5 becoming queen
sir george hayter [1792–1871]
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
V
Today is my 18th birthday! How old! and yet how far am I from being what I should be. I shall from this day take the firm resolution to study with renewed assiduity, to keep my attention always well fixed on whatever I am about, and to strive to become every day less trifling and more fit for what, if Heaven wills it, I’m some day to be!1
It is an indication of how desperate Victoria had been to escape the overbearing presence of Conroy and her mother that she carried out her first public duties entirely alone. First she saw Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, then she presided over a meeting of the Privy Council in the red saloon. ‘I went in of course quite alone’, she emphasised, referring to her sudden independence from the two people who had made her life increasingly miserable. She wore a black silk dress in mourning for the king, and was led to her throne by her uncles, the Dukes of Sussex and Cumberland.4 :e Duke of Wellington described the scene to Victoria’s former governess, the Duchess of Northumberland, whom the new queen had dismissed shortly before:
She came into the large room at the head of the stairs from the Inner Room, unattended by any other Lady, she looked remarkably well; and was as much at her ease and had as much self-possession; and was as gracious in
The Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey, 28 June 1838 (detail), 1840
ictoria reached her majority when she turned 18 on 24 May 1837. There would be no risk of a regency. In celebration, the king awarded the princess her own income, moving her one step closer to the independence she desperately craved. Aware of the awesome responsibility that lay ahead of her, she confided in her journal:
page 162
Over the next few weeks the king’s health deteriorated. :e news that reached Kensington Palace on 1 June was ‘so very bad’. Out of respect for her uncle’s failing condition, all Victoria’s lessons, with the exception of those delivered by Revd Davys, were put on hold. ‘I regret rather my singing-lesson’, she lamented in her journal. But what might once have resulted in wild temper tantrums now elicited a tacit understanding that life was about to change: ‘duty and proper feeling go before all pleasures’.2 On 20 June 1837, just four weeks after she had turned 18, Victoria
was awoke at , o’clock by Mamma, who told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham [the Lord Chamberlain] were here, and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing-gown), and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes p.2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen. 3
Oil on canvas, 255.3 × 381 cm
164 the young victoria
1,
Victoria, 1837 ric./rd j/mes l/ne [1800–1872] Pencil and red chalk, 19 × 15.25 cm Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia
Queen
.enry t/nwort. wells [1828–1903]
Victoria Regina: Queen Victoria Receiving the News of Her Accession, 1887
Victoria did not commission this painting, which was completed in time for her Golden Jubilee year. The artist was inspired by a description of Victoria receiving the news of her accession in the Diaries of Frances Williams Wynn, published in 1857. Wells included a portrait of Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent, and the objects on the table – a ball, book and flowers – allude to the childhood pursuits that she must now abandon.
Oil on canvas, 122.5 × 165.5 cm
1,7
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
Originally black (because she was in mourning for her uncle William IV), over time this dress has faded to its current brown colour. It has a removable white cotton embroidered collar.
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
1,8
The First Council of Queen Victoria, 1838
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
sir d/vid wilkie [1785–1841]
her manner; as if she had been performing the part for years … I think that the Race of nervous young Ladies will soon be out of fashion.5
Commissioned by the new queen, this picture includes all the prominent members of the Accession Council, including the diarist Charles Greville (extreme left), Lord Melbourne (holding the paper in the centre), the Duke of Wellington (standing in front of the right-hand column) and Augustus, Duke of Sussex (seated on the near side of the table). When she first saw the completed painting, Victoria disliked it because of its inaccuracies.
