This month sees a rather important anniversary, the centenary of an event that would change the House of Windsor forever. And yet the moment has passed all but unnoticed. This month marks 100 years since the announcement of the engagement of the Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
At the time, the decision of these two young people to marry was a moment of family festivity and a chance for a national celebration following the long, hard and tragic years of World War One. However, this union would prove to be among the most important in recent royal history.
In January 1923, King George V and Queen Mary announced that their second son, Albert, was to marry the youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. Bertie, as his family called him, had asked Lady Elizabeth to be his bride twice before only for her to turn him down. But on January 13th 1923, she said yes. Their engagement was announced publicly days later.
Bertie, Duke of York, was then second in line to the throne but with little real expectation that he would succeed. Ahead of him was his dashing and very popular older brother, Edward. And while this royal wedding would be a special moment, the prospect of Edward’s marriage remained the ultimate, dazzling royal date.
That didn’t stop intense interest in the royal wedding of 1923. Just a year earlier, George and Mary’s daughter, Princess Mary, had married at Westminster Abbey. Her wedding came a few years after Princess Patricia of Connaught had chosen the ancient abbey for her own ceremony. Westminster Abbey hadn’t seen a royal wedding in centuries before then. But the brand new House of Windsor had made celebrations there a speciality in the few years it had existed (it was created in 1917).
The royal weddings of the Victorian era, held behind palace doors with brides wearing almost identical dresses laden with tradition, had been replaced by a modern spectacle that brought the celebration to the people. Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon chose a gown in line with the latest trends, created for her by Madame Seymour-Handley, and placed her bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, in memory of her brother, Fergus, who had died in the Great War. This was a popular event as well as a royal match. And its significance would soon grow beyond any expectation on the wedding day.
Albert and Elizabeth, Duke and Duchess of York, were soon popular members of the Royal Family and busy ones, too, carrying out a wide range of engagements and tours for King George VI. But as they approached their tenth wedding anniversary, in 1933, there was still no sign of a bride for Edward. They, by then, had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, and were becoming a new royal family all on their own.
Just three years later, they would become The Royal Family when Edward abdicated his throne after less than a year and Bertie became King George VI with his own Queen Elizabeth at his side. The heir to the throne was now their daughter, Elizabeth. Any concerns over George VI’s shyness hampering his reign were quickly put to one side and he, along with his queen, became hugely popular as they stood at their country’s side through World War Two.
King George VI’s death in 1952 put his daughter, Elizabeth, on the throne. She would go on to become the longest reigning monarch in British history. That chapter in the royal story began 100 years ago this month, with the almost forgotten announcement of an engagement.
