Queen Victoria Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Her Coronation: June 21, 1887

This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part II.

June 21, 1887, was a day of great rejoicing in London as well as all England and the far-flung dominions of the worldwide British Empire. Queen Victoria was celebrating the 50th anniversary of her coronation. The pall of fog that often lies over the city had dispersed, and bright sunshine greeted the queen and her entourage as they passed through the gates of Buckingham Palace on their way to Westminster Abbey, where the queen was to attend a service of thanksgiving. Tens of thousands of spectators lined the streets to greet the queen; houses and buildings were richly, festively decorated. Victoria, riding in a carriage, was dressed in her customary black dress (a color she had worn since the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861). This day, however, her sable gown was trimmed with white.

Queen Victoria

The service in Westminster Abbey was splendid and glorious. The Anglican bishop of London, the archbishop of York, and the archbishop of Canterbury led the service. Accompanying the queen were her son, Edward, the Prince of Wales; her daughter and son-in-law, Princess Victoria and Crown Prince Friedrich of Germany; and Franz Ferdinand, the crown prince of Austria-Hungary. Other dignitaries were also present—the old, blind King Albrecht of Saxony and several other foreign rulers or their representatives, including a Persian envoy, the ambassador of the Ottoman sultan, Prince Komatsu of Japan, and Queen Kapi’olani and Crown Princess Lili’uokalani of Hawaii.

Thus, the celebration of the woman who in 1837 had succeeded her uncle, George IV, as monarch of Great Britain, well represented the great extent of her kingdom’s power and wealth. For Victoria was not just queen of England; she reigned over the dominion of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Cape Colony in southern Africa. In 1876, she had “Empress of India” added to her titles, for her government’s sway included that mysterious oriental land. Since 1870, Great Britain had established new colonies in Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific islands. By 1887, Great Britain was the greatest empire not only in Europe, but in the entire world.

British Empire, 1895, under Queen Victoria

And from these colonies vast amounts of wealth flowed into the British Isles—gold, coal, iron, wool, cotton, wheat, and various minerals. Such materials were churned out of Great Britain’s factories and mills into a wide variety of products that were then transported from British ports to all the corners of the world. Britain’s enormous fleet of merchant ships made all this trade possible, and Britain’s navy (the largest in the world) protected all this trade from depredation. As late as 1887, no European nation came close to producing the amount of manufactured goods that came out of British factories; nor could any nation challenge Britain’s sway over the waterways of the world.