Queen Victoria was one of the greatest British
monarchs of all time. She ruled for 63 long years and became the
longest reigning British monarch; at least before Elizabeth II came along. But at the beginning of her reign, nobody
believed it would come to any good. Because her coronation was a disaster. She became queen in June of 1837, when she
was just 18 years old! Traditionally, British monarchs were coronated
months after they started to rule their country. So when the date was set for the ceremony
in June 1838, a little over a year had passed since she actually came to the throne. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean they used
all this time to arrange the service. In fact, preparations didn’t begin until
March 1838. If you look at it this way, the catastrophe
it all turned into wasn’t particularly shocking. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. The date was set for Thursday, June 28, 1838. People were excited to welcome their new Queen. Since the ceremony was held in London, hundreds
of visitors started arriving there days before the crowning. Huge celebrations were planned in all parts
of the city. And, of course, everyone wanted to get a glimpse
of Her Majesty. On the big day, about 400,000 people from
all over the country came to the capital. They flooded parks and streets, mostly along
the route of the public procession. The young sovereign was going to make it all
the way from Buckingham Palace where she lived, to Westminster Abbey, where this magnificent
event had taken place since 1066. At 10 that morning, Victoria got into the
Gold State Coach, which, by the way, the royal family still uses today on special occasions. It must’ve been quite a ride because the
carriage was pretty old and uncomfortable. But one look at the cheering crowd made up
for all the trouble. Scaffolding was built all over the streets,
and her loyal subjects occupied every visible spot by the road. Men and women dressed in their best clothes
waved their handkerchiefs and saluted the Queen. There were so many people there, she was actually
worried they would hurt each other in the rush. It took her more than an hour to get to the
abbey. But despite all the fuss, everything was going
rather smoothly; until the real ceremony started. You’d probably think “what could be more
important for the empire than the coronation of a new monarch?” But the surprising truth is that there was
almost no rehearsal for it. As a result, well, let’s just say things
didn’t quite go as planned. It seemed like the best-prepared person there
was actually 19-year-old Victoria. Unlike many other parties involved, she’d
been to Westminster the day before the ritual. So she knew how to act, at least at some points. But when she didn’t, there was almost no
one to guide her! Witnesses recalled that only a few men seemed
to know what they were doing, while others carried out their tasks with “a continual
difficulty and embarrassment”. After they made the Queen leave her chair
too early, confused Victoria asked one of the lords, “Pray tell me what I am to do,
for they don’t know”. The Archbishop of Canterbury played a crucial
role in the ceremony since he was the one who put the crown on the sovereign’s head. And even his performance wasn’t without
mistakes. The craziest thing, and definitely the most
painful for Victoria, happened when it was time for her to wear the coronation ring. Normally it goes on the monarch’s ring finger,
so nothing unusual here. But when the Archbishop tried to put it on,
it seemed too small. Apparently, the goldsmiths mistakenly made
it for her little finger, but the Archbishop didn’t know that. After all, it was an ancient custom, so he
forced the ring on her fourth finger anyway, causing her a lot of pain. It was almost impossible to take off later,
so poor Victoria had to hold her hand in ice-cold water. But all that suffering paid off, right? At least she was declared queen, after all? Well, there was a catch. The Bishop of Bath and Wells who was making
sure that all went according to plan, accidentally missed two pages of the Order of Service. And that, of course, was the section where
the monarch’s title was proclaimed. In other words, the whole ceremony was basically
invalid! So Victoria had to return to the church to
do everything properly. Luckily, the other incidents were far less
critical, but equally absurd. For instance, Her Majesty was given the orb
at the wrong time, and it was pretty heavy for a young girl. The music at the ceremony was an oversight
too. The composer who was hired to write a new
anthem for the service passed away three months before the coronation, and his work was never
finished. In the end, just a single piece was created
for the event. The accompaniment lacked integrity and could’ve
been much better. The conductor, Sir George Smart, didn’t
help either. For some reason, he chose to play the organ
himself and supervise the other musicians at the same time. I think you get the picture: the orchestra
was really poorly coordinated. The high point of this ludicrous day came
when the peers were paying their homage to the new Queen. One of them was aptly named Lord John Rolle. The honorable member of parliament was already
in his 80s at the time and wasn’t, frankly, in the best shape. It was an unfortunate irony that when the
lord tried to climb the stairs to the throne, he simply fell and rolled down the steps. It didn’t seem to hurt him, though, so he
made an attempt to approach the Queen again as if nothing happened. That’s when Victoria proved herself to be
a thoughtful and kind ruler. She quickly got up and came down to Rolle
so he didn’t have to repeat his dangerous trick. This gesture made many of those who were present
there adore her, and the diarists described it as “the remarkable union of naivete,
kindness, good-nature, with propriety and dignity”. But other people just couldn’t help themselves,
and Lord Rolle became the character of jokes and humorous poems. And as if that wasn’t enough, near the end
of the whole spectacle, the Treasurer of the Household tried to cheer up the noble guests
of the church by throwing some coronation medals into the crowd. Just imagine the mess it caused. The Aldermen, judges, and maids of honor fighting
each other for a piece of metal. A son of the Duke of Richmond was particularly
successful, since he managed to grab no less than 12 souvenirs! Well, at least they got something out of it. If you think that the lords and bishops were
just overwhelmed under all the stress, there’s some truth to that. And actually, they had some time to regain
their strength. At times when there was no need for the Queen
and her companions to be at the main altar, they escaped to St. Edward’s Chapel. “Chapel” was a strong word for it though. Victoria later described it, “an Altar was
covered with sandwiches and drinks”. Well, as her friend and prime minister, Lord
Melbourne, put it, “whenever the clergy had anything to do with anything, there’s
sure to be plenty to eat”. The ceremony lasted five excruciating hours,
and eventually, there was hardly anyone in Westminster who wasn’t relieved it was over. Historians dubbed it “the last of the botched
coronations” because, after that, a new program was formed to prevent history from
repeating itself. As for the woman of the hour, she passed this
challenging test with patience and dignity far greater than anyone expected. Surprisingly, Victoria loved the service with
all its faults and flaws and called that day “the proudest of her life”. So what was your favorite part of this story? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, then give
this video a like and share it with a friend. But – hey! – don’t go off wearing your
crown just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for you to
check out. All you have to do is pick the left or right
video, click on it, and enjoy! Stay on the Bright Side of life!
