Demise of the Crown: King in Hanover
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 King George I and King George II.
Chapters
King in Hanover
As had been expected, the death of Queen Anne’s son William, Duke of Gloucester, in 1700 led to the succession to the crown of the Elector of Brunswick-Luneburg, who took the regal title of George the First when he inherited the throne in August 1714.
The transfer of the royal authority followed its customary course, even if it took longer to arrange than in the past, because of George’s absence from the realm when he became king. The first Hanoverian crowning took place in Westminster Abbey in October 1714, and once again involved individuals who had assisted in grieving for the departure of his predecessor, as the officers of arms attended both the funeral and coronation services, as did the dean and prebendaries of Westminster, who received the late Queen’s body in August, and presented the regalia to the King in Westminster Hall in the autumn (Gazette issue 5270).
The loss of members of the reigning House of Hanover brought no German flavour, or material changes, to the procedures that were used to mark the passing of the Stuarts. As with the Stuart family, there were few losses to report in The Gazette, because of the small size of the new British royal family. The King had divorced his wife Dorothea of Brunswick-Zelle many years before he succeeded to the crown, and she died in 1726 without ever coming to England. The couple had two children, George Augustus – the future George II – and his sister Sophia Dorothea, whose family interests centred on the German dominions of her husband, Frederick William I of Prussia.
King George I
George I had two surviving brothers by the time he landed in England. The Gazette noted the passing of Maximilian William, a Hanoverian prince whose religion meant that he was unable to succeed to the British crown, and who later entered the service of the Austrian emperor and died in Vienna in 1726 (Gazette issue 6500). Their brother Ernest Augustus, became a British peer as duke of York, and a knight of the Garter, but he remained in Hanover to manage the family’s interests, and he was buried there in 1728. The Gazette reported the Duke of York’s death (Gazette issue 6698), but not his funeral.
The most significant feature of the first Hanoverian demise of the crown is that it took place outside of the realm, as George I breathed his last in June 1727 while visiting his brother at Osnabruck. It was arranged that the King’s remains should be consigned to the family’s vault in Hanover, and The Gazette has no report of any services in Germany or Great Britain and Ireland to lament the passing of the original sovereign of the House of Hanover.
This was the first time the death of a reigning king of England had taken place outside the realm since 1422 when Henry V, the victor of Agincourt, died near Paris. On that occasion the sovereign’s body was brought home and buried in Westminster Abbey. To find a case where the remains did not return to England, as happened with George I, it is necessary to go back more than five hundred years to 1199, when Richard the Lionheart perished during military operations in France and was buried beside his father (Henry II) in the Angevin abbey of Fontevraud.
Although there was no Westminster burial for the first of the Hanoverian kings, The Gazette noted the way in which the Order of the Garter observed his passing in September 1728, when six of the ducal knights helped to place George I’s banner, sword, helm and crest on the altar of St George’s Chapel (Gazette issue 6714). As usual, the late King’s heraldic stall plate remained at Windsor, and recorded his admission to the order in 1701 (Gazette issue 3715), after the act of settlement ensured that the Hanoverian succession would proceed, as a consequence of the death of the young Prince William of Gloucester.
George I’s casket was housed in the chapel of his family’s Leine Castle in Hanover. The building suffered bomb damage during the second world war, and in 1957 the remains of the King and some of his German relatives were moved to a royal mausoleum at Herrenhausen, rather than being repatriated to England for burial in Westminster Abbey or at Windsor.
The Gazette reported mourning for the late King, as the deputy earl marshal issued an order in June 1727 that continued the Stuart practice of requiring people to put themselves into the deepest mourning, and with special provisions that applied to “all lords as privy councellors and officers of His Majesty’s household.” Some changes were made to the earlier procedures, as it was declared that “no person whatsoever for the first six months put any escutcheon of arms painted on their coaches”, and regulations were applied to the army, as “His Majesty is pleased to permit his military officers to appear before him in red faced with black.” (Gazette issue 6590)
The heraldic prohibition for coaches was discontinued in later reigns, while separate mourning provisions relating to naval and military personnel were noticed in The Gazette through to the start of the 20th century.
The impact of mourning on commerce was clear from earlier Gazettes, including the use of home-made materials to encourage English manufacturing after the passing of William III, and the complaints by the silk manufacturers after the death of George of Denmark. The adverse effect of mourning on the silk trade was raised again after the demise of George I, and an order of the Privy Council in November 1728 sought to ease the position:
“Whereas it hath been represented […] that the frequent and long publick mournings have occasioned a great decay of trade, and that great numbers of His Majesty’s subjects, employed in the silk manufacture, are reduced to the utmost extremities on account thereof: His Majesty was this day pleased to take into his royal consideration the hardships and discouragements that so many of his trading subjects labour under, in respect of the long continuance, both of publick and private mournings; and His Majesty being desirous, as far as in him lies, to apply a proper remedy thereto, and out of a tender concern for the good and welfare of his people, to give all due encouragement to the trade and manufactures of this kingdom; is graciously pleased, with the advice of his privy council, hereby to declare, that for the future, upon any publick or court mourning, His Majesty will not require or expect, that any person whatsoever should put their coaches, chairs, or any of their servants into mourning; and that the time for the continuance of all such publick or court mourning, be no more than one half of the time, that has been usual and customary on those occasions.” (Gazette issue 6720)
The “proper remedy” the council approved in 1728 did not last for very long, as evidenced by the notices that were gazetted in connection with the death of Queen Caroline in 1737, when the rules about coaches and servants were reinstated.
