2023 Irish Studio. When an ordinary, humble person dies, everything is arranged quite easily and with reverence and care. But she was a lady of her time. Here, Stewart Richards considers Queen Victorias final moments, the chaotic preparations for her state funeral on 2 February 1901, and the secret items placed inside her coffin. The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II leaves Westminster Abbey on the day of her funeral. In the coffin, Queen Victoria also asked for a cloak which Princess Alice had embroidered for her father. Second, she expressed a desire to be buried as "a soldier's daughter". [10], Victoria's children had married into the great royal families of Europe and a number of foreign monarchs were in attendance including Wilhelm II of Germany as well as the heir-presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Victorians, in general, had obsessions with Today, Victoria has a reputation for prudishness; however, this was definitely not the case. This archive footage of Queen Victoria's funeral follows the processional to Windsor Castle along with highlighting the Royal mourners from King Edward VII to Kaiser Willhelm. [7] The procession, therefore, became much more a military procession, with the peers, privy counsellors and judiciary no longer taking part en masse. Here begins the part where the Queen probably needed Dr. Reids help the most. Its understandable that Victoria later developed an attachment for that particular embroidered cloak. In 1897, Victoria had written instructions for her funeral, which was to be military as befitting a soldier's daughter and the head of the army,[1] and feature white dress instead of black. In a macabre, twisted mixture of death and youth culture, Queen Victoria's secret instructions demanded her entire funeralfrom horses, to mourning attire, to funeral crepebe arrayed in white. He is a graduate in Literature. The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy, is the single work that Meghan Markle has been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism Did you know Queen Elizabeth enjoyed this food so much? The Earl Marshal [the royal officer in charge of organising royal ceremonies and processions] and Lord Chamberlain [in charge of the royal household] were at loggerheads as to who should take charge, while the new kings household refused to take over responsibility until the queen was buried yet the old queens household no longer had any authority. Across the nation, people gathered in small groups to sing God Save the Queen and by eight oclock, shop windows were dressed in black mourning; Whiteleys department store in London had queues ten deep as customers lined up to purchase their black mourning outfits. Twenty-two days later, shortly after 6.30pm on Tuesday 22 January 1901, Superintendent Fraser ordered the household police to surround the queens Isle of Wight residence Osborne House. LONDON Hundreds of world leaders and the last members of the epically . The white coffin, with its gleaming crown and orbs, was lifted on to the bier above the throng standing around it. Jennifer Rosenberg. You would think that the English Monarchy had [not] been buried since the time of Alfred.. Of all her children, Victoria had been the closest to Alice. The funeral of Queen Victoria was held at St George's Chapel on February 2, 1901 - 122 years ago - and according to the archives, almost everything that could went wrong. The solemn service, attended by the kings of the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, and Greece, and the future kings of Denmark and Sweden, went on with relatively few mishaps (other than some seating mistakes). When Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 on 22 January 1901, it took her family, court and subjects by surprise - very few had been able to contemplate the mortality of the monarch who had ruled over Britain and its empire for almost 64 years. Meanwhile, Ponsonby, who seems to have actually carried the main load of planning the events, had rushed into London, where he found absolute chaos. There was infighting over which regiments and households had control over which aspects of the state funeral, and as the city buzzed with mourners, plans were made with breakneck speed. Once the Queen realized her time was running out, she reportedly called for her personal physician, who catered to her during the last 15 years of life Dr. James Reid. Get 6 issues for 19.99 and receive a 10 gift card* PLUS free access to HistoryExtra.com, Save 70% on the shop price when you subscribe today - Get 13 issues for just $49.99 + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com, The final days and death of Queen Victoria. September 19, 2022 - 9:36PM. There were talks of a regency, while Osborne House already overflowing with guests was bombarded with anxious telegrams and telephone calls, and journalists gathered excitedly outside the gates. The horses meant to haul the gun carriage weighing more than two tons panicked and began kicking, threatening to drop the . King Edward VII and his grandson, the six-year-old future Edward VIII, knelt with the kaiser as the queen was slowly lowered in to the