Demise of the Crown: House of Orange
As the official public record since 1665, The Gazette has been recording the deaths of monarchs for over three centuries. As part of our ‘Demise of the Crown’ series, historian Russell Malloch looks through the archives at The Gazette’s reporting of demise events during the reigns of William III and Mary II.
Chapters
Mary II
After the passing of King Charles II in 1685, the next service to lament a demise of the crown that was noticed in The Gazette was also the first to be conducted for a reigning queen, as distinct from a queen consort. The ceremony in March 1695 followed the death of Mary II, the daughter of King James II.
Her passing did not lead to an accession council, as the royal authority continued to be vested in her husband, William III, because of the statutes that underpinned the personal union of the crowns that had existed since William and Mary accepted the joint sovereignty of the kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland in 1689.
The Gazette described the pageant for the late queen, which included what was referred to as “three hundred poor women” (Gazette issue 3059), and noted that the role of the chief mourner was filled by the Duchess of Somerset, rather than a member of the Stuart family. The practice of appointing a female chief mourner was adopted for Queen Anne in 1714, and for several of the Hanoverian princesses, as the Duchess of Manchester acted for George III’s sister Louisa in 1768, and the Duchess of Grafton performed a similar role four years later for his mother Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales.
Queen Mary’s remains were carried on a chariot drawn by eight horses, accompanied by officers of the royal household, such as grooms of the chamber and gentlemen ushers, along with representatives from the City of London, and members of both houses of Parliament. One well-known participant was Sir Christoher Wren, the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral, who joined the proceedings in his role as surveyor-general of the works.
The coffin was placed in Westminster Abbey, in a vault near the resting place of Henry VII, whose body lay in his chantry chapel, in a tomb chest that displayed recumbent bronze effigies of the king and his wife by the Italian sculptor Torrigiano, all surrounded by a massive bronze screen, and decorated with figures holding the quartered arms of England and France within the Garter.
Heraldry
One feature that emerged from The Gazette’s report of Queen Mary’s service was the use of heraldic symbols, as seven flags added colour to her cavalcade. Three lords carried banners for Chester, Cornwall and Wales, while the banners of England, France, Ireland and Scotland, and what was known as the Great Banner, were displayed by five earls. In addition, twelve baronets were given flags (bannerolls) and walked beside the casket, and four officers of arms bore the queen’s “helmet and crest, target, sword and coat of arms”.
The use of heraldic banners was noticed in the funeral ceremonial for George III in 1820 and George IV in 1830, but the practice had fallen out of favour when the programme was settled to solemnise the passing of William IV. There were, however, reports in The Gazette of escutcheons or shields of arms being placed on royal palls after the summer of 1837. The number of shields reflected the rank of the deceased, with ten for the monarch, and fewer for consorts and others. The last time this type of heraldic addition was gazetted was in connection with the funeral of George III’s son Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, in 1850 (Gazette issue 21118).
Flags also featured in reports about the monarch’s body lying in state in one of the royal residences in advance of the funeral service, and usually for a period of a few days. This heraldic display was, however, limited to the demise of George IV and William IV. The Gazette of 1830 explained that (Gazette issue 18707):
“The royal body, covered with a purple velvet pall, thereon escocheons of the royal arms […] was placed under a canopy of purple cloth, also having escocheons; the royal standard was suspended under the canopy and over the body; and the following banners, viz: the Union banner; the banner of St George; the banner of Scotland; the banner of Ireland; the banner of Hanover; and the banner of Brunswick; supported by the Gentlemen Pensioners, were arranged on each side of the royal body.”
The value of heraldic messages was not forgotten, and the royal standard found a place in more recent funerals, as with the 2022 ceremonial which showed that “the sovereign’s standard of the Household Cavalry” was carried after Elizabeth II’s coffin. Flags were also introduced into the procession in 2022 for the state service that was held for the late Queen in Edinburgh.
Duke of Gloucester
The Gazette’s uneven reporting of royal funerals was demonstrated by the account of the loss of King William III’s nephew William, Duke of Gloucester, whose death was an event of constitutional importance and led to the legislation that settled the destination of the crown and resulted in the accession of the House of Hanover in 1714.
The funeral arrangements for William of Gloucester in August 1700 were only briefly noticed, and referred to the procession to Westminster Abbey, with the Duke of Norfolk acting as the chief mourner, and the prince’s coronet being carried by one of the officers of arms (Gazette issue 3626).
The King was in Holland when his nephew died, and so did not hear Garter king of arms proclaim the Stuart prince’s style, or see the prince’s steward, treasurer and comptroller break their white staves as his body was laid in the royal vault.
Knights of the Garter
While Westminster Abbey continued to host royal funerals until the start of the 19th century, when Windsor became the favoured location, the death of members of the royal family who were knights of the Garter – such as the Duke of Gloucester – gave rise to separate events that were organised at Windsor to acknowledge their passing and were often recorded in The Gazette.
The ceremony normally involved the taking down of a knight’s banner, sword and crest from their places above his stall, and then setting those heraldic achievements on the altar in St George’s Chapel. The memorial service for a deceased companion was usually performed at the first installation of members of the order to be organised after his passing, which was sometimes many years afterwards. The Gazette noticed several post-mortem events of this kind, starting in July 1701 when the heraldic achievements of the Duke of Gloucester were offered up at Windsor (Gazette issue 3722).
Each royal knight had a permanent heraldic connection with the castle rather than the abbey, as his Garter stall plate remained in St George’s Chapel after his death. William of Gloucester’s plate was set up after he joined the order in 1696 at the age of six years and showed the royal arms with his style and titles in French. It is now located in a stall in which the most recent plate relates to the German Emperor William II, who died in 1941.
King William
While he wore the British crowns, William III spent most of the summer and early autumn of each year at his home in Holland. The Gazette does not disclose what the lords justices who administered the government in his absence would have done had he died during one of his frequent European trips, as George I would do in 1727.
The King landed in England after his last overseas visit in November 1701, only three months before his death, and he arranged to be buried in London rather than in a Dutch grave. His demise in March 1702 gave rise to the shortest Gazette notice for a sovereign’s funeral, and concluded: “The body was deposited in King Henry the Seventh’s Chapel while the service of the church was performed, and afterwards interred in the same vault with King Charles II and the late Queen Mary, with the usual solemnities” (Gazette issue 3800).
The Gazette published the earl marshal’s order about “going into a solemn mourning upon the present occasion of the death of the late king of blessed memory” and, as happened with Charles in 1685 and Mary in 1694, this determined the manner in which subjects were expected to dress, and the way in which peers and others could decorate their modes of travel. A novel provision recognised the relationship between mourning and the retail trade, as the earl marshal directed that “it will be allowed as full and proper mourning to wear hatbands of black English Alamonie covered with black crape, in consideration of the great encouragement it will be to the English manufacture of Liesiring and Alamonie” (Gazette issue 3791).
Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III
Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.
Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.
Available to order now from the TSO Shop.
About the author
Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.
See also
King Charles III and The Gazette
Gazette Firsts: The history of The Gazette and monarch funerals
Find out more
Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)
Images
The Gazette
Getty Images
Royal Collection Trust/© His Majesty King Charles III 2024
The Gazette
Publication date
21 October 2024
Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.