Queen Victoria

book reviews Queen Victoria Giles St. Aubyn. Queen Victoria: A Portrait. London: Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd. 1991. 669 pp. £19.95 IN HIS "Notes on Sources," Giles St. Aubyn asserts that Lady Elizabeth Longford's magisterial biography, Victoria, R. L, is "the envy and despair of those who venture to follow her." Longford's achievement is certainly a difficult "act" to follow and to surpass, but St. Aubyn's effort comes close to equalling Victoria, R. I. in readability and in portraying the Queen as a very ordinary lady who possessed a fine sense of humor and, contrary to impressions of her as a grim and dour little woman, greatly enjoyed life. Unlike Lady Longford, St. Aubyn eschewed archival sources and based his study on primary and secondary published sources, which he has used admirably, and mastered the "genealogical mare's nest" which any study of the life of Queen Victoria necessitates. Hence, quite properly, three genealogical tables which clarify the Queen's "Maternal Relations," "Paternal Relations," and "Children and Grandchildren" precede the narrative. Of the ten chapters which comprise the book, the last five deal with the years 1861—1901 in Victoria's life and are in many ways the most interesting part of her long life and reign. And this is as it should be because the late Victorian era was crucial for Britain and its empire— these were the decades when the nation reached its apogee and began its decline. It was during these years that Victoria exercised her royal prerogatives to decisively influence as well as to reign. As St. Aubyn remarks, "There is hardly a page of the political history of... Victoria's reign which does not impress" and he credits her with inspiring such important Parliamentary legislation as the Public Worship Regulation Act (1874), the Vivisection Act (1876), the Royal Tithes Act (1876), and the law providing for the verdict "Guilty but Insane" (1883). He also notes that "in spite of her marked dislike for . . . the [suffragist] movement, the Queen's life and example provided great impetus for Témale Emancipation'." Queen Victoria greatly influenced the appointment of several Prime Ministers, Cabinet ministers, and at least one Archbishop, and was largely responsible for excluding some politicians from office. However, she was also responsible for the loss of some of the royal prerogatives which she had inherited and so jealously sought to preserve. Nor was she impartial—she loathed Lord Palmerston and even more so William 507 ELT : VOLUME 35:4 1992 Gladstone (whom she endured as Prime Minister four times between 1868 and 1894). But more important are the facts: (1) that as a result of her numerous progeny and their marriages (which he had a great hand in arranging) and breeding between the 1870s and 1901 the Queen/Empress became the very real "Grandmother of Europe" and, as such, the "acknowledged head of the Europeans' royal family" and (2) that by her hard work, informal family life, and sense of duty was at least "the role model" for the royal families of Europe. Thus, by 1914, almost all of the monarchs in Europe were related to Victoria, but, unfortunately, this affinity did not prevent them from going to war against each other. As the Queen/Empress aged between 1887 and 1901, the more she enjoyed life. Well past the age of seventy, Victoria still loved to dance and "neither age nor infirmity seemed to impair her vigour" and her ability to joke about her age. She robustly travelled long hours and great distances without showing the least fatigue. Indeed, toward the end of her life, Victoria's vigor seemed to increase and she continued to work well into the night and early morning hours on her dispatch boxes. She actually seemed to draw strength from knowing how she was revered by her subjects and the "mellowing influence of age" appeared to make her more charitable and forgiving. Victoria liked the theatre, operas, and comedies and began the royal practice of "command performances." In fact she faced old age and its infirmities "intrepidly." Crippled by rheumatism during the last decade of her life, the Queen "made wonderfully light" of her condition and her mind remained...