Victoria _ Albert Part 1 - British Documentary

This is the mausoleum at Frogmore, close to Windsor Castle, where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert the Prince Consort died buried. As a great-great-grandson, I've always had a considerable fascination for them and the influence they exerted. This film focuses perhaps rather on Prince Albert, who was responsible for some of the things we take for granted in this country today. He helped fashion the constitutional model of our monarchy. He had a hand in social reform. He was a patron of the arts and he built some of his family's great houses. And above all, he was a staunch family man, deeply in love with Queen Victoria. When he died at the tragically early age of 42, his broken-hearted queen was left to mourn her husband for the Queen Victoria's sense of loss from this photograph of mine, which shows Prince Albert. And in her own handwriting, Queen Victoria has written, When she wrote it, the Prince Consort had already been dead for two months. No human power will make me swerve from what he decided and wished. Queen Victoria vowed sadly after the Prince Consort's death, and right up until the Queen's diamond jubilee in 1897 that crowned the remaining 40 years of her lonely reign, she was guided by Prince Albert. The man she had loved so passionately at the beginning of her life was now no longer at her side, but his legacy still lives on here in this country. He designed and built royal palaces. He modernized existing ones. Organizations that he headed put up great buildings. Before he was 30, Prince Albert designed and built Osborne House on the Isle of Wight as a romantic hideaway for the Queen and his family. The house remains much the same as it was then, a tribute to the remarkable artistic taste of the Prince Consort. The Queen wrote in her journal the great diary she kept for 70 years. We have to remember that Queen Victoria was only 18 when she became sovereign. By the time she was 40, she was raising a family of nine children, and still her responsibilities for her country and its colonies were enormous. She'd also survived a lonely and friendless childhood. As Queen, she'd grown totally dependent on Prince Albert. Victoria wrote, Princess Victoria's childhood was spent at Kensington Palace a few years after the Battle of Waterloo. It was 6am, and because of the hour, they were refused entry. Only when they demanded to see the Queen were they let in. Princess Victoria was woken and informed in this room that her uncle, King William IV, had died during the night. Dressed still in her nightclothes, the 18-year-old never found herself Queen. Victoria had a remarkable first day as sovereign here in Kensington Palace. She began by captivating all those attending her first Privy Council meeting here in this room. Melbourne, the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, the Great Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert Peel. That night, the Queen also removed herself from the clutches of her mother and abolished the Kensington system. In the evening, one word proclaiming her new independence appeared prominently five times in her diary. Alone, quite alone, of course quite alone, and at nine came Lord Melbourne, whom I saw in my room, and of course quite alone. But the young Queen was not alone. The court she presided over was highly political. Lord Melbourne was not only Prime Minister and leader of the Whig Party, he also acted as the Queen's principal advisor. Dining and riding with Lord Melbourne most days, the teenage Queen became first dependent on his advice and then quite infatuated with the worldly 58-year-old Prime Minister. The young Queen was readily influenced by Lord Melbourne. She distrusted change and hid from her the truth about social conditions in Britain. He believed children to be put to work in factories rather than starve. He thought flogging in prisons and treadmills was permissible and that workhouses were for the social good. So at a very early age, Queen Victoria's natural sympathies were blunted by the views of Lord Melbourne. Worse, the court Queen Victoria had inherited was traditionally partisan. Her ladies-in-waiting appointed by the party were wives of prominent Whig politicians. Inevitably, the crown became embroiled in a political crisis. It came when Melbourne's Whig government was forced to resign. The young Queen was desperate at losing her father figure. She wrote tearfully at his departure. All my happiness gone. That dearest, kind Lord Melbourne no more my minister. I sobbed and cried much. And the next day at Lord Melbourne's final audience. I sobbed much and kept holding his hand for some time fast in one of mine. I felt that in doing so he could not leave me. Then in her grief, the young Queen behaved unconstitutionally. I could eat nothing. Wrote one line to the Duke of Wellington to request him to come. Instead of calling upon Sir Robert Peel, the leader of the opposition to form the new government, the Queen asked another close friend, the powerful Duke of Wellington. The Queen was playing a dangerous political game to get her way. Wellington wisely declined. Ma'am, here is my list of cabinet appointees. The disgruntled Tory opposition leader Peel retaliated. And my request, ma'am, is that you remove your. But ma'am. The Queen was asked to replace her ladies at the bedchamber, many of whom had become personal friends, but all of whom were Whig supporters. The Queen adamantly refused. In the deadlock that followed, Peel said he could no longer form a government. Triumphant, the Queen wrote back to Lord Melbourne. I was calm, but very decided. The Queen of England will not submit to such trickery. Keep yourself in readiness, for you may soon be wanted. Queen Victoria then asked Lord Melbourne, her mentor and favourite, to return and form another government. And that brought an end to what became known as the bedchamber plot. It was an incident in which the young Queen was seen to exceed her role of sovereign. Changes would have to be made. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, just 20, found himself in this volatile atmosphere in October 1839. To encourage the union between the two royal households, he had travelled all the way from Germany to meet Queen Victoria at Windsor. The Queen saw Prince Albert at the foot of the main staircase. That night she wrote. It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert, who is beautiful. And then she went further. Albert really is so excessive and handsome. Such beautiful eyes, an exquisite nose, and such a pretty mouth. A beautiful figure, broad in the shoulders, and a fine waist. In an instant, Queen Victoria had fallen hopelessly in love. By protocol, the Queen had to propose. Within five days, she had asked Prince Albert to marry her. Albert wrote. Dearest, greatly beloved Victoria, how is it that I have deserved so much love, such affection? Heaven has sent me an angel whose brightness shall illumine my life, in body and soul, ever your slave, Albert. What started as an arranged marriage had been transformed and became one of the most important in British history. It took place in St. James's Palace in February 1840. But on the wedding day itself, the Times could only sneer about the young foreigner marrying the Queen. The Prince began diligently looking for roles that would enhance his prestige and influence. First, he turned his energies to reorganising the antiquated royal household. But Prince Albert's most pressing concern was to ensure the monarchy stood once and for all above party politics. With the Queen now expecting a child, it was suggested that Prince Albert should replace Lord Melbourne and act as her principal advisor. He seized the chance. From then on, he took notes of ministerial meetings and drafted all the Queen's government letters. I resolutely hold myself aloof from all parties. I speak openly with the ministers on all subjects. I endeavour quietly to be of as much use to Victoria in her position as I can. Sir Robert Peel was aware of Prince Albert's artistic talents and invited him to chair the Royal Commission to select pictures for the newly built Palace of Westminster. Albert was just 22. He had found a role at last as an energetic facilitator of great projects. At precisely this moment, a new form of picture, symbolic of the new technologies sweeping the country, appeared. Prince Albert was among the first to embrace the medium of photography. Prince Albert at 23, one of the first photographic portraits ever taken in Britain. And Queen Victoria at the age of 25 withheld his daughter, the Princess Royal, in 1844. And here's another one of Prince Albert as a mature 29-year-old. By now, he was becoming an innovator determined to come to grips with the great industrial age sweeping Britain. Britain and the rest of Europe were going through a dramatic change. The Industrial Revolution was producing great factories and railways. But alongside that came another kind of revolution, social unrest. As people's earnings and rights increased, so did their aspirations. But living conditions in the centres of work did not keep pace. Prince Albert, rather than the Queen, was aware that the times were dangerous. As royal houses on the continent began to buckle and fall under popular revolution, the Prince's diary for 1848 reflected his growing concerns. 7th of March, the property of the French royal family is sequestered at Paris. 10th of March, riots in Munich. 17th of March, great riots among the peasantry in Schwabia. 18th of March, news of revolution in Berlin. 4th of April, disquieting views from Ireland. 11th of April, increase in anarchy in Germany. 18th of April, a long conversation with Lord Shaftesbury as to what can be done for working classes. The view of the great social reformer, Lord Shaftesbury, was that Prince Albert should use his increasing power and prestige to put himself at the head of all social movements in art and science, and especially of those movements as they bear upon the poor, and thus show the interest felt by royalty in the happiness of the kingdom. Lord Shaftesbury suggested that Prince Albert view a new type of housing that was being built in London for workers. The pools fit neither for man nor beast. Shaftesbury then asked him to chair a meeting of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, a new organization building experimental mass housing. I have just come from the model lodging house, the opening of which we celebrate this day, and I feel convinced that its existence will, by degrees, cause a complete change in the domestic comforts of the labouring classes. It will show those who possess capital to invest that they may do so with great profit and advantage to themselves, at the same time dispensing those comforts to the poorer brethren. Prince Albert decided to put the royal family to work. Against a background of demonstrations by the Chartist movement, the milder reflection here of the republicanism sweeping Europe, the royal family was seen increasingly among their subjects. The prince himself took a number of roles as president of charitable and educational organizations, opening new hospitals and libraries. He tried to convey his genuine social concerns to the Queen. In April 1848, the Chartist movement expected to march on Parliament with half a million men, but only 23,000 turned up. Prince Albert wrote, We had a revolution yesterday, and it went up in smoke. The law was victorious. I hope this makes a good impression on the continent. Despite events elsewhere, the crown, it seemed, had never been more popular, and to give the Queen