Queen Victoria: This Thorny Crown (Spiritual Lives)

## Abstract This book evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria’s life but also that life’s centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria’s religiosity, it shows how moments in her life—from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements—enlarged how she defined and lived her faith. It portrays a woman who had simple convictions but a complex identity that suited her multinational kingdom: a determined Anglican who preferred Presbyterian Scotland, an ardent Protestant who revered her husband’s Lutheran homeland but became sympathetic towards Roman Catholicism and Islam, a moralizing believer in the religion of the home who scorned Sabbatarianism. Drawing on a systematic reading of her journals and an extensive selection of manuscripts from British and German archives, it sheds new light not just on Victoria’s private beliefs but also on her activity as a monarch, who wielded her powers energetically in questions of church and state. Unlike a conventional biography, this book interweaves its account of Victoria’s life with a panoramic survey of what religious communities made of it. Drawing on sermons, newspapers, and other sources from around the British world, it shows how different churches and world religions expressed an emotional identification with their Queen and Empress, turning her into an embodiment of their different and often rival conceptions of what her Empire ought to be. The result is a biography of a Queen which also argues that monarchy and religion remained close allies in the nineteenth-century British world. Cover Queen Victoria: This Thorny Crown Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Abbreviations Introduction: ‘Someone Tremendous’ 1: A New Reign The ‘Tribute of Natural Tears’: Monarchy and Religious Emotion ‘The Principles of our Holy Religion’: Victoria’s Preparation for the Throne ‘No Idle Pageant’: Victoria and Sacred Monarchy Notes 2: Meine zweite Heimat ‘A Second Homeland’: Coburg Shield of Faith: Victoria and the Hohenzollerns ‘Germans and English belong to each other’: Alice in Hesse-Darmstadt ‘A Terrible and Worldwide Catastrophe’: The Death of Friedrich III Notes 3: Religion in Common Life Bringing the Church Home: Victoria and Domestic Religion The ‘Silver Links of Earthly Love’: Marriage and the Family ‘Remember the Sabbath’: Victoria and Sabbatarianism ‘Darwin’s Pigeons’: Victoria and Natural Laws Notes 4: A Darkened Earth ‘Desolation’: Grief and Christianity ‘Earthly Treasure’: Materiality and Mourning ‘A Great Communion’: Widowhood and Emotional Community A ‘National Sacred Work’: Remembering Albert Notes 5: The Supreme Head ‘The State Religion’: Victoria and the Church ‘Very Violent People’: The Oxford Movement and the Papal Aggression The ‘Bug Bear of Broad Church’: Victoria and Liberal Protestantism ‘Protestant to the Heart’s Core’: Victoria and Ritualism ‘Earnest Views’: Defending the Establishment Notes 6: Disunited Kingdom ‘The Real and True Stronghold of Protestantism’: Victoria and the Church of Scotland ‘Erin’s Honour and Erin’s Pride’: Victoria and Irish Roman Catholicism Notes 7: The Crown of Sacrifice ‘Backward Glances into Forward Visions’: Mourning Leopold ‘Out of that Tomb, there is Yet More to Spring’: The Duke of Clarence ‘The Crown of Sacrifice’: Henry of Battenberg and Christian Victor Notes 8: Oecumenic Colonial Carnivals ‘Vehicle for a Great Show’: Liturgy and Jubilee ‘England’s Opportunity and England’s Responsibility’: Victoria’s Christian Empire ‘The Whole World Kin’: Jews and the Jubilees ‘The Lord of the Soil’: Victoria, the Jubilees, and Religion in Asia Notes 9: A Completed Life ‘Literally Orphaned’: Burying Victoria The ‘Soul of a Great Empire’: Victoria in Imperial Sermons ‘The Great White Queen’: Victoria and Colonial Subjects ‘A Handful of Dust’: Victoria in Retrospect Notes Selected Bibliography Manuscripts Primary printed sources Secondary sources Index This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life--from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements--enlarged how she defined and lived her faith. It portrays a woman who had simple convictions but a complex identity that suited her multinational Kingdom: a determined Anglican who preferred Presbyterian Scotland; an ardent Protestant who revered her husband's Lutheran homeland but became sympathetic towards Roman Catholicism and Islam; a moralizing believer in the religion of the home who scorned Sabbatarianism. Drawing on a systematic reading of her journals and a rich selection of manuscripts from British and German archives, Michael Ledger-Lomas sheds new light not just on Victoria's private beliefs but also on her activity as a monarch, who wielded her powers energetically in questions of church and state. Unlike a conventional biography, this book interweaves its account of Victoria's life with a panoramic survey of what religious communities made of it. It shows how different churches and world religions expressed an emotional identification with their Queen and Empress, turning her into an embodiment of their different and often rival conceptions of what her Empire ought to be. The result is a fresh vision of a familiar life, which also explains why monarchy and religion remained close allies in the nineteenth-century British world. This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life, from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements, enlarged how she defined and lived her faith. It portrays a woman who had simple convictions but a complex identity that suited her multinational Kingdom: a determined Anglican who preferred Presbyterian Scotland; an ardent Protestant who revered her husband's Lutheran homeland but became sympathetic towards Roman Catholicism and Islam; a moralizing believer in the religion of the home who scorned Sabbatarianism. Drawing on a systematic reading of her journals and a rich selection of manuscripts from British and German archives, Michael Ledger-Lomas sheds new light not just on Victoria's private beliefs but also on her activity as a monarch, who wielded her powers energetically in questions of church and state. Unlike a conventional biography, this book interweaves its account of Victoria's life with a panoramic survey of what religious communities made of it. It shows how different churches and world religions expressed an emotional identification with their Queen and Empress, turning her into an embodiment of their different and often rival conceptions of what her Empire ought to be. The result is a fresh vision of a familiar life, which also explains why monarchy and religion remained close allies in the nineteenth-century British world This biography offers a comprehensive account of Victoria's religious life. Drawing on a systematic reading of her journals and a rich selection of archival manuscripts, it sheds new light on Victoria's private beliefs and on her activity as a monarch, who wielded her powers energetically in questions of church and state.