Victoria

by Julia Baird

  so many children died: There were 154 deaths per 1,000 live births in infants under the age of one. Jalland, Death in the Victorian Family, 120.

  Victoria erupted, upset: Hibbert, Queen Victoria: A Personal History, 152.

  “I feel so forlorn”: Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, 296.

  “Lehzen is a crazy, common”: January 16, 1842, quoted in Longford, Victoria R.I., 160.

  “Albert must tell me what he dislikes”: Longford, Queen Victoria, 161.

  “very different to any”: Memorandum from Victoria to Stockmar, January 19/20, 1842, Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, 231.

  “There is often an irritability in me”: Ibid.

  “vein of iron”: July 1844: “We are all on the look-out for signs of illness in the Queen; but this morning she was tripping upstairs to chapel, and the vein of iron that runs thro’ her most extraordinary character enables her to bear up to the last minute, like nobody else.” Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 348.

  “Felt rather bewildered & low”: QVJ, July 25, 1842.

  “It was very painful to me”: Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 331.

  “in which she took leave of me”: QVJ, September 30, 1842.

  newly married Vicky: Vicky had married in London on January 25, 1858; this was a visit to her in August of that year. Victoria writes in her journal on August 12, 1858: “As we passed by the station, Lehzen stood there, waving her handkerchief.”

  popularizing the Christmas tree tradition: Longford points out (Victoria R.I., 169) that Queen Charlotte had decorated a yew tree at Windsor decades earlier, but Albert was credited with the idea. It became a wildly popular custom.

  “good deal preoccupied”: Memorandum by Mr. Anson, Windsor Castle, December 26, 1841, quoted in Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 1:463.

  Chapter Fourteen: King to All Intents:

  “Like a Vulture into His Prey”

  “He is become so identified”: Strachey and Fulford, The Greville Memoirs, 5:257.

  “it made one impatient to see ‘gentlemen’ ”: QVJ, January 24, 1846.

  “tall, handsome man with fair hair and fine features”: For a portrait of Sir Robert Peel see Illustrated London News, August 27, 1842, 243.

  “very comprehensive & excellent”: QVJ, January 27, 1846. Victoria, who had taken an interest in Peel’s speeches as a teenager, read it the next day, and described it as “beautiful, but immeasurably long.” QVJ, January 28, 1846.

  “to usher in, to give éclat”: House of Commons Debates (HC Deb) February 27, 1846, vol. 84, cc249–349. Note that Albert’s presence had, before then, been a source of disgruntlement only to Peel’s opponents. The press was not interested, and reports of Bentinck’s speech failed to mention his excoriation of Albert.

  “The Prince merely went”: Martin, The Prince Consort, 1:322.

  “shows boundless courage”: February 16, 1846, ibid.

  “very great sensation”: QVJ, March 16, 1842.

  “afraid of catching revolution”: Charlot (Victoria the Young Queen, 263) quotes Norman St. John-Stevas, Walter Bagehot.

  “the removal of impediments”: Parker, Sir Robert Peel, 3:223.

  “extreme distress”: QVJ, September 28, 1846, quoted in Longford, Victoria R.I., 190.

  money raised for the Crimean War a few years later: Hoppen, The Mid-Victorian Generation, 570.

  “barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots”: Quoted in Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, 411.

  disgust at the Irish who murdered those landlords: QVJ, November 5, 1847.

  “It is a constant source of anxiety & annoyance”: Ibid.

  She did not visit Ireland until 1849: After this, the queen made three more visits to Ireland: in 1853, 1861, and 1900.

  through puddles and piles of rocks: All of this is from the Examiner, May 14, 1842.

  would no longer be suitable for marriage: Heesom, “The Coal Mines Act of 1842,” 75.

  only occurred incrementally, against great resistance: The first effective Factory Act, in 1833, had banned the employment of children under nine in textile mills—except silk and lace mills—and regulated hours of work, to nine a day or forty-eight a week for children under thirteen. Those under thirteen were also required to attend school two hours a day.

  and only a quarter of ten- to fourteen-year-olds: Lavalette, A Thing of the Past?, 78. Note that Lavalette argues that working conditions were worse for many children before industrialization, especially those in small-scale and cottage industries, like weavers and knitters.

  “observed next morning that she shed tears”: Odd Fellow, May 14, 1842.

