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The Windsors and Ceremonial Events: State Occasions for the National Family

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The Windsor Dynasty 1910 to the Present

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Modern Monarchy ((PSMM))

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Abstract

This chapter explores the uses of memoralisation made by the Windsors, where reflective retrospectives are used to emphasise the continuity of the British crown as doing its job for the nation and as a key player in the maintenance of a modern British familial identity. State events, where part of the continuity involved the religious and formal royal rituals employed historically, this chapter provides case studies of royal funerals in order to argue for a shift in the approach to commemoration under the Windsors. Such a shift manifested itself not just in the way in which the ceremonial dimensions were contextualised more in terms of family than formality and so made more accessible. It argues also that a high degree of collusion with the media (one in line with public expectation, however) has made this representation more credible. Key Windsor funerals, not just those of George V and George VI, but also those of other known and popularly loved members of the Windsor dynasty including the Queen Mother, are explored in this chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for instance, Edward Muir (2005) Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); Elizabeth Tingle and Jonathan Willis, eds (2015) Dying, Death, Burial and Commemoration in Reformation Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate).

  2. 2.

    Horace Walpole had a ‘curiosity’ to see the event, and so attended it, commenting on the lavish ceremonial accompanying the event. See The Yale Edition of the Correspondence of Horace Walpole, ed W.S. Lewis, http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/collections/digital_collection_corr.html, accessed 1 October 2015.

  3. 3.

    J. R. Miller (1836) A History of Great Britain from the Death of George II to the Coronation of George IV (Philadelphia: McCarty and Davis), p12.

  4. 4.

    Joseph Taylor (1820) Relics of Royalty (London: William Newman and Co), pp179–84.

  5. 5.

    Ibid., pp194–7.

  6. 6.

    John Almon (1810) Anecdotes of the Life of the Right Hon William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 3 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme) III, pp324–8.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., p328. The Duke’s marriage had taken place in secret, in 1766, and his choice of a commoner who was also the illegitimate daughter of Sir Robert Walpole had been one of the reasons for the later Royal Marriages Act 1772.

  8. 8.

    ‘Public Funeral of the Late Rt Hon. William Pitt’, Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1806.

  9. 9.

    John Fairburn (1806)Fairburn’s Edition of the Funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson (London: John Fairburn). Later that year, Charles Fox was also awarded a state funeral, if not so lavish as that awarded to either Pitt or Nelson.

  10. 10.

    It is plain in the early comments that it was expected this would be organised by prominent political figures, especially those in the Lords. See ‘Duke of Wellington’, The Times, 21 September 1852.

  11. 11.

    ‘Funeral of the Duke of Wellington’, The Times, 23 October 1852.

  12. 12.

    John Wolffe (2000) Great Deaths: Grieving, Religion, and Nationhood in Victorian and Edwardian Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

  13. 13.

    Ibid.

  14. 14.

    The event was widely covered in the press, see for instance‘The Funeral of the Duke of Wellington’, The Times, 19 November 1852; ‘London’, The Times, 19 November 1852.

  15. 15.

    Wolffe, Great Deaths; David Cannadine (1981) ‘War and Death, Grief and Mourning in Modern Britain’ in Joachim Whaley, ed Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social History of Death (London: Europa) 187–242.

  16. 16.

    ‘By the express desire of His Royal Highness the funeral was of the plainest and most private character’ as the press commented sympathetically, see for instance ‘The Funeral of His Late Royal Highness the Prince Consort’, The Times, 24 December 1861.

  17. 17.

    The French commentator Edmond About was quoted in the British press as reflecting that the Queen’s simple appeal for a ‘decent mourning’ to be observed by her subjects demonstrated the strength of the monarchy at that point. See ‘Edmond About on Prince Albert’s Death and England’s Mourning’, Birmingham Post, 24 December 1861.

  18. 18.

    ‘The Death of the Duke of Albany. Arrival of His Body. Funeral’, Reynolds News, 6 April 1884. Reynolds News was still a radical newspaper, and it is a measure of the level of public sympathy that it reported the funeral so extensively in its pages.

  19. 19.

    It drew comparisons with the death in 1817 of Princess Charlotte, heir apparent to the throne of England; but the emphasis in 1892 was on the fact that unlike in 1817, there was no alarm over the quality of the succession. See ‘The Late Duke of Clarence’, The Times, 19 January 1892.

  20. 20.

    ‘Funeral of the Duke of Clarence’, The Times, 21 January 1892.

