“Will my people ever forgive me?” were the first words spoken by the King after waking up on an operating table after an emergency surgery caused him to miss his own coronation. For the past year and a half lavish ceremonies were planned across the British Empire to mark his coronation, only to be cancelled at the last minute..
The year was 1902, and after 64 years ruling the British Empire, Queen Victoria was dead.
The new King was Edward VII, and it seemed that finally things would be changing.
Queen Victoria was a very hands-on monarch, who closely watched and often intervened with democratically elected political leaders on laws and policy.
Edward –who was nicknamed Bertie– was more apolitical. Similar to the modern royal family, he would attend ceremonies like the opening of the Tower Bridge in 1894, but largely did not interfere with government.
When his mother the queen was alive, this wasn’t necessarily by choice; she refused to allow him access to government documents or officials.
This was because when he did get involved in politics it tended to frustrate her. For example in a territorial dispute between Denmark and Germany, he publicly backed Denmark while she supported Germany.
Bertie also interacted freely with the lower classes, and treated them with the same respect he did the upper class. She considered this “vulgar.”
He would also make embarrassing comments about non-white peoples. For example on his 1875 trip to India he provoked outrage in Britain with this ‘controversial’ statement: “just because a man has a black face and a different religion from our own, there is no reason why he should be treated as a brute.”
For 59 years Bertie was heir to the throne. He lived a playboy lifestyle, eating prodigiously, smoking excessively, and getting into public scandals over his gambling — the personification of the idle rich aristocrat.
He was a worldwide fashion icon. Some of the looks he pioneered are still popular, such as tweed, and men not buttoning the bottom button of suit coats. He is also to blame for popularizing the traditional British Sunday dinner of roast beef, potatoes with horseradish sauce, and Yorkshir pudding.
Queen Victoria had died in January of 1901, and Bertie’s coronation would be June 26th 1902. Victoria’s coronation was considered underwhelming and poorly planned, and Britain was determined to make up for it.
In faraway Canada, however, Fredericton thought it did a great job of hosting New Brunswick’s celebrations of Queen Victoria’s coronation. James S Beak, a former mayor, recalled the main event as a barbecue featuring a whole roast ox: “The ox stood up as in life and his whole head was on. He was splendidly roasted, and tables were built around him on which were knives and forks, salt and pepper, bread, cheese, cake, and English brew, all in abundance and all free to everybody.”
New Brunswickers again turned to Fredericton to host its coronation festivities.
A massive planning committee was struck, with representatives from everyone from the Mayor to firefighters, from the Board of Trade to the Curling Club. Everyone, it seems, was represented, except Indigenous peoples and –despite being ruled by a woman for the past 64 years– women, who were not allowed to participate.
The planners basically decided to duplicate the previous coronation; the main event would be a big barbecue featuring a whole roast ox. To avoid rowdiness, 3 barrels of lemonade would replace the free beer.
A series of carnival games were planned on The Green. There would be canoe races, climbing a greased pole, log rolling, swimming..
The main event would be “canoe tilting.” Think medieval knights jousting at each other, but in canoes with two people each paddling at each other, one holding a twenty foot padded lance trying to knock the other into the river.
There would be five separate parades. A military parade, a trades parade with floats depicting New Brunswick industry, a school parade featuring 200 teachers and 1000 students, a torchlight parade organized by the fire department featuring different coloured flames, and an illuminated boat parade at night.
Trains and steamships offered reduced fares to the capital, with ads proclaiming “Come to Fredericton and witness the Coronation Day celebration.” They would make extra stops in small communities so that nobody would miss the big day.
Bertie, however, was not a healthy person. At 59 he was heavily overweight, with a taste for champagne and cigars, and a massive appetite. Three days before the coronation Edward and his wife Alexandra returned from Windsor Castle to Buckingham Palace, when newspapers remarked that he looked “worn and pale.”
The next day a telegram marked OFFICIAL was sent out across the Empire, including to Fredericton. It read: "The King is suffering from perityphlitis. The condition on Saturday was so satisfactory that it was hoped that with care His Majesty would be able to go through the Coronation ceremonies. On Monday evening a recrudescence became manifest, rendering a surgical operation necessary today."
Moncton’s Daily Transcript newspaper screamed “King Stricken Down On Eve of Coronation: The Shadow of Critical Illness Falls Over The King,” publishing a completely inaccurate story saying he had a stroke and was paralyzed.
The reality was that Bertie required emergency surgery to remove his appendix, and was recovering.
The coronation was re-scheduled for six weeks later, August 9th. By then much of the enthusiasm waned. Many foreign dignitaries in Britain, including the Canadian delegation, returned home.
In Fredericton, the rescheduled event was much scaled down. The barbeque was cancelled, the parades were smaller, and the canoe-jousting was replaced with a baseball game. To deal with low enthusiasm, City Council ordered that all houses and businesses must be decorated “even if it is with but one Union Jack.”
Coronation Day was rainy in Fredericton, but cleared by afternoon. At dusk some 5000 people turned up to watch the illuminated boat parade. Despite the police banning fireworks because they scared horses, a massive fireworks display took place, spelling out the words “GOD SAVE THE KING” in the sky.
In Britain, the tightly choreographed coronation went off with only a single hitch: the aging and mostly blind Archbishop of Canterbury placed Bertie’s crown on his head backwards.
His reign was marked by dramatically rising tensions nearly leading to war across Europe, which he would diplomatically intervene in to settle. He was nicknamed “The Peacemaker.”
King Edward VII, who smoked 20 cigarettes and 12 cigars a day, would die of throat cancer only 8 years after his coronation.
Four years later The First World War erupted.
