Queen Victoria was crowned at Westminster Abbey 175 years ago today.
Intriguing Facts About Queen Victoria’s Coronation
- Around 400,000 visitors crowded the streets of London to see the new Queen on her Coronation Day – 28 June 1838.
- Victoria was escorted into Westminster Abbey by Lord Melbourne, the British Prime Minister after whom the Australian city is named.
- The coronation ceremony lasted five hours and involved Victoria in two changes of dress.
- The coronation cost less than £80,000, relatively modest compared to George IV’s coronation bill of £240,000 17 years earlier.
- The magnificent Imperial State Crown, incorporating the Black Prince’s Ruby and a sapphire from the ring of Edward the Confessor, was made for Victoria’s coronation.
- In an act of kindness, Victoria rose from her Coronation Chair to touch an elderly peer who had fallen on the altar steps while trying to pay her homage.
- The Coronation Ring, which had been made to fit Victoria’s little finger, was forced on to her fourth finger by the Archbishop of Canterbury, requiring her to bathe her hand in iced water before she could remove it.
- With little rehearsal, the coronation ceremony was characterised at times by confusion and doubt, nevertheless Victoria described the day as “the proudest of my life”.
The State Portrait, painted by Sir George Hayter, portrayed the 19 year-old Queen as she was at her Coronation in Westminster Abbey. Shown seated in her Homage Chair, she wears Coronation Robes and the Imperial State Crown and carries the Sceptre with the Cross. Part of this portrait appears on the reverse of our Queen Victoria 175th Anniversary of Coronation 2013 1oz Silver Proof Coin marking this important day in history.