Demise of the Crown: Victorian funerals

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 Victoria.

Chapters

Introduction

Farewell to Westminster

Westminster to Windsor

The three Kings

Death and accession notices

A fateful year

Victorian funerals

It would be more than 60 years after the death of King William IV in 1837 before The Gazette announced the next demise of the crown, but there continued to be reports about the ceremonial that was observed at the funerals of other members of the British royal family.

Between 1837 and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, The Gazette recorded:

a series of mourning notices for the royal family and others
the burial of a queen consort
services at venues other than Windsor
the burial of the Queen’s mother and husband at Frogmore
events following the death of the last King of Hanover

Each funeral report was usually accompanied by a mourning order from the lord chamberlain and the earl marshal, which set the duration of the court and general black dress code.

As happened under the Hanoverians, the Victorian mourning notices extended beyond members of the British royal family. Examples from the first two decades of the Queen’s reign saw mourning being introduced for the loss of kings of Denmark, the Netherlands, Prussia and Sweden, as well as King Louis Philippe of the French.

Queen Adelaide

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the widow of William IV (and formerly Duke of Clarence), died at Stanmore Priory near London in December 1849 (Gazette issue 21043). She was the first queen consort to have survived her husband since Mary of Modena, the widow of King James II, who died in France in 1718 after a long exile, and well past the prospect of being accorded a royal resting place in Westminster Abbey.

The Gazette had recorded the loss of both of William and Adelaide’s daughters, who may have succeeded to the crown had they survived. Princess Charlotte of Clarence was born and died on the same day in Hanover in March 1819 (Gazette issue 17466), and her remains were placed in the family vault in the Leine Castle where George I was interred in 1727. Two years later, the remains of Charlotte’s sister Princess Elizabeth were laid to rest in the royal vault at Windsor after she died at the age of twelve weeks (Gazette issue 17688).

In 1841, Adelaide set out what should happen after her death, and the unusual step was taken to publish her wishes in The Gazette after she expired (Gazette issue 21048):

“The Queen has been pleased to command that the following directions, given by Her late Majesty Queen Adelaide for her funeral, should be made public.

Her Majesty has desired that these directions, which are worthy of the exalted piety and unfeigned humility of the late Queen, should be, as far as possible, carried into effect, and for this purpose, has been pleased to sanction a departure from the ceremonial usually observed in the funerals of the kings and queens of the realm.

(Copy.)

“I die in all humility, knowing well that we are all alike before the throne of God, and I request therefore that my mortal remains be conveyed to the grave without any pomp or state. They are to be moved to St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where I request to have as private and quiet a funeral as possible.

I particularly desire not to be laid out in state, and the funeral to take place by daylight, no procession, the coffin to be carried by sailors, to the chapel.

All those of my friends and relations, to a limited number, who wish to attend may do so. […]

I die in peace, and wish to be carried to the tomb in peace, and free from the vanities and pomp of this world.

I request not to be dissected, or embalmed; and desire to give as little trouble as possible.”

Adelaide’s directions were respected, and The Gazette published a ceremonial, which was signed by the earl marshal and opened with an explanatory note (Gazette issue 21050):

“Her late Most Excellent Majesty the Queen Dowager having desired that the interment of her remains might take place in a most private manner, and without any state, the Queen was pleased to sanction a departure from the usual ceremony observed in the funerals of the kings and queens of the realm; and the earl marshal having received the royal commands accordingly, the following limited ceremonial was observed in conformity with Her late Majesty’s express wishes.”

There was no lying in state, and the event took place during the day, rather than the night-time ritual that was usual for royal burials. A carriage procession conveyed the Queen’s remains from Stanmore to Windsor, while the hearse was “adorned with three escocheons of Her late Majesty’s arms, and drawn by eight horses, each also adorned with the like escocheons”, all escorted by a squadron of the Life Guards.

The coffin was borne by ten sailors under the command of an officer from the royal yacht. Adelaide’s preference for sailors over the Yeomen of the Guard, or some other bearers, presumably reflected her desire to recognise her late husband’s naval career, as William had joined the Royal Navy in 1779 and later became an admiral of the fleet and lord high admiral of the United Kingdom. The funeral also reflected Adelaide’s unconventional family situation, as two of her pall bearers were William’s illegitimate sons by Mrs Jordan, Lords Adolphus and Frederick FitzClarence.

The chief mourner was the earl marshal’s wife, the Duchess of Norfolk, while several members of Adelaide’s household accompanied her remains in the chapel, including her dressers and wardrobe maid. The archbishop of Canterbury officiated and, as part of the committal service, Garter king of arms proclaimed her styles as “Adelaide the Queen Dowager, relict of His Majesty King William the Fourth, uncle to Her Most Excellent Majesty Victoria…”. The usual practice was followed by her chamberlain and vice chamberlain, who broke their staves of office, and laid them on her casket before it was placed in the crypt beside the remains of her younger daughter.

The normal mourning arrangements were gazetted to mark Adelaide’s death, with the black dress code for the court lasting for a month until January 1850 (Gazette issue 21051).

Portrait of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex by Guy Head

Kensal Green

A number of royal funerals were noticed in The Gazette that did not take place at either Westminster or Windsor, including the services in 1843 and 1850 to grieve for the passing of two of Adelaide’s brothers-in-law, who were the last remaining sons of King George III.

