The Rebirth Of The British Monarchy: Victoria And Albert

Coronated in 1837, Queen Victoria reigned during one of the greatest periods of change in human history. At the time, the Age of Revolutions -and with it, the First Industrial Revolution- was coming to an end. Just over half a century earlier, the American Revolution had challenged British authority and allowed the United States to form a republic independent from Britain, and America’s rapid growth in the eighteenth century proved that nations could thrive without a monarchy. Fourteen years later, the French Revolution had followed suit, violently deposing France’s monarchy and ancien regime society in favour of a merit-based republic that allowed it to become Europe’s leading military power in the early 1800s. At the same time, Britain was being reshaped by the Industrial Revolution’s rapid economic and technological growth, which in turn created a prosperous middle class. However, British laws were slow to react to this change, and voting rights remained restricted to the land-owning elite. This became a source of significant civil unrest, and as a result, the British Parliament was pressured into passing the Reform Act of 1832 in response. Even though the Reform Act failed to significantly change voting representation, and the French Revolution was partially reversed in 1814, these events served as a warning of what was to come. Further revolutionary waves in 1830 and 1848, along with the development of social movements such as Chartism and Reformism, proved that the monarchy would have to change if it was going to survive.

To make matters more complicated, the British monarchy had long been plagued by scandals and immoral behaviour. George II kept at least thirteen mistresses and fathered up to seventeen illegitimate children. George IV had fathered six illegitimate children, and exorbitant spending habits had made him so unpopular that upon his death, obituaries claimed “there never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures than this deceased King' and that 'his only noteworthy trait was his selfishness. ” William IV, Victoria’s direct predecessor, played a vital role in passing the Reform Act of 1832, but he was “personally opposed to parliamentary reform” while leaving no legitimate heirs upon his death, despite having ten illegitimate children. Additionally, many of them were famously addicted to alcohol, and the royal family had shown little interest in progress in the face of growing social unrest. As a result of their “high and wild behaviour,” by 1837 the monarchy was neither popular nor respected.

This immoral behaviour was not exclusive to the royal family, however, as these issues were equally prevalent in the lower classes of British society. A “steep rise in illegitimacy” swept the British isles between 1740 and 1850, and during this period illegitimate births rose from 1. 7% of all births in the late seventeenth century to nearly 6% by 1800. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act was passed partially as a response to this but failed to significantly improve conditions. Similarly, the London Gin Craze of the mid-1700s had set off an alcohol crisis that lasted well into Victoria’s reign, with some claims suggesting that as many as half of all London citizens were addicted to alcohol. Many believed that the rise of alcoholism was a growing epidemic and a symptom of greater problems that existed within British society, and alcohol addiction was not seen as a disease but as a flaw of character.

While popular at first due to her presumed political innocence, “it quickly became clear that Victoria would do nothing to change the political status quo. ” Scandals in 1839 such as the Bedchamber Crisis and Flora Hastings Affair severely hurt Victoria's reputation, and her loyalty to Prime Minister Lord Melbourne in the face of his marital scandal resulted in accusations of corruption. At the same time, the Chartist movement was just beginning to gain traction, with riots breaking out in November of 1839. In fact, the monarchy became so unpopular during this period that there were four assassination attempts made on Victoria’s life in the first four years of her reign alone. As one newspaper claimed, news of court scandals “had become a powerful agent in the machine of revolution,” and some elements of the Chartist movement even began to support republicanism in the wake of these events. If the monarchy were to survive, it was becoming apparent it would “have to be respected, but to be respected, it must [first] become respectable. ”

The monarchy began to obtain this respectability would eventually begin to come about after Victoria’s 1840 marriage to Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Although Albert was seen as a foreigner and was never popular in Britain, the marriage marked a pivotal turning point in Victoria’s reign, for “it was Albert, not Victoria, who had strong moral values, and he steadily impressed these on her. ” Albert firmly believed that the Royal Family should set an example for the rest of the country, and Victoria soon began to believe the same. Albert’s direct involvement with various social movements, such as the Society for the Extinction of Slavery, provided them with an “authenticity that they previously lacked,” and his interest in the sciences led him to arrange the 1851 Great Exhibition, which significantly increased the prestige and legitimacy of the British Empire. Victoria and Albert oversaw numerous social reforms, such as the Public Health Act of 1848, and they were able to set new standards of etiquette for the British court that were higher than those of rival courts, and “ministers soon knew that unbecoming behaviour would be heavily criticized by the Queen. ” In 1846, during the Irish Potato Famine, Victoria was able to pressure Parliament into repealing the controversial Corn Laws. While this led to the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Peel and split the Tory Party, it also improved the Irish’s opinion of her, and she was well-received when she took part in a royal visit to Ireland in 1849.

This shift in their reputation was possible because the public believed that their relationship was authentic. While Albert and Victoria were known to argue relatively often, they genuinely cared for each other. Their wedding was a wildly popular event, and while Victoria’s devotion to her husband was not completely reciprocated, he was still affectionate towards her. This sincerity was a rarity among royal marriages, which were often arranged for political reasons without any regard for compatibility. Their nine children served as evidence of their affection, and the large size of the family was a relief for the British public as it allowed the country to avoid a succession crisis like those that had happened to Victoria’s predecessors. Additionally, despite having experienced troubled childhoods themselves, Victoria and Albert were dedicated parents. Although they did not always have a positive relationship with their children and often set unreasonably high expectations on them, the family spent a considerable amount of time together at their rural Osborne House. As children of the nobility were usually raised by nannies and private tutors during this period, these actions were well documented by the press.

Portrait paintings -later photographs- were used to a wide extent to influence public opinion, and Queen Victoria was arguably the first royal to use her public image as a political weapon. While portraits of monarchs traditionally focused on extravagant displays of wealth, beauty, and power, their portraits were fundamentally different and were relatively modest. They focused on aspects of their lives that would make them appear relatable to the general public, such as their involvement in family activities, and in stark contrast to the vibrant reds and blues that dominated most royal attire, Victoria and Albert often wore relatively plain clothing that was closer to that of the lower classes. In 1860 and 1861, the family posed for a series of carte de visites photographs that were sold to the general public and emphasized their familial roles. Both these and the portrait paintings proved wildly popular, and were so effective that by the time of her death, Victoria was the most painted public figure in history.

Over the course of the two decades they spent together, Albert and Victoria were able to set a moral standard for the people of Britain to follow by serving as examples of this themselves. While Victoria’s public image would suffer as she went into a period of seclusion following Albert’s death in 1861, she would eventually recover to become more popular than ever before in time for her Golden and Diamond jubilees, and the culture that they were able to develop together outlasted both of them. At least partially as a direct result of their efforts, British society drastically improved over the course of Victoria’s reign. British alcohol consumption dropped steadily in the years between 1860 and 1935, and after peaking in 1844, illegitimate birth rates dropped rapidly in the subsequent decades.

While many other European leaders struggled to find their role in the rapidly-changing eighteenth century, Victoria was able to last longer than any British monarch that came before her, in the process serving as a symbol of stability in a period otherwise defined by radical change and social turmoil. While the British monarchy had already lost most of its political power by the time Victoria ascended to the throne, through a dedication to high moral and social standards, Victoria and Albert were able to guide the British nation forward.