The Royal Archives was established in the Round Tower at Windsor Castle in 1912. This was made necessary mainly by the large accumulation of papers from the reign of Queen Victoria and also of the official papers of King Edward VII.
Queen Victoria conducted a vast correspondence, both official and private, throughout her long life, resulting in an enormous volume of archival material.
Prince Albert gradually took control of her official correspondence and set up a highly organised filing system in which the papers from that period are still kept.
After the Prince's death, the Queen's papers accumulated more haphazardly until the 1890s, when her Assistant Private Secretary began the large task of organising them.
This work was continued in King Edward VII's reign by Viscount Esher, who also edited three volumes of Queen Victoria's early correspondence (published in 1907; other editors subsequently published five further volumes covering the Queen's later years).
Two other collections joined the Victorian and Edwardian papers in the newly established Royal Archives in 1911.
They had been held in the Royal Library since the 1830s and comprised: the military papers of King George II's son, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland; and the papers of the exiled Stuarts (King James II, his son, and grandsons) which had been bought by the future King George IV after the death in 1807 of Cardinal Stuart, brother of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, and the last of the Stuart line.
In 1912 the Archives received the papers of King George III and King George IV, which were discovered at that time in the basement of Apsley House, the London residence of the Duke of Wellington (the 1st Duke had been the principal executor of King George IV).
In 1914 there were added the Wardrobe accounts for 1660-1749, a gift from the Duke of Buccleuch, whose forebears, the Dukes of Montagu, had been Masters of the Great Wardrobe, a forerunner of the present Master of the Household.
Private papers of earlier Sovereigns and members of their families have not survived, for the most part. Official correspondence of Sovereigns before King George III should be found in the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Over the last four decades, the Royal Archives have grown rapidly. The official correspondence of King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI have all been added, as have the private correspondence and diaries of King George V and Queen Mary. Papers of other members of the Royal Family have also been placed in the Royal Archives, including those of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
The archive collections are housed in environmentally controlled conditions to meet current British Standards for archival storage. Two full-time conservators are employed to carry out an ongoing conservation programme.
Queen Victoria's diaries run to 111 large manuscript volumes.
These volumes only represent about one third of the original, however. The diaries were edited after her death by Princess Beatrice, her youngest daughter, at Queen Victoria's own request.
