Victoria ‘mounted furious defence’ of Church of Scotland

A FURIOUS Queen Victoria planned to admonish the Archbishop of Canterbury over English attempts to “destroy” the Church of Scotland, a newly discovered letter has revealed.

The correspondence, dated Nov 13, 1866 and hailed as “significant” by experts, was among a cache of letters found last week in a locked box in the home of a descendant of Norman Macleod, a church minister who served as the monarch’s religious counsellor.

Historians believe that the document was intended for Gerald Wellesley, the Dean of Windsor, who was Victoria’s primary advisor on church matters.

An aide wrote that the Queen could “no longer remain silent” about “[serious] and indeed alarming” threats to the Church of Scotland, which she believed were “encouraged” by the Archbishop at the time, Charles Longley.

It warned of “shameful” attempts to convert Presbetarian congregations to Episcopalianism, at a time when there was rising concern over the growing influence of the Scottish Episcopal Church and Anglo-catholic ritualism.

The letter reveals that Victoria said that she would “not stand the attempts made to destroy the [truly] Protestant faith of the Church of Scotland”.