Queen Victoria

  some startling news – . . . the Sicilians applied to a Merchant to furnish them with guns, who replied that he had none ready, excepting those in the ordnance stores, and asked permission to give them up. This was done and sanctioned by Ld Palmerston!! What does not this point to? This was at the same moment, when we were making professions on neutrality, and Ld Palmerston sanctions such a dishonest proceeding. . . . Affronts and humiliations, keep following closely upon one another, and all all this on account of the unscrupulous behaviour of Ld Palmerston!75

  The French revolution

  Soon the political unrest spread to Paris, where serious disturbances on the streets led to revolution. In February, King Louis Philippe was overthrown and a second republic set up; in June, further disturbances shook the newly established Republic; in December, Louis Napoleon was elected president. Queen Victoria was horrified. Of course, she was intimately connected to the French royal family: her favourite uncle, King Leopold, was married to Princess Louise d’Orleans, a daughter of Louis Philippe, and her cousin Victoire was married to one of the King’s sons; the French King and Queen had visited her in England and she had made return visits to them in France. Victoria’s journal records the escalation of events from the viewpoint of a reigning monarch. She was troubled about the

  good deal of disturbance that took place at Paris yesterday. . . . The troops were out in great force and charged the people, to disperse them, but seeing this had no effect, they attacked with the flat of their swords, and the mob dispersed, but not everywhere, and serious trouble was apprehended for today. It makes one feel very anxious.76

  She was equally shocked when the King was forced to dismiss his reactionary and unpopular prime minister, Guizot, writing that

  so much, and such extraordinary, incredible things, have been happening these days in France, that I hardly know how and what to write. . . . Guizot has resigned, – the National Guard declared they could answer for nothing if the King did not change his Govt! . . . who yielded! This is a terrible blow for him. . . this forced imposition of a change of Govt had a very bad effect.77

  And when, on 25 February 1848, Victoria heard that King Louis Philippe had abdicated and left Paris, she thought it

  too incredible, too astounding. We were both horrified and grieved, and full of sorrow and anxiety for the poor dear Family, and our relations. The French are really a very ungrateful nation to forget in one day all the King has done for them these 18 years! . . . the Tuileries and Palais Royal were in the possession of the mob, who were destroying everything, all Paris being in a state of disorder. . . . How dreadful for the poor old King, the Queen. . . To see their nation behave in this harried way, must be too terrible for them.78

  The French royal family fled to Britain where Victoria heard at first hand how the royal family escaped, of how the King abdicated and was forced to leave the Tuileries ‘as fast as he could, with all the family. They had scarcely time to get through the garden, before the mob of blood thirsty ruffians were in the courtyard, and they ran off, just as they were, all on foot through the gardens – the children with them.’79 Others of the family were not so lucky and ‘were dragged away by the crowd and left amongst the horrible shrieking mob, armed with every sort of missile’.80 Some managed to get away on foot, escaladed the barricades and walked to the railway station to catch the train to Versailles. Eventually, all the royal family escaped, some with their jewels, others with nothing. All were homeless and stateless.

  The French royal family arrived in Britain without clothes or money. Victoria was horrified that one of the princesses wore ‘rags, her only clothes torn half off, and she very nearly crushed by the mob’.81 Victoria sent the family ‘a number of necessary and all sorts of clothes for the children’82 and arranged for their expenses to be met from a Secret Intelligence account.83 She persuaded King Leopold to offer the King and Queen his house at Claremont; the Duke and Duchess of Nemours were given a royal residence at Bushey; and the recently wed Montpensiers were bundled off to Spain. Queen Victoria visited the French family at Claremont, had them to stay with her at Windsor and often commiserated with the fact that they had to live upon the £1,000 sent to them by Prince Ferdinand.84 Victoria found her cousin ‘dear Victoire low and sad. Dear Child, her spirits must give way at times, under such anxiety, such uncertainty, such reversal of fortunes. She is like a crushed rose.’85 The Queen bought Victoire’s jewels when she was forced to sell them, commenting that it showed how ‘pinched they must be’.86

