Royal reads: Books owned by British monarchs

Step inside the royal section at London Museum. Beyond Charles I’s execution relics, Queen Victoria’s needlework and Princess Margaret’s birthday dress, our collections have many objects connected with the British royal family.

Here are some highlights from our Library that have been historically associated with Britain’s past kings and queens.

This Bible with an intricately embroidered reddish-brown velvet cover is said to be associated with Queen Elizabeth I. It was printed by Christopher Barker in 1577. The Bodleian Library holds a similar covered Bible, presented by Barker to Queen Elizabeth on New Year's Day in 1584.

This is an example of a ‘Geneva Bible’, thus called because it was written by English Protestant scholars who had fled to Geneva. One of the important English translations of the Bible from around 1560, it would have been used by the likes of William Shakespeare and John Milton.

This translation is often called the ‘Breeches Bible’ because it describes Adam and Eve as sewing fig leaves to make "breeches" (a 16th century term for trousers), instead of the commonly used ‘aprons’ or ‘loincloths’, to cover their nakedness (Genesis 3:7).

Produced around 1400–1430, this is the oldest volume in the Library. It’s a manuscript book in parchment, with 119 sermons, believed to have been part of King Charles I’s personal collection.

The sermons were written by preacher William Perault (France, about 1190–1271) and were most probably copied in the early 15th century. A leaf of an earlier manuscript (late 14th century) has been used sideways as part of the binding. This is an excellent example of a ‘palimpsest’, ie, recycling parts of an old book to make a new one.

The volume was also owned by Thomas Vyvyan (about 1473–1533), prior of Bodmin (Cornwall), and R Jones, an 18th-century music master from Bath, before coming to London Museum as a part of items associated with the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate.

Picturesque rides and walks, with excursions by water, thirty miles round the British metropolis is a travel guide to localities around the city of London. This guide belonged to not one but two British monarchs.

The volume includes a unique bookplate from William IV, not recorded in the Royal Library collection.

However, the 'feather badge' on the book’s binding tells us that this volume must have been in the library of his elder brother George IV when he was Prince of Wales. In fact, the author J Hassell had dedicated his work to the then Prince Regent (1817).

During an audit of our library collection, we discovered four volumes of bound music with connections to a young Queen Victoria. Several pieces were inscribed: “Victoria Tunbridge Wells 17th August 1834”.

After approaching Gabrielle Fields (PhD student at Kensington Palace), we learned that the music was probably given to the princess on her mother’s birthday. The volumes have several instances of ‘piano fingerings’, pencil notes used to indicate which fingers should be used to produce specific notes.

Gabrielle reckons the volumes were used by the young princess to learn music – in fact, some of the pieces are well known to be her favourite operas.

This beautiful morning service prayer book was a gift from Queen Victoria to her beloved governess, tutor and companion Baroness Louise Lehzen. We don’t know if it was part of the queen’s collection before being gifted. But the dedication is handwritten by Victoria, dated 14 January 1838.

It was probably gifted during a short trip to Windsor after Victoria spent her first Christmas as a monarch in Buckingham Palace. The binding is in a rich (but now faded) purple velvet, with gilded guards and a clasp with the royal arms.

While these books have direct associations with a monarch (or two), we also hold several volumes with bindings that reveal a royal provenance. These would have been part of the royal library rather than personal copies.

Such books are often bound using expensive materials and decorated with motifs like monarch stamps, cyphers or monograms. The British Armorial Bindings online database is helpful to cross-reference suspected provenance.

Akin to most of our collections, these volumes were either purchased by or gifted to the museum during its long history. It’s worth remembering that the original London Museum was formed in 1911 with royal patronage and Kensington Palace as our first venue.

London Museum, therefore, has had a longstanding connection with the British royal family, and our collections reflect that very well.

Lluis Tembleque Teres is Librarian at London Museum.