-Britain’s royal palaces -- historic... -This amazing space is the grandest medieval hall in the world.

-...extravagant... -It’s a magnificent fortress, but what it also is, is the world’s biggest jewelry box.

-...and jam-packed with secrets.

-Sandringham is the royal party palace.

They can do what they want there when they want and the paparazzi can’t photograph them.

♪♪ -In this series, we gain privileged access inside palace walls... -Old plans suggested that if they could open this up, they might be able to reveal a long-lost secret.

-...and uncover the hidden treasures within.

-We were opening boxes to find jewels with handwritten notes from members of the family inside.

-We unearthed the palace’s dark secret histories.

-Underneath this beautiful palace was a secret, bubbling laboratory of horrors.

-And we reveal the untold truth behind the palace’s most dramatic modern moments.

-For Harry to be made a suspect for a criminal act is really, really serious.

[ Gunshots ] -A saw a gunman actually holding a gun and pointing it straight at the Queen.

-We kept it a secret, but it surprised a whole audience and, quite frankly, the world.

-This is the all-new "Secrets of the Royal Palaces."

♪♪ This time, palace treasures go under the hammer.

-It’s the equivalent of setting up a car boot sale on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

-At £16,000.

-Panic outside Buckingham Palace as the Queen comes under fire.

[ Gunshots ] [ Crowd screaming ] -I mean, it’s terrifying.

It’s gunshots.

You know, they’re certainly gunshots.

-The incredible secrets contained within Windsor Castle, including its hated origins and giant Wendy House.

-This was an entire miniature house for Elizabeth and her sister Margaret to play in.

-We discover how the Tower of London’s executioner just couldn’t cut it.

-He’s absolutely rubbish at the basic job of bringing down the ax on someone’s head.

[ Ax thuds ] -But first, the contents of a palace are put up for sale.

-Royal auctions do not happen all the time.

It’s astonishing and unusual to ever have something like this happen.

-When Princess Margaret died in 2002, her children David and Sarah had more than grief to cope with.

They faced a tax bill of £3 million.

-When you and I have to pay inheritance tax on an estate, the normal thing to do is to sell the house.

But Margaret didn’t have a house.

She lived in Kensington Palace.

It’s owned by the country.

-With the taxman at the gate and no money from the civil list, David and Sarah had to think fast.

-How do we pay off this £3 million inheritance-tax bill?

We’re going to have to sell some of our mother’s possessions.

-And so began the royal bling and buy sale, with more than 800 items up for grabs.

-This is an unprecedented sale of a lifetime -- royal possessions being auctioned off.

-It’s the equivalent of setting up a car boot sale on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

-As car boot sales go, this one was pretty upmarket.

And for jewelry expert Helen Molesworth, it was a life-changing moment.

-They put me in charge of the sale.

I was the specialist in charge of the jewelry collection.

So it was an incredible opportunity.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’ll never forget it.

-Sworn to absolute secrecy, Helen was summoned to Kensington Palace.

-This was incredibly confidential, as it had to be.

We didn’t really know what to expect.

But what I remember most was the feeling of anticipation on what we were gonna be shown.

-What Helen was shown was the most astonishing collection -- rings, brooches, bracelets -- each one with a story to tell.

-In a collection like this, there were so many secrets.

In some instances, we were opening boxes to find the jewels with handwritten notes from members of the family inside.

There was a tiny, little bee brooch, accompanied by a note in Princess Margaret’s writing that said, "One of the first pieces of jewelry ever given to mum."

I mean, this is a secret that needed exploring.

It was a christening gift to the Queen Mother when she was 7 weeks old.

-But the centerpiece of the collection was the Poltimore Tiara.

-It’s one of the most spectacular tiaras in the world anyway.

It was made in the 19th Century by Garrard.

One of the secrets about the Poltimore Tiara -- and not many people realize this with antique jewelry -- is that they transform into multiple pieces.

So if you take it to pieces, you’ve got 11 brooches and a necklace, as well as a tiara.

So it is a secret aspect to the life of that jewel.

-However, not everyone was over the moon.

Some accused the children of selling off the family silver and diamonds and pearls.

When Margaret’s ex, Lord Snowdon, got wind of the auction.

There was a right royal family fallout.

-This Christie’s auction was heartbreaking for Lord Snowdon.

In fact, he wrote to them asking them to stop the sale.

