One
hundred and sixteen years after her death, you might think that all that can be
said about Alexandrina Victoria (1819-1901) has already been said. Certainly,
there are a number of well-written biographies of her, each characterised by
the period in which they were written. Elizabeth Longford’s study is a good
example.
Enter
A.N. Wilson, quite a colossus in the world of royal biography and serious
historical writing. He has already written about Hitler, Jesus and John
Betjeman.
Victoria:
A Life, which was first published in 2014 and which I have just got around to
reading, is an enjoyable book. All the usual anecdotes are present. He writes
about how Victoria came to the throne, the misbehaviour of her Hanoverian
predecessors, and the strange life of her father Edward, Duke of Kent. There is
an examination of her libidinous marriage to Albert, and her withdrawal (excuse
the pun) from public life after his death. John Brown looms large (again, no
pun intended) and her friendships with Melbourne and Dissie are well covered.
What
makes Wilson’s book different is that he is clear about just how deranged
Victoria was. Her behaviour in the 1860s and 1870s was so difficult that Wilson
views it as mental illness. For more than a decade, long after her bereavement,
Victoria acted like a petulant child. Wilson quite rightly draws comparison
with the stubborn, tantrum-prone middle aged woman and her younger self who used
to fly into childish rages at Kensington Palace. You are left with the
impression that Wilson would not have liked her had he met her, as he shows her
little sympathy and is critical of her eccentric behaviour. His writing
highlights the frustrations of the ruling class of the time.
A
second strand which is refreshing is his attitude to the royal family. He views
the Victorian family firm as quite apart from those who really held power, a
mere figurehead. For the first half of Victoria’s reign the landed gentry were
in charge, and after reform there is a
fascinating shift towards the newly enriched industrialists and the newly
enfranchised middle class. Even though Wilson’s book is principally about the
life of the monarch, her story is told against this backdrop of change. Her
anger at change is Hanoverian, and closer to George IV than her grandson George
V.
Despite
the tremendous change in the country over the sixty-four years, Wilson
continues to remind the reader of the nuances of a fact that is often repeated.
Victoria was German. However, he is clear that there were two Germanys at the
time, and Victoria was an old-school Hanoverian, attempting to keep alive the
dream of her husband of a liberal free-thinking Germany. She was never a
Prussian Imperialist, and greatly mourned the fact that her oldest daughter
Vicky was dragged into the circle of sabre-rattling militarists. He reveals the
distaste that Victoria held for Willie, the firstborn of her firstborn.
Of
course, there is the family. Just like the Plantagenets all sharing about six
names (Richard, Henry, Katherine, etc) so the Victorian family tree can be
baffling. Victoria and Albert were partly to blame for this by insisting that
all children carry one of their names (hence a vast range of Alberts, Victors
and Victorias). Wilson rather muddies the issue by placing a family tree at the
start that is tree shaped and difficult to follow. All that was needed was a
page each for the nine offspring, their children and many grandchildren.
What
is clear is that Victoria really didn’t like a lot of them. Her relationship
with her son and heir never recovered after her husband’s death, for which he
was partially blamed. She favoured Hanoverian relatives and Wilson almost goes
as far as suggesting that she would have been happier in a little Schloss than
remaining in Britain. She was, as we all know, the grandmother of Europe, but
it was a grumpy and remote grandmother. No wonder so many of the third
generation thought visiting her a chore.
This
study of the life of Victoria is an easy read because it does what it says – it
describes her life and does not spend hundreds of pages explaining the reasons,
for example, of the Crimean War. There is just enough historical common sense
to carry you along. It is a worthwhile addition to everything that has already
been said about Victoria.
