The Queen and Lord M

Chapter V LEOPOLD IS PUT IN HIS PLACE

One could not stay forever at Windsor and in October it was necessary to return to London. On Lord Mayor’s Day she must attend the dinner at the Guildhall, which was to be a glorious occasion given in her honour.

It was pleasant riding through the streets and seeing how she pleased the people.

‘The little duck,’ she heard one woman say, which wasn’t really very respectful, as she remarked afterwards to Lord Melbourne.

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ was his answer, ‘I have always had a great respect for ducks.’

Which made her rock with laughter, and reflect that Uncle Leopold would never have said such a thing.

After the dinner when she returned to the Palace there was a letter awaiting her from her mother. She recognised the handwriting of Sir John, who was still in her mother’s household waiting for his impossible demands to be met.

The Duchess was shocked and deeply wounded. She had, she wrote, been insulted at the Guildhall and it was humiliating for the mother of the Queen to be placed after minor relations. Was she to expect similar treatment at the Coronation? She knew that for a subject to expect audience of the Queen might seem an impertinence but she had yet to learn that the request of a mother to a daughter could be described in those terms, and she wished to see Victoria without delay.

When Baroness Lehzen read the letter, which Victoria passed to her, she was pleased. The Court had divided into two domestic factions – that of the Queen and her ladies, at the head of whom was Baroness Lehzen, and the Duchess with Sir John and hers. Lehzen particularly disliked Lady Flora Hastings who was constantly making sly allusions to her enemy’s origins. It was gratifying, therefore, that the Duchess had to beg for an interview with the Queen when she, the companion or whatever name was attached to her, for she had no official title, was allowed to come to the Queen at all times in the most unceremonious fashion.

‘I suppose I shall have to see her,’ sighed Victoria.

‘You are the Queen,’ said Lehzen significantly.

‘I know, but she’s right. She is my mother and nothing can alter that.’

Which was a pity, thought Lehzen, but knew that Victoria would not wish to hear her say so. The Queen was very much aware of her duties in life and honouring her mother was one of them.

So the Duchess came to her apartments and Victoria was held in a suffocating embrace.

‘My dearest angel!’

‘Dear Mamma.’

‘You are a stranger almost. Let me look at you. I only see you in public nowadays.’

‘Mamma, you have no idea how busy I am kept.’

‘I know I am the perfect ignoramus.’

‘Oh, not that, Mamma, no. But before my accession I had no idea what hundreds of duties there would be. What I should do without the help of Lord Melbourne, I can’t imagine.’

‘He has become very important in the last few months.’

‘Dear Mamma, a Prime Minister is always important.’

‘There could rarely have been such an important Prime Minister as this one.’

‘He takes his duties very seriously.’

‘Much more seriously since we have had a new Sovereign.’

‘Because the good man realises that with an inexperienced girl on the throne his duties are naturally greater.’

‘Yes, my dearest love, you are inexperienced. That is why I must speak to you. Your attitude to me is not liked by the people, you know. I am very popular. People noticed at the Guildhall how I was slighted and they didn’t like it. They didn’t like it at all. You will not impress them by neglecting your mother who did everything for you … yes, everything …’

They were back on a familiar theme and Victoria said regally, ‘I have no time to quarrel, Mamma.’

‘Quarrel! Who is quarrelling, I should like to know?’

‘You are, Mamma. And I have simply no time to indulge in scenes like this. I will speak to Lord Melbourne.’

‘Of course you will. You do little else.’

‘I will ask my Prime Minister to make sure that you are given your rightful place at the Coronation.’

‘And there is one thing else. Do you think it wise to ignore Sir John as you do?’

‘I have no wish to do anything else but ignore him.’

‘People talk because of your attitude. They gossip and ask each other why you will not receive Sir John and are so unkind to me.’

‘If your conscience is clear, Mamma, you have no need to be concerned about gossip.’

‘We all have need to be concerned about gossip if it touches us.’

‘Well, Mamma, I will not receive Sir John. That I have always made clear.’

‘Are you going to help him? Do you forget what he has done for me and for you, too.’

‘I am unsure what he has done for either of us that has been to his credit or our benefit.’

‘You have become hard. Is that Lord Melbourne’s teaching?’

‘I wish you would not continually bring Lord Melbourne’s name into the conversation. And I advise you to be very careful because Parliament will soon be discussing the Civil List which could bring some benefit to you, Mamma.’

‘It is nothing more than I deserve,’ said the Duchess somewhat mollified as she always was at the prospect of money, and Victoria was able to bring the interview to a close on a more peaceful note.

When the Duchess left, the Baroness, who had been waiting in the next room, came out.

‘Oh dear,’ said Victoria. ‘What a scene! It reminded me of the old days at Kensington.’

Leopold had noticed nothing different in Victoria’s attitude towards him during his visit to England and her letter written after his departure confirmed her continued adoration for and devotion to him.

