The Zulu wars
Meanwhile, British imperialists were keen to control South Africa: they wanted to manage the trade route to India that passed around the Cape and they wanted to exploit the huge diamond deposits recently discovered there. In short they wanted to annex the area before other European countries had the same idea. But the native population, the Zulus, did not want Britain on their land. In January 1879, when the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Bartle Frere, tried to extend British power in South Africa, further fighting broke out between the British and the Zulus. Disraeli had urged Bartle Frere to avoid war, thus he was exceedingly annoyed when he heard that his orders had been disobeyed. He was even more vexed when the army was defeated and Britain had to send in extra forces to defeat the Zulus. Queen Victoria, unusually, disagreed with Disraeli. She sympathised with Bartle Frere, for she, like him, espoused an expansionist foreign policy. When the Commander of the victorious British forces returned to England, the Queen wanted him given a hero’s welcome; Disraeli refused to meet him.
On 24 March 1880 the Queen set off on her spring vacation. She began by visiting her daughter Alice in Darmstadt to see her two granddaughters confirmed, before travelling to Baden-Baden for a relaxing holiday. In the meantime a general election was taking place in Britain. Two weeks after Victoria had arrived in Germany she heard ‘news regarding the elections, increasingly bad, which depresses me, as I grieve at the thought of parting with friends, especially Ld Beaconsfield’.86 Her fears were confirmed when the Whigs, now commonly referred to as the Liberal Party, swept to power, winning 349 seats to Disraeli’s 243 Conservatives and 60 Irish MPs. The Queen was devastated that her beloved Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, was no longer prime minister and blamed the 1872 Secret Ballot Act for it. The ballot, she insisted, ‘had led to people’s breaking their word very much, which was a very bad thing’.87
On 15 April the Queen left Baden-Baden. Victoria, now in her sixties, was ‘obstinate, opinionated and entirely dependent on her own judgement’.88 A year earlier, she had said ‘I could never take Mr Gladstone. . . as my minister again, for I never COULD have the slightest particle of confidence in Mr Gladstone after his violent, mischievous, and dangerous conduct for the last three years’.89 When she returned to Britain, she tried to prevent Gladstone from becoming prime minister, insisting that her private secretary impress on the Liberal Party ‘that Mr Gladstone she could have nothing to do with, for she considers his whole conduct since ’76 to have been one series of violent, passionate invective against and abuse of Lord Beaconsfield’.90 She swore that ‘she will sooner abdicate than send for or have any communication with that half mad firebrand who would soon ruin everything and be a Dictator. Others but herself may submit to his democratic rule but not the Queen.’
Disraeli was asked for advice. Her former prime minister may have lost the election but he still wielded power with the Queen and recommended that Hartington, now leader of the Liberal House of Commons, be asked to form a government. Queen Victoria was more than willing to take her former prime minister’s advice and summoned Lord Hartington rather than Gladstone to lead the country. He wisely declined and advised the Queen that a new government could not be formed without Gladstone. The Queen replied ‘I could not give Mr Gladstone my confidence. His violence and bitterness had been such. . . that he had. . . rendered my task and that of the Govt so difficult . . . I instanced the violence of his language . . . the violence against my Government.’91 And still the Queen would not give up. She commanded Hartington to visit Gladstone to determine whether or not he would serve with Hartington. Hartington did his duty, Gladstone refused to commit himself and Hartington returned to his sovereign to tell her the bad news. Eventually the Queen was forced to accept Gladstone but insisted that ‘there must be no democratic leaning, no attempt to change the Foreign Policy, no change in India, no hasty retreat from Afghanistan and no cutting down of [army] estimates.’92 Queen Victoria, cossetted and indulged by Disraeli, had forgotten an important lesson: she was expected to reign. She was neither expected nor required to rule.
Notes
1 Wellesley to Gladstone, quoted in Magnus, Gladstone, p. 159.
2 See Ponsonby, Henry Ponsonby, p. 177.
3 Martin, Queen Victoria as I Knew Her, p. 51.
4 William Kuhn, Democratic Royalism, The Transformation of the British Monarchy, 1861–1914, Macmillan, 1996, p. 33.
5 Lord Grey to Gladstone, June 9th 1869 quoted in Magnus, Gladstone, p. 200.
6 Victoria to Gladstone, May 31st 1869.
7 Gladstone to Ponsonby, August 16th 1871, quoted in Hardie, The Political Influence of Queen Victoria, p. 60.
8 Gladstone to Granville, October 1st 1871.
9 Victoria had a number of different private secretaries: Prince Albert (from 1840 acted in an unofficial capacity); Sir Charles Phipps (1861–6); Hon. Charles Grey (1861–70), Sir Henry Ponsonby (1870–95) and Sir Arthur Bigge (1895–1901).
10 Quoted in Hibbert, Victoria: A Personal History, p. 394.
11 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ February (W) 27th 1872.
12 Ibid. February 29th 1872.
13 Ibid. February 29th 1872.
14 For example, E. J. Feuchtwanger, ‘W E Gladstone’ in Blake, The Prime Ministers.
15 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) August 23rd 1869.
16 Ibid. October 31st 1869.
17 Ibid. April 7th 1880.
18 Victoria to Gladstone, April 23rd 1871.
19 Martin, Queen Victoria as I Knew Her.
20 Victoria to Gladstone, quoted in Roy Jenkins, Gladstone, Macmillan, 1995, p. 341.
21 Quoted in Constance Rover, Women’s Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, 1866–1914, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967, p. 120.
22 Arnstein, ‘The Warrior Queen’, pp. 14–15.
23 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) January 22nd 1871.
24 Ibid. January 27th 1871.
25 Victoria to Gladstone, quoted in Jenkins, Gladstone, p. 341.
26 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) February 11th 1869.
27 See J. C. Beckett, ‘Gladstone, Queen Victoria, and the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, 1868–9’, Irish Historical Studies, 13(49), March 1962, p. 40.
28 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) June 6th 1869.
29 Ibid. July 25th 1869.
30 Hardie, The Political Infl uence of Queen Victoria, p. 177.
31 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) February 16th 1870.
32 Ibid. February 8th 1871.
33 Ibid. August 6th 1870.
34 Ibid. August 7th 1870.
35 Fritz to Victoria, January 3rd 1871.
36 Ibid. January 14th 1871.
37 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) February 18th 1871.
38 Ibid. September 5th 1870.
39 Ibid. September 18th 1870.
40 Memorandum by Victoria, September 9th 1870.
41 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) March 19th 1871.
42 Ibid. April 8th 1871.
43 Ibid. April 16th 1871.
44 Ibid. April 24th 1871.
45 Ibid. May 28th 1871.
46 Ibid. May 31st 1871.
47 Ibid. December 5th 1870.
48 Ibid. March 27th 1871.
49 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 226.
50 Victoria to Ponsonby, November 18th 1874 quoted in Magnus, Gladstone, p. 218.
51 Victoria to Gladstone, February 14th 1874.
52 Victoria to Theodore Martin, February 10th 1874.
53 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) December 13th 1868.
54 Magnus, Gladstone, p. 219.
55 Quoted in Theo Aronson, Victoria and Disraeli. The Making of a Romantic Partnership, Macmillan, 1977, p. 133.
56 Van der Kiste, Sons, Servants and Statesmen, p. 80.
57 Disraeli to Victoria, April 21st 1875.
58 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) October 31st 1878.
59 Court uniform was worn by those holding particular offices attending the royal court. There were different uniforms for different grades of officials: the one Disraeli was allowed to wear was the highest.
; 60 Wilson, Victoria: A Life, p. 167.
61 Aronson, Victoria and Disraeli, p. 138.
62 Victoria to Gladstone, January 20th 1874.
63 Aronson, Victoria and Disraeli, p. 133.
64 It was written in 1878 in response to the surrender of Plevna to the Russians in the Russo-Turkish war.
65 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) November 24th 1875.
66 Ibid. April 2nd 1876.
67 Ibid. August 8th 1877.
68 Quoted in Magnus, Gladstone, p. 242.
69 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) September 8th 1876.