-There were some items in the auction that Lord Snowdon was particularly worried about, like the Poltimore Tiara.

-You know, this is the tiara that Princess Margaret wore when she married Lord Snowdon.

And that would have crushed, I think, Lord Snowdon.

-Lord Snowdon’s pleas were ignored, and his children pushed on with the auction.

Helen now had to set a guide price for Princess Margaret’s Kensington possessions.

-How on earth do you value a collection the likes of which the world has never seen before for sale?

You know, this was the collection belonging to the sister of the Queen of Great Britain.

So we took the market value.

-But the estimates hadn’t taken into account the provenance of the items, and the market value was quickly forgotten.

-Interest in the auction was fevered.

-£480,000.

£550,000.

£600,000.

-Later, we will find out just how much the auction raised.

-Nothing had been seen like it, and nothing would be seen like it again.

-The royals' most personal possessions are usually kept hidden.

And one good place to hide them is Windsor -- far more than just a castle.

-There are still many areas that are off-limits to us as the public and a number of areas that remain undiscovered.

-The 15,000-acre Windsor estate has been home to the British monarchy for almost a thousand years.

-Windsor Castle is a huge castle.

But what’s often not appreciated is that it sits at the center of a vast estate.

The Windsor estate is simply huge, and it’s dotted with other buildings that many people know nothing about.

-It's here you’ll find Frogmore, Harry and Meghan’s first home.

It gets its name from the local frogs.

[ Frog croaks ] Princess Margaret began her doomed romance with Captain Peter Townsend at Adelaide Cottage, now William and Kate’s new pad.

But perhaps the most intriguing residence is hidden away three miles south of the castle.

-Behind that gatehouse begins the entrance to the Royal Lodge, the royal mansion tucked away in the heart of Windsor Great Park.

Royal Lodge is one of the largest private houses in Windsor, and as its name suggests, it’s had many royal occupants over the years.

-Princess Elizabeth lived here between the ages of 5 and 10.

By royal standards, it was a carefree childhood.

-She wasn’t in the immediate line of succession.

But what she was was a very personable, cute princess in a very kind of Shirley Temple sort of way.

She obviously captured the hearts of the British people, to the extent that the people of Wales were prepared to give her her very own Wendy house.

-This was no ordinary Wendy house.

Hidden away in the grounds of the Royal Lodge, the Welsh Cottage, as it’s called, was built to two-thirds size, with five-foot-high rooms.

-The Welsh cottage is the most ostentatious playhouse you’ll ever see.

It’s 22 feet wide by 15 feet tall and built as a proper, functioning house, with a living room and kitchen and bedroom and bathroom, as well as a Freezolux gas-powered refrigerator, a gas cooker -- all the mod cons you’d expect of 1932 -- even a heated towel rail.

-We’ve got a wonderful firsthand account of what this giant Wendy house was like, courtesy of Elizabeth’s governess, Marion Crawford.

She tells us that when she arrived to look after Elizabeth, the first thing the princess showed her was this little Welsh house.

It was her favorite toy.

And there’s wonderful pictures of the girls playing house in a way that arguably they never really got to do, even when they had their own houses and palaces later in life.

-The cottage was a surprise present for Elizabeth’s 6th birthday.

It was built 130 miles away in South Wales, then in the grip of poverty.

-This was the era of the Great Depression and Welsh industry had suffered, so the cottage was a showcase of Welsh artisanal talent before it came to the secretive garden in the middle of Windsor Great Park for the princess to enjoy.

-However, the young princess almost lost her precious Wendy house before she even set foot in it.

♪♪ -The Welsh cottage has a traumatic journey from Wales to Windsor.

-The old-fashioned steam lorry that was hauling it sent sparks in the air, which is enough to ultimately set fire to the thatched roof.

It was a near disaster.

-The cottage was taken back to Cardiff to see if it could be saved.

-Poor Princess Elizabeth.

Wouldn’t she be sad if she knew of the disaster?

And by working night and day, they hope to restore it for her birthday surprise.

-The house was repaired, and it made its final journey to the Royal Lodge so the Princess could enjoy it.

-Before we part and go back to our homes in Wales, we should give three cheers for the little Princess Elizabeth.

-Hip, hip, hurray!

-And it’s been here now for almost a hundred years, but it could have been lost.

-Now with little George, Charlotte, and Louis living just down the road, Windsor’s hidden Wendy house could soon be playing home to another generation of royals.

