Demise of the Crown: Death and accession notices

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 events following the demise of King George IV and King William IV.

Chapters

Introduction

Farewell to Westminster

Westminster to Windsor

The three Kings

Demise notices

The next two occasions on which there was a demise of the crown arose with the death of George IV in 1830 and his brother William IV seven years later, and once again their passing provided examples of the official public record noticing the departure as well as the arrival of the sovereign, as The Gazette of September 1762 had reported the christening of the prince who succeeded to the crown in 1820 (Gazette issue 10242), while The Gazette of August 1765 announced the delivery of the prince who would follow his brother onto the throne in 1830 (Gazette issue 10550).

The Gazette published a sequence of notices that dealt with the demise of the crown in 1830. On 26 June an extraordinary edition provided the bulletin that was received by the home secretary, Sir Robert Peel, in which the royal doctors certified that King George IV “expired at a quarter past three o’clock this morning, without pain” (Gazette issue 18694). On the same day, the Lord Chamberlain’s Office determined the dress code to be observed as the court went into mourning (Gazette issue 18695).

Another extraordinary edition appeared on 27 June, and confirmed the King’s death, before giving details about the conduct of the accession council (Gazette issue 18696). On the following day, the earl marshal’s notice about a general mourning was issued from the Heralds College.

After the King’s funeral, further orders were issued by the lord chamberlain and the earl marshal, which indicated that it was not expected that the public should appear in mourning after 11 August, while the court mourning would become less restrictive later in the year, and that the court would go out of mourning on 19 September 1830, in other words after a period of 12 weeks.

A similar, but not identical, series of death, accession and mourning notices have been gazetted on every demise of the crown since 1830, with the exception of the situation in December 1936 when the demise was caused by the abdication rather than the death of King Edward VIII. The first of these documents was usually signed by the sovereign’s medical attendants, and The Gazette showed the name of the secretary of state who received the bulletin, as Winston Churchill did as the home secretary in 1910 (Gazette issue 28364). The notice relating to the passing of Elizabeth II used a different approach, as it was the Privy Council Office which formally advised the public that “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral yesterday afternoon”, and without any additional information about her medical attendants (Gazette issue 63808).

King George IV

The ceremonial for George IV’s funeral on 15 July 1830 was similar to that of his father a decade earlier, but with a slightly more military tone. The Gazette announced some of the arrangements connected with the funeral, and on 30 June the Duke of Norfolk, as the earl marshal of England, issued the following notice:

“All peers, bishops, eldest sons of peers, and privy councillors, who propose to assist at the interment of His late Most Sacred Majesty King George the Fourth, of blessed memory, which is appointed to be solemnized in the Royal Chapel of St George, at Windsor, on Thursday evening the 15^th of July next, are requested to signify their intention by letter, addressed to me, at this office, on or before Tuesday next the 6^th of July, in order that the necessary ticket of admission may be transmitted to them respectively.

All peers, eldest sons of peers, and privy councillors, are to appear in full dress black; the knights of the several orders wearing their respective collars; and the bishops will appear in their rochets.” (Gazette issue 18700)

A further notice was issued by the earl marshal on 7 July regarding the dress code: “The King has been pleased to command, that the great officers of state, His Majesty’s ministers, and the officers of the royal household, who assist at the interment … do appear in their state uniforms, black waistcoats, breeches, stockings, and buckles, uniform swords with crape, and black feathers in their hats; and that all officers of the army and navy, who attend at the solemnity, appear in their respective full dress uniforms, pantaloons and boots, with the mourning directed to be worn by them at court…” (Gazette issue 18703).

Finally, The Gazette of 13 July contained Norfolk’s notice “to the nobility and others attending the solemnity of the funeral of His late Most Sacred Majesty, that the hour appointed for assembling at Windsor Castle is seven o’clock in the evening; the procession will be formed in St George’s Hall at eight o’clock, and move precisely at nine.” (Gazette issue 18704)

The earl marshal’s account of the funeral showed that provision was made for the King’s aides de camp to walk in the cavalcade, along with the quartermaster-general and adjutant general of the army, while the six ducal pall bearers were joined by flag officers from the navy, and general officers from the army (Gazette issue 18707). The Duke of Wellington attended, but not as a pall bearer, and rather as the carrier of the sword of state, the elaborate royal weapon that did not usually form part of the ritual on such occasions.

The chief mourner was King William IV, who is recorded as having worn the collars of five of his six orders – the Garter, Thistle, St Patrick, Bath and Guelphic – over a long purple cloak embroidered with the Garter star. (The missing collar belonged to the small Mediterranean-based Order of St Michael and St George, which was created in 1818 and had a low public profile at this time).

As before, The Gazette explained how the participants filled the quire in St George’s Chapel:

“The peers, assistants to the chief mourner, arranged themselves behind the princes of the blood royal. The peers bearing the banners were placed on each side of the altar. During the service the knights of the Garter present occupied their respective stalls, with the exception of the Duke of Wellington, who bore the sword of state, and the Duke of Beaufort, one of the supporters to the chief mourner, and the peers who supported the pall.

The ministers of state, the great officers of the household, the nobility, bishops, privy councillors, judges and law officers, were placed in the vacant and intermediate stalls, and in the lower seats on each side of the choir. The grooms of the bedchamber, gentlemen ushers of the Privy Chamber, equerries, and others, composing the procession, were arranged on each side of the altar, on which was placed the gold plate of the Chapels Royal.”

This distribution of personnel in 1830 may be contrasted with the allocation of places during Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022, when a large part of the seating in St George’s Chapel was dedicated to members of the choir, rather than placing the singers in a more discreet location. There was also a greater incidence of breaking ensigns of office in 1830, as The Gazette noted that the lord steward “and the other officers of His late Majesty’s household” broke their staves of office, and placed them in the royal vault.

The Gazette set out the message King William delivered to give thanks for the services rendered at his brother’s funeral. The earl marshal, who was responsible for the conduct of much of the ceremony, included a self-flattering notice which explained that “His Majesty has been graciously pleased to express the highest approbation of all the arrangements made on this solemn occasion, and of the manner in which the whole ceremony was conducted.”

No state honours were awarded to demonstrate the King’s approbation of the arrangements at his brother’s funeral, and no honours would be conferred in similar circumstances until the end of the 19^th century, after the introduction of the Royal Victorian Order and its medal in the 1890s. By the 1830s it was – and continued to be – the practice to grant peerages, knighthoods and other dignities to commemorate the crowning rather than the burial of the sovereign.

Portrait of King William IV by David Wilkie

Hanoverian demise

The last Hanoverian funeral service was held to grieve for the death of William IV at Windsor Castle in June 1837 (Gazette issue 19507). The King expired while the court was still officially in mourning for his mother in law, as The Gazette had announced a black dress code for the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen, which was due to end on 21 June (Gazette issue 19499).

The Gazette published the court mourning orders for the King that lasted for 12 weeks until 14 September 1837, while the general mourning ended in early August (Gazette issue 19524). The Gazette was also used, as it had been in 1830, to deal with the issue of tickets for the ceremony, as those peers, bishops, the eldest sons of peers and privy counsellors who proposed to assist at William’s interment were requested to signify their intention by letter to the earl marshal (Gazette issue 19513). There was a further notice from the lord steward about the travel situation at Windsor Castle, and the use of carriages by those who were invited to attend the funeral.

The programme was largely unchanged, although The Gazette noted the presence of what seemed to be two new units, but were in fact old organisations that appeared under their new designations, as the Poor Knights of Windsor were re-named the Military Knights of Windsor in September 1833, and the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners was known as the Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms after March 1834 (Gazette issue 19137).

The main alterations to the 1830 plan that were evident from The Gazette were the introduction of naval aides de camp and the allocation of places to members of a queen consort’s household, as George III and George IV had no wife when they died, whereas Queen Adelaide had survived her husband.

The chief mourner was William’s brother Augustus, Duke of Sussex, who attended the service with his 18-year-old nephew Prince George of Cambridge, who lived long enough to attend Victoria’s funeral in 1901. The Gazette noted the presence of three foreign princes, but this was not an early case of foreign states being represented at a sovereign’s funeral (as happened in 2022), as the Reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen was Queen Adelaide’s brother, the Prince of Leiningen was her nephew, and Prince Ernest of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld was her cousin.

The ceremony was the last at which The Gazette referred to the flags of the kingdoms being borne in the procession, with the banner of Scotland being carried by the King’s son in law, the Earl of Erroll. The national flags were not used again in connection with a demise of the crown until 2022, when the Scottish royal standard and saltire were carried in the state procession in Edinburgh to mark the passing of Elizabeth II.

The night-time ritual on 8 July 1837 was the last funeral service for a sovereign of the House of Hanover, with the final proclamation of the royal style and titles on that historic occasion being delivered by William Woods, Clarenceux king of arms, as deputy to Ralph Bigland, Garter king of arms.

