Over the last few decades, the Royal Archives has grown rapidly.

Surviving official correspondence of Sovereigns before George III can be found in The National Archives. (Please see the Collections in the Royal Archives page for more details.) Private papers of earlier Sovereigns and members of their families have not survived for the most part. Other collections were soon added to the Victorian records, including the papers of George III and George IV, the military papers of the Duke of Cumberland and the papers of the exiled Stuarts after 1688. The first records were transferred to the new Muniment Room in 1914.Ī post shared by The Royal Family development of the archives A few years later, following George V’s declaration in 1912 that ‘All the Royal Archives shall be kept in a Strong Room or Rooms in the Round Tower’, work began to construct a Muniment Room in the top half of the medieval Great Hall in the Round Tower. Queen Victoria’s son, Edward VII, appointed Lord Esher as the first Keeper of the Royal Archives shortly after Victoria’s death.

However, the legacy left by Queen Victoria’s 63-year reign, in the form of a vast collection of official and private correspondence, required a permanent home. Previously, historic records had been stored in tin trunks, cupboards and storerooms in the various royal residences, with no appointed archivist to care for them. The need for an archive for the papers of the Royal Family and the Royal Household had become evident only a few years earlier, following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. The Royal Archives were first established in 1914, during the early years of the reign of George V. The Royal Archives preserves the personal and official correspondence of monarchs from George III (1760-1820) onwards, as well as administrative records of the departments of the Royal Household.įrom diaries and personal letters to account books and speeches, the collections held by the Royal Archives record and reflect some of the most significant moments in British history and provide a fascinating insight into the life and work of past monarchs, their families, households and residences. The iconic Round Tower of Windsor Castle is home to the Royal Archives – a unique collection of documents relating to the history of the British Monarchy over the last 250 years.

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