“Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace” by Amanda Foreman and Lucy Peter

Two weeks after becoming queen, the 18-year-old Victoria moved the household from Kensington Palace to Buckingham Palace. The new home was still a work in progress; it had been a country estate until William IV convinced Parliament to fund an expansion. The money ran out before it was finished and then William died.

It would be Victoria and her soon-to-be husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg to complete the palace to the point where it would be recognizable today. But as Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace makes clear, they did more than finish a building. Victoria and Albert turned the palace into an icon of the royal family and Britain in general. 

Written by Amanda Foreman and Lucy Peter, the book serves as the catalog and introduction to the “Queen Victoria’s Palace” exhibition which concluded yesterday. The exhibition was staged in honor of the 200^th anniversary of Victoria’s birth. The book, however, is more than an exhibition souvenir; it stands on its own as a succinct account of how Victoria and Albert transformed Buckingham Palace. 

The transformation was profound. What had been a “country townhouse” for Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, would become a family home, a venue for grand state occasions, and a symbol of the British monarchy. The vision for the palace would outlast Victoria’s self-imposed exile at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after Albert’s death from what was likely typhoid in 1861. Even after she returned more than a decade later, she generally refused to host any event similar to what she and Albert had done together. It was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli who suggested she host something that was entirely different – and it became one of the best known events associated with the palace and the royal family: the summer garden party.

The book makes generous use of the photographs, paintings, and artifacts maintained by the Royal Collections Trust. And it includes far more than Victoria’s dresses. We can see paintings and drawings of the royal children, the fancy costume balls, the prime ministers, the state events, how the palace structure grew, and what many of the state and private rooms looked like.

Amanda Foreman

Foreman is a historian, columnist, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the History Department at the university of Liverpool. She is the author of the prize-winning best sellers Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire: A Epic History of Two Nations Divided; Georgiana’s World; and the forthcoming The World Made by Women: A History of Women from the Apple to the Pill. She lives in New York. Lucy Peter is assistant curator of Paintings for the Royal Collection Trust and co-author of Portrait of the Artist and Royal Childhood. She lives in London. 

Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace is a well-written and well-researched account of how a building became what is likely the most recognizable symbol of Great Britain.

Top photograph: Lucy Peter with one of the dresses include in the Queen Victoria exhibition at the palace.

"Victoria" by Daisy Goodwin

I’ve been hooked on the “Victoria” television series starting with season 1, episode 1 (showing on PBS Masterpiece Theater in the United States). We’re now three seasons done, and a fourth is coming. And it’s no mystery as to why the series has been successful – a fascinating story, top-notch actors, excellent production values, and a good script.

The series begin the U.K. in 2016, and Daisy Goodwin is the screenwriter and developer of the fictionalized series. With an eye to possible tie-ins, Goodwin wrote the novel Victoriaat the same time she was writing the television script. It’s no surprise that the novel often reads like a script. It’s also no surprise that you know exactly what the characters look like, because the television series has permanently planted them in your brain. 

The novel tracks the series closely, and especially the first season, covering the time of Victoria’s ascension to the throne to her engagement to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. And the book focuses on the key royal and government players – Victoria, her mother, the prime minister Lord Melbourne, various ladies in waiting, King Leopold of Belgium, the Duke of Wellington, and the two Saxe-Coburg brothers, Ernst and Albert. What the novel doesn’t emphasize is the “downstairs” staff, who are mentioned almost in passing but treated more fully in the TV program. 

The theme, beyond the historical facts, is the development of a young woman, still a teenager when she becomes queen, from an insecure girl to a more confident young woman, determined to resist the influence of her mother’s advisor. She makes mistakes; she interferes with the government when she prefers to hold on to “Lord M” as prime minister; she’s often ridiculed by so-called friends and family, behind her back, of course. Guided and advised mostly by Melbourne, who sees her perceptiveness and rather fine mind, she grows in maturity,

What the novel provides that is often barely acknowledged in the television program (TV does have its limits) is the historical detail, including how she came to be the heir to the throne. Her father, the Duke of Kent, was the sixth son of George III, and his older brothers died without children. The next in line was the Duke of Cumberland, who apparently bitterly resented this mere slip of a girl standing in his way to the throne. 

Daisy Goodwin

And the novel provides considerably more detail on King Leopold, who had been married to Charlotte, Princess of Wales and the only legitimate child of George IV. Charlotte died in childbirth, and so the scramble began among George IV’s brothers. Leopold, a Saxe-Coburg, was invited to become king of Belgium; his sister was Victoria’s mother. He may have been the Belgian king, but Leopold was determined to promote the interests of his Saxe-Coburg family, and it was he who pushed his nephew Albert for Victoria’s husband.

Goodwin, an accomplished author and screenwriter, has published a number of books, including the historical novels My Last Duchess, The Fortune Hunter, The American Heiress, and The Duchess’s Tattoo. She’s also written the novel Silver River and published two poetry anthologies. Her sequel novel to Victoria, Victoria and Albert: A Royal Love Affair, was published in 2017. She lives in London.

If you’re a fan of the television series, then Victoria the novel is well worth reading, as an interesting story in and of itself and to fill in the gaps necessarily left by the program. 

Top photograph: Tom Hughes as Prince Albert and Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria in the television program "Victoria."

Dancing King Stories: The Victoria Memorial

Queen Victoria died in 1901, after the longest reign by any British monarch (a record broken only by Queen Elizabeth II). To honor her memory, a memorial was designed that same year. The central monument – what most tourists think of as the Victoria Memorial– was constructed between 1906 and 1911. The memorial was not completed until 1924.

The entire semi-circular design as constructed in front of Buckingham Palace includes the Dominion Gates (the Canada Gate, the Australia Gate, and the South and West Africa Gates); the Memorial Gardens; and the central monument, built of 2,300 tons of Carrara marble and comprised of the monument atop a staired terrace.

Many a time have I walked around those gardens and not realized they’re part of the overall Victoria Memorial.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Top photograph: a panoramic view of the gardens, monument, and Buckingham Palace.