opposite Dress worn by Queen Victoria to her first Privy Council meeting, Silk1837
Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to fulfil my duty towards my country; I am very young and perhaps in many, though not all things, inexperienced, but I am sure, that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.6
Months later, the first painting that Victoria commissioned herself was by Sir David Wilkie, who was instructed to record her first Privy Council meeting, held on the morning of her accession. Wilkie depicted her wearing a white dress rather than the black mourning dress she actually wore, and which still survives today. :e queen was a stickler for accuracy and, even at this time, a rigorous observer of
Oil on canvas, 152.7 × 239 cm
:at night Queen Victoria ate alone. In the quiet solitude she wrote with resolve and emotion:
17F .he youn( vic.oria
St James’s Palace. The Audience Chamber. Proclamation of Her Majesty the Queen, 1877 ./rden melville [/c1ive 1828–73] Engraving, 17.5 × 18 cm London Metropolitan Archives
mourning protocols. She was outraged by the artist’s liberal use of artistic licence. She condemned it as ‘one of the worst pictures I have ever seen, both as a painting and a likeness’. Later in life she remarked: ‘He put me in white for effect, I was in black notwithstanding.’7 Despite her disapproval, Wilkie’s decision to emphasise her youth and innocence reflected a widely held public sentiment. Victoria’s accession to the throne was welcomed as a new dawn for the country. After a succession of increasingly unpopular Hanoverian kings, depictions of her virginal youth and femininity helped revive public support for the Victoria’smonarchy.first
Privy Council meeting marked the formal beginning of her reign. It also heralded an acrimonious and public split with Conroy, who still saw Victoria as the girl he had dominated throughout her childhood and opined that she was ‘younger in intellect than in years’. He was not alone in this belief. Before she became queen,
While Victoria met her Privy Council for the first time, Conroy frantically paced the palace gardens, accosting the Duke of Wellington and others in search of their support. He demanded a pension of £3,FFF per year from the Privy Purse, as well as an English peerage and admission to the Order of the Bath, claiming that the new queen had verbally agreed it.9 None of it was forthcoming. Instead, Lord Melbourne offered him an Irish peerage, knowing that it would be many years before a seat in the House of Lords became vacant because there were only a limited number of Irish peers there. Conroy rejected it out of hand. Not long afterwards Victoria dismissed him from her household.Havingbeen ousted by the young woman over whom he had previously wielded untrammelled authority, in a memorandum for his memoirs Conroy bitterly reflected upon ‘his past services to the ignorant little child that was called to preside over the destinies of this
This is the first document that Victoria signed as monarch, in which she promised to maintain the Protestant religion. Her signature can be seen above those of her Privy Council.
The Protestant Oath, 20 June 1877 National Archives
Victoria’s half-brother, Prince Charles, had expressed some anxiety that ‘a young lady’ of 18 was incapable of ruling England by herself. In a letter to their uncle Leopold, he had confided that even if she was not a minor when she came into her inheritance, she would need a regent to rule for her. Although he was well aware of the miseries that his halfsister had suffered at the hands of their mother’s favourite, he believed that Conroy was the best man for the job.8
Although their relationship was fractious in the early days of her reign, Victoria cherished an enduring affection for her mother and they remained close. But the new queen relished her independence from the suffocating influence of the duchess and John Conroy.
Victoria. And Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, late 1870s j. mcc-rmicN [/c1ive c .1875], publis.er, /f1er willi/m drumm-nd [/c1ive 1800–50] Lithograph, 40.8 × 70.A cm National Portrait Gallery, London
:e morning after the Queen came to the throne i.e. June 1837, Sir J Conroy finding that his enemies and more especially that most hypocritical and detestable bitch Baroness Letzen [sic], were powerful against him, and that the childish Monarch was acted upon by the vengeful councils of his enemies.10
Just eight weeks after becoming queen, Victoria reacted angrily when the duchess added Conroy to the guest list for their public dinner. She greeted the request with disbelief, particularly ‘after his conduct towards me for some years past, and still more so, after the unaccountable manner in which he behaved towards me, a short while before I came to the throne’.14 :is was not the first time that her mother urged Victoria to push these thoughts from her mind. She advised, ‘I must request here once more what I have said to you some time ago: :e queen should forget what displeased the Princess …
172 .he youn( vic.oria
Conroy claimed ‘that infamous woman [Lehzen] wholly stole the child’s [Victoria’s] affections and intrigued with King William through a Miss Wilson’.11 Conroy also railed against the new queen’s uncle, Leopold, declaring that he was ‘as great a villain as ever breathed’. In a similar vein, he described Baron Stockmar as ‘a double-faced villain’. :e only member of the Kensington System with whom he continued to enjoy good relations was the new queen’s mother, the Duchess of Kent.By 1838 Conroy was defending himself against serious accusations that he had embezzled the duchess’s money.1E He suffered the further indignity of having to explain that ‘he never had any money belonging to Her Royal Highness in his hands, except upon journeys, when the necessary sums were given by him to the servants who attended Her Royal Highness and whose accounts were afterwards audited by the Account Clerk’. Furthermore, he had not used any of the duchess’s funds to purchase his large estate in Wales.1W
once great country’. None of those towards whom the new queen showed favour escaped his ire, as Baron Stockmar recalled:
:e new queen’s relationship with her mother, meanwhile, remained rife with contradictions: on the one hand Victoria sought independence, yet she still relied on the duchess’s advice and care. Like Conroy, the duchess had envisaged a special role for herself when Victoria became queen, urging her: ‘Do not be too sanguine in your own talents and understanding.’ Her words would fall upon deaf ears.
