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A DEDICATORY LETTER
A DEDICATORY LETTER
Permit me, my dear friend, to inscribe to you this very imperfect Life of your beloved Queen, in remembrance of that dear old time when the world was brighter and more beautiful than it is now (or so it seemeth to me) and things in general were pleasanter;—when better books were written, especially biographies, and there were fewer of them;—when the "gentle reader" and the "indulgent critic" were extant;—when Realism had not shouldered his way into Art;—when there were great actors and actresses
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
I send this book out to the world with many misgivings, feeling that it is not what I would like it to be—not what I could have made it with more time. I have found it especially difficult to procure facts and incidents of the early life of the Queen—just that period which I felt was of most interest to my younger readers. So much was I delayed that for the actual arrangement and culling of my material, and the writing of the volume, I have had less than three months, and during that time many i
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
Sketch of the Princess Charlotte—Her Love for her Mother—Anecdotes—Her Happy Girlhood—Her Marriage with Prince Leopold—Her Beautiful Life at Claremont—Baron Stockmar, the Coburg Mentor—Death of the Princess Charlotte. It seems to me that the life of Queen Victoria cannot well be told without a prefacing sketch of her cousin, the Princess Charlotte, who, had she lived, would have been her Queen, and who was in many respects her prototype. It is certain, I think, that Charlotte Augusta of Wales, t
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
Birth of the Princess Victoria—Character of her Father—Question of the Succession to the Throne—Death of the Duke of Kent—Baptism of Victoria —Removal to Woolbrook Glen—Her first Escape from Sudden Death—Picture of Domestic Life—Anecdotes. After the loss of his wife, Prince Leopold left for a time his sad home of Claremont, and returned to the Continent, but came back some time in 1819, to visit a beloved sister, married since his own bereavement, and become the mother of a little English girl,
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
Victoria's early Education—Anecdote—Routine of Life at Kensington Palace—Character and Circumstances of the Duchess of Kent—Anecdote— Simple Mode of Life—Visits. Queen Victoria tells little of her childhood, but speaks of it as rather "dull." It seems, however, to have never been empty or idle. All her moments were golden—for study, or for work, or healthful exercise and play. She was taught, and perhaps was inclined, to waste no time, and to be careful not to cause others to waste it. A dear En
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Queen-making not a Light Task—Admirable Discipline of the Duchess of Kent—Foundation of the Character and Habits of the future Queen—Curious Extract from a Letter by her Grandmamma—A Children's Ball given by George IV. to the little Queen of Portugal—A Funny Mishap—Death of George IV.—Character of his Successor—Victoria's first appearance at a Drawing-room—Her absence from the Coronation of William IV. Queen-making is not a light task. It is no fancywork for idle hours. It is the first difficult
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
King William jealous of Public Honors to Victoria—Anecdote—The unusual Studies of the Princess—Her Visits to the Isle of Wight—Laughable Incident at Wentworth House—Anecdote related by her Music-teacher— Unwholesome adulation of the Princess—Reflections upon the curious isolation of her Social Position—Extract from one of her later Letters. The indifference of the Duchess of Kent to the heavy pomps and heavier gayeties of his Court so offended his unmajestic Majesty, that he finally became decid
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
The Princess opens the Victoria Park at Bath—Becoming used to Public Curiosity—Secret of her Destiny revealed to her—Royal Ball on her Thirteenth Birthday—At the Ascot Races—Picture by N. P. Willis— Anecdotes—Painful Scene at the King's last Birthday Dinner. When she was eleven years old, the Princess opened the Victoria Park at Bath. She began the opening business thus early, and has kept it up pretty diligently for fifty years—parks, expositions, colleges, exchanges, law courts, bridges, docks
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Victoria's first meeting with Prince Albert—She comes of Age—Ball in honor thereof—Illness of King William—His Death—His Habits and Character—The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor inform Victoria that she is Queen—Her beautiful bearing under the ordeal. In May, 1836, the Princess saw, for the first time, her cousins, Ernest and Albert, of Saxe-Coburg. These brothers, one eighteen and the other seventeen, are described as charming young fellows, well-bred and carefully educated, wi
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
The last day of Victoria's real girlhood—Proclaimed Queen from St. James' Palace—She holds her first Privy Council—Comments upon her deportment by eye-witnesses—Fruits of her mother's care and training. It seems to me that the momentous day just described was the last of Victoria's real girlhood; that premature womanhood was thrust upon her with all the power, grandeur, and state of a Queen Regnant. I wonder if, weary and nervously exhausted as she must have been, she slept much, when at last sh
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
The sovereignty of England and Hanover severed forever—Funeral of King William IV. at Windsor—The Queen and her household remove to Buckingham Palace—She dissolves Parliament—Glowing account of the scene by a contemporary Journal—Charles Sumner a spectator—His eulogy of the Queen's reading. Ever since the accession to the throne of Great Britain of the House of Brunswick, the Kings of England had also been Kings of Hanover. To carry on the two branches of the royal business simultaneously must h
