Виктория Холт - The Widow of Windsor

Bertie said he must be pleasant to people. It was part of his duties to be so.

‘Perhaps Your Highness could try to be impartially gracious.’

Bertie thought that it was necessary to do honour more to some people than others and it would of course depend on their qualifications to deserve that honour. There was a twinkle in his eye and Sir William understood that he had no intention of changing his ways; but perhaps he could be induced to be a little more discreet.

Vicky, of course, wrote to the Queen. She did think that Bertie should be a little more thoughtful where poor dear Alix was concerned.

* * *

With the new year Alix was alarmed by strange pains which she was feeling in her limbs. In early February these grew worse; by the middle of the month she could only walk with great difficulty and was confined to her room. The doctors diagnosed acute rheumatism.

The fact that the birth of a child was imminent gave cause for alarm, and a few days after she had been confined to her room her daughter was born. Before her pains had started, her temperature had soared and there was no doubt that she was in a fever, yet the baby was safely delivered and appeared to be well.

Sir James Paget was very anxious about her. The fact that she had given birth to a child while in the throes of rheumatic fever could mean that her life was in danger.

In her delirium she talked of the Yellow Palace and kept calling for her parents. He deliberated whether to send a messenger to Windsor where the Queen was at that time or to send immediately for the Prince of Wales, who was out of London. Fearing that the Princess was on the point of death he decided that there was no time and he acted on his own judgement by telegraphing direct to Denmark begging the King and Queen to come at once as he feared for the life of the Princess of Wales.

Within a few days Queen Louise was at Marlborough House. King Christian was following and would arrive two days later. Louise went straight to the sickroom and took her daughter into her arms, speaking to her in the manner she had done as a child. Alix was immediately comforted; the tension seemed to have passed and although she was in great pain the change in her was remarkable.

The Queen, who had now heard of the state of Alix’s health, at once came to Marlborough House from Windsor, but by the time she had arrived Louise was already in the sickroom.

The Queen was astonished that Louise should have come to England uninvited. Surely, she fumed to herself, if Alix’s parents were needed I should have been told so that I could have invited them in the proper manner. ‘Where is Sir James Paget?’ she demanded.

Sir James presented himself, dignified and unrepentant. ‘The Princess’s life was in danger, M’am, and it was my duty to save it.’

The Queen of course appreciated that and would not have had Sir James act otherwise, but she wondered whether it was part of his duty to invite people to her Court; she had never liked that woman who was so deaf that she could not understand what was said to her, and who painted her cheeks.

The Queen burst into the sickroom and when she saw Alix with her hand in her mother’s looking so wan and ill and yet so much at peace because Louise was there, all her anger faded. After all she might be a domineering woman and deaf; she might paint her cheeks; but she was Alix’s mother and Alix wanted her at that time more than her relations by marriage.

The Queen kissed Alix and gave a gracious nod to Louise.

‘My dear sweet Alix, this is dreadful. You so ill and my not knowing.’

‘Dr Paget sent for Mama,’ said Alix. ‘I felt better as soon as she came.’

The Queen’s eyes filled with tears. Dear sweet Alix, she was not clever but she was such a good child and so pretty; and devoted to that woman who after all was her mother.

‘You must get well quickly,’ said the Queen. ‘I am pleased that Sir James had the good sense to send for the Queen of Denmark.’

* * *

The emotions of the people were deeply touched by the plight of the invalid. Alix was the most popular member of the royal family; she was beautiful, gracious and sick. Bertie amused them with his adventures, but they were not amusing doubtless to the Princess; and now she was very ill; crowds clustered about Marlborough House, all sorts of people sent in advice on treatment, embrocations arrived in their thousands; one old lady sent a roll of oil silk; ointments were sent to the palace, all kinds of cures were suggested. A special staff was needed to deal with them and bulletins on the Princess’s health were issued regularly while crowds waited to see them.

Alix was without doubt very ill indeed and the pains in her joints continued so it was some months before she was able to walk and then could only do so with the aid of sticks.

The new baby was christened Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar three months after her birth, when Alix was carried to the drawing-room and even then could only hobble about on her two sticks.

The Queen was very sympathetic but she blamed Bertie – and indeed both of them – for the rackety life they led. They would have to be a little more careful now – not so many late nights, not so many wild parties. Bertie must try to be the sort of husband to Alix that Albert had been to the Queen.

A new paper calling itself Tomahawk was being published; it was meant to be satirical and was most libellous; its leading topic was with that subject of which the Press was trying to create the greatest possible scandal – the Queen’s relationship with John Brown.

On the paper’s birth there had been constant hints about that relationship and in August of that year there appeared a cartoon which could not be ignored.

It was entitled ‘A Brown Study’. It showed John Brown sprawling against the throne with his back to it and a glass in his hand, while the British Lion roared at his feet.

The implication was clear and when Bertie saw it he was secretly amused. He had suffered so much criticism regarding his own conduct, but what was that compared with this?

He was planning a trip to Paris – his favourite city – and he knew that the Queen would put up a certain amount of opposition as she always did at the hint of his travelling abroad. He thought it would be good strategy to get in first, so with Tomahawk in his hand he arrived at Osborne.

As he came uninvited the Queen was not waiting to receive him. She was in her apartments and the way was barred by John Brown.

The Prince was furious. No wonder the cartoonists had such a field day with his mother and this crude serving-man. The Prince of Wales would certainly not accept this unbecoming behaviour.

‘Ye canna see the Queen now,’ said John Brown. ‘The woman’s resting.’

‘I think the Queen will not be pleased to hear that the Prince of Wales has been denied admittance.’

‘She’s nae in a fit condition to be badgered,’ said Brown firmly.

The Queen, hearing voices, called out: ‘Brown, who is that?’

‘It’s your eldest,’ answered Brown. ‘I’ve told him ye’ll see him in the morning. Ye’re too tired to be bothered the night.’

‘Thank you, Brown,’ said the Queen.

And what could Bertie do after that but go away fuming? Brown would have to go. The position in which he put the Queen, the position in which he put them all, was quite ridiculous.

* * *

The next morning Bertie triumphantly waved ‘A Brown Study’ before his mother.

‘Have you seen this, Mama?’

She glanced at it. ‘Oh dear, another of those tiresome things. Brown is so imperturbable. He doesn’t care a pin about them.’

‘Mama, this is an attack on you, on the Crown.’

‘Of course any attack on honest John Brown is an attack on me.’

‘But this is making the throne … ridiculous.’

‘What nonsense, Bertie! This is just malicious people being malicious.’

‘Brown must go, Mama. He was very rude to me.’

‘Ah, that is it, is it? You don’t like him. It is the first time I have understood that my servants must win your approval.’

‘Mama, they are suggesting he is not just a servant and it is the people who disapprove as well as myself.’

‘The people know nothing. They cannot understand my grief at Beloved Papa’s death and they would like to deny me the comfort my faithful servants give me. I hope you have not come bursting down here just to tell me this. But while you are here there are one or two matters I should like to discuss with you. Your debts, mostly incurred by gambling, and I am horrified to learn by presents you have given to women, are mounting. You are going the same way as my Uncle George who caused such distress to his parents by the trouble he got into with women. I hope you do not write scandalous letters. And what of dear sweet Alix who is pathetically ill? What does she think, I wonder, at these rumours? There is an actress … I heard … but I sincerely hope that is not true. I think it is time I took a close look into your manner of living. Vicky is quite horrified … and even Alice has heard. Sometimes I can’t help feeling relieved that Beloved Papa is not here. He would be so distressed and when we think of how when he was so ill he went to Cambridge …’

The Prince turned away in dismay. What was the use of trying to remonstrate with her; she could turn the tables so adroitly because all the time she was reminding him that although he might be the Prince of Wales, she was the Queen.

He left Osborne deflated, a fact which John Brown noted, and his sardonic insolent smile was not lost on the Prince of Wales.

* * *

‘A Brown Study’ had sent the sales of Tomahawk soaring and rumours about the Queen’s relationship with John Brown magnified. Some said that he was her lover, others that he was her husband; there was one rumour that she had inherited her grandfather’s madness, that she was a raving lunatic at times and only John Brown could keep her in order; there was another rumour that John Brown was a medium who could put her in touch with Albert and this was the reason for his influence over her.

Spiritualism was having a vogue in England at the time and the Queen had been heard to express interest in the new cult. What more natural than that she should wish to be in touch with Albert?

But the most usual theory was that the Queen and Brown were lovers; and the fact that the Queen would not appear in public and so deprived her people of the glittering ceremonies they loved, and that John Brown’s arrogance and indifference had not endeared him to those who were in contact with him, made both the Queen and her Highland servant become very unpopular.

She had, however, consented to attend a review in Hyde Park, with Brown of course in attendance as usual on the box of her carriage.

She was astonished, therefore, when Lord Derby called on her and told her that he thought it very unwise for John Brown to accompany her to the review.

‘And why not, pray?’ demanded the Queen.

‘The people might resort to violence. The mob can easily be aroused and these distasteful cartoons have been read by thousands.’

‘And because of unscrupulous scribblers who have tried hard to damage the character of a good honest man, he is not to perform his usual duties?’

Lord Derby tried to imply discreetly that it was not the defamation of John Brown’s character which worried him so much as that of the Queen’s, but the Queen would not see this.

‘I shall not be dictated to,’ she told Derby coldly. ‘And I shall certainly not allow my comfort to be spoiled by the interference of wicked people.’

That was as far as the Prime Minister could get with her. He went to Disraeli and told him of the Queen’s response. Disraeli was grave. ‘There could be trouble,’ he said. ‘John Brown there in the Queen’s company with that smug self-satisfaction of his … for all the world as though he is the new Consort. Now if the Queen would relegate Mr John Brown to the Highlands where he belongs and take some handsome Prince for her husband – preferably a gay one – nothing would delight the people more.’

But it was no use hoping for the impossible. The Queen had made up her mind that John Brown should accompany her at the Hyde Park review and accompany her he should.