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The Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria

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It never seems to fail. Whenever I go on a trip and look up my route in a map, it always seems to be in the fold. Where I want to go is always obscured in the staples and bend of the book. So too this is an interesting moment in history that seems to have fallen into the divide between the Victorian and Edwardian periods. I feel that I owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Rennell for taking us through this fascinating moment in history.

Victoria by no means had a trouble-free reign. She was at times highly unpopular and frequently criticized in society and the press. However, after sixty-three years on the throne her stamina and longevity had brought about almost universal admiration and respect from the people of her growing empire and the world in general. A time before her reign was beyond the living memory of most people in the world. The prospect of her death was to many even more unthinkable to many than the shadowy past of what had been before.

This absorbing and readable book takes the reader into the royal residence at Osborne for a world-shaking event. The death of Victoria and the ascent of her dissolute heir Edward was a thing feared in many circles. She ruled and empire on which the sun never set and the advent of technology allowed the world to share this occasion in real-time for the first time.

Eerily similar in many respects to the way the world reacted at the death of Diana and the events of September 11, the world seemed to stop spinning for those brief but unforgettable days in 1901. Stores were bereft of customers; places of business shut down while places of worship recorded record breaking attendance.

But this is not a book concerned only with high deeds in high places. It is the story of a family about to lose their matriarch. It is about the usual squabbles over who is to see the dying woman and who is to make decisions on her behalf. This is a tale that almost any family member can relate to and it resonates with us all.

I cannot think of a book about Victoria and her family that I have enjoyed more in many years. It is a must read.

History books can be classified into two types. The first type is a book where the author uses the historical facts to substantiate an argument. The second type is where the author presents the facts in order to provide an understanding of the impact an event had on the people who lived through it. The Last Days of Glory clearly belongs in the later category. It is just as clear that the book succeeds in meeting the standards of its type.

Rennell gives the reader a vivid portrayal of the effect that Queen Victoria's death had on her family, other royalty in Europe, and her subjects in the Empire. He does this by relating anecdotes from multiple sources, including Victoria's doctor, her assistant private secretary, and even the residents of North Ronaldsay in the Orkneys. He is so effective in his efforts that the reader can easily picture being in the bedroom with the Royal Family as Victoria expires, or in St. George's Chapel for the funeral.

As Rennell points out, the book can also serve as an insight into reactions that might occur when the current, long-reigning queen dies. Given that perspective, this book is something that may be more relevant than the casual reader may assume. However, Rendell's scholarship and concise writing make this book worth reading regardless of its possible application to the future.

I was going to say "enjoyable and informative", but then thought that saying reading about someone dying was enjoyable wasn't quite right. However, the author has given us so much background and detail on what was going on in England at this time that I will say those parts were enjoyable!

It seems unbelievable that the government apparently had not done much advance planning. It's as if no one thought the Queen was going to die. I was reminded of the smooth operation of the Queen Mother's funeral in April where everything went like clockwork. Queen Victoria had given a few orders for her funeral, but the details were left to others with the usual squabbling.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the British Royal family.

When I first saw that this book was published, I was skeptical that enough information could be gathered about Queen Victoria's death to make for interesting reading. Was I wrong! The Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria by Tony Rennell contains not just lots of interesting information, but also all the high drama required of a good Victorian novel. The cast of characters is unbelievable. They include: 1. a robust queen whose rapidly failing health is kept from her public until the last minute 2. a reluctant heir who would rather go fox hunting and spend time with his mistresses than attend his mother's deathbed or assume the throne 3. a passel of children and grandchildren who hover about and argue with each other 4. an obnoxious, arrogant and overbearing grandson (Kaiser William II) trying to make nice with his British cousins (who all loathe him) while trying to muscle his way into the death scene 5. a personal doctor who is second guessed at every opportunity, is never allowed to physically examine the queen and who serves as a spy to the Kaiser 6. a bishop who tries to interject too much "churchiness" into the death scene and is finally asked to leave 7. a head dresser who has promised the queen to sneak a large number of objects and mementos into the queen's coffin (without her family's knowledge) including several from the queen's devoted Scottish servant, John Brown (also rumored to be her secret husband) 8. a large number of heads of state who scheme and plot and politic against each other at the funeral, even though most of them are related to each other 9. an Empire of British subjects who have never known another sovereign and 10. a large group of faithful but bumbling government officials who have no clue how to bury the old monarch or install the new one because they haven't had to worry about such things for over 63 years.

Add to this story a lost effigy for the burial sarcophagus and over 100 daily newspapers scrapping for every little tidbit of information, and you have a saga most fiction writers could only dream about. To make the story even more interesting, we learn about the changes in the Empire and the world during the course of Victoria's reign. Telegrams have revolutionized communication, telephones are in their infancy, and no one really believes that the new horseless carraiges will become popular because they're too expensive. Queen Victoria's death takes place at the dawn of a new millennium, so the end of the 19th Century and the end of the Victorian Era occur together. Also, the British Empire will never again be as great or as grand as it was during Victoria's reign. It all makes for fascinating reading.

The only flaw I could find in The Last Dayas of Glory involved a historical fact. The Russian Tsar and Tsarina, Nicholas and Alexandra (Victoria's favorite granddaughter) got married after Nicholas became tsar and not before. But other than this minor error, I find no fault here. Tony Rennell's book is a nice surprise and well worth reading.

