Top 17 Queen Victoria’s Bizarre BURlAl Requests and The Strange Items in Her C0FFlN

in an era of unbridled patriarchy when women were advocating passionately for the right to vote Queen Victoria was such a formidable figure that an entire period is named after her the Victorian age when we think of Victorian England Victorian houses with a Victorian style we tend to think of the elegant Gothic style that was characteristic of her time beyond the elegance and the formative ility though lay a rather bizarre woman who tediously planned out her funeral complete with some rather strange items that she wanted in her coffin number one the Queen wrote a full 12 page instruction manual for her burial in the Victorian age people were much more preoccupied with death than they are today one reason is quite simple and rather obvious the life expectancy was much shorter and death was much more of a common feature of life Queen Victoria was no exception as she planned out her own funeral more meticulously than someone today might plan out the funeral for a loved one in fact following a meeting with the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson she dictated for her personal physician dr. James Reid a 12-page manual for what she wanted at her funeral however these instructions were kept secret as Victoria was often known to be at odds with many people including her own nine children she was renowned for her eccentricities and must have had the foresight to realize that the people around her might not agree with her requests moreover she wouldn't be around to do anything about it Sir James Reid ensured that the instructions were fully followed down to the rather odd and somewhat bizarre requests of things to go inside her coffin some of the items actually had to be hidden because of the reactions that were sure to come from her family members were they to discover them number two flowers had many of the items in Queen Victoria's coffin though the Queen requested some rather bizarre and eccentric items to be buried with her she remained secretive about her wishes both in life and in death case in point flaw ours hit many of the more secretive items that she carried in her hands including a picture of John Brown though the year of her death was only 1901 she was buried with a bouquet that would rival a modern florist who as a global assortment of flowers flowers were brought from all over Europe and placed inside her casket before it was sealed though some of the flowers that were brought and were quite rare the Queen's particular request was for a sprig of Heather to be placed on her body why Heather several reasons come to bear one may be that Heather is quite common in Scotland the home of her lover John Brown a flower may have served as an eternal memento of her love affair with him another reason may just be that Heather has a vibrant lively smell that disguised the smell of a decomposing corpse the Heather may have been completely hidden from view by all of the other more elegant rare flowers that arrayed the Queen's coffin however her private physician dr. James Reid ensured that her request was granted number three an embroidered cloak made by her daughter for Prince Albert Princess Alice Victoria and Albert's third child and second daughter was particularly special to the Queen she had a close relationship with her father and nursed him throughout his illness up until his death when Queen Victoria went into her period of intense morning Alice served as her personal secretary and carried out many of her royal duties Princess Alice developed an interest in nursing and during the austro-prussian war she spent much of her time in the direct care of soldiers who were sick or wounded variant outbreak of death area Alice fell ill until she succumbed to the disease at the age of 35 she was the first of Queen Victoria's nine children to die leaving behind a daughter who would become the last sarena of Russia a memento of particular importance to the Queen was a cloak that Alice embroidered for her father he had worn it proudly for years and the Queen had held on to it affectionately after the deaths of these two family members the cloak was part of the ensemble that she was buried with possibly expressing the hope that the Queen would be reunited with both of her lost loved ones whatever the exact reason her choice is characteristic of both her interest in the occult and preoccupations with death and preserving the memories of loved ones number four Queen Victoria insisted on a completely white funeral which mimicked a wedding we tend to associate white with weddings and black with funerals Queen Victoria is both responsible for some of the color tradition as well as guilty of breaking it she insisted on wearing white in her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840 something that completely broke with tradition the white was designed to signify that both the bride and groom were virgins on their wedding night however the Queen was known to have a voracious sexual appetite and even sometimes placed her physical relationship with her husband over her duties to the country as its monarch during her ninth pregnancy a doctor advised her to have no more children but she famously complained that that physical relationship might as well be over Queen Victoria is often pictured as wearing completely black in perpetual mourning for her late husband however in keeping with her fascination with the occult and unresolved grief over the loss of her husband Victoria requested that her funeral like her wedding be entirely in white she was even dressed in a white bridal veil possibly this was to signify that she intended to be eternally married to her Prince and would be united with him in death whatever the case the white veil indeed indicated that her relationship with her husband had honestly been the happiest relationship of her life number five Queen Victoria wore a wedding ring on each hand one for her husband and one for her lover Queen Victoria might be a case study in abnormal psychology for how she dealt with grief and chose to carry on with her life after the death of her husband though she continued to carry out many aspects of life as if Prince Albert was still alive such as how she insisted on her children pose for portraits as if their father was still there she was known to consult with at least one lover following his death the most well none of those was John Brown a servant from Scotland who supported the Queen greatly following the princes unexpected sudden death the rest of the court including her children grew resentful of the individual attention that he received from her and spread rumors that the two were engaged in an affair historical evidence including both letters from the Queen and John Brown as well as the instruction manual for her burial suggests that these rumors were based in fact after John Brown's death she probably engaged in affairs with other servants including an Indian servant named Abdul Kareem to complete her wedding funeral she wore on the one hand wedding ring for Prince Albert and on the other hand a ring for John Brown number six Queen Victoria requested a lock of John Brown's hair in Victorian England families who had lost members especially children often kept locks of the dearly departed's hair is a keepsake with an intense fascination with the occult and death during this time it might not be unreasonable to assume that some used these specimens as a means of trying to communicate with them through mediums or psychics for many though the gesture was probably more a means of preserving the person's memory by protecting an aspect of his or her own body in addition to carrying with her and death a photo of her lover and a ring that he had given her Queen Victoria wanted a lock of John Brown's hair when her son King Edward the seventh ascended to the throne he had all vestiges of John Brown's memory removed however he could not abolish the power that the man had held over his mother through their relationship dr. James Reid fulfilled her wish to preserve Brown's memory and connection to her what is striking is that the Queen saw no conundrum in her burial rites uniting her with both John Brown and Prince Albert in the after hopefully the two men were able to resolve any lover's quarrel and were able to accept their places in the Queen's life number seven Queen Victoria wanted copious amounts of charcoal and jewelry his Queen Victoria starting to resemble an ancient Egyptian pharaoh with her preoccupation with the afterlife and occultic beliefs that in some ways mimic the religion of ancient Egypt that connection is about to become a lot more visible considering the amount of jewelry that she wanted to be buried with her the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were not only mummified but also buried with items from their earthly lives that they wanted to take with them to the afterlife that's why you often hear stories about the treasures found in the burial chambers or of grave robbers who cleared out all of the gold jewelry and other riches Queen Victoria may or may not have drawn her inspiration from the ancient Egyptians but she did insist on being buried with many items from her earthly life that she may have hoped would go with her to the next life in burial she wore rings on every single finger along with numerous bracelets brooches necklaces and sentimental mementos from her loved ones on earth each piece of jewelry that Queen Victoria wore carried a special significance to her of course she also wore her white bridal veil and clutched the plaster cast of Prince Albert's hand number 8 Prince Albert's dressing gown prince albert's dressing-gown must have held incredible significance for Queen Victoria considering that she insisted on his servants continuing to lay it out every morning for him there are plenty of arguments that the Queen conjured up his spirit and seances and believed that he never left her some have even suggested that John Brown were Scottish lover after the untimely death of her husband channeled Prince Albert and in doing so kept him very much alive to the Queen perhaps she believed that his ghost donned his dressing-gown every day just as if he were physically present with his queen inside the Queen's coffin was the prince's dressing-gown on top of a layer of charcoal which was therefore absorbing the wetness and odours of decomposition the Queen's body laid directly on top of it perhaps there was an occultic significance to this particular item being placed in her coffin the way that it was and she believed his spirit would inhabit it thereby even further uniting them in death perhaps she was merely so attached to it that she could think of no other way to spend eternity than on top of it whatever the case may be it was probably one of the more normal items placed in her coffin number nine the Queen's Own