That weekend Alfred’s surgeons at Gotha made preparations to give him a tracheotomy to assist his breathing, but it was too late. On the evening of 30 July he died in his sleep.
‘Oh, God! My poor darling Affie gone too!’ the Queen wrote in her journal. ‘One sorrow, one trial, one anxiety, following another! It is a horrible year, nothing but sadness and horrors of one kind and another.’14 The news came exactly a day after the assassination of King Humbert of Italy; he was not related to the family, but any news of royal assassinations at such a time was bound to depress her further. She had seen Alfred very little during the last few years, and of all her sons he had been the one least close to her in adult life. Yet she was deeply upset by his passing, and felt her family and doctors ‘should never have withheld the truth’ from her as long as they did.15 She tried to console herself with recollections of his childhood, when he had seemed to hold such great promise, with his love of building mechanical toys and learning geography. To Marie Mallet she talked sadly one evening about his happy days at Osborne, his childish likes and dislikes, and the lady-in-waiting could see that to the elderly woman ‘he was once more the happy boy’.16
Although the Duke had never been the most popular member of the family with the British public, the Lord Mayor of London paid tribute to him in a speech opening the proceedings of a conference on the War Funds Organisation at Mansion House, the day after his death, recognising ‘his devotion to his profession as a sailor, his passionate love for music, and his intense affection for his native land’.17 In Devonport, with which he had been closely identified in the years immediately preceding his succession to the German dukedom, his identification with philanthropic institutions in the district was fondly remembered.
The Prince of Wales represented the family at his brother’s funeral at Coburg. On his way back from the ceremony, he visited the widowed Empress Frederick in her home at Friedrichshof, near Kronberg. For over a year, the family had been alarmed at rumours about her state of health, and he learnt that she too was mortally stricken with cancer of the spine. She was in agony much of the time, almost bedridden, and sometimes her attacks of pain were so severe that it seemed as if she, like Affie, might predecease their mother. Bertie returned home in a mood of black depression.
At Osborne, Christmas 1900 was the saddest the family had known since the Prince Consort’s death. Since the autumn, Queen Victoria’s normally healthy appetite had become poor, and she was now almost blind. She knew that soon it would be time for her eldest son to come into the inheritance for which he had been destined since birth. While they had been at Balmoral in the first week of November, Marie Mallet thought it curious that the Queen remarked to her how she wished to die after the Prince Consort’s death, but now she wanted to live and do what she could for her country and those whom she loved. Mrs Mallet thought it ‘a very remarkable utterance’ for a woman of her age, and as it was not the first time she had spoken along such lines, she wondered whether the Queen ‘dreads the influence of the Prince of Wales?’18 Even if she had forgiven and forgotten his involvement with the Tranby Croft affair and other indiscretions, she suspected that others had not.
‘Another year begun and I am feeling so weak and unwell that I enter upon it sadly,’19 she wrote in her journal on 1 January 1901, or rather dictated, as she could no longer see to write herself. On 17 January she had a mild stroke, and the family were warned to prepare for the worst. The Prince of Wales arrived at Osborne from Sandringham, and the Duke of Connaught was summoned from Berlin, where he had been attending celebrations for the bicentenary of the Hohenzollern dynasty. With them came their eldest nephew, Emperor William, who, for all the disrespectful utterances behind his grandmother’s back, had always revered and respected her deeply.
They joined the hushed vigil around the bed at Osborne where the Queen lay dying, slipping away like ‘a great three-decker ship sinking’, in the words of her son-in-law Lord Lorne. On 22 January, shortly before she became unconscious for the last time, with a supreme effort of strength which was almost beyond her, she held out her arms to the Prince of Wales, as she softly mouthed the word ‘Bertie’. At about 6.30 that evening, the Dean of Windsor was reading the prayers for the dying and noticed that she was staring at the Prince of Wales and at Dr Reid, who was sitting in front of the heir. Then her eyes flickered, and seemed to be gazing at the figure of the dead Christ in a painting over the fireplace. Then, the Bishop noticed, there was a change of look and complete calm. She opened her eyes wide, ‘and knew she saw beyond the Border land and had seen and met all her loved ones’. As he finished reading the prayer, she quietly drew her last breath.