and her family more security and privacy, Prince Albert had built Osborne House, a country retreat on the Isle of Wight. Dispensing with architects and working with expert builders like Thomas Cubitt, Prince Albert found time to design and supervise the building of Osborne House himself. Its conception tells us much about the prince's ideas for fusing art with modern technology. This is the drawing room used by the Queen and her family after dinner. The prince consort had designed it in an L-shape so that the Queen and her guests could sit here, undisturbed by the gentlemen playing billiards in the other part of the room. Queen Victoria actually played billiards herself here sometimes in the afternoons. Osborne was above all a family home, and by 1857, all nine children of the royal couple had slept in this nursery. Osborne House has been left today as though the royal couple still lived there. Prince Albert laid out the park. A model fort was built by Prince Albert to teach military manoeuvres. There was an extensive nature museum like the one of his childhood. But even as Osborne, the Queen was never far from the duties of state. Prince Albert had become the power beside the throne as he sat next to his wife drafting her letters. But she was clearly frustrated about the way successive governments had failed to recognise his services to the country. Victoria wrote, Oh, if I only could make him king. To compensate, the Queen had a second door made leading into the council room at Osborne so that they could enter simultaneously for council meetings. Then came possibly Prince Albert's finest achievement. He became the guiding force behind a festival of art, science and engineering that would capture the spirit of the Victorian age. He had once admired the Great Conservatory at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, and when its architect presented him with a daring plan to house the exhibition in a palace of glass, the Prince approved. This is the first sketch for the Great Exhibition. It's a doodle on blotting paper by Joseph Paxton, the designer of the Chatsworth Conservatory. At the start, the Great Project hit difficulties, many of the objections coming from establishment enemies of foreign Prince. The Royal Commission that the Prince chaired had two aims. It recognised the worldwide supremacy of British industry, but believed it could be further improved, exposing it to superior design from abroad. So by making the exhibition international, the Commission created a showpiece for free trade. This was strongly opposed by protectionists within the government. It was a question of whether this exhibition should be exclusively limited to British industry. Particular advantage to British industry might be derived from placing it in fair competition with that of other nations. Then there was a problem of finance. The government declined to contribute, so the cost of £108,000 was raised by public subscription. The Queen and the Prince provided £1,500. There was opposition to the use of the Hyde Park site. Led by a vociferous MP, claims were made that too many trees would have to be felled. So instead... At present, I'm more dead than alive from overwork. The opponents of the exhibition work with might and main to drive myself crazy. On completion, the Crystal Palace covered 16 acres, was three times the length of St Paul's Cathedral, and made up of 293,000 panes of glass. It had been put up from scratch in six months. But 100,000 exhibits had still to arrive from Britain and the four corners of the world for the opening in May 1851. Everybody is occupied with the great day of tomorrow, and my poor Albert is terribly fagged. Calculable trouble is the arrangements for the opening. This day is one of the greatest and most glorious days of our lives, with which, to my pride and joy, dearly beloved Albert is forever associated. The glimpse through the iron gates of the transept, the waving palms and flowers, the myriads of people filling the galleries, together with the flourish of trumpets as we entered the building, gave a sensation I shall never forget, and I felt much moved. Among the ambassadors at the opening was a mysterious Chinaman, dressed in satin, who repeatedly bowed to the Queen. Thankfully, Victoria included him in the procession. He Sing turned out to be an imposter. He was the owner of a Chinese junk moored on the Thames, who pushed his way to the front. The exhibition was the greatest treasure trove of industry, art and science the world had ever seen. British exhibits filled the entire western nave, and foreign ones took up the eastern half. The Indian section was a cornucopia of gems, silks, cottons and great crowns in precious metal. There were elephant tusks and tiger skins. The most popular exhibit was in the French section, a fountain of eau de cologne that ran continuously. Then there was the latest engine by James Watt, possessing the collective power of 700 horses. A floating church for seafarers. The Koh-i-Noor dam. A soda water machine. A boat easily converted into a comfortable mattress. Or safety life belt. An India rubber bath. Wigs that had built-in ventilation. And a set of false teeth enabling the wearer to yawn. Country's entire population was only 23 million. Prince Albert was able to write with satisfaction. The crowds at the exhibition are bigger each day. On the financial side, we naturally stand very well. Profits from the great exhibition were £186,000. And Prince Albert wanted the money to encourage new design in British industry. The catalyst for the new schools of design would be a great cluster of museums in Kensington. His ideas led to the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum for Arts and Design, and the Albert Hall for Music and Science Exhibition. Although they weren't completed in his