As Victoria neared her 18th birthday, the situation became unbearable, and Victoria was soon no longer on speaking terms with her mother. The dressers were like a little invisible army of people who kept Queen Victoria together. As always, Nelson is good on the wider background. After only a few days the royal party left for Aix-les-Bains in Savoy. The final straw came when Lehzen called in the royal doctor James Clark to tend to Victoria and Albert’s daughter Vicky. Perhaps Queen Victoria's evident affection for France, and especially for the Riviera, was more important in the two countries' long love-hate relationship than is generally realised. It is dated 1896, and one can easily imagine the animal-loving Queen feeling that some respite and refreshment should be available for her horses after pulling her up the steep slope. Queen Victoria was a bright child and she thought that others should get educated as well. The so-called Ghillies Balls (which still happen at Balmoral twice a year) had people dressed in kilts and bagpipers piping, and Victoria would join in. Queen Victoria], [All images other than the first one are from the sources specified, rather than the book under review. He thought that there was far too much whisky consumed, including by his wife, and he thought that the thing looked like a witches dance. (b) The new casino at Monte Carlo, designed by Charles Garnier and opened in 1879 — a favourite haunt of the Prince of Wales. Strachey, Lytton. After a general introduction, chapters deal with each of the successive visits, with an epilogue discussing the cancelled visit of 1900, along the way yielding fresh entries into the events of these years both in the Queen's own life, and in the political context of the times. She married Francis, who became Francis II of France after his father died. Queen Victoria was the second-longest reigning British monarch in history, ruling the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. The Queen's choice set the seal on the Riviera as an up-market holiday resort rather than simply as a place for a cure or convalescence, and it has never looked back since. Queen Victoria commuted the sentence to transportation to Australia. But the Queen was in deep mourning for the Prince of Wales's elder son, Prince Albert. Inevitably, the Queen was much upset by the latter, and threw herself into the funeral arrangements. He was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. Since 1892, to her household's consternation, her Indian Munshi had actually been accompanying her on her Riviera trips. Tucked away at the back are twenty-five pages of notes in smaller print, a chronology and an equally useful list of selected dramatis personae. Left to right: (a) The Queen's visit to the Chateau d'Eu in 1843, painted by Eugene-Louis Lami (from the Yorck Project on Wikimedia Commons). As a little girl, the future Queen of England already had a stubborn streak. For all her dislike of republicanism, she had a great affection for the French Riviera, and had been coming there on and off for sixteen years. It was the end of an era, marked by only a handful of tangible reminders, such as St George's Church in Cannes, with its replica of Prince Leopold's recumbent effigy at Windsor; the Prince Leopold Fountain, also in Cannes; and monuments to the Queen herself at both Menton and Cimiez, the latter an especially attractive group by Louis Maubert in white marble. He also supplies two lists, one of the places she went to visit, and the other of the people who came to visit her. One seam that has recently been developed elsewhere (see "Related Material" below) runs all through this part of the book. She had come to see Alice de Rothschild's gardens at the Villa Victoria, but her visit put the whole town on the map: the town council published a commemorative book about it in 1991. The idea of Queen Victoria keeping a journal every day grew out of something she had to do as a child. 1843 (25th April) A daughter, Alice Maud Mary, was born to Victoria and Albert. Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles met the Duke and Duchess for tea in May 1972. So instead of John Brown in his kilt and topee, the locals were treated to sightings of the tall, turbaned, domineering Abdul Karim and other "inferior" Indian attendants. in Nelson 124). As well researched as it is readable, it draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources — from municipal and church archives on the Riviera, to the Royal Archives at Windsor; and from Victorian publications in French and English to recent biographies such as Peter Levi's Edward Lear (1995). Victoria was only 18 when she became queen … Right: picture in The Graphic of St George's Church, Cannes, raised as a memorial to him (26 Feb. 1887, p. 213). Mary was the niece of the Duke of Guise. Bringing them to the fore now is all part of the twenty-first century revaluation of the queen herself, and of Victorianism in general. The emperor was very favourably disposed towards the English, having spent many years of his exile there, and wanted to establish lasting and sincere reconciliation. It is particularly illuminating on the relations between Britain and France at this time, an area to which not enough attention is paid — despite the Queen's own strong links with the last French royals (both Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III ended up seeking refuge in England), and the fact that the two countries fought as allies in the Crimea. Michael Nelson's monograph, introduced by Lord Asa Briggs as President of the Victorian Society, is everything one might expect from a former Reuters head. Her death on Jan. 22, 1901, at age 81 was mourned around the world and signaled an end to the Victorian Era. in Nelson 127). She was crowned queen in 1837, aged just 18. The