Victorian oddities: death and mourning in Victoria England

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Different countries and different peoples have their own traditions associated with death and mourning. But England under Queen Victoria is a special case. The queen grieved the death of her husband so hard that she not only grieved herself until the end of her life, but also introduced strict rules governing the wearing of mourning for her subjects.

Funeral decorations

After the death of a loved one, the Victorians tried to get the thing that belonged to the deceased. Most often it was jewelry, some kind of trinkets, and sometimes even curls of hair. At the time, adornments such as hair woven into jewelry or a lock of hair in a locket were common. Bracelets and necklaces woven from hair and forming intricate braided designs can still be found in antique stores and auctions, and such jewelry can be quite pretty.

Cameos were also inlaid with hair - jewelry that was very popular then. And, as if all this was not enough, there were rings in which, instead of a precious stone, a dead man's tooth was inserted.

Victorian photographs

After the advent of photography, Victorians often took pictures in the company of a deceased relative. Many people have taken whole family photographs of the corpse, or photographs of all the children with the deceased child. The dead were often made up and seated in a chair to make the photo look more natural. Sometimes, after the death of the child, the family kept the corpse in a room, which was decorated with fresh flowers from the garden (to create the appearance that the child was just resting, and to interrupt the smell). Instead of burying the body promptly, it was kept in the house and even changed as if the child was alive.

Periods of mourning

A period of mourning was first proclaimed when Queen Victoria lost her beloved husband, Albert. The queen herself wore black clothes for the rest of her life and mourned her deceased husband. And all other citizens, according to her decrees, were to be in deep mourning for two years after the death of their relatives. At this time, the light of the sun was not allowed to enter the house, the mirrors were covered with a cloth so that the soul of the deceased would not get through them, and the clock was stopped at the hour of the person's death.

Widows were not allowed any social activity other than church services. In the event of the death of one of the parents, the requirements for the children were similar. And when the child died, the parents had to grieve for nine months. In the event of the death of other relatives, "a certain period of mourning was required, depending on how close they were to the family."

Funeral decoration

The clothes that could be worn during mourning were strictly regulated. The widow could only wear a black crepe dress with a black hood and veil. The only non-black garment details were the collar and cuffs, which were supposed to be white. A heavy black veil was essential in public places to prevent anyone from seeing grief-stained eyes, and black gloves were required. After six months, the widow was allowed to dress in clothes of a different material than crepe, but they still had to be black.

After three months, a lighter black veil was allowed. Interestingly, doctors of that time actively objected to the use of crepe for mourning robes. As they argued, "crepe dye gets into sensitive nostrils, leading to colds, and can also cause blindness and cataracts." Men were required to wear only black hats and gloves. Sometimes a black band was added to show their mourning.

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria was the culprit behind all these strict rules of death. She ruled Britain from 1837 until her death in 1901. In her youth, Victoria was full of beauty and life and adored her husband and children and gladly performed her royal duties. But the death of her husband Albert, who died in 1861 from typhus, painted her life black.

After Albert's death, servants still brought shaving supplies into his room every morning, and they were also forbidden to change anything in the room. Servants were required to wear black robes for three years after the death of the prince. Albert's belongings could be seen throughout the palace, in any room that the queen could visit. And even despite such oddities, no one dared to criticize Queen Victoria.

However, the Victorians thought not only about death, but also about life. What were Victorian people's perceptions of the world 100 years from now can be found in one of our reviews.