Queen Victoria Kills Herself Over Albert's Death / Albert Survives His Illness (December 15, 1861)

[Teriyaki]

From the time that Victoria and Albert met, the two were a true love match, a rarity in royal circles. Albert and Victoria worked on many things together, including the abolition of slavery and education reform. Albert also managed the Queen's household and accounts. In 1857, he was given the title of Prince Consort. The two of them also had nine children that lived to adulthood. Although it seemed that Victoria and Albert would live their lives out till old age with children and grandchildren to dote upon, this was not to be. After getting sick of a strain of typhoid fever, Albert died on the 14th of December, 1861. Albert's death changed Victoria immensely. She withdrew from public life, dressed in black the rest of her days, and clung to her children, particularly her daughters, as reminders of her husband.

I want to present two scenarios here to discuss. The first is that Queen Victoria is overcome with grief at her husband's death she takes a dose of cyanide when she is alone and kills herself. The second is that Albert somehow rallies from his illness and makes a full recovery, much to the delight of Victoria. In both these scenarios, discuss how England and the world is changed as a result of these two scenarios.

 

[JonasResende]

From the time that Victoria and Albert met, the two were a true love match, a rarity in royal circles. Albert and Victoria worked on many things together, including the abolition of slavery and education reform. Albert also managed the Queen's household and accounts. In 1857, he was given the title of Prince Consort. The two of them also had nine children that lived to adulthood. Although it seemed that Victoria and Albert would live their lives out till old age with children and grandchildren to dote upon, this was not to be. After getting sick of a strain of typhoid fever, Albert died on the 14th of December, 1861. Albert's death changed Victoria immensely. She withdrew from public life, dressed in black the rest of her days, and clung to her children, particularly her daughters, as reminders of her husband.

I want to present two scenarios here to discuss. The first is that Queen Victoria is overcome with grief at her husband's death she takes a dose of cyanide when she is alone and kills herself. The second is that Albert somehow rallies from his illness and makes a full recovery, much to the delight of Victoria. In both these scenarios, discuss how England and the world is changed as a result of these two scenarios.

Victoria wouldn't kill herself. She was too self-centred for that. One needs only to look at her correspondance to see that even after her kids were grown and wed, she STILL demanded being the centre of attention. Not to mention, if she killed herself "that beast" as she referred to Bertie after Albert's death would become queen. And considering her strained relationship with the prince of Wales (even before Albert died) she'd avoid it oùt of sheer spite alone.

Now, as to Albert surviving... I'm not an Albert fan, he was emotionally abusive of his wife (something often forgotten when one compares how long she was widowed and how short a time (relatively) they were married), and tried to control her. The quote from The Young Victoria where Emily Blunt says of him "according to Albert, Lord Melbourne controls me, Lehzen controls me..." is pretty accurate, he didn't want competition. Albert (from what I can make out from a letter to brother Ernst) wants a good little German hausfrau who'll bow and kowtow. Victoria was NOT that, she was selfish and stubborn -not to mention histrionic - and it drove Albert to distraction. He used to lock himself in his study and refuse to have anything to do with his wife until she came around to his lline of thinking. Their marital rows were something spectacular, apparently, most notably because of the reversed dynamic of the marriage. Think of Matt Smith's line in The Crown: "Are you my queen or my wife" "-I am both" "-Well I would much rather be married to MY wife". Similar situation IMO

 

[desmirelle]

Jonas is right, Victoria would not commit suicide.

Albert surviving means more rows between him and the Prince of Wales - who cannot now be blamed for his father's bad decision to go censor the PoW for what Albert perceived as bad behavior (and the rest of us would consider 'sowing wild oats and praying for a crop failure') - but not the wider divide between PoW his mother that occurred after Albert's death. And perhaps, once childbearing stops, Victoria seeing Albert with less adoring and more reality.

 

[ByzantineCaesar]

I mean, yes, Victoria would not commit suicide since she didn't do it in OTL, but the point of divergence is that she does. Saying she wouldn't kill herself is stating the obvious at the same time as shutting down the discussion proposed by the OP. Anyway, what happens next? Would her suicide be covered up? If not, how does Britain and the Church of England handle it? How would the much longer Edwardian Era look like?

 

[desmirelle]

No, the reason Victoria would not commit suicide isn't that she didn't do it OTL, it's her character. In order for a POD to be believable, it has to be something the character could/would do. Victoria was essentially a self-centered character, self-centered characters don't kill themselves, they kill other people. The only time they kill themselves is when they have no other recourse (Hitler). I'm saying the first scenario is not feasible based upon Victoria's character as we know it. If she had a heart attack upon learning of Albert's death.....now that's realistic and doesn't conflict with her known character.

The advantages of the heart attack is that there would be rumors of suicide while keeping her character intact for purposes of the TL.

 

[desmirelle]

Let me add to the above: she could also have a dizzy spell at the top of the stairs and fall down them, breaking her neck (a la Amy Dudley), that would also be believable. (The lady-in-waiting attending her may or may not fall with her, of course.)