Queen Victoria

by Bartley, Paula;

  Towards marriage

  One of the traditional functions of a monarch was to establish a dynasty. Princess Victoria, the future queen, needed a husband to father her children and make the British throne secure: no one wanted a revival of the debacle which followed the death of George III. In addition, there was widespread fear that her notoriously profligate and unpopular uncle, Prince Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, might inherit the throne if Victoria did not produce an heir. It was considered inappropriate for the future queen to marry a subject; it would have to be a European royal. Her mother and her uncle Leopold favoured a German prince, preferably one of their kinsmen; King William IV who disliked the idea of Victoria marrying one of her mother’s relatives, favoured a Dutch one. Each hoped, with equally flawed justification, that the future Queen would be moulded by a husband chosen by themselves, and thus obliquely command authority over Britain. Politicians, the press and most of Britain also thought it vital for the Queen to marry the right man. He would, after all, be marrying the most powerful woman in the world, and through his marriage would be able to influence British politics, positively – or negatively. Visitors, especially young ones, to Kensington Palace were always a welcome diversion from the interminable boredom that Victoria faced with her mother, her tutors and the band of sycophants that surrounded her. Undoubtedly, the young Princess was lonely. On 16 June 1833, a few weeks after Victoria’s fourteenth birthday, two cousins, Princes Alexander and Ernst Württemberg, son of her mother’s sister Antoinette, came to stay. Victoria noted that ‘they are both extremely tall, Alexander is very handsome, and Ernst has a very kind expression. They are both extremely amiable.’36 The Princess was delighted by their youthful exuberance. When they left she was ‘very very sorry’ as the two were so agreeable and so amiable. In a charming journal entry she wrote that she would miss them ‘at breakfast, at luncheon, at dinner, riding, sailing, driving, walking, in fact everywhere’.37

  Towards her sixteenth birthday, young men began to arrive, this time as likely suitors. Victoria may have been short (she was 4'11", i.e. a little less than 150 cm) and slightly plump with a receding chin, but as heiress to the British throne, she was the best catch in the world. On 15 March, Uncle Ferdinand with his sons, Ferdinand and Augustus, arrived. Ferdinand was on his way to marry the young Queen of Portugal. Victoria described Ferdinand as a

  very slight figure, rather fair hair, beautiful dark brown eyes, a fine nose, and a very sweet mouth. . . . Augustus is as tall and by far stouter. . . . At first, I thought him handsomer than Ferdinand, but not afterwards. . . . Ferdinand speaks through his nose and in a slow and funny way which at first is against him but soon wears off. . . . During the evening, Ferdinand came and sat near me and talks so dearly and so sensibly. I do so love him.38

  The cousins were, at that particular moment, Victoria’s favourites. She thought that they were ‘not like Cousins, but brothers’. She missed them both when they left, especially at dances since Victoria was only allowed to waltz and galop (an early version of the polka) with other royals. Etiquette forbade her to dance with lesser mortals if it meant too much physical contact or if it was too lively. Even so, the dances did not spark off romance; the two boy cousins were friends but no more.

  King William IV, in an attempt to thwart the plans of Victoria’s mother to marry her daughter into German nobility, encouraged the Dutch Prince of Orange and his sons, William and Alexander, to visit. On 12 May 1836 the two arrived at 4pm. Victoria made no positive comment about them in her journal and wrote to her Uncle Leopold that she thought the two very plain, and looked dull, heavy and frightened. The King’s hopes were dashed, seemingly through lack of interest.

  Soon after, another couple of German cousins arrived: Ernest and Albert. Ernest, aged 17, was due to inherit his father’s throne of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha while the 16-year-old Albert was being positioned to be Victoria’s husband. It was a Coburg conspiracy: the Duchess and her two brothers Leopold and Ernest (Albert’s father) all wanted Victoria to marry her first cousin. It would keep Britain Germanic, and keep the British throne in the Coburg family. Their joint plan seemed bound for success; Victoria’s first impressions of Albert were positive. Albert, she thought,

  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 very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful; c’est a la fois, [that is both] full of goodness and sweetness, and very clever and intelligent.39

