8. Prince Albert’s Dressing Gown
Prince Albert’s dressing gown must have held incredible significance for Queen Victoria, considering that she insisted on his servants continuing to lay it out every morning for him. There are plenty of arguments that the queen conjured up his spirit in seances and believed that he never left her. Some have even suggested that John Brown, her Scottish lover after the untimely death of her husband, channeled Prince Albert and in doing so kept him very much alive to the queen. Perhaps she believed that his ghost donned his dressing gown every day, just as if he were physically present with his queen.
Inside the queen’s coffin was the prince’s dressing gown, on top of a layer of charcoal, which was there for absorbing the wetness and odors of decomposition. The queen’s body lay directly on top of it. Perhaps there was an occultic significance to this particular item being placed in her coffin the way that it was and she believed his spirit would inhabit it, thereby even further uniting them in death. Perhaps she was merely so attached to it that she could think of no other way to spend eternity than on top of it. Whatever the case may be, it was probably one of the more “normal” items placed in her coffin.