Виктория Холт - The Queen’s Husband

‘It is always those most concerned who are the last to hear of what is going on around them,’ the Queen told her.

‘I am completely ignorant of what Your Majesty suggests.’

‘Then I should ask your son … and lady-in-waiting. The Prince and I will not tolerate immorality at Court. There has been too much of it in the past. We have decided to take strong measures against it and these will be used even against members of our own family.’

‘This is a cruel mistake,’ said the Duchess, but the Queen lifted her shoulders and fluttered her fan.

The Duchess was not going to allow the matter to pass, particularly when both her son George and Lady Augusta assured her that the accusation was false.

‘The Queen is behaving as she did over Flora Hastings,’ said the Duchess. ‘When the honour of people has to be vindicated this sort of thing must be brought out into the open.’

The news leaked out to the press. The Cambridges saw to that. The Queen’s German husband was so pure, was the comment, that he could see evil where it did not exist.

Lord Melbourne was disturbed. Being an inveterate gossip himself he could see the implications of this affair far better than Peel could. It was an echo of Flora Hastings and they all knew what harm that had done. The Queen certainly did, for she had been taunted by the wronged woman for months afterwards. There had been two attempts at assassination; some parts of the country were in revolt against social conditions; people were hungry and dissatisfied; there was rioting in the Midlands. The Queen could not afford another Flora Hastings scandal and the best thing that could happen would be that Albert, who was accused of being the instigator of the gossip, should without delay apologise to the Cambridges and Lady Augusta.

This was very difficult and degrading, said Albert; but as it became clear that the rumour was without foundation he realised it must be done.

He did it rather brusquely and he and the Queen hoped that the matter would end there. But the Queen’s nights were disturbed by dreams of Flora Hastings rising from the grave to stand at the foot of her bed reproaching her.

She told Albert about it and recalled the pamphlets which were put into circulation at the time by malicious people. The one which haunted her most was that which was titled: ‘A case of Murder against Buckingham Palace.’

‘It was horrible, horrible,’ she shuddered. ‘I want no repetition of that.’

‘There will be none,’ soothed the Prince. ‘These rumours were without foundation but we are right to keep a close watch on the morals of the Court and, my dear love, we must continue to do so.’

Victoria agreed that they must. And the Cambridges continued to slight Albert whenever the opportunity arose.

* * *

It was September, the month when Lehzen was due to depart. Albert, with, as Victoria told herself, perfect understanding, realised the strain those last weeks would bring so he decided that he and the Queen should take a little holiday. The babies could be left behind and Lehzen was still in charge of the nursery. The change would do the queen good.

‘Shall it be Claremont?’ asked the Queen.

‘Oh, no,’ said Albert, ‘much farther afield. I have heard that Scotland is very beautiful.’

Scotland! The Queen had never thought of going so far but the idea was as she said very appealing and since Albert wished it they set off.

The tour was a great success. Her Majesty’s loyal subjects of the North were very pleased that she should visit their country. Edinburgh was a delight.

‘A unique city,’ cried the Queen.

The glens and the heather-covered hills delighted the Prince. They reminded him of home, he said, which was the greatest compliment he could pay them.

The Queen found them truly magnificent and determined to see more of this beautiful part of her realm.

It was such a joy to be with Albert who was the perfect companion. He was not always serious and did like an occasional joke. For instance when Lord Kinnoul received them at his country mansion and was so eager to show them the beauties of his estate he fell backwards in his enthusiasm and rolled head over heels down a grassy bank. Having got up he almost fell down another and would have done if Albert had not seized him in time. The Queen caught Albert’s eye and they could not help smiling and as Lord Kinnoul was none the worse for his fall it seemed a great joke. They talked about it when they were alone and as the Queen said in her account of this in a letter to Uncle Leopold they nearly ‘died of laughing’.

From Dalkeith they went to Perth, ‘most beautifully situated on the Tay,’ wrote the Queen; and on to Scone Palace, ‘fine but rather gloomy’. Then to Dunkeld and the Highlands.

Oh, the beautiful beautiful Highlands! She would always remember her first view of them and she would love them for ever. And what was most effective were the encampments of the Highlanders who were there, of course for the express purpose of paying homage to her. Dear people, in their kilts and their shields and swords. So romantic. What an excellent idea it had been to come to Scotland. She could never thank Albert enough for bringing her here. At Dunkeld Lord Breadalbane had brought out his Highlanders with a battalion of the 92nd Highland Regiment in honour of the royal visit.

How enchanting! She was delighted, and when she did not think of poor Lehzen back at the palace getting her things ready to leave she could be completely happy.

What a wonderful night that was, for as far as she could see from her bedroom window the bonfires blazed; the Highlanders danced their own dances by torchlight and the bagpipes played their strange and exciting music.

‘I have fallen in love with Scotland,’ said the Queen fervently.

She was delighted to have discovered this beautiful realm, but another discovery pleased her less.

She was once more pregnant.