  “childish display of the waste of thousands”: Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser, June 4, 1842.

  “the most deserving boy” in each ward be pardoned: QVJ, August 2, 1845.

  it would cripple economic productivity: In 1844, Peel introduced the Factory Bill that would have cut the hours of children laboring in textile mills to six. Lord Ashley wanted to amend it so that the working hours of all young people, and women, were cut to ten. This amendment was passed, but Peel opposed it and withdrew the bill. (It should be noted that Lord Shaftesbury was named Lord Ashley until 1851, when he became an earl.)

  pass the pen to Albert after signing the register: The fight with the controversial duke was partly due to a fight over some of Victoria’s jewels—they had belonged to Charlotte and should rightfully have gone to the duke, but Victoria would not relinquish them.

  “But he was so good & kind & had loved me for myself”: QVJ, June 9, 1842.

  “cold public around us, insensible as stone”: Prince Albert to Baron Stockmar, Windsor Castle, February 4, 1844, quoted in Jagow, Letters of the Prince Consort, 88.

  “the intimate love we bear one another”: QVJ, February 4, 1844.

  her eyes filled with tears: Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 338–39.

  “we shall find happiness again”: February 4, 1844, Bolitho, The Prince Consort, 69.

  devote himself to his family: Prince Albert to Baron Stockmar, Windsor Castle, February 9, 1844, quoted in Jagow, Letters of the Prince Consort, 89.

  “agitated with joy and thankfulness”: QVJ, April 12, 1844. The next year, when she went to Germany for the first time, Victoria visited her husband’s childhood home in Rosenau and was very moved: “If I were not who I am—this would have been my real home, but I shall always consider it my 2nd one.” QVJ, August 20, 1845.

  “but where am I not happy now?”: QVJ, August 3, 1843.

  “particularly in moments when one is alone”: QVJ, April 27, 1843.

  rolled in her bed to the sitting room, then in an armchair: QVJ, August 6, 1844.

  “and flies off with it to his nest”: Stockmar, Memoirs of Baron Stockmar, 2:100.

  His pigs won first prize at agricultural fairs: Charlot, Victoria the Young Queen, 227.

  “boldly and hard”: Queen Victoria to King Leopold, December 12, 1843, Hibbert, Queen Victoria in Her Letters, 72.

  “cannot understand how any one can suffer from it”: QVJ, February 17, 1843.

  “He is King to all intents and purposes”: The Greville Memoirs, December 16, 1845, 5:330.

  “and that this opinion was duly expressed”: Benson and Esher, Letters of Queen Victoria, 1:28.

  “who are badly educated, to desperation & violence”: QVJ, April 15, 1845.

  “tide of bigotry, and blind fanaticism”: Ibid.

  “a kind and true friend”: Queen Victoria, July 1, 1846, quoted in Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 1:100.

  in the “simple attire” he had often seen them in: Peel to Victoria, July 24, 1846, quoted in Parker, Sir Robert Peel, 3:452.

  his inability to convince his party that it was the best: Greville, The Greville Memoirs, 2:325.

  “Politics…must take only a second place”: QVJ, June 10, 1846.

  Chapter Fifteen: Perfect, Awful, Spotless Prosperity

  “playing with their
human toys”: Jerrold, Married Life of Victoria, 94.

  “a liberty and a solitude”: Warner, Queen Victoria’s Sketchbook, 176.

  rosy cheeks, and perfectly tailored clothes: “General Tom Thumb Junior, at Home,” Era, March 3, 1844.

  “tease him a good deal, I should think”: QVJ, March 23, 1844.

  during a three-year tour of Britain and Europe: They stayed in London for four months. Richardson, The Annals of London, 267; Barnum, The Life of P. T. Barnum, 260; “Court and Aristocracy,” Examiner, April 6, 1844. On the second visit (the Monday night), Thumb delighted the court with his repertoire:

  His delineation of the Emperor Napoleon elicited great mirth, and this was followed by a representation of the Grecian statues, after which the General danced a hornpipe and sang several of his favorite songs. Her Majesty was pleased to present the General a superb souvenir, of mother of pearl, and mounted with gold and precious stones, together with a beautiful gold pencil-case, with the initials of Tom Thumb, and his coat of arms engraved on the emerald surmounting the case.

  On his third visit, Thumb sang “Yankee Doodle,” and complimented the queen on her taste, evident in the furnishings of the Yellow Drawing Room. [Barnum, The Life of P. T. Barnum, 261.]

  The Caledonian Mercury, on April 25, 1844, reported on Thumb’s third visit to Buckingham Palace:

  The Queen asked him to wear the same court dress he had worn for the Queen Dowager. Received in the yellow drawing room with Albert, King and Queen of Belgium, Charles of Leiningen. “He was received by her Majesty with all the familiarity of an old acquaintance.” Did imitation of Napoleon in costume, then sang two songs, danced a hornpipe, was there 5:30–7. Much laughter.

  Albert asked if he could favor him with a bow, which he did, then “shook hands with the dwarf who, as he made his obeisance to the royal party, paid a compliment to her Majesty on the taste exhibited in the drawing-room, which caused the most hearty laughter at his departure.”

  Victoria found him “very nice, lively & funny, dancing & singing wonderfully.” She was amused that Thumb did not even reach the shoulders of Vicky, who was then three and a half. QVJ, April 1, 1844, and April 19, 1844.

  endowed him with prestige and publicity: “The Sights of London,” Morning Post, April 8, 1844.

  pulled by pretty ponies: Bogdan, Freak Show, 150–51: “Queen Victoria saw the little prodigy three times and presented him with gifts which he ostentatiously displayed when on exhibit. To promote his appearances he would drive about in an ornate miniature carriage pulled by matching ponies. The marine-blue, crimson, and white carriage, a gift from Barnum, had been made by the queen’s carriage maker.”

  “God bless you!”: Sanger, Seventy Years a Showman, 94.

  a wedding dress and a diamond ring: In Freak Show (207), Bogdan writes of the “The Tallest Couple Alive,” whose combined height was claimed to be fifteen feet eleven inches. Queen Victoria summoned the pair to Buckingham Palace to give the bride-to-be these gifts before they married on June 17, 1871.

  Victoria wrote a letter to his handler expressing her regret: Sanger was thrilled; he had first put on his performing costume in the Hyde Park fair on the day of Victoria’s coronation. (He was also, coincidentally, the Lion Woman’s husband.) Sanger, Seventy Years a Showman, 70.

  wrote Stockmar to her sternly: Rhodes James, Albert, Prince Consort, 131.

  by the sea and in the Highlands: She wanted “a place of one’s own, quiet and retired.” Ibid., 140.

  “perfect little Paradise”: Ibid., 144.

  “the trees seem covered as with feathers”: QVJ, June 9, 1849.

  “He is hardly to be kept at home a moment”: QVJ, May 12, 1845.

  a form of therapy for him: QVJ, April 21, 1848.

  struggling with depression after Bertie’s birth: QVJ, August 29, 1842.

  “who live far away from towns”: Albert writes to Duchess Caroline of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg from Windsor Castle, on September 18, 1842, that “Scotland has made a most favourable impression upon us both. The country is full of beauty, of a severe and grand character; perfect for sport of all kinds, and the air remarkably pure and light in comparison with what we have here. The people are more natural, and marked by that honesty and sympathy which always distinguishes the inhabitants of mountainous countries, who live far away from towns.” Jagow, Letters of the Prince Consort, 81.

  “peculiar feelings of admiration & solemnity”: QVJ, September 10, 1848.

  “today I shot two red deer”: Quoted in Bolitho, Albert, Prince Consort, 104.

  chatted with the women for hours: Greville wrote, “She is running in and out of the house all day, and often goes about alone.” September 15, 1849, Strachey and Fulford, The Greville Memoirs, 6:186; Greville, The Great World, 269.

  “so intelligent, modest and well bred”: QVJ, October 3, 1850.

  “small house, small rooms, small establishments”: September 15, 1849, Greville, The Great World, 269.

  “never see, hear or witness these various charms”: Osborne House, October 5, 1849, Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 392–93.

  “I hope to conquer my shortcomings”: QVJ, December 31, 1847.

  without ever ceasing her work: Victoria was pregnant or in confinement for almost four of the first five years she was married (forty-four out of sixty months).

