The Widow of Windsor

by Jean Plaidy

  The Queen said she was always uneasy when Bertie was out of the country for she could never be sure what he was up to.

  ‘His Highness has been remarkably successful as our ambassador abroad and the Princess is so attractive that no one, not even the Irish, could fail to be charmed by her.’

  ‘She is pregnant, you know,’ said the Queen.

  ‘But the child is not due until July.’

  The Queen hesitated; she could usually be persuaded by the Prime Minister who made her feel that the suggestion in the first place had been in her mind.

  ‘I am sure a great deal of good will come of it,’ went on Disraeli. ‘His Highness’s method of living does not appeal to Your Majesty because it’s shall we say a little riotous now and then, but I know you are thinking, M’am, with me that it is an excellent plan for the Prince to do something at which he excels and he has proved himself to be a wonderful ambassador.’

  ‘The government would have to pay his expenses.’

  Disraeli wilted a little; then he said: ‘I am sure this could be agreed upon.’

  And so on the 15th of April Alix and Bertie boarded the Victoria and Albert at Holyhead bound for Kingstown.

  The Irish visit was a great success. Bertie was charming as usual and managed to say the right thing at the appropriate time and his gaiety very quickly endeared him to the Irish. His appearances at the races were applauded; so was his natural bonhomie. The Prince of Wales was a good fellow and for a time the Irish were ready to forget their grievances. The brilliant banquets and balls which were given in his honour were a long way from the hungry forties and Disraeli calling on the Queen congratulated her on the inspired notion to send the Prince to Ireland.

  ‘Which was your notion,’ said the Queen with a smile.

  ‘I sensed it was in Your Majesty’s mind,’ replied the Prime Minister, ‘laying it on with a trowel’, as he would have said.

  She was far too sensible and honest to believe him but it was gallant and courteous to put it like that.

  When the royal pair arrived home the Queen sent for them to come to Windsor and she congratulated them on the success of their tour.

  ‘Mr Disraeli is so pleased,’ she told them.

  She studied Alix anxiously. The dear sweet girl seemed so much better, although she confessed that her knee was still stiff. She walked with a limp which because of her elegance was somehow attractive.

  Others thought so too because it became quite a fashion to walk with what began to be called the Alexandra Limp.

  Poor Mr Disraeli was going through a very uneasy time and this caused a great deal of worry to the Queen. That irritating Mr Gladstone would interfere in Ireland and he insisted on bringing forward his Bill for the dis-establishment of the Irish Church. Disraeli, who had taken over a weak ministry from Lord Derby, was in no position to resist.

  He came to see her at Windsor. He kissed her hand fervently and gazed at her with mournful eyes which warned her that this idyll which had begun to mean so much to them both was threatened.

  ‘Alas, M’am,’ said Mr Disraeli. ‘Gladstone has defeated us on the Irish question with a majority of sixty-five.’

  ‘This is intolerable.’

  ‘It has to be tolerated, I fear.’

  ‘What do you propose to do?’

  ‘Offer my resignation.’

  ‘Which would mean that That Man would be my Prime Minister.’

  ‘I fear so, M’am.’

  ‘I should not like that at all.’

  ‘Alas, but it is a state of affairs which Your Majesty would be forced to accept. There is only one alternative. Your Majesty could refuse to accept my resignation. Then there would have to be a general election. This could not take place for six months because that time would be needed to arrange the new constituencies which are the result of the new Reform Bill.’

  ‘That is the answer,’ said the Queen. ‘You have offered me your resignation, which I refuse to accept. You will remain in office until the election in which time perhaps opinions may have changed.’

  Disraeli bowed.

  ‘Very well, M’am. I shall continue for a little longer to be Your Majesty’s Prime Minister.’

  How much longer would these pleasant têtes-à-têtes continue? It reminded her so much of the past when Lord Melbourne had been defeated in the House by Sir Robert Peel. How she had disliked Sir Robert although she had come to respect him. Albert had made her see Sir Robert differently. But she would never feel that respect for Mr Gladstone. There was a man whom she could never like. His wife was a quiet, pleasant creature; she had been Catherine Glynne before the marriage, a member of a very good Whig family who owned Hawarden Castle in Flintshire. It was said that she was devoted to her husband. Poor Mrs Gladstone!

  John Brown told her that she was foolish to be so drear. He implied of course that as long as he was there to see to her needs she would be well looked after. It was true, she knew; but she would miss Mr Disraeli; and the idea of his party replaced by Mr Gladstone’s was most depressing.

  As if she had not enough to worry about without Mr Gladstone’s bringing in his dis-establishment of the Irish Church! It always came back to Bertie. He was becoming just a little truculent. Success went to his head and he had been over-congratulated about the Irish tour.

  She was really worried about him. She was constantly hearing snippets of gossip, and she did wonder, as was often suggested to her, whether they were a little exaggerated.

  The idea of the heir to the throne – her throne – dancing attendance on an actress as he apparently did on that Hortense Schneider and prowling round her dressing-room when The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, in which the enchanting actress was appearing, was over. And it was not as though this actress was the only one; Alix should really try to keep a firm hold on him. Alix was a little careless. Her inability to appear anywhere on time was really rather trying. That … and Bertie’s escapades together with the dissension the terrible wars had caused in the family, and the impending ministerial crises made life very hard to bear.

  Now Bertie was writing to her in a very arrogant way, merely because for his own good she had remonstrated with him about attending the Ascot races every day. It was not necessary, she pointed out. Put in an appearance, yes. But to be there every day and gamble as he did was quite unnecessary – more than that it was undesirable.

  He pointed out that every year she gave him a lecture on the races and it was a ceremony to which the people looked forward especially when the royal carriages were driven up the course. It would be very uncivil if he stayed at home and would be frowned on.

  Was this a reproach to her because she shut herself away so much? Bertie was the last one to understand how she suffered over the loss of Beloved Albert. After all if he had not gone to Cambridge to remonstrate with Bertie he might be here today. He had written:

  ‘I am always most anxious to meet your wishes, dear Mama, in every respect, and I always regret if we are not quite d’accord – but as I am past twenty-eight and have some knowledge of the world and society you will, I am sure, at least I trust, allow me to use my own discretion in matters of this kind …’

  If only Albert were here, how different it would be. She and Bertie would never be d’accord, as he put it.

  She felt sad and lonely. The children were all growing up and away from her. Louise would be the next to marry. And now Mr Disraeli was going to be replaced by unsympathetic Mr Gladstone whom she could never like.

  John Brown came in and found her sitting in the gloom.

  He lighted the lamps and said: ‘It does ye no good mawthering in the dark, woman.’

  He saw the traces of tears on her cheeks and brought out that which in his opinion was the never-failing remedy – a wee dram of good Scotch whisky.

  She found herself smiling. ‘Now, Brown, you’ll be making me bashful.’

  ‘Not you,’ said Brown, ‘ye’ve never been near bashful in your life.’

  He was affe
ctionately contemptuous. Dear honest Brown! He did her so much good.

  Prince Alfred whose somewhat gay life had given the Queen many a qualm, returned home from abroad that July and a concert was held at the Crystal Palace in order to celebrate his arrival. Bertie and he went to the concert and rather to the surprise of the audience Alix joined the royal party. This greatly pleased the people for she was heavily pregnant and not expected at such a time. There was a great ovation for her. The leading singers were Patti and Mario and the Princess applauded with great enthusiasm. After the concert there was to be a firework display and as the celebrations were in honour of Alfred, the great moment was to be when a model of the ship Galatea, on which he had sailed, was illuminated. Alix stood on the balcony with the rest of the party and although she was feeling rather tired she would not leave until the display was over.

  Two days later her child was born a little prematurely, but all seemed to be well. The child was a girl and Alix was delighted. She now had her pleasant little family of four – two boys and two girls – four-year-old Eddy, three-year-old Georgie, one-year-old Louise and now the baby.

  As she sat dreaming there, thinking of her own childhood and how excited they had all been at the arrival of a new baby, she felt a wave of nostalgia for the simple life.

