History Extra
Victorian Britain had been a land of nasty capitalism, where government regulation was minimal and welfare was left to the Church. With little tax burden and low labour costs, industrialisation helped Britain’s middle class thrive but the working class was exploited. And the state helped safeguard trade through tough foreign policies. But Albert was a royal consort with a high level of learning in design and architecture. He ended the dissolute Hanoverian reputation and Disraeli said he “governed England for 21 years with a wisdom and energy such as none of our kings has ever shown" .
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When Albert died from ?typhoid in Dec 1861 at Windsor, London’s lord mayor was told to toll St Paul’s Cathedral bells. As any widow would understand, his death left the Queen grief-stricken and she withdrew from public life. How could a vigorous 42 year old have died without warning? How would Victoria cope with all her onerous duties alone?
Albert’s death dealt the royal family a blow from which it almost didn’t recover. But why was Albert's death regarded as a national calamity? His death had come at a time of political crisis, with the British government entangled in a tense diplomatic standoff with the Northern states in the American Civil War. This had prompted Albert’s final act of public business in Dec 1861. He’d amended an aggressive despatch from Lord Palmerston after the North’s seizure of two Confederate agents from a British West Indies mail packet. Albert had warned that forcing the issue without finding a diplomatic path would mean war, soon after U.K had recovered from the disastrous Crimean War (1853-6). His mediation helped defuse a tense political situation, prompting P.M Henry Temple to stress the Prince’s value to the government.
Britain had lost its (almost) king. The immediate public response showed the national outpouring of grief. The middle classes put themselves and their children in black: shops closed, blinds dropped, flags at half mast, theatre performances and concerts cancelled. Even the poorest rural workers put on black armbands. That 1861 Christmas was very sad.
During their 21 years of marriage Victoria and Albert had rescued the ailing monarchy and reinvigorated it for a democratic new age. The royal family became accessible to ordinary people as an example of the simple domestic virtues of monogamy, bourgeois decency and family life. It was an image that Albert had actively promoted.
Queen Victoria in black mourning clothes
It was clear that Victoria’s retreat from her public and her intense sorrow would not end with the normal two years of formal mourning. Bertie had caused anxiety via indiscreet affairs, and in her fury, Victoria she blamed her son and heir for Albert’s death. And with 9 children to parent alone, she retreated into paroxysms of despair, and imposed the same rigid observance of mourning on her family and staff!
Victoria focused exclusively on memorialising her husband. She turned her grieving into an formal skill, initiating a variety of artistic and cultural monuments commemorating Albert.
But by the mid-1860s her ministers and her own family were becoming frantic at her ongoing retreat from public view and her refusal to participate in any form of ceremonies. Anti-monarchical feeling was growing, with regular complaints that Victoria did nothing to justify her Civil List income. By the late 1860s discontent spiralled into blatant republican challenges and calls for Victoria’s abdication.
The first state ceremonial since Albert died was for Bertie Prince of Wales, a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1872. A poor assassination attempt against Victoria only rallied public sympathy FOR the Queen.
Life improved for Victoria, thanks to the support of her trusted Highland servant John Brown and, in 1874, the return of her adored Disraeli as prime minister. It was by now clear that the queen would retain her black coverage for 40 years, but as she was coaxed back into public view, she did so as a respected figure of grandmotherly dignity.
Two last questions. We know the extent of Victoria’s dependency on her late husband, both emotionally and in dealing with all the official business. But had Albert insisted on their relationship being this way and Victoria merely acceded, or had she never wanted to make all decisions? And when was Albert forgiven for being foreign?
Read: Helen Rappaport, Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy, Hutchinson, 2011.
Albert’s death dealt the royal family a blow from which it almost didn’t recover. But why was Albert's death regarded as a national calamity? His death had come at a time of political crisis, with the British government entangled in a tense diplomatic standoff with the Northern states in the American Civil War. This had prompted Albert’s final act of public business in Dec 1861. He’d amended an aggressive despatch from Lord Palmerston after the North’s seizure of two Confederate agents from a British West Indies mail packet. Albert had warned that forcing the issue without finding a diplomatic path would mean war, soon after U.K had recovered from the disastrous Crimean War (1853-6). His mediation helped defuse a tense political situation, prompting P.M Henry Temple to stress the Prince’s value to the government.
Britain had lost its (almost) king. The immediate public response showed the national outpouring of grief. The middle classes put themselves and their children in black: shops closed, blinds dropped, flags at half mast, theatre performances and concerts cancelled. Even the poorest rural workers put on black armbands. That 1861 Christmas was very sad.
During their 21 years of marriage Victoria and Albert had rescued the ailing monarchy and reinvigorated it for a democratic new age. The royal family became accessible to ordinary people as an example of the simple domestic virtues of monogamy, bourgeois decency and family life. It was an image that Albert had actively promoted.
It was only after Albert died that the nation acknowledged its debt and stopped calling him a bloody foreigner. Tragic obituaries filled the British press, many tinged with a profound sense of guilt that Albert had never been sufficiently valued in his lifetime – for his notable contributions to British culture, a patron of the arts and science.
It was clear that Victoria’s retreat from her public and her intense sorrow would not end with the normal two years of formal mourning. Bertie had caused anxiety via indiscreet affairs, and in her fury, Victoria she blamed her son and heir for Albert’s death. And with 9 children to parent alone, she retreated into paroxysms of despair, and imposed the same rigid observance of mourning on her family and staff!
Victoria focused exclusively on memorialising her husband. She turned her grieving into an formal skill, initiating a variety of artistic and cultural monuments commemorating Albert.
But by the mid-1860s her ministers and her own family were becoming frantic at her ongoing retreat from public view and her refusal to participate in any form of ceremonies. Anti-monarchical feeling was growing, with regular complaints that Victoria did nothing to justify her Civil List income. By the late 1860s discontent spiralled into blatant republican challenges and calls for Victoria’s abdication.
The first state ceremonial since Albert died was for Bertie Prince of Wales, a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1872. A poor assassination attempt against Victoria only rallied public sympathy FOR the Queen.
Life improved for Victoria, thanks to the support of her trusted Highland servant John Brown and, in 1874, the return of her adored Disraeli as prime minister. It was by now clear that the queen would retain her black coverage for 40 years, but as she was coaxed back into public view, she did so as a respected figure of grandmotherly dignity.
Two last questions. We know the extent of Victoria’s dependency on her late husband, both emotionally and in dealing with all the official business. But had Albert insisted on their relationship being this way and Victoria merely acceded, or had she never wanted to make all decisions? And when was Albert forgiven for being foreign?
Read: Helen Rappaport, Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy, Hutchinson, 2011.
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