Coronation of William IV and Adelaide

The coronation of King William IV and Queen Adelaide took place on Thursday, 8 September 1831, over fourteen months after he succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 64, the oldest person to assume the monarchy. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public procession through the streets from St James's Palace, to which the King and Queen returned later as part of a second procession.

William IV depicted with St Edward's Crown, by Sir William Beechey
Adelaide depicted with her crown, by John Simpson

Background

King William IV succeeded his brother King George IV on 26 June 1830. His first prime minister was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington who had led a chaotic Tory administration since January 1828. Until 1867, the Demise of the Crown automatically triggered the dissolution of parliament and a general election was therefore necessary with voting between 29 July and 1 September 1830. Although the King's death was the official reason for the election, its importance in British constitutional history was that electoral reform was the major issue of the day, especially with the ongoing Swing Riots. Wellington's Tories won a plurality but continuing divisions on the reform issue resulted in the loss of a vote of confidence on 15 November 1830. Wellington had to resign and, on 22 November, Earl Grey formed the Whig administration which eventually passed the Representation of the People Act 1832 (the "Great Reform Act") on 7 June 1832. William's coronation was overshadowed by the political turbulence of the time, while the Reform Bill was undergoing debate.[1]

The "Half Crown-nation"
The Gold State Coach, drawn by eight horses, in the Royal Mews

William's coronation, following that of George IV, his brother and predecessor, on 19 July 1821, was the second of three in the nineteenth century. The next coronation was that of his niece and successor, Queen Victoria, on Thursday, 28 June 1838.

According to the historian Roy Strong, William IV had "an inbred dislike of ceremonial" and he wanted to dispense with the coronation altogether.[1] He conceded that there was a constitutional necessity but insisted that there must be no ceremonial or procession associated with Westminster Hall and this outraged the Tories, who called the event the "Half Crown-nation".[2] As Strong says, William's insistence "signalled the end of a whole litany of symbolic acts going back to the middle ages, including the coronation banquet, the ritual of the King's Champion throwing down the gauntlet, and endless petty actions related to land tenure".[1]

William and Adelaide travelled to and from the Abbey in the Gold State Coach, or Coronation Coach, made for George III in 1762 and used in all coronations from 1831. This began the provision of public spectacle for the masses.[1] The King wore his admiral's uniform and the Queen wore a white and gold dress.[3]

In terms of cost, William IV and the government refused to repeat the extreme of George IV's lavish coronation in 1821, which cost £240,000, (equivalent to £20,610,479 in 2019) but they went to the opposite extreme and spent only £30,000 on a "cut-price" event (equivalent to £2,744,171 in 2019). Seven years later, Queen Victoria's coronation was budgeted at £70,000 to achieve a compromise between the two extremes.[2]

Public procession and crowds

William IV's coronation established much of what remains today the pageantry of the event, which had previously involved peerage-only ceremonies in Westminster Hall (now attached to the Houses of Parliament) before a procession on foot across the road to the Abbey. The in the Coronation Coach with a cavalry escort.[1] The new monarch travelled in procession by coach to and from the abbey, starting a tradition which has been followed in all subsequent coronations. The budget stressed the procession and there was no coronation banquet.[1] Unlike the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, no real consideration was given to the matter of public entertainment and the people had to make do with the two processions between St James's and the Abbey. At 5 am, a gun salute was fired in Hyde Park and at 9 am, the royal family left the palace followed an hour later by the king and queen in the Gold State Coach, the first time that it had been used at a coronation. The coaches, escorted by Life Guards, passed along Pall Mall to Charing Cross and then along Whitehall to the abbey. Along the route, which was lined by foot guards, temporary stands for spectators had been built, those at Charing Cross could up to three thousand.[4] The return procession left the abbey at 3:30 pm in fine weather. That evening, the "New Avenue", now known as The Mall, was illuminated and opened to the public for the first time.[5]

Music

The choice of music played during the ceremony rested mainly with Handel and Thomas Attwood. Zadok the Priest and the Hallelujah Chorus, both by Handel, were among the performances.[6]

Attendees

Those present at the coronation included:

References
  1. Strong, Roy. "Queen Victoria's Coronation". Queen Victoria's Journals. Royal Archives. Retrieved 8 April 2019.(subscription required)
  2. Worsley, p. 94.
  3. "William IV". Westminster Abbey. Dean and Chapter of Westminster. 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  4. Strong 2005, p. 401
  5. Sanders 1915, p. 181
  6. "The Order of the Music" (PDF). Westminster Abbey. Dean and Chapter of Westminster. 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  7. "No. 18848". The London Gazette. 13 September 1831. p. 1861.

Bibliography
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