  The more she knew them, the better she liked them. She commented later that they were so natural, so kind, so very good and so well instructed and informed. In her view they were ‘so well bred, so truly merry and quite like children and yet very grown up in their manners and conversation’.40 When the young Princess had breakfast with them on the last day of their visit she spoke of

  dearest, beloved Cousins, whom I do love so very very dearly; much more dearly than any other Cousins in the world. Dearly as I love Ferdinand, and also good Augustus, I love Ernest and Albert more than them, oh yes, much more. . . . When I think that I shall not see my dear Cousins’ dear kind faces, any more at breakfast, at dinner, nowhere, and that we shall have no more merry breakfasts, no more of those delightful walks, no more merry dinners, no more happy evenings. . . it makes me quite miserable! Oh me! I cannot hardly think of all this today without shedding tears, it makes me quite sick at heart!41

  Certainly, it seemed as if Victoria’s mother’s stratagem was working.

  In September 1836, shortly after Albert’s visit, Victoria’s uncle King Leopold arrived in England. The press was suspicious of his motives, particularly because Victoria would come of age the following year. Leopold’s visit, it was believed, was of a political-matrimonial character rather than a social occasion. Newspapers disapproved of his possible meddling in British affairs, and disliked the thought of too much Germanic influence. ‘There will arise’, one newspaper reported,

  many serious considerations in the mind of every thinking Englishman with regard to a matrimonial alliance for her, who, if she lives, must be our future Queen. . . . Far be it from us to suggest or insinuate that anything like intrigue is going forward . . . for the promotion of selfish family views, or of foreign interests remote from those of the principal party herself. . . . But still the people of England do not like the appearance of designing or meddling motives. . . . and . . . would be revolted by the suspicion that the destiny of her whole life had been pre-disposed of by a clandestine family caucus held on one side of the House only, and that the side which was not English.42

  The Derby Mercury believed that the ‘rose of England must not therefore be approached by any tainted hand. . . What right has Leopold of Belgium to interfere with the marital responsibilities of a Princess who only has the misfortune to be related to him?’43

  A month earlier, tensions had erupted between the King and the Duchess. William IV had visited Kensington Palace only to find that his sister-in-law, without his knowledge and certainly without his permission, had requisitioned new apartments for herself and her daughter. The King was livid. A few days later, the Duchess and Victoria were invited to William IV’s birthday. During his birthday dinner, the King gave vent to his fury before 115 guests who included nobles, politicians and other influential figures. In his tirade he ranted that he hoped his ‘life may be spared for nine months longer. . . . I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the royal authority to the personal exercise of. . . the heiress presumptive of the Crown, and not in the hands of a person who is surrounded by evil advisors and who is herself incompetent to act with propriety’.44 Victoria burst into tears; the Duchess sat immobile, once more humiliated by a royal senior to herself.

  On 18 May 1837, with Victoria approaching 18, William wrote to his niece saying that he would ask parliament to award her an income of £10,000 a year. The King wanted his niece and heir to the throne to have money of her own. Victor
ia, bullied by her mother and Conroy, wrote a letter drafted by the two declining it. King Leopold, aghast at the control Conroy exerted over his sister and ultimately his niece, sent Baron Stockmar to Britain to undermine Conroy’s influence and provide useful advice. Soon Baron Stockmar began to have ‘long and important’ conversations with the Princess.

  The Germanic influence was strong. Stockmar, Lehzen and King Leopold all offered advice, something which the somewhat xenophobic British disapproved of since they feared excessive German control. All three held no official government post, wielding their authority through personal relationships. Baron Stockmar, King Leopold’s private secretary, had been sent by her uncle to teach and advise Victoria. Uncle Leopold reassured his niece that Stockmar ‘will never press anything, never plague you with anything, without the thorough conviction that it is indispensable for your welfare. I can guarantee his independence of mind and disinterestedness.’ 45 Victoria approved and replied to her uncle that she was ‘happy and thankful’ to have Stockmar advise her for ‘he has been, and is, of the greatest possible use, and be assured, dearest Uncle, that he possesses my most entire confidence’.46 For the next few years, he taught Victoria about constitutional proprieties and tried, often unsuccessfully, to persuade her to believe that the Crown should be above party politics.

