Dan Snow's History Hit - Queen Victoria's Funeral

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

The Queen's body has been taken to Westminster Hall in London, where she will lie in state for the public to visit and pay their respects. Over the past week since her death, we've seen a number of ceremonies and protocols enacted across the country to mark the end of her reign and life. These arrangements and the funeral we can expect to see on Monday follows a precedent set by Queen Victoria upon her death in January 1901. Before Queen Victoria, royal funerals had been quiet, private affairs held at night but Victoria left very clear instructions that she wanted a full military and state funeral, to be dressed in white with white ponies and a gun carriage.Journalist and author of the acclaimed 'Victoria and Abdul,' Shrabani Basu joins Dan to talk through the last days of Queen Victoria's life, the unprecedented pageantry of her funeral, what happened to those who were there in her last moments and the parallels between these long-reigning monarchs.This episode was produced by Mariana Des Forges, the audio editor was Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. They announced the passing of the much-loved Queen late in the afternoon. She was at her favourite country residence, surrounded by family, and she died after decades on the throne, bestriding British and international life. Her death sent the media into a frenzy. It was a global news story and the hours and days that followed saw an unprecedented period of national and international mourning. I'm of course talking about the death of Queen Empress Victoria on the 22nd of January 1901 at Osborne on the Isle

of Wight. As we think about and talk about the death of Queen Elizabeth II, I can't help constantly thinking back to the transition from Queen Victoria to her elderly Prince of Wales son, who would become King Edward VII after spending decades waiting for his turn. And also there's something to be learnt from the first modern death and funeral of a British sovereign. She'd ruled over Britain since she was a teenager, and her death would be the first of the modern media age, surrounded by pageantry and ostentatious public displays of mourning. Previous monarchs had been given a quick funeral and put on the ground, I think, as quickly as possible. Transition can be a very dangerous time for the institution of monarchy. And often in the past, the emphasis was on looking forward to the next reign and re-establishing

stability. So for all those reasons, I think it's a fascinating time to look back at the death and funeral of Queen Victoria. And I've got a wonderful historian to help me do that, Shrabani Basu, who has researched the last hours and minutes of Victoria's life in minute detail for her book, Victoria and Abdul. It was a best-selling history book about her relationship with her servant, Abdul Karim. That was then made into a blockbuster film as well. You'll have heard my interview about Abdul on the first podcast I ever did on here years and years ago. So as we prepare for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, it might be useful to get a little bit of historical context and look back on the death of another long-serving and revered monarch, Queen Empress

Victoria. Enjoy. Shrabani, thank you very much for coming back on the pod. It's lovely to be here, Dan, and good to talk to you. Tell me about the last few days of Victoria's life. Like Queen Elizabeth, she was in one of her favourite retreats, wasn't she? She was. And I really found this really strange that, you know, both these iconic queens were in these places that they loved in their last days. So Queen Victoria had arrived about six weeks before from Windsor, and she was in Osborne, her favorite holiday retreat on the Isle of Wight. Her health was poorly.

She started sinking. And it was from January that she was really going down a bit. And so everyone was worried, but she always pulled through. So there was this feeling. I mean, the prime minister himself, Lord Salisbury, he wasn't taking it very seriously, as we know. The courtiers were around her. Her physician, of course, James Reid, was there. But it was about a few days before that she really started sinking. She was going up and down, but pulling back, you know, coming right out again.

But on the day, it was morning of 22nd of January. Everybody got a call that she was poorly. Everyone rushed to her bedside. Sir James Reid, her personal physician, of course, was there. She had her breakfast and then she rallied a bit. She got a little better. And Sir James thought, okay, I could go home now. And he put out the noon bulletin saying he had to go every time to the gate where all

the journalists, the world's media were assembled at the gates of Osborne House. And he put out a media saying it wasn't that bad. There is no change for the worse is what he put out. So the journalists are all there waiting. But after lunch, she slipped a bit. And from two o'clock, she was short of oxygen. They had to give her oxygen, and soon all the family members started gathering. So, Prince of Wales, her other sons, and Randolph Davidson, he was very much there. He was the Bishop of Winchester, very close to her, so he would read bits to her, but she was still conscious. She would relate, and the family members started

introducing themselves, saying, Mama, I'm here. And she would sort of acknowledge it. And of course, one of the important people there was the Kaiser. So he had come down, Wilhelm. He was very much making sure that he had a position in this room with the family members too. And then the first time, he's not allowed to actually introduce himself because they think it would excite the Queen too much.

