Prince Albert
Prince Albert and Queen Victoria at the opening of the Crystal
Palace
birth and childhood
The future adored husband of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert was
born Prince Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg on 26 August 1819. He
was the second son of the reigning duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha (1784-1844) and Princess Louise of Saxe-Coburg (1800-31).
His parents had completely different temperaments and drifted
apart soon after Albert's birth. Duke Ernest was a notorious womaniser
and his young wife, too, sought consolation elsewhere. The result
was a formal separation in 1824, followed by divorce in 1826.
Louise then married Baron Alexander von Hanstein, but it was not
until after her death in August 1831 that Duke Ernest remarried.
His second wife was his own niece, Duchess Marie of Wurttemberg
(1799-1860), by whom he had no children.
Albert and his older brother Ernest were thus deprived of a mother's love at an early age, but their grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Saalfeld-Coburg, and stepgrandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Gotha, both lavished affection on them, and in 1823, they acquired a greatly caring tutor in the person of Rath (Councillor) Florschutz. The two princes grew up together at Rosenau but developed differently, Ernest becoming a womaniser like his father, while Albert was far more serious-minded, with a genuine interest in the arts and sciences. He was the better looking of the two and was said to bear a very strong resemblance to his mother.
The Coburg family had strong ties with England since the boys' uncle Prince Leopold had married Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only daughter of the Prince Regent (George IV), who died in childbirth a year after their marriage. In addition, their aunt Victoria had married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and had become the mother of the future Queen Victoria in May 1819.
meeting Victoria
Plans for the eventual marriage of Albert and Victoria were laid
very early in their childhood. The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg
first hinted at it in letters to her daughter, the Duchess of
Kent, in 1821, and the idea was then taken up and fostered by
Leopold, who became the first king of the Belgians in 1831. The
cousins met for the first time in 1836 when their father took
Ernest and Albert on a visit to England. Victoria confided to
'Uncle Leopold' in a letter about Albert: 'How delighted I am
with him, and [how] much I like him in every way. He possesses
every quality that could be desired to make me perfectly happy.'
Albert, on the other hand, reported laconically that they 'were
much pleased with each other'.
The two young princes completed their studies under private tutors in Brussels and then at Bonn University, also touring in Italy, Switzerland and Austria. They left Bonn in 1838 and Ernest then joined the Saxon army in Dresden, while Albert embarked on a much fuller tour of Italy. He was accompanied by Baron Stockmar and Lieutenant Francis Seymour, who at King Leopold's request was seconded from the British army. It was during this lengthy sojourn in Italy that Albert developed and cultivated his lifelong interest in Italian art and architecture.
In October 1839, Ernest and Albert set out once more for England, arriving at Windsor Castle on the 10th, ahead of their luggage, so that they were unable to join the household at dinner for want of evening clothes. Five days later Victoria, having sent for Albert to come and see her privately, formally asked him to marry her. With some perception, Albert wrote to his stepmother: 'My future position will have its dark sides, and the sky will not always be blue and unclouded.'
marriage
On 23 November 1839, Queen Victoria informed the Privy Council
of her engagement. Greville, the Clerk to the Council, recorded
that 'her hands trembled so excessively that I wonder she was
able to read the paper which she held.' Albert was granted the
style of Royal Highness by letters patent on 6 February, and the
marriage took place at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, on
10 February 1840. The bridegroom, who had barely recovered from
seasickness after a rough crossing four days previously, wore
the collar of the Order of the Garter (into which he had been
invested at Coburg by a special 'Garter mission' in January).
The couple left for their honeymoon at Windsor at four o'clock in the afternoon, arriving after nightfall at a town brightly illuminated. The ecstatic bride wrote to King Leopold: 'Albert is an angel ... To look in those dear eyes, and that dear sunny face, is enough to make me adore him.' However, the Duchess of Bedford, who was in attendance, reported that, while the queen was 'excessively in love', Albert was 'not a bit with her' and gave the impression of 'not being happy'.
The queen and her husband (it has been said) 'came to understand each other slowly'. Soon after their marriage, Albert wrote to a friend in Germany: 'I am only the husband and not the master in the house.' Gradually this position was to alter. Albert's influence on the queen grew stronger, until eventually they worked every morning with their desks side by side and she began to defer to him on every issue.
