Albert had foreseen that his married life would not
be all plain sailing; but he had by no means realised
the gravity and the complication of the difficulties
which he would have to face. Politically, he
was a cipher. Lord Melbourne was not only Prime
Minister, he was in effect the Private Secretary of
the Queen, and thus controlled the whole of the political
existence of the sovereign. A queen’s husband
was an entity unknown to the British Constitution.
In State affairs there seemed to be no place for him;
nor was Victoria herself at all unwilling that this
should be so. “The English,” she had
told the Prince when, during their engagement, a proposal
had been made to give him a peerage, “are very
jealous of any foreigner interfering in the government
of this country, and have already in some of the papers
expressed a hope that you would not interfere.
Now, though I know you never would, still, if you
were a Peer, they would all say, the Prince meant
to play a political part. I know you never would!”
In reality, she was not quite so certain; but she
wished Albert to understand her views. He would,
she hoped, make a perfect husband; but, as for governing
the country, he would see that she and Lord M. between
them could manage that very well, without his help.
But it was not only in politics that the Prince discovered
that the part cut out for him was a negligible one.
Even as a husband, he found, his functions were to
be of an extremely limited kind. Over the whole
of Victoria’s private life the Baroness reigned
supreme; and she had not the slightest intention of
allowing that supremacy to be diminished by one iota.
Since the accession, her power had greatly increased.
Besides the undefined and enormous influence which
she exercised through her management of the Queen’s
private correspondence, she was now the superintendent
of the royal establishment and controlled the important
office of Privy Purse. Albert very soon perceived
that he was not master in his own house. Every
detail of his own and his wife’s existence was
supervised by a third person: nothing could be
done until the consent of Lehzen had first been obtained.
And Victoria, who adored Lehzen with unabated intensity,
saw nothing in all this that was wrong.
Nor was the Prince happier in his social surroundings.
A shy young foreigner, awkward in ladies’ company,
unexpansive and self-opinionated, it was improbable
that, in any circumstances, he would have been a society
success. His appearance, too, was against him.
Though in the eyes of Victoria he was the mirror of
manly beauty, her subjects, whose eyes were of a less
Teutonic cast, did not agree with her. To them—and
particularly to the high-born ladies and gentlemen
who naturally saw him most—what was immediately
and distressingly striking in Albert’s face
and figure and whole demeanour was his un-English look.
His features were regular, no doubt, but there was
Copyrights
Queen Victoria from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
