Art, Passion & Power: The Story Of The Royal Collection

In a major four-part series, Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the history of the Royal Collection - the dazzling collection of art and decorative objects collected by kings and queens over the last 500 years and today owned by The Queen as Sovereign.

Andrew argues that while on the surface the Royal Collection projects permanence, within these objects are stories of calamity, artistic passions and reinvention.

In this first episode, Andrew marvels at the works acquired by the great founders of the Royal Collection, Henry VIII and Charles I. Henry VIII tried to overwhelm with magnificence, and deployed the most essential rule of royal collecting: that great art projects power.

For Charles I art was a way to compete with other kings through taste, and Andrew reveals how this doomed monarch became the greatest royal collector in British history.

Publicity contact: SH8