The Queen's letters to King Leopold are to be found in the earlier of the nine volumes of The Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence, published in three series of three volumes each by John Murray between 1907 and 1932. The first series of these letters was edited by Arthur Christopher Benson and Viscount Esher, and the second and third series by George Earle Buckle. They contain some two million words, both from the Queen's letters and her journals, extending over five thousand pages; and even so they represent but a small proportion of the papers which the Queen methodically collected and had bound for preservation in the Royal Archives at Windsor.
Regrettably, not all of the Queen's papers survived intact. For, in fulfilment of a charge imposed upon her by her mother, Princess Beatrice transcribed passages from the journals and burned the originals when she had finished with them. She often, in fact, went further than this, destroying whole entries which she thought unsuitable for transcription and substantially altering numerous passages which she did transcribe. But fortunately, unknown to her, Lord Esher made a copy of the earlier journals so that from the time they were begun in 1832 to the death of the Prince Consort in 1861 a complete typed version of them does exist. Princess Beatrice was not alone responsible for the mutilation of Queen Victoria's papers. On the instructions of her brother, King Edward VII, letters from his mother to Lord Granville and papers concerning the Lady Flora Hastings affair were also destroyed, as were letters written by the Queen to Disraeli about various members of her family. The papers which survive, however, far outnumber those that were burned, and in addition to the material contained in the volumes mentioned above there are the letters from the Queen to the Empress Augusta in Further Letters of Queen Victoria from the archives of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia, edited by Hector Bolitho (Thornton Butterworth Ltd, 1938); the Queen's correspondence with Lady Canning in Virginia Surtees's Charlotte Canning (John Murray, 1972); extracts from her correspondence published in Monypenny and Buckle's six-volume Life of Benjamin Disraeli (John Murray, 1910-1920), in John Morley's Life of William Ewart Gladstone (three volumes, Macmillan, 1903), and in Arthur Ponsonby's Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's Private Secretary (Macmillan, 1942). There are also entries from her journals published in the two volumes of Lord Esher's The Girlhood of Queen Victoria (John Murray, 1912) and in the five volumes of Theodore Martin's Life of the Prince Consort (1875-1880).
As well as at Windsor, there are large numbers of the Queen's papers at Broadlands. Brian Connell used a selection of these for his Regina v. Palmerston: The Correspondence Between Queen Victoria and Her Foreign and Prime Minister, 1837-1865 (Evans Brothers Ltd, 1962); and Richard Hough made use of the Queen's letters to a much loved grandchild in Advice to a Grand-daughter: Letters from Queen Victoria to Princess Victoria of Hesse (William Heinemann Ltd, 1975). To these editors and their publishers I am most grateful for permission to reprint extracts in this book.
Several excellent biographies have been published since the appearance of Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria in 1921. Among the most recent are Elizabeth Longford's splendid Victoria RI (1964), the first volume of Cecil Woodham-Smith's regrettably unfinished Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times (1972), Stanley Weintraub's Victoria (1987), Giles St Aubyn's Queen Victoria: A Portrait (1991), Monica Chariot's Victoria: The Young Queen (1991) and Juliet Gardiner's Queen Victoria (1997).
For full bibliographical details see Sources, pp. 523-33.
REFERENCES
Abbreviations
RA Royal Archives
RAQVJ Royal Archives, Queen Victoria's Journal
CH Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria in her Letters and Journals
Chapter 1. THE FAMILY
1. Creevey Papers, 269.
2. Anderson passim; Duff, Edward, Duke of Kent, passim; Fulford, Royal Dukes, passim.
3. Greville, iv, 244-5.
4. Creevey, 284.
5. Ibid., 270.
6. RA 45340, Duke of Kent to Baron de Mallet, 26 January 1819.
7. Creevey, 271.
8. Hibbert, George IV, ii, 93.
9. Creevey, 425.
10. Quennell, Private Letters of Princess Lieven, 111.
11. Frampton, 267.
12. Aspinall, Letters of Princess Charlotte, 186.
13. Ibid., 262.
14. RA M2/68 quoted in Longford, Victoria, 20.
Chapter 2. THE PARENTS
1. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 17.
2. Stockmar, i, 77.
3. RA Add. 7/1355, 1 February 1819.
4. Creevey, 276-7.
5. RA M3/1, 5 April 1819.
6. Stockmar, i, 78.
7. RA M3/3 24 May 1819, quoted in Woodham-Smith, 30.
8. RA M24/2 31 May 1819, quoted in Woodham-Smith, 30.
9. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 24.
