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The End of Victorian Values? Women, Religion, and the Death of Queen Victoria1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John Wolffe
John Wolffe*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of York
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Extract

In the evening of Tuesday 22 January 1901 Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. At the other end of England, the Mothers’ Union branch at Embleton, on the coast of north Northumberland, was listening to a magic-lantern lecture about ‘Mothers in Many Lands’. The report of that meeting provides a touching cameo of that last hour of the Victorian age:

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 27: Women in the Church , 1990 , pp. 481 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1990

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Footnotes

1

Grateful acknowledgement is made of the support given by the British Academy to the research for this paper, and also to the Borthwick Institute, the Girls’ Friendly Society, Lambeth Palace Library, and the Mothers’ Union for access to documents and most kind assistance. I am also indebted to members of the audience at the Ecclesiastical History Society Conference, who made very helpful comments when the paper was read.

References

2 Mothers’ Union Journal, 54 (April 1901),46.

3 For recent discussion of the relationship between religion and the place of women in Victorian society see Davidoff, L. and Hall, C., Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780–1850 (London, 1987), pp. 107’48 Google Scholar; Heeney, B., The Women’s Movement in the Church of England 1850-1930 (Oxford, 1988), pp. 5’18.Google Scholar

4 Arnstein, W. L., ‘Queen Victoria and religion’ in Malmgreen, G., ed., Religion in the Lives of English Women 1760-1930 (London, 1986), pp. 88’128 Google Scholar; Weintraub, S., Victoria: An Intimate Biography (New York, 1987), pp. 212’13, 499’500 Google Scholar; Bahlman, D. W. R., ‘Politics and Church patronage in the Victorian age’, Victorian Studies, 22 (1979), pp. 253’95 Google Scholar, passim.

5 Arnstein, ‘Queen Victoria’, p. 89.

6 Ibid., pp. 92-8, 112-14.

7 Ibid., pp. 98-100; London, Lambeth Palace Library, Davidson Papers, XIX, no 101 (subsequently cited as Davidson Memorandum), fol. 14.

8 Arnstein, ‘Queen Victoria’, pp. 101, 117.

9 See, for example, Mothers’ Union Journal: Supplement. [In Memory of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (London, 1901)], but cf. Arnstein, ‘Queen Victoria’, pp. 97-8.

10 Davidson Papers XIX, 101D, Davidson to his wife, 21 Jan. 1901. “Bahlman, ‘Politics and Church Patronage’, passim.

12 In an as yet unpublished paper.

13 Davidson Memorandum, fol. 14.

14 Bell, G. K. A., Randall Davidson Archbishop of Canterbury, 2 vols (Oxford, 1935), 1, p. 90.Google Scholar

15 Harrison, Joseph, A Queen Indeed (London, 1901), p. 13 Google Scholar; Hird, F., Victoria the Woman (London, 1908), p. 376.Google Scholar

16 See below, pp. 492-3.

17 Henson, H. Hensley, A Sermon Preached in Westminster Abbey on the Occasion of the Death of Queen Victoria of Blessed Memory (London, 1901), pp. 9—10 Google Scholar; Brooke, Stopford A., A Memorial Sermon on the Funeral of the Queen (London, 1901), pp. 4’5 Google Scholar; [Go Forward:] YWCA Monthly Journal [for Secretaries and Workers], 15 (1901), 58-60.

18 The Christian Lady’s Magazine, 8 (1837), 82-3:9 (1838), 547. On the background to this see my The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain 1829-60 (Oxford, forthcoming), caps 3 and 8.

19 Davidson Memorandum, fols 25-6.

20 Cf.Gibson, R., A Social History of French Catholicism (London, 1989), pp. 145—51 Google Scholar; Burry, P., ‘Marie, la grande consolatrice de la France au XIXe siècle’, L’Histoire, 50 (1982), pp. 31’9 Google Scholar; Moore, J. R., ed., Religion in Victorian Britain, Volume III: Sources (Manchester, 1988), pp. 87’101.Google Scholar

21 Victoria the Queen. An Account of the Service at St. James’s Church, Chicago Sat. Feb. 2 1901 (Chicago, 1901), unpaged.

