The Queen’s House

by Edna Healey

  The next night, 10 May 1839, she could bask in the glory of her triumph at a magnificent ball she gave at the Palace in honour of her guest, the Tsarevich Alexander, a relation of her Uncle Leopold. The Queen of England was a match for the Imperial might of Russia – in more senses than one. Now that she could put behind her the unpleasant business of being a Queen, she could enjoy the excitement of being young, and of being whirled round the ballroom night after night by the handsome Tsarevich. He taught her the mazurka: he was ‘so very strong, that in running round, you must follow quickly, and after that you are whisked round like in a Valse, which is very pleasant’. He also taught her a German country dance in which the tiny Queen and the tall Tsarevich had to creep under a pocket handkerchief arch and the Tsarevich caught his hair in her wreath. ‘I never enjoyed myself more. We were all so merry.’13

  For Melbourne all this gaiety in the Palace was so much more wearing than his relaxed chats in the little Blue Closet. It was with some relief that he saw the Tsarevich’s departure. But Queen Victoria confided in her Journal, ‘I felt so sad to take leave of this dear amiable young man whom I really think (talking jokingly) I was a little in love with.’14 That May week Queen Victoria’s fancy was beginning to turn, if only lightly, to ‘thoughts of love’.

  Uncle Leopold and Baron Stockmar heard with some apprehension of Queen Victoria’s political triumphs and May revels. The affair of the Ladies of the Bedchamber and her increasingly imperious behaviour were making her unpopular. The Tories, furious at being deprived of office, whipped up press and public hostility.

  The innocent young Queen who had so enchanted all parties had become not only domineering and violently partisan: she and her Court were now tainted with a sleazy scandal and she herself appeared to be cruel and insensitive. The Queen was hissed at Ascot, where there were even cries of ‘Mrs Melbourne’. Baron Stockmar wrote, ‘The late events in England distress me. How could they let the Queen make such mistakes, to the injury of the monarchy?’ He shrewdly realized that she had become her own worst enemy. ‘She was’, he wrote, ‘as passionate as a spoilt child, if she feels offended she throws everything overboard without exception.’ And the adoring Lehzen made things worse, ‘Just like the nurse who hits the stone that tripped the child up’.15 The only person she would listen to was Melbourne, but he was growing weary and had been little help to her in the double crisis. Queen Victoria was so exhausting, able to ride at a gallop all day and dance till four in the morning, whereas Melbourne was arthritic and no longer young.

  It was a pity Stockmar was not in England; his sound advice was much needed. ‘You are too clever not to know’, he had once written, ‘that it is not the being called King or Queen which can be of the least consequence … All trades must be learned, and nowadays the trade of a constitutional Sovereign to do it well, is a very difficult one.’16

  Her Coburg advisers were also alarmed at reports of the Queen’s flirtation with Tsarevich Alexander. This was not the marriage they had planned for her. It was time to produce their candidate for her hand, her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was now quite clear to Stockmar, Uncle Leopold and indeed to Queen Victoria herself that she needed a consort. The trade of a consort, like that of a queen, as Uncle Leopold knew only too well, had also to be learned.

  In 1836 Uncle Leopold, and her adviser, Stockmar, believed they had found the right apprentice, over whose education they had already watched. In Coburg, Prince Albert, the second son of Ernest, the reigning Duke of the small duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had already won high praise not only from the Coburg family but also from his tutors. Uncle Leopold, brother of Duke Ernest and uncle to the young Prince Albert, sent Stockmar to assess the character of the young prince. His judgement was favourable but not uncritical. As for Victoire, widow of the Duke of Kent and aunt of Prince Albert, she and Prince Albert’s grandmothers had always hoped for the union of the Duchess of Kent’s ‘little Mayflower’, Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert.

