cleopatrasdaughter: history meme - relationships 1/ 7 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s love story
cleopatrasdaughter: history meme - relationships 1/ 7 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s love story is considered one of the greatest of the royal history. They met when they were both seventeen years old. Reserved Albert wrote how greatly he became absolutely fond of her: “Victoria is very amiable. .. Victoria & myself, both at the age of 17, were much pleased with each other.” Victoria, much more excited, was head over heels for him: “Albert, who is just as tall as Ernest but stouter, is extremely handsome ..They [Albert and Ernst] have both learnt a good deal, and are very clever, naturally clever, particularly Albert, who is the most reflecting of the two, and they like very much talking about serious and instructive things and yet are so very very merry and gay and happy, like young people ought to be; Albert used always to have some fun and some clever witty answer; he used to play and fondle Dash funnily, too…Dearest Albert was playing on the piano when I came down. At 11 dear Uncle, my dearest beloved Cousins….left us, accompanied by Count Kolowrat. I embraced both my dearest Cousins most warmly, as also my dear Uncle. I cried bitterly, very bitterly.” They continued correspondence afterwards, and Albert’s letter congratulating Victoria on her queenship and showing his support was extremely touching. Victoria, initially happy when she became queen, quickly became agitated and bored with the situation, and began to relent on her insistence that she remain single to retain power.Never forgetting one another, when they met again in 1839, Victoria and Albert’s passion for one other was afflamed, and Victora days later proposed to him. When they parted, Albert tenderly wrote to her: “Even in my dreams I never imagined that I should find so much love on earth.” When they married in 1840, they began their journey of a happy marriage of domestic life and love. Victoria wrote on her wedding night: “I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening! MY DEAREST, DEAR Albert sat on a footstool by my side, and his excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before. He clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again! His beauty, his sweetness and gentleness, – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!” Like all couples, they bickered, but they were always very supportive of each other. Albert particularly of the mental illness she suffered, and even though he wasn’t sometimes happy with how she treated their children, he stuck by her. When an assassin then tempted to murder Victoria, Albert put himself in front of the bullet’s range while swiftly placing Victoria’s head down to keep it from hitting. When Lehzen was essentially killing their daughter Vicky, Albert lamented “The welfare of my children and Victoria’s existence as sovereign are too sacred for me not to die fighting rather than yield them to prey for Lehzen.” Melbourne (who was the opposite of Albert, Lord M both very pro-slavery and s*xual sadist) advised him to let Lehzen stay to make a fool of herself and seal her fate, but Albert would not risk his child’s life. Eventually, Victoria agreed to let Lehzen go. Reflecting on Lord M and Lehzen, Victoria tellingly wrote: “The next day she (Victoria) pulled down some of her old diaries, perhaps to recall Lezhen’s part of her life, and came to a passage in 1839 where she had written of her ‘happiness’ with Melbourne. Now, with both Melbourne and Lezhen gone she noted ‘1st October, 1842. Wrote & looked over & corrected my old journals, which do not now awake very pleasant feelings. The life I led then was so artificial & superficial, & yet I thought I was happy. Thank God! I now know what real happiness means.’ They did not hide their deep affection from the world, as noted by Lady Augusta Bruce: “I never saw such tenderness… such gentleness, such tact as His… oh ! He is one in millions… well might She (Victoria) love Him as She did. I was so struck with his appreciation of Her. It was so true, and for One who is supposed to place intellect and reasoning powers above all, so remarkable.” Their diaries with exuberance detail and frequency speak of their true love and happiness. Albert tenderly reflected on his love for Victoria years later, passionately declaring: “The relation in which we stand to one another leaves nothing to desire. It is a union of heart and soul, and therefore noble, and in it the poor children shall find their cradle, so as to be able one day to ensure a like happiness for themselves.” After only twenty one years of blissful marriage and domestic life, with nine children, Albert succumbed to illness and died, to Victoria’s eternal devastation. She suffered greatly from her loss and particularly affected her mental illness, unable to even pick out bonnets because it was just too hard. All for the rest of her life, she laid out his clothes for him. -- source link