10. RA M4/26.
11. Ibid.
12. Hibbert, George IV, ii, 128-9; Chariot, 32-3; Longford, Victoria, 24.
13. RA Z/286, 19 January 1820.
14. Woodham-Smith, 44.
15. RA Y69/26 12 December 1842; RA Y82/ 101, 7 January 1859.
16. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 46.
Chapter 3. THE CHILD
1. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 28.
2. Lorne, 57-62.
3. John Lehmann, Edward Lear and his World, 1977, 68; Warner, 108.
4. RA MP 116/11, 23 March 1830.
5. Benson and Esher, i, 10.
6. Ibid., 10-11.
7. Hibbert, George IV, ii, 277-8.
8. Ibid.; Richard Edgcumbe, ed. The Diary of Frances, Lady Shelley, 1912-13, 146-7.
9. Edgcumbe, op. cit., 153.
10. Aspinall, Letters of King George IV, iii, 296.
11. RA Y36/132 15 April 1883.
12. Quoted in Hudson, 64.
13. RA Y 203/81.
14. Hudson, 73.
15. Benson and Esher, i, 18.
16. Low, Queen Victoria's Dolls; Tooley, 31.
17. Hudson, 16.
18. RA M3/36 1 April 1821.
19. Hudson, 55.
20. Quoted in Chariot, 43.
Chapter 4. CONROY
1. Greville, iv, 44.
2. Hudson, 14-15; Woodham-Smith, 258-9.
3. Hudson, 125.
4. Greville, ii, 294.
5. Hudson, 56.
6. RA M4/16, 12 January 1830; Hudson, 74.
7. Leigh Hunt, The Old Court Suburb, 1902, ii, 175, quoted in Woodham-Smith, 60; Tooley, 28.
8. Tooley, 32.
9. Charles Knight, ii, 170. 10. Greville, i, 214.
11. Wharncliffe, ii, 78-9.
12. Arbuthnot, ii, 186.
13. RA Y203/81, 2 December 1867.
Chapter 5. PROGRESSES
1. Quoted in Chariot, 40, 58.
2. RA M4/2, 30 June 1830.
3. RA M4/22, 1 July 1830; Greville, i, 196.
4. Chariot, 59.
5. RA M4/32, 26 June 1831.
6. Greville, ii, 150.
7. Quoted in St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 27.
8. Lee, 31.
9. Quoted in St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 28.
10. RA M5/78, 30 July 1835.
11. Hudson, 3.
12. Woodham-Smith, 89; Longford, Victoria, 42.
13. RAQVJ, 21 July 1832.
14. Ibid., 1 August-9 November 1832; Woodham-Smith, 88.
15. RAQVJ, 8 November 1832.
16. Greville, ii, 388, 4 July 1833.
17. RAQVJ, 2 August 1833.
18. Longford, Victoria, 43.
19. RA MP 115/73, 8 July 1836.
20. RA MP 115/75, 13 July 1836.
21. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 43.
22. Woodham-Smith, 96; Esher, Girlhood of Queen Victoria, i, 104, 355.
23. RA MP 115/58, 22 August 1835.
24. Hudson, 26; RA M5/84, 2 September 1835.
25. Greville, iii, 258.
26. Hudson, 89.
27. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 92.
28. RAQVJ, 2
5 September 1835.
Chapter 6. UNCLES
1. RAQVJ, 4, 6 October 1835; Longford, Victoria, 48-9.
2. Hudson, 104.
3. RAQVJ, 26 February 1838.
4. Hudson, 105.
5. RAQVJ, 14, 15 December 1835; 25 January 1836.
6. Woodham-Smith, 108.
7. RAQVJ, 18 April 1837.
8. RAQVJ, 4 June, 18 June 1836; RA 88/15 7 June 1836.
9. Warner, 4, 7, 51, 67.
10. RA Y88/14, 31 May 1836.
11. RA M4/64, 15 April 1837; Woodham-Smith, 125.
12. Hudson, 118.
13. Greville, iii, 308-11.
14. RA M7/14, 20; Woodham-Smith, 133.
15. RA M7/15.
16. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 134.
17. RAQVJ, 24 May 1837.
18. RA Add. A 11/12, 8-13 June 1837.
19. Hudson, 129.
20. RA M7/67, Prince Charles Leiningen's Memorandum; Hudson, 121.
21. RAQVJ, 20 June 1837; Bell, 91.
Chapter 7. THE YOUNG QUEEN
1. Creevey, 664.
2. Ibid., 167.
3. Quoted in St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 66.
4. RAQVJ, 20 June 1837.
5. Chariot, 83.
6. Greville, iii, 372-3.
7. Ibid.
8. Croker Papers, ii, 359.
9. RAQVJ, 20 June 1837.
10. Ibid.
11. Longford, Victoria, 66-73; Woodham-Smith, 140-48; Chariot, 87-91; St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 65-70; Weintraub, Victoria, 99-101.
