Censoring Queen Victoria (21 page)

‘Although Victoria was Queen … the word “obey” …'
Martin,
The Prince Consort
, vol. 1, p. 72.

‘Lord Palmerston recognised the dilemma …'
quoted in
Cecil Woodham-Smith,
Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times (1819–1861)
, vol. 1, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1972, p. 252.

‘Victoria attempted to establish Albert unequivocally as head of household …'
C. Grey,
The Early Years of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort
, London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1869, pp. 293–4.

‘the defining elements of nineteenth-century masculinity …'
John Tosh, ‘What Should Historians Do with Masculinity? Reflections on Nineteenth-Century Britain,'
History Workshop
, vol. 38 (1994), p. 184.

‘stupid Prince George …'
from Queen Victoria's Journal, cited by Longford,
Victoria R.I
., p. 146. Queen Anne's consort, George of Denmark, was the most recent precedent but the situations were hardly comparable as the roles of monarchs varied even more than those of their consorts throughout and after the Early Modern period. Also Prince George had his own royal title as Prince of Denmark; Albert did not have a royal title.

‘Lord Melbourne wryly observed … that the consort of a queen was “an anomalous animal” …'
quoted in
Queen Victoria's Journal
, 27 January, 1840.

‘requires that the husband …'
quoted in Martin, p. 74.

‘Albert aimed to exercise “personal power unparalleled by any Consort” …'
Robert Rhodes James,
Albert, Prince Consort: A Biography
, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1983, p. 111.

‘Ernest reported … a quiet, happy but inglorious …'
Unpublished letter, Prince Ernest to King Leopold, Dated 1 May 1840, Coburg Archives, 567/WE22:66.

‘When a woman is in love, her desire for power becomes less and less …'
Hector Bolitho,
Albert the Good
, London, Cobden-Sanderson, 1932, p. 86.

‘For Albert there was no doubt that a Queen reigning …'
Monica Charlot,
Victoria: The Young Queen
, Oxford, Blackwells, 1991, p. 191. See also Chapters 11 and 12.

‘In June, an assassination attempt …'
Reports of the attempt were included by Benson and Esher,
Letters of Queen Victoria
, vol. I: Palmerston to Victoria, 10 June 1840; letters from the King of the French, and Lord Melbourne, 11 June 1840; from King Leopold, 13 June 1840. For more on the assassination attempts see Grey,
The Early Years
, pp. 316–8, which gives Albert's version of the first attempt. See also F.B. Smith, ‘Lights and Shadows in the Life of John Freeman',
Victorian Studies
, vol. 30, no. 4 (1987), pp. 459–73; and Trevor Turner, ‘Erotomania and Queen Victoria: Or Love among the Assassins?'
Psychiatric Bulletin
, vol. 14 (1990), pp. 224–7, which lists each of the seven assassination attempts and analyses them. On Victoria's escape: RA VIC/Y 32/39 & 32/41. Maria to Victoria, 5 July 1840. On Maria's escape: Torre do Tombo, Caixa 7324 CR/200–10. ‘It makes me shudder to think how narrowly you have escaped such great danger on the day of the riot' – Victoria to Maria, 16 May 1847.

‘Following this attack, and with all parties being aware of the perils of childbirth …'
In the 1840s, the mortality rate was conservatively estimated to be five maternal deaths per thousand live births. Pat Jalland,
Death in the Victorian Family
, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 46. Victoria was familiar with several tragic cases. In 1816, Leopold, as Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had married Charlotte, the Princess of Wales, the only legitimate grandchild of King George III and Queen Charlotte. After suffering several miscarriages she died at the age of twenty-two, following the difficult delivery of a
stillborn son. There was a huge outpouring of public grief upon her death, monuments were erected in her memory, and one of her physicians committed suicide three months later. Linda Colley,
Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837
, London, BCA, 1992, pp. 220–1, 270–2 and Longford,
Victoria R.I
., pp. 150–1.