body this much might seem obvious of course the Queen's skeleton was inside her coffin the purpose of a coffin if nothing else is to house the body of the deceased however the fact is that nobody expected Queen Victoria to die she lived to the age of 81 at a time when 40 was considered to be old and had reigned for nearly 64 years what this means is that two or three generations of people within each family had lived entirely under her rule they couldn't imagine a Briton without her reports of bickering and heated arguments among the Queen's children in the days and 10x leading up to her death underlie the fact that even her children did not expect that she would die the Prince of Wales was reportedly enraged that dr. James Reed requested him to come to her house at Osborne should the Queen need to see him at short notice the Queen herself in a moment of clarity said I should like to live a little longer as I have a few things to settle even the Queen herself did not expect that she would die her death left the country and the world in a state of shock number 10 Victoria's request for an effigy could not be followed when Prince Albert died he was buried in a mausoleum at Frogmore estate near Windsor Castle his wife had the shrine built upon his death using her own money and sparing entirely no expense Queen Victoria commissioned a life-sized effigy to be made of him and placed atop his coffin she also ordered an image of herself so that she could be assured that the two would be united in burial both of the sculptures show the royal figures lying down with Albert facing his young besotted bride the princess effigy was immediately placed on top of his coffin and Queen Victoria's was put into storage until she should join him in death despite the requests made in her 12 page instruction manual which dr. James read ensured were tediously followed this request was unable to be supported the effigy had been kept in storage within the walls of Windsor Castle and could not be found at the time of her burial it was located several months later and eventually placed on top of her sarcophagus the image of the Queen and her beloved husband now lay engraved in stone for all posterity to see today the memorial is open to the public number 11 a plaster cast of her late husband's hand when Prince Albert the husband of Queen Victoria died she was devastated the way that she went on to mourn him reveals much about the Queen's attitude towards both life and death she created a cult of death surrounding him and even went on to worship him one might say that she did not helpfully grieve his loss and never really did let go of him sadly her approach to grief and loss to find much of the culture of the day possibly was at least somewhat informed by her dealings with the occult which was also not uncommon in the era even though people were still punished for witchcraft after Prince Albert's death the Queen had his servants carry out his dressing ritual every morning by bringing in hot water razors and his clothes for the day into his bedroom every evening the same and unused items would be removed she had a plaster cast of his hand and slept with it every night in her final requests she asked that the plaster cast of his hand be buried with her perhaps she believed that in doing so that would be reunited in the afterlife number 12 the jewelry held emotional and perhaps a cultic significance Queen Victoria was one of those women who valued the emotional value of keepsakes far over the gifts themselves and this sentiment indeed extended to how she viewed jewelry as a child she wore a locket that contained a lock of her deceased father's hair believing that it gave her a connection to him when she was engaged to Prince Albert as a young lady Victoria had a tuft of his hair mounted in a locket which the future Queen wore nearly every day she even had pebbles from the Balmoral Castle which Prince Albert purchased for her polished and mounted next to precious expensive stones much of the fascination with Queen Victoria revolves around her attitude towards jewelry and what she viewed as being truly valuable some of the jewelry in her coffin had more sentimental than monetary significance such as the locket with John Brown's hair perhaps this gesture was more emotional as the Queen wanted to retain her physical connection to her Scottish lover just as she had maintained it with her late father and husband however one can't dismiss the possibility of an occultic belief that being buried with this memento and other ones like it would enable her to be reunited with him in the afterlife number 13 the last friend Queen Victoria wanted to see was her dog four months before her death at the age of 81 incredibly old age for someone of that period Queen Victoria's health deteriorated until she was thin and frail she became tired quickly and often experienced confusion that may have been attributable to dementia she began suffering strokes in January of 1901 and became bedridden eventually she was under the continual supervision of her physician dr. James Reid and he was the one who carried out her final requests after he soon realized that she was dying the doctor summoned her family to her bedside however the Queen's last request for whom she wanted to see was not a member of her family at least not a human one perhaps she was confused due to the multiple strokes she had suffered or maybe she was just tired of everyone telling her