Later they would have to talk about Canada, he added, a slightly worried frown appearing on his fine brow; but for the moment they would devote themselves to the Coronation.


* * *

The weather was gloriously hot and foreign visitors were everywhere. The Queen’s half sister, Feodora Princess Hohenlohe, and her husband had come, so had Victoria’s half brother Charles, Prince of Leiningen. The Duchess was happy to have the children of her first marriage with her. They were a great comfort, she told Flora Hastings, when she considered her ungrateful younger child.

Lord Melbourne said there should be an entertainment to welcome them all, and what better than a ball since the Queen enjoyed dancing so much?

‘What a splendid idea!’ cried the Queen. ‘We will dance until four in the morning and this time I hope my Prime Minister will be present.’

‘Only a crisis or ill health will keep him away.’

The ball was fixed for the 18th June which, said Lord Melbourne, was a good date as it was ten days before Coronation day. He had completely forgotten that it was the date of the battle of Waterloo until it was too late to cancel the ball. The French visitors were offended. They referred to it as ‘Le bal de Waterloo’, and there were caustic comments in Paris.

Lord Melbourne shrugged this aside. It would soon be forgotten, he said in his easy-going manner.


* * *

At four o’clock Victoria was awakened by the guns in the Park. It was no use trying to sleep again; she was too excited. She prayed that she would go through this day as a Queen should, but she did feel rather nervous.

What a noise there was in the streets! People were already assembling and it was only four o’clock. Some of them she knew had spent the whole of the night in the streets.

She lay thinking of all this day meant and assuring herself that she must never forget that her first duty throughout her life would be to her country.

She was not quite sure what she had to do. The Archbishop of Canterbury was a bit of a bumbler (said Lord M), but the thing to do was to sail through boldly and she couldn’t fail. He had told her of many amusing incidents from other coronations when the most odd things had happened. They had laughed a good deal, until she had said: ‘But they were not funny at the time. It is only fair after that one would be able to laugh at them.’ To which Lord Melbourne replied that the ‘time’ she referred to was brief and the aftermath long so that the short discomfiture was really well worth while. She did wonder though whether the people who had suffered the indignity ever really laughed as heartily as others. Well, said Lord Melbourne, they served their country by amusing it and there was nothing people liked better than to laugh.

‘I’m a little apprehensive,’ she had admitted.

‘Oh, you’ll like it when you’re there,’ he assured her.

It was not a matter of liking or disliking it. It was a dedication and she meant her people to know that this was how she felt about it.

‘I want to dedicate my life to my people,’ she told Lord Melbourne.

‘A very proper sentiment,’ was his reply.

The time was passing and at seven Baroness Lehzen came in through the communicating door.

‘How does Your Majesty feel?’ she asked anxiously.

‘Well and strong.’

‘Now you must try to eat.’

‘That doesn’t usually need a lot of effort, dear Lehzen.’

She was able to prove this with ease.

‘The robes will be rather heavy,’ she commented later to Lehzen. ‘I do hope the trainbearers will manage the train.’

‘They have their own trains to bother them,’ said Lehzen. ‘It was foolish of the Duchess of Richmond to give them trains. I told her so but she was so stubborn.’

‘Well,’ said the Queen philosophically, quoting Lord Melbourne, ‘if anyone trips up or does something absurd we shall no doubt laugh at it afterwards.’

‘Trip up! Be absurd! At your Coronation!’

‘Dear, precious Lehzen, it could happen,’ said Victoria. ‘And I am rather hungry. I did have rather a little breakfast, didn’t I?’

Lehzen hurried off to get a further bite to eat and Victoria ate with relish and was ready to get into the State coach when it arrived, there to sit with the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Albemarle. How exhilarating it was to ride through those streets with people everywhere, waving flags and cheering. She wanted to weep and laugh at the same time. Her dear, dear people. Oh how proud she was to be Queen of such a nation!

‘It rained at six this morning,’ commented Albemarle.

‘But here is the sun again,’ added the Duchess. ‘It’s going to shine on Your Majesty’s Coronation day.’