So he's a bit upset about that. And then Sir James, when he knows that the end is coming, he takes him in and he gives him a private audience with the queen. So he meets his grandmother and Sir James leaves them alone for about five minutes. When Wilhelm comes out, the Kaiser, apparently Sir James writes that the Queen said, he's very good man. So obviously that meeting went well, despite all the tension all around. But of course, she started sinking. And so the four o'clock bulletin that goes out, again, Sir James is wondering, what do

I put out? There's all these journalists waiting there. And he writes now that the Queen is slowly sinking. So this was the signal for all the journalists. They knew that she might go by evening, by sunset, the queen may be dead. And they were just writing up their copies in advance. It was that bad. Of course, the news came at 6.30. And the entry in Sir James's diary, I'll just read what he wrote. So it says, Osborne, 22nd January 1901. The Queen died in my arms at 6.30. The Kaiser on the other side of the bed, helping me and supporting her. So I found that quite poignant that these two were there

and apparently the Kaiser had his arm under the Queen holding her up. Both of them were at the bedside. So the Prince of Wales, Edward was sitting behind the doctor. So he was in the room, but he was sitting behind. And of course, this end came at 6.30 and they didn't know how to break the news. They had to get the news to London. They had to get the news to the press. Well, it was announced. One of the officials went out, told the journalists that the Queen, sadly, has passed 6.30 peacefully. And then there is this mad rush. So they have to go from the gates of Osborne down to the post office at Cowes and send their dispatches. So there's a mad rush. And everybody commented that they were all rushing down from

Osborne. And the postmaster general there, he put on 40 extra men to take these messages. The Times reporter was there. He'd already sent his copy and he had to update it. So this is what he wrote, his updated version. All day long, the angel of death has been hovering over Osborne House. One could almost hear the beating of his wings, but at half past six, those wings were folded and the queen put to rest. So that was the times. Soon the news was spreading very, very quickly. The telegraphs were out and the news was in London and everyone was now heading for Osborne. Now, the minutes and the hours and days that followed were full of important symbolism, much as they are at the moment, that tells you a huge amount about Britain at that time and about

the succession and the politics. Can I just stop there? Let's talk about her personal relationships. You've mentioned her grandson. Tell me about Abdul, her confidant, her servant, her friend. How is it best to talk about him in these last few days? Right. So Abdul Karim started life in the court as a servant and rose rapidly. Within a year, he was promoted as her Munshi because he instantly became the queen's favourite. He started teaching her Urdu, he cooked her curries. And soon this relationship became very, very controversial. So they remained close for 13 years, as long as he remained in court. He had come for her golden jubilee and he was there till her death. And of course, the household hated him.

Her family hated him. They were really jealous of the affection that the queen had for him, the time she spent with him. So in her last days, they wanted to keep him away. So he wasn't really allowed in with the family. But at the last minute after she died, Edward saw that he'd been sitting outside, you know, waiting. So he took pity and he allowed him to go in and pay his respects.

