|
14 December 1861
Prince Albert dies
Previous event | Timeline
| Next event 
Prince Albert dies of typhoid,
aged 42, leaving Queen Victoria inconsolable.
She goes into deep mourning, and for the first few weeks, she will not
even attend the Privy Council, instead sending messages to her ministers
via a go-between. She attends no public events for years, and the Prince
of Wales and his wife take over her court duties. She spends almost all
her time in seclusion in the royal castles and later resents Prime Minister Gladstone's efforts to draw her back
into public life.
Victoria's popularity suffers. People nickname her the 'Widow
of Windsor', and rumours fly about her relationship with John Brown,
a Scottish ghillie who has joined her household. Pamphlets are published
criticising her, and radical MP Charles Dilke calls for the abolition
of the monarchy.
However, in 1871, after the Prince of Wales narrowly survives typhoid,
the public regain their loyalties to the monarchy and rally behind their
queen again. Victoria commissions the Albert Memorial, an extravagantly
gilded statue in London that shows Albert seated on a throne, holding
the catalogue to the Great Exhibition.
Top
|