  “totally unsurmountable disgust”: Ibid., 159.

  a heifer in the Balmoral dairy was soon named Princess Alice: Van der Kiste, Queen Victoria’s Children, 58. Victoria, writing to Alice, said nursing was “animalistic” and vulgar: “A child can never be as well nursed by a lady of rank & nervous & refined temperament…for the less-feeling & the more like an animal the wet nurse is, the better for the child.” Ward, “Editing Queen Victoria,” 70.

  and inappropriate for upper-class women: She wrote to Vicky: “No lady, and still less a Princess, is fit for her husband or for her position, if she does that.” Pakula, Uncommon Woman, 114.

  a persuasive argument in the days before breast pumps existed: Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 27.

  with dubious morals: A useful summary of middle-class practices can be found in Lynda Nead’s Myths of Sexuality, 27:

  The ways in which women are supposed to fulfil their role as mother undergoes historical shifts. One of the key changes in attitudes during the nineteenth century concerned the question of wet-nursing. During the eighteenth century, wet-nursing had been usual practice amongst upper-class families; however, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and particularly during the cholera outbreaks and political crises of the 1840s, the habit came under increasing attack. The moral and physical health of the working-class women who were engaged as nurses was called into question and doctors described the possibility of moral/physical contamination from nurse (i.e, working class) to child (i.e., middle class) through the feeding. Middle-class women were strongly urged to feed their children themselves; breast-feeding was re-defined as a natural and healthy practice for the responsible middle-class mother, and childcare became a site for the separation and insulation of the middle class from corruption by the class below it.

  “more like an animal” suckled them: Victoria, writing to Alice, said nursing was “animalistic” and vulgar. (Ward, “Editing Queen Victoria,” 70. These letters are quoted in Pakula, Uncommon Woman, 215.)

  Most Englishwomen…Victoria spent sixteen: Flanders, The Victorian House, 14.

  almost double the era average of 5.5 children: Ibid., 14.

  “which God knows receive a shock enough in marriage alone”: Fulford, Dearest Child, 77–78. For another discussion, see Chapter 4, “Queen Victoria and the Shadow Side,” in Helsinger et al., The Woman Question, 1:63–77.

  more…than the average Victorian male: The Rudyard Kipling verses below are quoted in Flanders, The Victorian House, 15: “We asked no social questions—we pumped no hidden shame—We never talked obstetrics when the Little Stranger came.” Rudyard Kipling, “The Three Decker,” in Ru
dyard Kipling’s Verse, 380.

  “difficult to uphold in the face of so many women”: Quoted in Bolitho, Albert, Prince Consort, 109.

  “such a flashing look of gratitude from the Queen!”: February 9, 1844, Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 339–40.

  in a large basket delighted her: QVJ, March 7, 1843: “Went to the nursery, where Albert played delightfully with the children, pulling them about in a basket, one after the other & together, which greatly delighted them. All this is so pleasant here, at Claremont, where the nursery is so close to our rooms, whereas alas! at Buckingham Palace, it is literally a mile off, so that we cannot run in and out as we would like.”

  “manages them so beautifully and firmly”: Rhodes James, Albert, Prince Consort, 231.

  “forget their first duties”: Fulford, Dearest Child, 205, quoted in Sanders, Victorian Fatherhood, 30.

  “George III cared very little for his children”: QVJ, January 20, 1848.

  “and various intense precautions”: February 3, 1842, Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 326. Albert checked the access to the children’s apartments: “And the intricate turns and locks and guardroooms, and the various intense precautions, suggesting the most hidden dangers, which I fear are Not altogether imaginary, made one shudder! The most important key is never out of Albert’s own keeping, and the very thought must be enough to cloud his fair brow with anxiety. Threatening letters of the most horrid kind (probably written by mad people), aimed directly at the children, are frequently received. I had rather no one but our own family knew all this. It had better not be talked about; and hitherto this has been kept from me and all of us here.”

  important part of parenting: As Australian scholar Yvonne Ward has demonstrated, Victoria’s correspondence with Queen Donna Maria II of Portugal, for example, shows how preoccupied she was with her children. Both women worked and labored throughout crises, wars, assassination attempts, and foreign conflicts. In their letters, omitted from Victoria’s edited letters, they discussed the use of wet nurses, cholera, typhoid, vaccinations against smallpox, and weaning, as well as their desire that their husbands not be emasculated by their jobs, but be recognized as their masters.