-At £16,000.

-Coming up, a bidding frenzy breaks out at Kensington Palace’s sale of the century.

-They ended up going for hundreds of times their guide price.

-And drama outside Buckingham Palace, with a shooting at the Trooping.

-Six shots ring out across The Mall.

[ Gunshots ] -I mean, it’s terrifying.

♪♪ -Britain’s royal palaces are the envy of the world, and they belong to all of us.

-The private properties that the monarch owns are Balmoral in Scotland and Sandringham in Norfolk.

All the other buildings are owned by us.

They’re owned by the nation.

-So when Princess Margaret’s children had to pay £3 million in death duties, they could hardly sell the family home.

But they could sell their mum’s personal possessions.

-How did it compare to a normal day at Christie’s?

An understatement would be to say it was unique, it was exceptional, it was incomparable.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a day like it since, and certainly not before.

-Here was a chance to own a piece of royal history.

And not just any royal.

-I think Princess Margaret was the first celebrity royal on a par in the 1950s with the kind of Marilyn Monroe figure.

She led a sort of high-society life and was perhaps the most photographed woman in the Western world.

So the sale of glamorous artifacts attracted a lot of interest.

-£24,000 in the West Room.

-The room was packed full of people.

It was pre-Internet days, so people were physically there or on the telephone with us.

-And £5,700.

-I think we knew from the beginning it was going to take off.

-All the room.

-That one was Princess Margaret’s ruby and pearl necklace, and that was estimated to fetch £1,200.

-Fair warning for the room.

Also at £23,000, then.

-It sold for well over £23,000.

-Sold to you.

-That’s how the rest of the auction went -- completely bonkers.

-Do I hear £13,000 for an album of lunch menu cards?

-£13,000?

-It seems I do.

-Nobody realized the way the publicity would run riot for the sale.

-Every item sold for way above its estimate.

The difference was that some sold for five times the estimate, and some sold for 150 times the estimate.

-The auction moved inexorably towards its climax.

-We made sure that we ended with the Poltimore Tiara.

I’m not going to start with the top lot in the sale.

-Estimated between £150,000 and £200,000, the Poltimore Tiara sold for nearly a million.

The auction had paid off the family’s £3 million tax bill and then some.

-At the end of the day, when the final hammer went down, we’re looking at £14 million.

-However, if Margaret’s children thought they were in for a bumper payday, they hadn’t taken the Queen into account.

Her Majesty had followed the sale of her sister’s jewelry with growing concern and staged a secret intervention.

-She did request that of the proceeds, everything that was a profit from selling something which was an official gift to Princess Margaret -- that was donated to good causes.

-So ended the great Kensington Palace flash sale.

Designed to pay off death duties.

it proved the living appeal of the royals, their lives and possessions.

-It’s not just the value on what the items were themselves -- the jewels, the paintings.

It’s knowing that they were once part of Princess Margaret’s collection.

You’re buying into royal history.

That’s what you’re buying into.

And there’s no price tag on that.

-Nor is there a price tag on freedom, as one man found when he was locked in the royals' most terrifying palace.

♪♪ -Elizabethan England -- the throne is secure, and the Protestants have won.

But there is a sophisticated and large Catholic underground.

The Protestants are coming down tough, and they have what they think is the ultimate deterrent -- the Tower of London, the palace of pain.

One man who’s captured is John Gerard.

He’s a very significant figure in the Catholic underground.

And what they want from him is the address of the leader of the Jesuits in London.

They torture him in the most horrific way possible.

He's suspended by his hands, and he says -- he actually writes down, "I felt the blood was oozing out of the end of my fingers, out of my pores."

He said, "The pain was so great, I could not endure it."

But he does endure it, and he never breaks.

But he does break out.

There are other Catholics in the tower, and they are passing messages between them, and a plot is decided that a rope will be thrown over the wall of the tower, over the moat.

It’s incredible when you read his account of it.

He says, "I was so weak, I was suspended halfway through over the moat."

He thinks he can’t go forward, but he knows he has to.

So literally, the man outside has to pull the whole of Gerard’s body over, and he lands outside the tower.

He has escaped the tower.

He’s done the impossible.

And he evades capture for the rest of his life.

♪♪ -Grand and imposing, Britain’s palaces are the perfect setting for the stately ceremonies that mark the royal calendar.

-The royal palaces are a fitting backdrop to the pomp and pageantry of the many events that the monarch is involved in.

