Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 18?? edition. Excerpt:...the eastern front, with its four grand towers, appears of itself to exceed most other edifices in magnitude. To the Great Park the southern part is displayed; and when this part is viewed from the extremity of the avenue called the Long Walk, nothing can appear more stately. In every situation the Round Tower rises above the other buildings, and arrests the eye by its surpassing dimensions. The history of the castle is, in some degree, the history of many of the kings of England; although during the reigns of the Conqueror and the Red King it had attained no pre-eminence as the resting place and the seat of royalty, it was still known as a distinguished military fort, and we find Henry I. making his court there in the years ll05 and II07. The castle rapidly rose in strength and importance, and in the time of Stephen it was esteemed the second fortress in the kingdon. Henry II. and his son held two parliaments there. When the news reached England of the imprisonment of Hichard in the Holy Land, John took possession of the castle; and after he ascended the throne he remained there as in a place of security against the barons. John demanded that a deputation of barons should wait upon him at castle, and when they refused he gave them a meeting on the famed plains of Runnymede, where the celebrated Magna Charta was ratified. The fortress sustained many changes of masters during the wars between the crowu and the nobility, which broke out again in the reign of John and of Henry III.: it displayed alternately the white and the red rose, in the ever memorable contests of the houses of York and Lancaster. Windsor Castle was the favourite retreat of exiled kings and conquered earls. Charles the First previously to the commencement of his...