  So, while Princess Victoria prepared to be Queen, Uncle Leopold and Stockmar were guiding Prince Albert, giving him the foundation of the skills he would need as consort. Later, in 1861, when Stockmar heard of the early death of Prince Albert, he wrote, ‘Here do I see crumble before my eyes that edifice which I have devoted twenty years to construct, prompted by a desire to accomplish something great and good.’ But Prince Albert was not so much an edifice to be constructed as an oak that Stockmar had tended with loving care ever since it was a delicate seedling. Prince Albert’s success as consort, the happiness of his marriage and the consequent transformation of the image of the British monarchy were all to a great extent due to the influence of Baron Stockmar. He was indeed to create ‘something great and good’.17

  One of the puzzles of nineteenth-century European history is why a small German Duchy, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, should have produced so many occupants of European thrones. Prince Albert’s grandfather, Franz, Duke of Coburg, had seven remarkable children including Prince Ernest, the father of Prince Albert; Prince Ferdinand, father of the King-Consort of Portugal; Prince Leopold, who became King of the Belgians. Of his daughters Princess Julie married the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia and Princess Victoire was the mother of Queen Victoria.

  So it was not surprising that the Coburgs hoped to provide one of the family as a husband for Queen Victoria. Whether or not, as it was said, Prince Albert was selected at birth as husband for the ‘little Mayflower’ in England, he certainly was chosen by Uncle Leopold at an early age.

  Prince Albert was born on 26 August 1819 at the Rosenau, some miles out of Coburg. His elder brother, Prince Ernest, was a year older and his constant companion. His mother, Louise, Duchess of Coburg, had married her husband, twice her age, when she was sixteen. She was, her mother-in-law wrote, ‘a charming, tiny being, not beautiful but very pretty, through grace and vivacity … Her big blue eyes often look so sad under her black lashes, and then again she becomes a happy, wild child.’18 After the birth of her sons she fell in love with Lieutenant von Hanstein, was divorced and was sent away when Prince Albert was five years old. She was not allowed to see her children again, and died of cancer in 1831.

  Prince Albert never forgot his lovely, lost mother, from whom he inherited his love of music – and his great blue eyes. After the death of his father in 1844 he had her body brought back to Coburg to be buried beside him. His was not, however, an unhappy childhood; his father was devoted to the boys and they were lucky to have loving grandparents and a kind and wise tutor, Christoph Florschütz – chosen by Stockmar. In the lovely hills round their castle at Coburg, Prince Albert absorbed an abiding love of the country.

  In his earliest years Albert was surrounded by love and admiration. All remarked on his beauty. When he was ten months old, his mother wrote, ‘Albert est superbe … d’une beauté superbe; a des grands yeux bleus, une toute petite bouche – un joli nez – et des fossettes à chaque joue … il est … toujours gai … n’est-ce pas un petit prodigue pour dix mois?’19 So would Queen Victoria describe him in the first enthusiasm of her love. His grandmothers were equally besotted. ‘Albert’, wrote his grandmother Gotha, ‘is lovely as a little angel with his fair curls.’20

  As he grew up, his tutor Florschütz found him an earnest and eager pupil, but with rather too strong a will of his own. He had an exceptionally thorough grounding in languages, history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. But though he spent long years of study, he also became proficient in outdoor sports. In later life English courtiers would be surprised that this studious Prince could ride, fence and skate with the best of them. Stockmar and Uncle Leopold kept a close eye on his development. The Princes Albert and Ernest visited Uncle Leopold in his Belgian kingdom and in 1836 Stockmar had been to Coburg to assess the prospective bridegroom. Stockmar described him as ‘a handsome youth … He is said to be prudent, cautious and already well informed. All this however, is not enough. He must not only have great capacity but true ambiti
on and strength of will.’21 He needed these qualities if he were to be the husband of the imperious Princess Victoria. Stockmar worried about what he considered a certain indolence in Prince Albert, a reluctance to take an interest in newspapers and politics.

  Their next step was to urge the Duchess of Kent to invite the brothers to England, suggesting that the purpose of the visit should be kept from Princess Victoria so that she might be more at ease. This first visit, on the occasion of the ball celebrating the Princess’s seventeenth birthday, was not, as we have seen, particularly successful, although she described her first impression warmly enough.