He was determined that England should be Belgium’s ally and at this moment Belgium needed allies. On his return he passed through France and saw the French Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, Count Molé, and in his usual somewhat arrogant way warned him as to the action France would be wise to take towards Spain, Portugal and Greece.

He hoped, he wrote to Victoria, that the English Government would fall into line with the French and he wished her to tell her ministers so. She would understand that the Monarchy was a little uneasy in France. That it had been restored was a matter for rejoicing in all royal houses throughout Europe, and it must be the concern of all royalists to keep it steady. With regard to the Peninsula she would agree that there could be action there which England might take more easily than France and she might agree that it was wise to ask her ministers to decide that it was a necessary action.

When Victoria read this letter she was bewildered. Uncle Leopold, it seemed, was trying to lead English foreign policy. Of course he was only advising her for her own good, but Uncle Leopold did seem to forget that she was not merely a niece to be taught a lesson or two about the world; she was a Queen with her own Government.

The obvious action was to show the letter to Lord Melbourne and this she did at the earliest possible moment.

Lord Melbourne was a little grave and told her that he would discuss Leopold’s letter with Lord Palmerston.

Her Majesty will understand readily enough I know, he pointed out, that it is not policy to discuss a possible foreign policy with the head of another country however close in kinship that head might be with the Sovereign. There were close family ties between many European countries and if they discussed foreign affairs with one another they might as well be conducted in the open and there would be no such thing as diplomacy. He trusted Her Majesty understood and approved.

She did, even though this concerned her dearest Uncle.

‘Perhaps Your Majesty would care to write to the King of the Belgians and tell him that you are placing these political enquiries in the hands of your Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary?’

That is exactly the right thing to do,’ she said with relief.

And this she did, but Leopold did not mean to relinquish his influence with his niece. He continued to write to her pointing out the need for English support in Belgian projects; and at Lord Melbourne’s suggestion she wrote back and told him that it was impossible for her to give her word that England would act in such and such a way, for she could not be sure what her Government might find it necessary to do in an emergency before that emergency arose.

Leopold was uneasy. He wrote to her:‘My dearest child.You were somewhat irritable when you wrote to me …’

He was very disappointed in her, she knew, because he did not discuss political issues further. Instead he wrote about her cousin Albert. She remembered Albert, of course, the young cousin whom she had so much admired when he visited England the previous year; Uncle Leopold had made it quite clear then that he hoped one day they would marry, although if she preferred Albert’s brother there would be no objection.

Last year when life had been very dull, she had been quite happy with the idea; but it was rather different now. She had not given marriage a thought since she had mounted the throne, though now she supposed she would have to consider taking a husband for to provide an heir was a Queen’s vital duty to the State. She would love to have babies. She thought of the little Russells, who were so often at the Palace, and the little Conynghams who called her the ‘Tween’, the darlings! But a husband? No, she did not think she wanted a husband. He might interfere. She was quite happy to have Lord M to advise her.

All the same it was much better that Uncle Leopold, rather than write of politics, should tell her what Albert was doing in Bonn where he was undertaking special studies to ‘prepare himself’ as Uncle Leopold called it. To prepare him for what? Marriage? Well, if she did not want marriage she would not have it … yet.

She did hope Uncle Leopold would understand that he must not meddle too much in English affairs. That was Lord Palmerston’s province – and of course dear Lord Melbourne’s.

Lord Melbourne came to tell her that the new Civil List had been passed through Parliament.

‘We have got them to agree to £375,000 a year, £60,000 of which will be for Your Majesty’s privy purse.’

‘What a lot of money!’

‘In addition to that of course you have the revenues from the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster.’

‘So much money!’ cried the Queen, her blue eyes wide.

‘You are the first Sovereign who has thought it so much.’

‘Surely anyone would think it a great deal?’

‘Oh, you are very careful with money. You will never be in debt as your uncles continually were, and even your grandfather George III, parsimonious as he was, couldn’t make ends meet!’

‘I always budgeted,’ said the Queen. ‘That dreadful man Conroy laughed at me for it.’

‘He couldn’t understand wise spending. He has been a poor choice for Household Comptroller as your mother’s affairs have shown.’

‘He was supposed to have settled my father’s debts but he never did. Now that I have so much money that is what I shall do. All my father’s creditors shall be paid in full.’

Lord Melbourne’s eyes filled with tears.

‘A noble suggestion,’ he said, ‘and one that does not surprise me one little bit.’

‘It is very unfair to one’s creditors not to pay one’s debts. I am surprised that my father did it.’

‘It is a tradition of princes to live beyond their means.’

‘A sad tradition for the poor tradesmen.’

‘Oh, they expect it.’

‘They must also expect to be paid sometimes.’

‘But not by Royalty.’

‘Then I shall surprise them. Was my father very extravagant?’

‘No more so than his brothers. He resembled King George IV more than King William. He was charming and affable and very popular.’

‘I’m glad of that. But I’m sorry he was extravagant. I should like to think he was a good man.’

