Once again, May is here! And if you are newer to An Historian About Town, I pick a theme to focus on for the month of May. While not every post for the month of May is related to the theme, there will be at least one post a week that is. And for 2024, our May theme is royal tours. I’ve chosen this for two reasons: my own research is focused on royal tours to Canada (mostly 1901 to the present, but I am familiar with those prior), and royal tours are still some of the most popular royal events. Onto May 2024: Royal Tour History!
Royal Tours to Canada
For the most part, I will be focusing on Canadian royal tours, as that is where my knowledge and resources are focused. However, if you would like me to touch on other royal tours (ie. other monarchies or the Windsor family heading to other Commonwealth nations), please leave a comment down below!
What is a Royal Tour?
Before we dive into this month, I wanted to quickly cover what a royal tour is as it gets thrown around a lot. A royal tour is an official royal visit where they are visiting their realms and/or dominions (depending on the time period). Private visits do not fall into this category, where members of the Royal Family are visiting various places as a vacation essentially. Nor do state visits, where members of the Royal Family are visiting other nations as a form of diplomacy. (Nowadays, state visits are usually when we get tiara sightings- state dinners are typically formal enough for tiaras.) For the British Royal Family, royal tours are typically to Commonwealth nations where the monarch (currently King Charles III) is the head of state.
Why Royal Tours?
I often get asked why I study royal tours in particular. I find that they occupy a particular space in royal events- they are not a state visit but they also are not a local visit for a monarch. And since 1931, Canada has had a separate throne from the United Kingdom, but the monarch obviously doesn’t live here- it is rather a modern engagement/event that has developed with spreading empires and now separate kingdoms.
I also saw Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip when they visited Canada in 2002 for the Golden Jubilee, and I have been fascinated ever since. (A huge thank you to my Grandpa for buying me Majesty magazines at 9 and for taking me when they visited.) It immediately stood out to me as a separate role of the monarchy from both ceremonial events and regular engagements in the UK, as it rather combines both elements often throughout a tour.
The role of the monarchy is evolving right now- by that I mean, Canada, the UK, Australia, etc are all evaluating what the role of the monarchy should or could be (or if it should exist). While the UK is probably further away from the discussion than other nations, these questions are still being asked. Royal tours tend to bring these questions into the spotlight.
And if I’m being entirely honest, it is a practical choice- there tends to be a decent amount of sources to reference when it comes to tours as opposed to other, more regular events.
You can expect posts on the history of royal tours in general, what their historical and current roles are, royal tour fashion history, as well as some of my own historic pieces from royal tours!
Want more royal history? Visit my Monarch of the Month series!
Again, welcome to our themed May 2024: Royal Tour History!
Cheers,
The Historian
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