what to do during her last days her four-legged furry friend her favorite pet a Pomeranian dog named Tory was the last to see her alive he was laid upon her bed shortly before she passed away her family was known to be jealous when her affections were for those outside of their own members particularly regarding her affair with John Brown how did they feel about her wanting to see the dog before she died as far as we know they were mum on the issue number 14 Queen Victoria wanted a military funeral seeing as Queen Victoria had been on the throne for 64 years Britain had gone for quite a long time without a monarchs funeral as such there was plenty of room for Victoria to break with tradition regarding how royal funerals were held she hadn't been someone who just sat on her throne and sipped tea while eating crumpets all day long Queen Victoria was the daughter of a soldier and had turned the British Empire into a formidable global force she was not only the queen of Great Britain but also the Empress of India at the time of British colony her funeral was not to be a church service but somewhat akin to one given for a soldier instead of Dukes serving as pallbearers as had traditionally been done for royal funerals Victoria requested that equity's equestrians who served the royal household be the ones to handle her coffin the casket was transported via gun carriage which is a mount used for heavy artillery down the streets of London in a military procession her funeral broke so heavily with tradition that it set the stage for how state funerals are now conducted not only in Britain but throughout the world number 15 Queen Victoria didn't want to live publicly in-state public figures tend to go through periods in which they lie in state in an open area so that people who admired them have the opportunity to pay their final respects however Queen Victoria had mostly retired from public life following the death of Prince Albert at least to the extent that she didn't want to be followed by paparazzi or have people outside of the royal household privy to personal information as you have already seen she was so secretive that she didn't even want her family members to know some of the contents of her coffin like the mementos of her affair with John Brown in keeping with how she had lived her life the Queen did not want to lie in state for public viewing instead her body was carried on the gun carriage straight from where she died in the Isle of Wight to her funeral at st. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle she did lie in state for two days but viewings were close to the what this meant was that even though her funeral was one of the largest in world history it was primarily a family affair and much more intimate than previous royal burials number 16 the house where she died was the site of many seances the Victorian era witnessed a surge of interest in spiritualism particularly regarding the occult and the attempt to communicate with the dead through psychics mediums and seances people from all strata of society from the poorest of the poor up to the royal household were caught up in the fervor in fact Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were party to many seances and even held some at their private residence Osborn house on the Isle of Wight they were particularly fond of an older clairvoyant named Georgiana eagle and a young one named Robert Lise the story goes that the thirteen year old Robert leaves participated in one of the family seances shortly after the death of Prince Albert he began to channel Albert's spirit and recalled information known only between him and the Queen including a pet name that he used to call her Victoria knew that many mediums were frauds but when she at least thoroughly investigated he came out clean he was invited to the palace nine times and was even asked to become the palaces resident medium he declined the request the Queen died at Osborne House the place where her late husband's spirit had supposedly been conjured number 17 Queen Victoria's coffin was topped with a British flag Queen Victoria indeed was an enigma in many ways she brought the British Empire to the height of its power especially by solidifying its control over India she ruled over what was possibly the largest empire the world had yet seen nevertheless her personal life told a story that was less traditional and even less dignified than what one might expect from one of the most powerful women in the world her relationship with Prince Albert created fodder for public gossip and even after she resigned from letting her personal life be on display her affair with John Brown created quite a scandal among members of her family still she was the quintessential British monarch despite the somewhat morbid bizarre and creepy contents of her coffin it was draped over with the most British symbol of all the Union Jack the flag is what most people saw during her funeral procession and if you were to visit her coffin today which is at her mausoleum at Frogmore estate in Berkshire nothing on the outside would indicate it's strange contents by all accounts you might think that you are looking at the perfectly normal coffin of one of Britain's greatest monarchs

Channel: Deep History

Views: 176,829

Keywords: Top 17, Queen, Victoria’s Bizarre Burial Requests, Morbid Items, Coffin

Id: Ykb9jxqY4yU

Length: 23min 41sec (1421 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 28 2020