12. RA Z482/12, 17 August 1837.
13. RA M7/65.
14. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 15.
15. Healey, Courts & Co., 295.
16. RAQVJ, 16 January 1838.
17. RAQVJ, 7 November 1837.
Chapter 8. MELBOURNE
1. RALP 13 November 1837.
2. Greville, iii, 373.
3. Boykin, 104.
4. Creevey, 668.
5. Quoted in Aronson, Heart of a Queen, 5.
6. Creevey, 666.
7. Lord Holland, Holland House Diaries, quoted in Healey, The Queen's House, 121; Granville, ii, 235.
8. Greville, iv, 40.
9. Ibid., iv, 41.
10. Mitchell, 41-2.
11. RAQVJ, 1 August 1838.
12. Mitchell, 3-5, 13.
13. Ibid., 31, 118; Longford, Victoria, 69-70; RAQVJ, 1 November 1837; Ziegler, Melbourne, 257-65.
14. Mitchell, 234; RAQVJ 2 July 1837.
15. Quoted in Mitchell, 235.
16. Greville, iv, 93.
17. Mitchell, 239.
18. Quoted in Ziegler, Melbourne, 124.
19. RAQVJ, 26 December 1838; 7 April 1839.
20. Mitchell, 24; RAQVJ, 6 April 1838.
Chapter 9. CORONATION
1. Frampton, 404-5.
2. Greville, iv, 19.
3. RAQVJ, 28 June 1838.
4. Raikes, ii, 107.
5. Oman, 287.
6. Martineau, 221.
7. Greville, iv, 72.
8. Lome, 89.
9. Chariot, 123.
10. Greville, iv, 70-72.
11. RAQVJ, 28 June 1838.
12. Ibid.
13. Lome, 90.
14. Ibid., 91.
15. RAQVJ, 6 July 1838.
16. Monypenny & Buckle, 1, 429-30; Jane Ridley, 217.
17. Longford, Victoria, 82-3.
18. RAQVJ, 28 June 1838.
Chapter 10. THE HASTINGS AFFAIR
1. RAQVJ, 13 December 1838.
2. Ibid., 28 June 1838.
3. Hudson, 151.
4. RAQVJ, 2 February 1839.
5. RAQVJ, 2 February 1829; Ziegler, Melbourne, 271; Chariot, 129; Longford, Victoria, 97.
6. Greville, iv, 134.
7. Lady Flora Hastings's statement, Morning Post, 14 September 1839, quoted in Chariot; Longford, Victoria, 95.
8. Sir James Clark's statement, The Times 6 October 1839, quoted in Chariot, 129, 131.
9. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 166; Chariot, 130.
10. RA Z486/2, 17 February 1839.
11. Ibid.; Lady Flora Hastings's statement, Morning Post, 14 September 1839.
12. RA Z486/1, Certificate of Dr Clarke and Dr Clark.
13. RAQVJ, 19 September 1839.
14. RAQVJ, 7 June 1839.
15. RAQVJ, 23 February 1839.
16. Lady Flora Hastings's statement, Morning Post, 14 September 1839.
17. Morning Post, 14 September 1839: Lord Hastings to Lord Melbourne; Chariot, 133-4.
18. Morning Post, 14 September 1839, letter from Lady Flora Hastings to Hamilton Fitzgerald, 8 March 1839.
19. Morning Post, 14-18 September 1839.
20. RAQVJ, 16 April 1839.
21. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 104.
22. RAQVJ, 27 June 1839.
23. Ibid., 1 July 1839.
24. RA MP/115/141, 29 April 1839.
25. RAQVJ, 10 July; 22 September 1839.
Chapter 11. 'A PLEASANT LIFE'
1. Quoted in St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 63.
2. RA LP, 23 October 1837.
3. Creevey, 649.
4. St Aubyn, Royal George, 23.
5. RAQVJ, 10 May 1838.
6. Frampton, 403.
7. Greville, iv, 56.
8. RA LP, 7 October 1837.
9. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 77.
10. RAQVJ, 22 August 1837.
11. RAQVJ, 29 August 1837; 3 October 1837.
12. Benson and Esher, i, 104, 27 June 1837.
13. RA LP, 29 June 1837.
14. Ilchester, 170.
15. Mitchell, 235.
16. Quoted in Hibbert, Wellington, 352.
17. Quoted in St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 119.
18. Mitchell, 238.
19. Ibid.
Chapter 12 : 'A HEADSTRONG GIRL'
1. Hudson, 81.
2. Ibid., 133.
3. RA M7/68.
4. RA Z483/3, 25 May 1839.
5. Greville, iv, 198-9; Hudson, 162.
6. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 86.
