In the
Middle Ages, services of this kind were held in one of the
Chapels Royal and were attended only by the members of the
royal court, while members of the
House of Lords simultaneously went to
Westminster Abbey and the
House of Commons, to
St Margaret's, Westminster, for their respective thanksgiving services. However, in 1588, Queen
Elizabeth I marked the defeat of the
Spanish Armada by processing in a Roman-style
chariot from
Somerset House to
Old St Paul's for a service of public thanksgiving. On her route, the queen entered the City of London at
Temple Bar, where she was met by the
lord mayor and
aldermen, and was offered the
sword of the City as a sign of
fealty, a tradition which has been maintained to the present. During the service, the queen was seated in a royal box in the north aisle, from where she could hear the sermon which was preached just outside at
St Paul's Cross to a huge crowd. The custom was revived by
Queen Anne in 1702 to give thanks for victory at the
Battle of Vigo Bay at the newly rebuilt cathedral. As with the Armada thanksgiving, the service was preceded by a large cavalcade, which combined with the location at St Paul's, one of Europe's largest churches and England's first new-built Protestant cathedral, served to emphasise national power and unity. Rather than being concealed in a royal box, the queen was seated centrally on a raised
dais. Six more of these services took place, celebrating various successes in the
War of the Spanish Succession, but after 1708, Queen Anne preferred to attend thanksgivings at the Chapel Royal of
St James's Palace, perhaps because of her ill-health or political considerations. However she did attend perhaps the grandest of these services in 1713 which celebrated the end of the war by the
Peace of Utrecht.
George Frederick Handel was commissioned to compose a
Te Deum for the event, the first departure from the custom that music for royal occasions should be written by the musicians of the Chapel Royal. Early in 1789, King
George III unexpectedly recovered from a debilitating illness which had plunged the country into a constitutional crisis. George himself suggested that a thanksgiving service be held at St Paul's on
St George's Day, 23 April. The short length of time available for preparation was exacerbated by the fact that nobody in office could remember the previous event in Anne's reign, 74 years earlier, and a hasty search of the archives was ordered. The royal dias used by Anne was brought out of storage and renovated. Initially, the
prime minister,
William Pitt the Elder, was opposed to a procession from
St James's Palace for fear of anti-monarchist demonstrations, but on the day, an "immense" crowd cheered the king enthusiastically. The four-hour service started with 5,000 children from London's
charity schools, seated in specially built stands under the dome, singing
Psalm 100; apparently an innovation suggested by
Queen Charlotte. A further thanksgiving service at St Paul's was arranged to celebrate George's Golden Jubilee on
accession day, 25 October 1809, but the ailing king decided to attend a private service at
St George's Chapel, Windsor instead. The St Paul's service was attended by the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London, who were nevertheless cheered on by large crowds. on the way to the 1872 Thanksgiving Service. At the start of the 1870s, there was an upsurge of
republicanism in the United Kingdom. This was fuelled by a number of factors;
Queen Victoria's neglect of public duties due to her extended mourning for
Albert, Prince Consort, the wayward behaviour of
Edward, Prince of Wales and finally a dispute about the large
dowry allotted to
Victoria, Princess Royal from public funds; all of this against the background of the
Paris Commune. The recovery of Edward from a bout of
typhoid fever was seized upon by the prime minister,
William Gladstone, as an opportunity to improve the image of the royal family, and the queen and prince reluctantly agreed to a thanksgiving service at St Paul's. The service and carriage procession from
Buckingham Palace was a resounding success, to the surprise of the queen who wrote that she had been "deeply touched and gratified... by the immense enthusiasm and affection exhibited". This was later considered to be a turning point in the fortunes of the British monarchy, and republican sentiment was marginalised for many decades. However, as Victoria's Golden Jubilee approached, the queen made it clear to her new prime minister
Lord Salisbury, that she intended to have a more modest service at
Westminster Abbey, to which Salisbury, with an eye on expenditure, was happy to agree. Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was of a different order. Conceived by Colonial Secretary
Joseph Chamberlain to be a great imperial extravaganza, the driving force behind the event was
Reginald Brett (later Viscount Esher), the permanent secretary to the
Office of Works. A return to St Paul's allowed for a grand procession through the capital, however it was found that the elderly queen would be unable to manage the steps of the cathedral. A proposal to manhandle the royal carriage into the church were discarded in favour of holding a short service outside the west front. The clergy, choir and important guests were arrayed on the cathedral steps, while the queen remained seated in her carriage. Despite her debility, the queen endured a lengthy carriage ride which on its return, crossed London Bridge and passed through the deprived district of
Southwark. in 1935. Thanksgiving services have remained popular spectacles; the 1977
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II attracted an estimated crowd of one million spectators along the route of the procession, in which the queen rode in the
Gold State Coach, while the British television audience for the
2012 Diamond Jubilee service was 4.5 million viewers for the
BBC alone, the event was also broadcast by
ITV News and
Sky News. ==Liturgy==