Prompted by Reid, her eldest son – who in that instant had become king – leaned forward, closed her eyes, and then broke down.20
When Queen Victoria died, she left a strong and prosperous country behind her. Her reign had seen enormous changes, and the next few decades would usher in many more. She bequeathed her eldest son a strong, well-respected throne which had weathered the scandals of only a few years earlier, and during his nine-year reign he would inaugurate a very different, more affable, yet equally popular style of monarchy. The political landscape of Britain was changing, with the issue of Home Rule for Ireland – as tackled with scant success by Gladstone – gaining momentum, and with Labour members of parliament on the way to supplanting the Liberals as the alternative party to the Conservatives in opposition and then in government. Britain’s relations with her European neighbours would also undergo radical change, with the Queen’s eldest grandson in Berlin, Emperor William, proclaiming his adoration for England, only to find himself a powerless exile in Holland less than twenty years later.
Edwardian Britain was a swan-song for, or in some respects an orderly closing chapter of, the Victorian age, before the outbreak of the First World War brought the curtain down on the old order. That the country made a relatively orderly transition to the new world beyond and came to terms with its status as a reduced world power can be attributed in part to the legacy and influence of the Queen, and the men who ruled the country, represented her and worked with her during the nineteenth century.
Notes
Abbreviations: QVJ: Queen Victoria’s Journal (Royal Archives); NA: National Archives, London; A: Albert, Prince Consort; KL: King Leopold of the Belgians; QV: Queen Victoria (including references to her before accession); V: Princess Victoria, later German Crown Princess and Empress; RA: Royal Archives
Chapter One (pp. 3–19)
1 Crewe, Lord Rosebery, vol. II, p. 437
2 Fulford, Royal Dukes, p. 162
3 Duff, Hessian Tapestry, p. 127
4 Stanhope, Notes of Conversations, p. 128
5 Fulford, Royal Dukes, p. 202
6 Kuhn, Henry and Mary Ponsonby, p. 204
7 St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, p. 12
8 Duff, Edward of Kent, p. 294
9 Longford, Victoria RI, p. 24 (all subsequent Longford references are to this title unless stated otherwise)
10 Ibid., p. 26; Aronson, Victoria & Disraeli, p. 7
11 Victoria, Girlhood, vol. I, p. 166, QVJ 16.9.1835
12 Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, p. 104, QVJ 6.10.1835
13 Thompson, Queen Victoria, p. 3
14 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, p. 72, KL to QV, 17.6.1837
15 Wilson, The Victorians, p. 25
16 Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, p. 128, KL to QV, 12.3.1839
17 RA Y 82/113, KL to QV, 12.4.1861
18 Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, p. 119, QV to KL, 17.5.1836
19 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, pp. 48–9, QV to KL, 23.5.1836
20 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, p. 49, QV to KL, 7.6.1836
21 Weintraub, Victoria, p. 100
22 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, pp. 177–8, QV to KL, 15.7.1839
23 Longford, p. 127
24 Victoria, Girlhood, vol. II, p. 262, 10.10.1839
25 Victoria, Letters 1837–1
861, vol. I, p. 201, QV to A, 8.12.1839
26 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, p. 269, QV to A, 31.1.1840
27 Ibid., vol. I, p. 217, QV to KL, 11.2.1840
28 Albert, Letters 1831–1861, p. 69, A to William zu Löwenstein, May 1840
29 RA Y54/4, Melbourne to Anson, 28.5.1840; Hibbert, Queen Victoria, pp. 126–7
30 RA Y/54.8, memo by Anson, 15.8.1840; Eyck, Prince Consort, p. 22
31 RA Y/54.3, memo by A, 15.4.1840; Eyck, Prince Consort, p. 24
32 Hibbert, Queen Victoria, p. 367
33 Fulford, Prince Consort, p. 276
34 Tingsten, Victoria, p. 81
35 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. III, p. 362, QV to KL, 3.2.1852
Chapter Two (pp. 20–34)
1 St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, p. 142
2 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, p. 7, QV to KL, 6.2.1844
3 Longford, p. 160, A to Stockmar, 16.1.1842
4 Ibid.
5 Eyck, Prince Consort, p. 30
6 Albert, Letters 1831–1861, p. 96, A to Stockmar, 10.5.1845
7 QVJ 12.5.1845
8 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, pp. 317–18, QV to KL, 3.5.1851