70 Ibid. September 20th 1876.
71 Ibid. August 30th 1876.
72 Ibid. January 8th 1877.
73 Ibid. January 15th 1877.
74 Ibid. January 16th 1877.
75 Victoria to the Duke of Argyll, June 4th 1877.
76 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) May 14th 1877.
77 Victoria to Disraeli, August 9th 1877.
78 Victoria to Salisbury, November 18th 1876.
79 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) August 14th 1877.
80 Ibid. August 14th 1877.
81 Ibid. August 16th 1877.
82 Moneypenny and Buckle, quoted in Arnstein, Queen Victoria, p. 23.
83 Victoria to Granville, May 1880, quoted in Hardie, The Political Influence of Queen Victoria, p. 128.
84 Victoria to Derby, February 10th 1878.
85 Ibid.
86 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) April 5th 1880.
87 Ibid. April 20th 1880.
88 Hardie, The Political Influence of Queen Victoria, p. 71.
89 Victoria to Marchioness of Ely, September 21st 1879.
90 Victoria to Ponsonby, April 8th 1880.
91 RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) April 22nd 1880.
92 Victoria to Ponsonby, April 8th 1880.
9 Trading places – Victoria, Gladstone and Salisbury: 1880–1892
On Christmas Day 1880, Queen Victoria wrote to W. E. Forster, chief secretary of Ireland, insisting that she ‘cannot and will not be the Queen of a democratic monarchy; and those who have spoken and agitated. . . in a very radical sense must look for another monarch’.1 Victoria never carried out her threat of abdication even though the years between 1880 and 1892 were difficult ones for the sovereign. This period was marked by bitter conflicts at home and overseas, largely sparked off by the continuing crisis of Ireland, franchise reform, problems in the Middle East and the collapse of the Liberal Party. At key moments such as these, Queen Victoria was prepared to use all the means available to achieve her goals, even when it meant breaking more constitutional conventions. Theoretically the Queen continued to regard herself as a firm supporter of the Liberals, whereas in reality she preferred the acquiescence and protection of the Tory Party. During this period, Queen Victoria appointed two prime ministers, both of whom held office twice: William Gladstone from 23 April 1880 to 9 June 1885; Lord Salisbury from 23 June 1885 to 28 January 1886; Gladstone from 1 February 1886 to 20 July 1886; and Salisbury from 25 July 1886 to 11 August 1892. Victoria thought democracy a fine thing when it got rid of Gladstone; a defect in the constitution when the Conservatives were voted out of office.
It became even more evident, particularly after the 1884 Reform Act, that the Queen’s duty as a constitutional monarch was to remain politically neutral and act on the advice of her prime ministers. She was expected to fulfil the role of head of state, to be the symbolic head of Britain, to summon and prorogue parliament and to act as a buttress against politicians seeking too much power. The Queen was not expected to govern the country. Yet it was difficult to avoid the impression that the Queen remained a commanding political force. It might even be argued that Queen Victoria posed the greatest threat to constitutional monarchy as she set about undermining governments of which she disapproved, attempted to destabilise the Liberal Party or tried to manipulate domestic and foreign policy.
It was during this period that the Queen’s last two children married. On 27 April 1882 the haemophiliac Prince Leopold married Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, a sovereign principality in the German Empire. Victoria wrote that ‘my anxiety was naturally great, as to how Leopold would get through the ceremony. . . . contrary to my expectation, dear Leopold walked the whole way up the Nave. He was supported on either side by Bertie and Louis. . . . It was very trying to see the dear Boy, on this important day of his life, still lame and shaky.’2 Three years and three months later, on 23 July 1885, Victoria’s last child, Beatrice, married the Germanic Prince Henry of Battenburg. At first, the Queen refused to allow Beatrice to marry, believing like many mothers that her youngest daughter should remain single, stay at home and take care of her mother. When Victoria heard that Beatrice wished to marry Henry, her mother wrote: ‘what despair it caused me and what a fearful shock it was. . . it made me quite ill’. These anxieties indicate an unappealing, selfish element in the Queen’s character, more concerned about her own happiness than that of her younger daughter. After several months of refusing to speak to her daughter, Victoria agreed to the marriage – but only on condition that Henry give up his German commitments and make his home with the Queen. When the couple married, Victoria thought Tennyson’s poem written for her maiden daughter’s marriage with the lines ‘the mother weeps at that white funeral of the single life’ all too appropriate. Gladstone was not invited, a mean-spirited action on the part of the Queen and a personal insult to Gladstone as other political leaders had been asked.