A surprisingly entertaining book. Surprisingly because Rennell writes quite a dry book, not sensationalising the story of Victoria's death, or attempting to get too personal. Rather, he takes the reader through Victoria's last days, her death and the funeral, relating aspects from the point of view of those close to Victoria and the press. He never directly writes political analysis, but rather hints at it, only occasionally drawing parallels with the modern British monarchy. By taking one small episode - lasting only a year really - Rennell manages to explore various facets of Victorian life and it's legacy.

The most striking point in this book is the fact that no-one seemed prepared for Queen Victoria's death, which is amazing considering the woman was in her eighties! But it also entertainingly covers the small facts - the internal squabbles within the large and extended royal family; the fact the Queen was a bit of a glutton until her final illness; the boy who flicked a match and set fire to a man's hat while the public watched the funeral procession move through London. Rennell manages to steer a course between the academic and the `dumbing down' sometimes prevalent in modern day `popular history'. Rather, he just sticks to the facts and supposes his readers are intelligent enough to understand and interpret them.

This book covers, and covers quite well, the events surrounding the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. It's especially relevant now that the "Queen Mum" has passed away, for she was more than likely alive when Victoria died, the last connection in the British royal family to that era of pomp and circumstance. It's very interesting to see how death and services for royals were handled 100 years ago, when there were many more monarchies and the almost reverential attitude towards them had not been soured by WWI.
Victoria was beloved by her people, and almost all of them could not remember another reigning monarch, since she ruled for 64 years, almost a lifetime in those days. There was genuine grief and fear at her departure, and a worry at the changing world everyone would face in her absence. A few years ago I read the book "Farewell In Splendor", which covers the same sets of facts, and both of these works are well worth reading. You will learn many things you didn't know about the end of the Victorian age, and perhaps have an air of nostalgia for what appears to be a quite different, and perhaps better, past.

This book is an overview of the last three weeks of Queen Victoria's life, and is not very interestingly written. It jumps back & forth between the slow, gradual weakening of the old Queen's health during her final three weeks and world events of the period, with some flashbacks to important times of Victoria's life and reign.

I'd like to recommend a much more comprehensive, fascinating, and better-written view of Queen Victoria's last days (or rather, her last years): "Ask Sir James" by Michaela Reid, a biography of Ms. Reid's grandfather, Sir James Reid, Queen Victoria's personal physician. Despite its being a book not strictly about Queen Victoria, "Ask Sir James" is chock full of interesting information and tidbits of personal history regarding the last 20-odd years of Queen Victoria's life, her health, and her personality, and is a much better and more interesting book than "Last Days of Glory". The description Ms. Reid provides of Queen Victoria's death (from her grandfather's own diary) is not in any other book. Don't waste your money on Mr. Rennell's book; go to the source it's based on!

I like a book that is focused and keeps its tone throughout. With content like this I'm sure it took discipline to weed out the many stories of people and events that brought the world to this date. For instance, just enough is devoted to the Kaiser and John Brown is appropriately dealt with in the appendix. The tone stays the same through the final days, to the funeral preparations and then the funeral ritual itself.

It had been so long since a monarch's death, that no one could remember the protocol. There were big issues and smaller decisions. How to inform the populace? How long should a mourning period last? (Various aspects of the economy had to be considered.) Would Edward hire the Queen's personal staff? Hymns had to be chosen, and a favorite had to yield to the politically correct one of the time. So many outpourings from at home and abroad. Special request floral designs. Visiting dignitaries. What to call the Princess of Wales before installation? QV left very detailed instructions, but soon to be installed King Edward now had the veto.

Rennell gives us all the above and more. He sticks with his topic and brings together all the pertinent material. Very good job.

Few of us will ever forget the events of September 11, where we were, how the nation reacted. Tony Rennell tells us of another earthshattering event, for its time, the death of Queen Victoria.

Beginning a few days before the Queen's death, Rennell proceeds slowly through her final illness, providing enough background to satisfy us without boring us. After the Queen passes, he gives us ample reaction to the death, even printing (rather pompous by today's standards) poems and songs written at the time (interesting to compare them with the songs written after September 11). He brings us through the funeral and burial at Windsor.

Rennell tells us what was not widely known before--that Victoria was buried holding a picture of John Brown and a locket with his hair, and wearing a ring he had given her. He is careful to put this in the proper context, devoting an appendix to setting forth his view that Brown and the Queen had an entirely proper, though unconventional, relationship.

Rennell puts the event in historical perspective--the conflict between those who wanted a "proper" amount of mourning, and those who wanted to move on quickly, reopen the theaters, put off mourning dress. I wonder how long it has been since the general public wore mourning for a monarch, and if there will be any expectation that it be done next time. Yet in 1901, the period of public mourning was shortened to "only" six weeks!

This book was published before 9/11, but I wonder, if, in 2101, a similar book will be published to remind the public of our watershed event.

Well worth reading.

If you are into Victorian history, or the history of England and/or Modern Europe, this book is for you. It has an interesting thesis- that the death of Victoria was much more than the passing away of a little (at least by the time she sickened and died...when hale and hearty, Victoria was almost corpulent)old woman at the end of a full life. The author masterfully brings to life the personalities involved throughout the Royal Family and the world, as well as the financial and political implications of the end of Queen Victoria's long life and long reign. It was a quick read and very engaging, especially the first half of the book, which chronicled Victoria's final illness and death.