: Since 1987,
prince Andrew had been living
on the grounds of
the windsor estate
at sunninghill park, five
miles from the castle.
The 2-story, 12-bedroom mansion
had been a wedding
present from the queen.
But after his split from Fergie
and departure from the Navy,
he set out in search of a job.
Kay: He just came
up with this idea
that he should be our
traveling trade ambassador,
but that did not turn
out to be a good fit.
He had an unfortunate
manner, let's put it like that,
when dealing with people
we wanted to do business
with around the world.
Ingrid seward: I think
that prince Andrew
can sometimes be rather a bore.
He's not full of obvious charm.
Narrator: This was a prince who
expected to be treated like one
when representing
britain abroad.
Bryant: He wanted such a
luxurious version of a visit,
way in excess of
what would happen
for the prime minister
or any other minister,
that you kind of thought, "is
this really worth the effort?"
Narrator: The criticism
eventually forced him to quit
and badly stung his
mother, the queen.
Kay: Andrew is, is the
queen's favorite son,
and they're terribly close.
She probably speaks
as much to Andrew
as to any of her children.
Um, and he's as close
to her as she is to him.
Narrator: The queen
realized that Andrew
needed somewhere
very private to live,
somewhere
comfortable and close by
where he could be kept
out of the public eye.
In 2002, the death of
her 101-year-old mother
provided the queen
with the perfect solution.
Kay: Royal lodge remains
a great favorite of the queen
because it was where she went
every Sunday to see her mother
and where she continues to go
almost every
Sunday without fail.
After church, she'll
drop in to see Andrew.
Narrator: The huge
17th-century mansion
is the jewel in the crown of
windsor's private royal homes.
It's also the closest.
It's only three miles down
the road from the castle.
Even better for the Duke,
it's very close to the
castle's private golf course.
Burrell: Andrew loves windsor.
Of course, he loves windsor.
He plays golf.
He loves the golf course,
which is on the queen's doorstep.
He can play golf
anytime he wants.
Narrator: With his 75-year
lease on royal lodge,
the queen's favorite son
can quietly enjoy his golf
at windsor for
the rest of his life.
Man: Fore! [Applause]
With her two
younger sons settled,
the queen could
look to the future.
It was time to train
the next generation,
and fortunately,
the most important was
already a windsor resident.
At the start of the
new millennium,
the queen had a problem
with her eldest son.
Stubborn, headstrong,
and seemingly unrepentant
about his split with Diana,
Charles had lost the
affection of his subjects.
But his son was hugely popular.
[Screaming]
At the time, William,
second in line to the throne,
was a windsor local.
As a pupil at eton college,
which is on the edge of
the windsor castle estate,
he'd spent years just a short
stroll from his granny's house.
Burrell: The queen
always has tea,
a set tea with a cup
of tea and a biscuit
in her oak drawing room.
And on sundays, she'd say to me,
"would you set an
extra place setting?
Because William's going
to walk up the hill from eton."
So, William would walk
up the hill from school
with his policeman and have
a cup of tea with his granny.
And I know exactly
what she was doing.
She was beginning to
introduce him to windsor
as the seat of monarchy.
Kay: She did use those
occasions to begin his education
in the art of
kingship, if you like.
In many ways,
the queen has almost
given up on prince Charles.
Charles was such an
independent heir to the throne,
determined to do
things his own way,
um, whereas William has proved
to be more malleable perhaps.
He's certainly been more open
to his grandmother's
approach to monarchy,
and he's likely to be much
more off the chip of her block
than a chip off
his father's block.
Narrator: Like his dad and
his uncles Andrew and Edward,
William chose windsor to
celebrate his 21st birthday.
And just back from
volunteering in Africa,
he added his own little twist.
[Drumming]
Jeff Edwards: It was
an African themed party,
so everyone dressed
up as, as, you know,
as elephants and giraffes
and zebras and
lions and gorillas.
I've no doubt there were
several gorilla suits in there.
Narrator: The
300-strong guest list
included all of the most senior
members of the royal family.
Edwards: Prince William's 21st
birthday party at windsor castle
was a very, very
big deal, indeed,
and was bound to attract
a lot of media interest
and interest from
the public at large,
and sprinkled amongst
them almost inevitably
are people who are
pranksters or interferers
in one way or another.
Aaron Barschak: Happy birthday!
Narrator: One such
person was Aaron Barschak.
Edwards: Aaron Barschak turns up
wearing sort of a white
turban and a long black beard.
From there down, he was
wearing a, sort of a pink dress,
so he was sort of like
osama bin laden in drag.
He then walks around the
side wall of the, of the castle,
and he's able to get up
and drop over the wall,
inside the castle.
Narrator: Remarkably, the
cross-dressing trespasser
was then able to freely
roam the castle grounds.
Edwards: Cctv from inside
the castle confirms this.
He walked about. He explored.
He went to the kitchens.
He went into this library.
