Death of Princess Amelia, 1810
Paul Theroff
Yesterday I read the passage in Lady Holland’s Journals relating to the death of Princess Amelia in 1810, and was curious to see what contemporary reports said about it. The account of her death and burial in Gentleman’s Magazine is interesting, and I thought some readers here mohgt be interested to see what the funeral of a minor royal was like in 1810. I have separated the account into paragraphs to make it more easily readable.
Journals of Elizabeth, Lady Holland:
2nd Nov. [1810]— "Pss. Amelia died. She was the youngest, the prettiest, and the most beloved of all the Princesses; her life had been artificially prolonged but to suffer, as her complaints were incurable and of excruciating pain. Previous to her receiving the Sacrament, in compliance with the earnest entreaty of the Prince, she consented to see the Queen, with whom she had inflexibly refused to have an interview, saying that she ascribed the misery she had undergone for 10 years, and perhaps her actual hopeless situation, to her hardness of heart. After seeing her, she dictated a letter to the Prince telling him that his eloquence had prevailed, and taught her to survive resentment, the last feeling in the human breast.
"The P. and D. of Cambridge are joint executors to her will, which the Prince has determined shall not be proved. The P. behaved throughout with the greatest tenderness, and previous to her death facilitated their interviews. The P. is behaving with the utmost circumspection and decorum, owing partly to the occupation of fulfilling his sister’s wishes and ordering the ceremonial of the funeral with which he is entrusted. He has not seen any of the Opposition."
From Gentleman's Magazine, 1810, pages 486 et seq.
“DEATH AND FUNERAL OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS AMELIA.
“On the 2d of November, about twelve 'clock, departed this life, at Windsor, after a long and painful illness, her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia, his Majesty's youngest daughter, to the great grief of all the Royal Family. Her Royal Highness completed her 27th year a few months since; she was born Aug. 7, 1783.-However the early death of this truly-amiable Princess may be regretted, every reflecting and feeling mind must derive consolation from the consideration that she has at length been released from sufferings which no human aid could remove. Her Royal Highness was from early youth of a very tender and delicate constitution, and was frequently attacked with severe indispositions. Her disorder began to discover alarming symptoms about two years ago. Sea-bathing, moderate exercise on horseback (to which she was partial), and every thing that medical knowledge could prescribe, were adopted; but, though they served to prolong her existence, and afforded incidental relief, no sanguine hopes of her recovery were entertained by those who are conversant with the nature of her malady.
“About a month ago she was attacked with St. Anthony's fire, which brought on a relapse into an extreme state of debility, under which she displayed the noblest Christian faith and fortitude during weeks of prolonged agony, uncheered by any ray of hope. For the last few days her strength had been rapidly wearing away, and she died, without the least struggle or convulsion, as one dropping gently and calmly to sleep.
“In person, her Royal Highness was tall and slender, and her air was graceful and prepossessing. Illness had impressed its marks on her countenance. In her manners, she was mild, elegant, and affable. The frequency of ill health prevented her from studying so deeply as her elder sisters; yet she cultivated the fine arts with great success. In music and painting she was a proficient: she met with few rivals in excellence on the piano-forte, and displayed a classical taste in her selection and execution of pictures. Dignified, though condescending; benevolent, without ostentation; lively, though a prey to sickness, which usually quenches the spirits as well as the health of youth; she was beloved by all who lived within the sphere of hearing of her virtues. In performing the duties of humanity and benevolence, she was indefatigable; and the grateful sympathy with which all her acts of this nature were performed, was not less soothing and gratifying than the actual tribute of her kindness. In the relations of domestic life, nothing could exceed her attention, assiduity, and affection. The great affliction of knowing that her beloved Father was ill, had been spared her. The last act of her filial tenderness evinced, that it was not in the power of sickness, severely as it operated on her, to lessen the amiable temper of her mind; for, languid as she was at some periods, and tortured by pain at others, a desire of testifying her affection for the best of Fathers was one of the strongest feelings of her heart. She wished to present her Royal Father with a token of her filial duty and affection; and she had the satisfaction of placing on his finger a ring, made by her own directions for the express purpose, containing a small lock of her hair, inclosed under a crystal tablet, set round with a few sparks of diamonds. The effect of that present on his Majesty's paternal heart, after so many severe trials during the whole progress of her illness, the publick have to deplore at this moment; though we indulge the hope that our beloved Monarch will soon be restored to his people; and that the knowledge of the termination of his Daughter's sufferings will tend to the abatement of his own.-
“The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are the executors of her will, which was opened on the 4th instant. The Prince, the residuary legatee, has very handsomely presented her jewels, &c. to the Princess Mary, her favourite sister : she had directed them to be sold to defray her debts and a few legacies; but the Prince has taken these wholly on himself.
“In consequence of a delay in sending an official notice of her Royal Highness's death to the Dean of St. Paul's, caused by the death of the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Dartmouth, the custom of tolling the great bell at St, Paul's did not take place till Sunday afternoon, Nov. 4, immediately after a grand funeral anthem had been sung. –
“Orders were issued, Nov. 5, for the Court's going into mourning, from the Lord Chamberlain's office; for a general mourning, from the Earl Marshal; and for officers of the Army and Navy to wear crape, from the Horse-guards and Admiralty, to commence on Sunday, Nov. 11. The Theatres and all other places of public amusement were closed till after the funeral.
“The remains of her Royal Highness were on the night of Nov. 14th privately interred in St. George's chapel. At eight o'clock a procession was formed from Augusta-lodge in the following order: Servants and Grooms of their Majesties and the Royal Family, in state liveries, Trumpets of the Royal Horse Guards Blue, THE HEARSE, drawn by the King's set of eight English black horses, fully caparisoned, escorted by Royal Horse Guards Blue. One of his Majesty's carriages, drawn by a full set of English black horses, conveying the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, the executors also escorted by Horse Guards. Two of his Majesty's carriages, each conveying four of the attendants of the late Princess. Carriages of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, each drawn by six horses. The whole flanked by the Staffordshire Militia, every 6th man bearing a flambeau.