* * *

Lehzen sat silently in her room. So this was the end. Tomorrow she was leaving the palace and that meant that she would in fact go out of Victoria’s life for ever.

A year ago this would have seemed an impossibility. How quickly life could change!

She could see clearly now where she had been wrong. She should never have attempted to make trouble between a husband and wife. She should have known that the Queen would be the most loyal of wives. But it was too late. She had to make a new life. There were young people where she was going – her brother’s children. Perhaps she could take them to her heart as she had taken Victoria. But there would never be anyone who could mean to her what Victoria had meant. She was philosophical now. She was getting old. She had had her day.

Her devotion to her dearest child was selfless and she could say with absolute sincerity that what she wanted more than anything was Victoria’s happiness.

She could never like Albert. He was stern, serious and prudish; he could never really enjoy life because he was so eager to do his duty, and one sensed that he felt there was something sinful in enjoying the good things of life. He would mould her to his way. She would change. She would always be sincere, deeply affectionate, loving to dance and gossip, the adorably human Victoria of the past, but he would change her.

It is time I went, said Lehzen.

She would see the Queen for the last time today. She would be calm; there must be no stormy parting and tomorrow very early she would slip quietly away. She did not want Victoria to be harassed by painful goodbyes.

* * *

Lehzen had gone.

The Queen was deeply affected. After all those years they had parted. She could not remember a time in her life when Lehzen had not been there.

In a way she was relieved. The last months had been a strain. And Albert would be so delighted. It was what he had always wanted; he blamed Lehzen for everything that had gone wrong; and it was true he had made her see the Baroness differently from the way she had before.

It was better that she went and the last thing Lehzen wanted her to be was unhappy – just as she herself longed for Lehzen to find peace and happiness with her family.

The end of a phase was always a solemn time. She wanted to recapture the spirit of those old days absolutely as they were then, not as she saw them now, and the best way of doing this was to read through some of her old journals.

She blushed a little as she read. Had she really felt like that about Lord Melbourne? She wrote of him as though they were lovers. She had been thoughtless then. It was all rather artificial really. That was not true happiness.

But reading the journals made her realise how contented she was with life.

‘Thank God,’ she said aloud, ‘that Albert has taught me what real happiness means.’

With Lehzen out of the way Albert decided to investigate the management of the household which he was well aware was in need of urgent reform. He quickly discovered that offices were still in existence which had been inaugurated two hundred years before although some of them were nothing but sinecures. There was no discipline; the servants were terrified lest they should do work which was not in their province and the most ridiculous anomalies prevailed. There was a Lord Steward who in the reign of Victoria’s grandfather George III, had control of the entire household except the royal apartments; but recently the office of Lord Chamberlain had been inaugurated and no one was quite sure what duties he was supposed to take over from the Lord Steward. There could be a dispute over the cleaning of windows for instance and although the Lord Chamberlain might order the insides to be done there was a difference of opinion as to who was responsible for the outsides which meant that the outsides went uncleaned for months. None of the servants was sure to whom he or she was responsible, which from a certain point of view was an advantage because it gave quite a number of them liberty to do all sorts of things which, under proper authority, would have been forbidden.

It was one person’s duty to lay a fire, another’s to light it; which meant that very often there was no fire at all.

At the time of the visit of the Boy Jones Albert had discovered that a broken window could remain so for months at a time because no one knew whose duty it was to replace it; he had even discovered brown paper pasted over broken windows because the servants could not as they said ‘abide the cold wind coming through’. And this in one of the most magnificent of palaces in the world!

Something had to be done and with characteristic efficiency Albert set about doing it.

He studied accounts; he found that the Queen was being cheated. He looked into the amount of food and drink which came into the palace and discovered that some of the grooms were drunk every night.

‘My love,’ he said, ‘you are paying very heavily for inefficiency and a badly run household.’

Victoria, who was beginning to think that everything he did was wonderful, declared that she could not imagine how she had ever lived without Albert to look after her. He must do everything he wished.

There was fury among the servants. Who was the Prince coming over from Germany to interfere with their pleasant lives? It used to be so good in the old days with the old Baroness liking a joke and shutting her eyes to anything that might, as she said, upset the Queen. As long as her caraway seeds were scattered over everything she ate she didn’t care what went on in the servants’ quarters.

Albert was indifferent to his unpopularity; he was used to it in any case. He was going to make sure that Victoria had a well-run home.

On one occasion he went quietly into the nursery and found one of the under-nurses bouncing the Prince of Wales up and down on her knee.

‘Now what’s popsy-wopsy laughing at?’ the nurse was demanding. ‘Popsy-wopsy’s laughing ’cos his liddle toes are tickled.’

‘I do not understand,’ said Albert. ‘By what absurd name were you addressing the Prince of Wales?’

‘Oh, it’s just baby talk, sir.’

‘Please do not use such baby talk to His Royal Highness.’

He went at once to Victoria.

‘There is a most unsuitable person in the nursery,’ he said. ‘She was moving The Boy up and down on her knee and talking nonsense to him. No wonder he is so backward.’