Royal Prayers: A Surprising History - Hardcover

"Quite a 'cabinet of curiosities'...clear and engaging and ...of great interest." The Good Bookstall, March 2010. Title mention in Daily Telegraph, November 2009 Mention in Church Times 11/12/09 "Did you know that Napoleon, who probably numbered King Charles II (merry monarch of many mistresses) among his forbears, was a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington? Or that the first Princess to christen a ship flung the bottle at its side, missed, and struck a spectator who sued the Admiralty for damages? Or that the tune of the ' Star-Spangled Banner' was composed by George III's organist at St James's Palace?" "All these delightfully unexpected details and many more garnish the deep but always lightly worn scholarship of David Baldwin. His new book has a richly rewarding theme never previously explored: how over the centuries royal prayers in peace and war have made an immense contribution to national and social unity. Learning with light-heartedness: that's Baldwin's formula, and it's a winner.Put it on your Christmas reading list." - Alistair Cooke OBE MA PhD, Official historian of the Conservative Party and of the Carlton Club "This is a fascinating and surprising history of prayer." Driffield Leader, February 2010 "Informative and entertaining." Church Times, 18 December, 2009.--Sanford Lakoff "Serjeant of the Vestry of Her Majesty's Chapels Royal, Baldwin surveys examples and conditions under which leaders ask for divine assistance. Among them are royal launching and christening of ships, royal prayers for Bonapartes, a prophecy of 1732 written in the year of George Washington's birth, prayers of the Russian royal family, royal prayers of royal patronage, prayers of Princess of Wales Diana, and royal prayer in the exploration of earth and space and the development of nuclear theology." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.

From Queen Hatshepsut to Diana, Princess of Wales via George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, this book demonstrates that royal prayers can have immense consequence for the psyche of the nation as well as the individual. Such prayers as were forthcoming during key wartime broadcasts affected the morale of the nation and its forces and, in some demonstrable cases, changed the face of history. The National Day of Prayer revolving around the evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk remains in the memories and psyche of those who personally experienced those events. That is echoed today in the 'hands-on' royal support of the current defence and well-being of the nation, through care for the injured and their relatives amongst those who find themselves involved in the operations of the forces of the Crown, to the actual creation of warships for that purpose, such as the Royal Christening of the latest nuclear-powered submarine in the Royal Navy. The blessing of ships has its origin in Ancient Greece, was practised by the Vikings and has developed through the 19th century feminisation of ships to the 21st century need to take account of the presence of other faiths, eg Muslim sailors in the Royal Navy. Royal prayer today encompasses the exploration of Earth and Space, the development of Nuclear Theology and the challenges presented by quantum physics. The author draws on prayers both for and of the Royal Family (and those directly associated with them in royal service) in the Archives of Her Majesty's Chapel Royal and much further afield in other national repositories and private collections, in this sometimes startling reappraisal of the place and significance of Royal Prayer.