The 1863 royal wedding. Illustration in a book in the library at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. ©NTPL/John Hammond
As a modest tribute to today’s event I thought I would show a couple of historical royal weddings, to see if we can spot parallels and differences. This is the wedding of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, to Alexandra, Princess of Denmark, at Windsor Castle in 1864 (Princess Alexandra can also be seen, depicted twenty years later, in this post).
Admission ticket to the 1863 royal wedding, from the library at Anglesey Abbey. ©NTPL/John Hammond
And this is an admittance ticket to that event. The fact that it directs the bearer to the roof of the New Guard Room seems to indicate that they were expecting significant crowds.
Detail from a commemorative bioscope showing the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840. ©NTPL/David Garner
And this was Queen Victoria’s outfit for her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840 – with a slightly longer train than we saw today.
April 29, 2011 at 18:50 |
Very interesting Emile, thank you for sharing, and so appropriate for today.
Similarly, an extremely well written and researched biography on Victoria, Princess Royal, later the Empress Frederick of Germany, authored by Hannah Pakula and published in 1995. This is one of the better biographies of a British Royal and one of the rarer true love matches. They were a devoted couple, though surrounded by much animosity among all his Hohenzollern relations as well as Chancellor Bismark. Details on their own wedding in this book are quite charming.
As always, your blog here is fascinating as well as entertaining, not dry.
April 30, 2011 at 06:11 |
Thanks Robert, and thanks for that mentioning that biography.
May 2, 2011 at 17:51 |
If only the Tweeters who’ve been so offended by Pippa’s ivory dress would look at the white dresses in the bioscope of Queen Victoria’s wedding
I’m also intrigued by the ticket. That really does suggest a “show” rather than a service or ceremony. I assume last week’s guests were simply sent invitations. Hadn’t thought or read about additional papers.
May 2, 2011 at 18:39 |
Wonderful! The more things change, the more they stay the same.
May 3, 2011 at 09:34 |
Indeed, and imagine the logistics of having twelve girls carrying one’s train