Character guide

Queen Victoria

major

Also known as Victoria, little Vic, The Queen, Vic, Alexandrina Victoria, Drina, the Princess Victoria

Victoria inherits a throne at eighteen and immediately becomes the still point of a swirling court, prized by a nation that values goodness above every other human quality. Her temperament fuses ingenuous warmth with an obstinacy her advisers find unnerving, and her devotion to duty shades into a severity that frowns on divorced ladies and remarried widows alike. Strachey follows her from girlish self-will through love, widowhood, and old age, so the early arc of her reign is really the forging of a character that will hold an empire together.

Prince Albert

major

Also known as Albert, Bertie, the Prince Consort, Prince Francis Charles Augustus Albert, Lovely Albert

Albert arrives in England as the answer to a dynastic plan, scrutinized by Stockmar and Leopold for the ambition and force of will a consort's career demands. He is intelligent, amiable, and full of noble resolutions, yet great exertion repels him and his good intentions too often dissolve into nothing. His courtship and early marriage matter because Victoria's happiness and the tone of her reign depend on whether this polished, self-sparing prince can grow into the grave vocation Europe has marked out for him.

Lord Melbourne

major

Also known as Melbourne, Lord M., M., William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne

At fifty-eight, Melbourne has inherited wealth, brilliance, and the premiership, and he moves through society as a captivating talker whose vaguenesses and oaths conceal a dubious, self-contradictory nature. His birth is shameful, his marriage to the impossible Lady Caroline a long, desperate failure, and he schemes distrustfully to do good. He rises suddenly on Victoria's horizon and dominates her early reign, so his influence over the inexperienced Queen becomes the central political and emotional relationship of the book's opening movement.

Sir Robert Peel

supporting

Also known as Peel, good Sir Robert

Peel steps forward to form a government and politely asks Victoria to surrender the female members of her household, a request that detonates her fury and stalls the whole formation of the ministry. Pompous, uneasy, and immovable, he pleads the constitution and Queens Regnant while the Queen refuses to yield a single Lady. His standoff with her matters because it forces the young monarch to learn, painfully, where the limits of her personal will meet the machinery of parliamentary government.

Lord Palmerston

supporting

Also known as Palmerston, Viscount Palmerston, H. J. Temple

Palmerston treats the sovereign's approval as a formality, dispatching policy in her name and leaving Victoria to field indignant letters from crowned heads she agrees with. His apologies are smooth, his promises hollow, and his habit of bypassing both the Queen and his own Prime Minister drives her to furious memoranda and complaints. He matters because he embodies the constitutional tug-of-war of the early reign, forcing Victoria and Albert to define what royal oversight of foreign policy can actually mean.

King Leopold

supporting

Also known as Leopold, Uncle Leopold, the wily old King

Leopold writes constantly to his niece, mixing endearments with hints about English foreign policy that he clearly hopes to steer. Victoria answers with unyielding respect: she loves her uncle, but his province is not hers, and her Ministers' business is not his. His running correspondence with her matters because it exposes the strange compound of childishness, pride, and fixed determination in the young Queen, and foreshadows the imperious temper that will harden as her reign proceeds.

Baron Stockmar

supporting

Also known as Stockmar, Christian Friedrich Stockmar, the Baron, young Dr. Stockmar

Stockmar moves between Leopold's household and Buckingham Palace as the quiet architect of the Coburg marriage, trusted by monarchs and mistrusted by courtiers. His loyalty is cautious rather than warm: he praises Albert's intelligence but frets that great exertion is repugnant to him, and that good resolutions too often come to nothing. Because he alone can translate private observation into royal strategy, his verdicts shape whether the Queen's marriage becomes a partnership or a liability.

Duchess of Kent

supporting

Also known as The new Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Kent, Victoire

The Duchess raised Victoria inside the Kensington System, keeping her close, dependent, and guarded from the court's corruptions. The moment her daughter became Queen, the long-awaited triumph curdled: Victoria's first request was an hour alone, her first order the removal of her bed from her mother's room. Shut out from influence yet surrounded by outward respect, the Duchess embodies the bitter irony of maternal devotion spent for a crown that excludes her.

Baroness Lehzen

supporting

Also known as Lehzen, Fraulein Lehzen, dear Lehzen, the Baroness Lehzen

Lehzen survived the fall of Conroy and the Duchess's eclipse to become the quiet victor of Kensington, her room adjoining the Queen's at Buckingham Palace. Narrow, jealous, provincial, she was also acute and vigorous, and her ascendancy over Victoria's private life blurred the line between the personal and the political. Her grip on the young sovereign sets up the contest with Albert, who will find her influence an obstacle to his own.