-And for pomp and pageantry, one royal ceremony reigns supreme.

-Trooping the Colour is the most significant event in the royal calendar.

The monarch at the head of her troops leads them in procession from Buckingham Palace to Horseguards, where there’s a parade for an hour, and then leads them back.

So it’s the ultimate celebration of the British monarchy, always ending in a flypast.

♪♪ -Atten hut!

-Trooping the Colour has a secret history and every move a hidden meaning.

It all dates back to the 17th Century and the reign of Charles II.

Back then, it was designed to help soldiers recognize their regimental flags, or colors, in the heat of battle.

Now it’s an excuse for a right royal knees-up.

-Trooping the Colour involves 1,400 troops on parade.

It has 400 musicians and 200 horses.

-Not a hair out of place, not an unpolished piece of armor.

It really is an absolutely magnificent sight.

-For old soldiers like Alec Galloway of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guard, Trooping the Colour was the ultimate honor.

-It’s a great day in your life, because all you’ve got in the back of your mind is the Queen.

You have to excuse me.

I get a little bit carried away when you talk about the Queen.

But she’s everything, you know?

She’s everything that we stand for.

-In recent times, Queen Elizabeth II attended the Trooping by coach.

But for many years, she led the parade on horseback.

Insiders say it was her favorite royal ceremony.

-The Queen loved Trooping the Colour because it’s all horses.

It really meant a lot to her to be riding out with all her soldiers behind her.

And she was an incredible equestrian.

-Royal watchers knew the telltale signs to watch out for if the Queen was in the zone.

-What I loved was watching the way her foot taps.

Because if the music suits her, she’s tapping away to the tune, and she just almost dances along with it.

♪♪ -Trooping the Colour is a huge favorite with the crowds.

But for the royal protection officers, it presents a unique challenge.

-The security implications are vast, because you’re taking a protective principle in the form of their majesty into the public domain.

-The truth is, this is a big, open-air event.

If you’re not in a closed vehicle behind bulletproof glass, there’s always a degree of jeopardy.

♪♪ -In the summer of 1981, those security fears proved all too real.

All seemed well as the gates of Buckingham Palace swung open and the Queen set off down The Mall.

But this would be a trooping like no other.

-The parade was going really well.

I was commanding a half company on Horse Guards approach road.

-She takes the turn to go onto Horse Guards Avenue, which then leads on to Horse Guards Parade, the parade grounds.

And suddenly... -Six shots ring out across The Mall.

[ Gunshots ] -There was pandemonium in the crowd -- yelling, shouting.

No one knew what was happening.

[ Whistle blowing ] Could this have been an attempt on the Queen’s life?

-Coming up, Corporal Alec Galloway revealed new details on how he tackled a suspected assassin outside Buckingham Palace.

-I pulled him over the barrier.

[ Laughs ] And they apprehended him with my boot.

-Sticking it to Napoleon.

The hidden history of one of Windsor’s greatest rooms.

-It’s about Britain reminding itself that finally, they’ve got one up on France, and they’ve snuffed out that upstart, Napoleon.

-And pedal to the metal.

The hidden extras on the Queen’s favorite car.

-It is basically a palace on wheels.

♪♪ -Surrounded by walls and fences, guarded by soldiers and sentries, Britain’s royal palaces are designed to keep Britain’s royal family safe.

-The royals are very well-protected when they’re inside Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, a private royal home.

It’s when they get outside where the most danger lies.

-None more so than on June 13, 1981.

As the Queen rode onto The Mall, Buckingham Palace’s front drive, leading the annual Trooping the Colour, she came under attack.

[ Gunshots ] [ Crowd screaming ] -I mean, it’s terrifying.

It’s gunshots.

You know, they’re certainly gunshots.

-I saw a gunman actually holding a gun and pointing it straight at the Queen.

I said, "This is assassination.

He’s trying to kill my queen."

-There’s a kerfuffle, but that’s not immediately evident from the television pictures.

So there’s just a sort of, "Oh.

I wonder what’s happened there."

-My first reaction was to knock the gun out of his hand with my rifle, grab him by the hair, and pull him over.

[ Gunshots ] -The gunfire caused the Queen’s horse, Burmese, to rear up.

-She must have some deep inner calm to deal with that, remain steady.

-Burmese receiving a reassuring pat from Her Majesty, the Queen.

