Page 79 - All About History - Issue 29-15

The secret life of

VICTORIA

QueenVictoriaandPrinceAlbertappearedtothe

worldtobetheimageofmaritalbliss,butbehind
closed doors there were ample tears and tantrums

Written by David Crookes

n a cold, dark evening, Queen Victoria blue eyes, an exquisite nose, and such a pretty
stood at the top of the main staircase at mouth with delicate mustachios and slight – but
the heart of Windsor Castle. It was 7.30pm very slight – whiskers.”
on 10 October 1839, and she was expecting So infatuated was the sovereign that she invited
Otwo visitors from Germany: Albert and his Albert to Windsor Castle five days later. “We
brother Ernest. The trio had met before but the embraced each other over and over again and he
queen had not been very impressed. At a dinner was so kind and so affectionate,” she wrote. On 10
three years earlier, Albert in particular had proven February 1840, the couple – both aged 20 – married
to be a slovenly, shy and awkward guest, prone to at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.
yawning and sleeping in the afternoon. She was Albert was a hard worker and an intelligent
unimpressed by his weight and feared he had man, educated throughout his childhood by a
shown little time for court life. But as he walked tutor called Christopher Florschutz, who effectively
into her view that evening, her opinion of him raised both him and his brother. Florschutz was a
suddenly changed. true constant in Albert’s life, given his father had
Albert – a German prince of Saxe-Coburg, a divorced his mother on grounds of adultery and
small German kingdom with a strong role in the banished her to Switzerland when the prince was
dynastic and political history of Europe at the only seven years old. But Albert also had a strong
time – was her first cousin. He had been educated sense of entitlement and a stern will. With Victoria’s
well throughout his childhood and he studied law, love for him so intense, the prince was able to exert
political economy, philosophy and art history at the control over her.
University of Bonn. Albert had become a fit young The pair were constantly engaged in a power
man, a keen gymnast and rider. He also played struggle and there were terrible rows between
music and he proved himself to be rather cultured. them. Albert effectively wanted to be Britain’s king
All of this pleased his family, not least Victoria and in all but name, and he was single minded in his
Albert’s grandmother, Duchess Augusta. She had determination to make his presence in the country
been keen to arrange the pair’s previous meeting known. He quickly replaced the prime minister,
and she hoped they would marry. Lord Melbourne, as the main influence on Victoria’s
“It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert political views, wedging a distance within the
– who is beautiful,” Victoria would write of the close friendship that the queen and the Whig Party
encounter in 1839, finding the prince “grown and leader had long enjoyed. Crucially, he also made
changed and embellished.” She saw before her an Victoria feel less capable than him. The tension
“excessively handsome” man with “such beautiful bubbled close to the surface.
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