  On 24 May 1837, Victoria reached her eighteenth birthday. At 7am, a party of 37 gentlemen in full dress serenaded her; later that morning she received her friends and family; in the afternoon the nobility; at 4pm she went in an open carriage to Hyde Park and walked around Kensington Gardens; in the evening, Victoria attended a ball in her honour at St James’s Palace. Most of the country celebrated her coming of age: Victoria could now reign in her own right, without the need for a guardian. Fetes were held across the United Kingdom: a grand dinner was held in Ramsgate, roast beef and plum puddings were given to 900 children in Margate and a ball was held in Leamington Spa. The usual bad poems were written. ‘Youth is around thee, Lady of the Ocean, Ocean that is thy kingdom and thy home, Where not a heart but kindles with emotion, Dreaming of honoured years that are to come.’47 King William IV rejoiced: the Princess no longer needed a regent and he could now give in to his illness. Three weeks later, on 15 June 1837, the news of the King’s health was so bad that Victoria had her lessons cancelled.

  At 6am on 20 June 1837, the Duchess woke her daughter. Victoria got out of bed and, still in her dressing gown, went to her sitting room to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain. Here, she was told that the King, William IV, had died: Victoria, aged 18, was Queen of Great Britain and its empire, and the most powerful woman in the world. In her journal, written later that day, she wrote ‘I shall do my utmost to fulfil my duty towards my country. I am very young and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure, that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.’48 Lytton Strachey observed that after ‘years of emptiness and dullness and suppression, she had come suddenly, in the heyday of youth, into freedom and power’.49 Her new subjects were more concerned about her youth, her inexperience and ‘the novel circumstance of a female reign’.50

  Notes

  1 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) September 16th 1836.

  2 Ibid. March 14th 1833.

  3 Ibid. December 5th 1832.

  4 Blood sports, apart from those such as fox hunting which involved wild animals, were banned in 1835.

  5 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) December 31st 1832.

  6 Ibid. April 19th 1834. Victoria had just seen Grisi performing in Anne Boleyn.

  7 Ibid. March 19th 1833.

  8 Ibid. March 3rd 1836.

  9 Arnstein, Queen Victoria, p. 24.

  10 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) April 19th 1836.

  11 Ibid. August 2nd 1836.

  12 King William IV, when Duke of Clarence, had given his sons and daughters the surname Fitzclarence. Fitz is an Anglo-Norman word meaning ‘son of’. It was later adopted as a prefix for the illegitimate children of royalty.

  13 Victoria to the Princess Royal, June 9th 1858, quoted in Roger Fulford, Dearest Child, Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia, 1858–1861, Evans, 1964, p. 112.

  14 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) July 31st 1832.

  15 Ibid. August 2nd 1832.

  16 Ibid. August 13th 1832.

  17 Caernarfon Herald quoted in The Times, September 5th 1832.

  18 The Times, October 22nd 1832.

  19 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) October 13th 1832.

  20 Ibid. September 29th 1832.

  21 Ibid. October 14th 1832 .

  22 Ibid. October 31st 1832.

  23 Ibid. October 22nd 1832.

  24 Ibid. August 1st 1833.

  25 Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser, August 8th 1833.

  26 The Standard, August 9th 1833.

  27 The Morning Post, September 10th 1835.

  28 The Leeds Mercury, September 19th 1835.

  29 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) September 22nd 1835.

  30 Ibid. September 23rd 1835.

  31 Yvonne Ward, Censoring Queen Victoria, Oneworld Publications, 2014, p. 94.

  32 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) October 27th 1832.

  33 Ibid. January 25th 1836.

  34 Ibid. August 3rd 1836.

  35 Quoted in Williams, Becoming Queen, p. 213.

  36 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) June 16th 1833.

  37 Ibid. July 13th 1833.

  38 Ibid. March 17th 1836.

  39 Ibid. May 18th 1836.

  40 Ibid. May 21st 1836.

  41 Ibid. June 10th 1836.

  42 The Belfast News-Letter, September 23rd 1836.

  43 The Derby Mercury, October 26th 1836.

  44 Quoted in Williams, Becoming Queen, p. 246.

  45 Leopold to Queen Victoria, June 30th 1837. Unless otherwise stated, the quotations from letters have been taken from the collections of letters edited either by Buckle or by Benson and Esher.