following spring she was back on the Riviera again, this time staying at Hyères on the southern end of the Riviera. But the most poignant reminder perhaps, and the one that tells most about the Queen, is an uncelebrated drinking trough at the top of the hill from Nice to Villefranche, which has the Queen's name on it as donor, along with that of the Society for the Protection of Animals at Nice. But it was not. Nevertheless, Nelson makes even this fifth chapter interesting by including more anecdotal material, for example, about the occasion on which the Queen, having had a "slightly risqué" story repeated to her, said famously, "We are not amused" (78). Being a dresser was more a lifestyle than a job. Visit of Queen Victoria, 1855 During the British Queen’s visit to France he made sure she was met with an ostentatiousness not witnessed in Versailles since the Monarchy. Politics and Society —> At Grasse, Queen Victoria had already been studying Hindustani. Browse the Victorian era within the In Our Time archive. By the time Victoria was 15 it was thought she didn’t really need a governess anymore, so the Duchess of Kent (Victoria’s mother) and Sir John Conroy hatched a plot to get rid of Lehzen and replace her with Lady Flora Hastings. Even the Aga Khan, on a visit to Nice, could not help commenting on the Queen's choice of retinue: "It seemed highly odd, and frankly it still does," he wrote in his diary (qtd. in Nelson 149), for she would never return. Her full name was Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, and her official title was Victoria Princess Royal. Queen Victoria reigned over the British Empire for nearly 64 years, from 1837-1901. Chapter IV deals with various visitors during this stay, including Duleep Singh, the Maharajah of the Punjab, forgiven now for having plotted to get his kingdom back; and with the incidents that punctuated it, like the death by blood-poisoning of the Queen's personal maid. What emerges most powerfully is the queen's unquenched appetite for life, nowhere expressed more vibrantly than in her own journal entries from the Riviera. These were the difficult years leading up to the second Boer War, and relations with Germany, France and Russia were all strained. (Photomechanical print, Library of Congress Digital Gallery, reproduction number LC-DIG-ppmsc-05953.) On one level Queen Victoria was expecting her journal to be read, initially by her mother, later by her governess, ultimately by the world, by posterity. Authors —> The eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, little Victoria – or ‘Vicky’, as her family called her – was born 21 November 1840. New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2007. Nelson, Michael. A further two major and eight medium-sized wars were fought by the British during the first quarter century of Victoria’s reign. This notoriously dissolute monarch, who earned the nickname "the Butcher of the Congo," would shake hands gingerly in order to protect his long fingernails. Nowadays this can be rectified by surgery, but at the time it would have been a thing that the Queen secretly managed with the complicity of her dressers. This was to write down, in a book, how well she behaved every day for her mother to judge – and sometimes it was not good. They would be up before and go to bed after the Queen, and ensure all the management behind the scenes of keeping the Queen’s image just right for every occasion went smoothly. Left to right: (a) Hôtel Excelsior, Regina Palace, now in residential use (photomechanical print, Library of Congress Digital Gallery, reproduction number LC-DIG-ppmsc-05002). This ailment only became apparent to most people (including her own doctor) when she died. Below is a list of foreign visits made by Queen Victoria during her reign (which lasted from … Nelson points out that the Queen's stays were getting longer and longer, and that in the end she spent almost a year of her life on the French Riviera. Despite her age Victoria wasn’t naive about what this would entail – she had been trained and educated for the role of monarch from a very early age. He was notorious for his misdiagnosis and when this happened again, it resulted in Vicky being ill for a long time. Book Reviews —> During the late Victorian period, anybody who was anybody might be staying on the Riviera. Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera. She was executed by Queen Elizabeth I … She received a rapturous welcome on her first arrival there in March 1895, and felt very comfortable at the Grand Hôtel, and then (for her last three visits) in the new Hôtel Excelsior, Regina Palace, built with her needs in mind. ... one of her favourite jaunts was to the south of France and the towns of the Riviera coastline. Her reign ended on 22 January 1901 when she died at age 81. (c) A shepherd in an olive grove, answering well to the Queen's description; she noted that the shepherds had no sheepdogs (photomechanical print, Library of Congress Digital Gallery, reproduction number LC-DIG-ppmsc-05940). The Queen was up in arms, for instance, when her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, congratulated President Kruger on his successful resistance to the British-led Jameson Raid in the Transvaal. London: Chatto & Windus (Phoenix Library), 1928. 1842 (3rd July) ... Victoria and Albert visited King King Louis Philippe I of France in Normandy. That the Queen should just happen to have bumped into a royal relation (Leopold was her first cousin) somewhere between Nice and Monaco seems an amazing coincidence. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.]. As Nelson explains in his first chapter, Queen Victoria had already visited France twice before coming to the Riviera, both times with Prince Albert. True historical incidents and characters that helped inspire George R. R. Martin. 