Lord Melbourne smiled benignly at her and wondered if she had heard rumours of her father’s liaison with Madame Saint Laurent. It had, it was true, been as respectable in its way as William’s with Dorothy Jordan; and like William on his State marriage he had abandoned the woman who had been as a wife to him for … was it twenty years or so? These Royal Dukes would have been faithful husbands if the State had allowed them to be. But it had all happened a long time ago and although Victoria must have asked her mother, and those who would have known him, what her father was like, it was almost certain that no one would have mentioned Madame Saint Laurent.

‘Your mother might take charge of those debts. She has been granted an extra £8,000 which means she will now have an annual income of £30,000.’

‘That should please her. But I can see I must be the one to pay my father’s debts because if I left it to her Comptroller (I can scarcely bring myself to say his name!) he would never do it. I must think of those poor creditors.’

‘I can tell you that the sole reason why she was granted this money was out of respect for you. So she has you to thank for it.’

Lord Melbourne fixed his tenderly tearful gaze upon her and she was happy.

Life could not be all happiness and Victoria was very sad because news had come to her that old Louie was very ill and not expected to live.

‘Of course she is very old,’ said Lord Melbourne.

‘But it is very sad all the same.’

‘We all have to go sometime,’ replied Lord Melbourne.

He was right, of course, but she was very unhappy. She kept thinking of those visits to Claremont when Louie had greeted her with her own special kind of curtsy and then had carried her off to her own room and had chatted about Princess Charlotte.

The Court was leaving for Windsor, but before she went she must go and see dear Louie.

What a shock to find her so changed! She was quite distressed because she could not rise from her bed and make that very special curtsy.

‘Dearest Louie,’ cried Victoria, kissing her.

‘Your Majesty!’ murmured Louie, overcome by the honour.

‘Foolish Louie! Did you expect me to love you less because I am the Queen?’

‘It’s wrong that I should be lying here and Your Majesty standing.’

‘Then I’ll sit and you lie still. That is an order. I give orders now.’

Louie laughed. ‘You always did.’

‘Oh yes. I could be very demanding, I am sure. Oh, they were happy days and how I used to look forward to them! I remember so well your having breakfast in your room in your neat morning gown and then in the evening dressed in your best. You always stood up so straight and the curtsy you gave me was so dignified … it was like no one else’s. I think you thought me a little like Charlotte.’

Louie nodded.

‘And sometimes I declare you mistook me for her.’

‘Yet you are so different. Charlotte could be very naughty and you were on the whole such a good little girl.’

‘Mamma would not agree. She was constantly accusing me of having storms.’

‘Ah, that temper of yours. Is it still as fiery?’

‘I fear it is, Louie. I am very hot-tempered. I get really angry sometimes. Although not so much lately. Perhaps it is because I am Queen or it may be because Lord Melbourne makes everything so easy for me.’

‘You have good advisers. You will be a great queen. I wish I could live to see it.’

‘Oh, Louie,’ said Victoria and the tears began to fall down her cheeks.

‘But Your Little Majesty mustn’t cry for me,’ said Louie shocked.

Victoria leant over her and kissed her. She couldn’t stop crying because she knew that it was for the last time.

She was at Windsor when the news came of Louie’s death. She wept bitterly and sat down at once to write to Uncle Leopold about it because of Louie’s having been so close to Princess Charlotte, she was sure he would want to know.‘I don’t think I have ever been so much overcome or distressed by anything as by the death of my earliest friend … I always loved Louie and shall cherish her memory …’

Lord Melbourne, finding her red-eyed and disconsolate, immediately expressed his concern.

‘She was really my earliest friend,’ explained Victoria. ‘I feel that the first link has been broken with my childhood.’

‘As we get older,’ said the philosophical Lord Melbourne, ‘such broken links are so numerous that one scarcely notices them.’

‘How terrible!’

‘Nothing is so bad when one becomes accustomed to it,’ replied Lord Melbourne. ‘You have lost an old friend but you have new ones. That is the compensation of life.’

So she looked at dear Lord Melbourne and was comforted, reminding herself that poor Louie was old, her time had come and she went peacefully.

‘She was prepared I am sure, although she thought she would get better,’ she explained. ‘What I mean is she was so good all her life that she was ready at any time to die.’

‘She was always very neat and her soul would be in as orderly a condition as her kitchen.’

Lord Melbourne was rather wickedly flippant, but one would not expect him to make ordinary remarks; and he never shocked her, although he did some people, because she knew what a good kind man he was. In any case his light-hearted comments made her feel less unhappy and she told him so. She was therefore comforted.

‘To bring comfort to Your Majesty is the main purpose of my life,’ he answered.

So of course she had to smile and try to put aside her grief.

‘There is the matter of a Coronation,’ went on Lord Melbourne.

‘Have you fixed a date for it?’

‘Most certainly it must be June – the month of your accession.’

‘I hope I shall not disappoint anyone.’

