‘The Hearts of the Millions’: Chartism and Popular Monarchism in the 1840s

Abstract

Despite the emergence of an abrasive sense of class‐consciousness during the 1830s, an investigation into the Chartists’ attitudes to monarchy highlights the limits of their challenge. For most Chartists the queen was not the problem. While some Chartists saw a positive role for the ‘pre‐Bagehot monarchy’ in attaining the Charter, others had discovered Bagehot's circumscribed monarchy long before he had. This recognition of the queen's supra‐political status did not necessarily lead to republican conclusions. For many Chartists, Britain's ‘mild monarchy’ was the exception to the republican rule precisely because of its limitations. Either way, many Chartists were prepared to build their campaign for democracy around the monarchy.