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Comments upon the young Queen by a contemporaneous writer in Blackwood —A new Throne erected for her in Buckingham Palace—A touching Anecdote related by the Duke of Wellington—The Queen insists on paying her Father's Debts—The romantic and passionate interest she evoked—Her mad lover—Attempts upon her life—She takes possession of Windsor Castle. A writer in Blackwood , speaking of the Queen about this time, said: "She is 'winning golden opinions from all sorts of people' by her affability, the g
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Banquet in Guildhall—Victoria's first Christmas at Windsor Castle as Queen—Mrs. Newton Crosland's reminiscences—Coolness of Actors and Quakers amid the general enthusiasm—Issue of the first gold Sovereigns bearing Victoria's head. On Lord Mayor's Day, the Queen went in state to dine with her brother- monarch, the King of "Great London Town." It was a memorable, magnificent occasion. The Queen was attended by all the great ladies and gentlemen of her Court, and followed by an immense train of mem
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
The Coronation. The coronation was fixed for June 28, 1838 a little more than a year from the accession. The, Queen had been slightly troubled at the thought of some of the antiquated forms of that grand and complicated ceremony—for instance, the homage of the Peers, spiritual and temporal. As the rule stood, they were all required after kneeling to her, and pledging their allegiance, to rise and kiss her on the left cheek. She might be able to bear up under the salutes of those holy old gentlem
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Pictures and descriptions of the Queen—Her love of pets—Her passion for horseback exercise—Her spirited behavior in the first change of her Ministers. In the Hall of the St. George's Society of Philadelphia there is a very interesting picture by the late Mr. Sully of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes. It is life-size, and represents her as mounting the steps of the throne, her head slightly turned, and looking back over the left shoulder. It seems to me that Her Majesty should own this pict
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Prince Albert. If the Princess Charlotte was the prototype of her cousin Victoria, Prince Leopold was in some respects the prototype of his beloved nephew Albert, who was born in August, 1819, at Rosenau, a charming summer residence of his father, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield. The little Prince's grandmother, the Dowager-Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, in writing to her daughter, the Duchess of Kent, to announce the happy event, says: "The little boy is to be christened to-morrow, and to h
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
The first months of Marriage—Incidents and anecdotes—The adoption of Penny postage—The Inauguration of Steam Railway travel—The Duchess of Kent takes a separate residence—Prince Albert presides at a meeting favoring the abolition of the Slave Trade. In this mere sketch of the great life of the Queen of England, I can give little space to the political questions and events of her reign, important and momentous as some of them were, even for other lands and other people than the English. For a cle
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
Death passes by—Life comes. On the 10th of June, 1840, occurred the first mad attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria—made as she and Prince Albert were driving up Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace, in a small open phaeton. Prince Albert, in a letter to his grandmamma, gives the clearest account of it. He says: "We had hardly proceeded a hundred yards from the Palace, when I noticed, on the foot-path on my side, a little, mean-looking man, holding something toward us, and, before I could d
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Boy "Jones" and his singular pranks—A change in the Ministry—Sir Robert Peel becomes Premier—Prince Albert made Chairman of the Fine Arts Commission—Birth of the Prince of Wales—The Queen commemorates the event by a beautiful act. The next sensation in connection with the Court was the discovery of the famous "boy Jones" in Buckingham Palace. This singular young personage was by no means a stranger in the Palace. He had made himself very familiar with, and at home in that august mansion, abo
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Miscreants and Monarchs—A visit from Mendelssohn—The Queen's first visit to Scotland—Anecdote—A trip to France and Belgium—Death of the Duke of Sussex and of Prince Albert's father—The Dwarf and the Giant. This year of 1842 was not all joy and festivity. It was the year of the massacres of the British forces in Cabul; there was financial distress in England, which a charitable masked ball at Buckingham Palace did not wholly relieve; and in May occurred the second attempt on the life of the Queen
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
Old homes and new—A visit from the King of France—The Queen and Prince Albert make their first visit to Germany—Incidents of the trip—A new seaside home on the Isle of Wight—Repeal of the Corn Laws—Prince Albert elected Chancellor of Cambridge University—Benjamin Disraeli. This year—1844—there was a death in the household at Windsor, and a birth. The death was that of Eos, the favorite greyhound of Prince Albert. "Dear Eos," as the Queen called her, was found dead one morning. The Prince wrote t
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
A Troublous Time—Louis Philippe an Exile—The Purchase of Balmoral—A Letter of Prince Albert's—Another attempt on the Queen's Life—The Queen's instructions to the Governess of her Daughters—A visit to Ireland—Death of Dowager Queen Adelaide. At last came 1848—a year packed with political convulsions and overthrows. The spirit of revolution was rampant, bowling away at all the thrones of Europe. England heard the storm thundering nearly all round the horizon, for in the sister isle the intermitten