‘I have no fear whatsoever of such an occurrence. Now,’ he went on briskly, ‘if Your Majesty will be kind enough to give me a list of the ladies whom you would like to carry your train, that will be a beginning. You will, I know, consider the position of the young ladies and select them with that in mind.’

‘I shall try not to offend anyone.’

‘That will, I fear, be an impossibility because every young lady at Court will wish for the honour of carrying Your Majesty’s train, and will be offended if she is not chosen.’

‘Oh dear, how sad that one cannot please everyone.’

‘As one can’t, let us think of those who will be pleased and forget the others.’

‘It seems a little unfeeling.’

‘Good sound sense often does to those whom it affects adversely,’ said Lord Melbourne.

‘I hope I shall look well in my Coronation robes. How I wish I were even a few inches taller. Everyone seems to grow but me.’

‘I think you have grown in the last months.’

‘Do you really think so or are you being kind?’

‘If I were not kind I should deserve to be kicked out of the Castle; and when I say you have grown I am not necessarily referring to inches. Of what importance are they? You have grown in wisdom, dignity, understanding, sympathy. These are the qualities of sovereignty, not inches.’

‘Dear Lord Melbourne. You are such a comfort. But I do wish I were good looking – like Harriet Leveson Gower for instance.’

‘She is an old woman compared with you. She would make a very poor Queen.’

‘Now why do you say that, Lord M?’

‘Because she would never take the advice of her Prime Minister.’

She threw back her head and laughed. Then she was sorry because she should really be crying for Louie. Trust Lord Melbourne to amuse her so much that she forgot her sorrow.

Victoria’s first thought when she awoke in her bedroom in Buckingham Palace on the 19th of May was: This is my birthday. My first birthday as Queen of England!

What a sobering thought. She had been Queen for eleven months and she was nineteen years old.

This was going to be a very special birthday, different from the last when she had been under the control of her mother. Now she would say what the celebrations would be and she had already chosen a ball.

We shall dance all night, she thought, and I shall not go to bed until four in the morning … five if I wish.

She remembered the ball Uncle William and Aunt Adelaide had given for her and how Mamma had been so angry that she had made the Kensington Palace party leave when it had only been in progress an hour. How angry Uncle William had been, but Mamma had very rudely ignored the fact that he was King, just as she now forgot that Victoria was Queen.

Well, there would be no interference this time. It would be her first State ball as Queen of England, and it was going to be the grandest and most magnificent occasion. Everyone was going to enjoy it thoroughly – most of all the Queen.

First of all there would be the receiving of presents. Mamma had always been a great giver of presents. In the old days at Kensington they used to be set out on tables and at Christmas she, Feodora and Mamma had had their own tables. How fond Mamma was of giving bracelets and brooches containing a lock of her own hair!

There was a knock on the communicating door which she had had cut in the wall between her bedroom and that of Lehzen.

The Baroness entered.

‘Many happy returns of the day.’

‘Oh, thank you, Lehzen.’

They embraced.

‘Nineteen. Really I am growing up, but at no time more than this past year. Lord Melbourne says there is a great change in me.’

Not wanting her to start on a eulogy of Lord Melbourne – the easiest thing in the world for her to do it seemed – the Baroness reminded her of the busy day ahead of her and asked if Her Majesty would care to get up now and if she wished to breakfast alone.

It was rather a solemn day. There were so many people to see and so many congratulations to receive. The guns fired a salute in the Park and she went on to the balcony to wave to the crowds. The people were charmed with her. ‘Like a little doll,’ they said. ‘No more than a girl.’

This was clearly a very important occasion, but one of Mamma’s presents gave her a few uneasy moments. It was a copy of King Lear.

Oh dear, thought Victoria, I never really liked King Lear. It’s rather an unpleasant play. Besides it is about ungrateful daughters. I do hope Mamma is not trying to spoil this day.

It was impossible to spoil the State ball. The ballroom was beautiful and the ladies in their laces and ribbons, satins and velvets, feathers and diamonds, were charming.

They were all waiting for her and she went through the saloon to the ballroom feeling a little nervous (but she remembered that Lord Melbourne had said that all people with high and right feelings were sometimes nervous) and there the dazzling scene met her eyes; everyone watched her as she made her entrance; the men bowed and the ladies curtsied as she took her place on the sofa.

The band played Strauss music and she thought she had never heard anything so beautiful as a Strauss band.

Alas that she could not join in the waltz. That was too intimate and as there was no young Royalty present no one was worthy to put an arm about her waist as was done in this rather daring dance. So she could only join in the quadrilles and the gavottes and such dances, which she did with gusto.

She would never never tire of dancing, she told her partners. And she hoped every one of her guests was enjoying this lovely ball as much as she was.

There was one disappointment. She had expected Lord Melbourne to come and pay his respects. How pleasant it would have been to sit beside him on the sofa while the waltz was in progress which would have been almost as good as dancing. But Lord Melbourne was not at the ball, which was very odd indeed.