Baron Stockmar had been present at Charlotte's death, and although this had occurred two years before Victoria's own birth, she knew about Charlotte's demise and the dangers of childbirth. In her journal, she recorded a discussion with Lord Melbourne in 1838 concerning Princess Charlotte, her life, her happiness with Leopold, and her tragic death. See Longford,
Victoria R. I
., p. 150, and Esher,
Girlhood Journal
, p. 278. It is now believed that Charlotte may have suffered a form of the disease porphyria, inherited from her grandfather, George III, which would have made her very susceptible to complications in childbirth. Ida McAlpine and Richard Hunter,
George III and the Mad-Business
, London, Pimlico (1969), 1995, pp. 241–6.

In 1839 Princess Marie of Württemberg, merely six years older than Victoria, had died of tuberculosis several months after the birth of a son. She was a sister of King Leopold's second wife, Louise, and had married Prince Alexander, one of Leopold's nephews. There is no direct mention of the cause of her death in Benson and Esher, but Leopold wrote to Victoria that Alexander's position ‘puts me in mind of my own in 1817'. Benson and Esher,
Letters of Queen Victoria
, vol. I, 11 and 18 January 1839.

‘I am to be Regent …'
Hector Bolitho ed.,
The Prince Consort and His Brother: Two Hundred New Letters
, London, Cobden-Sanderson, 1933, p. 21, Albert to Ernest, 17 July 1840.

‘Melbourne was delegated to raise the matter with Victoria …'
Quoted in Longford,
Victoria R.I
., p. 163. The Bill was passed on 13 July 1840.

‘The spirit of the age …'
Charlot, p. 189.

‘I wish you could see us …'
Bolitho, p. 31.

‘By May Victoria was again pregnant …'
For details see Roger Fulford, editor,
Dearest Child: Letters between Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal, 1858–61
, London, Evans Bros, 1964, p. 147, Victoria to her daughter Vicky, 27 November 1858; and Ward, ‘The Womanly Garb of Queen Victoria's Early Motherhood', pp. 285–6.

‘Following a debate in the House of Commons, Melbourne …'
Arnstein, pp. 44–5.

‘to prepare the ground …'
Longford, pp 168–70.

‘which suggests that Victoria was not happy …'
Charlot, pp. 199–204.

‘Albert was made chairman …'
Martin,
Prince Consort
, vol. I, pp. 118–9.

‘caricatures of English aristocrats …'
Charlot, pp. 203–4.

‘The response had been very different when Queen Adelaide …'
Dictionary of National Biography
entry for Queen Adelaide (1855), reprinted in Frank Prochaska,
Royal Lives: Portraits of Past Royals by Those in the Know
, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 116–8.

‘(falsely) accused of political meddling …'
Arnstein, pp. 96–7.

‘Benson described a set of letters from Princess Feodore …'
Some of her letters were published in Harold Albert,
Queen Victoria's Sister: The Life and Letters of Princess Feodore
, London, Hale, 1967.

‘House of Saxe-Coburg as the stud farm of Europe …'
Aronson,
The Coburgs of Belgium
, p. xvi.

‘Particular aspects of pregnancy and childbirth …'
See Judith Schneid Lewis,
In the Family Way: Childbearing in the British Aristocracy 1760–1860
, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1986; and Pat Jalland,
Women, Marriage and Politics, 1860–1914
, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1988.

‘arriving in Edinburgh in the first week of September …'
see details in Alex Tyrrell, with Yvonne M. Ward, ‘“God Bless Her Little Majesty”: The Popularising of Monarchy in the 1840s',
National Identities
, vol. 2, no. 2 (2000), pp. 109–25.

‘In their discussions of motherhood the two women hid …'
For an exploration of the hiding of emotions and anxieties in motherhood, see Susan Maushart,
The Mask of Motherhood: How Mothering Changes Everything and Why We Pretend It Doesn't
, Sydney, Vintage Books, 1997.

‘I think much more of our being like a cow …'
Fulford,
Dearest Child
, p. 115. Other examples p. 94 and pp. 77–8. See also Elizabeth K. Helsinger, ‘Queen Victoria and the “Shadow Side” of Marriage,' in Elizabeth K. Helsinger, Robin Lauterbach Sheets and William Veeder, eds,
The Woman Question: Defining Voices, 1837–1883
, vol. I, New York, Garland, 1983, pp. 63–77.