1. Left to right: (a) The Queen's visit to the Chateau d'Eu in 1843, painted by Eugene-Louis Lami (from the Yorck Project on Wikimedia Commons). Despite some problems, a maid of honour reported in a letter to her mother, after a drive to the village of Pont du Loup in Provence, "she enjoys everything as if she were 17 instead of 72" (qtd. On her trips into the surrounding countryside, she was much taken with the local shepherds, accurately describing them as "very picturesque looking, wearing knee breeches, sort of white stockings and leggings, and a large black felt hat," adding, "Some are very handsome boys" (qtd. Prince Albert on the other hand was less keen on all of this. She came to see the villa where he died, and the church built in his memory. (c) A shepherd in an olive grove, answerin… When did Prince Albert die? Read about our approach to external linking. On 23 September 1842, Victoria’s old governess, Louise Lehzen, slipped away from Windsor Castle without saying goodbye. This enjoyable and knowledgeable book explores many aspects of the later Victorian period from a new angle, and in a new context. The Queen was not alone in her distaste for it; British doctors too considered it a threat to health. Lord Salisbury came to Cimiez three times during the 1886 visit that followed on from that affair. Anna Feodora Auguste Charlotte Wilhelmine was born in Bavaria, Germany, on December 7, 1807. Queen Victoria spent the night of Monday 26 August, in this house, known as Killarney House. A horse trough and drinking fountain on the way from Nice (uphill) towards Villefranche, donated by Queen Victoria, and naming also the local branch of the "Societé Protectrice des Animaux.". So this was a low-key visit, on which various constitutional affairs impinged. The Queen, widowed and in her early sixties by now, was accompanied by her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice. The Crimean War had ended earlier that year, during which more British soldiers died from infectious disease like typhus or dysentery than were actually were killed by bullets. She also wasn’t allowed to go down the stairs without somebody holding her hand to make sure that she didn’t slip and hurt herself. First, Nelson's introduction explains the role of the English in popularising the area. Queen Victoria’s visit to see the King of the French at the Château d’Eu in Normandy on 2 September 1843 made headline news. Queen Victoria changed a lot of children's lives as before, only rich people could be educated. Victoria's dressers knew secret details about the Queen, Queen Victoria was a skilled highland reeler, Victoria's meeting with Florence Nightingale, The real historical events that inspired Game of Thrones. On those occasions they spoke also of what she called "the incredible behaviour of Russia, who was urging and encouraging France against us with regard to Egypt" (qtd. Victoria was not meant to become Queen. (c) The monument to Queen Victoria at Cimiez, by Louis Maubert, unveiled in 1912, a delightful reminder of the Queen's special love of the "flowery south" (cropped, with thanks, from Mwanasimba's photograph at Wikimedia Commons). in Nelson 35). Both hotels were a little away from the centre, in Cimiez, but she was as intensely engaged as ever in every aspect of her crowded life. A transcription was made by her daughter Beatrice, but Beatrice didn’t do her work terribly carefully. Feodora's mother, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was married to … She never did anything half-heartedly or without that "irresistible sincerity" which Lytton Strachey noted in her long ago (265). The trouble is the originals are lost. The Queen's next visit to France, recorded in Chapter III, was in 1885. On 20 June 1837, the King died, and Victoria became Queen at last. There is no way of quantifying the effect of her patronage on the area, but it was obviously an enormous one, and in the Epilogue we learn that in Nice, at least, people were dismayed when the crisis in South Africa, and French attitudes towards it, caused her to cancel her last proposed trip there. One of the team was required to sleep in a little private bedroom alongside the Queen’s every night, in case a last minute emergency need cropped up. Victoria was horrified and refused to let it happen. Victoria regularly travelled to France for a vacation every year. As for the former, she clearly had remarkable stamina, and seems to have been fascinated by everything she saw, from the cork trees to the salt pans. Queen Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901), who gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age. The Guise contingent plotted against the king’s mother, Catherine de’ Medici. In fact, Leopold had a house on Cap Ferrat there, not to mention another house for his mistress, one for his father-confessor, and a private zoo. [Victorian Web Home —> Victoria was very fond of dancing at the whiskey-fuelled balls at Balmoral. Chapters VI through IX detail the many family, household and diplomatic incidents that marked these visits, as well as her usual round of outings and often colourful visitors. At Menton, the Queen had been joined by her youngest son, Prince Leopold, a haemophiliac who from boyhood had been expected to benefit from the healthy climate on the Riviera. On 2 March 1882, Roderick Maclean, a disgruntled poet apparently offended by Victoria's refusal to accept one of his poems, shot at the Queen as her carriage left Windsor railway station. During her 67-year reign of Britain, the Empire experienced immense social, political and industrial change. Victoria is one of Britain’s most renowned monarchs, but here are 10 facts that you may not have known. When she was born, Victoria was fifth in …
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