While she was dancing she forgot Lord Melbourne. Lord Alfred Paget really was most amusing and very handsome. She had been slightly aware of him when out riding but had been too absorbed in Lord Melbourne’s brilliant conversation to take much notice of him. Now she could appreciate his good looks and his devotion; he really was rather charming.

He was twenty-one, he told her, two years older than she was; and he had a retriever called Mrs Bumps. Victoria laughed at the name.

‘What an odd name! I daresay she is very dignified and adores you.’

Lord Alfred thought this might be true of Mrs Bumps; he admitted that he had a portrait of Her Majesty which he carried with him always and that Mrs Bumps, whom he was determined should be as staunch an admirer of Her Majesty as he was himself, also wore a portrait of the Queen about her neck.

‘What a wonderful idea!’ cried Victoria. ‘I think that is excellent. A dog to wear my portrait!’

‘Why not?’ demanded Lord Alfred. ‘Mrs Bumps is one of your subjects also.’

She was enchanted. What a wonderful ball! But now they were playing the waltz and she must sit on her sofa and watch them, when she would so much have loved to be dancing the waltz – perhaps with Lord Alfred.

Then her thoughts turned to Lord Melbourne. It really was strange that he should be absent.

It was supper time and she led the way into the banqueting room where the royal liveried footmen were waiting to serve. Everyone seemed to want to have a word with the Queen and she was eager to speak to as many as possible for she was not in the least tired.

‘Oh, no,’ she cried to solicitous enquiries, ‘I could go on dancing all night.’

And she did, for it was four o’clock before the ball was over.

When she was very young, before her accession, one of her greatest treats had been to stay up late and she still felt excited to do so. It had been a heavenly ball, and it shall be the first of many, she promised herself.

She was too excited to sleep so she decided to write in her Journal:‘A charming ball. I have spent the happiest birthday that I have had for many years. I have been dancing till past four o’clock. Only one regret I had and that was that my excellent good kind friend Lord Melbourne was not there.’

The next day while she was at breakfast a note arrived from Lord Melbourne. It contained profuse apologies and stated that he had been unable to attend the ball because he was both unwell and disturbed.

Lord Melbourne unwell! Lord Melbourne disturbed! She was in a panic.

‘I knew he did not take enough care of himself,’ she told the Baroness. ‘I have told him often that he must not go out in the cold wind.’

‘The wind is scarcely lethal at this time of the year,’ commented Lehzen.

‘But it is precisely at this time of the year that we have to be most careful. Oh, I do hope he is not ill. I must send a messenger. I must know.’

‘Even if he is ill the Queen of England can’t very well act as his nurse, you know.’

Victoria turned troubled eyes on Lehzen. Good Heavens! thought Lehzen, how far do her feelings go for this man? Is she in love with him?

Absurd! Preposterous! Little innocent Victoria and a man of fifty-eight … fifty-nine more likely. Nearly sixty, cited in two divorce cases, involved in a cause célèbre with his wife. Melbourne and the Queen of England!

Lehzen was beginning to feel worried.

During the morning Lord Melbourne called at the Palace. Victoria could not wait to greet him. Her expression was very serious but she was immediately relieved to find that he looked much the same as usual.

‘My dear Lord M, you are unwell.’

Lord Melbourne touched his brow with a beautiful graceful motion.

‘A little disturbed,’ he said.

‘Only disturbed … not ill?’

‘I was very, very anxious last evening because I fear a crisis in the House of Commons.’

‘Oh, is that all? I was afraid you were sick.’

‘Sick with anxiety perhaps,’ he said.

‘Is it so bad?’

‘You remember that we have perpetual trouble with Ireland. It’s a complicated situation, always on the simmer, ready to boil over into trouble. The tithe system and the poverty of the people, the state of their municipal government, all these are such as to make an uneasy country. They’re an excitable people. One feels that if their land were turned into Utopia they’d find fault with something. There is a continual conflict between the Catholic and Protestant population. They can’t settle down together as they do in England. They have to be at each other’s throats all the time. We can be sure of one thing only. Whatever legislation was brought in there would be trouble about it. The resolution regarding the Church is now under discussion as to whether or not it should be rescinded. You know we have a very small majority in the House, and a thing like this could bring down the Government.’

‘No!’

‘It’s true. If the vote went against us and we were defeated we should fall and Sir Robert Peel, the Leader of the Opposition, would come along and ask Your Majesty’s permission to form a new Government.’

‘I should never give my permission.’

‘But that is something you would be obliged to do.’

‘I … the Queen!’ Her eyes were brilliant, her cheeks flushed. ‘I never would.’

‘Your Majesty’s temper is a little choleric,’ he said with a tender smile.

‘Do you expect me to agree to this when I know what it would mean? You would cease to be my Prime Minister.’

He nodded, making one of his grimaces which usually amused her but did not do so on this occasion.

‘That,’ she said firmly, ‘is something I should never allow.’

Lord Melbourne’s eyes filled with tears and at the sight of them she wanted to repeat her determination even more emphatically.

