A Royal History
Victoria (1819 - 1901)
Paul James on Queen Victoria
FOR more than a century Queen Victoria held two records: as England’s longest-lived monarch, reaching the age of 81 years, seven months, 29 days; and the country’s longest-reigning monarch, on the throne for 63 years, seven months, two days. She has been superseded by her great-great granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, who became our oldest monarch in 2007 and attained an even longer reign in 2015.
Our image of Queen Victoria has changed in recent years. She was once thought of as the Widow of Windsor. Reclusive, sombre, autocratic and humourless, her name became synonymous with the phrase “We are not amused!” The late Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, however, said, “Oh, but my grandmother was amused. She was amused by so many things. She loved to be entertained and she did laugh. I remember her rocking with laughter.”
Another grandchild, the notorious Kaiser Wilhelm, recalled a particular incident. At dinner one evening, Queen Victoria was seated beside a very deaf admiral, who began telling her about the sinking of his ship, the Eurydice. After a while the Queen changed the subject and asked the admiral about his sister, who was a friend of hers.
Believing that she was still talking about his ship, the admiral said in a loud voice, “Well, ma’am, I’m going to have her turned over and take a good look at her bottom and have it well scraped.”
“The effect of this answer was stupendous,” the Kaiser wrote. “My grandmother put down her knife and fork, hid her face in her handkerchief and shook and heaved with laughter until the tears rolled down her face.”
When a Dr Macgregor at Crathie Church, Balmoral, prayed for the Government and asked that God would “send His wisdom to the Queen’s ministers, who sorely need it”, Private Secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby noted that “Her Majesty turned purple in the face, trying not to laugh.” There is little wonder that her diaries frequently contain the phrase “I was very much amused!”
As Victoria withdrew from public view during her 40-year widowhood, there is the mistaken belief that she lived a secluded life behind palace walls, doing little but meddle in affairs of State. In 1983, when I was researching for a book about life at the court of Queen Victoria, the memorabilia of her Master of the Household, Lord Edward PelhamClinton, offered a revealing insight into the monarch’s life. The day-today diaries showed that she entertained on a grand scale and needed constant amusement. She may not have visited theatres or concert halls, but companies of actors, orchestras, choirs and musical societies were constantly called upon to put on private shows.
From the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company doing Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to the Royal Opera presenting Romeo and Juliet, many leading actors, singers and musicians of the day, ranging from Sarah Bernhardt to Paderewski, entertained wherever the Queen was staying. The Queen’s own staff and family staged plays for her, and in her seventies she continued to enjoy dancing.
Following afternoon tea during the winter of 1896, the Queen wrote that “so-called animated pictures were shown off, including the group taken in September at Balmoral. It is a very wonderful process, representing people, their movements and actions, as if they were alive.”
These were the earliest royal home movies. Victoria was the first monarch to be photographed and these pictures, taken in an age when the sitter had to hold their pose for several minutes, have done much to create the enduringly unamused image of the Queen. Yet, 200 years after her birth, we have now come to see her in a different light. It has been helped by
the ITV television series Victoria which dramatised her early life; Dame Judi Dench’s captivatingly witty portrayals in the films Mrs Brown (1997) and Victoria & Abdul (2017) as the older Queen; and recently rediscovered archive footage of Victoria on her last visit to Ireland wearing sunglasses and smiling as she received gifts of flowers.
The only child of the then Duke and Duchess of Kent, Victoria was born on 24 May, 1819, and was given the names Alexandrina Victoria.
It was not an easy childhood for the girl known as “Drina”. When she was just seven months old a boy shooting at sparrows accidentally fired his gun at the Duke while he was holding his daughter. The bullet missed the baby by a fraction of an inch, leaving a hole in her sleeve. One month later the Duke died of pneumonia at Sidmouth in Devon, and the Princess was then brought up by her mother.
Finances were tight and the young child was taught to be thrifty. When she came to the throne, she declared that she never wanted to eat mutton again, as she had eaten so much of it as a child. The Duchess of Kent was determined that her English-born daughter should receive a thoroughly English education. “How well she kept her promise,” wrote a contemporary, “and what a debt of gratitude England owes to her.”
No mention, however, was made to the girl of her proximity to the throne until she was twelve. One day, Victoria, as she now preferred to be called, discovered that a genealogical table had now been added to her history book that had not been there before. It revealed to her that she was the direct heir. Her lessons now included English Constitution, drawing and horsemanship. At mealtimes she was made to wear a sprig of holly at her throat, which encouraged her to keep her head up in a dignified manner while she ate.
She was kept largely out of the public eye, but undertook private visits to cathedrals and buildings of historical interest. From 1831 to 1834 the Princess and her mother made public tours of England, giving her first-hand experience of the country. As training for royal duty, she received many loyal toasts, listened to speeches and attended receptions.
Throughout her life she was generous to the poor and needy, making private visits each year to families that were suffering through illness or hardship, and made lifelong commitments to people that she found were in trouble. There are many recorded incidents of her sitting at the bedside of the dying and comforting the bereaved, and her financial donations were extensive.
