Umbrellas in the mist: the sorry story of the Eglinton Tournament of 1839
A soggily quixotic attempt to revive the age of chivalry in early-Victorian Britain
It began as a joke. There were grumbles of conservative discontent about the lack of ceremony at the coronation of Queen Victoria in June 1838. Where was the ceremonial banquet? they asked. Where was the Royal Champion? They called it the ‘Penny Crowning’, a cheap and tawdry shadow of the real thing.
A few weeks later a friend suggested to the young, wil…
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