The first castle
In the decade after 1066, William the Conqueror raised a castle on a chalk mound above the Thames, guarding the river and Windsor Forest. Its mound, about 15 metres high, still carries the Round Tower. Henry I made Windsor a royal residence, and Henry II rebuilt its defences in stone between 1165 and 1179.
The Order of the Garter
Edward III made the castle the home of the Order of the Garter and rebuilt it as a palace between 1350 and 1377; in 1354 the earliest weight-driven mechanical clock in England was installed in the Round Tower. In 1475 Edward IV began St George’s Chapel, where the Order still holds its annual service.
Fire and restoration
On 20 November 1992 a fire began in the Private Chapel and burned for 15 hours, destroying nine principal rooms and damaging more than 100 others. The restoration was completed in 1997 at a cost of £37 million, paid for in part by opening Buckingham Palace to visitors.



