The Splendor of Empire

9:00am - Departed Oxford by motor coach for a visit to Windsor Castle, the Queen's preferred weekend residence outside of London. Due to an apparent scheduling error, WISC had arranged two motor coaches, a 40 – seat coach and a larger-capacity double-decker, for a trip with approximately 50 students. We were therefore spread out over the two buses and have plenty of leg room.  Or so we thought. Bailey managed to sit directly behind a student from another university who immediately proceeded to recline his seat, leaving Bailey no personal space whatsoever.  When Bailey asked him politely to raise his seat, he agreed and then adjusted it by no more than a couple of inches before proceeding to blast techno music through his headphones.  We responded in turn by nicknaming him Scumbag Steve.

Artist's rendition of Scumbag Steve

10:30am - We headed along the A40 and M40 roads south towards London, following the River Thames down to Windsor. As we arrived on the outskirts of the city, the unmistakable silhouette of the Castle broke through the trees on our left, its light gray battlements and tower reaching up into the overcast morning sky.  We disembarked in the coach park, and proceeded up the hill towards the castle.  We passed via an elevated walkway into a train station and then through a large, covered shopping arcade which brought us to the foot of the castle walls. The path to the entrance was lined with with the typical bunch of expensive restaurants, tea-rooms and tourist stalls all attempting to cash in on the Windsor name.  I noted that if I were King, I would not allow the commoners to build within three- or four-hundred yards of the castle in order to preserve the view.  But I'm not, and as there is no food available within the castle grounds, I would later be grateful to find something close at hand, whatever the price.

Windsor Castle peaks out above the skyline of the city.

Taylor and Casey explore the shopping arcade (and dodge a delivery truck which barreled through the pedestrian area a few seconds after this photo was taken).

Windsor Castle is the largest occupied castle in the world. The fortification dominates the hillside, its original purpose being to occupy a very strategic western approach to London. However, with changes in warfare tactics as well as dynastic tastes and requirements, by the 18th and 19th centuries it had been expanded and converted into the primary royal residence outside London. We found the end of the queue and spent 30 minutes waiting to pass through an airport-style security checkpoint before entering the castle grounds. Tickets are around £17 for adults and £15.50 for students/groups. After passing through security, visitors climb the hill and enter the castle which is divided into three zones:  the Lower, Middle, and Upper Wards.

Entrance to the Lower Ward (now used as the tourists' exit).

The obligatory line stretches around the corner and down a narrow lane.

Casey is excited! We're almost inside the ticket office!

 I've had the opportunity to visit palaces in several countries but never one in current use.  I was struck by the level of security in the grounds.  Active military patrolled the courtyards and concealed cameras monitored our every move. The royal standard was flying from the top of the Round Tower. Somewhere within the Royal Apartments, the Queen was preparing for her Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday, when she would join a flotilla of 1,000 ships down the Thames into London.

MSU Shackouls Honors College Summer Study students (Photo by Dr. Chris Snyder)

Round Tower

Gardens in the Middle Ward

I think Alex just belongs in England.

 
 We walked through the Middle Ward and made our way over to the Upper Ward where we visited Queen Mary's Dolls' House and the Drawings Gallery. The massive Queen Mary's Dolls' House was a gift to Queen Mary, wife of George V and grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. Built in the 1920s as a gift from the British people to showcase the lifestyle of the period, it features vacuum cleaners, a multi-car garage, electricity, and operational plumbing!  The Castle's Drawings Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition entitled "The Queen: Sixty Photographs for Sixty Years"   (4 February - 28 October 2012) which depicts,

"The Queen's reign as captured in fleeting moments on both official occasions and at relaxed family gatherings. With the advent of photography, the boundaries between the officially approved and the spontaneously captured image of the monarch were irreversibly blurred. Today, through the reach of modern media, the image of Her Majesty is familiar to millions around the world."

 (Source: http://www.windsor.gov.uk/things-to-do/windsor-castle-p43983)

Her Majesty The Queen (Source)

 Upon entering the Drawings Gallery, a hush fell over the crowd.  A doorman in elaborate uniform bellowed at unmindful tourists, "Photographs are NOT allowed! This is a ROYAL palace!!" Personal  photography is not permitted within the Castle rooms. The Queen holds all copyrights to images within her many properties and guards WILL delete images from the cameras of impertinent tourists. (On that note, "the Crown [also] retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but The Queen only exercises her ownership on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.")
 
I recently completed a course on German Aesthetics, Art and Propaganda and am quite surprised that much of what I'd studied could be applied to this exhibit. The collection consisted chiefly of tightly cropped, well-lit close ups and official portraits and scenes of the Sovereign interacting with her subjects or spending time with the Royal Family. The frozen images are timeless and idyllic. They harken back to the stylized sculptures of Egyptian Pharaohs like those we examined in the Ashmolean Museum yesterday.  Political leaders of all civilizations have sought to carefully control their image among their subjects. The development of photography and motion pictures in the 20th century has given rulers new tools and avenues with which to present themselves. These images today are a mixture of "approved" and  "spontaneous" shots, but the effect is one of glorification of the Queen as leader.  The dim lighting, the stately Gothic decor of the room, and the solemn queue proceeding past the portraits each lent to the feeling of pilgrimage, of viewing precious relics.  And all around me I could catch snippets of hushed conversation from the predominately-elderly crowd: "I saw... I met... I remember when..."

