Queen Victoria (15 page)

The infant Prince who had appeared at this critical moment was christened at Windsor on the 6th of September, 1843, receiving the names of Alfred Ernest Albert. At this ceremony the Prince of Prussia was present, afterwards the first Emperor of Germany and father-in-law of the Princess Royal. Three days later, the Queen and Prince with their eldest child left Windsor for Scotland. Landing at Dundee, they took up their residence at Blair Athol, which had been placed at their disposal by Lord Glenlyon, subsequently Duke of Athole. There they arrived on the nth, and stayed till the end of the month, returning to Windsor, on the 3rd of October, to receive the King of the French. The King landed on the 8th at Portsmouth, where he was received by Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington, who accompanied him to Windsor. The Queen in her
Journal
writes of her guest: “I never saw anybody more pleased or more amused in looking at every picture and bust. He knew every bust and everything about everybody here in a most wonderful way. Such a memory, such activity!… He is enchanted with the castle, and repeated to me again and again (as did also all his people) how delighted he was to be here, how he feared that what he had so earnestly wished since I came to the throne would not take place.”

On the 9th of October, the King was invested by Her Majesty with the Order of the Garter, an honour which had been conferred on His Majesty’s predecessors, Charles X. and Louis XVIII, and in earlier years on Francis I, Henry II, and Charles IX. As the Queen, on her visit to France, had not entered Paris, it was not thought advisable that the King of the French should visit London. But on the 12th of October the King received an address from the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London, who came to Windsor in State for the purpose. The reply of the King to their address had a great effect on English feeling. “The union of France with England,” he said, “is of great importance to both nations, but not from any wish of aggrandizement on the part of either. Our view should be peace, while we leave every other country in possession of those blessings which it has pleased Divine Providence to bestow upon them. France has nothing to ask of England, and England has nothing to ask of France, but cordial union.”

Soon after the termination of the King’s visit, on October 28th, the Queen opened the new Royal Exchange. The Queen, describing the ceremony to her uncle, writes: “I seldom remember being so pleased with any public show, and my beloved Albert was most enthusiastically received by the people… The articles in the papers, too, are most kind and gratifying. They say, no sovereign was ever more loved than I am (I am bold enough to say), and
this
because of our happy domestic home, and the good example it presents.”

This feeling was not confined to London. Northampton, stronghold ot Radicalism though it was, welcomed the Queen with loyal enthusiasm, when, during the next month, she passed through the city on the way to Burleigh. A similar welcome greeted her when, in the early part of the next year, 1845, she and the Prince paid visits, first to Stowe, the seat of the Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards to Strathfieldsaye, where the Duke of Wellington realised his cherished wish to entertain his Sovereign under his own roof. Of this visit Mr. Anson writes: “The Duke takes the Queen in to dinner, and sits by Her Majesty, and after dinner gets up and says, ‘With your Majesty’s permission I give the health of Her Majesty’; and then the same for the Prince. They then adjourn to the library, and the Duke sits on the sofa by the Queen for the rest of the evening, until eleven o’clock, the Prince and the gentlemen being scattered about in the library or the billiard room, which opens into it. In a large conservatory beyond, the band of the Duke’s Grenadier regiment plays throughout the evening.”

The Queen and Prince returned to Windsor on the 4th of February for the reassembling of Parliament, which was opened by Her Majesty in person. In the Royal Speech, mention was made of the visits of the Emperor of Russia and the King of the French, and the more cordial relations established with the latter nation; the success of recent measures for supplying the deficiencies in the public revenue was noticed; the probable increase of the navy estimates owing to the progress of steam navigation was alluded to; and the policy of extending the facilities of academical education in Ireland was recommended. Notwithstanding the state of political tension, on the 6th of June the Queen gave her second costume ball at Buckingham Palace. The guests all wore the dress of the period of George II; it was, to quote Greville, ‘‘most brilliant and amusing.”

