Prince Albert
Page 39
The bulletins became more sombre. December 14th opened more hopefully, as the Queen recorded:
Sir James Clark was very hopeful – he had seen much worse cases. But the breathing was the alarming thing, it was so rapid. There was what they call a dusky hue about his face and hands, which I knew was not good. I made some observation about it to Dr. Jenner, and was alarmed by seeing he seemed to notice it.
Albert folded his arms, and began arranging his hair, just as he used to do when well and was dressing. There were said to be bad signs. Strange! as though he were preparing for another and greater journey.
Inexorably, and without any perceptible struggle, he slipped away, and died peacefully in the evening of December 14th.
Phipps wrote to Palmerston:
. . . The Queen, though in an agony of grief, is perfectly collected, and shows a self control that is quite extraordinary. Alas! she has not realised her loss – and, when the full consciousness comes upon her – I tremble – but only for the depth of her grief. What will happen – where can She look for that support and assistance upon which She has leaned in the greatest and the least questions of her life?
Prince Albert’s body was temporarily placed in the Royal Vault in St. George’s Chapel, and then, on December 18th 1862, eventually laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore in Windsor Park, designed by his old friend Ludwig Gruner. His grieving wife commissioned a moving effigy, designed by Carlo Marochetti, of him and her, lying together on top of the tomb in which, in due course thirty-nine years later, her effigy and body joined his.
The funeral obsequies were elaborate, and for several years Queen Victoria seemed inconsolable. How she gradually emerged from this terrible period, re-created her life, and departed from her husband’s caution and political impartiality but successfully concealed this from her increasingly admiring subjects, belongs to her biographer and not to his. Her total devotion to his memory concentrated upon the less profound of his qualities; this created a general misunderstanding of his personality, which although remarkably enduring, is sadly inadequate. Less emphasis has been given to the impact of his death upon their children, and particularly the Prince of Wales. Several years later he was overcome with tears when attempting to speak of his father at an official public banquet, and his first statement when he became King Edward VII contained a moving reference to Prince Albert – ‘ever to be lamented, good and wise’, a tribute so heartfelt that it startled and moved all who heard and read it. Vicky, also, was especially bereft. ‘Why has the earth not swallowed me up?’ she wrote on her father’s death. She was to endure other heart-breaks, but this, the first, was perhaps the most terrible of all. The others, even ‘the baby’ Beatrice, felt a lifelong sense of personal deprivation.
No assessment of this remarkable individual, perhaps the most astute and ambitious politician of his age, can ignore the simple but vital facts that he was a highly intelligent and acutely sensitive man whose fate was that he had to deal with men of power whose knowledge, experience, and intelligence were often inferior to his, and who were, moreover, aliens. Perhaps he did not greatly like, or certainly did not always understand, the English. This amiable, brave, emotional, selfish, easy-going, and lackadaisical people, with their contempt and distrust for brains and their insularity, grated deeply upon a man of such width of comprehension and knowledge, vision, sensitivity, internationalism, and self-destructive capacity for work. It was this slow-dawning realisation of the gulf of attitudes which existed between himself and his wife’s country that inexorably created the melancholy and despair which made the end of his life so sadly shadowed.
It is perhaps fruitless to dwell on what might have happened had Prince Albert lived considerably longer. It is reasonable to speculate that the fortunes of Gladstone and Disraeli would have been considerably different, so far as their relations with the Queen were concerned, and it is possible – although in my view improbable – that the cause of German liberalism against Bismarck, whose full dominance began a year after Albert’s death, might have been strengthened by his wisdom and experience, and Fritz – who became Crown Prince in 1858 – and Vicky would certainly have benefited from his knowledge and advice. But the forces that Bismarck assembled to defeat the German Anglophile liberals were so powerful that it is questionable whether Prince Albert’s influence could have changed the eventual result. What is certain is that the manner in which German unification occurred, and the spirit in which it was led, would have been seen by Prince Albert with dismay and misery. There had been many times when he had deplored, and often angrily, the independence and unreliability of the British Parliament; he believed in a strong and influential monarchy; but he never envisaged anything on the model of what emerged in Germany – a Parliament with no control over the army, no role in policy, and without the power to make or unmake governments. What happened in Germany was the negation of everything he and Stockmar had believed in and worked for.