  21. 21.

    Ibid.

  22. 22.

    ‘Court Circular’; ‘The Last Hours at Osborne’, The Times, 23 January 1901.

  23. 23.

    See Tony Rennell (2014) The Last Days of Glory: the death of Queen Victoria (New York: St Martin’s Press).

  24. 24.

    ‘Memorial Services’, The Times, 29 January 1901.

  25. 25.

    ‘Funeral of the Queen’, The Times, 4 February 1901. Its recording on film was also part of that intention: see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9yiG3EUz_A, accessed 1 October 2015.

  26. 26.

    See Matthew Glencross (2015) The State Visits of Edward VII (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

  27. 27.

    See for example ‘When the Day of Toil is done: the lying-in-state’, Illustrated London News, 21 May 1910; see also Sean Wilentz (1999) Rites of Power: Symbolism, Ritual and Politics Since the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), pp221–2.

  28. 28.

    ‘The Pageant of Yesterday’, The Times, 21 May 1910.

  29. 29.

    ‘Alexandra the Loved’, The Times, 28 November 1925.

  30. 30.

    ‘Princess Christian’s Funeral’, The Times, 14 June 1923; ‘The Funeral of Princess Christian: The Cortege at St George’s Chapel’, Illustrated London News, 23 June 1923. Interestingly, The Times had earlier noted that while a special train would be leaving Paddington for Windsor for those attending the funeral, they would be expected to buy tickets. See ‘Princess Christian’s Funeral’, The Times, 12 June 1923. It seems that the costs of such special trains for previous royal funerals had been underwritten, presumably either by the royal family or the railway company, but in a sign of changing times, the great and good attending the funeral were no longer transported free. Noted for her charitable works with the poor, and also for her patronage of nursing and needlework, she was originally Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein after her marriage, but from 1917, the territoriality of her title was resigned.

  31. 31.

    ‘Nurses’ Princess’, The Times, 10 June 1923.

  32. 32.

    ‘Royal Workers’, Sunday Times, 17 June 1923.

  33. 33.

    ‘Alexandra’, The Times, 21 November 1925.

  34. 34.

    ‘George V’, The Times, 21 January 1936.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    ‘George V: “A Patriotic Ruler and a Public Servant”’, Illustrated London News, 25 January 1936.

  38. 38.

    ‘Our Loss’, The Listener, 22 January 1936.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    ‘The Squire and the King’, Editorial, The Times, 24 January 1936.

  41. 41.

    Ibid.

  42. 42.

    ‘Kings at the Funeral’; ‘King George the Man’, The Times, 23 January 1936.

  43. 43.

    ‘King George the Man’, The Times, 23 January 1936.

  44. 44.

    ‘George V: “A Patriotic Ruler and a Public Servant”’, Illustrated London News, 25 January 1936.

  45. 45.

    ‘Order of the Royal Funeral’, The Times, 25 January 1936.

  46. 46.

    ‘The Lying-in-state at Sandringham’, The Times, 23 January 1936.

  47. 47.

    ‘At Westminster Hall’, The Times, 24 January 1936.

  48. 48.

    ‘The Squire and the King’, Editorial, The Times, 24 January 1936.

  49. 49.

    ‘Order of the Royal Funeral’, The Times, 25 January 1936.

  50. 50.

    ‘Nation’s Mourning’, The Times, 28 January 1936.

  51. 51.

    Ibid. Employment exchanges were to be open until 11 a.m. for vacancies, but would continue to pay out to those due to receive benefits on Tuesday. The unemployed (apart from dock workers) were also to be spared from signing on or claiming that day without penalty.

  52. 52.

    See, for instance, ‘The Nation Mourns’, The Guardian, 7 February 1952.

  53. 53.

    Winston Churchill (1952) King George VI. The Prime Minister’s Broadcast, Thursday 7 February 1952 (London: The Times Publishing Company), p1.

  54. 54.

    ‘Coffin Taken to Church’; ‘Westminster Hall Preparations’, The Times, 9 February 1952.

  55. 55.

    ‘Today’s Procession’, The Times, 11 February 1952.

  56. 56.

    ‘Lying-in-State of the King’, The Times, 12 February 1952.

  57. 57.

    Pathé News also filmed the procession from Westminster Hall to Paddington for cinemas around the Empire and Commonwealth, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh0JJcf4z6A, accessed 5 October 2015.

  58. 58.