When the King of the French left England he was accompanied by the Queen and Prince Albert so far as Portsmouth. This gave them an opportunity of inspecting the estate of Osborne, which had been brought to their notice by Sir Robert Peel, who knew their wish to have a seaside residence more convenient and private than the obsolete Pavilion at Brighton. The inspection was satisfactory, and negotiations for the purchase of the estate were concluded in March, 1845. Adjoining land has since been added, so that the whole estate now extends over 2,000 acres. The old house not having sufficient accommodation for the Royal household, a new building was erected, the first stone of which was laid in the following June. The laying out and planting of the grounds, and the working of the home farm, were sources of endless delight to the Prince. Writing at the time to Baron Stockmar, he says: “Our property pleases us better and better every day, and is a most appropriate place of residence for us. It gives us the opportunity of inspecting the experimental squadron (which consists of five sail of the line, four frigates and several steam vessels), and of having it manoeuvred before us. Since the war no such fleet has been assembled on the English coast, and it has this additional interest, that every possible new invention and discovery in the naval department will be tried.”

On the 9th of August, 1845, the Queen in person prorogued Parliament, and the same evening Her Majesty and the Prince started from Woolwich in the Royal Yacht for Antwerp, on their way to pay a visit to the King of Prussia, who met his Royal guests at Aix-la-Chapelle, and travelled with them to Cologne. From that city the Queen visited Bonn, where so much of Prince Albert’s youth was spent. Thence they passed up the Rhine, and after spending one day at the King’s Castle of Stotzenfels, on the 19th entered Coburg. Here they were received by the Duke Ernest, and by the King and Queen of the Belgians and the Duchess of Kent. During their stay at Coburg the Queen and Prince were lodged at the Rosenau, occupying the room in which the Prince had been born, and on the 26th keeping the Prince’s birthday. On the next morning, “with heavy hearts,” the Queen and he left the well-loved place for Rheinhardtsbrunn. This, next to the Rosenau, pleased the Queen more than any of the places she had visited, and here she would have gladly stayed longer; but time did not permit.

After a few days’ sojourn at Gotha, the journey homeward was continued by the Rhine to Antwerp, where the
Victoria
and
Albert
met the Royal party. The yacht left the Scheldt on the 7th of September, and next morning arrived off Treport, where the King and Queen of the French received them as their guests for one night at the Chateau d’Eu.

The winter of 1845-6 was an anxious and critical time. The appearance of the potato disease in Ireland seemed to foreshadow a famine, and the consequent necessity of a settlement of the Corn Law question agitated the whole of the political world. During the progress of the struggle between the rival parties the Queen, on the 25th of May, 1846, gave birth to her third daughter, who, on the 25th of July, was christened Helena Augusta Victoria, her sponsors being the Duchess of Orleans, represented by the Duchess of Kent, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and the Duchess of Cambridge.

The Court removed from Buckingham Palace to Osborne on the 7th of August, and on the 18th the Queen and Prince, with some of their children, started for a cruise in the
Victoria
and
Albert
. They visited Weymouth, Mount Edgcumbe, and the Channel Islands, with which they were much delighted. They also saw the Land’s End and St. Michael’s Mount, and landing at Fowey, inspected the Castle and Mine of Restormel. Returning to the Isle of Wight on the 10th of September, they took possession a few days later of their new home at Osborne. In the same autumn they stayed with Queen Adelaide at Cassiobury, and thence passed to Hatfield, where they met the Duke of Wellington, Lord John Russell, and Lord Melbourne, who, since his retirement from public life, had been very rarely seen by the Queen. Later in the year a visit was paid by the Queen and Prince to the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel. Christmas was spent at Osborne.

On February the 12th, 1847, the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge became vacant by the death of the Duke of Northumberland, and on the 27th Prince Albert was elected to the vacant post, to the great gratification of the Queen, who, writing to her uncle, says: “Of course you have seen that Albert (after having declined, so that he had nothing to do with the unseemly contest) has been elected Chancellor of Cambridge. He could not do otherwise than accept it. We have been gratified at the great kindness and respect shown towards Albert by such numbers of distinguished people.” The public installation of the Prince took place in July, when he was accompanied by the Queen to Cambridge, where they stayed at the Lodge of Trinity College. On the day of installation at the Senate House, the Queen was received at the door by the Prince and conducted by him to her place; then after the giving of the prizes, the Installation Ode, written for the occasion by Wordsworth, the Poet La ureate, was performed; concerts, receptions, and a levee were held, and after a most successful visit in beautiful weather, the Court returned to Buckingham Palace.