Obviously, all his achievements were founded upon his marriage, and had he not been the husband of the Queen of England his influence, whether in politics, the arts, architecture or industry, could not have been one fraction of what it became. But he took that opportunity to develop a role unprecedented by any consort of any English monarch, and in the process guided and assisted Queen Victoria through the difficult first years of her eventually triumphant reign. But there was more to this than just guidance and wisdom. As has been related, it was a marriage not without difficulties, but one founded upon a genuine and profound love whose intensity and endurance remain deeply moving. ‘How many a storm has swept over it, and still it continues green and fresh and throws out vigorous shoots’, he wrote within months of his death, and she wrote of him on his last birthday that ‘This is the dearest of days, and one which fills my heart with love and gratitude and devotion’.
There are no false notes here. It remains one of the most moving, as well as the most important, marriages in modern history. Under all difficulties, and in the face of many disappointments, that love not only endured but strengthened. ‘It is you who have entirely formed me’, she told him, and of him she had said to Peel with moving simplicity and truth ‘he is so good, and loves me for myself. If he brought to her a more mature judgement and a better intellect, she contributed to him a warmth, common sense, and passion that gave him not only strength but a happiness and joy which is better reflected in his music and jewellery than in his letters, although the reference to ‘flying with you through that lovely ballroom’ reaches down the years, and warms the cold paper that lies upon the biographer’s table. This was the real thing.
No one could have toiled harder at his many tasks. His childhood had not been without its sadness, but there had been much sunshine and laughter, and the joy of expectations. Thereafter, the sunshine had become more spasmodic, and less frequent, until by the end there was little laughter, much weariness when there had been intense and zestful activity, sadness in place of joy, and few hopeful expectations. But the sunshine of love remained.
It is impossible to improve upon the judgement of Justin McCarthy, written in 1910, that ‘A marriage among princes is, in nine cases out of ten, a marriage of convenience only. Seldom indeed is it made, as that of the Queen was, wholly out of love. Seldom is it even in love-matches when the instincts of love are not deceived and the affection grows stronger with the days. Everyone knew that this had been the strange good fortune of the Queen of England. There was something poetic, romantic, in the sympathy with which so many faithful and loving hearts turned to her in her hour of unspeakable distress’.
As Rosebery said of Burns:
It was not much for him to die so young . . . After all, in life there is but a very limited stock of life’s breath; some draw it in deep sighs and make an end; some draw it in quick draughts and have done with it; and some draw it placidly through four-score quiet years; but genius as a rule makes quick work with it. It crowds a lif
etime into a few brief years, and then passes away, as if glad to be delivered of its message to the world, and glad to be delivered from an uncongenial sphere.
During his last illness Albert heard one morning some winter birdsong, and thought it was The Rosenau dawn chorus. He spoke to his wife and family only in German, and asked incessantly for Stockmar, who only survived him until July 1863. In Grey’s words, written truly, ‘Surely no man was ever endowed with a stronger feeling of love for all the recollections and associations of his youth, and of his native place’. And, at the end, as his life faded, so did the memories of his childhood dominate all others, and his mind moved tranquilly to the soft Coburg hills and valleys, the keeper’s house near the little inn, where he and Ernest had created their own garden, and had decorated the little summer-house. ‘Never can I forget’, Victoria wrote in her account in 1872, ‘how beautiful my Darling looked lying there with his face lit up by the rising sun, his eyes unusually bright, gazing as it were on unseen objects & not taking notice of me’.
Stockmar’s reaction to the news of Albert’s death was his epitaph, as well as that of the Prince:
Here do I see crumble before my eyes that edifice which I have devoted twenty years to construct, prompted by a desire to accomplish something great and good.
In her acute grief and agony, the Queen wrote to Florschütz:
You know his pure, grand, and great soul . . . You saw this great soul in its development and you may be proud of having educated him! He, my angel – Albert – my life, the life of my life. He was husband, father, mother, my support, my joy, the light in our deprived home, the best father who ever lived, a blessing to the country . . .
I thought of you and how sad you would be.
Pray for me and be assured of my friendly feelings, which will last for ever.