9 Eyck, Prince Consort, p. 164, Grey to A, 12.5.1851
10 Fulford, Prince Consort, p. 159
11 Victoria, Dearest Child, pp. 111–12, QV to V, 9.6.1858
12 Ibid., p. 205, QV to V, 10.8.1859
13 Ibid., p. 265, QV to V, 11.7.1860
14 Duff, Albert and Victoria, p. 229
15 Victoria, Leaves 1848–1861, p. 226, 8.10.1861
16 Longford, pp. 265–6, James Clark diary 5.2.1856
17 Ibid., p. 264, A to QV, 5.11.1856
18 Tingsten, Victoria, pp. 89–90
19 Friedman, Inheritance, p. 19
20 Ibid.
21 Callan, ‘Victoria fancied Albert’
22 Martin, Life, vol. V, p. 415
23 Friedman, Inheritance, p. 24
24 Victoria, Dearest Mama, p. 23, QV to V, 18.12.1861
25 Victoria, Further Letters, pp. 154–5, QV to Queen Augusta, 31.5.1865
26 St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, p. 333
27 Vitzthum, St Petersburg, vol. II, p. 176
28 Kuhn, Henry and Mary Ponsonby, p. 147
29 Duff, Albert and Victoria, p. 17
30 Longford, p. 305
31 Fulford, Prince Consort, p. 276
32 Guedalla, Palmerston, p. 382
33 Victoria, Letters 1862–1885, vol. I, pp. 218–19, KL to QV, 15.6.1864
34 Ibid., vol. I, p. 287, QVJ 10.12.1865
35 Richardson, My Dearest Uncle,p. 217
36 Longford, p. 323
Chapter Three (pp. 37–54)
1 James, Rosebery, pp. 29–30
2 Longford, p. 66
3 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, p. 82, QV to KL, 3.7.1837
4 Victoria, Girlhood, vol. II, p. 135, 22.3.1839
5 Longford, p. 69
6 Greville, Memoirs, vol. IV, p. 135, 12.9.1838
7 Victoria, Girlhood, vol. II, p. 144, QVJ 7.4.1839
8 Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, p. 144
9 RA M7/68, Duchess of Kent to QV, 20.6.1837; Longford, p. 66
10 Greville, Diary, vol. II, p. 14, 21.6.1837
11 Maxwell, Wellington, vol. II, p. 312
12 Ibid., vol. II, p. 316, Wellington to Mr Arbuthnot, 15.2.1838
13 Longford, Wellington, p. 347
14 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, p. 62, QV to KL, 14.3.1837
15 Greville, Diary, vol. II, p. 88
16 The Times, 13.5.1839
17 Ibid., 15.5.1839
18 Thursfield, Peel, p. 171
19 Duff, Albert and Victoria, p. 99
20 Victoria, Girlhood, vol. II, pp. 285–6, 25.12.1839
21 RAY 54/51, memo by Anson, 12.6.1841; Rhodes James, Albert,p. 124
22 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, p. 305, memo by Anson, 30.8.1841
23 Cecil D., Lord M, p. 310
24 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. I, pp. 340–1, memo by Stockmar, 6.10.1841
25 Greville, Diary, vol. II, p. 140, 4.8.1841
26 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, p. 16, V to KL, 18.6.1844
27 Mullen and Munson, Victoria, p. 49
28 QVJ 9.6.1842
29 QVJ 18.2.1845
30 Mitchell, Melbourne, p. 249
31 Ibid., p. 276
32 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, p. 203, V to KL, 21.11.1848
33 RA L16/32, V to Henry Ponsonby, 9.1.1890
34 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, p. 87, V to KL, 7.7.1846
35 Jenkins, Gladstone, p. 338
36 St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, p. 217
37 QVJ 2.7.1850
38 QVJ 12.11.1851
39 Maxwell, Wellington, vol. II, pp. 370–1
40 QVJ 22.4.1852
41 Victoria, Leaves 1848–1861, p. 137, 16.9.1852
42 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, p. 394, QV to KL, 17.9.1852
Chapter Four (pp. 55–72)
1 Airlie, Lady Palmerston, vol. II, p. 122
2 Victoria, Letters 1837–1861, vol. II, p. 264, QV to Russell, 12.8.1850
3 Connell, Regina v. Palmerston, p. 127, QV to Palmerston, 10.9.1850
4 Cecil A., Queen Victoria, p. 152, QV to KL, 22.2.1851
5 Chambers, Palmerston, p. 352, Lady Palmerston to Lord Palmerston, 17.9.1853
6 Ridley, Palmerston, p. 406
7 Longford, p. 241
8 Connell, Regina v. Palmerston, pp. 163–4, QVJ 5.2.1855
9 QVJ 21.8.1856
10 QVJ 20.2.1858
11 Victoria, Dearest Child, p. 194, QV to V, 14.6.1859