    See ‘The Majesty of Kingship’, The Times, 14 February 2015. See also ‘George VI’s Death: Your Memories’, BBC News, 6 February 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1802708.stm, accessed 20 October 2015.

  59. 59.

    ‘B.B.C. Programmes Criticised’ The Times, 15 February 1952.

  60. 60.

    It is, of course, accepted that not all shared privately in those religious values.

  61. 61.

    ‘B.B.C. Programmes Criticised’ The Times, 15 February 1952.

  62. 62.

    It was also, in line with older traditions, a day of public mourning there not being the fears for the nation’s economy expressed by the politicians. However, the timing of the funeral for a Friday was almost certainly to lessen any impact. It is worth noting that, in anticipation of the death of the current monarch, Elizabeth II, some articles have already been written on the impact on the nation’s economy of the state funeral arrangements including the likely day of public mourning. See Rob Price, ‘The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain for the last 70 years’, Business Insider, at http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-2015-3, accessed 20 October 2015. It has to be said, however, the article does rather exaggerate the impact on the life of the nation in 1952.

  63. 63.

    ‘Epilogue’, The Times, 16 February 1952.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Ibid.

  66. 66.

    Julie Burchill, ‘The People’s Destroyer’, The Guardian, 2 September 1997.

  67. 67.

    It does still remain a question regularly asked by the media, at least, if Diana’s ‘rejection’ by Prince Charles disqualifies him from taking his legally rightful place in the royal succession. See Chapter 6.

  68. 68.

    ‘Red faces in BBC newsrooms as corporation is caught on the hop’, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 1997; ‘Sissons defends corporation’s coverage and lack of a black tie’, Daily Telegraph, 3 April 2002.

  69. 69.

    See, for example, the BBC report from 6 April 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1913120.stm, accessed 27 January 2016.

  70. 70.

    For more details of the BBC’s television coverage, see that from 10 April 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/obituaries/queen_mother/funeral_procession/procession.stm, accessed 27 January 2016.

  71. 71.

    Byron Farwell (1985) Queen Victoria’s Little Wars (London: Norton); Matthew Dennison (2011) Queen Victoria: a Life of Contradictions (New York: St Martin’s Press).

  72. 72.

    See, for instance, Peter Donaldson (2013) Remembering the South African War: Britain and the Memory of the Anglo-Boer War from 1899 to the Present (Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press).

  73. 73.

    While a statue of George IV, in Roman dress and on horseback, is part of the furniture of Trafalgar Square, an inscription had to be added later in the century because no one knew who the statue represented. See http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/The%20House%20of%20Windsor%20from%201952/QueenElizabethTheQueenMother/MemorialProject/TheProject/FamousRoyalmemorials.aspx, accessed 20 August 2015.

  74. 74.

    Judith Rowbotham (2000) ‘All our past proclaims our future’: popular biography and masculine identity during the Golden Age, 1850–1870’ in Ian Inkster, Jeff Hill, Colin Griffin and Judith Rowbotham, eds The Golden Age: Essays in British Economic and Social History 1850–1870 (Aldershot: Ashgate).

  75. 75.

    See John Price (2014) Everyday Heroism: Victorian Constructions of the Heroic Civilian (London: Bloomsbury).

  76. 76.

    ‘Edward VII Memorial’, East London Observer, 23 December 1911.

  77. 77.

    See http://www.britishpathe.com/video/wedding-of-princess-patricia-to-sir-a-ramsay-1919, accessed 10 August 2016.

  78. 78.

    ‘Princess Charlotte christening: everything you need to know’, Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2015.

  79. 79.

    Andrew Brown ‘Sweden’s cycling royals do it better’, Independent, 23 October 2011.

  80. 80.

    Damian Thompson, ‘We British are the Masters of Ceremony’, Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2013, http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100216223/we-british-are-the-masters-of-ceremony/ accessed 9 October 2015.

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  • Byron Farwell (1985) Queen Victoria’s Little Wars (London: Norton).

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  1. School of Law, Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK

    Judith Rowbotham

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  1. Judith Rowbotham
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Correspondence to Judith Rowbotham .

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  1. King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Matthew Glencross

  2. Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom

    Judith Rowbotham

  3. King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Michael D. Kandiah

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Rowbotham, J. (2016). The Windsors and Ceremonial Events: State Occasions for the National Family. In: Glencross, M., Rowbotham, J., Kandiah, M. (eds) The Windsor Dynasty 1910 to the Present. Palgrave Studies in Modern Monarchy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56455-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56455-9_4

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