Her Most Gracious Majesty
173!ecomin( )ueen
Snuffbox, 1877 c./rles c-lins [/c1iBe c .1877–/f1er 1870]
An inscription on this box records that it was given to Colonel Harcourt in 1877 in recognition of his services to Queen Victoria during her residence at Kensington Palace. Harcourt was her mother’s equerry. The lid is set with a diamond monogram ‘VR’ beneath an imperial crown.
In this playful piece that appeared soon after her accession, the head of Queen Victoria, wearing a tiara, protrudes from the top of the lily, with a mechanism to move it up and down.
17
people do not know the reason of your dislike and severity to Sir John and his family, there is no end of conjecture and remarks.’15 Now independent, the young queen confided in Lord Melbourne, who told her he had been ‘totally unaware of what was going on at Kensington’ when they Shortlymet.16afterVictoria’s accession, she went on a public procession along Kensington High Street. At the nearby palace a triumphal arch was erected, topped with imperial crowns made of colourful dahlias. :e same display was repeated on the occasion of her marriage two years later.17 Nevertheless, it is perhaps not surprising that Victoria chose to leave Kensington Palace almost immediately after becoming queen. Buoyed by the confidence of her new position, she finally felt empowered to extricate herself from the stifling grip of her mother and Conroy. It was not sufficient merely to banish her mother from her bedchamber. On 13 July she would leave Kensington Palace altogether and move to the vast unfinished rooms of Buckingham Palace. She was the first monarch to live there after its rebuilding as a palace by George IV. On her final evening at Kensington Palace she wrote:
!ecomin( )ueen
The Crown Imperial, or Victoria Lily, 1877 m. spr/11 [/c1iBe 1870s–30s] Chromolithograph, 2A.7 × 20.5 cm British Museum, London
Chased and engraved gold, diamonds, 8.7 × 5.8 × 2.5 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London
:e departure from Kensington Palace was so hasty that three years later, many of the duchess and Victoria’s belongings still languished in their former rooms. Some of these were rather dilapidated, such as an old fire and some broken lanterns; others, such as gilded mirrors and items of furniture by eminent London furniture makers Tatham and Bailey, were of greater value.E0 :e ownership of the duchess’s furniture – particularly the finer pieces – prompted a bitter dispute with the Office of Works in February 18-F. In an attempt to settle the matter, the Office arranged for a new inventory to be drawn up.E1 But the duchess refused to accept that some or all of the items were Crown property. For example, she claimed that the ‘fine mottled mahogany Carlton House writing table ornamented with black mouldings and a brass fret’ already at Ingestre House was a giG from the late George IV when he was Prince Regent.EE Relations between the duchess and the Office of Works – and the Lord Chamberlain’s office, which also became involved – reached a nadir, with demands that the duchess should pay for the damage incurred to the walls when the mirrors were eventually removed from the palace. Her representatives argued that her former
Sully recorded his impressions of the young queen in 1878 in his journal: ‘She is short, 5 feet 1 & 1/4 of an inch – of good form, particularly the neck and bosom – plump but not fat. Neatly formed head, perhaps rather infantine in the contour of the face. Forehead well proportioned – eyes a little prominent but kind and intelligent. Her nose well formed and such as I have frequently seen in persons of wit and intellect. A lovely, artless mouth when at rest – and when so, it is a little open, showing her teeth – Eyes light blue and large – Hair light Brown, smoothly braided from the front. And to sum up all … I should say decidedly that she was quite pretty.’
Queen Victoria, 1878
A few short weeks aGer her daughter’s accession, the duchess too leG Kensington Palace for good and moved to Ingestre House in Belgrave Square, London, compounding her estrangement from her daughter. Charles Greville noted in his memoirs: ‘She sees hardly anything of the duchess, who never goes to see her without previously asking leave, and when the Queen gets messages or notes from her mother She frequently sends verbal answers that She is engaged and cannot receive her.’19 In painful contrast, Baroness Lehzen was appointed lady attendant and given rooms adjoining those of the queen. She became, in effect, Victoria’s unofficial personal secretary.
1.-m/s sully [1787–1872]
17, .he youn( vic.oria
Fond of it she may have been, but her decision to leave so soon aGer her accession made clear her intention not just to break away from the confines of the palace but also what the place had come to represent.
Oil on canvas, 31.4 × 71.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
It is not without feelings of regret that I shall bid adieu for ever (that is to say for ever as a dwelling), to this my birth-place, where I have been born and bred, and to which I am really attached! I have seen my dear sister married here, I have seen many of my dear relations here, I have had pleasant balls and delicious concerts here, my present rooms upstairs are really very pleasant, comfortable and pretty, and enfin I like this poor Palace. I have held my first Council here too! I have gone through painful and disagreeable scenes here, ’tis true, but I am still fond of this poor old Palace.18
177!ecomin( )ueen
Disputed inventory of furniture, fittings and fixtures in the Duchess of Kent’s apartments at Kensington Palace, February 1840 National Archives
179
Much has been made of the shortcomings of the Duchess of Kent and Sir John Conroy. But it cannot be denied that in some respects they had served the young queen well. Conroy had delivered her to the throne with immense public support, thanks in part to the tours undertaken throughout her adolescence, which introduced her to the nation and distanced her from the unfavourable influences of the Hanoverian court. :e duchess, in turn, had forfeited her right to return home to a very comfortable life in Germany aGer the Duke of Kent’s death, and instead chose to remain in an unfriendly land to assure her daughter’s position in the line of succession. She consistently campaigned for Victoria’s rights and did her best to secure for her the advantages befitting her status. :roughout Victoria’s childhood the duchess made repeated attempts to ensure that her daughter was not perceived as German – and therefore foreign – a trait that remained unpopular with the British public.
rooms were already in a dilapidated state and ‘quite unfit for occupation without painting and very extensive repairs’.EW Despite the controversy, the duchess continued to use Kensington Palace to store her unwanted furniture.
One of the ways in which she did this was to make sure that Victoria was seen to wear British-made clothes and fabrics at highprofile events, such as Princess Feodore’s wedding. :e Britishness of Victoria’s clothes remained an important consideration for the rest of her life. :ere had been a furore in the newspapers three months before she became queen, when a large group of silk weavers from Spitalfields in East London met to discuss the letter of appeal they had sent to the king and queen, requesting support for the British silk industry in the face of competition from France. :e reply was published in newspapers up and down the country: ‘From the moment of his Majesty’s accession to the throne, it has been the anxious desire of the Queen [Adelaide], both by influence and example, to encourage every branch of British manufacture.’ :e letter went on to explain that the queen admired their ‘patient resignation’ while they were under the ‘pressure of severe sufferings, caused by the frequent fluctuations in their trade’, but that ‘they may rest assured that all possible encouragement shall be given to the British silks, both by the Queen and her Majesty’s court’. Princess Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, had also written to say she would do everything she could.E4
!ecomin( )ueen
After her accession Victoria required a much larger, well-organised wardrobe. This orderly record of payments was kept throughout her reign and is the only surviving record of the supply of clothing to the queen. As well as the quarterly payments to dressmakers (Bettans, Vouillan & Laure, Palmyre) and suppliers of furs, accessories and perfumes, the allowance had to cover the salaries of the queen’s dressers, wardrobe maids and hairdressers.
Historic Royal Palaces
A deep berthe or collar of Honiton lace trims the neckline of this evening dress worn by Victoria in the 1840s, a happy time in her life when she had two young children. The style is typical of her gently fashionable tastes in early adulthood, the organza overlay embroidered with flowers reflecting her preference for pale colours and floral embellishments.
18F .he youn( vic.oria Office of Robes accounts ledger, March 1878 National Archives
opposite Dress worn by Queen Victoria, c.1847
182 .he youn( vic.oria
Portraits of her Majesty Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Sutherland In the Fashions for May 1838, from The World of Fashion and Monthly Magazine of the Court of London, 1878 Historic Royal Palaces
Harriet ofinofDuchessSutherland-Leveson-Gower,ofSutherland,wasMistresstheRobes–themostseniorladythehousehold–andagreatfriendVictoria.
