France and England’s Most Famous Palaces: The History of the Most Famous Royal Residences in Western Europe

When people think of the British Royal family, and more specifically where they live, the first image that often pops into mind is that of stately Buckingham Palace, with its changing of the guard and the occasional royal coach leaving or entering. Others may think of the royal country estate of Windsor Castle, a favorite of both Britain’s longest-reigning and second longest-reigning monarchs. And there was a time when both royal residences played second fiddle to a much better known home, the elegant Kensington Palace. Buckingham Palace is not different, for though it was originally built as a home of a private citizen, once a king bought it, its future was sealed. 

For the French, and those who study their history, Versailles is a symbol of, as Charles Dickens once put it, “the best of times…the worst of times.” It was here that the Sun King, Louis XIV, built a palace worthy of a great nation during a time when peace was, at best, short-lived. It was at Versailles that Russian Tsar Peter the Great studied the palace’s architecture and gardens so that he could recreate them in his home country. Indeed, the greatest minds and artistic geniuses of the later stages of the Renaissance came to Versailles to build and paint, and it was here that Madame de Pompadour and her successor, Madame du Barry, used their wit and beauty to charm a king into doing their bidding. However, as history constantly demonstrates, nothing good lasts forever, and so it was with Versailles. 

France, like all European countries, has had its fair share of palaces over time, but none suffered the rise and fall of fortune like the Tuileries. Built by a widow with a flair for architecture, it grew for more than a decade, along with the royal family that it housed. Then, during the French Revolution, it fell from grace with that family and even became a sight of execution, its famous gardens providing the background for the infamous guillotine.