My chapter about Queen Victoria’s daughter and son-in-law in Canada, “Royalty at Rideau Hall: Lord Lorne, Princess Louise and the Emergence of the Canadian Crown” has been published today in the new book Canada and the Crown: Essays on Constitutional Monarchy, edited by D. Michael Jackson and Philippe Lagassé. This volume is an essential addition to any collection of books about the monarchy and/or Canadian history and politics, containing chapters about the role of the Crown in Canada from numerous perspectives including history, the media, the constitution, the First Nations and French Canada.
Here is the abstract of my contribution to Canada and the Crown: Essays on Constitutional Monarchy, “Royalty at Rideau Hall”:
Princess Louise in Canada, suitably dressed for winter weather.
In 1878, Queen Victoria’s son-in-law, John Campbell, Lord Lorne was appointed the fourth Governor General of Canada since Confederation. The arrival of Lord Lorne and his wife, Princess Louise, in Halifax to travel through Quebec City and Montreal to Ottawa to take up residence in Rideau Hall was the first post-confederation royal tour. Princess Louise was the first female member of the royal family to cross the Atlantic and visit North America. Historians often discuss Lord Lorne and the other British born Governors General of the 19th centuries as examples of Canada’s continued British identity after Confederation. The arrival of Lord Lorne and Princess Louise in 1878, however, provided an opportunity for Canadians to assert their nascent national identity by expressing their expectations of the new Vice Regal couple as Canadians. Newspaper coverage, correspondence and popular publications discussing the appointment of Lord Lorne and the arrival of the royal couple highlighted three key aspects of the emerging Canadian identity in 1878.
These cultural trends were loyalty to the crown (in contrast to the United States), a democratic society without class distinctions (in contrast to Great Britain) and a uniquely Canadian engagement with winter sports and the natural world. The enthusiastic welcome provided for the royal couple as they traveled from Halifax to Ottawa combined with the popular concerns that they would expect the same degree of deference accorded to members of the royal family reflected the emergence of a unique national culture in nineteenth century Canada. Lord Lorne and Princess Louise achieved popularity during their first months in Canada by responding to these expectations, holding broadly accessible events at Rideau Hall and embracing Canadian outdoor pastimes such as curling, fishing, skating and tobogganing. The arrival of the royal couple in Canada in 1878 provided the impetus for the articulation of a Canadian identity distinct from both Great Britain and the United States.
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