My name is Olivia Freeman and I'm the Keeper of the Wellington Collection at Apsley House.
These magnificent robes were worn by the first duke of Wellington and his two sons Arthur Marquess of Douro and Lord Charles Wellesley
for the coronation of George IV in 1821.
George IV was very interested in coronations of the past and he spent a great deal of time reading about past coronations.
He chose to dress all those taking part in costumes that were inspired by late Tudor
and early Stuart dress. So they had very elaborate decoration, puff shoulders, paning,
that is strips of fabric decorated with
braid. These were not costumes that would have been worn by
civilians in the early 19th century. They were really almost like fancy dress.
Parliament granted 238,000 pounds for George IV coronation that was more than 23 times the
amount spent on the coronation of his father George III.
George IV also chose to decorate Westminster Hall with furnishings in the gothic style and with architectural
details such as pillars, fretwork and an archway over the north door that was intended
to look like a medieval castle.
The king's own costumes were also incredibly magnificent and inspired by historic garments. He wore a mantle with
a train that was eight meters long. It required eight pages to carry it. One of whom was Arthur Marquess of
Douro, Wellington's elder son. So while not outshining George IV, the Duke of
Wellington's robes were also incredibly magnificent. He wore a crimson velvet mantle decorated with an ermine
cape and collar.
Underneath that he wore an ivory silk doublet and
trunks decorated with gold lace and braid.
He also wore a coronet that he actually carried for most of the coronation. The peers of the realm actually only put on the
coronets after the king had been crowned.
The coronet was silver gilt with a red velvet cap and a gold tassel on the top. It has a trim of ermine around
the head.
The leather boots were worn by the first duke when he wrote his horse into Westminster Hall. They're made of white kid leather
with this beautiful crimson silk top and rosettes.
He also wore a pair of white leather gloves with silver gilt cuff fringes.
The magnificent gold baton was given to Wellington by George IV when
Prince Regent, following his victory at the Battle of Victoria in 1813 when he was made Field Marshal of the British army.
The Baton is chased with a pattern of lines, roses, shamrocks and thistles and the Royal Arms of England within the
Garter; on the top is the figure of Saint George slaying the dragon.
Wellington was appointed as Lord High Constable, an ancient ceremonial office that was only used at coronations. He had
a very prominent place in the procession from Westminster Hall to the Abbey. He was amongst the chain of officials who passed the
regalia to the Archbishop of Canterbury who crowned the king.
My name is Alex Seth-Smith and I'm a senior textile conservator and we were brought in to work on
the coronation robes to prepare them for display.
Silk is notorious. It's known as the the conservators nightmare because it's not meant to last.
This silk is already 200 years old, assuming it was new at the time that it was made into the trunks in 1821.
The seat particularly of the Lord Charles Wellesley trunks. It was very damaged.
and
the more you looked at it you could see that the weave was just splitting and it has to
go on to a mannequin and we have to consolidate the weak fabric as much as
we can in order that it can withstand display.
The right hand boot of the Duke Wellington was in a very weak state and there is a seam that goes over the
arch of the foot,
which was completely split and again, it's fine leather,
fine stitching over time. That whole seam had broken and we had to find a way
to marry the top of the boot and rejoin that seam. We used tabs that we adhere
to one side and then angled the
boot together and then from the inside we were able to
join it and fortunately it's held.
At the coronation banquet Wellington, together with two other officials and a knight dressed in medieval style armour who
was called The King's Champion, they rode ahead of
each course as it was served to the king's table.
Interestingly Wellington had to reverse his horse all the way out of the hall because of
course you weren't allowed to turn your back on the monarch.
So all of this was observed by the Duke of Wellington's wife Kitty who
had a seat in the Lord High Constable's box. Wellington was quite apprehensive about wearing his costume, but he wrote
in a letter afterwards with evident relief: "The ridicule which would have been occasion by the individual costumes were
shared by all and people were so delighted with the general effect that everyone was consoled for the slight feeling of
ridiculousness caused by his individual costume.