When aged fifteen, she heard of an actress in Tunbridge Wells who had been widowed, was expecting a baby and was in great financial difficulty. Victoria immediately visited the woman and gave her £20, and later arranged to send the actress £40 a year for the rest of her life.
Three months after Victoria’s birth, her cousin Prince Albert was born in Coburg. From their infancy the family discussed the possibility of the Princess marrying Prince Albert one day. When he was three years old his nurse used to tell him about his “bride in England, the sweet May-flower.”
In May 1836 the couple met for the first time. Albert enjoyed his visit to London but frequently fell asleep throughout his four-week stay, being unused to the long social hours that Victoria kept. Although the couple promised to write to each other, soon Victoria was faced with more demanding thoughts than marriage.
On 24 May, 1837, the Princess came of age, a day that was celebrated as a national holiday. In less than a month, however, King William IV died, and in the early hours of 20 June Victoria was informed that she was Queen.
The following day she was publicly proclaimed as Sovereign and “wept without restraint”, a sight which moved everyone present and prompted Elizabeth Barrett Browning to record the moment in her poem Victoria’s Tears.
In July the new Queen took up residence at Buckingham Palace, the first Sovereign to make it their official home. She instigated many structural improvements and commissioned Edward Blore to build a private chapel. Originally the palace was U-shaped with three wings, but Victoria had a fourth built, turning it into a square, complete with balcony. Despite her youth, she kept a very strict routine and diligently attended to affairs of State, although she drew the line at working on a Sunday.
Queen Victoria’s Coronation was held in Westminster Abbey on 28 June, 1838, which she described as “a never-to-be-forgotten day.” St Edward’s Crown, made for Charles II and used at successive Coronations, was considered too heavy for the diminutive Queen, so a new Imperial State Crown was made using historic jewels. The Crown is still worn by Elizabeth II for the annual State Opening of Parliament.
Victoria ordered a smaller Coronation ring, which the
Archbishop of Canterbury forced on to the wrong finger during the ceremony. Before leaving the Abbey Victoria had to have her hand bathed
in iced water to remove it.
After the Coronation her uncle Leopold, King of Belgium, told her to consider marrying Prince Albert quickly, but she insisted that she was too young. She remained resolute, writing to her uncle in July 1839: “I may like him as a friend, and as a cousin, and as a brother, but not more.” That autumn, however, Prince Albert visited and Victoria found him changed. “He is perfection in every way – in beauty, in everything,” she later wrote. “Oh, how I adore and love him!”
She proposed to the Prince and the couple married on 10 February, 1840, at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. Theirs was undoubtedly a love match rather than a political alliance, although they encountered early problems because the Prince had no official position or duties. “In my home life I am very happy and contented,” he wrote to his family in Coburg, “but the difficulty in filling my place with proper dignity is that I am only the husband and not the Master of the house.”
Eventually he found a niche as a patron of the arts, reorganising the royal households to run efficiently and undoubtedly advising the Queen. He designed and had built Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Balmoral Castle in Scotland. One of his greatest achievements was the Great
Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.
Victoria and Albert had nine children and their marriage lasted for 21 years. Although Victoria fought with successive governments to improve her husband’s status and rank, it was not until 1857 that he was actually created Prince Consort.
In private, she relied upon Albert for everything and would not even buy a hat without first seeking his opinion. When he died in December 1861 she was inconsolable and suffered what today would be considered a nervous breakdown.
For her remaining 40 years she dressed almost entirely in black and kept Albert’s rooms as they were on the day he died, to the extent that hot water and a towel were taken to his bedroom each evening.
She came to hate change, and too much hustle and bustle could make her hysterical. I discovered a note amongst her papers that she wrote to the driver of the royal train, telling him to slow down because he was “going like the clappers”. She became reclusive and anxious about appearing or speaking in public for fear of bursting into tears. There were even rumours she had gone insane.
Despite many personal tragedies in her life, including premature deaths of two of her children and 10 of her grandchildren, Queen Victoria nevertheless triumphed through adversity. She turned mourning into an art form and became a stronger person through grief.
For a woman whose name has come to symbolise prudery, she found strength in a number of men. Lord Melbourne, her first Prime Minister, became a father figure; Benjamin Disraeli flirted with her (I found amongst her papers a tiny envelope with the words Secret – The Queen on it, and inside was a pin-up portrait photograph of Disraeli), and her ghillie John Brown became her “strong arm” after the death of Albert.
Her private secretary wrote that Brown was the “only person who could make the Queen do what she did not wish.” Throughout her life she disliked tea, but would drink a cup if John Brown made it. Once she told him that his was the best tea that she had ever drunk. “Well, it should be, ma’am,” he replied. “I put a grand nip o’ whisky in it.”
When she died, at her request a photo of Brown was placed inside her coffin, along with a lock of his hair and a wedding ring. It had belonged to John Brown’s mother, but has since fuelled rumours that he and the Queen might secretly have married.
In old age she came to rely heavily on a young Indian servant, Abdul Karim, the “Munshi”. He was twenty-four, slim and clever, and it is said that the Queen “bubbled with enthusiasm” about him. She soon promoted him from waiting at table to the position of her secretary or clerk – the Indian word for clerk is Munshi.