He went into this
sitting room and so forth,
and he's seen, if you like,
having a good look around.
Narrator: Around 11:00 P.M.
Barschak bumped
into a contractor
working at the castle.
Edwards: And Barschak
persuades this chap that,
presumably that he's a guest
who somehow got locked out
or lost from the party,
so the contractor
swallows this story
and sort of assists Barschak.
Narrator: Moments later,
Barschak was within touching
distance of the birthday boy.
Edwards: He actually
walked up to the prince,
put his arm round him, and
planted a kiss on his cheek.
Now, that's all
good knockabout fun
except that we're in an
age, and we were in 2003,
where he could have been
somebody wearing a suicide belt.
Narrator: The lapse in
security at windsor castle
outraged the family
and generated sympathy
for the shy young prince.
Over the next two years,
the family built
on the popularity
of the younger windsors,
gradually erasing the memories
of the dark days of the 1990s,
so much so that in 2005,
even the relationship
that had destroyed public
trust in the monarchy
could be publicly celebrated.
Burrell: It's extraordinary
that we should witness
the prince of wales married
to Camilla Parker Bowles
after all that's happened.
Narrator: Just eight years
after the death of Diana,
Charles married the
other woman in windsor
in full public view.
[Cheering]
Jobson: As soon as she
appeared as his bride in windsor
on those steps where the
queen was seen mouthing,
"well, that went rather well,"
I think people accepted it.
Narrator: The queen
turned 80 the following year.
It seemed that after
a challenging decade,
she could look forward to
a more comfortable old age,
spending as much time
at windsor as she could.
Kay: Windsor is the place
the queen considers
home above all others,
and, in fact, as
she's got older,
it's the place she's
retreated to more and more.
She cuts short her working
week at Buckingham Palace
to spend more time
at windsor castle.
♪
Narrator: Windsor castle
is a great royal stage,
but for the queen,
it's the place where she grew
up and raised her own family.
When it was saved
from destruction,
so, too, were 80 years
of her personal memories.
Now that she's in
her tenth decade,
she plans to spend more
time in her favorite home--
windsor castle.
Narrator: Windsor--
the oldest and largest
continually inhabited castle
in the world.
For 1,000 years,
it's been the symbol of
britain's royal dynasties.
For the queen, this is
a palace like no other.
Man: The windsor
castle is her home.
It is a family home as well,
and she feels very
comfortable there.
Narrator: 1,000 rooms,
hundreds of staff,
billions of dollars' worth of
paintings and fine furnishings,
5,000 acres of parkland.
Man: It's a great stage
on which the whole royal
business can be acted out.
Narrator: It's also where the
royal family hides its secrets.
Woman: There are
documents and letters there
that I think probably
every historian
would give their eyeteeth for.
Narrator: It's been the
queen's home for 80 years.
We'll reveal what
really happened
behind the castle's
imposing walls.
It was the toughest
decade of the queen's reign--
the 1990s.
Man: The royals suddenly found
that they were being analyzed,
criticized, and ridiculed.
Narrator: When an
unprecedented disaster
threatened to destroy the castle
and bring down the queen.
Reporter: Five hours on,
the flames still
rising from the turrets.
A whole royal
treasure house at risk.
Narrator: We reveal
how the queen stepped in
to put an end to Charles
and Diana's marriage.
Man: When the queen
was going to write
something as significant as that
about the future
of the monarchy,
it could only come
from the desk at windsor.
Narrator: And we discover
how, in the 21st century,
the castle has
played a crucial role
in reviving the popularity
of britain's royal family.
♪
[Cheering and applause]
In 2016, Elizabeth II
was britain's longest
serving monarch.
She also turned 90 years old,
making her the oldest
monarch in the nation's history.
To celebrate these
two great milestones,
there was only one
place she wanted to be--
windsor.
Robert jobson: Windsor is
at the core of all things royal,
so when the queen turned 90,
the celebration focus
was in windsor castle.
That's where she was.
Narrator: She went into
the town outside the castle
to meet her loyal subjects
and was given a cake from
celebrity baker nadiya hussain.
Since her childhood
days 80 years earlier,
windsor castle has been
a safe haven for the queen.
It played a central role in many
of the key events of the nation.
Andrew Morton: When people
talk about Buckingham Palace
as the family home to
the house of windsor,
they're wrong.
Windsor castle has been the
hub of royal history down the ages.
It's where the royals have met,
married, been
dispatched, and hatched.
Narrator: It's been the
queen's weekend home
ever since she was crowned.
Paul burrell: Fridays are
always an exciting day
at Buckingham Palace
because the queen is preparing
for her weekend at
windsor, her country retreat,
so after lunch on Friday,
we're busy packing up
all her bits and pieces,
the things that she might
need for the weekend.
Narrator: Paul burrell worked
as the queen's personal footman
at windsor castle for 11 years.
Burrell: It's a half-an-hour
drive down the m4
from Buckingham Palace.