* * *
61 Woodham-Smith, op. cit., p. 416.
62 Lord John Russell had become Earl Russell in July, on which event Albert wrote to Stockmar on July 29th that he ‘will perhaps be surprised when he sees his influence in the country damaged. However, the atmosphere of the Upper House may perhaps have a soothing influence upon him’.
63 Four of the children – Alfred, Leopold, Vicky and Beatrice, aged four – were not present. Alfred was at sea, Vicky was told too late of the critical state of her father, Leopold was at Cannes, and Beatrice was deliberately kept away from the scene.
References to Documents Quoted from the Royal Archives
chapter one
RA Y 71/65 (King Leopold to Queen Victoria, 21 May 1845)
RA M 45 (Documents relating to Prince Leopold and Princess Charlotte)
chapter two
RA Z 272/6 (Florschütz to Queen Victoria, 7 January 1863)
RA Z 272/3 (Prince Ernest to Queen Victoria, 19 December 1839)
RA Z 276/6 (Memorandum by Florschütz, undated)
RA Y 153/131 (Stockmar to Prince Albert)
RA M 7/67 and Addendum VII (Prince Leiningen’s account of ‘The Kensington System’)
Princess Victoria’s Journal, 29 September 1835
Ibid, 18 May 1836
Ibid for May 19, 21, 23, 25 and 26; for June 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9
RA Z 272/23 (Prince Albert to Duchess of Saxe-Coburg)
RA M 4/57 (Memorandum by Prince Leiningen, 1841; note by Prince Albert)
Princess Victoria’s Journal for 10 July 1836
RA Z 272/10 (Report by Francis Seymour to the Queen)
RA Z 272/7 (Arthur Mensdorff to the Queen, 16 March 1863)
chapter three
The Queen’s Journal, 21 and 28 September 1838
Ibid 12 July 1839
Ibid 10 October 1839, 4 June 1836, and 11 October 1839
Ibid 15 October 1839
RA Z 272/3 (Duke Ernest to the Queen, 19 December 1839)
chapter four
The Queen’s Journal, 1st January 1840
Ibid
RA Z 273/3 (Prince Albert to Lord Melbourne, 20 December 1839)
RA Z 273/4 (Lord Melbourne to King Leopold, 23 December 1839)
RA Z 273/8 (The Queen to Prince Albert, December 1839)
RA Z 273/9 (King Leopold to Lord Melbourne, December 1839)
RA Z 273/11 (Lord Melbourne to Prince Albert, 29 December 1839)
RA Z 273/12 (Prince Albert to Lord Melbourne)
The Queen’s Journal, 10 February 1840
RA Z 272/32 (Prince Albert to Duchess of Coburg)
RA Y 54/1 (Anson’s Memorandum, 19 February 1841)
RA Y 54/2 (Anson’s Memoranda, February and March 1840)
RA Y 54/3 (Anson’s Memorandum, 15 April 1840)
RA Y 54/16 (Anson’s Memoranda, 17 February 1841 and July 24 1840)
RA Z 272/33 (Prince Albert to Duke Ernest, 21 June 1840)
RA Y 153/6 (Stockmar to Prince Albert)
The Queen’s Journal, 23 November 1840
chapter five
RA Y 54/23–46 (Anson’s Memoranda, May 1841) The Queen’s Journal 17th May 1841
RA Y 54 (Anson’s Memorandum, 14 June 1841)
RA Y 54/51 (Anson’s Memorandum, 12 June 1841)
RA Y 54/96 & 98 (Anson’s Memoranda, 12 October, 19 November, 5 December 1841)
RA Y 54/100 (Anson’s Memorandum, 26 December 1841)
RA Add U/2/4 (Prince Albert to the Queen, 16 January 1842)
RA Add U2/2 (Prince Albert to Stockmar, 16 January 1842)
RA Add U2/1 (The Queen to Stockmar, 17 January 1842)
RA Add U2/4 (The Prince to Stockmar, 18 January 1842)
RA Add U2/6 (Stockmar to the Queen, 19 January 1842)
RA Add U2/7,8 (The Queen to Stockmar, 19 and 20 January 1842)
RA Y 54/20 (Anson’s Memorandum, April 26 1841)