pity and he allowed him to go in and pay his respects. The irony is that he, Abdul Karim, then became the last person to see Queen Victoria before her coffin was closed. So, you know, he had his moment in history, which happened just because he was allowed in last, really. But it was going to go very badly for him as soon as the funeral was over. Well, let's talk about that. And let's talk about the coffin because how her body was placed in there, what she was carrying, it was all incredibly carefully choreographed. Tell me about what was placed in there. So Queen Victoria had given detailed instructions, of course, about what would happen to her, how she would be buried. And she was very clear that she would not lie in state. She said she wanted a military funeral. She was to wear her wedding dress, her wedding veil. She would

be buried in that. She would hold everything that she would take in her coffin, Prince Albert's photograph, etc. But the important thing was she had also written a secret will, which she had given to Sir James Reid, her personal physician, and her dresser, Mrs. Stark, who also knew this. And this was amazing because we only know this through Sir James's diary, which I discovered when I was researching it. And he wrote about the final duty to his queen was to carry out her request. And in this world, she wrote that she would wear, as she always did, the ring that John Brown had given her, which belonged to his mother. It was his mother's wedding ring, which he had given to Queen Victoria. So she was actually going to be married wearing two wedding rings, her own and John Brown's mother. But apart from that, she also wanted a photograph of John Brown to be kept

in her hand, along with a lock of his hair. So Sir James Reed does this. He carries out her last wishes. He keeps the photograph in her hand. He puts the lock of hair, but he knows the family is not going to like this. He wants to keep it secret as she wanted. He puts flowers on top of it. So all these lilies brought in by Princess Alexandra, they are kept on her hand and the family has no idea. He took this secret to his grave. So it's quite revealing about Queen Victoria and the strong feelings she had for John Brown that she carried his photograph in her hand. So that was her coffin. And of course, she had said that her Indian servants would stand around her till the funeral, which they did. So

her coffin was then covered with a beautiful Indian shawl, which had golden sequins on it, and her Indian servants stood around her. And this was then taken down from her bedroom and taken down the steps in Osborne House, kept near the hall. And finally, the coffin was taken on the 1st of February, so a few days after her death, taken on the Alberta, which is the ship she used to always cross over to the Isle of Wight. So the coffin was placed in the Alberta. The new king, now Edward VII, he followed in the Victoria and Albert ship. So he is behind. And of course, the Kaiser, he really wants to make his position very clear here. He comes on his own ship, which is called the Hohenzollern.

Forgive me if I've not pronounced it correct. So he is there on this. It's very, very impressive and really carefully choreographed because there are 30 British warships that line the route. It's the eight-mile route from Osborne to the mainland to Southampton. So from Cowes to Southampton, all these ships line the route, providing a sort of escort to the Alberta as it sails across. And of course, the bugles are playing. And apparently when the ship reaches and docks in Southampton, it is just sunset. And people said it couldn't have been choreographed more beautifully.

So it is just the sunset as she leaves her beloved Osborne and comes to Southampton. She leaves her beloved Osborne and comes to Southampton. You listen to Dan Snow's History It. I'm talking about the death and funeral of Queen Victoria. More coming up. How much of a tyrant really was Julius Caesar? Would we have ever stood a chance against the first dinosaurs? And did Helen of Troy really have the power to launch a thousand ships? Well, you can expect all of this and more from The Ancients on History Hit. Join us twice a week, every week, as we explore some

of the greatest moments of our ancient past. Subscribe to The Ancients wherever you get your podcasts. into the greatest mysteries, the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings, Normans, kings and popes, who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions,

and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm amazed, though, to go back a bit, that the last human to see her and the last prayer whispered over her corpse was Abdul Karim, who whispered a prayer to Allah,

an Islamic prayer. Very powerful. It is powerful. And it's also something that happened organically. It wasn't planned, but it's just because he let him in at the end. This is what happened. This was his moment. And Queen Victoria would have wanted him there.

