Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy

by A. N. Wilson

Overview

In this companion biography to the acclaimed Victoria, A. N. Wilson offers a deeply textured and ambitious portrait of Prince Albert

For more than six decades, Queen Victoria ruled a great Empire at the height of its power. Beside her for more than twenty of those years was the love of her life, her trusted husband and father of their nine children, Prince Albert. But while Victoria is seen as the embodiment of her time, its values, and its paradoxes, it was Prince Albert, A. N. Wilson expertly argues, who was at the vanguard of Victorian Britain’s transformation as a vibrant and extraordinary center of political, technological, scientific, and intellectual advancement. Far more than just the product of his age, Albert was one of its influencers and architects. A composer, engineer, soldier, politician, linguist, and bibliophile, Prince Albert, more than any other royal, was truly a “genius.” It is impossible to understand nineteenth century England without knowing the story of this gifted visionary leader, Wilson contends.

Albert lived only forty-two years. Yet in that time, he fathered the royal dynasties of Germany, Russia, Spain, and Bulgaria. Through Victoria, Albert and her German advisers pioneered the idea of the modern constitutional monarchy. In this sweeping biography, Wilson demonstrates that there was hardly any aspect of British national life which Albert did not touch. When he was made Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in his late twenties, it was considered as purely an honorific role. But within months, Albert proposed an extensive reorganization of university life in Britain that would eventually be adopted, making it possible to study science, languages, and modern history at British universities—a revolution in education that has changed the world.

Drawn from the Royal archives, including Prince Albert’s voluminous correspondence, this brilliant and ambitious book offers fascinating never-before-known details about the man and his time. A superb match of biographer and subject, Prince Albert, at last, gives this important historical figure  the reverence and recognition that is long overdue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062749567
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	457,747
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

A. N. Wilson grew up in Staffordshire, England, and was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and celebrated novelist. He lives in North London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xiii

Archives and Manuscripts Consulted xvi

List of Illustrations xvii

1 Princess Beatrice's War Work 1

2 His Mother 11

3 The Wettins 28

4 Childhood: 'Tout rapfelle I'homme à ses devoirs' 38

5 "These dearest beloved Cousins': Albert's First Visit to England 49

6 European Journeys 58

7 A Somewhat Rough Experience 76

8 Unbounded Influence 92

9 Public Art, Public Life 121

10 Neptune Resigning His Empire to Britannia 143

11 Malthusian Calamity 162

12 Cambridge 170

13 The Year of Revolutions 181

14 Balmoral 197

15 The Great Exhibition of 1851: The Making of the Modern World 218

16 The Great Exhibition: 'so vast, so glorious' 252

17 Stormy Weather 270

18 The Prince Consort at Last 296

19 King in All But Name 317

20 The Care and Work Begin 339

21 She Was the Strong One 360

Bibliography 391

Notes 396

Index 413

Editorial Reviews

Was ‘Victorian’ England in fact shaped less by Queen Victoria than by her husband, Prince Albert? This biography makes the case for his underrated genius and lasting influence.” — New York Times Book Review, New and Noteworthy

“A magnificently understanding biography of Victoria’s spouse….Albert led a brief life—dying at age 42—but his impact on his adopted homeland, Great Britain, especially on the functioning of the monarchy, was immense, hence the subtitle of this wise new portrait. That is the thesis Wilson develops, comfortably resting his narrative on two legs: complete thoroughness and joyful buoyancy.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Readers interested in British historyand royals will appreciate this accessible, well-researched study of an admired leader.” — Library Journal

“An engrossing biography that continues the author’s long engagement with the Victorian age….Mr. Wilson makes good use of documents from the period and has consulted experts, particularly on details having to do with Albert’s German background. His most striking contribution, though, is a psychologically astute approach to Victoria and Albert, one that results in a persuasive and humane account of their marriage.” — Wall Street Journal

"For those impassioned by all things Victoriana, A.N. Wilson’s generously detailed biography of the iconic British sovereign’s beloved husband, Albert, brings long-overdue recognition to a complex, brilliant and even tragic figure in history." — Bookreporter.com

From the Publisher

A magnificently understanding biography of Victoria’s spouse….Albert led a brief life—dying at age 42—but his impact on his adopted homeland, Great Britain, especially on the functioning of the monarchy, was immense, hence the subtitle of this wise new portrait. That is the thesis Wilson develops, comfortably resting his narrative on two legs: complete thoroughness and joyful buoyancy.