Bigland and Woods were members of the College of Arms, a body that operated under the auspices of the earl marshal of England, and was led by three kings of arms, with Garter ranking first, followed by Clarenceux and then Norroy. Garter and Clarenceux had distinct roles at a sovereign’s funeral, which was to proclaim the style and titles of the late monarch, and to carry the imperial crown. Because Garter Bigland was unable to take part in the 1837 ceremony, Woods delivered the proclamation, and his role as Clarenceux was delegated to one of the heralds who carried the crown.

The proclamation is still part of the funeral ritual, but the practice of carrying the crown lapsed after 1837, and since 1901 the regalia has normally been placed on the coffin along with family flowers, rather than being carried before the sovereign’s remains by an officer of arms.

Sir William Woods was one of more than thirty men who appeared in The Gazette’s reports about the final three Hanoverian funerals, as he walked as Bluemantle pursuivant in 1820 and 1830, and as deputy to Garter king of arms in 1837. The others who took part in the three events included the Duke of Wellington, who was a pall bearer in 1820 and 1837, and carried the sword of state in 1830.

Some individuals performed the same duty on each occasion, as with Lord Howden who carried the banner of Brunswick at the three services, while the dukes of Buccleuch and Richmond acted as pall bearers to the three kings. Other men were given different roles each time, as did John Townshend, who appeared as the son of a viscount, and then as a groom, and finally as a viscount. He was one of the last survivors of George III’s service when he died in 1890, by which time he had also played a role, either as lord chamberlain or as lord steward, in the obsequies for Queen Victoria’s husband, mother and son.

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle

Garter banners

The last three Hanoverian monarchs were laid to rest in the crypt under the Tomb House beside St George’s Chapel, close to their Garter banners, but The Gazette did not record the offering up of their heraldic achievements, or any similar ceremony taking place in the chapel to acknowledge the loss to the order, as had happened for Queen Anne in 1718, George I in 1728, and George II in 1762.

The absence of any offering up of the banners during the late Hanoverian period was linked to the decision to discontinue Garter installations, as no service was organised for any knight between 1805 and 1948. This meant that there was no ceremony of the traditional kind in which to incorporate the offering up of flags and crests. All three sovereigns are, however, recalled in the heraldic plates that were erected when they joined the order, and remain in the stalls long after their funeral services were performed in St George’s Chapel.

Although the Order of the Garter commanded a prominent position in the royal obsequies, especially after the move to Windsor in 1805, no attempt was made to introduce any representative knights, or members of any of the other British orders of knighthood, into the late Hanoverian events, as happened during some of the earlier funeral processions, and at Lord Nelson’s obsequies in 1806.

The decision not to invite any of the knights to walk in the mournful pageant was followed when planning for later funerals. This meant that the special role of the sovereign within the orders was not reflected in the main parades through London or Windsor after a demise of the crown. That policy was revised to a limited extent in 2022, when three members of each of the orders formed a procession, including knights of the Garter and the Thistle, which walked through the nave of Westminster Abbey in advance of the arrival of Elizabeth II’s coffin.

Queen Consort

Apart from the passing of the sovereigns, the period from the death of George III in 1820 through to the end of the Hanoverian era in 1837, saw The Gazette reporting a service for a queen who died in circumstances that made it highly unlikely that her funeral would ever take place on the royal estate in England.

Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel had married her cousin, the Prince of Wales and future King George IV, at St James’s Palace in 1795 (Gazette issue 13768), and they had a daughter Charlotte, whose death in 1817 gave rise to the family planning project that was undertaken during the regency. Caroline became estranged from her husband, and their disputes resulted in George’s crowning being delayed for more than a year. The queen was eventually excluded from the coronation service in July 1821, and she died a few weeks later “after a short but painful illness” at Brandenburg House in London (Gazette issue 17735).

The Gazette explained that Queen Caroline’s body was taken to Germany, and it appears that, despite the hostility that existed between husband and wife, her remains were treated with respect. The hearse was decorated with escutcheons, and escorted by a guard of honour of the Royal Horse Guards, and her body rested for two nights under a military guard at Chelmsford and Colchester (Gazette issue 17745). On reaching Harwich, the casket was placed on HMS Glasgow, attended by Garter king of arms, for its final journey to “the Cathedral Church of St Blaise, where Her Majesty’s remains were deposited, with the customary solemnities, in the vault of the ducal family of Brunswick, in pursuance of Her Majesty’s wish, expressed in one of the codicils to her will.”

The closing remarks in the report about Caroline’s resting place were presumably designed to address the widespread criticism that was directed against the King, because of the way in which he had treated his wife, and to provide an official statement to explain why her remains were not placed in the Georgian crypt at Windsor or in a royal vault at Westminster Abbey.

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.

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Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)

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The Gazette

Publication date

2 December 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.