  In June 1848 a second revolution erupted in Paris. Queen Victoria thought that ‘we really seemed to have returned to the horrors of the French revolution. The times are too awful. May God preserve this country.’87 She always believed the worst about the revolutionaries, certain that in Paris ‘many assassinations are going on, many, by means of poison, flowers and even cigars are being poisoned’.88 Palmerston was more sympathetic than his sovereign to the revolutionaries and wanted to establish friendly relations with the new French government. Victoria disagreed. In her view, the lawfully appointed monarch had been overthrown by a bunch of revolutionary upstarts; in Palmerston’s opinion, the corrupt autocratic French monarchy deserved to be deposed. The Queen accused Palmerston of

  coquetting with the Republic, as anxious to be on good terms with them, as he was not with the late Govt. . . For us to join with this unrecognised Govt and be the 1st to act in concert with them, in helping revolted subjects to throw off their allegiance, while at the same time we are grappling with Rebellion in Ireland, is to dishonour and disgrace the name of England.89

  The two battled over what should be the British response to the new Republic, each testing out their own powers. In August 1848, Palmerston forced a reluctant Victoria to recognise the French Republic. However she refused to send an ambassador to Paris or receive a French ambassador in England, thinking it ‘unprecedented and unfitting’.90 In the end, Palmerston insisted and Victoria was obliged to concede.91

  Revolution in Austria and its empire

  Queen Victoria’s loathing of revolutions and revolutionaries deepened. In March, spurred on by events in Paris, protestors threatened the Habsburg Austrian Empire: Viennese crowds assembled in the city demanding basic freedoms and a more liberal regime. Serious clashes occurred between the authorities and the Austrian people. The Habsburgs fled Vienna. ‘Bad news from Vienna’ Victoria commented in her journal ‘the emperor has been made to yield to everything – to consent to have only one Chamber, . . . and with the exclusion of any member of the Imperial Family’.92 Unrest continued and in early October 1848 Victoria heard about a

  horrible new Revolution at Vienna, where the poor Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Latour, had been murdered and killed in a horrible way with axes and clubs. . . . Vienna is in possession of the mob, this made us all very miserable as we have so many dear ones in Vienna and then what is to be the end of all this – there is to be an end of everything if assassinations are begun.93

  Foreign Minister Prince von Metternich, who was a hated symbol of reaction and repression, was forced to resign and the Emperor of Austria abdicated in favour of his nephew the Archduke Franz Josef. The Queen, who had feared that Austria might become a republic, thought the Emperor’s resignation ‘a wise measure and done at the right moment’94 because it secured the monarchy. The fact that Franz Josef’s wife was a Bavarian princess helped. To the Queen’s relief the army retook control of Vienna and executed some of the leaders of the revolution.

  In 1848 the German-speaking Austrian Empire controlled large parts of modern Europe: parts of Italy, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, all filled with different ethnic groups, all with their distinct language and culture. In March 1848 the overriding concern of Austria was unrest in Italy. In 1848 Italy was not a unified country but divided into several separate states, some independent such as Piedmont, some under Austrian rule or with Austrian-dominated rulers. The Pope ruled the Papal States. Revolution broke out in
large parts of Italy in opposition to Austrian rule and in support of Italian unity. Victoria was unsympathetic to the cause of Italian independence and unity because – like all good imperialists – she believed that the Italian provinces under Austrian control were the ‘lawful possessions’ of Austria and should remain so.

  On 18 March 1848 the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule and Radetzky, the Austrian field marshal, was forced to withdraw from the city. Inspired by events in Milan, Charles Albert, king of Sardinia-Piedmont, declared war on Austria. The Queen thought Charles Albert a good for nothing, blamed his ‘despicable’ actions on Palmerston for giving him ‘unfortunate advice’95 and hoped that the Piedmontese would be beaten. She ‘strongly condemned and could not defend’ the ‘bad news from Italy’ when the King of Sardinia ‘unjustifiably marched into Austrian territory’.96 In the Queen’s view everything was sacrificed to the ‘phantom of Italian independence’ and she blamed Palmerston for his misguided advice to the Italians. By his encouragement of Italy, Palmerston was accused of trying to force Austria to give up her lawful possessions. Indeed, Victoria was

  very much troubled again by Ld Palmerston’s attitudes towards the Italian question, which he treats with such unfairness and partiality as seriously to alarm me for the honour of England and for the peace of Europe. – all the Italians wish and say is believed, whereas whatever is said in favour of the Austrians is disbelieved and said to be illusions. – It is very bad.97

  Fortunately for Palmerston, the Queen remained unaware that her foreign secretary had helped arm the leading Italian revolutionary, Garibaldi.

