Vom Olymp zum Boulevard

It is fitting that the cover of this book should be emblazoned with the golden profiles of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert—and not just because Vom Olymp zum Boulevard is the inaugural volume of the ‘New Series’ (Neue Folge) of the ‘Prince Albert Research Publications’. The Victorian monarchy, fashioned by the Coburg prince and copied widely across Europe, has long occupied the centre stage of historians’ interest in nineteenth-century monarchy. Viewed through the lens of Walter Bagehot’s influential interpretation, the British model has been portrayed as the lodestar of constitutional monarchy—with its ostensibly willing renunciation of political power and party bias as well as its knack for ceremonial splendour and middle-class virtue signalling being seen as the only way for a crown to survive and thrive. While even this magic formula could not prevent the British monarchy’s eventual relegation to the ‘Boulevard’—complete with ‘Diana Tapes’ and ‘Harry and Meghan’ tea towels—it has generally enjoyed a better press than its continental counterparts.

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