RA M 22/72 and 73 (Prince Albert to Duchess of Kent, Duchess to the Prince, 12 January 1843)
RA M 22/74 (Prince Albert to Duchess of Kent, January 1843)
RA M 22/75 and 71 (Duchess of Kent to Prince Albert, 23 March 1843 and 10 January 1843)
The Queen’s Journal, December 1841
Ibid 15 September 1842
RA A 13/12, 13, 18, 82, 83; B6/48, 50
RA M 67 (‘Attempts on the Queen by Francis and Bean 1842, their trial and consequent alteration of the law’; memorandum and papers by Prince Albert)
RA PP Osborne
RA M 22 (Miscellaneous Family Papers; documents relating to Duke of Cambridge and correspondence with Peel)
Princess Victoria’s Journal, 21 September 1835
RA Y 55/10 (Anson’s Memorandum, April 30 1843)
RA C 44/16 (Memorandum by Prince Albert, 7 December 1845)
RA C 44/29 (Prince Albert to King Leopold, 30 January 1846)
RA Y 92/36 (The Queen to King Leopold, 23 December 1845)
RA C 23/14 (The Queen to Peel, 23 January 1846)
RA C 23/27 (Memorandum by Prince Albert, 30 January 1846)
RA C 23/81 (Memorandum by Prince Albert, 18 February 1846)
RA C 23/92 (Memorandum by Prince Albert, 25 February 1846)
RA C 23/102 (Prince Albert to Peel, 1 March 1846)
The Queen’s Journal, 8th June 1846
chapter six
RA C 17/55 (Prince Albert to Russell)
RA F 32–35a (Papers relating to Cambridge University Chancellorship)
RA Y 197/27 (Stockmar to Prince Albert, 1 August 1847)
RA C 16/52 (Prince Albert to Russell, 29 April 1848)
RA L 23/1 (Prince Albert to Russell, 30 December 1849)
RA F 24–28 (Prince Albert’s papers relating to The Great Exhibition)
chapter seven
RA C 17/67 (Prince Albert to Russell, 18 May 1850)
RA A 79/32 (Prince Albert to Russell, 15 May 1850)
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RA Y 54/99 (Queen Victoria to Russell)
The Queen’s Journal, 26 December 1851
RA A 81/32 (Memorandum by Prince Albert, 14 July 1852)
RA 149/87 (Prince Albert to Stockmar, 24 January 1854)
chapter eight
RA Y 148/1 (Prince Albert to Stockmar, January 1846)
RA Y 153/9 (Stockmar to Prince Albert, 1 October 1840)
RA Y 153/11 (Stockmar to Prince Albert, 21 November 1840)
RA Y 153/46 (Ibid to the same, 18 September 1843)
RA Y 153/48 (Ibid to the same, 27 November 1843)
RA M 12/20 (Ibid to the same, 8 April 1842)
RA M 12/14 (Memorandum by Stockmar, 6 March 1842)
RA M 12/42 (Stockmar to Prince Albert, 1846)
RA M 12/40 (Stockmar Memorandum, undated)
RA M 12/43 (Stockmar Memorandum, 28 July 1846)
RA M 12/55 (Joint Memorandum by the Queen and the Prince)
RA M 12/66 (Miss Hildyard’s Programme)
RA M 14/3 (Birch to Sir James Clark, 30 May 1848)
RA M 14/56 (Stockmar to Prince Albert)
RA M 14/37 (Prince Albert to Birch, 12 April 1849)
RA M 14/55 (Birch to Prince Albert, undated)
RA M 14/56 (Birch to Stockmar, 13 December 1849)
RA M 14/61 (Memorandum to Queen Victoria)
RA A5/23 (Birch papers, April 1849)
RA M 14/116 (Birch to Prince Albert, 1846, undated)
RA M 14/107 and 113 (Dr Combe’s Reports)
RA Y 153/101 (Stockmar to Prince Albert, 4 August 1849)
RA Z 461 (Prince of Wales to Prince Albert, 25 August 1859)
The Queen’s Journal, 27 August 1856
RA Z 461/35 (Ibid to the same, 10 May 1857)
RA Z 461/86 (Ibid to the same, 15 January 1859)
chapter nine
RA Z 141/94 (Prince Albert to the Prince of Wales, 16 November 1861)
RA Z 141/95 (Prince Albert to the Prince of Wales, 21 November 1861)