  Bertie came in, the proud father, and he was delighted with the child. He wanted to bring Eddy and George in to see their new sister. ‘I promised them,’ he said.

  And so they came and stood wonderingly by the bed, and Bertie lifted them up on to his knee and she was touched by his tenderness towards them. Bertie had suffered in his own childhood and he was going to make certain that he was as different a father from his own as it was possible for a man to be. The boys loved him with a devotion which fear could never have put there and he charmed them in his good-natured way exactly as he did the people whom he met.

  But it was their mother who had first place in their hearts and Eddy was apprehensive that the newcomer might take up too much of her time and affection and Georgie was feeling the same.

  How she wished that she could have devoted her time entirely to them. However, for a time, she could forget that she was the Princess of Wales and enjoy being a mother.

  So she talked of the new baby and showed her to her little sons and even Louise was carried in from the nursery to join them.

  When the children had gone Bertie sat with her for a while and he said that what she needed was a good long holiday away from everything.

  Her eyes sparkled. ‘How I should love to go to Copenhagen and take the children with me. I’m longing to show them Rumpenheim and Bernstorff and I know my parents would love to see the babies.’

  Bertie grimaced inwardly at the thought of Rumpenheim and Bernstorff; they were so dull and his parents-in-law didn’t know how to give the kind of parties he enjoyed, but he pretended to be enthusiastic. While Alix and the children were in Denmark he might slip off somewhere else – perhaps even to his delightful Paris.

  ‘Copenhagen yes,’ he said. ‘But I meant a long leisurely tour – say to the Middle East … somewhere where you can enjoy the sun and get rid of all those rheumaticky pains.’

  ‘It would be very pleasant, Bertie,’ she said. ‘Is it possible?’

  ‘I’m sure there’d be no difficulty from the P.M.,’ said Bertie. ‘Nor any of his colleagues. Of course, there is Mama.’ He grimaced openly. ‘You can imagine the dismay such a suggestion would rouse from that quarter. I have already put my foot down about the races. Really, Mama is quite cut off from real life. What can she know about what the people expect shut away with only that odious Brown to talk to?’

  ‘She’ll not agree, I’m sure,’ said Alix.

  ‘Leave it to me,’ said Bertie. ‘You’re going to show your parents the children, I promise you.’

  The following month the new baby was christened Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary; her sponsors were headed by Queen Victoria, the Emperor of Russia, and the Queens of Greece and Denmark.

  The Queen had moved a little out of seclusion that summer. She had held the first Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace since Albert’s death, had given a party in the grounds of the Palace and reviewed twenty-seven thousand volunteers in Windsor Park. This had been achieved by the gentle persuasion of Mr Disraeli. In August following the christening of the new baby she went to Switzerland.

  ‘No fuss,’ she had said. ‘Unlike Bertie I like to go about incognito.’ So she travelled as the Countess of Kent, stayed at the Embassy in Paris and was rather pleased when the Empress Eugénie came to see her without any formality; then she went to Lucerne and rented the Villa Pension Wallace which was right on the lake and charming. She spent a very pleasant week or so there with John Brown in attendance driving her when she wished to be driven, taking care of her comfort generally; and when she returned home she went almost immediately to Balmoral.

  Some time before she had discussed with Brown the possibility of finding a little house where she could enjoy even greater seclusion than she did at Balmoral, for Balmoral was in fact a castle and there were so many servants and it was impossible to live simply as she so often longed to do.

  Brown knew the spot. It had been a favourite one for Prince Albert who had often gone to the Loch Muick; it was isolated and she would be sure of not being worried there. So she built a little cottage there where she could live with just a few servants – those who were old friends like Brown and Annie MacDonald, who could forget that she was the Queen and treat her without that homage which she felt was replaced by loyalty and love.

  ‘This will be somewhere which will not be haunted by him,’ she said. ‘Somewhere entirely new which he has had no hand in building.’

  It was a beautiful spot, known as Glassalt Shiel, which meant Darkness and Sorrow, and that, she said, was so appropriate to her mood. She could never look on that scene without experiencing a great excitement. The scenery was almost terrifying in its grandeur and she would stand for hours watching the Glassalt burn falling headlong down the mountainside into the forbidding Loch Muick.

  So she had her house – her ‘Widow’s House’ she called it and although members of her family tried to dissuade her from living even for a short while in such a lonely spot, she did find to some extent what she sought there – peace.

  The Queen was at Glassalt Shiel when she received a note from Bertie suggesting that Alix needed some relaxation and that she wished to take the children to see their grandparents in Denmark. The six months’ tour of Europe and the Middle East had been voted desirable by the government but the Queen could not approve of Alix’s taking the children out of the country.

  She wrote to Bertie: ‘They are the children of the country, which seems to have been forgotten, and while you and Alix are away they should be left in the care of one person only and that is the Queen.’

  It was rather selfish of Alix to wish to take them with her. She was going to see her parents. That should be enough for her.

  Bertie, always bold when he did not have to come face to face with his stern mama, wrote back in the vein he was beginning to adopt. Alix was certainly not selfish, he replied. She was devoted to her children and he could not understand why obstacles should be put in the way of a proud young mother who wished to take her children to see her parents.

  The Queen – always fair – saw the point of this and decided that the three elder children might go; it was of course impossible for such a young baby to travel. At the same time the Queen criticised the way the Wales children were being brought up.

  ‘Papa always believed in discipline,’ she wrote. ‘It is an absolute necessity in the bringing up of children. I fear, Bertie, that your children are allowed to run wild, and what the result of that will be I cannot imagine.’

  Bertie, bold from afar, hinted that it had not always had the desired effect and that neither he nor Alfred who had been submitted to it had turned out very satisfactory from her point of view. He believed that if children were tre
ated severely they grew shy and instead of loving their parents feared them. Of one thing he was determined, his children were not going to be afraid of him. They were not now and they never should be.

  The Queen could do nothing. Bertie had always been unmanageable; and she had to admit that Eddy and George were two dear little boys even though there was such a lack of parental control.

  Meanwhile Alix and Bertie set off with the three elder children and after a stay in Copenhagen where they had spent Christmas the children were sent home while their parents continued their tour visiting Egypt, Russia and Greece.

  The Queen was at Balmoral while the general election was taking place. She would not believe that the country could really pass over Disraeli for the sake of Mr Gladstone although Mr Disraeli had feared this would be the case; and she was very despondent when she heard that Mr Gladstone’s government were in power with a majority of one hundred and twenty-eight.

  Now she would have to return to London and what was worse send for Mr Gladstone and ask him to form a ministry, at the same time saying good-bye to dear Mr Disraeli.

  She would not behave as she had in the past when Lord Melbourne had resigned; she understood that she had been rather foolish then; Albert had taught her that this was something she had to accept. It was none the more palatable for that.

  When Mr Disraeli came to see her she almost wept with sorrow and anger.

  This was going to be a terrible wrench she feared; she felt such confidence in him; and to think that he was to be replaced by that unsympathetic Mr Gladstone was most upsetting.

  Disraeli said that they must accept this trial and hope for better things.

  ‘It is the only thing left to do,’ said the Queen.

  She received Mr Gladstone coolly. He was quite humble and she could not complain that he did not treat her with due respect, but he was so dull and made such boring speeches that she felt as though she were a public meeting. There was a slight compensation for the loss of Mr Disraeli because some of Mr Gladstone’s colleagues were good friends of hers. She had always been fond of Lord Clarendon who was now the Foreign Secretary as well as Lord Granville who was the Colonial Secretary; and with the Duke of Argyll who was the Secretary of India she was on terms of affection. As a matter of fact Louise and Argyll’s son, the Marquis of Lorne, were very friendly, and there was a possibility that they would wish to marry. If they did she would not stand in their way. She was so tired of all the family squabbles and members of it fighting on different sides in these dreadful wars. At least if Louise married Lorne they would be of one nationality; and she had always been especially fond of the Scots.