Виктория Холт - The Queen’s Husband

‘No one can bear your sufferings. That is something you yourself have to face. You should not brood on them so much.’

‘I am sure if you felt some of my pains you would brood on them a little.’

Then she was sorry suddenly, for she remembered how worried she was about his health and she began to cry, which was the signal for Albert to comfort her.

* * *

The new year had come and the 25th of January was to be Vicky’s wedding day. The family had gone to Windsor for Christmas but they must move back to Buckingham Palace for the wedding. The honeymoon was to be spent at Windsor – as the Queen’s had been – and as she prepared to leave for London she was thinking of that happy time. If only Vicky can be as happy as her mother I shall ask nothing more, she told herself. Except of course I should not wish her to have to bring nine children into the world as I have done.

Vicky had only just passed her seventeenth birthday. ‘She is too young,’ said the Queen; and yet she could not stop thinking of returning to the intimacy of dinner with Albert alone. After all, Princesses had to marry. It was their duty.

She went to look at the apartments which had been set aside for the honeymoon and thought of her young innocent daughter.

Poor, poor Vicky!

Vicky came to her there and she saw the fear in her mother’s eyes.

The Queen forgot her jealousy then; she forgot everything but that this was her child, who such a short time ago had been a baby.

‘Oh, Vicky, my darling child!’ she cried.

And Vicky threw herself into her arms and they clung together. It was as though the child sought protection.

‘Dearest child,’ murmured the Queen; and she was thinking of marriage and what she called the shadow side. The weary months of waiting and the final agony. She prayed again that dear Vicky would not have to suffer that nine times.

‘But my darling,’ she said, ‘you love Fritz.’

‘Yes, Mama, but I can’t stop thinking of leaving home and Papa … and you.’

‘You will be happy, my dearest child,’ the Queen assured her.

* * *

The palace was full of royal guests. It was wonderful to see dear Uncle Leopold; and of course Fritz’s parents were there. There were between eighty and ninety to dinner.

‘Such a house full!’ said the Queen to Albert.

Poor Albert, he was very sad. Victoria believed that if he could have done so conveniently he would have stopped the wedding because he could not bear to think of parting from Vicky.

Albert’s brother Ernest came, which was a great comfort to Albert since he was what the Queen called ‘beatdown’.

Ernest was as gallant as ever.

‘Why,’ he told the Queen, ‘who would believe it is eighteen years since you were a bride? To look at you it seems incredible. You look far too young.’

It was comforting to be flattered; she loved compliments and Albert rarely paid them because he was so honest, but when he did give them they meant so much of course.

Besides the ball there were visits to the theatre and a very special performance of Macbeth at Her Majesty’s Theatre which was quite wonderful.

The 25th was a Monday and on the previous Saturday Albert was to go and meet Fritz on his arrival in England and conduct him to the palace. Before he left the Queen walked with Albert and Vicky in the garden, their arms entwined, and she and Albert tried to cheer Vicky who was feeling very despondent at the prospect of leaving home.

‘Bertie is so lucky,’ said Vicky, ‘when he marries his bride will have to come here.’

Poor sad little Princesses, thought the Queen, who were so young and must leave the nest. It would be Alice’s turn next.

But when Albert returned with Fritz, and Vicky stood at the top of the staircase with Alice beside her, the radiance of her smile as she looked at her betrothed comforted the Queen.

The next day there was the great excitement of arranging the presents on tables; there were some magnificent diamonds and emeralds, and later Vicky and Fritz came in and went into ecstasies over them.

Vicky came to the Queen’s room and said: ‘Mama, I have a little gift for you.’

It was a brooch with a piece of her hair in it and Victoria remembered how often she and her mother had exchanged such gifts. Vicky said tearfully that she hoped she would be worthy to be the Queen’s daughter, which moved Victoria deeply and she broke down and wept and demanded to know how she was going to get along without her darling Vicky.

Vicky’s last night as an unmarried girl had come at last. Nothing would ever be the same for her again, thought the Queen. That sweet age of innocence was almost over.

She and Albert went with Vicky to the bedroom she was sharing with Alice. Dear Alice, who was going to miss her sister so much! Vicky seemed to be aware of the solemnity of the occasion because suddenly she turned to Albert and threw herself into his arms.

‘Oh, Papa, dearest, dearest Papa,’ she sobbed.

And Albert, who was usually so calm, broke down and said that his thoughts would be with her always and she must never forget that he loved her infinitely and if she needed him at any time he would be there.

The Queen wiped her eyes. It was so touching; and on such occasions how could she be jealous of the love between these two?

* * *

The sun was shining gloriously even though it was cold January. The Duchess of Kent, looking magnificent in purple velvet and ermine over white silk trimmed with purple, was in tears. The years had mellowed her considerably and she was now all that a devoted grandmother should be and the children all loved her. She had come to whisper words of comfort to dear Vicky, but Vicky did not seem to need them on this morning. Vicky was in love.

Crowds had gathered in the streets to see the procession pass from Buckingham Palace to the Chapel Royal at St James’s. Victoria wondered if Albert was thinking of that day eighteen years ago when he and she had made their marriage vows. And now, she thought, I am even more in love with him than I was then.

