The long history of this palace has been eclipsed in the last few years by -- some might say its most famous inhabitant -- the late Princess Diana. Still, royals have lived here in grand style for more than 300 years, and a walk through the palace's Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection and State Apartments puts in perspective the protocol- and ceremony-filled royal lifestyle of the past. When King William III decided in the 17th century to make his palace at Kensington, 12 years of renovation to the original building, Nottingham House, were needed by Wren and Hawksmoor before the king and Queen Mary could move in.

The palace continued to undergo ambitious refurbishment during the succeeding three reigns. By coincidence, these monarchs suffered rather ignominious deaths. William III fell off his horse when it stumbled on a molehill, and succumbed to pleurisy in 1702. Then, in 1714, Queen Anne suffered an apoplectic fit thought to have been brought on by overeating. Next, George I had a stroke, said to have been caused by "a surfeit of melons" -- although en route to Hanover in 1727. Worst of all, in 1760, poor George II burst a blood vessel while on the toilet.

But the royal curtain here always rang up on a remarkable changing cast of characters, no more so than when the 18-year-old Princess Victoria of Kent was called from her bed in June 1837 by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain. She was told that her uncle, William IV, was dead, and she was to be queen. The state rooms where Victoria had her ultrastrict upbringing have been restored with items that belonged to Victoria and Prince Albert. The rooms seem pleasantly domestic compared with the formality of other palace rooms.

The State Apartments, especially the King's Apartments, reminded visitors none too subtly of the king's power. The King's Grand Staircase is impressive, with superb trompe l'oeil paintings by William Kent that show courtiers looking down. As you progress from the Presence Chamber to the Privy Chamber (with its glorious Mortlake tapestries commissioned by Charles I) to the lavish Cupola Room, keep in mind that being admitted beyond the Presence Room was a mark of status. The Cupola Room, the glittering main state room, evokes Roman -- and, by extension, Hanoverian -- authority; the ceiling appears to be domed but is actually as flat as a pancake. These rooms lack chairs because only the monarch would have been seated. Elsewhere, look out for Tintorettos and Van Dycks among the canvases in the 96-foot-long King's Gallery, with its red damsk walls. COST: £10.80; joint tickets available with Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. Tube: High St. Kensington.