On the 23rd of July the Queen in person prorogued Parliament in the recently-completed House of Lords, and on the nth of August the Queen and Prince, who had gone from London to the Isle of Wight, left Osborne, with their two eldest children, on the Royal yacht for a journey to Scotland, where they proposed to stay at Ardverikie, a shooting lodge placed at their disposal by Lord Abercorn, who rented it from Lord Henry Bentinck. On the way the Scilly Isles were visited, then Milford Haven and the Isle of Man, whence the squadron passed to the West Coast of Scotland, and up the Clyde to Dumbarton; and, passing the Kyles of Bute, up Loch Fyne to Inverary, where the Queen was received by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in true Highland fashion. Here the Queen saw for the first time the young Marquis of Lome, just two years old, afterwards to become her son-in-law. On leaving Inverary, Staffa and Iona were visited, and at Fort William Prince Albert went to Glencoe. From Fort William the whole party journeyed by land to Loch Laggan, by which Ardverikie is built. It was then remarkable for the drawings made on the walls by Sir E. Landseer, which unfortunately were destroyed later by fire. After a month’s stay at this delightful spot, details of which are to be found in the Queen’s “Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands,” the Royal party left for the south on the 17th of September, and landing at the new harbour of Fleetwood, after a short stay at the Isle of Man returned to London.

Christmas was spent at Windsor, and with the new year came the beginning of the great outbreak of revolution which spread over all the Continent. Writing to Stockmar on the 27th of February, 1848, Prince Albert says: “The posture of affairs is bad; European war is at our doors; France is ablaze in every quarter; Louis Philippe is wandering about in disguise, so is the Queen… Guizot is a prisoner, the republic declared, the army ordered to the frontier, the incorporation of Belgium and the Rhenish provinces proclaimed. Here they refuse to pay the income tax, and attack the Ministry; Victoria will be confined in a few days; our poor good grandmamma (the Duchess Dowager of Gotha) is taken from this world.” The King and Queen of the French eventually landed at Newhaven, and were joined at Claremont by the other members of their family; here they passed the remainder of their lives. Amid the gloom of these events, a Princess was born at Buckingham Palace on the 18th of March, and was christened Louise Caroline Alberta on the 14th of the following May by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Throughout these stormy and troublous times the Queen continued in excellent health and spirits. Writing on the 4th of April to King Leopold, Her Majesty says: “From the first I heard all that passed; and my only thoughts and talk were politics. But I never was calmer and quieter, or less nervous. Great events make me calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves.”

The leaders of the Chartist movement in London at this time were endeavouring to imitate the revolutions in Continental states. A huge demonstration was planned for the 10th of April, 1848, when they announced their intention to assemble on Kennington Common to the number of 150,000, and to present to Parliament a monster petition, which, it was asserted, had been signed by more than 5,000,000 sympathisers. The magnitude of the assembly, and the threats of their leaders, were met by the Government with well-devised preparations. The Bank and other public buildings were put in a state of defence, and more than 170,000 civilians enrolled themselves as special constables, among the number being Prince Louis Napoleon, afterwards Emperor. The Duke of Wellington, as Commander-in-Chief, disposed the troops at his command in readiness for any real disturbance, should it arrive, and in conversation at Lord Palmerston’s house, said to Chevalier Bunsen, “Yes, we have taken our measures; but not a soldier or piece of artillery shall you
see
, unless in actual need. Should the force of law, the mounted or unmounted police, be overpowered or in danger, then the troops shall advance - then is their time! But it is not fair on either side to call them in to do the work of police; the military must not be confounded with the police, nor merged in the police.” Owing to the admirable precautions taken for the public safety, the demonstration was a complete and ignominious failure. The Queen and Prince, under the advice of the Ministry, had left London for Osborne, whence, on the following day, the Queen addressed to the Duke of Wellington the autograph letter which has, by permission, been reproduced opposite page 104. In Ireland, at the same time, the forces of sedition were particularly active; but the timely arrest of the leaders, and the sentence of John Mitchell to transportation for fourteen years, effectually checked any serious insurrection.