Randall Davidson: Quietness, Compromise, Comprehension

Abstract

The central part of every important royal ceremony between 1861 and 1914 was a religious service. No clergyman in that half century played a greater role in both planning and officiating at such services than Randall Thomas Davidson. First as chaplain to Archbishop Tait, then as chaplain to Queen Victoria, and ultimately as archbishop himself, Davidson won places of great influence at court and in the Church of England. Under Lord Esher’s influence, it was distinctly possible that ceremonial could have been transformed into pure theater. Davidson made sure that the religious acts that lay at the center of royal ceremonies were not forgotten. In shaping the character and quality of those acts, Davidson re-established the relevance of the monarchy to a critical age. His services and his sermons conveyed a rationale for retaining a hereditary monarchy in a democratic and increasingly secular state.