That's what the
queen loves best.
She can get into her
little car, unmarked,
get into the
traffic, into the flow,
and be in windsor
in half an hour,
in the countryside with
her dogs and her horses.
Narrator: And there's
plenty of room for all of them
at the queen's country retreat.
With an impressive 1,000 rooms,
the castle covers a
whopping 13 acres.
From the air, the round tower
sits in the middle of
two distinct sections.
The castle's lower section
is dominated by
St. George's chapel
and houses some of
the castle's 350 staff,
but the queen lives at
the other end of the castle,
in the upper section.
Here, the queen's
private apartments
include the royal nursery,
the queen's private study,
dining room, and, of
course, her bedchamber.
Kate Williams: The queen likes
a very simple traditional look,
a very old English look,
so the minute you go
into the private apartments
in windsor castle,
you'd automatically feel at home
because you've
seen that kind of decor
in many houses across britain.
Narrator: But windsor
castle is much more
than a very large, very
fancy private home.
It's also a state building
unique in the world.
Jobson: Windsor castle has
been at the core of this monarchy,
this 1,000-year monarchy,
since its conception.
Narrator: First
constructed as a fortress
just after the Norman invasion,
windsor castle has
1,000 years of royal history
within its walls.
Williams: William the
conqueror built windsor castle,
and so when
you're in the castle,
it's not just
about Elizabeth II.
It's about all of the monarchs
stretching right back to 1066.
Narrator: From the
Norman conquest
through Henry
viii, queen Victoria,
and now the windsors,
every British royal has
regarded windsor castle
as their seat of power.
Richard Kay: Windsor castle
represents Great Britain plc.
It is the place that
visiting potentates
want to see above all else,
and that's why it's used
so often as a backdrop
for these great state occasions.
Narrator: And the queen's
90th birthday at windsor
was also a state occasion.
It was marked by a visit
from the most powerful
man on the planet.
But even when the president
of the United States drops in,
he has to respect
the house rules.
Kay: When Obama
came to see the queen,
she instructed American
security that the helicopter
should not land on the
lawns at windsor castle,
and she reminded them
that this was her home
and she didn't want
her lovely green herbaceous
border messed up.
[Camera shutters clicking]
Narrator: And to emphasize
how much it was their home,
once the Obamas had landed,
the 95-year-old Duke of Edinburgh
personally drove the president
up to the castle for lunch.
It was a special picture,
designed to have
impact around the world.
Formal but relaxed, a
popular queen totally at ease.
This was an astonishing
transformation.
The 90th birthday
triumph came at the end
of an extraordinarily dark
chapter in the windsor story.
Back in 1992, royal
popularity had plummeted,
and windsor castle itself was
almost completely destroyed.
♪
Friday, the 20th
of November, 1992,
was the queen's 45th
wedding anniversary,
a day to celebrate.
But the day was to become one
of the worst in windsor history.
At 11:20 that morning,
a work light which had
been left too close to a curtain
started a fire inside the
queen's private chapel
at windsor castle.
♪
Within minutes, the
300-year-old room was ablaze.
[Alarm]
At 11:36, the alarm was sounded.
Five minutes later,
the queen's press officer
at Buckingham Palace
received an urgent phone call.
Dickie arbiter: I'm
in the press office,
and I got a, a phone call from
BBC radio berkshire saying,
"can you confirm the
fire at windsor castle?"
And I thought, "fire
at windsor castle?
What fire at windsor castle?"
I left the palace
probably about 5 past 12.
I could see from the motorway
black smoke billowing,
and if you can see
a lot of black smoke,
you know you've got a big fire.
[Siren]
Narrator: At 12:25, 50
minutes after it started,
arbiter arrived at the castle
and found 225 firemen and
39 engines battling an inferno.
Arbiter: There is a
hive of activity going on.
There's a human chain moving
stuff from the royal library.
Lots of artifacts had
to, had to be saved,
hundreds of years old.
And this they were doing.
They were moving a carpet,
an incredibly long carpet,
which was almost like a snake.
Narrator: In the thick of it,
the queen's second son,
Andrew, coordinates an evacuation.
Prince Andrew: I came
up to see if I could help,
and, yes, I could.
Let's get as much as
we possibly can out.
Arbiter: And he was very good
because he was
able to tell the military
what to do, how to do
it, and where to take it.
Narrator: It also fell to Andrew
to phone his mother
with the bad news.
Man: What was your
mother's reaction, sir?
Prince Andrew: Her
majesty was shocked.
Arbiter: The queen was
due to arrive at windsor
at about 3:00 in the afternoon,
and that's when she did arrive.
And immediately she put on
a long sort of barbour coat,
headscarf, as she always does,
and was briefed by the deputy
county fire chief, David Harper.
He gave her sort of full
background of what was happening
and how they were
tackling the fire.
Narrator: The news wasn't good.