Queen Victoria, now in her sixties, continued to cope with the deaths of friends and family. In March 1881, Queen Victoria was distraught when Disraeli died. She was ‘most terribly shocked and grieved for dear Ld Beaconsfield was one of my best, most devoted, and kindest of friends, as well as wisest of counsellors. His loss is irreparable, to me and the country. To lose such a pillar of strength, at such a moment, is dreadful!’3 The Queen had written regularly to Disraeli after he lost his premiership, often secretly asking him for political advice. When he died, Victoria mourned that there was no one left to halt the pace of Liberal reform. Three years later, ‘another awful blow’ fell upon the Queen when her son Leopold, who had travelled to Cannes to escape the British winter, slipped and fell injuring his head. He died in the early hours of 28 March from a cerebral haemorrhage. Her ‘beloved Leopold, that bright, clever son, who had so many times recovered from such fearful illness. . . has been taken from us. . . I am a poor desolate old woman, and my cup of sorrow overflows!’4
In March 1888, the German Emperor, William I, died and the throne passed to his son, Frederick III, husband of Vicky, Victoria’s eldest daughter. Unfortunately, Frederick had throat cancer. Three months later, on 15 June, he too died. His place was taken by Queen Victoria’s eldest grandson, who was crowned William II. Victoria, aware of the brittle relationship between her grandson and his mother, wrote to William immediately expressing her anxiety about his mother’s position and asking him to do his utmost for her.5 The new Emperor had great respect for his grandmother but took little notice of her entreaties. Victoria thought her grandson high-handed, vulgar and absurd. He was mocked in the family as ‘William the Great’.6 Neither Victoria nor anyone else in British politics at the time could see how these complex and often thorny family networks would eventually pose a threat to Europe. But Victoria was particularly astute about the Emperor’s character.
Three years later, on 14 January 1891, Prince Albert Victor (Eddy), Bertie’s eldest son and heir, died unexpectedly from pneumonia. He was due to be married to his cousin, Princess May of Teck, a few weeks later. The Queen found that ‘words are far too poor to express one’s feelings of grief, horror and distress! Poor, poor parents; poor May to have her whole bright future to be merely a dream! Poor me, in my old age, to see this young promising life cut short!’7 His younger brother, Prince George, became second-in-line to the throne. In March 1892 her son-in-law, Louis, husband of Princess Alice, died. Victoria could hardly write about it. ‘Too, too terrible! Darling Louis, whom I loved so dearly, who was devoted to me
and I to him for more than 30 years, it is too dreadful to have to lose him too! . . . I was so upset I could not go to church, but read prayers in my room.’8
Gladstone's second ministry: 23 April 1880–9 June 1885
Queen Victoria’s dislike of the 71-year-old Gladstone turned to unequivocal hostility during his second ministry when the Queen objected to 4 out of 14 members of his proposed Cabinet. Victoria seemed determined to be as difficult as possible. She was ‘astonished, and somewhat put out, at hearing from Mr Gladstone, submitting the name of Mr Chamberlain, one of the most advanced Radicals, for a place in the Cabinet, and of Sir Charles Dilke, as Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs! Wrote to Mr Gladstone, expressing my regret and surprise.’9 Queen Victoria was determined not to accept Sir Charles Dilke as a minister because ‘it is well known that he is a democrat – a disguised republican. . . . He has been personally most offensive. . . to place him in the Gvt. . . would be a sign to the whole world that England was sliding down into democracy and a republic.’10 Objections continued when Gladstone ‘submitted “more unexpected names”. Mr Mundella (one of the most violent Radicals) for President of the Board of Agriculture, the equally violent, blind, Mr Fawcett as Post Master General’.11 The Queen’s private secretary remarked ‘I do not envy the coming Ministry.’12
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