22 YWCA Monthly Journal, 15 (1901), 60.

23 ibid., 11 (1987), 196-7; Anon., The Light of Life Eternal: A Sermon on the Death of Queen Victoria (London, 1901); A. F. Winnington-Ingram, The Afterglow of A Great Reign (London, 1901).

24 Wilmot-Buxton, H.J., Full of Days and Honour (London, 1901), p. 5.Google Scholar

25 Harrison, A Queen Indeed, p. 4.

26 Sturges, T. R. H., Queen Victoria the Good (London, 1901), p. 11 Google Scholar; YWCA Monthly Journal, 12 (1897), 228; Money, A. L., History of the Girls’Friendly Society (London, 1897, rev. edn., 1911), p. 34 Google Scholar. Comparisons with Elizabeth were rare and generally to the disadvantage of the latter: see, for example, Henson, A Sermon Preached in Westminster Abbey, p. 7.

27 Buxton, Full of Days and Honour, p. 14; Winnington-Ingram, After-Glow of A Great Reign.

28 The Girls’ Quarterly, 26 (April 1901), 122-3; Sturges, Queen Victoria the Good, p. 13.

29 The Girls’Quarterly, 11 (July 1897), 148.

30 Victoria the Queen, Address by James S. Stone, D.D.

31 Harrison, A Queen Indeed, pp. 12-14; Wirgman, A. Theodore, Queen Victoria of Blessed Memory—A Voice from Her People Over the Seas (London, 1901), pp. 5’6 Google Scholar; Mothers in Council, April 1901, p. 70. For a more secular statement of a similar view see Lecky, W. E. H., ‘Queen Victoria as a moral force’ in Historical and Political Essays (London, 1908), p. 296.Google Scholar

32 Mothers’Union Journal, 54 (April 1901), 40–1; Battiscombe, G., Charlotte Mary Yonge: The Story of an Uneventful Life (London, 1943), pp. 17’18.Google Scholar

33 Sandford, C. W., The Queen and Mother of Her People (Oxford, 1901)Google Scholar;Sturges, Queen Victoria the Good, p. 11.

34 Wirgman, Queen Victoria of Blessed Memory, pp. 8–10.

35 Henson, A Sermon Preached in Westminster Abbey, pp. 6, 16 ff.

36 Weintraub, Victoria, p. 638; Brooke, Memorial Sermon, pp. 10–11; Mothers’ Union Journal, Supplement, p. 3.

37 Henson, A Sermon Preached in Westminster Abbey, p. 7; MacLean, A., Queen Victoria and Her Time: Three Sermons Preached in Cramond Church (Edinburgh, 1901), p. 10.Google Scholar

38 Goldstein, Julius A., A Sermon on the Occasion of the Memorial Service Held in Memory of Her Late Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria (London, 1901), pp. 7’8 Google Scholar; Harris, Isidore, Thine is the Kingdom—Sermon Preached in the West London Synagogue of British Jews (London, 1901), p. 2 Google Scholar. Cf. D. Englander, ‘Jews and Judaism in Victorian Britain’ in G. Parsons, ed., Religion in Victorian Britain, Volume 1, Traditions (Manchester, 1988), pp. 235-73.

39 Davidson’s original memorandum is in Lambeth Palace Library, Davidson Papers XIX, no 101. The extracts that Bell originally wanted to pubish are also at Lambeth, Bell Papers 237, fols 13-23. For the published version see Bell, Davidson, 1, pp. 351-7, and, for George V’s attitudes to Bell’s work, Bell Papers 227, fols 178, 179, 184-5, 194-200, Sir Clive Wigram to Bell, 13, 19 March, 8 April 1935;Bell to Wigram, 1 April 1935.