As the queen got her briefing,
the fire moved through
the crimson drawing room
and St. George's hall,
two of the most important
rooms in the castle,
and showed no signs of slowing.
Reporter: Five hours on,
the flames still
rising from the turrets.
Smoke as thick as ever,
the battle for control
still far from over.
Arbiter: By the time
we got to nighttime,
the brunswick tower,
which is in the extreme
northeast corner,
was like a factory chimney
with smoke billowing
out of the top.
♪
Narrator: The following morning,
the full scale of the
disaster became apparent.
The fire had burned for 15 hours
and needed 1.5 million
gallons of water to put it out.
100 rooms had been
damaged, nine completely gutted.
Arbiter: St. George's
hall, for example,
the damage to that was from
the smoke and from water.
The walls had been charred.
The ceiling had
completely disappeared.
The roof had disappeared.
Narrator: The fire at windsor
was the worst disaster
in the castle's
1,000-year history.
♪
That Friday was the
queen's wedding anniversary,
but her husband, prince Philip,
was attending a
conference in Argentina.
Kay: The queen was all
alone and looking terribly sad,
and one of her majesty's
coachmen told me
that he was grabbed by
this almost irresistible urge
to go up to her and to
put his arm around her
because she looked
on the verge of tears.
Suddenly it brought
it all home to him
that she was not just
the lofty sovereign.
This was, this was a
mother, a homeowner,
who was seeing her favorite
house going up in smoke.
Narrator: The fire at
windsor couldn't have come
at a worse time for the queen.
1992 had already
been a dreadful year.
Morton: The queen called
1992 her annus horribilis,
and she did so for a reason.
Narrator: In march that year,
her son prince Andrew,
the Duke of York,
separated from his
wife, Sarah Ferguson.
In April, her daughter
Princess Anne divorced.
In June, a tell-all book
about Princess Diana
revealed explosive
details about her marriage
to the queen's
eldest son Charles
and his affair with
Camilla Parker Bowles.
In August, pictures
of a topless Fergie
having her toes sucked
appeared in the tabloids.
And just two weeks
before the fire,
the heir to the throne
had been embarrassed
in a phone-tapping scandal.
Morton: At the end of '92,
prince Charles' stock
was at its lowest ebb.
Not only was he
seeing another woman
and that his marriage
to this fairy-tale Princess,
Princess Diana, was a, a sham,
but also he'd been
caught on tape
making these salacious
remarks to Camilla Parker Bowles.
Jobson: He had hit
pretty much rock bottom.
There were people shouting,
"you should be ashamed of yourself"
when he went on public
engagements around the east end.
I remember it quite vividly.
Narrator: Ten months of scandal
had destroyed the
reputation of the royal family
and even shaken public belief
in the whole idea of monarchy.
Kay: We weren't
turning into a generation
of, of republicans
all of a sudden,
but people were questioning
the point of the royal
family like never before.
Narrator: As bad as the
queen's year had already been,
it was about to get worse.
Just six hours after
the fire at windsor,
the secretary of state
for national heritage
spoke to the press.
In a few words,
he managed to turn
what had been a personal
disaster for the queen
into a crisis for the monarchy.
Peter Brooke: I gave a
sort of general sitrep on,
on what I had seen and what
and what the conditions were
and then made myself
available for questions,
and, of course, the
immediate question was,
uh, who is going to pay for it?
The responsibility
for the royal palace
is one which falls
to my department,
the department of
national heritage.
We will be taking the castle
back to the condition
in which it was.
Narrator: Peter Brooke's
plan was to let taxpayers cover
the nearly $50-million bill.
It went over like
a lead balloon.
Kay: The country
was in a recession,
many services were being cut,
and yet we were being
asked to foot the bill
for this 40 million
salvaging, repair job,
and yet we, the public,
got no particular benefit of it.
It was for the queen
and her family.
It was their home,
but we paid for it.
Man: Who do you think
should pay for the restoration?
Woman: Not the public.
Man: Why should we pay?
The government
don't pay. We pay!
Morton: There was
a huge backlash
amongst the general public,
saying we're not
going to pay for this.
The royal family
can pay for this.
Jobson: The queen
was often at that time
on the Sunday times
list, always number one
as the richest
woman in the country.
There's a sense of
why should people
in a council house
in barkingside
pay for this woman's
residence in royal berkshire?
Narrator: The fire at
windsor had exposed
a popular misunderstanding
about what britain's
monarchy was actually worth.
Arbiter: They had her down
as owning all the royal palaces,
including the tower of
London, Buckingham Palace,
windsor castle, you name it.
If it was a royal
palace. She owned it.
She owned the royal flight,
the royal train,
the royal yacht.
She owned the royal collection.
She owned the crown jewels.
None of which does she own.
Narrator: In reality, the
queen doesn't own windsor
or any of the other royal
palaces and estates.
After her coronation,
she, like every monarch
for the last 200 years,
signed a contract handing
over all crown lands
and buildings and
their vast rental income
to the government
for the rest of her life.
