Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the First Performance of ‘Rule, Britannia!’

Bibliographic Data

ID8958440
AuthorsOliver Cox (0000-0002-5773-4326, corresponding author), OLIVER J W COX
Year2013
Volume56
Issue4
Pages931-954
Publication date2013-10-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x13000198
OpenAlexW2122154257
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited26

The words and music of ‘Rule, Britannia!’ are synonymous with the expansionist, triumphalist, and imperialist Britain symbolized by fluttering Union Jacks on the Last Night of the Proms. This article explores the cultural and political contexts of the first performance of this important national cultural artefact as the finale of Alfred: a masque to suggest that this opening night served a very different purpose. The first audience was a court in exile from the metropolitan heart of London, popular amongst the general public, but without any prospects of government. Two of the most important members of this group of peers, politicians, poets and a prince had recently died, and with them any cohesive identity. Alfred is both a desperate plea for unity, a rallying cry which forcefully restated the key tenets of this group's identity, and a delayed expression of patriotic celebration occasioned by Admiral Vernon's capture of Portobello. Through addressing this performance, this article makes an important contribution to our understanding of Hanoverian political culture and highlights the continuing impact of Anglo-Saxon England on mid-eighteenth-century Britain

Aesthetics · Art · Expansionism · Government (linguistics · Identity (music · Literature · Media studies · Plea · Political science · Politics · Scots · Sociology · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Law