  Albert … is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose, and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful; c’est à la fois full of goodness and sweetness, and very clever and intelligent.22

  But though Princess Victoria enjoyed the fun of having princes of her own age to dance with, and though Prince Albert was most amusing, he was also too often unwell and tired, with a tendency to fall asleep after dinner. (‘Quite right,’ Melbourne said.) He was, too, not over-enthusiastic, and he found the Princess too self-willed and imperious. So they left after the visit with feelings of cousinly friendship but neither was in a hurry for marriage. During the next three years, Princess Victoria was at pains to point out to Uncle Leopold that she had not actually promised to marry Prince Albert. They did not meet again for three years: Duke Ernest was invited to Queen Victoria’s coronation but not his sons.

  Meanwhile Prince Albert was finishing his education, first under the eye of King Leopold in Brussels, and then at the University of Bonn, studying natural sciences, political economy and philosophy, enjoying music, singing and composing, and proving himself a jolly companion 'and the ‘life and soul of the dramatic society’. It was a happy period of his life. It also laid the foundations for his later success as Prince Consort when he became Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Prince Albert would always be happier in the company of academics rather than among courtiers.

  In 1838 Stockmar took him on a long tour of Italy, a grand tour that was to be of prime importance not only to him but to the future of Buckingham Palace. He had already explored the Alps and northern Italy with Prince Ernest. Now Prince Albert was separated from his brother for the first time in his life. As the heir to the Duchy, Prince Ernest had to undergo military training in Dresden. But Prince Albert had two companions who were to be closely involved in his later life. One was Francis Seymour, later General Seymour, who was to become a close friend; his brother was to be in his household for twenty-one years when he was Prince Consort. And it was possibly on this tour that Prince Albert met his other companion, a man who gave him a lifelong interest in fifteenth-century art: Ludwig Gruner, a German from Dresden, who had lived some time in Milan and Rome, working as an engraver and practising fresco work. He was an art connoisseur with a great love of early Renaissance paintings, which were not then popular. Little did the two young men imagine that one day they would work together to bring Italianate style to Buckingham Palace.

  The domes of Florence enthralled Prince Albert. ‘Oh! Florence, where I have been for two months’, he wrote to a friend, ‘has gathered to herself noble treasures of art. I am often intoxicated with delight when I come out of the galleries.’ He was enchanted by the countryside but had no joy in the whirl of society: ‘you know my passion for such things, and must admire my strength of character that I have never excused myself – never returned home till five in the morning – that I have emptied the carnival cup to the dregs’.23

  On Prince Albert’s return Uncle Leopold wrote to Stockmar, ‘Albert is much improved. One might easily take him to be twenty-two or twenty-three.’24 It was time that he should meet Queen Victoria again. But in advance neither Prince Albert nor Queen Victoria were particularly enthusiastic. The Queen was not sure whether she had more than cousinly feelings for him, and gave no hope of an early engagement. Prince Albert was sufficiently sure of himself to make it plain that he would not hang around indefinitely waiting for Queen Victoria to make up her mind.

  But from the first moment of their meeting all Queen Victoria’s doubts disappeared. She wrote in her journal on 11 October:

  Albert really is quite charming, and so extremely handsome, such beautiful blue eyes, an exquisite nose and such a pretty mouth with delicate moustachios and slight but very slight whiskers: a beautiful figure, broad in the shoulders and a fine waist; my heart is quite going.25

  In four days her heart was quite and for ever gone. On 15 October, in her Blue Boudoir at Windsor, she proposed to him. ‘I said to him,’ she recorded in her journal, ‘… it would make me too happy if he would consent to what I wished (to marry me) we embraced each other over and over again and he was so kind and affectionate.’26 The next day Prince Albert wrote to Stockmar of ‘One of the happiest days of my life … yesterday in a Private Audience V. declared her love for me and offered me her hand, which I seized in both mine and pressed tenderly to my lips.’27

  Their engagement was to remain secret for a month – not even her mother was told. As Prince Albert told Stockmar, ‘Everyone says she cannot keep her mouth shut and might even make bad use of the secret if it were entrusted to her.’28

  Her Privy Council was told at a special audience in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace on 23 November 1839. As on the morning of her accession, so now the eighty-three Councillors were moved and touched by the simplicity of her performance as she sat on her crimson throne surrounded by all the gilded splendour of the Throne Room.

