What was the Significance of the British Flotilla
The British Flotilla, or, to give its British name,The Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant, was one of many national events celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s sixty year reign over all the territories, where she is Queen. These are not just the United Kingdom, the countries of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands but also those Commonwealth countries (16), where she is the head of State. Many people watching the television broadcasts or news reporting ofThe Thames Jubilee Pageantmight have been a little puzzled as to its significance. Several questions may have popped into their minds on seeing the television pictures.
Why boats?
The United Kingdom is a sea-going nation and its people a sea-faring people, boats are a part of its cultural heritage. From when ancient man fished using coracles, Brits have used small boats and. wherever they live, have an inherent connection to the sea. Nowhere in the United Kingdom is more than a two and a half hour’s drive from the sea. The Royal Navy is still the senior service.
Why the Thames
Londoners call the river “Old Father Thames”, and indentify affectionately with their river. The Thames is synonymous with the city. In the past, before there were the many bridges across the river which exist today, the river was London’s highway. Monarchs often travelled on the Thames in various Royal Barges. It was safer for the King or Queen to travel on the river, than through London’s maze of narrow streets, especially if they were unpopular, as many were. The Monarch could travel in style and display him or herself to the people, but because they could not get close, the risk of attack was minimized. It was also more comfortable, especially when London’s streets were rutted, dusty, or muddy, narrow dirt tracks. England’s Royal family had several palaces on the Thames, including Richmond, Kew, Hampton Court and the Tower of London and it was sensible to travel by river between them. Visiting Hampton Court or the Tower of London, today, shows just how near the river runs to these two ancient palaces, and how convenient river travel was.
What is the Historical Significance and origins?
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, monarchs travelled to their coronations by river. Traditionally, monarchs spent the eve of their coronations in the Tower of London. Richard III was probably the first monarch to travel to his coronation by river, probably because many people did not agree with his usurpation of the crown from his brother’s children, the Princes in the Tower. When Henry VII’s Queen, Elizabeth of York, travelled from Greenwich Palace to the Tower in 1487, splendid livery barges and a barge carrying a fire-breathing red dragon accompanied her progress on the Thames.
Anne Boleyn’s procession on the Thames to her coronation on 29 May 1533, was an even grander spectacle. Her procession contained 300 barges, ships and boats. Two barges led the procession, one carrying wild men, mechanical monsters, and a fire-breathing dragon, all throwing fire and making noises, and the other carrying Anne’s emblem, a crowned white falcon on a rose, together with young women singing and playing music. Just three years later, Anne Boleyn made a very different river journey to the tower for her trial and eventual execution on fabricated charges of treason, adultery and incest.
These royal pageants displaying the monarchy’s wealth and power were greatly influenced by the evolving Lord Mayor’s shows from 1453. Although the Lord Mayor’s show is now land based, it was originally a river festival. London’s mayor used to travel, the day after taking his oath of office at Guildhall, to Westminster to swear allegiance to the crown in great pomp and ceremony to demonstrate the city’s power. The Lord Mayor’s river procession grew out of this journey. The city’s livery companies in all their regalia and minstrels riding hired barges, accompanied the mayor. The first barge built specifically for this purpose was in 1453 for Sir John Norman of the Draper’s Company.
During Elizabeth I’s reign, London Mayoral processions grew larger, costlier, and more complex. Boats featuring dramas and living tableaux accompanied the twelve huge livery company barges, each needing eighteen oarsmen to power them. The processions promoted the Mayor’s personal livery trade, his office’s importance and power and the Thames’ importance to London’s economy. The dramas and tableaux depicted historical, mythology, morality, and topical subjects, an example being the 1605 procession, featuring the Triumph of Re-united Britannia. In 1605, King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne on Elizabeth I’s death, and became James I of England.
Funeral processions for national figures have also used the Thames. In 1806, Nelson’s funeral procession from Greenwich to Whitehall comprised over sixty livery and admiralty boats. Charles II’s royal barge carried Nelson’s body. After Winston Churchill's Westminster funeral service, Churchill’s body travelled on the Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Hall pier, as part of his state funeral.
River pageants have celebrated many important royal occasions, including an investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1610. The famous London diarist, Samuel Pepys, recorded in detail an extravagant royal river pageant for Charles II and Catherine of Braganza in 1662.
The 1919 Thames Peace Pageant commemorated and celebrated English sailors, both Naval and Merchant seamen’s contribution to the war effort during World War 1. It was five miles long and enormous crowds gathered on the Thames’ banks to watch proceedings.
The Lord Mayor of London held a royal river pageant celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, with a mere 149 vessels taking part. Fittingly, The Queen sailed in a royal barge on the Thames to inaugurate London’s flood defence, the Thames Barrier, in 1984. One event celebrating The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 was a river procession and pageant.
River pageants and processions have marked important royal, national and city events throughout the centuries. The Golden Jubilee Pageant was just a continuation of a long tradition. However, it is different in that it was the largest and longest river pageant of modern times with over 1,000 vessels taking part. The Thames is narrower and has a faster current than in the past, and it was necessary to organize so many different and diverse vessels very carefully to get them all safely processing on the Thames.Boats taking partincluded vessels from all over the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man and Commonwealth countries as well as from other parts of the World.
The 2012 Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant
Fire ships, lifeboats, sailing boats, kayaks, rowing boats, barges, powered craft, narrow boats, motorboats, all progressed along the Thames with the Queen, along with historic and service ships, including the famousDunkirk Little Ships. The Little Ships were part of the 700 civilian fleet of pleasure craft, fishing boats, rowing boats and diverse craft, many sailed by civilians, which bravely sailed from Ramsgate in late May 1940. Between them, this motley collection of boats lifted over 380,000 allied troops, trapped on the Dunkirk beaches by the Nazi army. The Dunkirk Little Ships, naturally, hold a very special place in British hearts.
The significance of the British Flotilla, or the Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, was that pageants and processions on the Thames have always celebrated important Royal, national, and city events. It was the largest and most complex Thames pageant in modern times. It celebrates British historical, cultural, and maritime heritage as well as being a fitting celebration of her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee.
More than a million spectators lined the Thames’ banks, others watched on giant screens in London’s parks, and millions more on television. By including so many different vessels the Pageant celebrated service, sport, history and community as well as cultural ties. The organizers managed a complex operation extremely well to most people’s delight. The pageant was a triumph that even the weather could not spoil.