lifetime, the museums remained Prince Albert's greatest legacy to this country. And they extended the influence of science, art and design upon industry as a whole. An event in February 1849 confirmed once again the Queen's need for more privacy and security. One of her sketchbooks was stolen from Windsor Castle and the contents published in a popular newspaper. The Times thundered. Let the Queen of Great Britain be able to sit down to her piano or sketchbook with the same security against intrusion as any other lady in her life. At around this time, the royal couple acquired the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. Its remote location was deliberately chosen to shield the Queen from repeated intrusion by the London press and to ease the Prince's increasing exhaustion. Instead, of course, Prince Albert demolished the old castle and in three years designed and put up a new one, the Balmoral of today. He wrote... The new house is up one storey and with its dressed granite, promises to present a noble appearance. The work is terribly hard. The Queen wrote... Every year my heart becomes more fixed in this dear paradise, now that all has become my dear Albert's own creation, own work, own building, own laying out, as at Osborne. Balmoral was the couple's favourite place of escape. They reveled in the healthy climate and scaled the great surrounding hills. Highland life really captured their imagination and they became a little bit more Scottish on every visit. Just as Prince Albert had helped introduce the German Christmas to Windsor, so at Balmoral, the royal couple lived out the romantic Scottish image of tartans, kilts, along with Karl Haag. Even the ghillies were painted. Balmoral was always in form and it was here that Queen Victoria appears to have made up for the childhood she'd missed. It was wonderful not seeing a human being nor hearing a sound, excepting that of the wind or the call of the black cock or grouse. One of Queen Victoria's favourite houses and certainly the most modest was here at Otnadússeg on the shores of Lochmeyck, about seven miles from the castle. There were two ghillies cottages and when the family wanted to be informal, they came and stayed here on one side, which was joined by a covered passage to the other cottage where the servants were. The Queen wrote, with the washing and cooking and everything going on in a line with one's own dwellings. Caught painters recorded the Queen fishing and stalking deer. She was taught by local tenants. A salmon was speared here by one of the men, after which we were very successful. Seven salmon being caught, some in the net and some speared. The scene at this beautiful spot was exciting and picturesque in the extreme. I wished for Lancia's pencil. Idyllic Lancia paintings captured life of Balmoral for the royal couple and the normally restrained Prince Albert became more lyrical in his writing. We have withdrawn for a short time into a complete mountain solitude, where one rarely sees a human face, where the snow already covers the mountaintops and the wild deer come creeping around the house. I, naughty man, have also been crawling after the harmless stags and today I shot two red deer. Suddenly, while he was at the height of his powers, Prince Albert found himself in a very vulnerable position. In 1853, public opinion swung violently against him over an issue of patriotism. It became known that the Prince had advised the Queen against sending a British force to the Crimea to stop Russian expansion in the eastern Mediterranean. It is too much that one man and he, not an Englishman by birth, should be ministrations. Nevertheless, the controversy soon died down once the royal couple bowed to popular will and supported the expedition against Russia. Initially, the Crimean campaign was a disaster for the British army. The men soon became bogged down in trench warfare around the landing port of Balaclava and they weren't dressed or equipped for fighting on Russian soil. There were no proper field hospitals and the dead were buried in rows by the ships in port. William Russell, the Times correspondent at the front, was the first to reveal the incompetence of the expedition. This army has melted away almost to a drop of miserable, washed out, worn out, spiritless wretches who muster out of 55,000 just 11,000 fit to shoulder a musket. It is with feelings of surprise and anger that the public will learn that no sufficient medical preparations have been made for the proper care of the wounded. It's interesting to note that my old regiment, the 11th Czars, which had escorted Prince Albert from Dover to London when he came to marry Queen Victoria, found itself 14 years later leading the charge of the Light Brigade. That charge effectively ended the Battle of Balaclava. Out of 110 officers and men who galloped into the Russian line, less than a quarter returned. The army was in a mess. The Queen, concerned about morale, regularly visited those wounded who were fit enough to be evacuated. Meanwhile, the Prince was approached by certain senior officers and asked to reorganize the whole structure of the army. I hazard the opinion that our army, as at present organized, can hardly be called an army at all, but a mere aggregate of battalions of infantry with some regiments of cavalry and an artillery regiment. Prince Albert's intervention turned out to be crucial. The army wasn't organized for grand foreign expeditions, so he devised a system of supply bases leading all the way to the battlefields of the Crimea. They had to start in the south of England, so first he looked for open land that was close to railways and embarkation ports and could be used for manoeuvres, and the base at Aldershot came into being. Prince Albert advocated the setting up of hospitals at the main supply port of Wallachia.