The fascinating history of Royal family mourning dress codes
For the first time in twenty years, the royals are dressing for mourning. But they have centuries of precedent to draw on
14 April 2021 • 5:00am
The Queen Mother, Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II at the funeral of Edward VIII in 1972
Credit: Bettmann
Upon the death of a beloved husband and loyal consort, the last thing on a queen’s mind, surely, would be clothes. And yet the fact that Queen Victoria spent the last four decades of her reign shrouded in black after Prince Albert succumbed to typhoid remains one of the facts about her that would result in a terrible Pointless score.