The Prince was thoughtful; he knew this was sound advice.
‘I will do this,’ he said. ‘But I can never discuss affairs of state with the Queen. Whenever I attempt to, she changes the subject and talks of something quite frivolous. Yet she can be closeted for an hour at a time with Lord Melbourne. There seems to be a conspiracy between them to keep me out.’
‘The Queen’s relationship with Lord Melbourne is an unusual one. Her Majesty came to the throne at the age of eighteen – a young impressionable girl with a determination to be a good queen. Her Prime Minister was Lord Melbourne – a man of social grace and great charm – worldly in the extreme. The Queen was immediately impressed by him. In her eyes he could do no wrong. Indeed, at one time some people thought she might marry Lord Melbourne.’
The Prince was startled and looked alarmed.
‘Ah,’ went on Stockmar. ‘I see I am right and you have not made yourself cognizant of affairs in this country. You should not feel jealous of Lord Melbourne. He has a subtle mind and he understands the position perfectly. He knew there was never any question of marriage between them and so did the Queen. She never knew her father, and consequently looked for a father in other men. Her relationship with your Uncle Leopold was one of the most passionate devotion on both sides and adoration as well on hers. When your Uncle Leopold was no longer there she turned to Lord Melbourne. But these were the father figures. You are the husband. All that passionate devotion will be yours in due course providing you know how to divert it in your direction. At the moment the Queen loves you devotedly. Everyone realises that she is madly in love with her husband. But in the same way as Lord Melbourne weaned her from Leopold so you will wean her from Melbourne. Everything is on your side and if you behave in the right manner you will be more whole-heartedly loved than ever Leopold or Melbourne were.’
‘I know she has a loving nature.’
‘She is overflowing with affection. She is good. You have in fact a wonderful wife but she is also a queen. She has been brought up with this knowledge and she has a sacred dedication to her duty. You are the most fortunate of young men to have such a wife and to be the husband of such a queen. But there are difficulties ahead which you will overcome. Your appearance is in your favour. It enchants the Queen, who is susceptible to good-looking people. Your calm and cautious character will stand you in good stead. You are her perfect complement. Your calm will always win against her violent temper. It is her chief fault and her great disadvantage. She loses her temper; you keep yours. Calm always wins over tempest. Remember that.’
‘I am sure your advice is sound and I am greatly cheered by it.’
‘Well, now a plan of action. You are going to make yourself knowledgeable politically. Lord Melbourne is difficult to approach because he is so much the Queen’s man. But what of Sir Robert Peel?’
‘The Queen hates him.’
Stockmar laughed. ‘Peel is a brilliant statesman. He has been a little piqued by the affair of the Bedchamber a year or so ago. Who would not be? The Queen behaved in a very unconstitutional manner. You must read accounts of this. I will see that they come to your hands. But for the chivalry of Melbourne and the dignity of Peel the Queen could have been in a difficult position over that affair. And following so closely on the Flora Hastings scandal it made Her Majesty very unpopular. These are matters which you must study. The Queen, like most young monarchs, does not yet understand the importance of pleasing the people. Her very crown depends on it. That is something you will be able to teach her. In the meantime cultivate the men who, though they may not be governing the Country now, will be doing so in a very short time. Are you aware that the fall of the Melbourne Ministry is imminent? When it falls there will be a Tory Government. There must be no repetition of the Bedchamber affair. You will have to save the Queen from that folly. And when the new government comes in you may well be on friendly terms with the new Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel.’
‘Why, it sounds like treachery towards Victoria.’
‘My dear Albert, you and I have no thought in our heads but to serve the Queen. This is the very best we can do for her. She will have to accept Sir Robert in due course; and she will do so because you will have taught her her duty towards her government and her country. You will even – in due course – help her to overcome this ridiculous – and between ourselves childish – dislike of one of the greatest statesmen of all time.’
‘Baron, I begin to see that there is hope for me.’
‘No one’s future was ever more bright or hopeful,’ said the Baron.
Albert did not find it difficult to strike up a friendship with Sir Robert Peel and to his great pleasure he discovered that the Leader of the Opposition was a man whom he could understand. There was a similarity in their characters. Peel was quite unlike Lord Melbourne, the handsome social success, being scarcely handsome and without social grace. His speech was direct and to the point; he was an idealist, the last description which could be applied to Lord Melbourne.
Albert’s study of politics had taught him that Peel was a reformer. He had brought in the Bill for Catholic Emancipation and revised the Laws of Offences against Persons; also the forgery laws. He had created the Metropolitan Police Force. Clearly a man of ideas and courage, Sir Robert Peel was incorruptible; his sense of duty came before personal glory; he was a man whom Albert could not only understand but admire. Moreover, and this was a factor which had begun to have considerable weight with Albert, his private life was exemplary. Lord Melbourne’s had been far from that. Although everyone seemed to have forgotten it, Melbourne’s married life with Lady Caroline Lamb had been most unsavoury (although it was long since over, for she had died some years ago) and he had later been involved in two divorce cases. To have been concerned in one would have been quite shocking in Albert’s eyes, but two! It seemed hardly possible that Lord Melbourne could be guiltless. Albert did not believe that people became concerned in such affairs by chance. And this was the man whom Victoria trusted as she trusted no other.
Now Sir Robert Peel was devoted to his wife, who shared his secrets and ambitions as all wives and husbands should; they had five sons and two daughters – a pleasant family.
Moreover, Sir Robert was pleased to talk to the Prince. There was none of that slightly patronising manner which he fancied he had detected with Lord Melbourne. Stockmar’s advice was good. Politics were interesting; moreover they gave him something to do.
He could never mention Sir Robert to the Queen, though she was constantly talking of Lord Melbourne to him, holding him up as a sort of oracle.
Albert thought a great deal about the political situation. Peel had told him that an election would be inevitable very soon. The Whigs were holding on by the skin of their teeth and in fact it was only the Queen’s favour which kept them in. Peel was, Albert realised in the light of his newly acquired knowledge, referring to the Bedchamber Affair, but the Leader of the Opposition could not talk of this in detail to the Prince because it put the Queen in such a bad light.
An election before long and Peel the new Prime Minister seemed an excellent prospect to the Prince. It saddened him, though, to realise that what seemed so desirable to him was the last thing the Queen wanted.
He believed that he should try to influence her a little, subtly attempt to make her realise that her dislike of Peel was unworthy of her; and he decided to make the attempt as they sat at tea together. Victoria enjoyed presiding over the tea pot ‘like an ordinary housewife’, she said. She liked to pour out the tea ‘just as you like it, dearest Albert’. It was wonderful, she told him, how he had taken to the English tea-drinking custom. It was so civilised.