  To complicate matters, a violent uprising took place in Rome, the Pope fled and a republic was declared. The new Republic gave away the papal lands to peasants, gave freedom to the press, provided secular education and reformed the prison system. Victoria was unsympathetic believing that ‘every day some new horror seems to take place. In Rome there has again been a revolt, the Prime Minister Rossi has been assassinated, the Palace was attacked and one of the Cardinals killed. The Pope was obliged to yield and to dismiss his Swiss Guards, he has been placed under complete constraint. It is really too shocking.’98 The Pope appealed to the European governments for armed intervention to help him regain his lands: the Queen felt that the matter should be settled by negotiation.99 In the end, the French restored Rome and the papal states to the Pope.

  At first the British and French tried to broker a compromise between the Italians and the Austrians. However, the Austrians rejected mediation, saying they were tired of Palmerston’s ‘eternal insinuations, his protective and pedagogical tone, both offensive and unwelcome’.100 The Queen agreed and criticised Palmerston for using ‘intemperate and offensive language towards countries like Austria, constantly abusing and intermeddling in their interior policy, and supporting and interceding for Revolutionists and Rebels of every kind and character’.101 Angry exchanges took place between the Sovereign and her Foreign Minister; the Queen regularly insisting that Palmerston rephrase his letters and Palmerston declining to do so. On one occasion the Queen refused to sign one of Palmerston’s letters to the English Ambassador in Austria because she disagreed with Palmerston’s accusation that the Austrian army had committed atrocities. Palmerston reluctantly agreed to change his letter but insisted that the reports of the atrocities were correct. He caustically notified the Queen that the leading general, Radetsky, had ‘ordered the village to be destroyed, and told the troops employed that he made them a present of the village and its inhabitants to deal with them as they chose’. The Queen angrily replied that ‘the cruel part is the war itself and if a government is anxious for the sake of humanity to avoid cruelties, the only real way will be trying to bring about peace’.102 Queen Victoria was self-deluded: Palmerston would never have sought peace at any price, and certainly not with a regime he considered autocratic and repressive. Even so, the Queen refused to relinquish her beliefs and tried to persuade Lord Russell to dismiss his foreign secretary and thus reverse government policy. Events favoured Palmerston rather than the Queen: the Liberal government enjoyed popular support, the opposition was weak and ineffective and Palmerston’s parliamentary ascendancy inviolable. It would take more than the Queen’s cantankerous insistence to be rid of her least favoured minister.

  Gradually, as the Austrian domestic revolution quietened, Radetsky and his army regained control. The Queen was overjoyed, noting in her journal that ‘the Austrians have (to our great joy and satisfaction) entirely beaten the Italians’.103 She was less delighted when Palmerston allowed British passports to be given to the ‘miscreant Republicans who have been the cause of so much bloodshed, which is too bad, and very false humanity.’104

  The German revolutions

  The March revolution in Austria fuelled the German revolutions. They began in Baden and quickly spread to the German principalities of Hesse-Darmstadt, Bavaria, the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, the Rhineland and even to Prussia. As befitted the time, some middle-class Germans pressed for the classic liberal demands of an elected representative government, freedom of the press and trial by jury. A great many of Victoria’s relatives ruled parts of Germany, prompting her personal sympathies to be instinctively on the side of the German princes rather than the revolutionaries. In particular, Albert’s brother and her cousin, Ernest, was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Victoria ‘feared that none of the smaller sovereignties can exist (were this to happen to Coburg and Gotha, it would break my heart) and that they might even become a Republic. This would be too dreadful.’105 Her half-brother Charles, Prince of Leiningen, told her ‘such terribly distressing accounts of Germany, . . . there being general disorganisation, no real freedom, or progress – no respect of laws, and all that is ancient and good torn down’.106

  However, what mattered most was the situation in Prussia, Germany’s largest, most economically and militarily powerful state. In Berlin, crowds of people gathered in the city and demanded constitutional change. King Frederick William was forced by the rebels to make concessions, establish a parliament, grant a constitution, abolish press censorship and lead the move towards German unity. His nephew and heir, Prince William, who disagreed with these reforms and tried to suppress the revolution, was forced to flee to England and seek refuge.

