Shining City Audio, a John Meacham and C-13 original studio.

February 2, 1901, Queen Victoria's funeral takes place at St. George's Chapel.

I'm John Meacham, and this is Reflections of History.

She had reigned its seemed forever, and now she was gone.

Queen Victoria had brought stability to the monarchy presiding for 64 years,

a record that would only be surpassed by a great, great granddaughter, Elizabeth II.

As Henry James remarked to Victoria,

I mourn the safe and motherly old middle-class queen,

who held the nation-warm under the fold of her big, hideous, gotch-blad shawl.

On this date, her majesty's funeral took place at Windsor Castle.

Morners included her son, now King Edward VII, and her grandson, the Kaiser of Germany.

Monarchy remains with us a subject of perennial fascination,

and the most influential commentator on royalty and democracy, Walter Batchett,

one true, the use of the queen in a dignified capacity is incalculable.

Without her in England, the present English government would fail and pass away.

Most people when they read that the queen walked on the slopes of Windsor,

that the Prince of Wales went to the Darby, have imagined that too much thought and prominence were given to little things.

But they have been an error, and it is nice to trace how the actions of a retired widow and an unemployed youth become of such importance.

The best reason why monarchy is a strong government is that it is an intelligible government.

The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.

It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations,

but it would be true to say that they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.

...