The coronation of Victoria as queen of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public procession through the streets from Buckingham Palace, to which the Queen returned later as part of a second procession.
Planning for the coronation, led by the prime minister, Lord Melbourne, began at Cabinet level in March 1838. In the face of various objections from numerous parties, the Cabinet announced on Saturday, 7 April, that the coronation would be at the end of the parliamentary session in June. It was budgeted at £70,000 (equivalent to £6,700,000 in 2025), which was more than double the cost of the "cut-price" 1831 coronation, but considerably less than the £240,000 (equivalent to £22,800,000 in 2025) spent when George IV was crowned in July 1821. A key element of the plan was presentation of the event to a wider public.
By 1838, the newly built railways were able to deliver huge numbers of people into London and it has been estimated that some 400,000 visitors arrived to swell the crowds who thronged the streets while the two processions took place and filled the parks where catering and entertainment were provided. Hyde Park was the scene of a huge fair, including a balloon ascent. The fair was scheduled to take place over two days, but was in the end extended by popular demand to four days. Green Park featured a firework display the night after the ceremony. The coronation coincided with a period of fine weather and the whole event was generally considered a great success by both the press and the wider public, although those inside the Abbey witnessed a good deal of mishap and confusion, largely due to lack of rehearsal time. In the country at large, there was opposition to the coronation by Radicals, especially in the North of England.
Background and planning
Queen Victoria succeeded her uncle King William IV on 20 June 1837. Her first prime minister was Lord Melbourne, with whom she developed a close personal friendship. Until 1867, the Demise of the Crown automatically triggered the dissolution of parliament: voting in the subsequent general election took place between 24 July and 18 August. The result was a victory for Melbourne, whose Whig Party government was returned to power for another four years. Their majority over the opposition Conservative (formerly Tory) Party was reduced from 112 seats to 30. Melbourne was the leading player in the planning, preparation and implementation of Victoria's coronation.
Melbourne's Cabinet began formal discussions of the subject of the coronation during March 1838. A major factor in the planning was that the coronation was the first to be held since the Reform Act of 1832, when the government radically reshaped the monarchy. In terms of the ceremony itself, the extension of the franchise meant that some 500 members of Parliament would be invited to attend, in addition to the peerage. A greater consideration was the need to somehow involve the general public, and Melbourne championed the centuries-old custom of a public procession taking place through the streets of London. There had been a procession in 1831, but a much longer route was planned for 1838, that included a new startpoint at Buckingham Palace. Earlier processions had run from the Tower of London to the Abbey.
Victoria's procession would be the longest since that of Charles II in April 1661. Scaffolding for spectators would be built all along the route. According to contemporary reports, this was achieved, with one report stating that there was scarcely "...a vacant spot along the whole [route]... ...that was unoccupied with galleries or scaffolding". The diarist Charles Greville commented that the principal object of the government plan was to amuse and interest the ordinary working people. He later concluded that the "great merit" of the coronation was that so much had been done for the people.
In terms of the cost, the government was torn between the extremes of George IV's lavish coronation in 1821 and the "cut-price" event, dubbed the "Half-Crown-ation", that had been held for William IV in 1831. It decided to allow a budget of £70,000, which represented a compromise between two extremes of £240,000 (1821) and £30,000 (1831).
Objections
The government's plans for the coronation attracted considerable criticism from its opponents. For different reasons, both the Tories and the Radicals objected to the coronation being turned into a day of popular celebration, to be seen by as wide a public as possible. The Tory objections, mostly made beforehand, were that the government's plans to put much of the spending into the long public procession detracted from the traditional dignity of the ceremonies at Westminster, which would be "shorn of majesty by Benthamite utilitarianism". The Radical left, including the Chartist movement which was largely anti-monarchist, thought the whole occasion far too expensive.
A dubious perception that prevailed was the identification of the new monarch with the Whig party. This would be a problem through the early years of Victoria's reign, leading to the so-called Bedchamber Crisis in 1839 over what were at the time considered to be the political nature of the appointments of her ladies-in-waiting. In addition, the Whig party exploited Victoria's name in its election campaign, suggesting that a monarch from a new generation would inevitably mean the progress of reform. William IV and his wife Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen had strong Tory sympathies, whilst Victoria's mother and namesake was known to favour the Whigs. It was assumed—to some extent correctly—that Victoria herself had been brought up to hold similar views. This was reflected in popular ballads sold on the streets, one of which had Victoria saying:
I'll make some alterations,
I'll gain the people's right,
I will have a radical Parliament
Or they don't lodge here tonight.
The government's decision to dispense with certain traditions, including the exclusive banquet at Westminster Hall and medieval rituals such as having a monarchical champion throwing down a gauntlet, was seen by the Tory aristocracy as a snub. In the House of Lords, complaints were made about the procession of a young girl in public (Victoria was nineteen), that would cause her to be "exposed to the gaze of the populace". On a commercial footing, an association of London traders objected to the planned date, stating that they needed more time to order their merchandise. They favoured a date in August.
There were generic objections to the coronation, which were based on an underlying opposition to the monarchy as an institution. The historian Lucy Worsley believes that had it not been for Victoria's popularity as a young woman, in contrast with her uncles, especially the despised George IV, the monarchy would have been "an institution in danger". There was a view that, within an age of reform, the coronation would be a medieval anachronism.
