We Two: Victoria and Albert
Page 61
359 By December 1 The death of the prince consort was an important and dramatic event. It was observed by a number of people, several of whom left detailed accounts of what they had seen. Many letters—between the Queen and her various relatives, between the Queen and Lord Palmerston, between Palmerston and Sir George Phipps—are extant, and many have been published. Every book on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert gives an account of the prince’s death. I have relied especially on those by Woodham-Smith, Longford, and Fulford. Victoria continued to write her journal every day until December 13. The journal started up again after two weeks. In 1872, after several unsuccessful attempts, the Queen was finally able to give her own account of her husband’s last days, which, she says, were engraved upon her memory.
360 “Albert is a little rheumatic This and subsequent quotations in this paragraph are from The Letters of Queen Victoria, 1837–1861, ed. Benson and Esher, vol. III, pp. 468–471.
361 “You did wrong,” he commented Longford, p. 374.
361 This was especially true This was not the view of contemporaries. Lord Clarendon famously remarked that Sir James Clark and Sir Henry Holland could not be trusted to look after a sick cat. Florence Nightingale remarks in her private papers that the prince consort could have been saved had he received proper nursing.
Chapter 28: MOURNING A PRINCE
365 Dissatisfied by such ephemeral tributes For my discussion here and below of the memorials and monuments erected by the nation, I am indebted to The Cult of the Prince Consort by Elisabeth Darby and Nicola Smith, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983.
365 the Earl of Oxford exclaimed Duff, Victoria and Albert, p. 297, citing Jerrold. Other sources ascribe this anecdote to the Earl of Oxford.
367 In a private conversation Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria, p. 186, citing the 1886 memoir of his years as Prussia’s representative in London, 1852–1864, by Carl Friedrich Graf Vitzhum von Eckstadt.
368 This was the view “If there comes a real collision between the Queen and the House of Commons,” wrote Mary Ponsonby in 1878 to her husband, who was then Queen Victoria’s private secretary, “it is quite possible she would turn restive … and then her reign will end in a fiasco or she prepares one for the Prince of Wales; for I do think in a tussle of that sort, and I do hope and pray it should be so, that the People win the day” Mary Ponsonby, pp. 144–145.
368 Jane Ely and Jane Churchill Duff, Victoria and Albert, p. 19.
368 “I feel right well” “Biographical Sketch” of his father by Ernest Stockmar, introduction to Memoirs of Baron Stockmar, vol. 1, p. xcviii.
368 Albert had been dearer to him Fulford, The Prince Consort, p. 273.
370 “Oh! That boy Dearest Mama, p. 30.
373 Then she took to sleeping The Princess Royal (Vicky) wrote to her husband from Osborne in March 1862: “Mama is dreadfully sad … always sleeps with Papa’s coat over her and his dear red dressing gown beside and some of his clothes in her bed! … [She is] as much in love with Papa as though she had married him yesterday … she feels the same as your little Fräuchen … and is always consumed with longing for her husband” (Hibbert, Queen Victoria: A Personal History, New York: Basic Books, 2000, p. 271).
373 “I never dreamt Dearest Mama, p. 23.
373 “I am alas! not old Nina C. Epton, Victoria and Her Daughters, New York: Norton, 1971, p. 102.
373 Even in her first letter Letters of Queen Victoria, vol. iii, p. 473.
374 The loneliness and longing Queen Victoria, in a letter to her daughter when Vicky was in despair over the death of her husband, volunteered that she had once been tempted “to put an end to my life here, but a voice told me for His sake—no! Still Endure.” Longford, p. 426, citing Kronberg Letters, October 2, 1888.
374 “I can so well understand Dearest Mama, p. 35.
375 “I am also anxious to repeat Benson and Esher, Letters of Queen Victoria 1837–1861, vol. III, p. 476.
381 Hibbert, a scrupulous scholar Hibbert, Queen Victoria, chapter 42, “John Brown,” especially pp. 321–323.
381 Longford declared Victoria R.I, p. 417.
381 Hibbert drily confirms Thompson, Queen Victoria: The Woman, the Monarchy and the People, p. 77, and Hibbert, Queen Victoria, p. 497.
383 Her harshest judgment Queen Victoria reportedly told Lord Derby that the prince consort “would die—he seemed not to care to live … He died from want of what they call pluck.” Longford, quoting Disraeli, p. 391.
The Royal Collection © 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
INSERT
p. 1 top, RC407169; bottom, RC420416
p. 2 top left, RC980015f60a; middle, RC 405128
p. 3 top right, RC 407126; middle, RC 407376; bottom right, RC 408951
p. 4 bottom left, RC 405830
p. 4–5, RC 406903
p. 5–6, RC 451255
p. 8 top, RC 406819; bottom, RC 2922741
TEXT
p. 80, RCIN 605752 [detail]
p. 183, RCIN 502063 [detail]
p. 376, RCIN 405162
© National Portrait Gallery, London
INSERT
p. 2 bottom left, NPG 2175
p. 4 top right, NPG 941; middle left, NPG 3953
p. 5 top right, NPGx28175
TEXT
p. 21, NPG 1530
Bridgeman Art Archive
INSERT
p. 6 bottom, FC 12259
p. 7 bottom, STC 61533
The illustration on p. 275 first appeared in the Illustrated London News of April 26, 1856.
Special thanks to Karen Lawson, senior picture library assistant at the Royal Collection, and to Matthew Bailey, assistant picture library manager at the National Gallery.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GILLIAN GILL, who holds a Ph.D. in modern French literature from Cambridge University, has taught at Northeastern, Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard. She is the author of Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale; Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries; and Mary Baker Eddy. She lives in suburban Boston.
Copyright © 2009 by Gillian Gill
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Gill, Gillian.
We two : Victoria and Albert Rulers, partners, rivals / Gillian Gill.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51492-9
1. Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819–1901—Marriage.
2. Albert, Prince Consort of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819–1861—Marriage.
3. Queens—Great Britain—Biography.
4. Princes—Great Britain—Biography. I. Title.
DA554.G55 2009
941.081092′2—dc22
[B] 2009008919
www.ballantinebooks.com
Frontispiece and pages 15, 89, and 145: Art features details from
Modern Times at Windsor Castle by Sir Edwin Landseer.
The Royal Collection © 2008 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
v3.0
Table of Contents
PRELUDE TO A MARRIAGE
The Years Apart VICTORIA: A FATHERLESS PRINCESS
Charlotte and Leopold
Wanted, an Heir to the Throne, Preferably Male
The Wife Takes the Child
That Dismal Existence
The Kensington System
Fighting Back
Victoria, Virgin Queen
ALBERT: A MOTHERLESS PRINCE
The Coburg Legacy
A Dynastic Marriage
The Paradise of Our Childhood
Training for the Big Race
Together
Victoria Plans Her Marriage
Bearing the Fruits of Desire
Whigs and Tories
Dearest Daisy
Albert Takes Charge
The Court of St. Albert’s
Finding Friends
A Home of Our Own
The Greatest Show on Earth
Lord Palmerston Says No
Blue Blood and Red
French Interlude
The Prussian Alliance
Father and Son
Problems in a Marriage
“I Do Not Cling to Life as You Do”
Mourning a Prince
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS