Duke of Wellington Funeral Car

[HollyHoly]

I've been reading and still am reading the Napoleon's funeral post. A long time ago I started studying this funeral Wellington Funeral Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington . The more I read about it the crazier it got he had a state funeral by command of the King, even though he was popularly loathed by the general public

Prior to tranquil semi-retirement in Kent, the Iron Duke had become a deeply unpopular politician and Prime Minister. During a period characterised by Reform, Wellington – deeply conservative – set is face against the inexorable tide of popular emancipation. He genuinely felt that the existing settlement could not be further perfected and famously was stoned in his house and in his carriage. Even the equestrian statue of the hero of Waterloo for the Wellington Arch had been laughed at by the public and mocked in the newspapers.

But now all was forgiven and forgotten as over a million lined the route of Wellington’s funeral cortege which ran through the City to St Paul’s. It seemed to extend forever; in its midst was the extraordinary 12 ton, six wheeled funeral car. One can only imagine the racket it made over London’s old cobbles. The car has survived and is at Stratfield-Saye House.

His funeral car was / is this monstrosity

so when I came across the Napoleon post it gave me the biggest WT?? and it made me wonder why these two Generals from opposing sides of a war were similarly given unspeakably ornate funerals using ritualistic conventions that were weird even then.

here's a pic of the funeral carriage the specs of which are just mind boggling

made of the captured cannons from the waterloo campaign,,allegedly.. the weight given variously as between 18 and 13 tons supposedly made in pieces at different foundries in eight weeks or so. Here's a link to a fantabulous watercolor book of the whole thing with artists commentaries

Waterloo


a crazy amount of soldiers in custom regalia was assigned to event

So it seems the parallel funerals are more of a closing of the age send off or so Im leaning toward. Its all very Masonic and overly dramatic like everything they do. So I'll leave this here for now and see if anyone has an interest it.

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[mifletzet]

Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.
Username: Mifletz
Date: 2019-09-28 23:07:07
Reaction Score: 1

An old recording of an eyewitness to the Duke's funeral

 

[HollyHoly]

Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.
Username: HollyHoly
Date: 2019-09-29 00:58:31
Reaction Score: 1

An old recording of an eyewitness to the Duke's funeral

I did listen to this !! just wow ! also no photos of this event just etchings , but civil war photos aplenty why??