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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 804: CORONATION OF GEORGE IV.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

CORONATION OF GEORGE IV.

It had been intended that the king’s coronation should have taken place in August, 1820; but the queen’s appearance had set that intention aside. Her trial further delayed it; but after the storm of passion with which that was accompanied had subsided, it was announced that the coronation would take place on the 19th of July of the present year. This announcement brought the queen again into the field. On the 25th of June she preferred a claim to be crowned like her royal predecessors; and the case was argued, at the king’s request, before the privy-council. Her majesty’s claim, however, was rejected; and as soon as she received it, she stated her fixed determination to be present at the ceremony, and demanded a suitable place to be provided for her accommodation. This also was refused; and the queen then requested the Archbishop of Canterbury to crown her alone, a request with which he had not the power to comply. Thus repulsed she prepared a protest, which she determined to deliver personally into the king’s hands on the day of his coronation. This occasioned expectations that the celebration of the coronation would be interrupted, if not prevented, by some popular commotion or infraction of the peace. Every precaution, however, was taken by ministers to preserve the public tranquillity, and to draw off public attention from the queen. Shows, balloons, fireworks, and all sorts of entertainments attracted the populace from the vicinity of the abbey, while, in case any commotion should arise, every disposable regiment was brought into or near the metropolis. There needed, however, no warlike preparation; for while the queen’s popularity had abated, that of the king had so much increased as almost to fulfil Lord Castlereagh’s prediction, that, at the end of six months after the trial of the queen, his majesty would be the most popular man within his dominion. He had, in fact, from that time been courting popularity, and the goddess had greatly favoured him. On the day of the coronation, therefore, no tumult was created in favour of the queen; she, in fact, on whom the populace, almost as one man, had, but a little time before, waited with addresses, assuring her of support and commiseration, was allowed to go from door to door of the abbey seeking admittance, and to be at every door rejected with contumely and scorn, with impunity. George IV. was crowned without interruption; and a ceremony more august and imposing in all its parts, or more, calculated to make the deepest impression both on the eye and the feelings, could not be conceived. But the propriety of the pomp and magnificence displayed may be questioned, as the nation was still suffering from the effects of the late expensive war.