In return, she receives
a large annual allowance.
[Choir singing hymn]
So, legally, windsor is the
taxpayers' responsibility.
But with the family's reputation
at its lowest levels
in a generation,
the public didn't care.
Woman: I used to like
them a lot at one time,
but now each time you
read all what's going on,
you think, well, you've
gone right off of them.
Man: I think the whole lot
of them should strung up.
Narrator: The queen
realized she needed to act.
She needed to rebuild
both windsor and the
reputation of the monarchy,
and fast.
Something had to change.
Kay: She doesn't like change.
She finds change
unsettling, like all of us,
but she is prepared to embrace
change, uh, albeit slowly.
Narrator: It's not first
time that public hostility
has forced radical
action from the royals.
In 1917, the queen's grandfather
faced a similar problem.
Lady Colin Campbell:
During the first world war,
anything German became
extremely unpopular.
This presented a difficulty,
of course, for the royal family
because the name of the royal
house was saxe-coburg-gotha.
Jobson: The truth is it
was a very germanic name,
but even worse, gotha
bombers in the first world war
were dropping
bombs on, on London,
so there was a sense that they
had to do something to change
that perception of being
a germanic royal family.
Campbell: King George v
very sensibly understood
that he needed to change
the name of the dynasty,
and he very sensibly
chose windsor.
They didn't choose Buckingham,
and they didn't choose
sandringham or balmoral.
They chose windsor
because windsor is
quintessentially English.
Narrator: 75 years later,
public opposition to
paying for repairs to windsor
forced Elizabeth to come up
with an equally radical plan.
Martin conboy: At that stage,
the, uh, the royal
institution closes ranks
and has a real hard think,
and what you see
is a concerted effort
to win the hearts and
minds of the British people.
Narrator: A week after the fire,
the queen called
a secret meeting
of key family members
and trusted advisors.
They formed what's known
as the way ahead group.
Jobson: The way
ahead group effectively is
an uber focus group of
royal household members
that would discuss
the way ahead,
what is the strategy
for the next few years,
because they were conscious
that they had an image problem.
Narrator: The meeting
of the way ahead group
ended with a plan.
Insisting that the taxpayers
foot the bill for the fire
was now out of the question.
Instead, the queen
offered to raise the money
by opening up her London
headquarters to paying visitors.
Kay: It was announced
that the queen
was going to open
Buckingham Palace up
to the public to fund the
repairs to windsor castle.
It was a masterstroke
in many ways.
It defused the whole situation.
And, of course, the backstory is
that they'd been
planning this anyway,
but timing it just after the
windsor castle catastrophe
was a brilliant stroke.
Narrator: In August 1993,
just eight months after
the fire at windsor castle,
Buckingham Palace opened
its doors to paying visitors
for the first time.
Man: Tickets, please
Narrator: It was an
enormous success.
Nearly 400,000 people paid
$10 a ticket to take the tour.
Money was pouring into
the windsor restoration fund,
and public hostility to
the royals began to soften.
[Applause]
Two years after
the devastating fire
at windsor castle,
a huge restoration
program began.
The fire had destroyed
a fifth of the building,
and hundreds of
craftsmen were working
to return it to
its former glory.
The castle could be repaired.
In 1994, the marriage of
Charles and Diana could not.
The bitter war of words
between the royal couple
plunged to new depths.
They'd been separated
for two unhappy years,
and the relationship had
completely broken down.
Charles' popularity
had reached a new low,
with the public
taking Diana's side.
Woman: She doesn't
need him anymore.
Woman: He should give
up all thought of being king.
He should become
like a commoner.
Narrator: As heir to the
throne, the prince of wales
desperately needed to
win back public respect.
A prime-time
television documentary
gave him the perfect opportunity
and windsor castle
the perfect backdrop.
Arbiter: When a
documentary was first mooted
for the prince of wales to do,
it was to be around
basically the prince's
trust and his other charities,
and this was really going to be
a documentary about
what a jolly fine fellow he is.
Narrator: All had been
going well with the filming,
but when the host
arrived at windsor,
the project started to backfire.
Arbiter: He's in St.
George's chapel,
and dimbleby is
standing next to him
and asked him the question
about him and
Camilla Parker Bowles
and the breakdown of
his marriage to Diana,
and did he commit adultery?
And he confessed
that he had done.
Narrator: The film was broadcast
on the 29th of June, 1994,
and shocked even royal insiders.
Arbiter: My eyes came
out like organ stops.
I couldn't actually
believe what I was seeing
or what I was hearing.
Narrator: By attempting to blame
his affair on Diana's behavior,
Charles upped the ante
in what had been dubbed
the war of the waleses.
Princess Diana: Hello.
Narrator: Diana hit back
immediately in a television interview.
Morton: Diana went nuclear
with her interview
with Martin Bashir.
She suggested
that prince Charles
wasn't fit to be king,
shouldn't be king.
