Having dealt with dress-down Queen Victoria in a letter to The Times (below), Alistair Lexden explained in a letter in The Daily Telegraph on 24 June how the State Opening of Parliament came about in the form we know it today.
SIR-- The annual State Opening of Parliament by the monarch wearing robes and crown -- set aside by the Queen this week -- was devised by Edward VII and George V just over a century ago.
During the last 40 years of her life, Queen Victoria refused to dress up or even read her speech on the few occasions when she opened Parliament in person.
On his accession in 1901 Edward VII declared that he would observe “as grand State as possible”. What was to be a traditional carriage procession brought him down to the Lords where he donned a flowing crimson robe and read his speech (with his women friends seated in the gallery).
Three years after his accession in 1910, George V decided to add the final touch. He wrote in his diary on March 10 1913: “I wore my Crown as many people wished it and had not been worn for opening of Parliament for over 60 years”.
Lord Lexden
London SW1