had arrested a young man, Edward Oxford.
Intriguingly, they also uncovered letters at
his house about a revolutionary secret society
named Young England. Oxford claimed that
its 400 members included the king of Hano-
ver – who would have assumed the throne had
Victoria died – and even Lord Palmerston, the
foreign secretary. It turned out to be a figment
of his imagination, but it fuelled Victoria’s
interest in intelligence, secrecy and intrigue.Read letter days
Four years later, as undercover policing
was evolving in Britain, a major spy scandal
erupted. Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian
revolutionary living in London, was commu-
nicating with others fomenting revolt in
Calabria. Convinced that the British govern-
ment was opening his mail, he tested his
theory by placing strands of hair, poppy seeds
and grains of sand in envelopes, sealing them
with wax and sending them to himself. Sure
enough, they arrived sealed – but without
their telltale contents. Incensed, Mazzini
alerted a political ally, radical MP Thomas
Slingsby Duncombe, who presented a
petition about the issue to parliament.
As word of this incident spread, MPs
expressed outrage about this political
espionage. Such underhand practices, one
thundered, were “singularly abhorrent to the
genius of the English people”. Soon the home
secretary acquired the unflattering nickname“Fouché”, after Napoleon’s police chief who
was infamous for his use of political spies.
In the palace, Victoria was unmoved. She
both sympathised with her royal relatives
across Europe who faced violent republican
revolutionaries, and was unsurprised by the
exposés, having become an experienced
reader of intercepted letters herself. She wrote
in her diary that some were “most imperti-
nent”, others “curious”, while some simply
made her laugh. She just could not under-
stand the hysteria provoked by the Mazzini
affair, declaring that the home secretary
“must have, in moments of difficulty”, the
ability to intercept letters.
At the time, republicanism was on the rise.
By 1848, revolutions sweeping across Europe
were existentially challenging monarchical
rule. The British government adopted a
position of procrastination and pragmatic
neutrality, quietly enjoying the chaos in the
capitals of its European competitors. Victoria,
by contrast, was agitated. She read report
after report from well-placed relatives
describing murder across the continent, and
worried about the ease with which the
revolutions were unfolding.
She was particularly livid when she found
out that Palmerston had authorised a covert
operation to secretly sell arms to Sicilian
rebels fighting against the king of Naples,
scrawling in her diary that she was “startled
[to learn that] this was done and sanctioned
by Lord Palmerston!!” Her private sources
told her that leaders across Europe now
assumed Britain was covertly supporting
rebellion everywhere. In damage-limitation
mode, she pushed (albeit unsuccessfully) for
Palmerston’s resignation.
Victoria demanded that her government
take the threat from revolutionaries based in
London more seriously. Her royal intelli-
gence – a network of agents, but also her
family and friends across the European
capitals, especially in Germany – warned her
of “rumours of plots directed from London”
aiming for the “assassination of all mon-
archs”. Her relatives begged her to intervene
and instruct her government to step up
surveillance or deportation. After hearing of
violence in Vienna, she feared for her “dear
ones” stuck in the “possession of the mob”,
and didn’t mince her words: “These horrible
Republicans should be exterminated.”
Frustrated at the lack of action, Victoria
increasingly turned to her own sources when-
ever her dynastic interests clashed with those
of the government. In the late 1850s and
1860s, this led her to use a rather special spy
in the palace in Prussia. After her eldest
daughter, Princess Victoria (“Vicky”),
married the future king of Prussia and
GE German emperor Frederick (“Fritz”) in 1858,
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London-based Italian revolutionary Giuseppe
Mazzini, whose discovery that his letters were
being intercepted sparked a major spy scandal#UJQVKPVJGRCTM
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the pregnant Victoria as her
carriage passes Green Park in- This failed assassination
attempt fuelled the queen’s
interest in intelligence