She was the queen of hearts.
It was a damning
and devastating attack,
not just on prince Charles,
but also on the
institution of the monarchy.
Narrator: The queen felt
Diana had gone too far.
By saying Charles
was unfit to be king,
she'd challenged a fundamental
principle of monarchy--
succession to the throne is
not decided by popular opinion.
Morton: And as
the queen absorbed
the full import of
what was being said,
she realized that she
had to stop this at the pass.
Kay: Events were
just rolling over them,
and, and the monarchy
was being ridiculed, traduced,
and she had to
seize back control.
Narrator: In December
1995, in her study at windsor,
the queen sat at her desk
and began two of most
difficult letters she'd ever written.
Kay: The only way,
really, to grasp the nettle
was to order a
divorce, and therefore,
separate the house of
windsor from Princess Diana.
Jobson: I think that when
the queen was going to write
something as significant as that
about the future
of the monarchy,
it can only come from
the desk at windsor.
Narrator: On December 20, 1995,
the two letters were
dispatched from windsor castle.
One was sent to
the prince of wales,
and the other, via
a uniformed courier,
to Kensington palace.
Burrell: And I could see
the windsor castle crest
and the windsor castle paper.
I knew exactly what it was.
The letter read, after long
consideration and consultation
with the prime minister and
the archbishop of canterbury,
I think it's probably best
if you divorced for
the sake of the country.
And signed Elizabeth r.
It was a royal command
from windsor castle.
Morton: Windsor
castle is the home
of many significant
royal events,
none more so than her
decision to write this letter
to protect the fabric and
the integrity of the monarchy.
Narrator: The
queen's intervention
ended the public battle
between her son and Diana.
Eight months later,
on August 28, 1996,
the divorce was granted and
was welcomed by the public.
Man: It's about time.
It's a complete farce.
They should have
done it some time ago.
Man: I think it's
sad but necessary.
Narrator: With Charles' divorce,
the queen hoped that the
darkest days of her reign
might finally be behind her.
But within the year, the
nation and the royal family
were stunned by the sudden
and brutal death of Diana.
That fateful Sunday,
the crowds gathered in
London to mourn the Princess.
But the queen was not at
windsor that August weekend.
She was on vacation, hidden
away at balmoral in Scotland,
and she chose to stay there.
Kay: She rarely misjudges
the mood of, of the people,
but there's no question
that in that week in
1997 after Diana's death,
there was a misjudgment.
Woman: Our queen should be
here in London with her people.
This is her nation,
and they should know how
all her people feel about Diana.
Narrator: It's not the first
time a tragic royal death
has led to a monarch's
plummet in popularity.
150 years ago,
when 42-year-old prince
Albert died at windsor castle,
queen Victoria
became a virtual recluse.
Williams: After Albert's death,
she wants to
retreat into herself.
She wants to lock herself up.
She wanted to be at
windsor and no one see her.
And yet everyone was
expecting to see the queen.
They wanted
pictures of the queen.
They wanted her out visiting.
And this caused a
lot of problems for her.
There was a lot of complaint
and growth of republican feeling
because people said, "why
is she the widow of windsor?
"Why is she hiding herself
away? Why is she doing this?
She's our queen."
Narrator: Perhaps mindful of
her great-great-grandmother,
on September 5, 1997,
Elizabeth II finally
returned to London.
Queen Elizabeth: First, I want
to pay tribute to Diana myself.
She was an exceptional
and gifted human being.
Morton: When she came down
and she spoke to people outside,
comforted well-wishers,
she then acted as her
archetypal position demands,
that is to say, she was
the mother to the nation.
Narrator: By mingling with the
crowd and displaying empathy,
the queen had made that day
a turning point in her fortunes.
The worst years of
her reign were over.
There would be new tests,
but none as tough as this one.
She could look forward
to her 50th wedding
anniversary with optimism,
for the most part,
because she could celebrate
this one at home at windsor.
♪
On November 20, 1997,
five years to the day after
the fire that had destroyed it,
the restoration of windsor
castle was complete.
It had cost over $46 million,
money the queen
had helped to find.
For Elizabeth, it was
money well spent.
Woman: I know the queen
is very pleased with it.
She said the other
night at a party here
that it was the best golden
wedding anniversary present
she could possibly have.
Narrator: Elizabeth had restored
windsor's magnificent
edwardian interiors
and had also given her home
a very personal
20th-century touch.
Arbiter: There is
an Elizabeth II stamp
on the restoration
of windsor castle--
a new design for the
ceiling of St. George's hall,
a new configuration from
what was the private chapel
into what is known as
the lantern lobby now.
Narrator: The reopening
of windsor castle
ended what had been a
difficult five years for the queen.
She hadn't lost her dignity,
and her eldest son, Charles,
could now concentrate
on being a king in waiting.
♪
But the queen's
difficulties weren't over.
Now her two other sons were
beginning to cause problems.
They needed to be
brought under the royal wing,
and fortunately, windsor
has pretty big wings.
John goddall: Windsor castle
sits within a great landscape,
like a kind of aircraft carrier,
you know, overseeing
this vast area of land.
Narrator: The windsor
castle estate is enormous.
It occupies thousands of acres,
including forests, golf courses,
Polo grounds, ascot
racecourse, and two huge parks.
The 5,500-acre
windsor great park
is open to the public,
but tucked away in the northeast
is the royal's own very
private 650-acre estate.
It's called home park.
It's a private
playground for the family,
where they can play
golf, relax in gardens,
and hang out in some of the
grandest homes in the country.
Campbell: You
have frogmore house,
you have royal lodge,
so there are dotted throughout
many other royal homes.
They're not palaces.
They're royal homes.
Narrator: In 1997,
the queen moved her
youngest son, prince Edward,
just six miles down
the road from the castle
into a very grand mansion
called bagshot park.
Nigel mccrery: Bagshot
is this very impressive,
imposing sort of gothic house
that used to belong to one
of queen Victoria's sons.
It's very impressive, a
little bit like something
from a hammer house, I have
to say, from, from the outside.
Narrator: Built in 1879,
the huge bagshot property
has 120 rooms and 40
acres of private parkland.
It's a comfortable
retreat for a prince
who had never really
found his place in the world.
Chris Bryant: It
must be really difficult
being an "also-ran"
in, in a royal family.
Because what is the
role of a minor royal?
In one way, you just
want him to go to work.
Why don't you just
get yourself a job?
But it's not maybe
quite that easy.
Narrator: And it wasn't.
Throughout the nineties,
Edward had tried hard to find a job.
Mccrery: He was very keen
to show that royals
could earn their own living,
and there was a lot
of criticism at the time
about them being paid
from the public purse,
not earning their own living,
and he was very
keen to change that.
Narrator: But he didn't
really seem to know
what he actually wanted to do.
First, he tried the traditional
career in the services.
He joined the marines
but quit after three months.
Then he set his sights
on a career in the theater
and failed.
Eventually he started
his own TV company.
Kay: He's caught between
a rock and a hard place.
"Call me Edward windsor."
That was what his, his
gimmick was at that time.
"I'm plain Mr. Windsor."
But these big
television productions
he was interested in making
wanted to make a
huge big deal of the fact
that they'd got the
queen's son behind them.
They didn't want Edward windsor.
They wanted hrh prince Edward.
And in the end, he
decided he had enough.
Narrator: Edward
retreated to bagshot park.
With his newly acquired
title of Earl of wessex,
his wife, countess Sophie,
and two young children,
he could live the
comfortable life
of a country squire
and minor royal,
shielded from the public glare.
♪
Edward wasn't the only prince
given refuge in the
queen's backyard.
Morton: Windsor is very much
prince Andrew's stomping ground.
Narrator: Since 1987,
prince Andrew had been living
on the grounds of
the windsor estate
at sunninghill park, five
miles from the castle.
The 2-story, 12-bedroom mansion
had been a wedding
present from the queen.
But after his split from Fergie
and departure from the Navy,
he set out in search of a job.
Kay: He just came
up with this idea
that he should be our
traveling trade ambassador,
but that did not turn
out to be a good fit.
He had an unfortunate
manner, let's put it like that,
when dealing with people
we wanted to do business
with around the world.
Ingrid seward: I think
that prince Andrew
can sometimes be rather a bore.
He's not full of obvious charm.
Narrator: This was a prince who
expected to be treated like one
when representing
britain abroad.
Bryant: He wanted such a
luxurious version of a visit,
way in excess of
what would happen
for the prime minister
or any other minister,
that you kind of thought, "is
this really worth the effort?"
Narrator: The criticism
eventually forced him to quit
and badly stung his
mother, the queen.
Kay: Andrew is, is the
queen's favorite son,
and they're terribly close.
She probably speaks
as much to Andrew
as to any of her children.
Um, and he's as close
to her as she is to him.
Narrator: The queen
realized that Andrew
needed somewhere
very private to live,
somewhere
comfortable and close by
where he could be kept
out of the public eye.
In 2002, the death of
her 101-year-old mother
provided the queen
with the perfect solution.
Kay: Royal lodge remains
a great favorite of the queen
because it was where she went
every Sunday to see her mother
and where she continues to go
almost every
Sunday without fail.
After church, she'll
drop in to see Andrew.
Narrator: The huge
17th-century mansion
is the jewel in the crown of
windsor's private royal homes.
It's also the closest.
It's only three miles down
the road from the castle.
Even better for the Duke,
it's very close to the
castle's private golf course.
Burrell: Andrew loves windsor.
Of course, he loves windsor.
He plays golf.
He loves the golf course,
which is on the queen's doorstep.
He can play golf
anytime he wants.
Narrator: With his 75-year
lease on royal lodge,
the queen's favorite son
can quietly enjoy his golf
at windsor for
the rest of his life.
