The Royal Summer Palace is a castle in the Kingdom of Daventry that is sometimes used during the summer.
Background[]
Little is known about the palace, and it is only mentioned in an interview between Al Lowe and Rosella. The existence of a Royal Summer Palace also implies the existence of a Royal Winter Palace as well.
However, generally speaking Castle Daventry is usually in use during the summer, and the windows are boarded up, fire places lit, during the Winter to keep the place warm. A circular staircase lead to the upper floor of Daventry Cas- tle, near the locked door to the parapet. In this wing of the castle, was hallway that ran past other locked doors leading to dusty rooms. Those rooms were far too cold and drafty to live in during the winter, even with fireplaces and shutters. During the spring, Seneschel Oswald would direct the staff to air out those floors for summer living. Thes staff's summer uniforms were made of silk, and were not suitable in the cold.
It is also said that Valanice’s wardrobe was so large, it was not kept in their quarters. In fact, Valanice’s summer wardrobe alone took up a set of apartments down the hall that had housed royal nieces and nephews and cousins of all sorts in long—ago times when the royal family had been larger.
As such Castle Daventry maybe the Royal Summer Palace.
However, the name implies that there is a separate castle known as the Royal Summer Palace in a different location in the kingdom. Apparently a retreat of some sort for the Royal family, or for the Queen and Princess to get away and enjoy themselves during parts of the summer. Perhaps with great scenery but not good location to visit in winter months. Or perhaps the Castlekeep Ruins were formerly the Royal Summer Palace, before falling into ruins in recent times.
The name Royal Summer Palace would imply that there is perhaps a winter palace as (alternatively the Castlekeep Ruins could have been the former winter palace).
Rosella was in the palace when Al Lowe called long distance across time and space from Fresno, Earth, to ask her about her views of Larry Laffer.
However, Castle Daventry is known to have many great and grand halls, two throne rooms. Conceivably perhaps some of these buildings could be considered separate palaces all within the same structure. Perhaps the Great Hall is part of the Summer Palace, and the smaller Throne Room (with heat from the fireplace in the nearby dining hall) could be considered the part of the winter palace.
Behind the scenes[]
While its from yet another example of the Sierra Multiverse, the detail and how it relates to KQ continuity may be questionable (some may dismiss its canonicity to the main KQ saga). It at least falls into similar realm of Rosella's First Quest, The Bookwyrm Investigates: Sierra Characters' Favorite Books, and other crossovers such as in Hoyle games (or in other Sierra games). This wiki has decided to just take this information 'as is' and present it as one of the details in the history of the Sierra universe.
The mention of a Royal Summer Palace, suggests there are other castles perhaps a Royal Winter Palace as well. Although Daventy's main castle is also used all year round. Perhaps the Castlekeep Ruins is an example of castles scattered throughout Daventry. Perhaps Daventry even had a defensive fortresses put up all over its borders at one time. We also do not know how and where the rest of the kingdom's nobles and knights live. As such it could be an example of the ruins of one of the more modest accommodations of a lesser nobility of the kingdom. Perhaps even Graham and his Father's old estate, which might explain the hidden key behind Graham's painting.
On earth there are a number of summer palaces. They generally are smaller palaces often made for a queen or other royal family to get away and have privacy during the summer months. They often have extensive gardens which are generally uslesss in winter months. They may actually be located in areas that are nice during the summer but not so nice during winter months. An example would be Belvedere aka the Queen's Summer Palace in Prague, Balmoral Castle in Scotland, or the Summer Palace in Beijing.
Perhaps the castle seen in KQ5 was a different palace than the one that appears in most of the games, as its geographically inconsistent with other versions of the castle and the location which are almost always shown to be on a prominent high hill. The grand gardens in front maybe representative of a summer palace. However, this seems less likely if The Floating Castle is taken into consideration as the castle in that game is clearly a combination of the KQ5 and KQ1 remake's castles (including moat monsters, and the rise south of the castle).