40 Newspaper cutting in Davidson Memorandum, fol. 20b.

41 Ibid., fols 9-12; Bell, Davidson, 1, pp. 353-4.

42 Cf.Cannadine, D., ‘War and death, grief and mourning in modern Britain’, in Whaley, J., ed., Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social History of Death (London, 1981), pp. 187’96 Google Scholar. A short but penetrating general assessment of Davidson is given by A. Hastings, A History of English Christianity 1920-1985, pp. 60-1.

43 Strachey, Lytton, Queen Victoria (London, 1921), pp. 308’9 Google Scholar; Weintraub, Victoria, pp. 625-33.

44 Davidson Papers 506, fols 1-2; Sir James Reid to Davidson, 19 Jan.

45 Davidson Papers XIX, 101A, 101B, Davidson to his wife, 20, 21 Jan. 1901 Davidson Memorandum, fol. 8; Bell Papers 237, fol. 15; The Times, 19 Jan. 1901; Weintraub, Victoria, p. 634. A more serious bulletin was issued at noon on Saturday 19 January (The Times, 21 Jan. 1901).

46 Bell Papers 237, fol. 14.

47 Ibid., fols 14-17; The Lancet, 26 Jan. 1901, p. 276. I am grateful to Dr Judith Palmer for discussing the Queen’s symptoms with me: on the evidence currently available to me it is impossible to be certain about the precise nature of her fatal illness, but the suggestions made in the text are offered as a reasonable inference. The symptoms would also appear to be consistent with a brain tumour.

48 Davidson Memorandum, fol. 14.

49 Lockhart, J. G., Cosmo Gordon Lang (London, 1949), pp. 139, 405 Google Scholar; Lambeth Palace Library, Lang Papers 199. Cf. M. Vovelle, La Mori et L’Occident de 1300 à nos jours (Paris, 1983), p. 629.

50 Davidson Memorandum, fol. 17; Bell, Davidson, 1, p. 355. The image of the dead Queen was perpetuated in Herkomer’s picture at Osborne, reproduced in J. Morley, Death, Heaven and the Victorians (London, 1971), plate 57.

51 Eldridge, Philip X., Our Mother Queen (London, 1901), pp. 9’10 Google Scholar; W. J. Knox Little, Remember (London, 1901).

52 Forshaw, C. F., ed., Poetical Tributes to the Memory of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria (London, 1901).Google Scholar

53 Harrison, B., ‘For Church, Queen and family: the Girls’ Friendly Society, 1874-1920’, PaP, 61 (1973). pp. 107’38 Google Scholar; Heeney, Women’s Movement, pp. 40-5.

54 Friendly Work for Friendly Workers, 1 (1902), 45; YWCA Monthly Journal, 15 (1901), 68; Mothers’ Union Journal, 55 (July 1901), 68.

55 London, Townsend House, Girls’ Friendly Society Archives, Class 4, 12-13; MS ‘Memories of the Past’ by M. E. Townsend; Bishop of Carlisle to Lady Levison, 5 Jan.1880; Notebook, 2 May 1880. Cf. Harrison, ‘Girls’ Friendly Society’, p. 118.

54 Ibid., Class 2, no 1, Augusta Maclagan to the Queen (Oct. 1880), copy.

57 Money, Girls’ Friendly Society, pp. 29–35.

58 GFS Archives, Class 2, no 1, August Maclagan to Agnes Money, 10 June 1806; Harrison, ‘Girls’ Friendly Society’, p. 128.

59 London, Mary Summer House, Mothers’ Union archives. Executive Committee Minutes, 13 July 1897; Mothers’ Union Journal, 42 (April 1898), 25-6; Elizabeth Birch, As Wives and Mothers: The Mothers’ Union from 1876 (London, n.d.), pp. 4–5.

60 Mothers in Council, April 1901, p. 73.

61 Mothers’ Union Journal, Supplement, 8.

62 The Girls’Quarterly, 25 (Jan. 1901), 98.

63 Mothers’ Union: Annual Conference Held in the Great Hall of the Church House, Westminster on April 30 1896, p. 57; Handbook and Central Report, 1905, p. 9. Harrison, ‘Girls’ Friendly Society’, p. 109, gives a figure of 157, 668 for Mothers’ Union membership in 1889, but this is clearly a misprint for 1899 (cf. Mothers’Union Journal 47 (July 1899), Supplement, 73).