It's a very beautiful setting in that sense that she had her trusted confidant whisper a prayer to her. And to him, she wasn't a queen, she was an empress. We've got to remember that hugely important aspect of her title. She decided she didn't want to be buried in Westminster Abbey, unlike all of her forebears. What happened when she got to the mainland? So from Southampton, the coffin is then taken on the train,

and the train is from Southampton to Victoria. The usual carriage she traveled in was now stripped. So all the seats were removed and the coffin was kept there. It was draped in purple. She wanted purple for her mourning, which is quite important. So it's black and purple. And from Victoria, that is where the royal procession, funeral cottage is going to take

place because it's going to go from Victoria to Paddington. So all the streets, Hyde Park, Marble Lodge, Oxford Street. So every street has been preparing. The hotels and the shops started selling the space on the pavements outside to ticket holders. The shop owners, hotel owners made lots of money selling tickets. But the shops also, overnight, as soon as she died, they had a real dilemma because at that time of the year, in January, it was the time of the year to buy a lot of linen. So, most of their show windows had white. So, overnight, they had to take

down all the white and dye it black. And there was such a demand for black because the directions from the palace were quite clear what people had to wear. So people were all ordering black. All the women wanted to wear black. They wanted to be seen to be in mourning. There was a huge demand for black fabric and all the gowns to be stitched. So that happened. So everyone's dressed in black and they line these routes. A million people, shoulder to shoulder. They said it was like 12 deep. So the people at the end couldn't even see the coffin, but there it was. So the coffin is going to go. And this, Dan, as we said, this is empire on display at its height because it was very much about power.

Her coffin is to be followed by 40 kings and princes on horseback behind her. So we have, of course, the new king, Edward VII. We have the Kaiser. We have George I of Hellenism. We have King Carlos of Portugal. And then we have all the crown princes, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Romania. And one of the crown princes there is the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, representing his father. And we know that this is going to happen to him

barely 13 years later. He is going to be assassinated in 1914. The World War I will start and the whole world is going to change. So in a way, this setting, this elaborate procession, there's the Kaiser, there's Edward VII, they're all sort of marching behind us. It's almost a stage setting for the things that are going to happen in the future. They're all present there. And it's a real moment in history in that sense. So apart from the ordinary people who are lining, you have the kings, you have the Indian army because empire is on display again. So the Indian army is there. The colonial troops are there.

Everyone is represented. And this procession then goes, watched by the crowds to cheers. It goes from Victoria to Paddington. And then there's the second leg of the train journey from Paddington to Windsor. That begins. It's a snapshot of a passing of an era, the end of Ancien Régime, Imperial Europe. Absolutely. At Windsor, is it a more private affair? No, it's not private. Nothing is private here. The train is spotted winding its way through Slough from on top of the tower. And of course, everyone's on alert. And so it lands at Windsor and the coffin is going to be taken on a gun carriage up to St. George's Chapel. But this is February and it's really cold. So the horses who've been standing there for a while, they've gone very cold and they start fidgeting. There is almost quite an accident because they nearly dropped the coffin. They sort of

break through their charge. And it's a bit of an emergency moment. But then they decide, Fritz Ponsonby, who is her assistant, he says, let's get the Navy to hand draw this carriage. So it is hand pulled by the Navy. And suddenly all the people waiting outside, they're wondering, you know, what is the delay at the station? And then they find no horses, but these naval men walking out. And they actually think, oh, it's because her father was in the Navy. And that is why this is what she wanted. So anyway, so the Navy, they pull the carriage and it is uphill, as we know, up to Windsor, but they pull the carriage and they take the coffin and she is then taken for the service to St George's Chapel in Windsor.

And she is instructed that Abdul is among the principal mourners here. Yes, she did. She said that he would walk behind her when the last bit of the funeral takes place. So after the service at St George's, then the coffin has now to be taken to Frogmore House for the burial. That happens the next day. So in the morning, again, it's a private funeral, but people are there lining the streets as the coffin goes through the Long March. And Abdul is one of those walking behind her. It is an honour for him and I think he was really happy to pay his last respects in this way. Finally, she was put to rest. Tell me about Victoria's family getting their revenge on Abdul within hours of that happening.