Source: www.royal.gov.uk

Two photos stood out to me, mostly due to the audio commentary about them which was available on the headset. The first was a standard head-shot of the Queen, taken during a State Visit to Mexico in the 1980s.  She visited a community center and a bullfight.  I well aware that world leaders make publicity tours all the time, but one wonders how the Queen's visiting these two particular places during her trip and this exhibit's highlighting of this particular incident with commentary create any sort of change or value.  It comes off as a rather shallow attempt to portray the Queen as a benevolent leader. But that is the point of the exhibit after all. The second was the most recent photo in the collection, a springtime shot of the Queen on a small horse leading two of her grandchildren on ponies.  The image is cute and playful, the Queen as a skilled rider (since the age of 4) imparting her love of horses and riding to her beloved grandchildren.  In another sense it is also the wise Sovereign leading the next generation, holding the reins tightly (quite literally, in this case) and setting the course for her people to follow.

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But enough of my rant. Let's continue the tour! The Gallery concludes with the official Jubilee Portrait of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Visitors then proceed past a selection of tableware from the Royal Services Collection before climbing stairs up to the State Apartments.

view of the inner court of the Upper Ward, facing the Private Apartments and South Wing

The State Apartments are some of the most lavish rooms in the castle and act as a showcase for British imperial preeminence.  In their current form, most of the rooms date to the early 19th century when Britain was a the height of its power.  Visitors are herded up the imposing Grand Staircase into the Grand Vestibule, a receiving hall filled with fine examples of arms and armor. The next room contains displays of precious ceremonial objects captured from Britain's colonies in India and Africa.  Bailey and I commented that between the objects in Windsor Castle and the British Museum in London, the UK must have the best collection of "acquired" artifacts in the world! Other highlights of the State Apartments include the Waterloo Chamber, a cavernous hall filed with portraits of the world leaders and principle actors of the Waterloo Campaign of 1815.  A massive Indian carpet, thought to be the largest seamless carpet in the world, was woven by the inmates of Agra prison for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Again, no photos of the interiors are permitted.

The nearby St. George's Hall's walls and ceiling feature the shields and arms of hundreds of members of the Order of the Garter through the ages. A staff member on duty in the hall said that the most frequently asked question is "Where is Lancelot's shield?" Oh, tourists... The hall, used for State Banquets, was damaged along with other rooms in the State Apartments during a fire in 1992 and extensively restored. Buckingham Palace in London was opened to the public for the first time ever in order to finance the reconstruction at Windsor.

Dr. Snyder and Dr. Smith in front of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle

After leaving the State Apartments, I joined Dr. Snyder and Dr. Smith, a professor from one of the other American universities in the WISC program, and together we toured St. George's Chapel in the Lower Ward.  The 15th-century St. George's Chapel is a marvelous example of Gothic architecture and is famous for its role as the spiritual seat of the Order of the Garter.  The Order's members meet here every June for an elaborate ceremony and the heraldic devices of each of the current members can be seen over their stalls in the choir. Several famous rulers and nobles are buried in the chapel including the beheaded Charles I, Henry VIII, and the current queen's parents George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Afternoon crowds outside of Windsor Castle

 2:00pm - Exited Windsor castle and ate a late lunch at the Horse and Groom pub across the street. Typical pub fare of Sausage and Mash, Yorkshire pudding, and a round of the local ale.

The Horse and Groom pub (white building on left)

Windsor is situated across the Thames from the small town of Eton, home to perhaps the most famous boarding school in the world. Eton College was established in 1440 by Henry VI and educates boys 13-18. It operates as a British "public school" in that it is open to the public but costs a small fortune to attend (approximately £30,000 or $50,000 per year), restricting access to all but the most elite British families. Eton has educated thousands of Britain's leading figures over the centuries including Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, who once commented that "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton."  More recent graduates include the Princes William and Harry and current Prime Minister David Cameron. The old stereotype of England's privileged children being educated at Eton before shipping up the Thames to attend university in Oxford is not far from the mark.

That's partly where Professor Schüttinger's concept of "Gentleman's Cs" comes from, rich playboys who will inherit land and title regardless of their intellectual achievement. The top students attend the same two or three institutions and perpetuate the class system.  By the same token, I suppose it's not terrible different from America's system of sending its elite to Harvard and Yale. However America has far more elite schools and universities than the UK which, one could argue, would level out the playing field. Also America's class system is based more on financial wealth, making it rather fluid, unlike the UK's system which is based more on family and title and therefore more rigid. In any case, time constraints prevent me from seeing Eton today.  It remains down the hill and across the river, and  I will reserve judgment until I visit again.

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 After everything I've said today, I certainly do not wish to imply that I take a dim view on any particular aspect of British culture. It is neither good nor bad,  merely different. The monarchy is an ancient institution and one dearly cherished by many British citizens. The Queen is held as an impartial representative of the British people, above the politics and scandal of everyday life. Because of this one can understand why she is beloved by some many of her subjects.  She has remained dedicated to her role and at the age of 86 keeps a schedule which would be demanding to someone half her age. Quite a remarkable woman.

Source

Yet as an American, I am keenly aware that my country was created in opposition of this very system, and that is knowledge I can't ignore.  No matter how quaint I might find the t-shirts and royal souvenirs in the castle gift shop, there is something about it that I just inherently don't like.  It's one thing to discuss monarchy in history class and another to see it in action. Democracy has its flaws, but I find it preferable. It's what I know. The British prefer a uncodified constitutional monarchy, and it seems to work pretty well for them.  A republican movement certainly exists in the country, but it represents a relatively small minority.  At any rate this is a complex issue, and I don't feel that this blog is not the place for it. 

Americans and Britons are so alike in many other aspects, and I'm glad that our countries have remained allies for so long.  Our "special relationship," as the government terms it, allows for a wonderful cross-cultural exchange of ideas, like the program in which I'm currently participating. Being confronted by other ways of doing things, so of which you may disagree with, is a vital part of a balanced education.