"Queen's Diamond Jubilee Parade and Muster at Windsor Castle" by Defence Images is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Windsor, England is located to the west of London, and is most famous for Windsor Castle atop a large chalk cliff, originally built by William the Conqueror (the I, reigned 1066-87). The royal castle has been reconstructed many times in history. 

Percy Shelley lived in Windsor when he met Mary Shelley, and the couple returned there in 1817 to live in Marlow (near Windsor), where Mary S. wrote most of Frankenstein. 

Windsor is only briefly mentioned in Frankenstein when Victor and Clarval are nearly finished with their trip through England. However, Windsor is afforded a short description by Victor of the landscapes’ beautiful forests, with majestic oaks, and herds of deer (p 135). This is an important transition in the novel, as it is the last real moment of peace Frankenstein experiences before making his trip through Scotland to the Orkneys, and they are some of his last moments with Clarval. 

WIndsor had personal significance to Mary Shelley, and to her husband, Percy. An article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine states that Frankenstein may have been inspired by a real Scottish doctor and natural philosopher, Dr. James Lind (1736-1812), who Percey Shelley attended Eton with. 

Curran, Stuart. "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Pennsylvanian Electronic Edition." KNARF, 1 Mar. 2025,https://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Places/windsor.html. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025

Goulding, Christopher. “The real Doctor Frankenstein?.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine vol. 95,5 (2002): 257-9. doi:10.1177/014107680209500514 

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Edited by Michael Bérubé, New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1818.