BOOK REVIEW

“A Prince among Men”

 PRINCE ALBERT, the man who saved the monarchy.

 by A.N. Wilson

Atlantic Books (2019)

Prince Albert was born more than 200 years ago and died at the relatively young age of 42.  How then is A.N. Wilson’s biography of Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, of any interest to us today?

In order to fully appreciate the world we live in, we need to understand the forces which shaped it.  Prince Albert’s achievements and failures were major contributors to the making of our world.

Prince Albert played a significant part in helping to transform Britain from an agricultural society to the world’s greatest industrial and trading power. Relevantly, for the readers of Workplace Review the Industrial Revolution necessitated the development of employment and safe factory laws to mitigate the Dickensian working conditions and to temper the rigour of the common law’s attitude to the rights of ‘servants’ vis-à-vis their ‘masters’.These laws established in Britain in the 19^th century were largely adopted by the legislatures of the self-governing colonies of Australia.

A.N. Wilson is an authority on the Victorian era.  His most recent book is a biography of Charles Dickens, other books include “The Victorians” and a biography of Queen Victoria herself.

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was born in 1819, the youngest son of a German Prince of a small German duchy, Albert’s parents’ marriage was turbulent and ended in divorce. Albert’s father “openly mocking the marriage bed with a succession of women”, no doubt making Albert determined to preside over a very different and orderly family life.

Notwithstanding that Victoria and Albert were cousins, they married in 1840. He became the Prince Consort.   At the time, Victoria was devoted to Lord Melbourne her Whig Prime Minister.  As the author comments “All British monarchs in the last century had sided with one particular grouping or another”. (see page 101)  Victoria believed ‘the Whigs are the only safe and loyal people.” (p.101)

In 1848 many of the European powers were racked by revolutionary fervour. Albert believed that the monarchy could only be saved from revolution by not being tied to one party and being seen to be non-partisan.  The Government and Prime Minister were to serve at the behest of Parliament.  No matter who Albert and Victoria preferred as Prime Minister, it was to be the decision of the parliamentary majority.  For example, although Victoria and Albert never cast aside their faith in Robert Peel, when he lost his majority in Parliament his successor took the oath of Prime Minister without any royal objection.

Albert led a busy life. He  was elected Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1847, defeating a rival candidate, the Earl of Powis “A staggeringly undistinguished person”. (p.172)

Together with other reformers, he expanded the subjects available and modernised university education.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 opened by Queen Victoria and held in the glass building, the Crystal Palace, is forever associated with Prince Albert:

“The Exhibition was not, primarily, his idea and he had to be persuaded to give it his backing.  When he had done so, however, his influence was a major contributor to his success.  And the marriage which it demonstrated, between the Prince and the emergent wealth-producers of the world, was a decisive factor in the stabilising and strengthening of the monarchy for the future.  Old Tories like Sibthorp would have seen monarchies belonging unequivocally with the old world which modern history and a burgeoning bourgeoisie destroyed.  Marx and his followers saw the industrial struggle as one which would inevitably destroy his thrones and altars.  Prince Albert’s embrace of industrial technology not only defied both these extremes of view.  It led to such an acquisition of wealth by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 that he was able to leave behind his one unquestionable legacy: the Albertopolis in South Kensington, a complex of concert halls, museums and colleges which, to this day, directly benefit from the money raised by the Exhibition.  So, in any consideration of Albert’s life the Exhibition must be central.” (pp222-223)

Albert was determined his family life needed to be seen as exemplary.  Victoria and Albert, by their frequent self-exposure in photography and painted portraits were models of family rectitude. The depiction and reality were quite different.

Victoria was a prolific diarist and letter writer.  The author gives an estimation that her written records were printed and bound in one book form there would be 700 volumes.  The writings contained often acerbic opinions of her children.

Both Victoria and Albert were strong characters.  Even though they were often at odds, Victoria never ceased loving Albert.  However, having nine children she hated the loss of control and the attendant crippling depression, which the experience of childbirth had on her.  Albert, as Consort, was happy and willing to exercise the extra power which the Queen’s indisposition brought.

Albert’s many achievements have made for a better world today.  However, his failure of his vision for a united liberal Germany and a peaceful Europe had dire consequences.  As the author observes, the dynastic marriages he planned for his children did not spread peace and a constitutional monarchy on a British model.  Militarism and nationalism played a larger part in bringing about the horror of World War I.

Albert suffered from chronic, poor health.  In contrast to many of his royal ancestors and contemporaries who often led extravagant and wanton lives,  Albert pursued and loved work which further undermined his weak constitution.

Finally, the author pays tribute to Albert in writing that the people who mourned his death were “…those who made the nineteenth century as a glory-age  for Great Britain, the engineers, the scientists, the university reformers, the museum curators, the art historians, the social reformers, the city planners, the philanthropists, the choral societies and orchestras, the librarians.” (pp384-385)

He truly deserved the sobriquet, Albert the Good.

Malcolm Kerr,OAM was a Sydney barrister and the State member for Cronulla (1984-2011)