Victoria, Queen of England

by James Parton, 1868

Related topics: • About Queen Victoria • Queen Victoria Resources • Queen Victoria Quotations • Women & England • Women Heads of State • Elizabeth I of England

From: Eminent women of the age being narratives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present generation. By James Parton, Horace Greeley, T. W. Higginson, J. S. C. Abbott, Prof. James M. Hoppin, William Winter, Theodore Tilton, Fanny Fern, Grace Greenwood, Mrs. E. C. Stanton, etc. 1868.

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Prince Albert gave himself entirely up to the duties of his position and gradually relieved the queen from the burdens of royalty. At first, he was not present at the interviews between the queen and her ministers, unless specially invited, but after a year or two he was present as a matter of course, and the queen invariably acted in accordance with his advice. He was, in fact, as much King of England as though he had been born to the title. He said himself, in a letter to the Duke of Wellington, declining the command of the army, that his principle of action was "to sink his own individual existence in that of his wife, -- to aim at no power by himself or for himself, -- to shun all ostentation, -- to assume no separate responsibility before the public." Desiring, he added, to make his position a part of the queen's, he considered it his duty " continually and anxiously to watch every part of the public business, in order to be able to advise and assist her at any moment in any of the multifarious and difficult questions brought before her, -- sometimes political, or social, or personal, -- as the natural head of her family, superintendent of her household, manager of her private affairs; her sole confidential adviser in politics, and only assistant in her communications with the officers of the government."

To his father, he wrote, a few months after his marriage: "Victoria allows me to take much part in foreign affairs, and I think I have already done some good. I always commit my views to paper, and then communicate them to Lord Melbourne. He seldom answers me, but I have often had the satisfaction of seeing him act entirely in accordance with what I have said."

And again, in the following year: "I study the politics of the day with great industry, and resolutely hold myself aloof from all parties. I take active interest in all national institutions and associations. I speak quite openly with the ministers on all subjects, so as to obtain information, and meet on all sides with much kindness.... I endeavor quietly to be of as much use to Victoria in her position as I can."

Provided thus with a mate so suitable and so efficient, the life of Queen Victoria did not essentially differ from that of any other wife and mother of rank in England, except that it was a thousand times happier than married life usually is ill any rank. Happiness in married life depends upon several things; but its fundamental condition is the hearty acceptance and patient, cheerful discharge of the duties of the position. This condition was nobly complied with by this fortunate pair. When the queen was urged to assert her authority as head of the house and nation, since her husband was but one of her subjects, she was not for an instant deceived by such sophistry. She would reply that she had solemnly promised at the altar to obey her husband, and that she would never consent to limit or refine away the obligation. Both of them thus accepting the duties which nature and circumstances had assigned them, and each having for the other a genuine respect and affection, they were as happy as people can rationally expect to be in this world.

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