Apogee and Royal Retreat: From the Duke of Wellington to Prince Albert Victor and William Gladstone (1852–1892/8)

The theme of ‘Public Heroes and Private Royals’ would apply to the whole of the nineteenth century. All the same, one could still see a subtle subdivision in the mid-century. Christine Quigley summarised that Nelson's state funeral in 1806 had ‘set the stage for those that followed’. While this did not quite apply immediately to Pitt the Younger's funeral in the same year, nor to any of the following royal funerals, Nelson's precedent was very much followed at the next state funeral of a great national hero: that of the famous victor of the battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington. As Cannadine has summarised, Wellington's funeral was ‘on a scale of grandeur and magnificence which was never attained before and has never been equalled since’. Besides the traditional, grand heraldic funerals of the early modern period, Wellington's obsequies were the apogee of the grand funeral ritual. At the same time, the royal funerals in the second half of the century were comparatively obscure occasions. They continued to take place in Windsor and retreated more into the private sphere than those earlier in the century. Duke of Wellington, 1852 The Duke of Wellington died on 14 September 1852 and the funeral took place over two months later, on 18 November. His death and funeral have been the focus of much research and this has become the probably best-researched and most often discussed funeral of the past four hundred years. All the same, the ceremonial and music have not yet been considered in detail. Like Nelson, Wellington was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Wolffe concludes that this choice was ‘crucial’ in confirming the Cathedral's position as ‘the preeminent shrine for the nation's naval and military heroes’. Indeed, in a published sermon on the funeral, Thomas Jackson, a prebendary of St Paul’s, declared the Cathedral to be ‘England's central sanctuary’, and the Illustrated London News went so far as to hail it as ‘the grandest mausoleum in Christendom’. However, Wolffe has also shown that the choice of St Paul's was no foregone conclusion, Westminster Abbey also having been suggested. The Cathedral was eventually chosen by Queen Victoria together with her husband Prince Albert and the prime minister, following the precedent of Nelson's funeral. The queen herself did not personally attend the service but Prince Albert did, together with other members of the royal family.

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