The first occasion on which a prince of the blood royal was buried away from the abbey or the castle occurred in May 1843, and followed the passing of Augustus, Duke of Sussex, who indicated that he did not want a state funeral, and wished to be buried at Kensal Green, which was London’s first garden cemetery, and had been inspired by the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

The duke’s decision not to rest with his regal brothers George and William in the Georgian crypt at Windsor was influenced by his personal circumstances, and a desire to be able to lie beside his second wife, Lady Cecilia Underwood. She was the daughter of the Earl of Arran, and was later created duchess of Inverness in her own right, but their marriage was legally void, as it took place without the consent of the sovereign that was required by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772.

The Duke of Sussex chose Kensal Green as his final destination, even although he had strong connections with both St George’s Chapel and Westminster Abbey, having been a knight of the Garter since 1786, and served as the acting great master of the Order of the Bath since 1830. He also became the governor and constable of Windsor Castle in 1842 after the death of King William’s son, the Earl of Munster (who might have been crowned and placed in the royal vault, had it not been for his mother’s status).

The Sussex funeral was of a routine nature, and involved the duke lying in state at Kensington Palace, attended by equerries and two officers of arms, with the public being admitted to view his remains. Men of the Scots Fusiliers Guards were on duty, and the hearse was drawn by eight horses, all adorned with the prince’s arms. The chief mourner was the duke’s brother Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and for the last time The Gazette noted the use of a long black cloak adorned with the Garter star, which Adolphus wore with his collars of the Garter and Bath (Gazette issue 20223). The Queen’s husband, Prince Albert, was recorded as wearing his Gartered black cloak, and no fewer than four gold and enamel collars, adding those of the Thistle, St Patrick and Bath to that of the Garter.

Queen Victoria visited Kensal Green in 1846, but did not like what she saw, and so wrote: “The [monument] for Uncle Sussex is really quite unfit for a prince of the blood. It consists of a great slab granite, surrounded by small granite posts.” Despite the Queen’s reservations about the merit of her uncle’s tomb, the cemetery was used for royal purposes in June 1848, after it was chosen as the final resting place for the Duke of Sussex’s sister Sophia, who was the last surviving daughter of King George III (Gazette issue 20865).

A quarter of a century later, and as they had planned, the Sussex mausoleum was opened to house the remains of the Duchess of Inverness, who expired at Kensington Palace in August 1873. The ceremonial was not gazetted, although the proceedings at Kensal Green paid regard to her irregular but valid place in the royal family. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) acted as the chief mourner; the service was attended by the Dukes of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Teck; a coronet was carried on a velvet cushion, and the plate on the coffin described the duchess as “relict of His late Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex.”

Writing after another trip to Kensal Green, the Queen found nothing more to her liking and described her Aunt Sophia’s memorial as “a great stone sarcophagus, standing on a stone pedestal, surmounted by a coronet” and as something that was “pretentious & ugly.” Even so, the presence of the royal remains led to Kensal Green becoming a fashionable burial ground, and it was the resting place of several public figures, such as the mathematician Charles Babbage, the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the novelist Anthony Trollope.

Kew Green

The next location to find royal favour was St Anne’s Church at Kew Green, which lies close to the River Thames and the palace at Kew, and about one third of the way along a line drawn west from Westminster Abbey towards Windsor Castle.

The Gazette of July 1850 recorded the mourning arrangements (Gazette issue 21115), and the service at Kew for George III’s last remaining son, Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, who joined the knighthood of the Garter at the same time as his brother in 1786, and spent many years beyond the seas as the viceroy in Hanover during the reigns of his brothers George and Wiliam. He returned to England when the personal union of the crowns ended in 1837, and the Duke of Cumberland succeeded to the German throne, and Adolphus was then assigned some of the more unusual royal roles by his niece, including those of ranger of St James’s Park and warden of the New Forest.

The church at Kew Green had no history of royal burials, although it was patronised by George III, who commissioned structural changes that were the work of Sir Jeffry Wyatville, whose knighthood reflected his efforts at Windsor Castle. The graveyard was also of more general interest, as it housed the tombs of the artist Thomas Gainsborough who painted the Duke of Cambridge’s portrait, and Johan Zoffany who produced several images of George III and his children (Gazette issue 21118).

A mausoleum to house the Cambridge remains was later added to St Anne’s, and was used for the burial of the duke’s wife Augusta. Queen Victoria attended her aunt’s funeral at Kew Green, and the ceremonial was gazetted in April 1889 (Gazette issue 25927), by which time the Duchess of Cambridge had left three adult children:

George, who inherited the dukedom and became a field-marshal and commander-in-chief of the British army.
Augusta, who married the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Mary, who was the mother of the future Queen Mary.

Family matters

The remains of Adolphus and Augusta of Cambridge, Queen Mary’s grandparents, were moved from Kew Green to the vault in Windsor Castle in 1930, while a series of interments in the royal burial ground at Windsor were sanctioned for other members of their family, as they rose in the scale of social precedence after Mary of Cambridge’s daughter became duchess of York, then princess of Wales, and finally the consort of King George V.

No special treatment as regards access to the graveyard at Windsor was given to the children of the commander-in-chief, or to the Mecklenburg-Strelitz branch of the Cambridge family.

The chief mourner at the Cambridge funerals in 1850 and 1889 was George, now the second duke, who had joined his father in the Garter in 1835. He died in 1904 and was buried near his Uncle Sussex’s mausoleum at Kensal Green, rather than lying with his parents at Kew Green, or near his Garter stall in the Georgian crypt. The reason for the duke’s choice of his final destination once again reflected his marital situation, as the field-marshal wished to be laid to rest beside his wife Sarah Fairbrother, whom he married outside the terms of the Royal Marriages Act, and whose remains were taken to Kensal Green some years earlier.

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)

Images

The Gazette

National Portrait Gallery