Duke of Marlborough
The early Hanoverian Gazette noticed very few private mournings, but did describe the elaborate funeral that was organised for the most famous English soldier of his day, John Churchill, the first duke of Marlborough, which was performed in Westminster Abbey “with the greatest solemnity and magnificence” in August 1722 (Gazette issue 6084).
The pall was covered with a suit of armour “with a general’s truncheon in the right hand, the great collar of the Order of the Garter about the neck with the George appendant, and the Garter on the left leg. […] on one side of the head was laid the cap of a prince of the Empire, and on the other side a ducal coronet”. Troops lined the route, and the officers of arms carried Marlborough’s heraldic achievements, just as they did in 1965 at the state funeral of the duke’s relative Sir Winston Churchill, as the officer known as Lancaster herald was tasked with carrying the crest, and Windsor herald carried the sword, on both occasions.
Marlborough’s chief mourner was the Duke of Montagu, who appeared “in deep mourning, with the collar of the Order of the Garter and the star of the order on his cloak”, and he was joined by other members of the order, whose coats of arms and insignia provided an important visual element during royal funerals, as in 2022 when Elizabeth’s committal service took place under the Garter’s banners in the quire of St George’s Chapel.
Queen Caroline
The court in London agreed to proceed with a British rather than a Hanoverian resting place after the death of the first German queen consort, and The Gazette of December 1737 explained that Caroline of Brandenburg-Anspach, the consort of King George II, was buried in Westminster Abbey (Gazette issue 7660).
The report was the most comprehensive to be gazetted up to that point in time, and included the names of more than 150 people who took part. As was usual for some royal obsequies, the event was described as “private”, although this expression made little sense, given the status of the deceased and the principal participants, together with the public location of the ceremonial, and the large scale of the operation.
The programme for Queen Caroline’s service was similar to that for a reigning monarch, with her daughter Princess Amelia acting as the chief mourner, a crown being carried by an officer of arms, and six dukes acting as pall bearers. The Gazette explained that four of the pall bearers wore their Garter collar, while the dukes of Buccleuch and St Albans wore the collars of the Thistle and Bath. Places were allocated to judges, peers, bishops and privy counsellors, but there was no report of any heraldic banners being carried. The prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, attended wearing his Garter collar.
The casket was carried from the Prince’s Chamber at the Palace of Westminster by ten Yeomen of the Guard, and without the use of a hearse or similar carriage to transport the queen’s remains to the abbey, as the two buildings were located close to one another. The Yeomen had retained their place as a royal body guard under the Hanoverian regime, and acted as the bearer party at George II’s funeral in 1760, but they were assigned different duties after the next demise of the crown, and members of the royal household were employed to carry the coffin at many of the later funerals in Westminster Abbey.
For the first time, The Gazette reported the text that Garter king of arms used in proclaiming Queen Caroline’s passing, which incorporated her style and titles:
“Thus it has pleased almighty God, to take out of this transitory life to his divine mercy, the late most high, most mighty, and most excellent princess Caroline, by the grace of God queen consort of the most high, most mighty, and most excellent monarch, George the Second, by the grace of God king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith; whom God bless and preserve with long life, health, and honour, and all worldly happiness.”
A similar text, referring to the deceased being taken out of this transitory life, and with the hope that the sovereign would be blessed with long life, health, honour and worldly happiness, formed the basis for the proclamations that were made by Garter king of arms at all of the later royal funerals, including the pronouncement at the end of the committal service for Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 (Gazette issue 64462).
The Gazette published its first mourning notice for a non-reigning queen consort. It was similar to that for a sovereign, and applied the deepest mourning code and special rules for certain coaches, chariots and sedan chairs, despite the sentiment of the 1728 order to reduce the adverse impact of the procedures on silk manufacturers (Gazette issue 7652).
The Lord Chamberlain’s Office issued a separate notice that dealt with what type of dress should be worn at court to mark the passing of the queen. The rules that were gazetted for Queen Caroline were followed at the court for many years after 1737, as ladies were required to wear “black bombasines, plain Cambrick linen, crape hoods, shamoy shoes and gloves, and crape fans; and for their undress dark Norwich crape”. Gentlemen had to wear “black cloth, without buttons on the sleeves or pockets, plain Cambrick cravats and weepers, shamoy shoes and gloves, crape hatbands, and black swords and buckles.”
Until the start of the 20th century, The Gazette often published notices from the Lord Chamberlain’s Office and the College of Arms, that determined what dress should be worn at court following the death of a named individual, including members of both British and foreign royal families. The first example of court and general mourning notices being gazetted in connection with a demise of the crown came in 1760, after the death of King George II (Gazette issue 10050).
Prince of Wales
The next royal funerals to be noticed in The Gazette, which were of a national rather than a family consequence, were those of Queen Caroline’s son Frederick, Prince of Wales, and her husband King George II. The ceremonial to grieve for the loss of the Prince of Wales was the only one to be organised for an heir apparent to the crown, as he died in 1751, nine years before his father.
There was a change in the way the funeral was reported by The Gazette, which did not state what happened on the day, but instead published the earl marshal’s order about the transport arrangements, and a “ceremonial for the private interment of His late Royal Highness”, which showed the places that had been assigned to the principal participants, but without naming any of those who attended the service at Westminster (Gazette issue 9048).
The next family funeral that was gazetted related to the Prince of Wales’s daughter, Elizabeth, who was placed in the royal vault in King Henry VII’s Chapel in 1759 (Gazette issue 9930). She was only 18 years old, and had brothers and sisters who had precedence over her in the line of succession to the crown, but she was still accorded a ceremonial departure, with a king of arms carrying her coronet, and Garter proclaiming her style and titles.
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.
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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
Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2024
The Gazette
Publication date
4 November 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.