From the moment when Victoria ascended the throne, descriptions of royal events in newspapers emphasised the Britishness of her clothes and, by extension, of the queen herself. At the first Drawing Room she held, a month aGer her accession, she was still in mourning for her uncle, William IV. She wore a black crêpe dress over black silk, ‘tastefully ornamented with jet flowers’. Her mother and the rest of her ladies wore black dresses too, but the newspapers were at pains to emphasise the new queen’s support of the British textile manufacturing industry: ‘Nearly all of the ladies’ dresses were, by her majesty’s command, of British manufacture, Spitalfields silk prevailing the costume.’E5 :e expectation that Queen Victoria would wear Britishmade clothes demonstrated a clear continuity with the past. During the eighteenth century George III appeared in public wearing, according to newspapers, suits of English broadcloth. William IV and Queen Adelaide wore clothes of British manufacture to public events during the nineteenth century. :anks to her mother’s early influence, this would be a tool that Victoria would use throughout her reign.
Victoria assumed the freedoms and responsibilities of her new station with relish. But although she had escaped the Kensington System and its originator, Conroy, she was neither alone nor independent. Despite the efforts that had been applied to her
below, right Lord Melbourne with Islay (detail), c.1873
pr&n:ess B&:1-r&/ Pencil, watercolour, 25.7 × 20.5 cm The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
Lord Melbourne won even greater favour with the young queen by paying attention to her beloved dogs. She reported that Islay ‘has a very odd trick of liking to lick and play with anything bright, and he remembers Lord M. giving him his glasses, and he sits begging before Lord M. the moment he sees them’.
183
This portrait shows the former Prime Minister in his sixty-fifth year. He was hugely influential as a mentor to the young Queen Victoria during the first few years of her reign. The pair grew so close that there were (unfounded) rumours of romance.
below, left William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, 1844 j-.n p/r1r&dge [1783–1872] Oil on canvas, 127 × 101.A cm National Portrait Gallery
Shoes: silk and leather, length 27.8 cm, width of toe 7.8 cm Museum of London
Newton had been Miniature Painter in Ordinary to William IV and held the same post under Queen Victoria. He was knighted in 1877 and the following year he was commissioned to paint The Coronation of the Queen, for which this is a preparatory sketch.
With ivory silk satin ribbon stripes on vamp appliqué and a tiny satin bow, these shoes were made by Richard Gundry of Soho Square, the queen’s shoemaker from 1824 to 1838. The stockings are both made of silk. The top stocking was probably worn by the queen at her coronation.
Sketch of Queen Victoria in coronation robes, 1878 s&r w&ll&/m j-.n new1-n [1785–18A3]
Shoes and silk stockings thought to have been worn by Queen Victoria at her coronation, c.1878 gundry & s-ns
18- .he youn( vic.oria
British Museum, London
education, it was with some justification that Conroy had described the 18-year-old queen as an ‘ignorant little child’.E6 :e Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, dominated Victoria’s first years as queen. His wit, charm and wisdom appealed to a young woman desperately lacking the experience required of her position. :e difference in their ages – he was forty years her senior – proved no bar to a close friendship developing between them; there were even rumours of romance. Since Melbourne had become a widower in 1828, he had engaged in a series of platonic relationships with aristocratic women. He became deeply attached to the young queen and she in turn became dependent on his guidance. Speculation intensified when the Prime Minister was given private apartments at Windsor Castle. But there is no reliable evidence that he and Victoria ever exceeded the bounds of friendship. :e amount of time they spent together could only continue for as long as he was Prime Minister. Both knew this, and it is perhaps the inevitable transience of their relationship that lent it such intensity.
Melbourne was surprisingly candid with Victoria, and they would spend many hours together discussing a whole range of subjects – from religion and history to society gossip and mixed-race marriages. Politics and foreign affairs were almost secondary. Her Prime Minister constituted the ideal antidote to the prescriptive regime at Kensington Palace, and Victoria revelled in the freedom that their conversations allowed her. In many respects he filled the void leG by Conroy and the duchess, and even usurped her uncle Leopold’s role as her chief adviser,
Watercolour and pencil, 7A.3 × 27.A cm
18!ecomin( )ueen
occupied as he was in his appointment as King of Belgium. Lord Melbourne thus became instrumental in grooming Victoria for her role as Head of State, and, as a Whig, heavily influenced her early political partisanship. He also prepared her for the first and most important event of her reign: the coronation.
