The Private Life of Victoria by Alexander MacDonald

Author:Alexander MacDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited
Published: 2018-04-19T10:58:55+00:00

Rare early photograph of Victoria with Albert, 1851.

Ruling the roost

Albert now reigned supreme. He controlled Victoria’s finances, had keys to her boxes and access to her ministers. As her de facto Private Secretary, he read state papers, drafted letters, advised the Queen, frequently dominated meetings and was a major influence on the government through his accord with prime minister Sir Robert Peel. Meanwhile, he took up roles in institutions including the Royal Agricultural Society, the Philharmonic Society, the British Association, the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, the Statistical Congress of All Nations Conference, the National Education Conference, the Dublin Exhibition, the Great Exhibition, the Society of the Arts, the Society for the Extinction of Slavery and the Royal Commission for Fine Arts, and set about transforming his adopted country.

But despite all Albert’s good works, he was not well liked, especially among Victoria’s family who regarded him as something of an upstart. Victoria thought he deserved some recognition.

In June 1842, she spoke to Peel about ‘dear Albert’s awkward & painful position’. She pointed out that provisions were made for a Queen Consort and that the same should be true of a Prince Consort: ‘It seemed to me very wrong that the reigning Queen’s Husband should not have the same,’ she said. ‘Sir Robert Peel thought the reason was a fear that a Prince Consort might usurp the Queen’s right. This I cannot agree in, but Sir Robert expressed his readiness & anxiety to do what he could, while deprecating a long discussion in Parliament, which might not make Albert’s position more agreeable. I remarked that the position of a Prince Consort must be painful & humiliating to any man & that at times I almost felt it would have been fairer to him, for me not to have married him. But he was so good & kind & had loved me for myself.’

One of Victoria’s great skills was to be able to change her mind and revise her opinions of people and of events. She had a ‘vein of iron’ as Lady Lyon once noted, but the iron could bend. The affinity between Albert and Sir Robert Peel had prompted her to re-evaluate her opinions of the current prime minister. Once she had referred to him as the ‘cold odd man’, but her opinion had much changed after their recent dealings and she said of him that he had become ‘a great statesman, a man who thinks but little of party and never of himself.’

In February 1845, after five years of marriage, Victoria sought the title of King Consort for Albert, again unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, that December, when Lord Lansdowne and Lord John Russell visited Windsor, they were received by Victoria and Albert together. Charles Greville, clerk of the Privy Council noted: ‘Both of them always said We… It is obvious that while she has the title he is really discharging the functions of the Sovereign. He is King to all intents and purposes.’

Finally, on 25 June 1857, Victoria used her royal prerogative to make Albert officially Prince Consort by letters patent.

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