Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamlet53
I found that while Strachey was willing to be honest about some of Victoria's limitations as a person and as a queen, there was still a “God Save the Queen” attitude underlying the book. Certainly both Victoria and Albert would be examined more critically in a biography written today than one written in 1921. Victoria was the perfect Queen of England for her day though with an attitude of pompous superiority that was a reflection of how the British viewed themselves with respect to the rest of the world.
In Strachey's recount of Victoria's behavior in the last couple decades of her life I was reminded of the comic observation that what would be referred to as insane among ordinary people is called eccentric among the upper class.
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I think this "God Save the Queen" attitude is partly behind the reason that Lytton Strachey rather skates over the relationship between the very rough Scotsman John Brown and the Queen.
There isn't any doubt but that Brown was more than just a servant to Victoria; others were appalled at the familiarity that seemed to exist between the two and Victoria's eldest son absolutely hated him. When he became Edward VI he made a point of destroying most of the mementos of Brown left by his mother and had the life-sized statue Victoria had raised to the memory of her "servant" moved to a nearly inaccessible place on the Balmoral estate. It is still possible to visit it but one is advised to get local help to find the spot.
There are two prominent theories regarding the Victoria-Brown relationship. One is that they were secretly united in a morganatic marriage. The prime source of this is an alleged death-bed confession by the clergyman who united them. Here's a short article from the
Telegraph about the theory:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/l...owns-wife.html
There is another--probably more likely theory {IMO} which holds that Brown's influence over the Queen arose from the fact that he was a psychic who put her in touch with her dead husband. Here's a link to a review of a book which makes this claim:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...t-s-shade.html
This is, of course, only an opinion and I would have my suspicions about a book which seems to be tied to spiritualist ideas, but the psychic links Brown's apparent psychic powers have been mentioned in other sources. Considering Victoria's obsession with Albert it isn't unlikely that she might grasp at the possibility of psychic communication.