The Tory campaign of protest included several public meetings, and an open letter from the Marquess of Londonderry to the Lord Mayor of London and the aldermen and tradesmen, published in The Times on Saturday, 2 June. The campaign culminated with Londonderry's speech in the House of Lords on a motion, when he asked the Queen to postpone the coronation until 1 August so that it could be carried out with "proper splendour".
The Radical left, whose press complained of the expense during the run-up to the day, concentrated on trying to dampen public enthusiasm. They had some success in the north of England. In Manchester, a campaign organised by trade unions and other groups reduced the attendance at the local procession organised by the city council to a third of the turnout of that for the previous coronation. In several manufacturing towns of northern England, the Chartists co-ordinated anti-monarchist demonstrations.
Public procession
Prior to 1838, only the peerage had taken part in a coronation. The day's ceremonies would have begun in Westminster Hall, (now attached to the Houses of Parliament), and upon their completion, peers would have walked together across the road to Westminster Abbey, where they witnessed the monarch being crowned. In accordance with Melbourne's new plan, however, the traditional ceremonies in Westminster Hall and the procession to the Abbey were replaced with two much longer processions through London.
Victoria travelled inside the Gold State Coach (also known as the Coronation Coach), made for George III in 1762, as part of a procession that included many other coaches and a cavalry escort. According to The Gentleman's Magazine it was the longest coronation procession since that of Charles II in 1660. A large proportion of the budget was used to pay for the procession and so there were no funds available to hold a traditional coronation banquet at Westminster Hall after the ceremony.
The route was designed to allow as many spectators as possible to view the procession. It followed a roughly circular route from the newly completed Buckingham Palace, past Hyde Park Corner and along Piccadilly, St James's Street, Pall Mall, Charing Cross and Whitehall, to Westminster Abbey: the journey took one hour. The processions to and from Westminster Abbey were watched by unprecedentedly large crowds, many of the people having travelled on the new railways to London from around the country: it was estimated that 400,000 people had arrived in the capital in the days running up to the event. William IV's coronation had established much of the pageantry of subsequent coronations. The procession by coach to and from the Abbey, which first occurred in 1838, has been repeated in all subsequent coronations.
Ceremony in Westminster Abbey
A "botched" coronation
The presiding cleric of the ceremony was the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley.
According to the historian Roy Strong, "the ceremony of 1838 was the last of the botched coronations". After the coronation, historians explored the ancient liturgical texts and put together a structured programme. They rediscovered the rites that had taken place during medieval coronations, and which were then used for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902. The picturesque ritual of the Queen's Champion riding through Westminster Hall in full armour and issuing his challenge was omitted, and has never been revived; the Champion, Henry Dymoke, was made a baronet instead.
There was very little rehearsal, with the result that on the day the ceremonial was marred by mistakes and accidents. The Queen, who was persuaded by Lord Melbourne to visit the Abbey the evening before, afterwards insisted that as a result she then knew where to move to during the coronation service. Roy Strong doubts whether she did know, and quotes Greville's comment that "the different actors in the ceremonial were very imperfect in their parts and had neglected to rehearse them". In the words of Benjamin Disraeli, then a young MP, those involved "were always in doubt as to what came next, and you saw the want of rehearsal".
The whole service lasted five hours, and involved two changes of dress for the Queen. At points in the service when they were not needed to be present at the Coronation Theatre (composed of the pavement fronting the main altar and the crossing), the royal party were able to retreat to "St. Edward's Chapel, as it is called; but which as Ld Melbourne said, was more unlike a Chapel, than anything he had ever seen, for what was called an altar, was covered with plates of sandwiches, bottles of wine, &c".
The social theory writer Harriet Martineau, who had been invited to the coronation by the Queen herself, recorded a sceptical view of the day. Martineau recorded some favourable comments, but on the whole thought that the ceremony was "highly barbaric", "worthy only of the old Pharaonic times in Egypt", and "offensive ... to the God of the nineteenth century in the Western world".
Lord Rolle's accident
An accident occurred that the Queen was able to turn to her advantage, and which she later described in her journal:
"Poor old Ld Rolls [actually Lord Rolle], who is 82, & dreadfully infirm, fell, in attempting to ascend the steps, – rolled right down, but was not the least hurt. When he attempted again to ascend the steps, I advanced to the edge, in order to prevent another fall".
The reaction of Charles Greville, who was present, was typical of the wider public. He noted in his account that the Queen went down a couple of steps to prevent Rolle from trying to climb them again. Greville described this as "an act of graciousness and kindness which made a great sensation".
The moment was immortalised by John Martin in his large painting of the ceremony, and was also included in Richard Barham's poem "Mr. Barney Maguire's Account of the Coronation":
Then the trumpets braying, and the organ playing,
And the sweet trombones, with their silver tones;
But Lord Rolle was rolling; – t'was mighty consoling
To think his Lordship did not break his bones!
At the end of the service, the Treasurer of the Household, Lord Surrey, threw silver coronation medals to the crowd, which caused an undignified scramble.
Music
As was usual, special seating galleries were erected to accommodate the guests. There was an orchestra of 80 players, a choir of 157 singers, and various military bands for the processions to and from the Abbey. The quality of the coronation music did nothing to dispel the lacklustre impression of the ceremony. It was widely criticised in the press, as only one new piece had been written for the occasion, and the choir and orchestra were perceived to have been badly coordinated.