She arranged for him to have an English tutor and she started to learn Urdu and Hindustani and began eating curries. She had his portrait painted by one of the top artists of the day and became preoccupied with India. Cottages were built for Abdul Karim on her various estates and soon he had his own office, with staff. Like John Brown before him, he was hated by the Queen’s family and staff. After her death, King Edward VII had a bonfire at Frogmore and burned all Abdul Karim’s papers. The Munshi was sent back to India and died there in 1909.
During Queen Victoria’s long reign, technological and sociological advances were immense. When she ascended the throne, railway travel was considered a novelty and electricity an “amusing puzzle of physics”. By the time of her death the motor car had been invented and two telephones had been installed at Buckingham Palace. Education, medicine, domestic comforts and the
general standard of living dramatically improved. Inventions and political changes are almost too numerous to chronicle, more than in any previous period of history. The British Empire expanded and in 1877 she was proclaimed Empress of India.
Although Queen Victoria lived a far less public life than our present Royal Family, she was powerful and ruled her country, family and household with a rod of iron, staying active into her eighties. She was a prolific letter writer, expressing her opinions forcefully. She kept a diary for almost 70 years until just nine days before her death, and published extracts from her journals during her lifetime. She was a skilled artist and pianist.
She loved playing cards for money. All who lost to her were required to pay in newly minted coins, so her ladies-in-waiting had to keep a large supply, in case they were asked to play. She loved dogs and owned many in her lifetime of various breeds, particularly Pomeranians. Her kennels at Windsor were luxurious and could house 80 dogs. In 1891 she exhibited seven of her dogs at a show organised by Charles Cruft and became the first Patron of the Battersea Dogs Home.
Her favourite tipple was claret fortified with Scotch whisky, and after Prince Albert died she drank a glass of whisky every night to help her sleep. She loved food, particularly chocolate cake. If there was a choice of puddings, she tried them all. When her doctor tried to put her on a lighter diet and recommended a milky cereal called Benger’s Food, she had it in addition to her normal diet!
Queen Victoria also had her dislikes, which included babies, hot rooms, the telephone, the music of Handel, her Prime Minster, William Gladstone, and tobacco smoke. She also never took to the motor car. “I am told that they smell exceedingly nasty,” she once wrote, “and are very shaky and disagreeable conveyances altogether.”
She took a keen interest in the social welfare of her subjects and tried to keep in tune with the public’s wishes. When Sir Robert Peel introduced an income tax for those who earned more than £150 per annum, the Queen paid her sevenpence in the pound like her wealthier subjects. Troubled by the many conflicts during her reign, she instituted the Victoria Cross as the highest award for the most valiant.
Celebrations for her Golden and Diamond Jubilees coaxed Victoria to make more public appearances. “No-one ever, I believe, has met with such an ovation as was given to me,” the Queen wrote in June 1897. “The crowds were quite indescribable, and their enthusiasm truly marvellous and deeply touching. The cheering was quite deafening, and every face seemed to be filled with real joy.”
By her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen had outlived all members of the Privy Council alive at the time of her accession, all but two of the Peers who held their titles in 1837 and all but five members of the House of Commons. She’d seen 10 Prime Ministers and five Archbishops of Canterbury.
In her final years the Boer Wars caused her anguish. Despite failing eyesight, rheumatism and sciatica, she visited wounded soldiers and reviewed troops with zest. When Ladysmith was relieved in 1900, the Queen made triumphal drives through the streets of London. Mafeking was liberated days before her final birthday. Although lacking in mobility and suffering from insomnia, Victoria maintained a full diary in 1900, even interrupting her holiday at Balmoral to visit the victims of a train crash.
Queen Victoria attended her last official engagement on 18 December, 1900, when she toured an industrial exhibition before sailing to the Isle of Wight for a subdued Christmas at Osborne House. On 17 January, 1901, she suffered a slight stroke and gradually faded away.
Queen Victoria died at 6.30 pm on 22 January, 1901, surrounded by her surviving children and grandchildren. Undertakers were forbidden to attend to her body and it was family members who lifted her into her coffin. The very last person allowed to see her was Abdul Karim, the Munshi.
The Queen’s final journey was across the Solent to Portsmouth on the royal yacht Alberta, then by train to Victoria Station at a speed she would have hated. Hundreds of thousands lined the streets as the cortege made its way to Paddington, where her coffin travelled by train to Windsor. It is said that people knelt in the fields as it passed by. She, who had been so associated with black, had asked for a white funeral. There was a white pall over her coffin and London was festooned with purple and white.
She was laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, near Windsor Castle. When the family came out after the service, it began to snow. Sir Henry Ponsonby once said that there was nobody like Victoria for arranging the minute details and that she had achieved her wish for a white funeral.
The effigy for her tomb had been carved almost 40 years earlier in 1862, at the same time as Prince Albert’s, and so it is the image of a young Queen that now gazes adoringly at her beloved husband for all eternity.