So Louise became the future Duchess of Argyll.
Napoleon had now escaped to England and had joined the Empress and his son at Chislehurst. The Queen at once visited them there and wept with them for the loss of their position and assured them that as long as they needed a refuge it was theirs in England.
Almost immediately after Louise’s marriage Alix gave birth to another child. This time things did not go well. The child was weak and it was thought wise hastily to christen him. He was given the names Alexander John Charles Albert and the next day he died.
Alix was heart-broken. Life seemed to be going wrong for her. She had not yet recovered from the shock the Mordaunt case had given her, though often she asked herself why she should have been so distressed because something she had always known existed was brought out into the open.
Bertie was as kind and charming as he knew well how to be. They had lost little Alexander, he reminded her, but they had their two boys and three little girls and no one could say that was not a fine family. She tried to be comforted. After all, she had a fine family; and whatever his faults Bertie was always kind to her.
She planned a memorial window to the child to be placed in Sandringham church depicting Christ blessing the children.
The people, however, were determined to be dissatisfied. So the Princess had lost her baby. It was small wonder, was the verdict, when it was considered what anxieties she must suffer. Nobody was going to believe in the Prince’s innocence over the Mordaunt case. Why was he only cross-examined by the defending counsel? If Sergeant Ballantine had got at him it would have been a very different story. There was a special law of course for royalty.
Parliament were asking for an annuity for Prince Arthur and the radical party had so agitated against it that in the division fifty-four votes were cast against it.
It was quite obvious, said Mr Gladstone, that the royalty question was assuming alarming proportions. There was a wave of feeling against the monarchy and the fact that a Republic had so recently replaced a monarchy across the Channel was a pointer.
The Queen must emerge from her seclusion for this was at the root of the matter.
It was said that when she was in Scotland she took long drives; she walked; she even climbed hills; she visited the local people when they were sick and took great interest in the life of the neighbourhood; she even danced reels with her Highland servants; but continually she complained of ill health which prevented her from doing her duties in London.
‘She must return,’ said Mr Gladstone.
Was she to have no peace? she demanded. Overwork and anxieties killed that Noble Being, the Prince Consort. She was sure some of her ministers and her subjects would like to see her worn out in the same way.
Dr Jenner – that good faithful man – supported her. He assured Mr Gladstone that the Queen was in no position to take on a strenuous public life. At that time she was badly stung by a wasp and this seemed to set off a train of ailments. She was distracted by her neuralgia; and an abscess had developed in her arm. It was years since she had felt so ill – not since long ago before her accession to the throne when she had had typhoid fever.
The trouble was that having pleaded her inability to face the public because of her weak physical condition, now she was really ill people did not believe it. Reynolds’ Newspaper took up the attack with fervour. After commenting on the gambling habits of the Prince of Wales with reference to his amorous adventures, it turned on the Queen. A pamphlet was produced called What Does She Do With It? which referred to the Queen’s income. What did she do with all the money that was bestowed on her? How did she spend it, cooped up in Balmoral or Osborne, living her cosy quiet life with Mr John Brown in attendance?
Everyone was reading What Does She Do With It? and again Mr Gladstone stressed the danger of the situation. Vicky wrote that dear Mama must see what was happening and take the lesson of France to heart.
‘Do none of them understand that I am ill?’ cried the Queen. If only Mr Disraeli had been Prime Minister instead of that difficult Mr Gladstone! As it was there was no one who could comfort her but John Brown who told her to stop bothering her head about them and come for a nice little drive up to the Spital of Glenshee and he’d take some cold chicken and boil some potatoes and they’d have a drop of whisky with it, or claret if she preferred.
There were days when she was so ill that she could not walk without pain; then John Brown would lift her as easily as though she were a baby and carry her from her bed to her couch.
‘How strong you are, Brown!’ she would murmur.
‘Aye,’ he replied. ‘I manage. Ye’re still an armful, woman, but not what ye was.’
Indeed she had lost nearly two stone in weight. When those unfeeling people saw her they would realise how ill she had been and that this was no pretence.
But at least she had Brown to comfort her.
Alfred came up to Balmoral to see her. What a trial Alfred was! He was just as wild as Bertie but lacked Bertie’s charm. He began to make trouble as soon as he arrived and he and Brown were soon on bad terms. Brown’s habit of acting as a sort of guardian of her apartments irritated her family. Bertie had felt the same. They resented the fact that they, the Queen’s sons, had more or less to ask Brown’s permission to see the Queen.
‘Mama,’ Alfred said, ‘do you think it wise to allow Brown so many liberties?’
‘My dear Alfred,’ she replied, ‘pray do not presume to tell me how to manage my household. If you would only turn your attention to your own affairs they might be managed a good deal more satisfactorily than they are at present.’
This was a reference to one or two scrapes Alfred had got into with women. Alfred thought that was beside the point. Dalliance with women was a noble enough occupation; treating servants as friends closer than one’s own flesh and blood was not. But although it was easy to grumble about these matters in the Queen’s absence, it was not possible to do so in her formidable presence.
Vicky arrived with her children and she too was horrified by the ascendancy of John Brown.
Trouble came to a head when a band of musicians who had been playing for the servants to dance Highland reels irritated Alfred who ordered the music to stop. Brown wanted to know why the musicians had stopped playing and was told by the servants that the Duke of Edinburgh had ordered it.
‘It’s nae his place,’ declared Brown and commanded the musicians to start up again.
Alfred, discovering that his order had been countermanded by Brown, was furious. He demanded an apology from Brown who refused to give it.
Alfred stormed into his mother’s apartments. This was intolerable, he told her. He had been insulted by a servant.
The Queen listened and said: ‘Brown was in charge of the servants’ dancing. You should not have interfered.’
‘This is monstrous,’ cried Alfred.
‘Are you telling me that I don’t know how to manage my household?’
‘Certainly not, Mama, but this man Brown gives himself such airs. I think he’s drunk … with either spirits or power. His position here is invidious.’