18,
Her Most Gracious Majesty & Escort Leaving the Palace, St James’s Park 1871–/f1er 1850]
Lithograph, 27.8 × 42 cm British Museum, London
In this bird’s-eye view of St James’s Park on the day of Victoria’s coronation, Buckingham Palace is on the left and there is a long train of carriages progressing up the drive to the arched gateway towards Westminster Abbey. Some of the huge crowds of people that turned out to witness the event can be seen in the park.
.he youn( vic.oria
:is took place at Westminster Abbey on 28 June 1838, almost exactly a year aGer Victoria’s accession. :at the young queen was daunted at the prospect of this ancient ceremony, with all its attendant pomp and pageantry, is evidenced by her journal entry for that day. She had been woken at -am by the firing of guns in the park, ‘and could not
, 1878 w. & j.-. :lerN [/:1&Be
Queen Victoria’s coronation, 1878 queen B&:1-r&/ Pencil, 27 × 18.8 cm
In helping Victoria prepare for the ceremony, Lord Melbourne employed his customary irreverence about some of those involved in order to lessen her nerves. Aware that the young queen might feel intimidated by the presence of so many high-ranking churchmen, he drew attention to their inadequacies. For example, he told Victoria that the Bishop of Durham was ‘remarkably “maladroit” and never could tell me what was to take place’.W0 :e Prime Minister also made derogatory comments about the imposing setting of the Abbey – and St Edward’s Chapel in particular, ‘which, as Lord Melbourne said, was more unlike a Chapel than anything he had ever seen; for what was called an Altar, was covered with sandwiches, bottles of wine, etc etc.’
get much sleep aGerwards on account of the noise of the people, bands &c, &c’.E7 Huge numbers of people had begun to flock to the capital during the previous week so that by the time the coronation day came around, the streets were thronged with ‘swarms’ of eager spectators.E8 :ere was also a large contingent of royals in the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, including the new queen’s half-sister Feodore and her German relations. As she looked out across ‘the multitudes of my loyal subjects who were assembled in every spot to witness the Procession’, and with all the attendant fanfare and pageantry, Victoria’s nerves gave way to an altogether different emotion: ‘How proud I felt to be the Queen of such a Nation.’E9
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
After the coronation, Victoria made several drawings ‘recollecting’ the event, under the guidance of her teacher Sir George Hayter. In her journal entry for the coronation day she describes how ‘the Crown [was] placed on my head; which was, I must own, a most beautiful impressive moment’.
Hayter’s painting captures the moment when, after the crowning, ‘the people with loud and repeated shouts, will cry “GOD SAVE THE QUEEN”: and immediately the Peers and Peeresses present will put on their Coronets’. Victoria is seated in St Edward’s Chair and wears the Imperial State Crown. Hayter was offered the commission just a week before the event and was paid a fee of 2,000 guineas, and the queen was delighted with it. The Times hailed it as ‘a very splendid picture’.
s&r ge-rge ./y1er [1732–1871]
188 .he youn( v&c.or&a
The Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey, 28 June 1838, 1840
Oil on canvas, 255.7 × 781 cm
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
189!ecom&n( )ueen
The Royal Rose of England, 1878 w&ll&/m sp--ner [/:1&Be 1877–47]
British Museum, London
Victoria felt even less daunted by the proceedings when elements of the ceremony descended into farce, such as when the Archbishop of Canterbury came to deliver the orb to her, ‘but I had already got it, and he (as usual) was so confused and puzzled and knew nothing; – and went away’.W1 :e Sovereign’s ring was also made too small for her, which caused the new queen considerable discomfort.
Lithograph, 15.1 × 12 cm
Having advised, tutored and groomed Victoria through her first year as queen, when he saw the crown being placed on her head, Melbourne was quite overcome. Although the eyes of the nation were upon her, Victoria records the moment as being an extraordinarily intimate one between herself and her Prime Minister. ‘My excellent Lord Melbourne who stood very close to me throughout the ceremony was completely overcome at this moment and very much affected. He gave me such a kind (and I may say fatherly) look.’ When he approached the newly crowned queen to pay homage, ‘he knelt down and kissed my hand, he pressed my hand, and I grasped his with all my
This is a novelty print made to mark the coronation. The scene is of a rose on a terrace, with a view of Windsor Castle in the background. When held up to the light, the rose transforms into a portrait of Queen Victoria in coronation robes seated on a throne.
