Behind the pomp and pageantry of the sovereign’s special day.
Victoria ascended to the throne aged just 18 when her uncle, William IV, died in 1837. A year later, she was crowned queen of the British Empire in a ceremony that dates back more than 1,000 years: the coronation.
On 28 June 1838 the young sovereign awoke to the sounds of guns and bands as the build up to the momentous occasion began. By the time she got up at 7am she saw a “curious spectacle – crowds of people up Constitution Hill – soldiers, bands...” Despite being a Thursday, over 400,000 turned out to witness the coronation, aided by the new railways that made it easier to travel to London. Victoria was delighted with what she saw: “There were millions of my loyal subjects, assembled in every spot, to witness the procession,” she wrote in her diary. “I really cannot say how proud I felt to be the queen of such a nation.”
She watched from within the Gold State Coach – an eight-horse-drawn carriage that’s been used at the coronation of every British monarch since George IV (who reigned from 1820-1830). The royal occupants rarely enjoyed the ride, though, with William IV stating it was like being on board a ship“tossing in a rough sea”. Victoria would come to loathe its lack of comfort, too, complaining of its “distressing oscillations.” The procession took a long route from her new home, Buckingham Palace, to Westminster Abbey – the setting of coronations for 900 years.
The ceremony itself is a mixture of ritual, regalia and religion, and each step must be carefully followed before the crown is bestowed upon the new monarch. The king- or queen-to-be places one hand on the Bible and swears an oath to maintain the Church of England and to rule according the law. Then they are ‘anointed, blessed and consecrated’ by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Church – a tradition dating back to 1066. The monarch’s head is anointed with Holy Oil while they sit in King Edward I’s chair, made in around 1300, and since then 26 sovereigns have been crowned in this chair.
The monarch is then cloaked in the coronation robes before being invested with precious regalia known as the Crown Jewels, which have been used in coronation ceremonies since 1661. These include the swords, spurs and armills, followed by the Orb that symbolises the Christian world and is placed in the monarch’s right hand to represent supreme power. The royal ring is placed on the sovereign’s finger, and they are then presented with the Sceptre and the rod. Their purpose was described at the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066: “by the sceptre uprising in the kingdom are controlled, and the rod gathers and confines those men who stray.”
“The coronation is a mixture of ritual, regalia and religion, and each step must be carefully followed”
After the investiture part of the ceremonymcomes the most important item of all – the crown. St Edward’s Crown is considered as the official coronation crown but Victoria felt it was far too heavy for her four-foot 11-inch (150-centimetre) frame. She opted instead for a new Imperial State Crown, made especially for her and set with over 3,000 gems. Victoria described when the archbishop placed it on her head as “the most beautiful impressive moment.” As is tradition, the guests in the Abbey cried three times, “God save the Queen” and the peers of the realm donned their coronets, small crowns that are only worn for a royal coronation. “The shouts, which were very great, the drums, the trumpets, the firing of the guns – all at the same moment, rendered the spectacle most imposing,” she added.
To the crowd waiting outside, the day went without a hitch. Those inside the Abbey, however, would have witnessed something very different. As future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli put it: “The Queen looked very well, and performed her part with great grace and completeness, which cannot be said of the other performers; they were always in doubt as to what came next, and you saw the want of rehearsal.”
He might have been referring to the moment a confused bishop missed out two pages in the Order of Service and had to call Victoria back to do it again. Or perhaps the time when the peers proceeded to pay homage and one elderly gentleman fell down the stairs. In that moment Victoria cast etiquette aside and went to meet him, causing a ripple of admiration among the guests. Even the kind-hearted queen herself couldn’t help but complain – in the privacy of her diary, of course – when the archbishop forced a ring that was made for her little finger onto her ring finger. She had to soak her hand in iced water after the ceremony and later wrote: “I had the greatest difficulty in taking it off again, which I at last succeeded in doing, but not without great pain.”
The ceremony lasted five hours but the 19-yearold got through it with poise and patience. It was a testing first step into a long and eventful reign.