7. RAQVJ, 22 March 1839.
8. RAQVJ, 7 May 1839.
9. Ibid.
10. RAQVJ, 7 May 1839.
11. RAQVJ, 8 May 1839.
12. Cecil, Lord M., 328.
13. Chariot, 143.
14. Ibid.
15. RAQVJ, 9 May 1839.
16. Ibid.
17. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 112.
18. Woodham-Smith, 174; Longford, Victoria, 112; Greville, iv, 200-203; Weintraub, Victoria, 121-3.
19. RAQVJ, 9 May 1839.
20. Ibid.
21. RAQVJ, 10 May 1839.
22. Greville, iv, 169-70.
23. Stockmar, i, 230.
Chapter 13. GERMAN COUSINS
1. Watchman, 4 May 1828, quoted by Chariot, 75.
2. Benson and Esher, i, 60-61.
3. RA Y88/11, 17 May 1836; Hudson, 116.
4. Rhodes James, Albert, Prince Consort, passim; Bennett, King Without a Crown; Weintraub, Albert, passim.
5. Grey, Early Years, 200.
6. Tooley, 205.
7. Stockmar, ii, 7.
8. RA LP, 24 May 1836.
9. Hough, Victoria and Albert, 123.
10. RA 88/15, 7 June 1836.
11. Jagow, 13.
12. RAQVJ, 25 May 1839.
13. Longford, Victoria, 75, 86; RAQVJ, 22 March, 12 April, 28 May 1839.
14. RAQVJ, 15-18 April; 24 June 1839.
15. Wyndham, 292.
16. Benson and Esher, i, 177, 15 July 1839.
17. Stockmar, ii, 2.
18. Benson and Esher, i, 186, l October 1839.
19. RAQVJ, 23 September 1839.
20. Cecil, 334.
Chapter 14. PRINCE ALBERT
1. RAQVJ, 11-14 October 1839.
2. Mitchell, 244.
3. RAQVJ, 14 October 1839.
4. RAQVJ, 15 October 1839.
5. Quoted in St Aubyn, Que
en Victoria, 131-2.
6. Quoted in Longford, Victoria, 134.
7. Benson and Esher, i, 198.
8. RAQVJ, 14 November 1839.
9. Jagow, 26.
10. Ibid., 30.
11. Quoted in Weintraub, Albert, 85.
Chapter 15. THE BRIDEGROOM
1. Greville iv, 218; RAQVJ, 23 November 1839.
2. Croker, ii, 359.
3. Woodham-Smith, 201.
4. David, 116.
5. Woodham-Smith, 202.
6. The Times, 10 February 1840, quoted in Chariot, 171.
7. Quoted in Chariot, 171.
8. Longford, Victoria, 137-8; Chariot, 175.
9. Jagow, 58.
10. Martin, i, 58.
11. Greville, iv, 244.
12. Benson and Esher, i, 199.
13. Jagow, 37.
14. Greville, iv, 236.
15. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 199.
16. Russell, 26.
17. Greville, iv, 244.
18. Jagow, 37.
19. Quoted in Woodham-Smith, 200.
20. Jagow, 41.
21. Benson and Esher, 199-200, 206; Longford, Victoria, 138-9.
22. RAQVJ, 7-8 February 1840.
23. Woodham-Smith, 202.
24. Longford, Victoria, 139-40; St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 142-3.
25. RAQVJ, 9 February 1840.
Chapter 16. HONEYMOON
1. CH, 63, 10 February 1840, i, 217.
2. Tooley, 118.
3. Lorne, 120.
4. Ibid.
5. Hough, Victoria and Albert, 68-9.
6. Greville, iv, 239-40.
7. Private Life, 120.
8. RAQVJ, 10 February 1840.
9. Ibid.
10. Greville, iv, 240.
11. RAQVJ, 10-12 February 1840.
12. RAQVJ, 10 February 1840.
13. RAQVJ, 11 February 1840.
14. Ibid.
15. Benson and Esher, i, 217,11 February 1840.
16. Greville, iv, 240-41.
17. Benson and Esher, i, 213.
18. Greville, iv, 241.
19. Woodham-Smith, 206-7.
20. Private Life, 83; Bloomfield, i, 130.
21. RAQVJ, 10 November 1839.
22. Benson and Esher, i, 199.
23. RA Y54/4, 28 May 1840.
QUEEN VICTORIA A Personal History Page 56