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
The Great Exhibition—Birth of the Duke of Connaught—Death of Sir Robert Peel and Louis Philippe—Prince Albert's speech before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Early in this year of 1850, Prince Albert, though not in his usual health, began in deadly earnest on his colossal labors in behalf of the great "World's Exhibition." England owed that magnificent manifestation of her resources and her enterprise far more to him than to any other man. He met with much opposit
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
Close of the Great Exhibition-Anecdote—Louis Kossuth—Napoleon III.—The writer's first visit to England—Description of a Prorogation of Parliament. The great Exhibition was closed about the middle of October, on a dark and rainy day. The last ceremonies were very solemn and impressive. It had not remained long enough for people to be wearied of it. The Queen, the Prince and their children seemed never to tire of visiting it, and the prospect of a sight of them was one of the greatest attractions
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CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Death of the Duke of Wellington—Birth of the Duke of Albany—The Crimean War—Slanders upon Prince Albert—The Prince of Wales takes a place for the first time upon the Throne—Incidents of Domestic Life—Prince Albert visits the Emperor of France—Incidents of the War. At Balmoral the following autumn, the Queen heard of the death of her most illustrious subject—the Duke of Wellington, and green are those "Leaves" in the journal of her "life in the Highlands," devoted to his memory. She wrote of him
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CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Emperor and Empress of France visit Windsor—They are entertained by the City of London—Scene at the Opera—The Queen returns the Emperor's call—Splendor of the Imperial Hospitality. The Queen's kind heart was really pained by the sudden death of the Czar, her sometime friend and "brother"—whose visit to Windsor was brought by the startling event vividly to her mind—yet she turned from his august shade to welcome one of his living conquerors, the Emperor Napoleon, who, with his beautiful wife,
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CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXV.
Betrothal of the Princess Royal—Birth of the Prince Imperial of France— More visitors and visitings—The Emperor And Empress of Mexico—Marriage of the Princess Royal—The attendant festivities. At Balmoral, where they took possession of the new Castle, the Queen and Prince received the news of the approaching fall of Sebastopol, for it was not down yet. It finally fell amid a scene of awful conflagration and explosions—the work of the desperate Russians themselves. The peace-rejoicings did not com
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CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Visiting and counter-visiting—Charming domestic gossip—The Queen's first grandchild—The Prince of Wales' trip to America—Another love- affair—Death of the Duchess of Kent. In May, Prince Albert ran over to Germany to visit his old home, and his new son, and his darling daughter, whom he found well and happy. In one of his letters to the Queen from Gotha, he says: "I enclose a forget-me- not from grandmama's grave." There is in that simple sentence an exquisite indication of his affectionate and
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CHAPTER XXVII.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Failing health of Prince Albert—His last visit to Balmoral—His influence upon the policy of England in the Trent difficulty with the United States—Strange revolution in English sentiment in respect to American slavery—The setting of the sun. All this time while the Queen was absorbed by anxious care, or passionate grief for her mother, the health of the Prince-Consort was slowly but surely failing. The keen blade of his active mind was wearing out its sheath. His vital forces must have begun to
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Twilight Life after—Marriage of the Princess Alice—Incidents of the Queen's life at Balmoral—John Brown—A letter from the Queen to the Duchess of Sutherland. "There is no one near me to call me 'Victoria' now!" is said to have been the desolate cry of the Queen, when, on waking from that first sleep, the cruel morning light, smote upon her with a full consciousness of her bereavement, and a new sense of her royal isolation. She was on a height where the storm beat fiercest and there was the
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CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Arrival in England of the Princess Alexandra to wed the Prince of Wales— Garibaldi's visit to London—The Queen's first public appearance after her widowhood—Marriage of the Princess Louise—Illness of the Prince of Wales—Disaffection in Ireland—The Queen's sympathy during the illness of President Garfield. On the 7th of March, 1863, all London and nearly all England went mad over the coming of the Princess Alexandra, from Denmark, to wed the Prince of Wales. Lord Ronald Gower, a son of the beauti
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CHAPTER XXX.
CHAPTER XXX.
My reasons for Honoring the Queen—Anecdotes—Some democratic reflections upon the Queen's position and her Subjects' loyalty—The Royal Children— Last words. My reasons for admiring and honoring Queen Victoria are, perhaps, amply revealed in this little book, but I will briefly recapitulate them: First, is her great power of loving, and tenacity in holding on to love. Next is her loyalty—that quality which makes her stand steadfastly by those she loves, through good and evil report, arid not afrai
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