Booklist (starred review)

An engrossing biography that continues the author’s long engagement with the Victorian age….Mr. Wilson makes good use of documents from the period and has consulted experts, particularly on details having to do with Albert’s German background. His most striking contribution, though, is a psychologically astute approach to Victoria and Albert, one that results in a persuasive and humane account of their marriage.

Wall Street Journal

Was ‘Victorian’ England in fact shaped less by Queen Victoria than by her husband, Prince Albert? This biography makes the case for his underrated genius and lasting influence.

New York Times Book Review

An engrossing biography that continues the author’s long engagement with the Victorian age….Mr. Wilson makes good use of documents from the period and has consulted experts, particularly on details having to do with Albert’s German background. His most striking contribution, though, is a psychologically astute approach to Victoria and Albert, one that results in a persuasive and humane account of their marriage.

Wall Street Journal

Was ‘Victorian’ England in fact shaped less by Queen Victoria than by her husband, Prince Albert? This biography makes the case for his underrated genius and lasting influence.

New York Times Book Review

06/17/2019

This lively, delicious portrait of Prince Albert (1819–1861) by distinguished biographer Wilson (Victoria) shows how much the United Kingdom owes to Queen Victoria’s adored consort (and cousin). While it took some convincing before the teenage queen fell for her German suitor, who struggled with English, they tied the knot and welcomed their first daughter in 1840, and Victoria’s feelings only grew from there. Drawing on new material released by the current monarch, the book delves liberally into private letters and diaries that reveal Victoria as a “besotted wife” with “passionate and uncontrolled” feelings that contrasted with Albert’s “more dutiful” ones. Well-educated by royal standards, Albert was intent on creating a legacy and making education available to his new countrymen. He spearheaded the Great Exhibition of 1851, a world’s fair that put the Industrial Revolution on display for all to enjoy; served as Chancellor of Cambridge; catalogued the works of Raphael; designed Osborne House; and fathered a brood of nine who were destined to rule Europe into the 20th century. Wilson’s Albert is a man whose “upper lip was seldom stiff,” who fretted about his hairline, and who was, unusually for royal fathers of the time, preoccupied with the details of his children’s upbringing. Anglophiles will relish the inside story of this royal personage. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"For those impassioned by all things Victoriana, A.N. Wilson’s generously detailed biography of the iconic British sovereign’s beloved husband, Albert, brings long-overdue recognition to a complex, brilliant and even tragic figure in history."

Bookreporter.com

★ 2019-04-28
An excellent life of Queen Victoria's beloved husband, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861), who turned the powerless office of Prince Consort into a major force for good.

Most historians have given Albert high marks. Prolific novelist and biographer Wilson (Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker, 2017, etc.) makes a convincing case that he exerted a major influence on the modernizing of Britain's society and restoring of the crown's prestige. Victoria's mother was sister to Albert's father; both were aristocrats from principalities that supplied spouses to the British royal family for more than a century, and Albert was the leader in a thin field of eligible royal males. Historians continue to express wonder at the passionate love Victoria felt after a formal visit in 1839, a love that never diminished during two decades of marriage. Although Britain's royal dynasty descended from the German, George I, who arrived in 1714, foreigners were unpopular. The press did not celebrate the marriage, and Parliament voted to reduce his annuity and opposed his ennoblement. Despite her love, Victoria was not inclined to give up her considerable, if mostly ceremonial, power. Overcoming his frustration, Albert skillfully reorganized the royal household and impressed Britain's leaders with his good sense. Helped by Victoria's preoccupation with nine pregnancies, he shared her responsibilities and increased the monarchy's influence by emphasizing its lack of partisanship (the young Victoria hated the Tories). Liberal by upper-class standards, he enthusiastically supported the technological, political, and commercial views of the rising middle class, which transformed Victorian Britain into "the most prosperous and peaceful country in modern Europe—arguably the richest country in history." Everyone cheered his central role in organizing the Great Exhibition of 1851, and by the time of his premature death, he was an almost universally admired figure. As usual, Wilson delineates his subject's life with aplomb.

A delightfully vivid, opinionated biography that pays almost equal attention to Albert's wife and a colorful supporting cast of early Victorian notables.

Kirkus Reviews