Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity created in 1998 to manage Britain's unoccupied royal palaces. These are:

Historic Royal Palaces is contracted by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to manage the palaces on The Queen's behalf. It receives no funding from the Government or the Crown, depending on the support of visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors. It is a registered charity.

The occupied royal palaces are cared for and maintained by the Royal Household Property Section. They are all open to the public.

A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the term is also applied to ambitious private mansions of the aristocracy. Many historic palaces are now put to other uses such as parliaments, museums, hotels or office buildings. The word is also sometimes used to describe a lavishly ornate building used for public entertainment or exhibitions.

The word "palace" comes from Old French palais (imperial residence), from Latin Palātium, the name of one of the seven hills of Rome. The original "palaces" on the Palatine Hill were the seat of the imperial power while the "capitol" on the Capitoline Hill was the religious nucleus of Rome. Long after the city grew to the seven hills the Palatine remained a desirable residential area. Emperor Caesar Augustus lived there in a purposely modest house only set apart from his neighbors by the two laurel trees planted to flank the front door as a sign of triumph granted by the Senate. His descendants, especially Nero, with his "Golden House" enlarged the house and grounds over and over until it took up the hill top. The word Palātium came to mean the residence of the emperor rather than the neighbourhood on top of the hill.

Dr Lucy Worsley (born 1973) is a British historian and curator.

Worsley was born in Reading but when she was a week old went to live in Canada. Her father is a geologist an expert in glaciers, permafrost and Emeritus Professor at Reading University; her mother a respected consultant in educational policy and practice.

Before going to University Worsely attended St Bartholomew's School, Newbury. She graduated from New College, Oxford in 1995 with a first-class honours BA degree in Ancient and Modern History and in 2001 was awarded a D.Phil from the University of Sussex for a thesis on The Architectural Patronage of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, 1593-1676. In 2005 she was elected a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; she was also appointed visiting professor at Kingston University. She is known for having a rhotacism (a speech impediment which makes her pronounce her r's as w's).

Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity looking after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens. She is currently overseeing the £12 million refurbishment of the Historic Royal Palaces, state apartments and gardens.

Stuart Stockdale is an English fashion designer, born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He lives and works in London.

Stuart studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and went on to do a Master's degree at the Royal College of Art. He has worked in all major fashion capitals for designers such as Jasper Conran, Romeo Gigli, J Crew, Pringle of Scotland,Jigsaw and Jean Paul Gaultier.

From 2001 to 2005 he was the Design Director at Pringle of Scotland. He is widely attributed with revitalising the company worldwide and making the brand "sexy" again. He left the company in 2005 to take up a position as Design Director of the luxury British tie brand, Holliday and Brown, and contributed to their collaborations with Prada.

After working for French haute couture designer, Jean Paul Gaultier, where he was responsible for creating the pret a porter collection and worked on various special projects such as costumes for Kylie Minogue's tour, he returned to London to take up a position as Design Director of Jaeger where he is responsible for the creative direction of the entire brand. Jaeger was founded in 1884 and shows during London fashion Week.

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.