The last twenty years of Victoria's reign found her court resurgent in society. The jubilee years of 1887 and 1897 provided the occasion for spectacular ceremonial with the queen at its centre, and brought to Britain representatives of all the European powers and of Britain's colonies. But the opening up of the court was not confined to the great celebrational years: the 1880s and 1890s in general saw a lightening of the queen's mood -- after all, Albert had been dead now for as many years as their marriage had lasted -- and to an extent, and in a transformed fashion, the queen's court became accessible to the social elite.
By the end of Victoria's reign, the British court had thrown off all ideas that it was merely the foremost 'great house' among the many great houses of the aristocracy, where a small, personally-known elite could gather in an extension of the social and political life of the capital and the country houses. The process of separating the interests of the monarchy from the aristocracy which Albert had begun, was completed by the long years of the queen's seclusion. At the same time, the elite was expanding. Presentation at court became the aim of a widening circle, including business magnates, colonial dignitaries, upper-middle class professionals, bankers, and American plutocrats. For young women with socially ambitious parents, the ritual of presentation at court, with its prescribed dress, rows of carriages arriving at Buckingham Palace, crowded rooms, and silent curtsey before the queen (or her deputy) was the ticket which opened the doors to the houseparties, balls and other events at which eligible marriage partners might be found. The court presentation records, examined by Nancy Ellenberger,reveal the great increase in the numbers of young women who found it necessary or desirable to go to court: only twice in the 1840s did the annual number of women presented exceed 400, but only once in the 1890s did the number fall below 800 (the 1892 season was greatly disrupted by the death of the Prince of Wales's eldest son, the Duke of Clarence).
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