Benjamin Disraeli

supporting

Also known as Disraeli, Mr. Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, Earl of Beaconsfield

Disraeli's charm worked on the Queen where policy could not: his letters read like his best fiction, and she sent him flowers picked by her own hands. Their friendship, sealed by his brief 1868 ministry, gave Victoria a minister she trusted and a political ally she mourned losing. Against Gladstone's reforming zeal, Disraeli's warmth defines the emotional weather of her middle reign.

William Ewart Gladstone

supporting

Also known as Mr. Gladstone, William Ewart Gladstone

Gladstone arrives at the palace with a powerful majority and a conscience that answers to the Almighty rather than to the Crown. Where Disraeli charmed, Gladstone lectured; Victoria found his programmes of Irish, educational, and military reform an agitation she could neither halt nor forgive. Their mutual suspicion becomes the defining friction of her later political life, and his diary notes, without surprise, that her mind has been seriously warped.

Lord John Russell

supporting

Also known as Lord John

Russell gives voice to the nation's rapture at Victoria's accession, praying for abolition, education, and enlightened loyalty under a radiant girl-queen. His elaborate oration captures the optimism of 1837, the sense that the nasty old uncles have vanished and spring has come. But his hopes sit uneasily beside the new Queen's decisive first acts, and his career will test how far a reforming minister can steer a sovereign who means to steer herself.

Prince Ernest

minor

Also known as Ernest, the Princes Ernest and Albert, Ernest II

Albert's older brother and Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Princess Charlotte

minor

Also known as Charlotte, the Princess Charlotte

Victoria's cousin and heir presumptive, whose death led to Victoria's birth.

King William IV

minor

Also known as IV King William, King William

Victoria's uncle and predecessor, who died shortly after her 18th birthday.

Duke of Wellington

minor

Also known as the Duke of Wellington, the Duke

Military hero and elder statesman who served as a mentor to Victoria.

Lady Flora Hastings

minor

Also known as Lady Flora, the Hastings

Lady-in-waiting whose false pregnancy scandal rocked Victoria's early court.

Sir John Conroy

minor

Also known as Conroy, Sir John

Comptroller of the Duchess of Kent's household, whom Victoria deeply distrusted.

Princess Alice

minor

Also known as Alice, the Princess Alice

Victoria's second daughter, who nursed Albert during his final illness.

John Brown

minor

Also known as Brown

Victoria's loyal Scottish servant and close companion in her widowhood.

Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg

minor

Also known as Prince Leopold, Coburg, the young and handsome Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg

Younger son of King Leopold, briefly considered as a husband for Victoria.

Lord Derby

minor

Also known as Derby

Conservative Prime Minister who served three brief terms.

Lord Clarendon

minor

Also known as the Fourth Earl of Clarendon

Foreign Secretary under Palmerston and Russell.

General Charles Grey

minor

Also known as General Grey

Victoria's private secretary and trusted advisor.

Sir James Clark

minor

Also known as Sir James, Clark

Royal physician involved in the Lady Flora Hastings scandal.

Charles Greville

minor

Also known as Mr. Greville, Greville

Clerk to the Privy Council and diarist of Victorian politics.

Napoleon III

minor

Also known as Napoleon, Louis Napoleon

Emperor of the French and frequent subject of Victoria's diplomacy.

Otto von Bismarck

minor

Also known as Bismarck, Grant Bismarck

Prussian Chancellor who unified Germany and interacted with Victoria.

Prince Arthur

minor

Also known as Arthur

Victoria's third son, later Duke of Connaught.

Prince of Wales

minor

Also known as the Prince of Wales, Bertie

Victoria's eldest son and heir, later Edward VII.

Feodora

minor

Victoria's half-sister, who married and moved to Germany.

Lady Lyttelton

minor

Lady-in-waiting and governess to Victoria's children.

George Anson

minor

Also known as Anson

Prince Albert's private secretary.

Sir Theodore Martin

minor

Also known as Theodore Martin, Mr. Martin, Sir Theodore

Author of the official biography of Prince Albert.

Thomas Creevey

minor

Also known as Mr. Creevey

Politician and diarist whose memoirs are cited in the book.

Lady Cowper

minor

Society hostess and sister of Lord Palmerston.

