Music Set #229 - Händel - Zadok the Priest

George Frideric Händel

(1685 - 1759) 

King George II

Zadok the Priest 
For the coronation of King George II, Handel composed: 

* Zadok the Priest, the coronation anthem. 

Note: Zadok was a priest in King Soloman's time.  The lyrics are from the Bible (1 Kings 1:38–40) - easy to sing along:

     Zadok, the Priest and Nathan, the Prophet anointed Solomon King.

     And all the people rejoic'd ... .... ...., and said:

     'God save The King, long live The King, may The King live for ever!

     Amen, Hallelujah!'
                     
* It has then been played in coronation processions, from KG2's down to QE2 in 1953, in the Westminster Cathedral.
                   
* Portraits of all the British monarchs, accompanied by Zadok the Priest (the music, of course).

= = = = =

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Coronation of Queen Victoria (more) as in The Young Victoria movie. 

* Hear 'Zadok the Priest' in the background?

* The guy with a mustache is her husband Prince Albert (of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German state). 
* In Hong Kong, named after him are two short roads outside the Governor’s House: the Upper and the Lower Albert Roads. 

* After Prince Albert’s death of typhoid fever, the Queen "entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances, and rarely set foot in London in the following years."  

Coats of Arms:-   

House of Hanover

* Queen Victoria inherited a German house name of Hanover from King George I. 

KG1 came to the English throne as a 54-year-old, dull and uninspiring man.  He cared little for life in Britain, and never learned to speak English.
   
His son KG2 spoke English in public, and English in private.

House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha

* Victoria found Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha extremely handsome, and gave birth to 9 children in their 20 years of marriage.  Her children inherited Albert’s German family name. 

Anglo and Saxon were German tribes migrated to England, anyway.
      




               
                                  
    
                                              

House of Windsor

* During WW1, when the general British feeling was hatred against the Germans, law was passed in 1917 to rename the royal family of George V to the House of Windsor.  
            
And, thereafter, even issues of a Regina (e.g. QE2) are members of her House.