‘Alas that you cannot enforce your sweet will,’ he said, so poetically, she thought, that she could have burst into tears. ‘Ours is a Constitutional Monarchy and that means that we all – even our Sovereign – must obey the rules of the Constitution. The Government is elected by the people and since our Reform Bill all sorts and conditions have been allowed to vote. Therefore Your Majesty’s Government cannot always be of your choosing.’

‘But to change Governments. How foolish! Why?’

‘Because ours is not a strong Government. Our majority is small and popular feeling is against us. Sir Robert Peel is waiting to jump into my shoes.’

‘I will never allow that!’

He shook his head at her.

‘Your Majesty will have no choice. If I go out, he will come in.’

‘And all because of this silly Irish question!’

‘Many consider it of importance.’

‘I would rather lose Ireland than let you go.’

He was touched, but he pretended to treat the matter lightly.

‘It will most certainly give you more trouble than I ever shall, but you will not be asked to make the choice. I have wanted to speak to you on this matter for some time and now seems an appropriate moment. I fear the day will come – and it may be that that day is not so far distant – when I may not be your Prime Minister.’

‘Oh, no!’ She stamped her foot. Anger was the only emotion she dared show. ‘I will not have that.’

‘Well, it is not yet happened. I have been talking to Lord John this morning and he feels optimistic. He thinks we’ll scrape through with a small majority.’

‘And you agree with him?’

‘He may be right on this occasion, but I think Your Majesty must bear in mind the weakness of our party. If we get through on Ireland nemesis may overtake us over Canada.’

‘Who cares for Ireland and Canada?’

‘Your Majesty’s Government cares deeply for them.’

She turned away from him. A few discreet tears in the eyes were delightful but now she felt that she would be unable to prevent herself from bursting into noisy sobs.

Lord Melbourne with his exquisite tact seemed to realise this for he said he would take his leave and would of course keep her informed. At some other time he would explain the Canadian situation to her. It might well be that Lord John was right to be optimistic, and they would get through on this occasion, but he had felt for some time that he wanted her to be prepared.

When he had left she went to her bedroom and shut herself in.

If Lord Melbourne were not her Prime Minister how could he call on her every day? She knew that the Opposition which would then be the Government would object. Sir Robert Peel would come in his place! She had met him briefly. A horrid man, she thought, as much like her dear Prime Minister as … as Sir John Conroy. She hated Sir Robert Peel and would never accept him.

Don’t be ridiculous, she answered herself, if they make him Prime Minister you will have to accept him.

Her grief was choking her.

A few days later she received a note from Lord John Russell. It was brief but it sent her into an ecstasy of delight.

The Whigs had come through safely on a majority of nineteen. ‘It was far more than I expected,’ wrote Sir John.

So they were safe.

She ran to Dash and knocked over his basket.

‘Come on, you lazy old Dashy. It’s time for a run in the gardens.’

Dash barked joyfully.

‘They’ve won, Dashy. A majority of nineteen! That’ll show Sir Robert Peel.’

Out in the grounds she raced across the lawns with Dash in pursuit.

‘Not much like the Queen of England,’ commented Lehzen when she came in.

‘It’s a wonderful day,’ said Victoria. ‘The Government had a majority of nineteen. They thought they were going to beat us. But a majority of nineteen is quite a considerable figure.’

She was laughing. All was well once more.

Trouble came from another direction.

Lord Melbourne, during the course of some of their interesting and amusing conversations, had told the Queen that the Dutch, the French and the Belgians were being somewhat tiresome over Luxembourg. The Dutch and the Belgians desired possession of this Province and the French who had signed a Treaty with Belgium were supporting that country’s claims against those of Holland.

‘I am sure Uncle Leopold will take the right action,’ Victoria had said.

But now came a disturbing letter from her royal Uncle. He wanted the support of England for Belgium in this matter, and he was appealing, not through her ambassador to her Foreign Minister, but to her as his niece.‘You have given me so many proofs of affection … that it would be very wrong in me to think that in so short a time and without any cause, those feelings which are so precious to me could have changed. This makes me appeal to these sentiments.’

She frowned. Of course she loved her Uncle and would never forget that he had been a second father to her, but this was not a matter for tenderness or sentiment. She was experienced enough to know that matters which concern the welfare of the country were not to be settled because of her private family feelings. He went on:‘The independent existence of the Provinces which form this Kingdom has always been an object of importance to England … The last time I saw the late King at Windsor, in 1836, he said to me: “If ever France or any other Power invades your country it will be a question of immediate war for England; we cannot suffer that …” All I want from your kind Majesty is, that you will occasionally express to your Ministers, and particularly to good Lord Melbourne, that as far as is compatible with the interests of your own dominions you do not wish that your Government should take the lead in such measures as might in a short time bring on the destruction of this country as well as that of your Uncle and his family …’

She was very disturbed. He was asking her to advise her Government on a matter of which she was well aware that she knew very little. One of her great qualities, Lord Melbourne had told her, was her awareness of her inexperience and her ability to listen and take advice. She wanted very much to please Uncle Leopold and it would have been easy to write and say: ‘Yes, I will speak to Lord Melbourne and I will tell him that I wish him to do as you say,’ but that would be unwise.

When Lord Melbourne called that day he knew at once that she was disturbed.

‘I think I cannot do better,’ she said, ‘than to show you letter I have received from my Uncle, the King of the Belgians.’

Lord Melbourne took the letter and when he read it, his expression became a little grave.

‘How wise of you,’ he said, ‘to show me this letter before answering it. Indeed, it is what I have come to expect of Your Majesty. You quite rightly assume that this is a matter for Lord Palmerston and your Government and I will take the matter up immediately with your Foreign Secretary.’

She sighed with relief, but she was apprehensive.

‘You see,’ she explained, ‘he was so good to me when I was young, and you know how insecure I always felt at Kensington.’

‘It was most unfortunate,’ replied Lord Melbourne tenderly. ‘How much better it would have been had that Uncle the late King William and his Queen Adelaide been able to show you something of Court ways before you ascended the throne.’

‘I was always very much aware of it.’

‘This insecurity made you turn to your Uncle Leopold, of course, and it was, at the time, a very satisfactory relationship, but nothing remains static. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis. The times are changed and we with them.’ Lord Melbourne always thoughtfully translated his Greek and Latin to her to save her the embarrassment of asking if she did not happen to know. ‘Now of course the King of the Belgians is still a dear relation and Your Majesty’s loyalty and fidelity are strong, but we have to see him as two in one – the charming relation and the head of a foreign power.’

‘How right you are … as always.’

‘So,’ went on Lord Melbourne, ‘Cupid and I will put our heads together over this.’

The reference to the Foreign Secretary’s nickname was an indication that the matter was no longer very serious and lightness returned to the conversation.

As she had spoken of her childhood Lord Melbourne talked of his days at Eton and described how on one occasion he had eaten too many sweet cakes and come out in spots because of this indulgence.

‘I fear you were very greedy,’ said the Queen severely.

‘Those spots cured me of greed in that direction.’

Then he told her how he had his hair cut and picturing him in his Eton uniform she thought he must have looked very handsome indeed. Thus she was able to shelve the unpleasant matter of Uncle Leopold.

Lord Melbourne again referred to the Belgian affair but characteristically threw it in lightly. She had been asking him how her Court compared with those of her predecessors and Lord Melbourne had launched into one of his amusing accounts of the past. He told her how her Uncle William had once gone to the Royal Academy and threatened to throw the President into the street because he said the picture of a certain sea-going gentleman was good, and William did not admire the gentleman.

‘But what had the picture to do with the man’s character?’ asked Victoria.

‘Precisely nothing,’ replied Lord Melbourne. ‘But the King did not like the man.’

Then there was her own christening when her Uncle George IV (at that time Prince Regent) had refused to have her called Georgiana or Charlotte, and had insisted on Alexandrina Victoria.

‘How do you think Victoria sounds as a queen’s name?’ she asked.

‘I prophesy that it will one day seem more queenly than any.’

‘I am glad Alexandrina is never used now. Victoria is much better for a queen.’

‘Victoria,’ said Lord Melbourne, ‘is perfect for a queen.’

‘Tell me what other names you like?’

Lord Melbourne considered. Alice he thought was charming. Louise also.

‘Yes, I love them too. I wonder if I like Louise because of Aunt Louise. She is very charming.’

‘She needs to be. I should think Leopold is a little hard to live with.’

Victoria held her breath. This was a kind of sacrilege, but it was like one god attacking another. It was true that Uncle Leopold was very solemn … perhaps somewhat pompous? But only when compared with Lord Melbourne, who was a little racy and had had such experiences. How she wished she dared talk to him of them. She would have loved to hear from his lips stories of Lady Caroline Lamb, his wife, and those two women with whom he was involved. What a worldly man he was! No wonder Uncle Leopold seemed a little dull – oh, but Leopold could never be dull. Tame, perhaps in comparison – but only with Lord Melbourne.

‘By the way,’ went on Lord Melbourne, ‘the King of the Belgians in that somewhat indiscreet letter to Your Majesty was obviously referring to the declaration Lord Palmerston made at the beginning of last month to the Prussian Government. I mentioned it to you at the time. You remember?’

She couldn’t quite remember, she said.

‘It may have appeared that we were ready to support Holland in this, but of course it is purely a matter of the advantages to this country.’

‘Of course, but I should hate Uncle Leopold to think we are not on his side.’

‘Has he written again?’

‘No, there has been a long silence.’

‘Ah, a little sullen, eh?’

‘I don’t know. He has always written such tender letters, except when he accused me of being irritable. Then he was hurt more than angry.’

‘Ha! It is all he can afford to be with the Queen of England. Perhaps a letter from you would be useful. I am sure you do not wish to be on bad terms with such an old friend, even though you have ceased to be so intimate. Write and tell him that Cupid and I are anxious to see Belgium flourishing. I’ll have a letter drafted out and you can put it into your own words if that appeals to you.’

