together they seized every formal and informal bit of influence the
monarchy had in the British Empire at that time. They were a pair of
workaholics and proud of it.
As Albert wrote to an advisor, he spent hours a day reading
newspapers in German, French, and English. “One can let nothing
pass,” he said, “without losing the connection and coming in
consequence to wrong conclusions.” He was right, the stakes were
certainly high. For instance, his expert understanding of geopolitics
helped Britain avoid being drawn into the U.S. Civil War.
But the truth was, Albert threw himself equally hard into projects
of much less importance. Organizing the Great Exhibition of 1851, a
nearly six-month-long carnival that showed off the wonders of the
British Empire, consumed years of his life. A few days before it
opened, he wrote to his stepmother, “I am more dead than alive from
overwork.” It was, to be certain, a beautiful and memorable event,
but his health never recovered.
He was like Winston Churchill, only he and his wife knew no
moderation and had little fun. “I go on working at my treadmill, as
life seems to me,” Albert said. It’s not a bad description of the
exhausting and repetitive life he and Victoria led. Starting in 1840,
Victoria bore nine children in seventeen years, four of whom were
born in consecutive years. In a time when women still regularly died
during childbirth (anesthesia—chloroform— became available only
for her eighth pregnancy), Victoria, who was a mere five feet tall, was
constantly pregnant. Even with the benefits of limitless household
help, she bore an enormous physical burden on top of her duties as
queen. Upon her death, it was found that she was suffering from a
prolapsed uterus and a hernia that must have caused her incredible
and constant pain.
There’s nothing wrong with having a large family—the throne did
need heirs—but it never seemed to have occurred to the couple that
they had any say in the matter. “Man is a beast of burden,” Albert
wrote to his brother, “and he is only happy if he has to drag his
burden and if he has little free will. My experience teaches me every
day to understand the truth of this more and more.” As a result, his
and Victoria’s existence was hardly one of privilege or relaxation or
freedom. It was instead an endless cycle of obligation after
barry
(Barry)
#1