  The Queen read the declaration in a clear, firm voice.

  It is my intention to ally myself in marriage with the Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Deeply impressed with the solemnity of the engagement which I am about to contract I have not come to this decision without mature consideration, nor without feeling a strong assurance that, with the blessing of Almighty God, it will at once secure me domestic felicity and serve the interests of my country.29

  The wedding was fixed for 10 February 1840. But there were difficult times ahead.

  The Tories quickly seized on what they considered to be a vital omission in the marriage declaration. Melbourne had not mentioned that Prince Albert was a Protestant. Immediately the rumour spread that he was a Catholic and this had to be denied forcibly. Stockmar arrived from Coburg to arrange the marriage contract. In the next seven months in England, he was to need all his tact and diplomacy. He suffered a defeat on the subject of Prince Albert’s annuity. In after years he regretted that he himself had not initiated all-party talks in which he could have insisted that it was only fair that Prince Albert should receive the same amount as the preceding consorts. Queen Caroline, wife of George II; Queen Charlotte, wife of George III; Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV – all had received £50,000 per annum. So, too, had Prince Leopold as consort to the heir presumptive, Princess Charlotte. But this time the Tories had the support of the radicals, who argued that at a time of heavy taxation and general distress such an annuity would be excessive. An amendment proposing an allowance of £30,000 a year was passed.

  Prince Albert had returned to Coburg to arrange his affairs and say farewell to his old home, the Rosenau. Unwillingly Stockmar agreed that Prince Albert should take Melbourne’s secretary George Anson as his own. The Prince, he believed, should be above party politics. In fact Prince Albert came to respect and like Anson.

  The wedding took place in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. Queen Victoria dressed simply in white satin, with no crown, no coronet – simply a wreath of orange blossom in her hair. They left for a short and blissful honeymoon at Windsor. Prince Albert had hoped for longer, but Queen Victoria had written firmly, ‘You forget my dearest love, that I am the sovereign and that business can stop and wait for nothing.’30

  In those first years of their marriage, Prince Albert was not all
owed to forget that she was Queen. He had his desk beside hers in her room overlooking the garden in the north wing of Buckingham Palace, but at first he felt his sole function was to pass his wife the blotting paper. Melbourne still advised her – even when she had a Tory government. He should have firmly made a break, but he was reluctant to lose their unique friendship. Both Prince Albert and Stockmar chafed at this unconstitutional behaviour, and Stockmar tactfully and effectively protested to Melbourne, who saw the justice of the criticism.

  Gradually Melbourne’s influence faded. He was frequently ill and suffered a severe heart attack. Sadly driving in his carriage past the Palace, he saw a light in the room where he had sat so often with her. Now she no longer needed him. He consoled himself with his mistress, Mrs Norton, who remained his friend until his death.

  In their early days the Queen and her consort were deeply happy. Queen Victoria had not only a lover but a most congenial companion, who could ride with her on her furious gallops – her Ladies-in-Waiting found it hard to keep up with her. Prince Albert was full of admiration for her energy, and in the frozen February of 1841 had reason to be grateful for her common sense and courage. The Queen and her Ladies-in-Waiting were watching Prince Albert skating on the frozen lake in the Palace gardens, Queen Victoria glowing with love and pride as Prince Albert gracefully pirouetted before them. Then he fell in. Prince Albert told the story in a letter to the Duchess Caroline of Saxe-Gotha-Altenberg on 12 February 1841.

  The cold has been intense … Nevertheless, I managed, in skating, three days ago, to break through the ice in Buckingham Palace Gardens. I was making my way to Victoria, who was standing on the bank with one of her ladies, and when within some few yards of the bank I fell plump into the water, and had to swim for two or three minutes in order to get out. Victoria was the only person who had the presence of mind to lend me assistance, her lady being more occupied in screaming for help. The shock from the cold was extremely painful, and I cannot thank Heaven enough, that I escaped with nothing more than a severe cold.31