Queen Victoria (23 page)

The funeral of the Prince Consort took place on Monday the 23rd of December, 1861, in St. George’s Chapel. The remains were removed from the Castle and temporarily deposited in the entrance to the Royal Vault, where they were to remain until the completion and consecration of a mausoleum to be afterwards erected. The site for this building had been chosen by the Queen herself on the 18th, when with Princess Alice she drove to the gardens at Frogmore for that purpose.

The Queen had before the funeral left Windsor to spend a sad and desolate Christmas at Osborne. Such consolation as was possible in a grief so overwhelming was afforded by the presence of the King of the Belgians and of the Princess of Hohenlohe, her half-sister. But Her Majesty had already learnt that the only anodyne to personal grief is sympathy with the sorrows of others. When the terrible disaster happened at the Hartley Colliery, by which the whole male population of three hamlets had been swept away, Sir Charles Phipps writes by the Queen’s command: “The appalling news has afflicted the Queen very much. Her Majesty commands me to say that her tenderest sympathy is with the poor widows and mothers, and that her own misery only makes her feel the more for them.”

On the 6th of February, 1862, the Queen took leave of the Prince of Wales, who, in pursuance of the scheme for his education laid down by the Prince Consort, left England for the tour, which had been for some time arranged, to Egypt and the Holy Land. The most memorable incident of this tour was the visit paid by the Prince and his suite to the Mosque of Hebron, which covers the Cave of Machpelah. Into this sacred building no European or Christian had been, up to this time, permitted to enter, and it was not without some difficulty, and even danger, that the visit was accomplished. It has been fully described by Dean Stanley, who accompanied the Prince on his journey. The party returned on the 14th of June, in time for the marriage of the Princess Alice with Prince Louis of Hesse.

At the time of the death of the Prince Consort the Princess Alice had been the principal support of the broken-hearted Queen. Though herself filled with intense sorrow at the death of her beloved father, she became at once the means of communication between the outer world and her mother, whom she strove to shield from every possible trouble. The decision to leave Windsor for Osborne directly after the Prince’s death, according to the earnest wish of the King of the Belgians, which it was so difficult for the Queen to make, was obtained by the Princess’s influence. For the Queen to part from one who had thus become so necessary to her was a terrible struggle, but it had been the desire of the Prince Consort that the marriage should take place during the early part of the year, and it was, therefore, only postponed to the 1st of July, when it was solemnized at Osborne. Though the ceremony was simple and private, it may be doubted whether any royal marriage excited keener interest and profounder sympathy in the mass of the people, who had so highly appreciated the strength of mind and self - sacrifice shown by the Princess Alice during the dreadful days of her father’s illness and death, and who were aware that to her exertions it was in a great measure due that the Queen was able to bear with such fortitude her own irreparable loss.

The Queen passed the autumn in seclusion at Balmoral; here on the 21st of August was begun the cairn in memory of the Prince. In “More Leaves from the Journal” the Queen writes: “At eleven o’clock started… for Craig Lowrigan… Here at the top is the foundation of the Cairn - forty feet wide - to be erected to my precious Albert, which will be seen all down the valley. I and my poor six orphans all placed stones on it; and our initials as well as those of the three absent ones are to be carved on stones all round it.’’

On the 1st of September the Queen, accompanied by several of her family, left England for Germany, paying on the way a brief visit to King Leopold at Laeken. There for the first time the Queen met the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, soon to become Princess of Wales. From Laeken the Queen went to Reinhardtsbrunn in Thuringia, where she was joined by the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, by Princess Alice with her husband, and by Prince Alfred.

On the 18th of December, 1862, the remains of the Prince Consort were transferred from St. George’s Chapel to the mausoleum which had just been built for their reception by Her Majesty in the grounds of Frogmore, not far from the spot where the Duchess of Kent had been laid.

The Prince of Wales had met the Princess Alexandra at Heidelberg in the autumn of 1861, when a mutual attachment had been formed; but the death of the Prince Consort had postponed any announcement of an engagement. It was not till the 4th of November, 1862, that the Queen gave public consent to the marriage, and the Princess came for a brief visit to Osborne. In February, 1863, the Prince of Wales took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords, and in the House of Commons resolutions were passed for the establishment and maintenance of His Royal Highness’s household on a proper scale. The alacrity shown by Parliament in thus making a suitable provision expressed the universal feeling of satisfaction in the proposed union. The Prince had gained the personal regard of all those with whom he had been brought into contact, while the beauty and charm of the Princess won every heart. At the same time the alliance with Denmark, by the complete absence of State interests, and of those political aims to which the domestic happiness of princes has been too often sacrificed, strongly appealed to the sympathy of the nation.