64 Harrison, ‘Girls’ Friendly Society’, pp. 108-9.

65 York, Borthwick Institute, Parish Records, ABE 89, EAS 28, M/W 23, SEL 45.

66 Published statistics for the whole diocese show a smaller but still noticeable increase in the female majority over men in 1901 and 1002. (The York Diocesan Calendar (York, 1898), p. 243; (1899), p. 245; (1900), p. 245; (1902), p. 252; (1903). P. 258.)

67 Rowntree, B. Seebohm, Poverty: A Study of Town Life (London, Thomas Nelson edn, n.d.), pp. 402’7.Google Scholar

68 Booth, Charles, Life and Labour of the People in London: Third Series: Religious Influences (London, 1902), 1, pp. 35, 91, 128 Google Scholar;2, p. 90 and passim; R. Mudie-Smith, ed., The Religious Life of London (London, 1904); H. McLeod, Class and Religion in the Late Victorian City (London, 1974), Table 13, p. 308; John Shelton Reed, ‘“A Female Movement”: The Feminization of Nineteenth-Century Anglo-Catholicism’, Anglican and Episcopal History, 57 (1988), pp. 204-5.

69 Borthwick Institute, B.Bp.Vis/1900/5. 26.

70 Gibson, French Catholicism, pp. 180–90.

71 See Table 3, and cf. Read, ‘“A Female Movement”’, passim.

72 GFS Archives, Class 4, nos 12/13. Memories of the Past, fols 4-5.

73 Booth, Religious Influences, 1, pp. $5–6.

74 Borthwick Institute, B.Bp. Vis/1900/208.

75 GFS Archives, Class 4, nos 12/13,’Memories of the Past’, fols 6-7.

76 Harrison,’Girls’Friendly Society’, p. 109.

77 Cf.Trudgill, E., Madonnas and Magdalens: The Origins and Development of Victorian Sexual Attitudes (London, 1976).Google Scholar

78 Booth, Religious Influences, 1, p. 56. Note Booth’s comment (2, p. 90) on a girls’ club at St Augustine’s, Haggerston, which ‘has been almost too successful, as the rough girls for whose sake it was started find themselves out of place in it’.

79 The Queen’s Best Monument. A Memorial Report from the Spectator (London, 1901), pp. 59-60. Cf. D. Jarrett, The Sleep of Reason: Fantasy and Reality from the Victorian Age to the First World War (London, 1988).

80 YWCA Monthly journal, 15 (1901), 60.

81 Bell Papers 237, fol. 36, Queen Alexandra to Archbishop Davidson (22 Dec. 1910); G. Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra (London, 1969), pp. 214-18.

82 Cf.Piérard, R. and Linder, R., Civil Religion and the Presidency (Grand Rapids, 1988).Google Scholar

83 Davidson Memorandum, fol. 8. The Lord Chamberlain’s correspondence (PRO, LC1, passim) conveys the somewhat frantic manner in which enquiries regarding procedure were made.

84 Sturges, , Queen Victoria the Good, pp. 4, 14 Google Scholar; Fawkes, Alfred, The Passing of the Queen (London, 1901), p. 4 Google Scholar; The Queen’s Best Monument, p. 12.

85 Cannadine. ‘Grier and Mourning’, pp. 192-5.

86 Hammond, Joseph, God Save the King! A Sermon for the Accession of His Majesty King Edward VII (London, 1901).Google Scholar

87 Lambeth Palace Library, Frederick Temple Papers 48, fols 191-2, George N. Herbert to Archbishop Temple.

88 Davidson Memorandum, fols 23-4, 31-2.

89 Cf. The Reign of Woman Under Queen Victoria: The Argosy Memorial Number (London, 1901).

90 Heeney, Women’s Movement, pp. 77-138.

91 Mothers’ Union Journal, 54 (April 1901), 46.