Perhaps the most significant turning point in Queen Victoria's
life was the death of Prince Albert in December 1861. His death
sent Victoria into a deep depression, and she stayed in seclusion
for many years, rarely appearing in public. She mourned him by
wearing black for the remaining forty years of her life.
Albert's death came suddenly. In November 1861, he contracted typhoid
fever. He lay sick in bed for several weeks, finally succumbing
to the disease on December 14. He was only forty-two years old. Victoria
was devastated. She wrote to her daughter Victoria shortly afterwards:
"How I, who leant on him for all and everything—without whom I
did nothing, moved not a finger, arranged not a print or photograph,
didn't put on a gown or bonnet if he didn't approve it shall go
on, to live, to move, to help myself in difficult moments?"
The Queen turned mourning into the chief concern of her
existence the next several years. The Prince's rooms in their residences were
maintained exactly as he had them when he was alive. Her servants
were instructed to bring hot water into his dressing room every
day as they had formerly done for his morning shave. She had statues
made of him, displayed mementos of his around the royal palaces,
and she spent most of her time secluded in Windsor Castle or in
Balmoral up in Scotland, where she had formerly spent so many happy
times with her husband.
After the first year, her mourning came to be viewed by
many in Britain as obsessive, and public unease arose about the
Queen's state of mind and the state of the monarchy generally.
This unease was aggravated by Victoria's refusal to appear in public
except on the rarest occasions. She made her first public appearance
only on October 13, 1863, and then only to unveil a statue of Albert
at Aberdeen, Scotland. She appeared publicly in London on June
21, 1864, riding out through the streets in an open carriage. She
did not personally appear to open Parliament until the 1866 session,
and then only reluctantly.
In 1866, Victoria developed a curious relationship with
a Scottish servant of her household named John Brown. Brown had
been in service to the Queen for several years as a horse attendant,
but in the mid-1860s Victoria came to look upon him not so much
as a servant as a close friend. Brown was a Scottish highlander
who was proud of his heritage. Furthermore, he was rough and informal
in his manners, drank frequently, and had a thick Scottish accent.
His treatment of the Queen was often surprisingly casual, an attitude which
shocked those who saw them together. He was overheard calling her
"woman" on at least one occasion.
The Queen, however, adored Brown and spent hours at a
time with him. She soon gave him control of her household, including unique
access to the Queen. In July 1867, the Queen was scheduled to watch
a military review in Hyde Park, but her appearance was canceled
by her ministers after she had insisted that Brown stand by her
side during the event. The royal children came to resent his closeness
to their mother—especially during the Queen's illness in 1870 when
Brown was permitted to see her, and her own children were not.
Much gossip surrounded their unusual relationship. Some Britons
began to refer to the queen, jokingly, as "Mrs. Brown," others
said that he was acting as her spiritual medium, continually contacting
Prince Albert from the beyond.