In the chapel it was impressive. Lord Palmerston was present holding the Sword of State, and she was fleetingly reminded of Lord Melbourne. Poor Lord Melbourne whom she had once thought she loved before she knew what real love was.

Bertie and Alfred stood close to dear Vicky and the Queen kept Arthur and Leopold on either side of her.

Victoria felt the tears rush to her eyes as Vicky came forward walking between Albert and Uncle Leopold – three people, thought the Queen, who all mean so much to me. Vicky, she was delighted to see, seemed quite calm and dear Fritz so solemn and tender.

‘Oh, may she be as happy as I have been,’ prayed the Queen. ‘May Fritz be only half as good as my blessed Albert and I shall be content.’

As soon as that part of the ceremony was over Vicky was embraced by Albert and the Queen and there was the Duchess of Kent waiting to kiss her. The Prince and Princess of Prussia then kissed Vicky and the Queen kissed Fritz. But the music of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March was filling the chapel and they went to sign the register.

Then out into the streets where the crowds were immense. They cheered the Queen; they cheered Vicky; they even cheered Albert and Fritz. Into the palace to stand on a balcony, to wave, retire and come out to wave again.

Who could believe that these were the people who a short time ago had hissed the Queen when she rode to Westminster?

* * *

After the wedding breakfast Vicky and her husband left for Windsor.

How lonely it seemed without their dear daughter! Albert was quiet and withdrawn and the Queen did her best to comfort him.

‘At least they are deeply in love, Albert,’ she reminded him, ‘as we were. And that means so much. She is going to a new country which may seem strange. They will have their difficulties. Even we had those. But they love each other and that means all will be well.’

Albert pressed her hand, too moved to speak.

Two days later the Court went to Windsor. ‘How like my own wedding and brief honeymoon!’ sighed the Queen. It was a pity they could not have a little longer, but there were certain duties to be performed. Fritz for instance had to be given the Order of the Garter and after that it was necessary for the bridal pair to return with the Court to Buckingham Palace.

When they went to the theatre to see The Rivals the audience went wild with enthusiasm; and it was really affecting to hear the fervour with which they sang the national anthem.

‘The people can always be won over by a royal wedding,’ dear cynical poor Lord Melbourne had said; and he had been right.

But the separation was coming nearer.

The Queen and Albert tried to comfort themselves by continually commenting on the love between the young couple, but as the Queen wrote in her diary: the separation ‘hung like a storm’ above them.

Poor Vicky, in spite of her love, was at times in tears.

In a weak moment she clung to her mother and said: ‘I think it will kill me to take leave of dear Papa.’

They wept together.

At last came the dreaded day. The 2nd of February. The Queen arose with a heavy heart. Such a wretched day – cold, dull and misty.

The Princess came to her parents’ room and they desperately tried to talk brightly of anything but the departure, until the Princess had to leave them to get ready for the journey.

Albert had persuaded the Queen not to go to the ship. ‘It will be too heartrending,’ he said. ‘You will not be able to contain your grief.’

She knew that it was true. So Albert would take Bertie and Alfred with him and the rest of the party.

In the audience room the Duchess of Kent, in tears, with the rest of the family, was waiting. It was so hard to say goodbye. Mother and daughter clung together.

Albert said: ‘We must go now.’ And he whispered to the Queen: ‘I shall soon be back with you. It grieves me to see you like this.’

So to the sound of bands the party set off and the Queen ran to her room and throwing herself on the bed wept afresh.

It had started to snow. How dismal it was to stand at the window and look out on the falling flakes; the sky was heavy with more snow to come. But not as heavy as my heart, thought the Queen.

Alice brought little Beatrice to see her but even the baby could not comfort her mother.

‘Yesterday,’ cried the Queen, ‘Vicky was playing with her.’

In due course Albert came back with the boys, and told her that he had waited to see the ship sail.

They tried not to speak of Vicky but their thoughts were filled with her.

It was Albert who said: ‘We have our child. She is not lost to us. Why, soon she will be preparing to visit us. What a day that will be!’

‘Of course,’ said the Queen; and took Albert’s hand. ‘I can bear anything,’ she added, ‘while I have you.’ Albert went to his room and wrote to Vicky:

My heart was very full when yesterday you leaned your head on my breast and gave free vent to your tears. I am not of a demonstrative nature, and therefore you can hardly know how dear you have always been to me and what a void you have left behind in my heart; yet not in my heart, for there assuredly you will abide henceforth, as till now you have done, but in my daily life which is evermore reminding my heart of your absence.

With Vicky married the pressing problem was the future of the Prince of Wales.

‘Ah,’ sighed Albert, ‘if only Bertie had half the brains of his sister!’

‘The trouble with Bertie is that he refuses to work,’ replied the Queen.

There were continual complaints from Mr Gibbs. Bertie would not ‘concentrate’. He seemed to ‘set up a resistance to work’. ‘Could do so much better,’ was the continual report.

Baron Stockmar, who was back in England, was consulted. People who would not work must be made to work, was his verdict, but it was not easy to whip a young man of almost seventeen into submission.

Perhaps it was time to change Bertie’s mode of education. He should no longer have a tutor but a Governor. A stern disciplinarian would be the best choice; someone who would stamp out the inherent frivolity of Bertie’s nature. A course of study should be planned for him which would give him no opportunity of wasting time.