It's been over 100 years since Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were married, yet their relationship remains one of the most well known in British royal history. What made their wedding such a momentous occasion?
As an English princess and heir to the throne, Victoria was the most pursued woman of her era. But when it came time for the newly crowned young queen to choose a husband, she chose a relatively lowly German prince who added little to the power or prestige of her throne.
History tells us that the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was one for the ages, from love at almost first sight to its shattering, tragic end. Their story has endured as long as the image of the mourning queen swathed in black, her face set into a granite frown. In fact, their marriage was anything but a fairy story, but the couple held together through thick and thin.
"My dearest dearest dear Albert… and his excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness, I never could have hoped to have felt before”, wrote Queen Victoria of her wedding night. “His beauty, his sweetness and gentleness… Oh! This was the happiest day of my life”, she continued ecstatically. Coming from a woman who, from the moment she had ascended the throne in 1837, had resisted all attempts to force her into wedlock – despite some of Europe’s most eligible bachelors being paraded before her – it was clear that marriage to Prince Albert was borne out of love rather than duty.
Victoria and Albert are one of the most famous ruling couples that the United Kingdom has ever known, but the path to the royal altar is rarely the smoothest nor the most romantic. As a young woman and the heiress to the throne that was currently occupied by her aged uncle, King William IV, Princess Victoria was eminently eligible.
Across Europe, would-be husbands of the future queen were being assembled to make their claim for her hand and the throne beside her. One man who was determined to play a part in the courtship was Victoria’s maternal uncle, Leopold I, King of the Belgians, who was the brother of the young princess’ domineering mother.
Victoria and Albert: the grandparents of Europe
Victoria and Albert were rulers of a vast empire that dominated global politics by the end of the 19th century. It included Australia, Canada, the Indian subcontinent and much of Africa.
Extending British influence and keeping allegiances closer to home in Europe was an equally important, albeit more delicate matter, and was achieved through marriage.
Victoria and Albert’s nine children married into royal houses across Europe – from Denmark to Russia – and Victoria was eventually grandmother to 40 grandchildren. Eight of these would eventually sit on the thrones of Britain, Prussia, Greece, Romania, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Spain.
George V of Britain, Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (wife of Tsar Nicholas II) and Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm – the three warring royals of World War I – were actually all grandchildren of Victoria and Albert.
During her lifetime, Victoria had successfully managed the difficult relationships between her grandchildren and their respective nations, but after her death in 1901, peace faltered and Europe began to edge closer to war. Kaiser Wilhelm is reported to have remarked that had Victoria still been alive, World War I may never have broken out – she simply would not have allowed her relatives to wage war with one another.
But Victoria and Albert shared more than just their children and grandchildren across the royal dynasties of Europe. They also introduced a devastating genetic condition. Victoria is believed to have been a carrier of haemophilia – a hereditary condition that affects the blood’s ability to clot.
The couple’s eighth child, Leopold, was a haemophiliac and died aged 30 after a minor fall triggered a cerebral haemorrhage. Two of the couple’s five daughters – Alice and Beatrice – are confirmed carriers and unknowingly passed the disorder to the royal families of Spain, Germany and Russia.
Life after Albert: what happened when he died?
After Albert’s death, Victoria fell into a deep depression and mourned her husband for the rest of her long life. But, as the decades passed, she did find solace in the company and friendships of several men.
One notably close relationship was with her servant John Brown, the hard-drinking, bearded son of a Scottish crofter. The controversial friendship between queen and servant caused great rifts in the royal family, and Brown’s influence over Victoria was much criticised.
Some have speculated that the relationship was more than platonic with a supposed deathbed confession from Scottish clergyman Norman Macleod that he had married the pair.
Victoria’s passion for India and her longing for Albert saw her strike up an intimate friendship with another servant, 24-yearold Abdul Karim, a young Indian man who had arrived in England for Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 to wait on tables and attend the Indian princes in residence for the celebrations.
Arriving as he did some four years after John Brown’s death, Karim instantly charmed the Queen.
Within a year, he had become Victoria’s teacher, instructing her in Urdu and Indian affairs, introducing her to curry and, like Brown, becoming one of her closest confidants. Lavished with gifts and promotions, Karim became even more hated by the royal family than Brown.
After Victoria’s death, her eldest son, Bertie, ordered all records of their relationship, including correspondence and photographs, to be destroyed.
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