‘Maria and Victoria both adhered absolutely to the idea of patriarchy …'
But as Marina Warner pointed out, for Victoria, ‘however hard she schooled herself in adoration and abnegation, her natural spirit did not bend altogether, and some of the family pleasure – and pain – originated with her'. Marina Warner,
Queen Victoria's Sketchbook
, London, Macmillan, 1979, p. 137.

‘Before long it became clear …'
George Plumpetre,
Edward VII
, London, Pavilion books, 1995. Brodrick's account given in his memoirs is quoted p. 143. See also Plumpetre's critique of Esher and his behind-the-scenes activities, pp. 134ff, especially 139. Arthur Benson also heard Brodrick make these complaints: Benson Diary, Old Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, vol. 49, 16 March 1904.

‘Queen Victoria's letters revealed to Esher …'
As Reginald Brett, Esher had published
Yoke of Empire: Sketches of the Queen's Prime Ministers
, London, Macmillan, 1896, which he dedicated not to the Queen but to ‘The Queen's Youngest Prime Minister', Rosebery.

‘Certainly the work done by her and the P. Consort …'
M. Brett,
Journals and Letters
, vol. II, p. 97.

‘This was history with a purpose: to show present-day ministers …'
At a time when the House of Commons was becoming very powerful, Esher sought to bolster the position of the monarch. See William M. Kuhn,
Democratic Royalism
, pp. 72–8.

‘Palmerston had become a major figure in international …'
Much of the following detail is drawn from Brian Connell,
Regina vs Palmerston: The Private Correspondence between Queen Victoria and Her Foreign Minister, 1837–1865
, New York, Doubleday, 1961, and Arnstein,
Queen Victoria
, pp. 87–96.

‘He secured the independence of the Belgian throne …'
See the correspondence between King Leopold and Palmerston from 1831–65 in the Archives of the Royal Palace, Brussels and Palmerston Papers, Hartley Library Archives and Manuscripts, Southampton University.

‘Palmerston never forgave him …'
Longford,
Victoria R.I
., p. 223. Longford gives a lively account of ‘The Devil's Son' through Victoria and Albert's eyes, pp. 214ff.

‘Pilgerstein …'
Longford, p. 224.

‘If Esher were to incur the King's disapproval …'
See Lees-Milne, pp. 79–81, 150–2, and 154ff, for descriptions and analyses of the relationships between Esher, Knollys and the King.

‘The first was Arthur Bigge …'
Paul Emden,
The Power Behind the Throne
, pp. 199–210. In the Birthday Honours of 1910 he was awarded a KCB and the title Lord Stamfordham by King George V. In 1906 he signed his letters ‘Bigge' and was referred to as such by Knollys and Esher.

‘The second was John Morley …'
Magnus Magnusson, ed.,
Chambers Biographical Dictionary
, Chambers, Edinburgh, 1990, p. 1042. See also D.A. Hamer,
John Morley: Liberal Intellectual in Politics
, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1968. Esher had asked Morley, as a friend, to take on his eldest son, Oliver, as an assistant secretary in December 1905, and Morley had obliged. Lees-Milne, pp. 153–4.

‘In 1848 Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate …'
For details of the experiences of his wives, daughters and grandchildren and Victoria's assistance to them see Yvonne M. Ward, ‘1848: Queen Victoria and the
Cabinet d'horreurs
', in Kay Boardman and Christine Kinealy, eds,
1848: The Year the World Turned?
, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007, pp. 173–188.

‘Victoria's scorn for the 1848 revolutionaries …'
For political context see Simon Heffer,
Power and Place: The
Political Consequences of King Edward VII
, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, p. 132ff.

‘Victoria in effect was a mere accessory …'
Lytton Strachey,
Queen Victoria
, London, Chatto & Windus (1921) 1937, p. 125.

Aberdeen, Lord,
83
,
136
,
139

Adelaide, Princess of Saxe-Meiningen,
3
,
95
,
123
,
126
,
164

agricultural labourers,
142

Ainger, A.C.,
13
,
63–64

Albert of Saxe-Coburg, Prince Regent,
32

authorship of documents,
120
,
139

bedroom at Windsor Castle,
60

Bill for Regency,
118–119

biography of,
11
,
152

birth,
111–112

cataloguing system,
11

Ladies of Bedchamber crisis,
121

Leopold I, influence of,
112

mentors,
112

naturalisation as British subject,
118–119