Right. So finally, she is put to rest with her beloved Albert in Frogmore in the mausoleum. She's lowered and the stone is pulled over. But within hours of the funeral, so by the time this is finished, the next morning, Abdul is really saddened by this. He goes, he's lost his mentor, his friend, his mother in a way. You know, they were so close. It was almost a mother and son relation. It was close friend relation. There were layers

to this relationship. So he goes back to Frogmore Cottage, but early in the morning, and this is chill February dawn, there's a knock on his door and standing outside is the new queen, Queen Alexandra and Princess Beatrice and a lot of tough guards. And they force their way into his house and they go through his study and they demand that all the letters written by Queen Victoria to Abdul Karim be destroyed. So they take everything. They raid his study.

And we have an account from his nephew who was present that the whole family is crying. They said, no, these are Christmas cards. Don't take them. She would write to him about five times a day, you know, VRI, her signature, sometimes your mother, sometimes your loving friend with little crosses for kisses. She would write, sometimes sign her name in Urdu. So, a VRI written in Urdu. And all these were taken. So, they're all seized from him. His desks are ransacked. It's a very cruel sight that happens. And they're all taken outside Frogmore Cottage and a bonfire is made and they are burned. He has to just watch these. It is heartbreaking for the family.

They are absolutely devastated by it. And then the king gives him his orders. It's his marching orders, really, sends him back to Agra. And not just Abdul Karim. Edward VII has no place. He does not want to see another turban running around Windsor Castle anymore. He doesn't want to smell any more curries. All the Indian servants, and there was by now quite a coterie of them, they are all sent back to India.

So suddenly, the palace has become a very quiet place. All the color, all the madness that used to go on, suddenly over. And even the ladies-in-waiting who didn't really like Abdul and wrote nasty things about him, even they feel this coldness and they write that it's become a very quiet place. The Indians are walking about looking very lost. the Indians are walking about looking very lost. So, Abdul, he's sent off. He's treated like a common criminal, a person who spent all his time with the queen in all the royal palaces, had his own horse and carriage and titles. By now, he was MVO and CIE and so many titles and medals. He's sent like a criminal back to Agra. And that was it. As you're watching the events of this week, and as someone who's immersed yourself in the final

hours and days of Queen Victoria's life and the journey of her coffin, how much can this week tell us about the Britain and the world in which we're living? Well, it says a lot that there were two queens who made such an impact. They lived a long life, so they saw a lot of history. And I think Queen Elizabeth, she saw, as we've all heard over and over again, 15 prime ministers. She was a young 18-year-old during the Second World War, 75 years of the end of the Second World War. She's seen it all.

Britain has changed. The empire naturally has gone. There is the Commonwealth. There's a lot of discussion about the new king and his role in the Commonwealth. There's a lot of discussion going on about how many countries will stay in the Commonwealth. So a lot has changed over the years. She was holding, very much like Queen Victoria was holding Europe together. When she was alive, everyone was together and it just fell apart. Her two grandsons were at war. Everything fell apart.

And I feel in some way, Queen Elizabeth as well, things are going to fall apart a bit. The Commonwealth, we don't know the future. Only time will tell whether they hold on, whether King Charles remains as head of the Commonwealth. So it's a period of uncertainty in many ways, because a stable factor has gone. That is the similarity I find. Was that feeling in the air when Victoria was buried? Did they feel that some stability, some leg had been kicked away? Oh, yes, they definitely felt it. There was tension already with Germany. There was this naval rivalry that was happening. It was very much undercurrent at this moment. Many of the commentators at that time say, what is the

future going to be? How turbulent is it going to be? People were looking ahead as they are now. They were looking ahead then and they were wondering what was going to happen in Europe. I mean, she had married, her whole family was married to kings and queens in Europe. So it was a family that was going to fall apart. So many resonances with this funeral and Queen Elizabeth as well. Shravani, let's hope the next few years aren't quite as turbulent and eventful as the early to mid 20th century. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast at this extraordinary time. Just remind everyone about the extraordinary book that you wrote. Well, it's called Victoria and Abdul.

Everyone will be familiar with that. And of course, it was made into a wonderful film as well. Shravani, thank you very much for coming on the pod. Thank you. It's been a pleasure talking. All this tradition of ours, our school history, our songs, this part of the history of our country, all were gone. you