Demise of the Crown: Prince consort
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 reign of Queen Anne.
Chapters
Prince consort
The chief mourner at the funeral of King William III in April 1702 was his brother-in-law, Prince George of Denmark, who was the duke of Cumberland and a knight of the Garter. On William’s demise, the Danish prince became the husband of the sovereign and performed an act of homage at his wife’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, on St George’s Day, less than two weeks after he assisted at William’s obsequies.
The passing of the Queen’s husband in October 1708 gave rise to the first of two Gazette reports about the loss of a prince consort, as it described the night-time service in the abbey (Gazette issue 4488), when the Duke of Somerset acted as the chief mourner, and reflected a ceremonial that was largely based on that for a sovereign, with peers and the great officers of state in attendance, and the prince’s crown being carried by one of the kings of arms.
More than 150 years later, The Gazette dealt with the demise of the next prince consort, Queen Victoria’s husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Gazette issue 22584). There was, however, no gazetting of the ceremonial following the loss of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021.
The death of Anne’s consort gave rise to a mourning period, and The Gazette published an order from the Earl of Bindon, the deputy earl marshal, which imposed the “deepest mourning”, and subjected “all lords as privy counsellors, and officers of His Majesty’s and his Royal Highness’s household” to other travel restrictions (Gazette issue 4486).
Readers of The Gazette knew that trade had been encouraged after the passing of King William, but also appreciated that the black dress code could have a negative impact on business. The Companies of Silk Weavers of London and Canterbury drew the Privy Council’s attention to:
“the deplorable condition to which they are reduced, by reason of the general mourning, for the continuance whereof no time is limited in the order published by the earl marshal; their stock lying dead, and their trade intirely at a stand, whereby they have been enforced to discharge great numbers of the poor workmen depending upon them, and shall be soon brought to a necessity of dismissing all the rest of them, and thereby many thousand persons will be reduced to the most extream want and misery, and the silk manufacture in danger of being lost to the kingdom.”
The council accepted the silk weavers’ case, and in March 1709 ordered that “Her Majesty having compassion for so many families who are likely to fall into want, is graciously pleased hereby to declare, that she does not require or expect that any of her subjects (except only her own servants, and such as have access to her royal person) should continue to observe the present mourning.” (Gazette issue 4526)
Queen Anne
The last demise of the crown that was worn by a Stuart sovereign was caused by the death of Queen Anne in the summer of 1714, and resulted in The Gazette publishing the “lord marshal’s order for a general mourning” which contained the provisions the lords justices had approved in advance of her successor, the “high and mighty prince George, Elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg”, arriving from Hanover. The order followed the customary call for people to put themselves into the deepest mourning, and with special rules for those closely associated with royal affairs (Gazette issue 5248).
The duration of the mourning was not given, and there were occasions when The Gazette explained that the process would be suspended for a specific reason, as in September 1714 when King George I was due to enter his English capital for the first time, and the deputy earl marshal stated that (Gazette issue 5257):
“It is expected, that the nobility and others, who are to meet, and give their attendance on the King, upon the day of his royal entry from Greenwich, through the city of London, to his palace of St James’s, be out of mourning, as to their own persons and coaches, for that day only; but that their livery servants be still in mourning.
And it is further expected, that all other persons, who shall be in any balconies, windows, &c as spectators on the said day, do not appear in mourning on that occasion.”
Before the balconies filled with the ladies and gentlemen who wanted to witness the arrival of their new sovereign in London, The Gazette published the narrative for his predecessor’s funeral in Westminster Abbey on 24 August 1714, which followed the conventional pattern, and did not incorporate any changes to take account of the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland that occurred in May 1707.
The Gazette provided a short narrative about Anne’s coffin being preceded by “a great number of Her late Majesty’s servants, the judges, privy councellers, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the great officers”. Reference was made to the dukes who acted as pall bearers, and to the role of the Duchess of Ormonde as the chief mourner, in which role she was supported by the dukes of Richmond and Somerset wearing their Garter collars. The duchess’s husband had helped to place William of Orange on the throne and had attended the funerals of William of Gloucester and George of Denmark, but by 1733, when the duchess was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, the family’s fortunes had been transformed, as the Duke of Ormonde was attainted for supporting the Stuart cause (Gazette issue 5385), and was expelled from the Garter.
The Gazette explained that Anne’s remains were set in the same vault as those of Charles II, William and Mary, and her husband, George of Denmark (Gazette issue 5254). It also noted a common element in the royal programme, which was the firing of guns to mark the demise of the crown, in this case the guns at the Tower of London, which were fired every minute until the queen was interred. The firing of weapons at different locations, and for different durations, continued to be a feature in marking the passing of the sovereign, and the practice was retained in the 2022 programme to solemnise the passing of Elizabeth II.
A second ceremony for the last Stuart sovereign was reported in The Gazette and recalled the offering up of the heraldic achievements of the Duke of Gloucester in St George’s Chapel in 1701. In this instance, the service reflected the late Queen’s status as sovereign of the Order of the Garter. The event was organised by the Hanoverian court, but did not take place for almost four years after Anne’s death, rather than at the first installation of George I’s reign in December 1714. At the second installation of his reign, in April 1718, the Queen’s achievements were offered up by the commissioners who were responsible for installing the new knights on that occasion (Gazette issue 5638).
In contrast to the heraldic provision that existed in St George’s Chapel for Anne’s son, no stall plate had ever been set up for the Queen in the Garter’s spiritual home. This was in line with the long-standing (and still current) practice of not erecting plates for the sovereign, and also because – as a woman – Anne had not been admitted to the order before succeeding to the crown.
Royal monuments
One notable feature of the Stuart and early Hanoverian period is the absence of statues or other memorials to commemorate the lives of the deceased sovereigns, during an era that has been described as one in which a lavish monument was normally associated with the burial of great ladies and gentlemen. Examples of such early 18th century monuments can be found in Westminster Abbey for Isaac Newton, and at Blenheim Palace for the Duke of Marlborough, while a memorial containing an effigy of the Duke of Queensberry in his Garter robes lies in a remote Scottish hillside near Dumfries.
A desire to dampen Jacobite sympathies, especially during the decades that followed the Hanoverian succession, may have limited the appeal of commissioning public works that drew attention to the virtue of any Stuart prince. Having said that, no sovereign’s remains were housed in a specially commissioned structure until 1901, when Victoria’s body was placed in the mausoleum she created for her husband in the grounds of the Windsor estate.
Although there are no statues of the last three Stuart monarchs beside their graves in Westminster Abbey, the abbey’s Diamond Jubilee Gallery contains wax effigies of William, Mary and Anne, each wearing their coronation robes and regalia, rather than the blue mantle of the Garter. The original use and early location of the abbey’s Stuart effigies is uncertain.
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
Royal Collection Trust/© His Majesty King Charles III 2024
GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
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.