Victoria 2 shattered union
How she longed to get to know the queen, her employer, but Victoria barely spoke to her. It took place within the peculiar context of the court.Īs a young maid of honour in Victoria’s court in the 1850s, Mary Bulteel would watch the door silently close on the queen’s private apartments. But the fact was that the royal marriage was unlike any other. The image of the Victorian monarchy, crafted by Albert, and projected in paintings such as Winterhalter’s The Royal Family in 1846 was one of a child-centred bourgeois family on the throne. She was torn between her passionate desire to be a perfect ‘Victorian’ wife to Albert – an angel in the house, all sweetness and light – and her Hanoverian inheritance. “It is a reversal of the right order of things which distresses me much and which no one, but such a perfection, such an angel as he is – could bear and carry through.” But Victoria had a vein of steel, and her commitment to her birthright was absolute. Women, she believed, were not fit to rule. Victoria declared herself grateful to Albert for relieving her of the tiresome work of the sovereign. “As the natural head of family, superintendent of her household, manager of her private affairs, sole confidential adviser in politics, and only assistant in her communications with the officers of her government, he is, besides, the husband of the queen, the tutor of the royal children, the private secretary of the sovereign, and her permanent minister.” Not only was Albert king in all but name but he intervened in politics, pursuing an active role in foreign policy. By now he had become her private secretary. At dinners with politicians, Albert could be heard prompting Victoria in German before she spoke. He started to attend meetings with ministers, dealing with the queen’s correspondence and drafting business letters for the queen to copy out. In November 1840, when her first child was born, Victoria gave Albert the key to the cabinet boxes. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images) King in all but name Prince Albert is in military uniform and is wearing his medals. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in a re-enactment of their marriage ceremony, 1854.