Page 23 - BBC History - September 2017

things which distresses me much and which Disliking London with its late nights, and
no one, but such a perfection, such an angel as sneered at by the aristocracy as a German
he is – could bear and carry through.” But beggar, Albert persuaded Victoria that her
Victoria had a vein of steel, and her commit- enjoyment of society was wrong. True
ment to her birthright was absolute. She was happiness, he claimed, was to be found in the
torn between her passionate desire to be a country with her beloved prince and her young
perfect ‘Victorian’ wife to Albert – an angel in family. Albert designed the new family home at
the house, all sweetness and light – and her Osborne on the Isle of Wight, safely inacces-
Hanoverian inheritance. sible from a prying public. Even more remote
was Balmoral, the castle he created in the
The royals retreat Scottish Highlands, 500 miles from London.
The image of the Victorian monarchy, crafted At Osborne or Balmoral, the family could
by Albert, and projected in paintings such as live the simple outdoors life that Victoria later
Winterhalter’s The Royal Family in 1846 (see depicted in her Leaves from the Journal of Our
previous page) was one of a child-centred Life in the Highlands. Victoria believed her
bourgeois family on the throne. But the fact “happy domestic home” made her more
was that the royal marriage was unlike any popular than any other sovereign and gave
other. It took place within the peculiar a good example to her subjects.
context of the court. At court, Albert introduced new rules,
As a young maid of honour in Victoria’s distancing the royal family from the household
court in the 1850s, Mary Bulteel would watch – that is, the courtiers and officeholders such as
the door silently close on the queen’s private the Lord Chamberlain. He ordered that no
apartments. How she longed to get to know man was to sit in the presence of the queen.
the queen, her employer, but Victoria barely Throughout Victoria’s reign, prime ministers
Victoria declared spoke to her. stood during audiences; only two were
The withdrawal of the royal family from accorded the special privilege of sitting in the
herself grateful to the public space of the court into the private queen’s presence – her favourite Disraeli, who
Albert for relieving apartments was Albert’s doing. It meant that declined the offer, and Lord Salisbury, who was
too heavy to stand. The hated Gladstone was
Victoria’s life was no longer bounded by the
her of her tiresome court, as it had been in the early days of her never asked to sit, even in his eighties.
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY work. Women, she for its parties and youthful high spirits. The sitting in his presence or speaking to him
reign, when her court was a Camelot, famed
Albert forbade maids of honour from
creation of a private sphere – of a space
unless spoken to. He went everywhere
believed, were
attended by an equerry, thus emphasising his
dedicated to domestic life – was one of the
most far-reaching changes made by Albert in
royal status. In his relations with the courtiers
not !t to rule
his drive to reform the monarchy.
of the household, Albert was cold and stiff.

7 April 14 December
1842 1845!51 1853 1853!56 1857 1861

Albert starts to Osborne on the Isle Leopold (above) Balmoral Castle Victoria makes Albert dies at
attend the queen’s of Wight is built is born. Beatrice is built, once more Albert Prince Windsor, aged 42.
meetings with under Albert’s follows on under Albert’s Consort. This gives The cause of death
ministers, and supervision as a 14 April 1857, supervision. Here him precedence was allegedly
writes notes of the holiday retreat for completing the family enjoy a over everyone, typhoid fever, but
meetings. Victoria the royal family. the family. romantic mountain including his son the modern historians
now talks of “We”, life which reminds Prince of Wales, speculate that he
not “I”. Albert of his native second only to suffered from an
Germany. the queen. underlying illness
such as stomach
cancer or
Crohn’s disease.

Osborne, the royals’
retreat on the Isle of Queen Victoria
Wight, shown in a pictured in 1861,
colourised photo- the year of
graph from 1890 Albert’s death

BBC History Magazine 23