Queen Victoria to Prince Albert
Buckingham Palace, 11th January 1840.
Stockmar is here; I saw him yesterday and to-day,
and have begged him to explain to you all the Court affairs, and the affairs
concerning the Treaty, in my name. He will explain to you the Treasury affair,
and will do it much better than I should. I am very happy to see him again, and
to have him here; he can give such good advice to both of us, and he
understands England so fully.... Stocky (as I always used to call him) is so
sensible about everything, and is so much attached to you.
I shall have no great dinners, because the large
rooms in the upper story here are not yet ready. My good old Primus usually
dines with me three or four times a week, almost always on Sundays, when I cannot
invite other people to dinner, as it is not reckoned right here for me to give
dinners on Sunday, or to invite many people. Your song (the bust has been
mentioned before) is very fine; there is something touching in it which I like
so much....
*********
(Victoria and Albert on their wedding day. At this time, Albert was little more than very educated arm candy.)
This letter was written at one of the happiest
times of Victoria’s life up until that point, perhaps even the most enjoyable
time of her entire life. She was about to marry Albert, with whom she was
deeply enamored. She was enjoying a time of newfound independence and
control over her life after becoming Queen and breaking from the hold of her
mother and Conroy. But contrary to what we normally think of Victoria’s
and Albert’s courtship, it was anything but unending sunshine and roses.
It is interesting to note how, through a series of letters that passed forth
between her and her fiancé in the few months before their wedding, Victoria
addressed Albert in a somewhat stern and authoritative manner. This
approach is far different than the deference she gives him in later years, and
in the almost godly manner in which she speaks of him after his death. At
this point in time, Victoria has all of the power and control in the
relationship due to her distinguished status. She knows it and addresses
Albert accordingly.
Victoria’s first letters to her new fiancé are
almost business-like in tone. In them, she speaks very practically of his
rank in the army after the marriage, matters of precedence, and Albert’s role
in the succession question in Coburg should Ernst die without an heir.
Victoria also requests Albert to draw up a short history of the House of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to prove that any ties he may have to Catholicism are indeed
very remote and in the past.
Victoria’s tenderer, personal thoughts do not
start to enter her letters until late November 1839, when she mentions wearing
Albert’s miniature portrait as often as she can. She also takes much
pride in announcing the engagement to members of her Privy Council without
making a mistake, even though (as she said) she was very nervous. Even
then, Victoria stands by the decision not to make Albert a Peer after the
marriage, claiming that the British would see this as an intrusion by a
foreigner. She assures Albert that she knows he will not “meddle” in
British politics, but her manner is very close to a warning. Although her
hopes are very high for her husband-to-be, her first role was as Queen rather
than as Albert’s wife. The exceeding amount of trust she placed in Albert
during the later years was quite clearly yet to come.
Most surprisingly, during this time Victoria
delivers a true dressing-down of Albert on two issues – his choice of personal
staff members and his tendency to write in his native German. Albert was
annoyed at not being able to choose his private secretary as George Anson was
appointed to the position on recommendation from Lord Melbourne. Albert
felt such an intimate attendant should be someone of his choosing, but Victoria
sided with Melbourne. Victoria also slipped in an oh-didn’t-I-tell-you
appointment to Albert’s household by the mention of Lord William Russell as his
Groom of the Stole, more of an honorary position. This lack of respect of
Albert’s wishes may have truly angered him, for his correspondence with
Victoria was sparse (about which she expresses concern) in the weeks that
followed.
Albert lost the fight to pick many of his own men
to form his inner circle, and in the end he was able to bring only his valet
and librarian from Coburg. As much as
Albert resented Anson’s presence at first, the two did become and remain close
friends until Anson’s death in 1851.
Albert was also able to keep his yearly income from Coburg (about
£2,400) as his own and beyond the control of his British attendants – his
brother Ernst was named as executor of the funds. As it so happened, Albert would need the
extra money.
As for communicating in German, Victoria explains
that she can present herself much better in English and she thought a letter
chiefly in German, should it get into the wrong hands, stunk of being construed
as excessively secretive and possibly dangerous. At one point, Victoria
even chastises Albert for both his continued German and bitching about his
advisors, telling him that becoming as English as possible was in his best
interests.
By the time she wrote the letter above, Victoria
seems to have felt that she was through making her arguments for Anglicizing
Albert – or she realized he needed a bit of a break from hearing about
it. Bringing up Stockmar’s visit, someone who knew and had the respect of
both Victoria and Albert, was probably the most positive and neutral thing she
could say at this point. Stockmar’s presence also made him into something
of a neutral party between Victoria and Albert, which Victoria seems to be
hinting at in her references to Stockmar explaining the court and Treasury
affairs to Albert. Perhaps Victoria could see that being blunt about her
exalted position might cause some friction in her marriage.
Victoria and Albert had a further spat by letter
after he complains about the short plans for their honeymoon at Windsor.
With thin patience, Victoria explains to her fiancé that as the sovereign,
there was little time to break for anything, even something as big as the
wedding of said sovereign. At around the same time Parliament voted for
an annual income of £30,000 for Albert – they had likely learned their lesson
from the Charlotte/Leopold income debacle –
angering both Victoria and Albert. It wasn’t an ideal way to begin with
the wedding celebrations.
Uncle Leopold caught wind of Albert’s displeasure
with this when Albert passed through Belgium on the way to the wedding.
Six days before the wedding, Leopold had this to say to Victoria of Albert’s
state of mind:
When he [Albert] arrived he was rather
exasperated about
various things, and pretty full of
grievances. But our
conversations have dissipated these clouds, and
now there
will only remain the new parliamentary events and
consequences, which change a good deal of what one could reasonably have
foreseen or arranged. You will best treat these questions now
verbally. Albert is quick, not obstinate, in conversation, and open to
conviction if good arguments are brought forward. When he thinks himself
right he only wishes to have it proved that he misunderstands the case, to give
it up without ill-humour. He is not inclined to be sulky, but I think
that he may be rendered a little melancholy if he thinks himself unfairly or
unjustly treated, but being together and remaining together, there never can
arise, I hope, any occasion for any disagreement even on trifling subjects…
Leopold was probably the only person who could
have said this to Victoria, gentle as it was. He as a sovereign himself,
not to mention her uncle and advisor, and he knew both Albert and Victoria
well. One assumes that in Belgium, Leopold had the other side of the
conversation with Albert urging him to do everything in his power to guide and
influence Victoria, but remember that any eventual power Albert might have
rested in Victoria’s consent and cooperation. In any case, Victoria
received Albert warmly a few days later, and she could speak of little after
the wedding besides how elated she was to be married to Albert.
As we know, Albert gradually gained Victoria’s
utmost trust and respect, using his intelligence and ambition to become a more
or less a king in all but name by the time of his death. But it is striking to read the letter above
in which it was clear that Albert did not go into the marriage nearly as
powerful as his queenly wife. Compare
the sentiments of her letter above with what she writes to Vicky four days
after Albert’s death:
I will do all I can to follow
out his wishes – to live for you all and for my duties. But how I, who leant on him for all and
everything – without whom I did nothing, moved not a finger, arranged not a
print or photograph, didn’t put on a gown or bonnet if he didn’t approve it
shall be able to go on, to live, to move, to help myself in difficult moments?
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