  46 Victoria to Leopold, June 19th 1837.

  47 Miss Lindon’s ‘Birthday Tribute’ quoted in The Derby Mercury, May 24th 1837.

  48 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) June 20th 1837.

  49 Strachey, Queen Victoria, p. 33.

  50 The Aberdeen Journal, June 28th 1837.

  2 The young queen: 1837–1840

  At 9am on 20 June 1837, Queen Victoria received her first prime minister, Lord Melbourne. Two and a half hours later, she held her first Privy Council: a 100-strong gentlemanly body of advisors mostly made up of senior politicians, lords, bishops and generals. Victoria walked into the room unaccompanied, without any female attendants, bowed to the Lords, took her seat and read her speech in a clear, distinct and audible voice, acquitting herself ‘with a self-possession and a modesty which astonished and gratified all who witnessed the scene’.1 The new fresh-faced queen was virtually unknown as a result of her mother’s policy of keeping her in obscurity: protecting her daughter, that is, from the loose morals of the court. ‘Think’, Victoria confided later, ‘what it was for me, a girl of 18 all alone, not brought up in court – but very humbly at Kensington Palace.’2 Most people noted ‘the contrast between Queen Victoria and her uncles. The nasty old men, debauched and selfish, pig-headed and ridiculous, with their perpetual burden of debts, confusions, and disreputabilities – they had vanished like the snows of winter, and here at last, crowned and radiant, was the spring’.3 She had, said one courtier, succeeded ‘an imbecile . . . a profligate . . . and a buffoon’.4 In general, the British public welcomed the accession of a young monarch as a breath of royal fresh air who would turn the monarchy into ‘a beneficent institution’. One newspaper commented that no other sovereign enjoyed such a brilliant prospect for she ‘appears in it as the rainbow of a blessed promise. The young Queen of England has not a prejudice or an enmity to encounter, except, perhaps in the lowest dregs.’5 It was hoped that the new queen would do more for her subjects than any monarch in history, making the weight of people’s expectations a heavy burde
n for a teenager to bear.

  A year and eight days later, on 28 June 1838, Victoria was crowned queen. There is nothing calculated to establish devotion to a monarchy more than a birth, a marriage – or a coronation. The coronation provided an opportunity for the country to rejoice at the sight of a young queen, untainted by the degeneracy of previous royals, rejuvenating the country’s monarchy and with it the nation. The government allocated £200,000 to the event, medals were struck, poems, songs and hymns written, coronation ribbons woven and the longest ever state procession since 1660 took the Queen from Buckingham Palace, via Hyde Park Corner, Pall Mall, Charing Cross and Whitehall to Westminster Abbey. The organisers erected platforms along the route so that people could view the regal pageant. It was designed to be a public spectacle and the population responded with enthusiasm. Britain was coronation mad. There never was anything, said one commentator, ‘seen like the state of this town; it is as if the population had been on a sudden quintupled; the uproar, the confusion, the crowd, the noise, are indescribable. Horsemen, footmen, carriages squeezed, jammed, intermingled. . . the town all mob, thronging, bustling, gaping, and gazing at everything. . . the railroads loaded with arriving multitudes.6 Queen Victoria feared ‘the people would be crushed, in consequence of the tremendous rush and pressure’.7 Not everyone welcomed such a public event. One lord expressed ‘horror at the notion of a young girl being exposed to the gaze of the populace, a violation of feminine delicacy’.8 Women, the noble lord believed, should be at home hidden away, not paraded in front of multitudes.

  At dawn, a 21-gun salute ushered in the coronation day. Fortunately, the weather was un-British, fine and rain free. From the first glimpse of morning, one paper reported ‘the usual quietude of the streets was broken by the rattle of carriages and the busy hum of thronging multitudes anxiously hastening to take possession of places secured for a view of the ceremony of the day’.9 At 10am, the Queen left Buckingham Palace in the state coach to the tune of the National Anthem. She was escorted by trumpeters and life-guards, members of the royal family, military officials and the carriages of foreign ambassadors. It was hoped that the new queen would inaugurate a new ceremonial style of monarchy which in turn would generate an era of royal popularity.