If I had to pick one scene from The Young Victoria as my favorite, it would be the one where Prince Albert is teaching Victoria how to shoot an arrow from her bow. Apart from reminding me strongly of a similar moment in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and the modern popular culture heroines Merida (from Brave) and Katniss (from The Hunger Games fame), the archery scene is such a perfect combination of elite culture, courtship, and…coronation rites? But then I begin to wonder, why archery?
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Albert teaches Victoria the fine art of archery.
Source: miss-dashwood.blogspot.com/
According to Martin Johnes, although bows and arrows were no longer used as weapons by the end of the seventeenth century, “a taste for the gothic and medieval (Johnes, 193)” kept the practice alive as entertainment for the British aristocrats. Encouraged by the royal affiliation of George, prince of Wales, the already flourishing society of recreational bowmen and archers became one of the most agreeable pastimes for those of wealth in the late eighteenth century, and by the rise of the nineteenth, the art of the longbow had become a fashion great enough to inspire industries to be formed after it.
One of the surprisingly most interesting advantages of archery however, came from its acceptance of female enthusiasts. Archery was open to men and women, practiced in social settings, and apparently provided the perfect opportunity for the ladies to display their feminine forms and features, and the gentlemen to admire them. The innocent sport, which originated from warfare then, seemed to have been turned, by the British, into a way of flirtation- finding love.
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Princess Mia learns to shoot.
Source: glogster.com
Owing to a severe lack of evidence, however, I remain unsure of whether and why it really exists as an official coronation rite for the British monarch.
Sources:
– Johnes, Martin. Archery, Romance and Elite Culture in England and Wales c. 1780- 18. The Historical Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2004.