-What a state of mind she must have been in.

Were there other gunmen hiding?

Was this part of a plot?

-The Queen is not easily scared.

She’s a tough old bird.

[ Chuckles ] It’s definitely the stiff upper lip.

-They go ahead with the ceremony.

I mean, the bravery of this is astonishing.

-As the ceremony continued, Corporal Galloway subdued the suspected assassin.

-All his military training bubbled up into the perfect response by one of the Queen’s soldiers.

-I pulled him by the hair over the barrier.

[ Laughs ] And they apprehended him with my boot.

-The attacker was later discovered to be a 17-year-old loner called Marcus Sergeant who had written I think in his diary that he wanted to be someone, he wanted to be famous.

-Sergeant had been acting alone, and his gun, though frighteningly realistic, had been loaded with blanks.

-Well, as far as I was concerned, it was the real thing.

And all I can say is thank God it was only blanks.

Thank God.

-Sergeant was tried under the Treason Act of 1842 and sentenced to five years in prison.

-That was quite a defining moment as to how major events are policed in relation to the Royal family.

Today, police officers face the crowd rather than previously, it was considered to be discourteous to turn your back on the Queen.

-Trooping the Colour remains as popular today as ever.

But these days, you’re unlikely to be apprehended with a boot.

-It’s the 1981 incident regarding Marcus Sergeant was to be replicated today, certainly, you’re looking at a different outcome.

He’d have been shot.

-Corporal Galloway retired from the Scots Guards in 1990, proud to have done his duty.

-It’s the Queen, for God’s sake.

And to serve the Queen... ♪♪ ...it's everything.

-When Alex served as a Greencoat at Royal Ascot, he would occasionally catch the Queen’s eye.

-She does give a nod, you know, or a look, you know?

The way I would explain it is that she’s acknowledging what’s happened, and I think she’s saying thank you, you know?

"Thank you."

-The shooting took place outside Buckingham Palace, the palace the monarchy thinks of as their office, whereas Windsor Castle is their ancestral home.

-When you step inside Windsor Castle, you’re surrounded by stories of the past.

So much history and so many stories to tell.

-One of the most spectacular rooms in Windsor Castle tells the story of one of our greatest military victories.

Its creation is a story in itself.

-The Waterloo Chamber is one of the most important rooms in the whole of Windsor Castle.

It stretches in length 25 meters down in front of you.

There’s wooden paneling all around the lower walls.

And there is the most amazing ceiling.

that looks like a huge hull of a ship.

-This monumental room was commissioned 200 years ago by George IV, architectural visionary and drug addict.

George IV comes in for a lot of flak.

We know that he was a little too keen on oral pleasures.

He was hugely fat.

He took drugs, he had numerous mistresses, and he spent loads of money that wasn’t really his.

But he’s left us with an extraordinary architectural legacy.

-The Waterloo Chamber is part of that legacy and a tribute to his vision.

-The Waterloo Chamber was cast from thin air.

This was the infilling of a central courtyard called Horn Court.

It was outside in the rain and drizzle of England, and so something altogether more magical, more persuasive could be conjured from this space if the whole lot were roofed in.

-Once the roof was on, the portraits went in.

Britain had seen off Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

Now it was time to rub it in.

-George IV wanted to commemorate the heroes of Waterloo by commissioning a series of portraits by Thomas Lawrence.

He sends Lawrence around Europe to do these portraits of those who were involved in defeating Napoleon.

-The 38 portraits include Wellington, who led the British troops at Waterloo, and of course George himself, who never actually made an appearance at the battle.

It’s about Britain reminding itself that finally, they’ve got one up on France and they’ve snuffed out that upstart Napoleon.

-It may be a famous room in one of the world’s most famous buildings, but the Waterloo Chamber remains a well-kept secret... if you’re French.

-At one point, the French president came over to have dinner in the Waterloo Chamber, and they had to rename it just for the one day, so it became the Music Room.

And all the paintings commemorating Waterloo were taken off the walls to avoid any diplomatic awkwardness.

♪♪ -Back in London, at the tower, Jack Ketch, probably the world’s worst executioner, had no such qualms about causing offense.

Just ask the Duke of Monmouth.

[ Ax thuds ] ♪♪ -The Duke of Monmouth was the illegitimate son of Charles II, and he was accused of trying to stage a grab for the throne of James II.

This is treason.

He’s sentenced to death.