The Princess landed at Gravesend on the 7th of March, and never to any person in the history of the kingdom has a warmer welcome been offered. Through the City, which was approached by London Bridge, there was one immense concourse of enthusiastic crowds. In Hyde Park were drawn up 17,000 volunteers, between whose ranks the procession passed to Paddington. The reception at Eton was as warm as that of London, and the illuminations at Windsor closed a memorable day. On the 10th the marriage was solemnized with great pomp in St. George’s Chapel, the Prince and the other Knights of the Garter wearing their robes. The Queen herself took no part in the ceremony, but witnessed the whole from the windows of the Royal closet above the north side of the altar.

On the 9th of May the Queen, accompanied by the Princess Alice, paid a visit to the Military Hospital at Netley, the foundation stone of which she had, with the Prince Consort, laid nearly seven years before. Though her features bore the traces of deep and abiding sorrow, she bore with firmness the fatigue of her long walk through the hospital, and the trying scenes which she witnessed. In August and September the Queen paid a visit to Belgium and Germany, staying for some time with King Leopold, and passing on to the Rosenau, the birthplace of the Prince Consort. On the journey home, she spent a day with Princess Alice at Kranichstein, near Darmstadt.

The first public appearance of the Queen since the death of her husband was made on the 13th of October, when Her Majesty unveiled the statue which had been erected to the memory of the Prince Consort at Aberdeen. In her reply to the address of the Provost, the Queen said, “I could not reconcile it to myself to remain at Balmoral while such a tribute was being paid to his memory, without making an exertion to assure you personally of the deep and heartfelt sense I entertain of your kindness and affection; and, at the same time, to proclaim in public the unbounded reverence and admiration, the devoted love that fills my heart for him whose loss must throw a lasting gloom over all my future life.”

On the 8th of January, 1864, the Queen received at Osborne from the Prince of Wales the glad news of the birth at Frogmore of a Prince, who, on the 10th of March following the first anniversary of the wedding of his parents, was christened at Buckingham Palace, receiving the names of Albert Victor Christian Edward. The advent of a male heir in direct succession to the Throne was a source of much joy and consolation to the Queen and to the Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as of gratification to the whole nation.

On the 24th of May the anniversary of Her Majesty’s birthday was kept this year with the old outward tokens of rejoicing, which had not been observed since the year 1861. On her way to Balmoral in the autumn, the Queen unveiled a statue which had been erected by her loyal subjects of Perth to the Prince Consort.

During the year 1865 the Queen remained in seclusion, attending to all affairs of State, but seldom appearing in public. On the 24th of March she visited the Consumption Hospital at Brompton, the first stone of which had been laid by the Prince Consort in 1844. Her Majesty was much interested in the hospital, and spent some time in examining the wards and noticing the patients, of whom there were upwards of two hundred. On the 8th of August Her Majesty, accompanied by Prince Leopold and the Princesses Helena, Louise, and Beatrice, embarked at Woolwich for Germany, and, arriving at Coburg on the 11th, proceeded at once to Rosenau. On the 26th the Queen inaugurated the memorial statue which had been erected to her late husband in his native town. The solemn and elaborate ceremony reached its climax when the Queen, leaving her pavilion, walked with her family to the monument, and laid at the feet of the statue the flowers which she had brought for the purpose.

On her return homewards, the Queen saw for the last time her loved and respected uncle, King Leopold. He died at Laeken on the 9th of the following December, within a few days of completing his seventy-fifth year. Small and new as was his kingdom, he yet occupied a position in Europe which the most powerful monarch might envy. International disputes were referred to him for settlement, the secrets of most Royal Houses were in his keeping, and private as well as public grievances were submitted to his arbitration: he was known everywhere by the title of
Juge
de
Paix
de l‘Europe
. As son-in-law of the King of the French and uncle of Queen Victoria he was able to mediate with great effect between the two countries, both in 1840 on the Eastern question, and later in the more irritating disputes about the Spanish marriages. Throughout the whole of the Queen’s life he had been her trusted counsellor, confidant, and friend, and his loss, following on that of her mother and her husband, left her more completely alone.