Queen Adelaide

minor

Also known as Poor Queen Adelaide

Widow of William IV, who had a strained relationship with Victoria.

Duke of Kent

minor

Also known as the Late Duke of Kent

Victoria's father, who died shortly after her birth.

Lord Granville

minor

Liberal Foreign Secretary and ambassador.

Mr. Gladstone

minor

Also known as William Ewart Gladstone

Liberal statesman and frequent Prime Minister.

Lord Salisbury

minor

Also known as Salisbury

Conservative Prime Minister in Victoria's later years.

Duke of Clarence

minor

Also known as Clarence

Victoria's uncle, later William IV.

Duke of York

minor

Also known as York

Victoria's uncle, known for military scandals.

George IV

minor

Also known as George, Prinny

Victoria's uncle and predecessor as king.

Madame St. Laurent

minor

Long-time mistress of the Duke of Kent.

Mr. Gilbert Scott

minor

Also known as Mr. Scott

Architect who designed the Albert Memorial.

Matthew Arnold

minor

Poet and critic who wrote about Victoria's court.

John Thadeus Delane

minor

Also known as Mr. Delane

Editor of The Times during Victoria's reign.

Lord Aberdeen

minor

Also known as Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen

Prime Minister during the Crimean War.

Prince Alexander of Battenberg

minor

Also known as Prince Alexander, Al

Prince of Bulgaria whose marriage to Victoria's granddaughter was blocked.

Robert Owen

minor

Also known as Owen

Social reformer and utopian socialist.

Louis Philippe

minor

King of the French who was deposed in 1848 and fled to England.

Princess Beatrice

minor

Also known as Beatrice

Victoria's youngest daughter and constant companion in later life.

Sir Arthur Helps

minor

Also known as A. Helps

Clerk of the Privy Council and editor of Victoria's letters.

Lady Churchill

minor

Also known as Churchill

Lady-in-waiting and close friend of Victoria.

General Schreckenstein

minor

Prince Albert's former military tutor.

Baron Bunsen

minor

Prussian ambassador to London and friend of Albert.

George III

minor

Also known as George

Victoria's grandfather, who reigned during her childhood.

Prince Augustus

minor

Also known as Augustus, Francis, Charles, August

Prince Albert's uncle and a Coburg family member.

Lady Jane Ellice

minor

Also known as Jane

Lady-in-waiting who witnessed the 1840 assassination attempt.

Edward Oxford

minor

Also known as Edward

First of several men who attempted to assassinate Victoria.

Lieutenant Robert Pate

minor

Also known as Pate

Former army officer who struck Victoria with a cane.

Roderick Maclean

minor

Also known as Maclean

Last of Victoria's would-be assassins, tried for treason.

Sir Edwin Landseer

minor

Also known as Landseer

Painter and sculptor who created the lions in Trafalgar Square.

Felix Mendelssohn

minor

German composer who visited and performed for Victoria and Albert.

Charlotte Brontë

minor

Novelist who met Victoria and wrote about her.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

minor

Also known as Tennyson

Poet Laureate who wrote poems about Victoria and Albert.

Charles Kean

minor

Also known as Mr. Charles Kean, old Kean

Actor-manager who performed for the royal family.

Marie Taglioni

minor

Famous ballerina who danced for Victoria.

Luigi Lablache

minor

Opera singer who performed at Victoria's coronation.

Fanny Kemble

minor

Actress and writer who performed Shakespeare for Victoria.

Sir Charles Dilke

minor

Radical politician and republican who criticized the monarchy.

Lord Brougham

minor

Also known as Brougham

Whig statesman and Lord Chancellor.

Lord Durham

minor

Also known as the bold Lord Durham

Whig statesman and governor general of Canada.

General Haynau

minor

Also known as The Austrian General Haynau

Austrian general attacked by British workers for his brutality.

Prince Metternich

minor

Also known as old Metternich

Austrian statesman who shaped European politics before 1848.

Queen Isabella II

minor

Also known as Isabella, Queen Isabella

Queen of Spain whose marriage caused diplomatic intrigue.

Queen Maria II of Portugal

minor

Also known as Queen Maria II of

Queen of Portugal and cousin of Victoria.

Tsar Nicholas I

minor

Also known as the tremendous Nicholas

Russian tsar who visited Victoria and later fought in the Crimean War.

John Henry Foley

minor

Also known as Mr. Foley

Sculptor who created the Albert Memorial statue.