But because he’s an aristocrat, he is not hanged.

He’s going to be executed.

That is meant to be the less painful option.

Mm, no.

Not when we have Jack Ketch in charge, the worst executioner in British history.

Jack Ketch is an absolute disaster.

He’s the most hopeless executioner ever.

He’s absolutely rubbish at the basic job of bringing down the ax on someone’s head.

[ Ax thuds ] So, what the Duke of Monmouth actually does is he gives him 6 shillings that you know, "Collect this money.

Could you do it quickly for me?

That would be really helpful.

Just get rid of me fast."

Unfortunately, Jack Ketch is as useless as ever.

His blow isn’t there.

His aim isn’t right.

Some say he’s drunk, and some say in the middle of it, the Duke of Monmouth gets up and said, "When is this happening?

Could you get on with it, please?"

At least five blows were taken to cut off the Duke of Monmouth’s head, and there was a huge protest, the crowd watching at Tower Hill.

They would have torn Jack Ketch to pieces if he wasn’t guarded.

Was a disaster.

Poor old Duke of Monmouth waiting there, not dead, not alive, constantly being bashed by the ax.

So when it comes to being executed, you’re best off not being royal, especially when Jack Ketch is doing the job.

[ Ax thuds ] -Just under four miles away from the Tower of London sits the Royal Mews, home to the famous carriage-pulling Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays.

But it also houses one of Queen Elizabeth II’s other great passions.

-The Queen really loved cars.

It all started when she trained as a mechanic for the Territorial Service during the Second World War.

In fact, she was probably one of the only royals in the world who can completely strip down a car engine.

Her car collection is worth millions.

She has the absolute crème de la crème of Rolls-Royces, Jaguars, Bentleys.

-The Queen had quite the fleet, but there’s only one jewel in this mechanical crown.

-This is the Queen’s favorite car, State Bentley number one -- one of a pair specially built for the Golden Jubilee.

-To celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 2002, she was given two Bentleys -- absolutely high-spec, top-of-the-range examples.

-It’s a special version of the Arnage R. It’s longer.

It’s faster.

It goes 130 miles an hour.

The Queen and Prince Philip were very involved in the design of the interior, so there is satin.

There is polished wood.

-The dashboard is coated in a Hield lambswool cloth.

You’ve got beautiful fabrics on the side panels.

It is basically a palace on wheels.

-The car has some important practical modifications.

-The rear doors open fully to 90 degrees so the Queen could get out of the car without having to bend over.

And visibility is important, too.

There’s this incredible, panoramic roof.

That means people can see in, and she could see out.

Every panel and piece of glass is bulletproof, and the tires are blast-proof.

-Close inspection reveals how the Queen had accessorized her ride.

-It is a Bentley.

There is a Flying B badge on the front.

But when the Queen was in it, it was replaced by her mascot.

-Her English mascot was St. George slaying the dragon.

-One final detail that makes this royal car unique is the number plate.

There isn’t one.

-The monarch's the only person in the country who doesn’t need to have a number plate on their vehicle.

And that is because the Royal Standard indicates who is in the car.

♪♪ -Coming up, why Windsor Castle was designed to defend a king against his own people.

-This was a man who was paranoid as hell about his own subjects.

-Then we discover the king who was too busy buying palaces to wash. -James apparently had an aversion to water, never washed, never changed his clothes.

And even his lover wrote that "I kiss your dirty hands."

♪♪ -From the sublime opulence of Hampton Court to the surreal ostentation of George IV's Brighton Pavilion, each palace has its own story to tell.

But there are some stories which are best left untold.

♪♪ -James VI of Scotland, when he became James I of England on the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, he went on a palace shopping spree.

He bought five palaces in the space of four years.

And Theobalds Palace, 12 miles north of London, in Hertfordshire, was one of his favorites.

Policies are designed to make an impression, but it isn’t always a positive one.

Even by the low standards of 17th-Century hygiene, James I was reputed to be rather a grubby king.

James apparently had an aversion to water, never washed, didn’t wash his hands before eating, never changed his clothes, and even his lover wrote that "I kiss your dirty hands."

When courtiers went to visit James I in his new palace, Theobalds Palace, they were shocked by the smell, and even one complained about the endemic lice.

But it was King James’s heavy drinking that really tarnished his image -- one night in particular at Theobalds Palace, a night to commemorate the visit of King Christian IV of Denmark.

You’d think this would be so dignified, so strict.

Instead, it was apparently an orgy of drunkenness.

Both kings were heavy drinkers, and the evening’s entertainment would be a performance of "King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba."

But unfortunately, when it began, everyone was completely drunk.

The actor playing the Queen’s part fell over and dropped an entire tray of cream and jelly and cakes all over King Christian.

King Christian said, "I’m fine," and got up to dance, and then fell splat on his face and had to be carried to bed, completely drunk, senseless, and covered in cream and jelly.

The performance also featured three ladies as Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Faith was, however, so drunk she couldn’t utter a single line.

Hope fell over, and Charity managed her lines, but then returned to her fellow actresses to find them throwing up in the lower hall.

So dignified.

James’ drinking was eventually his undoing, contributing to his early death in 1625 at Theobalds Palace.

♪♪ -While not all royal behavior is impressive, their palaces certainly are -- Buckingham Palace, framed at the end of The Mall.

Balmoral, a jewel in its Highland setting.

And then there’s Windsor Castle, rising high over the Berkshire countryside.

-Windsor has been a constant.

It looks remarkable at the top of its hill.

It’s got more history than you can shake a stick at.

-It’s the oldest occupied castle in the world.

But who knew Windsor was built to keep a king safe from his own subjects?

-William the Conqueror invaded England late in 1066, and he was made king on Christmas Day of that year.

Now, he only had about 8,000 to 10,000 soldiers, facing a native Saxon population of around 2 million.

So he set about an unprecedented castle-building campaign.

His priority was to defend the largest city in the land, and that was London.

-These castles built by William ringed London.

Some people have likened it to a clock, with the Tower of London at 3:00, Windsor Castle in the west at 9:00.

And there were other castles that have now disappeared.

This was a man who was paranoid as hell about his own subjects.

-William had his location -- a steep, chalk cliff rising over the Thames.

With the locals revolting, he had to build quickly, so he used a method the Saxons hadn’t seen before.

-Windsor Castle was built as a motte-and-bailey castle.

And you do it by throwing up a pudding basin-shaped mound of earth.

And if all of that earth is in the center of an excavated ring, then you’ve got yourself an instant moat.

That’s very helpful for defense.

But you also need a hall, a place to cook, to store things, to keep horses.

And therefore, you need a lower ward, known as a bailey.

And this to Windsor was on the west side of the motte.

The distinctive thing about Windsor’s landscape is that the escarpment that it sits on is flat, elevated.

And so to build a set of royal apartments to the east was a no-brainer.

That meant that the motte is at the middle of Windsor, like the knot in a bow tie.

You don’t see that at any other major castle.

-From a simple fort, Windsor evolved into a royal retreat from the hustle and bustle of London.

-Windsor Castle begins as this military fortress and over time becomes this place of pleasure, of relaxation.

It has this huge estate around it.

The royals can go hunting there.

They can enjoy walking in the gardens.

It is this place of security and seclusion for the royals.

-Over time, the name Windsor became synonymous with history and tradition, which came in handy when our current royal family came to change their own name.

-The British royal family, the House of Hanover, was essentially a German import.

Now, that didn’t matter until the early 20th Century.

But then along came the First World War, and there was a lot of anti-German sentiment, and the British royal family decided that it would be rather good if they didn’t sound so German, and that name had to go.

-A number of different names are suggested.

They could go with Tudor.

They could go with Stuart.

And, so, finally, a courtier and adviser is sitting in Windsor Castle, writing to the King, and he has this revelation -- Windsor.

-Everybody knew Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle was part of England.

So Windsor became the name of the family.

-At a stroke, the German family became as quintessentially British as this grand old castle built a thousand years ago by the French.

[ Indistinct shouting ] Next time on "Secrets of the Royal Palaces," Charles and Camilla come under attack after leaving Clarence House.

-That split second, you could have been looking at an incident that would have changed the course of history.

-Harry and Meghan’s secret love nest at Kensington Palace is rumbled.

-It’s where he began to conduct this romance with Meghan.

And for a while, no one knew she was there.

-We reveal the secret remains of Greenwich Palace... -Down these stairs is the only surviving intact space from the Tudor Palace.

-...and explore why Buckingham Palace's Gold State Coach hasn’t driven a royal for 20 years.

-King William IV said it was like being tossed around in a stormy sea.

And our Queen admitted later that it was indeed horrible.

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