belief (in her opinion a ‘foolish nonsense’) that it was unlucky to do so – she went to see the bridegroom to whom she had already written a note: ‘Dearest, How are you today and have you slept well? I have rested very well, and feel very comfortable…What weather! I believe, however, the rain will cease. Send one word when you, my most dearly loved bridegroom, will be ready. Thy ever faithful, Victoria R.’1 Then, with a wreath of orange flower blossoms on her head, wearing a white satin dress and a sapphire brooch set with diamonds, a present from the Prince, and accompanied by her mother and the Duchess of Sutherland, she was driven to the Chapel Royal, St James’s, where the marriage was to be celebrated, much to the annoyance of the Queen who thought it a ‘shocking locale’. She would have had a private ceremony had not Melbourne spoken strongly against it, for she had, so she said, ‘a horror’ of being married before a large congregation. She would have far preferred a simple ceremony in a room at Buckingham Palace, a small room which would afford her an excellent excuse not to ask people she did not want.
The Duke of Sussex, wearing the black skullcap he so often affected, and close to the tears he was to shed throughout the ceremony, gave her away, quite ready as always, so it was said of him, to give away what did not belong to him.2 He led her to the altar where Prince Albert, looking pale in the uniform of a British field-marshal, and decorated with the Order of the Garter, stood waiting for her. Albert’s nervousness, so it was supposed, was increased by the loud whispers of Queen Adelaide and of his aunt, the Duchess of Kent, who was plainly annoyed by the fact that once again she had been given a place that did not accord with what she conceived to be her precedence.
The Queen’s progress up the aisle was much impeded by the bridesmaids who, since her train was far too short to allow them all to grasp it while walking normally, had to trip forward as though walking on ice in order not to tread on each other’s ankles.3 But the Queen ‘only felt so happy’. She was pale and rather nervous – the congregation could see the orange flower blossoms quivering on her head. But she made her responses in confident tones, and remained perfectly patient when the Duke of Norfolk, insisting that as Earl Marshal it was his privilege and duty to sign the register first, could not find his spectacles in order to do so and kept all the others waiting while he went through one pocket after another in a laborious attempt to locate them.
Unlike her coronation, the marriage service passed off without too many untoward incidents, although the Queen’s uncle, the Duke of Cambridge was – by contrast with the ‘disconsolate and distressed’ Duchess of Kent – ‘decidedly gay, making very audible remarks from time to time’; while the bridegroom himself was ‘certainly a good deal perplexed and agitated in delivering his responses’.4
The bride, however, had behaved ‘with much grace and propriety’, according to Charles Greville, ‘not without emotion, though sufficiently subdued’. She had been seen to tremble as she entered the Chapel and as the congregation applauded her as she stood before the altar. But her voice had been clear and confident and her ‘eye bright and calm’. As she left the Chapel it was noticed that she paused to kiss her aunt, Queen Adelaide; but that she merely shook hands with her mother.5
It was also remarked that of the three hundred or so people in the Chapel, very, very few were Tories. Indeed, Charles Greville said that, apart from the Duke of Wellington and Lord Liverpool, there were only three Tories there, Lord Willoughby de Eresby and the Marquess of Cholmondeley, whose presence was required as joint Lord Great Chamberlains, and Lord Ashley, who was there because he was married to Lord Melbourne’s niece, Lady Emily Cowper. The Queen ‘had been as wilful, obstinate and wrong-headed as usual about the invitations,’ Greville said, ‘and some of her foolish and mischievous Courtiers were boasting’ about the pointedly small number of Tories invited. ‘The D. and Dss of Northumberland [her former governess] were not there and She did worse than not invite them…for the invitation was sent so late that they could not have got it in time to come; and the truth is that it was intended not to invite them at all. Nothing could be more improper and foolish than to make this a mere Whig party, and if She was to make a selection, She might with great propriety have invited all those, such as the D. of Rutland and [the Marquess of] Exeter, who had formerly received and entertained her at their houses. But She would not, and stuffed in a parcel of Whigs taken apparently at haphazard, in preference to any of these.’6
The Queen returned with her husband for the wedding breakfast to Buckingham Palace where, awaiting them, was an enormous wedding cake, three yards in circumference, which needed four men to carry in.7 Lord Melbourne came up to congratulate her. ‘Nothing could have gone off better,’ he assured her. She pressed his hand and ‘he said, “God bless you, Ma’am” most kindly, and with such a kind look’.8 He, too, had done well, carrying the Sword of State with far more ease and confidence than he had shown at the coronation and wearing a magnificent dress coat which, to the Queen’s delighted amusement, he had claimed would be the ‘Thing most observed’ at the marriage ceremony.
During the half hour which the Queen and Prince spent alone together before the wedding breakfast, the Queen gave her husband a wedding ring; and he said there must never be a secret which they did not share. After the breakfast, so the Queen recorded, ‘Dearest Albert came up and fetched me downstairs, where we took leave of Mamma and drove off at near 4, Albert and I alone which was SO delightful’.9
Upon leaving the Palace for Windsor She and her young Husband were pretty well received [Charles Greville reported], but they went off in a very poor and shabby style. Instead of the new chariot in which most married people are accustomed to dash along, they were in one of the old travelling coaches, the postillions in undressed liveries, and with a small escort, three other coaches with post horses following. The crowds on the roads were so great that they did not reach the Castle till 8 o’clock.10
‘Our reception was most enthusiastic and hearty and gratifying in every way,’ the Queen confirmed. ‘There was an immense crowd of people outside the Palace, and which I must say never ceased until we reached Windsor Castle…the people quite deafening us; and horsemen and gigs etc. driving along with us. We came through Eton where all the Boys…cheered and shouted. Really I was quite touched.’11
On arrival at Windsor she inspected the apartments which had been prepared for them, changed her dress, then went into the Prince’s room where she found him playing the piano and wearing the Windsor uniform with which, as a clothes-conscious man, he had replaced the travelling outfit he had worn in the coach, this in turn having replaced the field-marshal’s uniform. He stood up, put his arms around her and was ‘so dear and kind’.
We had our dinner in our sitting room [the Queen recorded], but I had such a sick headache that I could eat nothing, and was obliged to lie down in the middle blue room for the remainder of the evening on the sofa; but ill or not, I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert sat on a footstool by my side, and his excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again! His beauty, his sweetness and gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband!…to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! this was the happiest day of my life! – May God help me to do my duty as I ought and be worthy of such blessings!12
It was also bliss beyond belief to wake up next morning, after having, so she said, not slept very much, and to find that ‘beautiful