19F .he youn( v&c.or&a
This print depicts Victoria on her first visit to Brighton after her accession.
191
heart, at which he looked up with his eyes filled with tears and seemed muchLordtouched’.WEMelbourne
Victoria 1st As She Appeared at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton previous to mounting her favourite Arabian Horse, 1878 ;/y & ./g.e, /f1er .. j-nes [;/1es unNn-wn]
Lithograph, 23.5 × 27 cm
Her Most Gracious Majesty
Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove
continued as chief adviser to Victoria for the first two years of her reign, during which time she compromised her public image for the first time. One of her earliest and very worst mistakes was informed by Victoria’s soured relationship with Conroy. In early 1839 she developed the idea that Lady Flora, her mother’s lady-in-waiting, was romantically involved with Conroy, who had appointed her to the princess’s household. :is idea took hold when Lady Flora’s stomach began to swell and the queen became convinced of an illicit pregnancy. She was encouraged in this notion by Melbourne, who had not troubled to ascertain its truthfulness. As the rumours grew louder Victoria, determined to avoid any slur on her own reputation, ordered that her doctor examine Lady Flora. Dr James Clark, whose incompetence was proved on this and other occasions, found no evidence of pregnancy and failed to detect the cause of the lady’s
Stipple engraving, 34.3 × 25.3 cm National Portrait Gallery, London
192 the young victoria
Lady Flora was at the centre of one of the first great crises of Victoria’s reign. This print was published in April 1840, nine months after Lady Flora’s death from a liver tumour.
distended stomach: a huge liver tumour, which in July that year resulted in her death. The affair was deeply damaging to Victoria’s public standing, and both she and Melbourne were heckled in public.
The Lady Flora Hastings, 1840 edward francis finden [1791–1857] after e. hawk.ns [dates unknown]
By the time the Flora Hastings crisis reached its peak, Victoria’s Prime Minister was already facing another, more severe challenge to his own political authority. On 6 May 839, a large number of radicals had voted against the government over proposed measures to manage the increasingly volatile situation in Jamaica, including new antislavery laws. This reduced the Whig majority to just five. Melbourne knew that the only recourse was to proffer his resignation. Victoria, who was as dedicated to the Whigs as she was to Melbourne himself, was devastated. ‘All, ALL my happiness gone’, she lamented in her journal. ‘That happy peaceful life destroyed, that dearest kind Lord Melbourne no more my minister.’33 Encouraged by Melbourne, the queen expressed her partisanship by insisting that she keep her Whig ladies of the bedchamber, resisting pressure from her Prime Minister elect, the Duke of Wellington, and then Sir Robert Peel to replace some of them with Tory-leaning appointees, as was their right to do. The result of the young queen’s intransigence, the ‘Bedchamber Crisis’, as it became known, was that the Whigs were kept in office as a minority government. But ill-feeling against Melbourne continued to simmer and the view that he was manipulating Victoria for his own gain became increasingly widespread. Further personal damage from this anomalous situation was prevented by arrangements for the queen’s marriage to her cousin, Prince Albert. Although Victoria, enjoying the heady freedom of ruling alone, had shown no immediate intention to marry upon becoming queen, the early crises of her reign had made it painfully clear that she needed a confidante and adviser by her side. Moreover, with her uncle the
935 be.om-ng queen
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
Six days after Victoria’s accession, Albert wrote to congratulate his cousin on her new position. He addresses the new queen ‘My dearest Cousin’ and signs the letter ‘your Majesty[’s] most obedient servant and faithful cousin, Albert’.
Letter from Prince Albert to Queen Victoria, 26 June 1837
Duke of Cumberland, now also King of Hanover, waiting in the wings, she needed to secure the succession.
Queen Victoria’s bracelet, 1839 Gold, amethyst, glass, 17.8 × 1.3 × 0.9 cm
This gold bracelet, set with an amethyst carved with a double heart, was given by the Duchess of Kent to Victoria on 23 November 1839, the day her daughter announced to the Privy Council her engagement to Albert.
Victoria’s first etching was made on 28 August 1840, under the guidance of Sir George Hayter, who was working on a painting of her marriage to Prince Albert.