‘Oh yes, it does. I hate to be on bad terms with Uncle Leopold.’

‘It’s just a little cloud. It will blow over. It’s all due to this declaration to the Prussians. I notice you pronounce the “Pruss” part as in “brush” and I as in “Prue”.’

‘Yes, I have often noticed that. Which is correct?’

‘Well, it’s a matter of opinion, I dare say, and pronunciation comes about through usage.’

‘I feel it is important for the Queen to be correct,’ she said.

‘Queens have been known to set fashions,’ said Melbourne, ‘so it seems very probable that the fashionable way to say “Prussian” will very soon be in the “brush” manner.’

It was very easy to forget that unpleasant little contretemps with Uncle Leopold when in Lord Melbourne’s sparkling company.

She wrote to the King of the Belgians as Lord Melbourne had directed:‘My dearest Uncle,It is indeed a long time since I have written to you, and I fear you will think me very lazy; but I must in turn say, dearest Uncle, that your silence was longer than mine …It would indeed, dearest Uncle, be very wrong of you if you thought my feelings of warm and devoted attachment to you and of great affection for you, could be changed. Nothing can ever change them! Independent of my feelings of affection for you, my beloved Uncle, you must be aware that the ancient and hereditary policy of this country with respect to Belgium must make me most anxious that my Government not only should not be parties to any measure that is prejudicial to Belgium, but that my Ministers should, as far as may not conflict with the interests or the engagements of this country, do everything in their power to promote the prosperity and welfare of this your Kingdom.’

That, Lord Melbourne had said, was the crux of the matter, ‘the interests or engagements of this country’. ‘Your uncle will understand what is meant by that. We are his friends as long as it is not against the interest of England for us to be so.’

‘I should like to think that we were always Uncle Leopold’s friends,’ she had said gravely.

Lord Melbourne had smiled at her tenderly. ‘Your Majesty will realise that he will be our friend as long as that friendship does not affect the interests of his country. This is the difference between love of country and love of family. And it is one of the penalties of sovereigns and sovereigns’ ministers that the country comes first.’

How right he was! As always, she thought. She went on:‘My Ministers, I can assure you, share all my feelings on this subject and are most anxious to see everything settled in a satisfactory manner between Belgium and Holland …You may be assured, beloved Uncle, that both Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston are most anxious at all times for the prosperity and welfare of Belgium … Allow me once more therefore, dearest Uncle, to beseech you to use your powerful influence over your subjects and to strive to moderate their excited feelings on these matters. Your situation is a very difficult one and nobody feels more for you than I do. I trust, dearest Uncle, that you will at all times believe me your devoted and most affectionate niece.Victoria R.’

There! She had written it.

‘Sprinkle it lavishly with “dearest Uncles”,’ Lord Melbourne had said. ‘It will remind him that while you still feel affectionate towards him as an Uncle, there must be no meddling in the politics of this country.’

She was surprised that she could nod in agreement. A short while ago she would have been horrified that she could have allowed anyone to call Uncle Leopold’s interest ‘meddling’.

But Lord Melbourne had taught her so much and Lord Melbourne was, of course, right.

The letter to Uncle Leopold appeared to have the desired effect. He wrote back to his dearest and most beloved Victoria to say that he was moved by her expressions of affection. He had not actually thought she had forgotten him, but it did occur to him that he had been put aside as one does a piece of furniture that is no longer wanted. He pointed out, though, how chagrined he had been by Lord Palmerston’s declaration and naturally so, for the Prussians had become very imperious afterwards.‘… I am happy to say, I was never as yet in the position to ask for any act of kindness from you, so that whatever little service I may have rendered you, remained on a basis of perfect disinterestedness. That the first diplomatic step in our affairs should seem by your Government to be directed against me, created therefore all over the Continent a considerable sensation. I shall never ask any favours of you or anything that could in the least be considered as incompatible with the interests of England; but you will comprehend that there is a great difference in claiming favours and being treated as an enemy …’

Uncle Leopold understood. She could not intervene in State matters for his sake.

He finished his letter declaring that she was never in greater favour with him and that he loved her dearly.

Dear Uncle Leopold! It was sad to think that she could ever regard him as a piece of furniture which was no longer of use! She remembered that when she was a child she had sometimes hoped that some dramatic opportunity would arise so that she could show him how much she loved him. Perhaps she might risk her life for him, perhaps even die for him. And now she could not allow him to interfere with her country’s politics!

It was a new phase. But this was not the first time she had suspected that the closer she came to Lord Melbourne the farther she must draw away from Uncle Leopold.

Leopold declined the invitation to Victoria’s Coronation. He thought that a king at the Coronation would be rather out of place.

There was no time to feel sad about his absence or to ask herself whether he was very offended.

‘At a Coronation,’ said Lord Melbourne, ‘there is so much to do.’