  The rulers of the various states and principalities, frightened at the prospect of republicanism, agreed to convene a national assembly in Frankfurt to discuss a constitution for a united Germany. Prince Albert sent a draft of a proposed constitution to the meeting but it arrived too late. Surprisingly, Victoria’s half-brother, Charles of Leiningen, was elected prime minister of the government formed by the national assembly. Victoria was ‘astounded’. It made her

  anxious to see Charles’s name figuring in it. It is a great honour, but a great responsibility, of which I trust he will be worthy. Anyway, it shows a reaction in favour of Aristocracy, and that Republicanism is certainly on the decrease. It can only have a good effect on the relations between Germany and this country but it adds to our anxieties to have a near relation in such a responsible position.107

  Unfortunately, the Assembly could not agree on a constitution and it dissolved. ‘Poor Germany’, the Queen commented ‘how sad and dreadful is her condition – their horrible Republicans should be exterminated.’108 By autumn 1848 the Prussian aristocrats were once more in control; in December 1848 a new constitution which reasserted the power of the Crown was imposed; the old order was re-established; and in May 1849 the Frankfurt Assembly was dissolved. By the summer of 1849 the German revolution was crushed.

  The Hungarian revolution

  In Hungary, which at the time was ruled by Austria, the revolution was nationalistic as well as democratic. Under the leadership of Lajos Kossuth, the revolutionaries demanded the usual liberal requirements of a free press, freedom of assembly, civic and religious equality, universal male suffrage, trial by jury and far greater autonomy for the Hungarian government. The leading Hungarian revolutionary, Pet
ofi Sandor, encapsulates the thirst for violence in his poem:

  The gentry have waxed fat on us

  For long years passed

  But now it’s our turn: let our dogs

  On them grow fat.

  So toss them with your pitchforks in

  The dung and mud,

  And there the dogs can make their meal

  Of bones and blood.109

  On 15 March 1848 the revolution began. A new parliament was appointed and a democratic political system put in place. Hungary, however, consisted of other nationalities such as Serbians, Croatians, Slovaks and Romanians, all of whom wanted similar rights of their own. When the relationship between the Hungarians and Croats turned violent, the Austrians sent Count Franz Lemberg, their commander-in-chief, to negotiate. Instead, he was killed. The Queen was horrified to hear that the unfortunate Lemberg was murdered in horrendous circumstances, ‘literally torn to pieces by the mob at Pest. It is too horrid as he was a pleasant man and has left a wife and 8 children.’110 The Hungarian revolution was short-lived. The Austrians, by exploiting the differences between the various competing national groups, were able to restore order and the main leaders, including the prime minister, were executed. Petofi Sandor was killed in action.

  During this period, the Queen became more controlling in her management of foreign policy. Constitutionally, because letters written to foreign governments were sent in Queen Victoria’s name, she had the right to review and suggest amendments to diplomatic correspondence. During his period of office as foreign secretary, Lord Aberdeen had mostly accommodated the Queen’s suggestions but Palmerston proved less willing to alter despatches, and was ‘insufficiently attentive to the monarch’s counsel’.111 This reached crisis point in 1848, the most turbulent year ever experienced by the young Queen. Queen Victoria, now just turned 30, was forced to respond to revolutions often involving her relatives. Not surprisingly she sometimes got it wrong. Queen Victoria pronounced herself a Whig but she did not adhere to Whig principles of democratically elected constitutional government. Not surprisingly, given the fact that she was a queen, Victoria usually favoured the preservation of established authority even when that authority was autocratic. In contrast, Palmerston’s commitment to a Liberal philosophy led him to encourage those who favoured representative governments. Palmerston, now identified by his reforming zeal, had positioned himself as a leader of the movement towards constitutional rule. The Queen tried to undermine Palmerston’s principles and authority by writing unauthorised letters to other members of the Cabinet and, more cunningly, to other European sovereigns. In turn, Palmerston sent off dispatches without consulting the Queen. The two protagonists clashed over their political differences as well as over the question of who controlled foreign policy. Palmerston may have been regularly subjected to Queen Victoria’s injunctions but he had the upper hand. The revolutions of 1848 in particular had made him a prominent and popular figure within the United Kingdom and a commanding figure in parliament, thus rendering it impossible for the prime minister to accede to Victoria’s requests to dismiss him. Queen Victoria was forced to accept Palmerston’s parliamentary ascendancy and with it the fact that parliament legitimately possessed a greater measure of power than the sovereign, especially when there was a clear-cut majority in parliament and a weak opposition.