What, you might ask, is the difference between a castle and a palace? Well….the difference is the main purpose of the building. The main purpose of a castle is defense and have moats, keeps, cannons, etc. A palace, on the other hand, was meant to show of incredible wealth so they are filled with priceless works of art, tapestries, rugs, silver, gold, etc.
The palace we saw today certainly does a good job of showing off wealth. We visited Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill. The 10,000 acres of land was given to the 1st Duke of Marlborough as a reward for his efforts in the War of Spanish Succession and the 1704 Battle of Blenheim. He started construction in 1705 and 25 years later, the palace as it stands today, was finished. It is a remarkable palace and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The rooms in the Palace were unbelievable. Here are some of my favorites.
In the basement, there was a large exhibition about the family’s most famous member…Winston Churchill.
We took a tram tour of the gardens which was beautiful. It turned out to be a private tour as we were the only ones there so we got to stop wherever we wanted for photos.
We spent a very pleasant 3 hours touring the Palace and the grounds. Even though we’ve seen many palaces on this trip, it’s still hard to believe people actually live like this.
On our way to our next stop, we took a detour to St. Martin’s Church where the Churchill family has its burial site.
The castle we saw today was Broughton Castle the home of the Fiennes family, the Barons Saye and Sele. While in the peerage, a baron is way down the food chain from a Duke (Churchill family). There are 5 ranks in the peerage. From highest to lowest rank they are: Duke, Marquess, Earl (or Count), Viscount and Baron. This highest ranking Duke is the Duke of Norfolk. Why is he the highest? Because this dukedom has the earliest date of creation…1397.
Anyway, I digress. Broughton Castle was originally a medieval fortress and has been home to the Fiennes family for over 500 years.
The family name, Fiennes, may sound familiar. The current Baron is 3rd cousins to actors Ralph (pronounced Rafe) and Joseph Fiennes.
The Castle rooms were certainly not as large nor as ornate as those of Blenheim Palace but they were still very nice.
The current Baron is #23 and is 102 years old. He no longer lives in the castle but his son, and heir, does.
We saw a lot of memorabilia here as well. It’s amazing the stuff people keep.
After leaving the Castle, we drove about an hour to Milton Keynes where we are staying at yet another Doubletree Hotel. This one has air conditioning, except we no longer need it. The temp maxed out at 65 and we switched to long pants to stay warm. Unfortunately, when we got to Blenheim Palace and realized how chilly it was (at that time only 58 degrees) the jackets and long sleeve shirts were buried beneath the backpacks in the trunk. We managed without them but got them out when we got to the hotel.
Tonight’s Doubletree is adjacent to the stadium of the local football team. When I say, adjacent, I mean it. Here’s the view from our room.
We walked a couple of blocks to TGI Friday’s for dinner. It was a ton of fun.
Peter had ribs and I had a burger then we splurged on a dessert.
Tomorrow our day will be spent at Bletchley Park, the center of the codebreakers of WWII. According to the website, we could spend all day looking at the different exhibits. All I can say is….god, I hope not! I’ll let you know.