12 NA Russell MSS, Palmerston to Russell 28.12.1861
13 Victoria, Letters 1862–1885, vol. I, pp. 14–15, QVJ 29.1.1862
14 Ridley, Palmerston, p. 570, Palmerston to QV, 4.1.1864
15 Connell, Regina v. Palmerston, p. 360, QVJ 18.10.1865
16 QVJ 16.3.1852
17 QVJ 1.4.1852
18 Monypenny and Buckle, Life, vol. I, p. 1266 19 Greville, Memoirs, vol. VII, p. 195
20 Bradford, Disraeli, p. 251
21 Monypenny and Buckle, Disraeli, vol. II, p. 126
22 Ibid., vol. II, pp. 127–8, QV to Disraeli, 24.4.1863
23 Ibid., vol. II, p. 121
24 Victoria, Letters 1862–1885, vol. I, p. 505, Disraeli to QV, 26.2.1868
25 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 158
26 Ibid., p. 160
27 QVJ 27.9.1868
28 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 194, Dean of Windsor to Gladstone, 27.11.1868
29 Morley, Life, p. 425
30 Guedalla, The Queen and Mr Gladstone, p. 8
31 Jenkins, Gladstone, p. 335
32 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 199
33 Ibid., p. 200, Grey to Gladstone, 9.6.1869
34 Ibid., p. 207, Gladstone to Granville, 3.12.1870
35 Ibid., p. 209, QV to Hatherley, 10.8.1871
36 Ibid., p. 210, Gladstone to Henry Ponsonby, 16.8.1873
37 Ibid., Gladstone to Granville, 1.10.1871
38 Weintraub, Disraeli, p. 498
39 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 199, QV to Gladstone, 8.1.1869
40 Ibid., p. 214, Gladstone to QV, 17.7.1872
41 Ibid., pp. 214–15, QV to Gladstone, 5.8.1872
42 Ibid., p. 218, QV to Henry Ponsonby, 18.11.1874
Chapter Five (pp. 73–94)
1 Monypenny and Buckle, Life, vol. II, p. 626
2 Aronson, Victoria and Disraeli, p. 126
3 Victoria, Darling Child, p. 130, QV to V, 24.2.1874
4 Monypenny and Buckle, Life, vol. II, p. 453
5 James, Rosebery, p. 64
6 Ponsonby A., Henry Ponsonby, p. 245, Henry Ponsonby to Mary Ponsonby, April 1875
7 Maxwell, Wellington, vol. II, p. 346
8 Cecil A. Queen Victoria, p. 208
9 Aronson, Heart of a Queen, p. 193
10 Ibid., p. 197
11 Monype
nny and Buckle, Life, vol. II, p. 788, Disraeli to QV, 24.11.1875
12 Ibid., vol. II, p. 378, Princess Christian to Mrs Disraeli, 12.5.1868
13 Aronson, Heart of a Queen, p. 194
14 Mullen and Munson, Victoria, p. 102
15 Blake, Disraeli, p. 637
16 Marie Louise, Six Reigns, p. 24
17 Bradford, Disraeli, p. 340
18 Aronson, Heart of a Queen, p. 189
19 The Times, 8.8.1878
20 Ponsonby, M., Mary Ponsonby,p. 144, Mary Ponsonby to Henry Ponsonby, 5.12.1878
21 Monypenny and Buckle, Life, vol. II, p. 1308
22 Ibid., vol. II, p. 1309
23 Aronson, Heart of a Queen, p. 207
24 Monypenny and Buckle, Life, vol. II, p. 1331, Disraeli to QV, 30.8.1879
25 Ibid., vol. II, p. 1332, QV to Disraeli, 1.9.1879
26 Ibid., vol. II, p. 1334, Disraeli to Lady Ely, 4.9.1879
27 Ibid., vol. II, p. 1333, Disraeli to QV, 4.9.1879
28 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 270
29 Monypenny and Buckle, Life, vol. II, p. 1479, Disraeli to QV, 12.3.1881
30 Ibid., vol. II, p. 1482, Disraeli to QV, 28.3.1881
31 Argyll Etkin, QV to Princess of Wales, 11.4.1881
32 Blake, Disraeli, p. 747
Chapter Six (pp. 95–112)
1 Crewe, Lord Rosebery, p. 165, Gladstone to Rosebery, 5.1.1883
2 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 280
3 Victoria, Letters 1862–1885, vol. III, p. 395, QV to Gladstone, 5.1.1883
4 Ibid., vol. III, pp. 439–40, QV to Granville, 18.9.1883
5 Ibid., vol. III, pp. 441–2, QV to Gladstone, 20.9.1883
6 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 307, Gladstone to QV, 22.9.83
7 Jenkins, Gladstone, p. 494
8 Guedalla, The Queen and Mr Gladstone, p. 617
9 Victoria, Letters 1862–1885, vol. III, p. 597, QV to Gladstone, Hartington and Granville, 5.2.1885
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