A happier event this year was the birth on the 3rd of June of the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, now Duke of York. After the return of the Court from Germany, the Queen spent the remainder of the autumn at Balmoral, whence excursions were made to Invermark and to Dunkeld to visit the widowed Duchess of Athole, who, whilst these pages are passing through the press, has also been taken away.

On the 6th of February, 1866, the Queen, who since the death of the Prince Consort had not entered the walls of the Palace of Westminster, opened Parliament in person, to the great joy of both Houses and of all her subjects. In the Speech from the Throne Her Majesty declared her consent to the marriage of the Princess Helena with Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, which marriage was solemnized on the 5th of July in the private chapel of Windsor Castle. On the 13th of March, after an interval of five years, the Queen visited Aldershot and reviewed the troops there in garrison. The visit was repeated on the 5th of April, when new colours were presented by Her Majesty to the 89th Regiment, now the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Victoria’s Royal Irish Fusiliers, the regiment to which the Queen, as Princess Victoria, had presented colours in 1833.

Affairs on the Continent at this time were a source of deep anxiety to the Queen, particularly because in the war between Austria and Prussia her two sons-in-law, the husbands of the Princess Royal and of Princess Alice, were engaged upon opposite sides. While the conflict was raging round her home Princess Alice gave birth to a daughter who, when the war came to an end, received the name of Irene.

On the 16th of October the Queen journeyed from Balmoral to Inver-cannie, twenty-two miles from Aberdeen, in order to open the new works just completed for the supply of water to the city. Of her reply to the address of the Provost, the Queen, in “More Leaves from the Journal,” writes; “Then I had to read my answer, which made me very nervous; but I got through it well, though it was the first time I had read anything since my darling husband was taken from me.” In this answer the Queen said, “I have felt that, at a time when the attention of the country has been so anxiously directed to the state of the public health, it was right that I should make an exertion to testify my sense of the importance of a work so well calculated as this to promote the health and comfort of your ancient city.”

At Wolverhampton, on the 30th of November, the Queen, accompanied by Prince and Princess Christian and Princess Louise, unveiled a statue to the Prince Consort.

On the 5th of February, 1867, the Queen was again able to open Parliament in person, the Speech from the Throne being, as on the former occasion, read by the Lord Chancellor. The aspect of affairs generally was gloomy: the cattle plague, the outbreak of the Fenian insurrection in Ireland, and the disturbances occasioned by the Reform agitation gave no promise of a prosperous year. The meetings held on the latter question, fortunately, passed over without riot, though considerable apprehension was felt.

The first stone of the Albert Hall at Kensington, adjoining the gardens of the Horticultural Society, was laid by the Queen on the 20th of May. The building was finished in 1871, when the Queen performed the opening ceremony.

Among the events of the year 1867 none is more memorable than the visit which the Sultan Abdul Azziz paid to England in July. It was the first time that any “Commander of the Faithful” had set foot on British ground. His Majesty was lodged at Buckingham Palace, and on the day following his arrival paid a visit to the Queen at Windsor before her departure for Osborne. On the 17th of July what had been intended to be the most interesting of all the spectacles offered to the Sultan - a naval review at Spithead - was marred by stormy weather. Forty-nine vessels mounting 1,099 guns were anchored in two columns, through which the Royal yachts passed with the Imperial and Royal visitors. On the deck of the
Victoria
and
Albert
the Queen invested the Sultan with the Order of the Garter. Having again visited the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, in which her interest was unabated, the Queen on the 20th of August left Osborne for Balmoral, stopping at the Border to pay a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Roxburgh at Floors Castle. During the stay here Melrose Abbey and Abbotsford were visited, where the Queen wrote her name in Sir Walter Scott’s journal, “which,” as she says in “More Leaves from the Journal,” “I felt it to be a presumption in me to do.” During the stay at Balmoral an excursion was made to Glenfiddich, a graphic description of which is given in the same “Journal.” On the 15 th of October, the day of the Queen’s engagement, the statue erected in memory of the Prince was unveiled at Balmoral.