Osborne and Balmoral
Towards the end of 1843, the royal couple -- by now the parents
of three children -- began to feel the need to acquire a residence
that could be their very own. The prime minister, Sir Robert Peel,
was consulted and suggested that they consider a home on the Isle
of Wight. Queen Victoria, who had happy memories of the island
from two childhood visits, received the idea with enthusiasm.
Prince Albert had also been taken with the island during a cruise
the pair had made that summer and, ever one for drawing associations,
found that its seascapes reminded him of those around Naples.
After prolonged negotiations, the Osborne estate on the north side of the island was acquired from Lady Isabella Blackford, at first at a rental of £1,000 per annum and then by outright purchase at an agreed sum of £27,814.18s.5d. The estate was augmented by the leasehold purchase of more land from Winchester College for £18,000 and annual rent charges to both the college and the bishop of Winchester. Albert was now able to give full rein to his architectural flair. With the aid of the master-builder Thomas Cubitt, he oversaw the construction of an elegant Italianate palace overlooking the Solent.
A few years later, another private royal residence was acquired -- Balmoral Castle on Deeside -- where Prince Albert was able to exercise his architectural talents once again in the building of a new castle in Scottish baronial style. Osborne and Balmoral were to become and to remain Queen Victoria's favourite abodes for the rest of her long life.
The Great Exhibition
Prince Albert had become president of the Society of Arts in 1843
and in 1850 became chairman of the royal commission appointed
to plan the Great Exhibition of international manufactures and
arts, which took place in 1851 in the Crystal Palace designed
by Joseph Paxton and erected in Hyde Park. The greatest achievement of the prince's
life, it was opened by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851, remaining
open until 15 October and making a surplus profit of £180,000
to be expended on Albert's next project -- the creation of the
South Kensington museums, institutions and colleges of music and
art, which occupied most of his time and attention until the end
of his life. He also took a keen interest in agricultural matters,
commissioning the design of the Home Farm at Windsor, where his
prize-winning pigs were bred.
On 26 June 1857, Albert was created Prince Consort by letters patent, an honour that conferred a legal status that he had hitherto lacked and that gave him official precedence immediately after his wife. In January 1858, he gave away his eldest and favourite daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, when she married Prince Frederick William of Prussia. A year later, he travelled to Potsdam to visit her after the birth of her first child.
The strain of life with Queen Victoria and the care spent on bringing up a large family took its toll on Albert -- at 40, he had lost much of his hair and had the appearance of a much older man. 'Papa works too hard, [and] wears himself out by all he does,' the queen wrote to her daughter. The death of Victoria's mother in March 1861 added to Albert's burdens, since she had appointed him her sole executor and her affairs needed much putting in order.
death
In November, Albert travelled to Cambridge in very inclement weather
to visit his son, the Prince of Wales, who had recently been involved
in an entanglement with an actress. On his return, he set about
redrafting a despatch to the British minister in Washington concerning
the high-handed behaviour of the Federal government in taking
Confederate officers from a British ship. The original draft had
been so badly worded that it practically constituted a declaration
of war.
Exhausted by his efforts, the prince went down with a 'low fever' -- a term then synonymous with typhoid fever. His mind rambled and he was racked with rheumatic pains. After several days of suffering, the end came at 10.45pm on 14 December 1861. The prince died in the same room at Windsor Castle in which both George IV and William IV had expired. Although the cause of Albert's death is generally attributed to typhoid, the severe 'rheumatic' pains that he had suffered for many years have led to speculation that he may have suffered from cancer or some other wasting disease.
The queen immediately gave way to an extravagant display of grief, and many feared that she would go mad, as George III had done. At the moment of Albert's death, in the words of Lytton Strachey: 'She shrieked -- one long wild shriek that rang through the horror-stricken castle -- and understood that she had lost him for ever.' She confided to a friend that she considered suicide, but relented and adopted 'Still Endure' as her motto. She never appeared out of mourning for the rest of her life.
Albert's funeral took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor, on the morning of Monday, 23 December 1861. His coffin was at first deposited in the vault beneath the chapel but was transferred to the Royal Mausoleum that Queen Victoria had had constructed in the grounds of Frogmore House on 18 March 1862. She was to join him there almost 40 years later.