Albert had written to Victoria upon hearing that she was queen. In the rather formal letter (page 93), he wished her a ‘long, happy and glorious’ reign, and prayed her to think sometimes ‘of your cousins in Bonn’. Although he stopped short of mentioning the idea of marriage that had long been mooted by their families, he added a cautious hint about their future: ‘I will not be immodest and abuse of your time’.34 Back in England, press speculation began to mount about whom Victoria would marry. This was intensified in August 839 by a visit
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
queen v.cto).( Etching, 26 × 21.4 cm
Prince Albert, 26 October 1840 (first impression 28 August 1840)
94 the young ,-.tor-a
from her Coburg uncles. The press confidently predicted that her cousins Ernest and Albert would soon follow. Victoria tried to delay the issue, but eventually succumbed to pressure from her uncles Ferdinand and Ernest, as well as from Leopold, and on 0 October she welcomed her cousins to Windsor.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1841
Coloured chalks on paper, 56.4 × 42.8 cm, 56.3 × 43 cm
ch()le/ b)ocky [1807–1855]
This pair of portraits of the newlyweds was commissioned by Victoria from the fashionable Hungarian artist Charles Brocky in 1841. She commissioned a portrait of Lord Melbourne at the same time.
It had been three years since Victoria had set eyes on the two young men. While she noted that Ernest had ‘grown quite handsome’, it was Albert who now utterly captivated her. ‘Albert’s beauty is most striking’, she enthused in her journal, ‘he is so amiable and unaffected – in short, very fascinating; he is excessively admired here’.;5 For the young queen, marriage was no longer merely a question of political expediency: she had fallen in love. Just four days after Albert arrived in England, Victoria wrote to Melbourne, telling him that she had changed her mind about marrying. ‘I do not know that anything better could be done’, the Prime Minister wrote to Lord John Russell, ‘He seems a very agreeable young man, he certainly is a very good looking one, and as to character, that, we must always take our chance of’.;6 Soon after midday on 5 October, Victoria sent for Albert and asked him to marry her. When he consented, they embraced and the queen was overcome with joy. ‘Oh! How I adore and love him, I cannot say!!’ she wrote in her diary.;7 The pair were married on 0 February 840 in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace. Within weeks of the wedding, Victoria was pregnant. The child, Victoria (Vicky), was the first of nine that the marriage would produce. The succession was well and truly secured.
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
opposite, left Design for Queen Victoria’s bridesmaids’ dresses, c.1840 queen B.cto).( Pencil, watercolour, 23.6 × 19 cm
Victoria designed a simple white dress trimmed with sprays of roses for her 12 bridesmaids. She gave this sketch to her Mistress of the Robes, the Duchess of Sutherland, who supervised the making of the dresses ready for the wedding.
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
!6 the y()ng ,-.t(r-a
left Leap Year!, 1840 thom(/ mcle(n [d(te/ unknown] Lithograph, 28.8 × 22.7 cm
opposite, above The Linked Hands of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, c.1840–60 f)(nz x(Be) '.nte)h(lte) Oil[1805–1873]onpanel,20.1 × 33.5 cm
/.) geo)ge h(yte) [1792–1871] Pencil, 18.2 × 26 cm
below Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Kneeling before the Altar Rail, 1840
A satire on Victoria's proposal of marriage to Albert. As a monarch, Victoria had to be the one to propose to her future consort. The title of the sketch refers to the tradition that on 29 February, every leap year a woman can defy convention by proposing to a man.
The Royal Collection / HM Queen Elizabeth II
opposite, right Baroness Lehzen’s ticket to Victoria and Albert’s wedding on 10 February 1840 Museum of London
Victoria commissioned Hayter to paint the moment in the marriage ceremony when her hand was joined with Albert’s. In this study for the painting the artist seemed to have trouble positioning the groom’s legs: three pieces of paper form a flap to show alternative positions. In the finished painting, which now hangs at Kensington Palace, Victoria and Albert stand rather than kneel.
This study is typical of ‘love token’ paintings of this time, especially of the royal couple.
Queen Victoria is in bed holding her husband Albert’s hand. She has just given birth to their first child, Victoria (‘Vicky’), the Princess Royal, on 21 November 1840. Members of the household are gathered around.
!7 overleaf View of the Queen’s Bedroom in Buckingham Palace, c.1840 unkno'n 28.3Hand-coloured()t./tlithograph,×40.2cm
British Museum, London