crypt to be laid to rest beside her beloved Prince Albert. Draped in the Royal Standard and bearing the Imperial State Crown, orb and sceptre, the coffin was taken from Westminster Hall, where the queen was lying-in-state.. Only one place, in the far corner of the balcony, was unengaged, and that could be had for 15 guineas. First, she disliked the preponderance of funereal black; henceforward, there would be no black cloaks, drapes or canopy, and Victoria requested a white pall for her coffin. Preparation of the Coffin Queen Victoria had left detailed instructions on how her funeral and everything related to it should be. Now at the end, he would bear the grave responsibility of conducting everything contained in the detailed 12 pages the Queen had prepared. The wedding ring of the mother of her personal servant, John Brown, was placed on her finger; a photograph of Brown and a lock of his hair were laid beside her, along with Browns pocket handkerchief, all carefully hidden from view. It was televised and streamed live on the . Years before Queen Elizabeth II passed away at her beloved Balmoral on September 8, 2022, the state plans for her death, dubbed Operation London Bridge, were already concrete. At 6.30pm on 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria breathed her last aged 81. my poor darling Affie gone too! Queen Victoria ruled Britain for 64 years, so her death on 22 January 1901, sent the country, royal family, and parliament into panic as they realised they had no protocols in place for the death of a reigning monarch. 4,424. The queen died at 96 on Sept. 8 after over 70 years on the throne, making. There was great consternation and bewilderment in the Lord Chamberlains office, as well as in the royal family, as to what was the correct mourning for the sovereign, the queens granddaughter Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein recalled. Three years before her death, Queen Victoria had written that she wanted a state funeral with military honorsthe same template royal funerals follow to this day. Sign up to British Heritage Travel's daily newsletter here! The emperor frightened the poor fellow into helpless obedience. Prince Harry on Williams Hairline and Their Wicked Stepmother. This would include white horses for the military processions that were arranged to carry her casket, with matching mourning attire and all. Other descendants of the late Queen's paternal grandfather, King George III and their families: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Friends and loved ones created jewelry made from the hair of the deceased;furniture and doorways were draped in black crepe;and even photos were taken of the dead, dressed and seated in chairs with other family members, as though they were still alive. Sep 19, 2022, 7:20 AM SGT. Samantha Cohen, the Queen's former assistant private secretary, told PEOPLE that watching the Queen's coffin lower into the Royal Vault of the ancient church made the monarch's death feel. On February 1, the queens body, accompanied by the royal family, was transported to the royal yacht Alberta, with crowds gathering to pay their respects. Among her demands was a list of rather sentimental items Queen Victoria is buried with. Am I better? she asked Sir James, I should like to live a little longer, as I have still a few things to settle. As if her trusted doctor could make her live, Sir James kindly reassured her: Yes, Your Majesty has been very ill but you are now better. Meanwhile the Prince of Wales and his sisters (known as the petticoats) tried to prevent the kaiser reaching Osborne. While Alberts sculpture was erected in the mausoleum, the one depicting his wife was kept at Windsor until the right moment for its usage came. Victoria broke convention by having a white draped coffin. One of the first strange items on Victoria's list was that she wished to be buried with theplaster cast of Prince Albert's hand, which was made shortly after his death. Then Queen Alexandra came tearing out, looking this way and that way, before Clarendon persuaded her to go back into the chapel.. . The coffin had to be transported from Osborne House to the port of Cowes, then across the Solent on the royal yacht Alberta. The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy, is the single work that Meghan Markle has been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism Did you know Queen Elizabeth enjoyed this food so much? Queen Victoria, a name that echoed in nearly half of the world during the 19th Century, is not much of a thought today. I had contemplated all sorts of things going wrong, the exhausted Ponsonby wrote, but such a mishap had never occurred to me., According to British Heritage Travel, none other than Prince Louis of Battenberg (the grandfather of Prince Philip) saved the day when he had the ingenious idea of having 138 naval guards drag the carriage to the chapel with ropes (now a royal tradition). This unexpected announcement took the nation completely by surprise and rumours began to abound. The ignorance of historical precedent in men whose business it is to know is wonderful, Reginald Brett, Viscount Esher wrote cheekily. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. The day of Queen Victoria's funeral, Saturday 2nd February 1901, came with excellent weather. The year 1900 had been Queen Victorias annus horribilis: a horrible year, nothing but sadness and horrors of one kind & another, she wrote. The kaiser sat motionless at her left side for more than two hours, propping her up with his one good arm, while Sir James Reid sat on her right holding her hand. The funeral was prolonged. This foresight, so typical of the queens pragmatic, no-nonsense personality, was a far cry from the confusion that greeted the death of Englands last great queen. The Royal Windsor Website.com by ThamesWeb", 2002: Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (Operation Tay Bridge), 2021: The Duke of Edinburgh (Operation Forth Bridge), Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition, Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Feodora, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_and_state_funeral_of_Queen_Victoria&oldid=1142415764, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 07:29. Oct 05, 2018 #10. When Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 on 22 January 1901, it took her family, court and subjects by surprise very few had been able to contemplate the mortality of the monarch who had ruled over Britain and its empire for almost 64 years. But that just one bit of all the weird. It was Dr. Reid who carried out her final demands. Victoria's own view of the future was bleak: Another year begun, I am feeling so weak and unwell, that I enter upon it sadly.. [1] Her funeral was held on Saturday, 2 February, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore at Windsor Great Park.[6]. No embalming, no lying-in-state, no mourning black; she wanted a white funeral, purple and white, with white ponies and a gun carriage, and the first burial of a monarch outside the confines of Westminster Abbey and St Georges Chapel since George I. A stern Queen, overcome by grief, who oversaw 63 years as the Monar Everything you need to know about the "Queen of Heart's" life. It was mentioned also that 500 had been paid for front rooms in a neighboring hotel.. British Heritage Travel is published by Irish Studio, Ireland's largest magazine publishing company. Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 on 22 January 1901 at 6.30 pm. Two days after the funeral, on 4th February 1901, Queen Victoria was taken to Frogmore Mausoleum to rest beside her husband Prince Albert. There was no one alive who could remember how to bury a monarch and this queen had asked for a full military state funeral. Having been ill, her death on January 22 that year was not a surprise. ", This mishap apparently slowed the procession to the chapel, and those waiting for the funeral to begin at St. Georges Chapel were restless. Since the Queen was overwhelmed by the loss, for a while Alice would step up as a personal assistant, replacing her mother for much of the ongoing royal duties. According to Richards, in the London neighborhood of Piccadilly, spectators paid top dollar to get a glimpse of the royal procession as it traveled the three miles from Victoria station to the train station of the Great Western in Paddington, which would take the queen to Windsor. Her death on Jan. 22, 1901, at age 81 was mourned around the world and signaled an end to the Victorian Era . Chris Jackson // Getty Images. According to Stewart Richardss fascinating Curtain Down at Her Majestys, as the queen lay peacefully while surrounded by family, in another room courtiers were frantically attempting to figure out what came next. Meanwhile, information reached Gustav Steinhauer, a personal bodyguard to the kaiser, of an assassination plot by three notorious anarchists. A piece of Queen Victoria's Coffin at Auction. In January 1901, 81-year-old Queen Victoria lay dying at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. Queen Victoria was buried wearing two wedding rings one for her husband, and one for her lover. But Ponsonbys torture was not yet over. Princess Alice was also the first of her children to pass away, aged only 35. The state funeral of George VI, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, took place on 15 February 1952.George VI died in the early morning of 6 February at Sandringham House in Norfolk. Such a wish entirely contrasted with the outfits the Queen opted for after the death of her late husband, but it was symbolic in several ways. First and foremost because the Queens own children would have quickly denounced what stood written in her instructions. When her husbandAlbert died unexpectedly at age 42, Victoria was devastated. Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and her funeral, which ended the era that claimed her name, is a story on its own right. The Prince of Wales was reluctant to cancel his weekend jaunts to the country; the Duke of Connaught [the seventh child of Victoria and Albert] was on his way to Berlin to celebrate 200 years of the Prussian monarchy; while other members of the royal family enjoyed a performance of Little Nell in Londons West End.
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