New book features images of Windsor castle through the ages

Images of the 1,000 year history of Windsor Castle reveal how the royal residence has transformed from a wooden fortress to a home for the sovereign.

Commissioned by the Royal Collection Trust, the artist’s impressions featuring in the book Windsor Castle: A Thousand Years were based on new research, historic manuscripts, drawings, paintings, and recent GPS surveys.

The first image shows how William the Conqueror’s defensive fortress may have looked.

A far cry from the grand complex the castle has become, the motte and bailey construct is seen sitting on the hill near the river, built about 1086 to guard the Thames Valley. The mound remains as the base of today’s Round Tower.

Another photo shows a much-expanded castle in more troubled times, after King John, who reigned from 1199 – 1216, failed to honour agreements in Magna Carta.

When rebel barons offered Louis, the son of Philip II of France, the throne, he landed at Sandwich with a French army in May 1216 and laid siege to the castle for two months.

In picture three, Henry III’s reign (1216 – 1272) provided a richer era of English royal building. Much of the castle’s 12th and 13th century masonry survives today.

Picture credits: Royal Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018 artist: Bob Marshall.