Man: Fore! [Applause]
With her two
younger sons settled,
the queen could
look to the future.
It was time to train
the next generation,
and fortunately,
the most important was
already a windsor resident.
At the start of the
new millennium,
the queen had a problem
with her eldest son.
Stubborn, headstrong,
and seemingly unrepentant
about his split with Diana,
Charles had lost the
affection of his subjects.
But his son was hugely popular.
[Screaming]
At the time, William,
second in line to the throne,
was a windsor local.
As a pupil at eton college,
which is on the edge of
the windsor castle estate,
he'd spent years just a short
stroll from his granny's house.
Burrell: The queen
always has tea,
a set tea with a cup
of tea and a biscuit
in her oak drawing room.
And on sundays, she'd say to me,
"would you set an
extra place setting?
Because William's going
to walk up the hill from eton."
So, William would walk
up the hill from school
with his policeman and have
a cup of tea with his granny.
And I know exactly
what she was doing.
She was beginning to
introduce him to windsor
as the seat of monarchy.
Kay: She did use those
occasions to begin his education
in the art of
kingship, if you like.
In many ways,
the queen has almost
given up on prince Charles.
Charles was such an
independent heir to the throne,
determined to do
things his own way,
um, whereas William has proved
to be more malleable perhaps.
He's certainly been more open
to his grandmother's
approach to monarchy,
and he's likely to be much
more off the chip of her block
than a chip off
his father's block.
Narrator: Like his dad and
his uncles Andrew and Edward,
William chose windsor to
celebrate his 21st birthday.
And just back from
volunteering in Africa,
he added his own little twist.
[Drumming]
Jeff Edwards: It was
an African themed party,
so everyone dressed
up as, as, you know,
as elephants and giraffes
and zebras and
lions and gorillas.
I've no doubt there were
several gorilla suits in there.
Narrator: The
300-strong guest list
included all of the most senior
members of the royal family.
Edwards: Prince William's 21st
birthday party at windsor castle
was a very, very
big deal, indeed,
and was bound to attract
a lot of media interest
and interest from
the public at large,
and sprinkled amongst
them almost inevitably
are people who are
pranksters or interferers
in one way or another.
Aaron Barschak: Happy birthday!
Narrator: One such
person was Aaron Barschak.
Edwards: Aaron Barschak turns up
wearing sort of a white
turban and a long black beard.
From there down, he was
wearing a, sort of a pink dress,
so he was sort of like
osama bin laden in drag.
He then walks around the
side wall of the, of the castle,
and he's able to get up
and drop over the wall,
inside the castle.
Narrator: Remarkably, the
cross-dressing trespasser
was then able to freely
roam the castle grounds.
Edwards: Cctv from inside
the castle confirms this.
He walked about. He explored.
He went to the kitchens.
He went into this library.
He went into this
sitting room and so forth,
and he's seen, if you like,
having a good look around.
Narrator: Around 11:00 P.M.
Barschak bumped
into a contractor
working at the castle.
Edwards: And Barschak
persuades this chap that,
presumably that he's a guest
who somehow got locked out
or lost from the party,
so the contractor
swallows this story
and sort of assists Barschak.
Narrator: Moments later,
Barschak was within touching
distance of the birthday boy.
Edwards: He actually
walked up to the prince,
put his arm round him, and
planted a kiss on his cheek.
Now, that's all
good knockabout fun
except that we're in an
age, and we were in 2003,
where he could have been
somebody wearing a suicide belt.
Narrator: The lapse in
security at windsor castle
outraged the family
and generated sympathy
for the shy young prince.
Over the next two years,
the family built
on the popularity
of the younger windsors,
gradually erasing the memories
of the dark days of the 1990s,
so much so that in 2005,
even the relationship
that had destroyed public
trust in the monarchy
could be publicly celebrated.
Burrell: It's extraordinary
that we should witness
the prince of wales married
to Camilla Parker Bowles
after all that's happened.
Narrator: Just eight years
after the death of Diana,
Charles married the
other woman in windsor
in full public view.
[Cheering]
Jobson: As soon as she
appeared as his bride in windsor
on those steps where the
queen was seen mouthing,
"well, that went rather well,"
I think people accepted it.
Narrator: The queen
turned 80 the following year.
It seemed that after
a challenging decade,
she could look forward to
a more comfortable old age,
spending as much time
at windsor as she could.
Kay: Windsor is the place
the queen considers
home above all others,
and, in fact, as
she's got older,
it's the place she's
retreated to more and more.
She cuts short her working
week at Buckingham Palace
to spend more time
at windsor castle.
♪
Narrator: Windsor castle
is a great royal stage,
but for the queen,
it's the place where she grew
up and raised her own family.
When it was saved
from destruction,
so, too, were 80 years
of her personal memories.
Now that she's in
her tenth decade,
she plans to spend more
time in her favorite home--
windsor castle.