A well-trod period, with its usual cast of characters, gets trod again, but few readers will object.
Historian Somerset, author of The Life and Times of King William IV, writes that Victoria (1819-1901), after an unhappy if comfortable childhood, became queen at age 18 in 1837 and was not shy about taking up her role. Despite offering few surprises for the educated reader, Somerset delivers an entirely entertaining combination of biography and political history of Victorian Britain. Nineteenth-century British monarchs were not figureheads. Their word was no longer law, but tradition demanded that they be kept informed and consulted. Victoria was not shy about expressing opinions, although she did not always get her way. For readers who find the queen’s private life less interesting than the 63 years of her reign, Somerset obliges by emphasizing her role as the symbol of empire who exerted genuine, often unconstitutional power. As one official complained, Victoria “had absurdly high notions of her prerogative, and the amount of control which she ought to exercise over public business.” Although prime ministers are powerful (unlike American presidents, they lead the government’s legislative and executive branches), readers may be startled to learn how much they valued the queen’s good opinion and suffered in its absence. Her first prime minister, Lord Melbourne, had perhaps the easiest time in accepting Victoria’s intense post adolescent worship as her reign began. She disliked many (Peel, Palmerston, Disraeli) as they entered parliament and rose to prominence but changed her mind when as prime ministers they were forced to deal with her and so turned on the charm. This did not apply to William Ewart Gladstone, for whom Victoria’s dislike in the 1860s turned to a legendary loathing not noticeably diminished after his 1894 retirement.
Delicious British political history with an unsettlingly assertive Victoria.
Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers:Her Life, the Imperial Ideal, and the Politics and Turmoil that Shaped her Extraordinary Reign by Anne Somerset will be published in the English language by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2024.
Anne Somerset was born in London and graduated from King’s College, London. She is the author of The Life and Times of King William IV, Ladies in Waiting, Elizabeth I, and Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion. She has worked as a research assistant for several historians, among them Antonia Fraser. Somerset is the daughter of the 11th Duke of Beaufort. She lives in London.: