The Queen's Coronation (Facsimile Edition) E-Book

Beverley Nichols

• Herausgeber: Pitkin
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 34

Beschreibung

On 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on the untimely death of her father, King George VI. Her Coronation in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953 represented a day of historic pomp and ritual for the dignitaries at the ceremony, and the excitement of colourful pageantry and national rejoicing for the crowds who lined the streets of London in the rain to see their new sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  Sixty years on, Pitkin Publishing is proud to publish this facsimile edition of the original Pitkin Pictorial record of this historic event, a poignant and personal account seen through the eyes of the late Beverly Nichols.

Leseprobe

THE CORONATION CHURCH

LEFT

:

Westminster Abbey, where every English monarch, except Edward V

and Edward VIII, has been crowned since William the Conqueror.

This architect’s drawing provides a clear view of the annexe which was

erected for Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation, and it was through the door

below the canopy (centre)

that

she

passed

to

and

from

her

crowning.

Her

Majesty was the thirty-ninth

Sovereign to be crowned

at Westminster since the

Norman Conquest, and the

thirty-first to be crowned

within the existing Abbey

Church.

RIGHT

: St. Edward’s

Crown

with

which

the

actual crowning ritual was

performed. It was made for

Charles II in

1661

, replacing

the

original

St.

Edward’s

Crown which Cromwell had

destroyed.

1952 – 2012

THE QUEEN’S DIAMOND JUBILEE

On 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth succeeded to the

throne on the untimely death of her father, King George VI.

Her Coronation in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953

represented a day of historic pomp and ritual for the dignitaries

at the ceremony, and the excitement of colourful pageantry

and national rejoicing for the crowds who lined the streets of

London in the rain to see their new sovereign, Her Majesty

Queen Elizabeth II.

Sixty years on, Pitkin Publishing is proud to publish this

facsimile edition of the original Pitkin Pictorial record of this

historic event, a poignant and personal account seen through

the eyes of the late Beverley Nichols.

A

TINY FIGURE, she seems, frail and

feminine, yet invested with an aura of

indescribable majesty, for now at last

she is Queen indeed.

A figure from a fairy-tale, sending a little

smile to her six women of the bedchamber,

walking slowly towards us from the altar, her

head held high under the glittering crown,

wearing her Robe of State which the heralds

call purple, though to me it has the colour of

deep-dyed violets after rain.

A figure poised at the climax of a supreme

moment in history, with all the emblems of

Church and State about her—the Sceptre

with the Cross in her right hand, the Orb

in her left. This is the same Orb which the

Archbishop of Canterbury had delivered to

her, earlier in the service, with the words . . .

Receive this Orb set under the Cross, and

remember that the whole world is subject to the

Power and Empire of Christ our Redeemer.

How it sparkles, that Orb, as she draws

closer to us, while the organ roars, and

the vast congregation sings “God Save the

Queen!” How it glows and glitters in the light

of the chandeliers, whose brilliance is made

the more vivid by the storm clouds massing

in the sky outside.

Behind her, her six maids of honour,

in dresses of a white so dazzling, so richly

sewn with golden sequins, that the effect is

One of the first pictures of the newly-crowned Queen

of sunlight sparkling upon snow, and then

the Mistress of the Robes, the Dowager

Duchess of Devonshire, with a long train

of crimson velvet.

Continued on page 5

H

H

H

THE PICTORIAL RECORD

OF THE GREAT OCCASION

With The Eye–Witness Story of Her Majesty’s Crowning

By BEVERLEY NICHOLS

THE START OF THE GREAT DAY

ABOVE

:

They don’t care if it rains, how chill the wind blows –

or even if it snows! They’ve been there all night. More than

130,000

camped out on the pavements along the route of

the procession for the whole night before Coronation Day.

A scene in Northumberland Avenue.

LEFT

: You can’t move

an inch, even seven or eight hours before the procession

arrives. An early morning picture in Trafalgar Square.

BELOW

,

left

:

Overnight the priceless Coronation Regalia has

lain under guard in the Abbey. Now the Canons carry it in

procession through the Cloisters – first the Chalice, next

the Great Bible, then the Imperial State Crown.

BELOW

,

right

:

The Dean of Westminster, The Very Rev. Alan C.

Don, carries St. Edward’s Crown on a crimson cushion.