Although she had left at ten it was half past eleven before she reached the Abbey. The cheers were deafening and smiling at her dear people she alighted from the coach and went into the small robing room where her eight trainbearers were waiting.

They were all young and looked charming in their white satin and silver tissue dresses trimmed with little pink roses. Their wreaths of silver corn-ears were very becoming but the little flower caps rather spoilt the effect. When the Queen was ready in her crimson velvet ermine-edged with a diamond circlet on her head, Lord Conyngham, who was in the robing room, showed the girls how to hold the Queen’s train, and standing four a side they followed the Queen out into the nave.

All eyes were on the young girl who looked like a child, so small and slight was she in comparison with her trainbearers; but there was a dignity and assurance about her which was regal in itself and only the more insensitive could look on unemotionally.

Victoria was deeply moved. The Abbey decorated with crimson and gold was spectacular. On one side were the peeresses in their diamonds and robes of state; on the other the peers in the costumes the occasion demanded.

When the anthem began the Queen went into St Edward’s Chapel with her trainbearers that she might take off her crimson velvet and ermine robes and put on a little linen lace-trimmed garment in which she would be anointed and over this was put the supertunica made of cloth of gold. Leaving her circlet of diamonds behind she went back bareheaded into the Abbey for the anointing ceremony and in her clear voice beautifully enunciating her words she took the Oath promising to maintain the Reformed Protestant religion.

She was delighted to see Lord Melbourne, standing close to her throughout the ceremony, regarding her with such tenderness that she felt immediately secure and happy.

She took the regalia in her hands: she was wrapped in the Dalmatic robe by the Lord Chamberlain and then came the great moment when the crown was placed on her head.

It was as though the entire Abbey had burst into rejoicing. The trumpets began to sound, and outside cannon were fired. The organ then began to play ‘The Queen Shall Rejoice’, and at that moment the peers and peeresses who had been holding their coronets in their hands placed them on their heads and it was as though every one of the ten thousand voices in the Abbey cried ‘God Save the Queen’.

She glanced at Lord Melbourne, whose emotion seemed almost too great to be borne. The Duchess of Kent was openly weeping in the royal box, nodding her head so vigorously that Lady Flora Hastings, who was in attendance, had difficulty in holding the coronet on her head. Victoria gave a quick glance up at the box over the royal one and there was Lehzen leaning forward, looking so proud and so tender that Victoria’s heart melted with love. Dear, dear Lehzen, she thought, she shall always be with me, always.

Now was the time for the Enthronisation and Homage when first the Bishops, then the Royal Dukes (her uncles) and afterwards the peers in order of precedence should touch the crown and kiss her hand. She was glad that she had insisted on the crown’s being adjusted to fit her small head for if she had not she was sure it would have rolled off, which would have been considered a very bad omen.

There was one unfortunate incident when poor old Lord Rolle, who was very ancient, had to be helped up the steps to the throne on which she sat, but alas as he was about to reach for the Queen’s crown he slipped away from his supporters, fell down the steps and lay on the floor caught up in his robes.

There was a titter and a whispering for it seemed strange that the man who should have rolled down should be called Lord Rolle. His friends lifted him, and determined to pay his homage he started up the stairs again. His face was red, his breathing difficult, so Victoria, feeling sure he was going to fall again, rose and went to meet him, giving him her hand to kiss.

It was a charming gesture and the congregation in its present mood were ready to adore their little Queen. A cheer went up and, pink and smiling, Victoria returned to her seat to receive the further homage.

She was delighted when it was Lord Melbourne’s turn to kiss her hand and touch her crown. How gracefully he performed this duty! And how clumsy were the old Bishops and Dukes; and how dignified and handsome he looked. When he had touched the crown and kissed her hand, he pressed it and raised his eyes to hers (full of tears) and there was such tenderness and pride in them that she no longer felt tired and she believed that she could happily go through a hundred such ceremonies just to win his approval. Then she thought of the Lord Rolle incident and how they would laugh about that tomorrow.

The Duke of Wellington was loudly cheered too when he paid homage. People still remembered him as the hero of Waterloo.