15. Queen Victoria Didn’t Want to Lie Publically in State
Public figures tend to go through periods in which they lie in state in an open area so that people who admired them have the opportunity to pay their final respects. However, Queen Victoria had mostly retired from public life following the death of Prince Albert, at least to the extent that she didn’t want to be followed by paparazzi or have people outside of the royal household privy to personal information. As you have already seen, she was so secretive that she didn’t even want her family members to know some of the contents of her coffin, like the mementos of her affair with John Brown.
In keeping with how she had lived her life, the queen did not want to lie in state for public viewing. Instead, her body was carried on the gun carriage straight from where she died in the Isle of Wight to her funeral at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. She did lie in state for two days, but viewings were closed to the public. What this meant was that, even though her funeral was one of the largest in world history, it was primarily a family affair and much more intimate than previous royal burials.