“Upon arrival at the Chapel, the Servants, Grooms, and Trumpets, filed off without the South door. At the entrance, the Dean and Prebendaries, attended by the Choir, received the Body; and the remainder of the procession having previously been formed, the whole proceeded down the South aisle, and up the nave into the choir, in the following order (the Procession being flanked by the Royal Horse Guards Blue, every fourth man bearing a flambeau): Poor Knights of Windsor; Pages of Royal Family and their Majesties; C. Bicknell, esq. Solicitor to the Princess; R. Battiscombe, esq. D. Dundas, esq. apothecary; surgeon; Rev. Mr. Gosset, Rev. Mr. Plymley, Curate and Rector of Windsor; Drs. Baillie and Halford, physicians; Equerries of the Royal Family and their Majesties; Hon. Gen. Finch, Gen. Campbell, Hon. R. F. Greville, C. Herbert, esq. grooms of the bedchamber to the King; Lieut.-col. Disbrowe, Queen's vice-chamb.; Lord G. Thynne, and Earl of Courtown, comptroller, and treasurer of King's household; Earl Harcourt, Queen's master of horse; Lords Arden, St. Helen's, Rivers, and Boston, lords of the King's bedchamber; E. of Macclesfield, capt. of yeom. of guard; Choir of Windsor; Prebendaries; Dean; Lord J. Thynne, acting as lord chamberl.; Earl of Aylesford, lord steward of the King's household; Vere Warner, esq. gentleman usher of his Majesty, bearing the coronet on a black cushion; THE BODY In a coffin covered with crimson velvet and a black velvet pall, adorned with eight escutcheons of her Royal Highness's arms; the coffin carried by eight yeomen of the guard; the pall supported by Visc'tess Cranley, Lady E. Thynne, Countess of Ely, and Lady G. Murray; Countess of Chesterfield, veiled, chief mourner, her train borne by a baronet's wife, Lady Halford, Teiled; Countesses of Macclesfield and Ilchester, supporters to the chief mourner, veiled; Duke of Cambridge, Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Duke of Clarence, Duke of Kent, Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Sussex, in long black cloaks, the Prince's train borne by two of his gentlemen, the Dukes' by one; Marq. Abercorn, Cornwallis, Wellesley; Earls Westmorland, Chesterfield, Bathurst, Camden, Liverpool, Wilton, Harrowby; Bisliop of Salisbury, Chancell. of Garter; Lords Walsingham, Mulgrave, and Eldon, Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, C. Yorke, R. Ryder, R. Dundas, and Sir D. Dundas; Lieut.-gen. Calvert, Count Munster, Major Price, Colonel Taylor. Ladies attendants on the Queen and Princesses, viz. Lady Albinia Cumberland, Miss Goldswortby, Mrs. Williams, Hon. Mrs. Fielding, Hon. Mrs. Egerton, Hon. Miss Townshend, Madame and Mademoiselle Beckendorff, Mrs. Adams, Miss Knight, Miss Montmollin, Miss Planta, Miss Gaskin, Miss Byerley, Mrs. Davenport, Mrs. Robinson, the Queen's and Princess's dressers.
“Upon entering the choir, the body was placed on tressels, the head towards the altar; the coronet and cushion on the coffin. The chief mourner sat at the head of the corpse; her supporters on either side; and the supporters of the pall in their places near the body. During the service, which was read by the Hon. and very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, the Prince of Wales and his Royal Brothers, as well as the Knights of the Garter present, occupied their respective stalls. The Nobility, Privy Councillors, and officers of the household, as well as others who had followed the body, were placed in the vacant and intermediate stalls. The Ladies attendants were in the seats below the stalls on the North side nearest the Altar; the Grooms of the bedchamber, Physicians, Rector and Curate of Windsor, Surgeon, Apothecary, and Solicitor of her late Royal Highness, in the seat below the stalls on the South side, nearest the Altar; the equerries, and the Queen's and Princess's other attendants, in the front seats on either side; the pages were arranged below the Altar.
“The part of the service before the interment, and the anthem being performed, the procession moved out of the choir in the order in which it had entered, and proceeded up the North aisle of the choir, flanked by the Royal Horse Guards Blue, to the place of burial be- hind the Altar. The body being deposited in the vault, and the service concluded, Sir Isaac Heard; Garter, after a short pause, pronounced, near the grave, the style of her late Royal Highness, as follows : "Thus it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this transitory life unto his divine mercy, the late most illustrious Princess Amelia, 6th and youngest daughter of his most excellent Majesty George the Third, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith; whom God bless and preserve with long life, health, and honour, and all worldly happiness!" After which, the Royal Princes, the Nobility, and others, who had composed the procession, returned, having witnessed that every part of this mournful and afflicting ceremony had been conducted with great regularity, decorum, and solemnity.
“The shops and houses in Windsor-and Eton were shut up, from respect to the memory of the Princess, during the whole of the day on which the funeral took place; and scarce an individual was to be seen in the streets who was not attired in mourning. The following is the inscription (issued from the Heralds' office,) engraved upon the plate of the coffin: "Depositum Illustrissimæ Principissæ Amelia, Filiæ sextæ et natu minima Augustissimi et Potentissimi Georgii Tertii, Dei gratia Britanniarum Regis, Fidei Defensoris, &c. Obiit IIda die Novembris, Anno Domini MDCCCX. Ætatis suæ XXVII."
