He was the strapping Highlander with a face ‘hewn from granite’, and she was the grieving monarch in the depths of misery.
The relationship between Queen Victoria and her beloved servant John Brown, who was her close companion after the death of her husband Prince Albert, has been the subject of intrigue for well over a century.
In the Mail’s new podcast, columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams examine how Brown’s relationship with Victoria blossomed over more than two decades.
They were so intimate that they are rumoured to have slept in adjoining rooms, and the Queen referred to him as ‘darling’ in letters.
And when the Queen died in 1901, she was buried wearing the wedding ring that once belonged to Brown’s mother.
But did she really marry the 6ft, kilt-wearing Scot in a secret ceremony near Balmoral, her beloved estate in Scotland?
That is the key question explored in the second episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, released today.
Speaking on the podcast, Professor Williams says: ‘It’s the million dollar question. And it’s the question that Victorians were asking.’
Did Queen Victoria really get married in secret? Find out by listening to the full episode here
The relationship between Queen Victoria and her beloved servant John Brown, who was her close companion after the death of her husband Prince Albert, has been the subject of intrigue for well over a century.
John Brown became Queen Victoria’s most trusted servant after the death of Prince Albert
Victoria initially became close with Brown after she and Albert took over the lease of Balmoral in 1848.
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Brown, then aged 21, had lived in the area since he was a young boy and was working as a ghillie – the Scottish word for an outdoor servant – when the Queen and her husband arrived.
The ‘large, taciturn Highlander with watchful eyes and a face apparently hewn from granite’ – as he was described by the monarch’s private secretary – was made leader of the Queen’s pony by Albert.
His role saw him accompany Victoria as she rode her steed in the countryside surrounding Balmoral.
As Brown helped to improve her riding skills, the pair became closer.
But it was the tragic death of Prince Albert from typhoid in 1861 that deepened their relationship further.
With the bereft monarch spending her time secluded at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the Queen’s daughter Princess Alice suggested that Brown come down from Scotland with her pony.
Rejuvenated by the latest rides with Brown, the monarch became increasingly dependent on her servant, who came to see himself as her bodyguard.
But the closeness of their relationship made Victoria’s children and her other servants increasingly resentful.
However, Victoria refused to listen her family and courtiers and insisted that Brown join her everywhere.
He was by her side in 1872 when a teenager made the latest of several attempts on the Queen’s life.
Armed with a pistol, teenager Arthur O’Connor climbed over the fence at Buckingham Palace and lay in wait for the Queen as she returned home from a service at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Scurrilous newspaper columns started to refer to the monarch as ‘Mrs Brown’, a name that became the title of the 1997 film starring Judi Dench as the Queen and Billy Connolly as her beloved servant
Brown was by the side of Queen Victoria for more than 20 years
John Brown (seen centre in a kilt) stands next to Queen Victoria’s carriage she prepares to step off it at Windsor to review 52,000 volunteers, 1881. To the left is her son, the future King Edward VII
But O’Connor’s plan to put his gun to the Queen’s head was thwarted by Brown, who seized him after he dropped his pistol.
The servant’s role in saving the Queen further strengthened his place in her affections, but it also deepened the dislike for him and led to yet more rumours about their relationship.
In 1885, it was claimed that the Queen’s chaplain, the Reverend Norman Macleod, had made a stunning confession on his deathbed. It has since been pored over by historians.
He claimed that he presided over the marriage of Victoria and Brown at Crathie Kirk in Scotland.
Although the claim has been disputed, some historians, such as biographer A.N. Wilson, believe that the ceremony really did take place.
Scurrilous newspaper columns started to refer to the monarch as ‘Mrs Brown’, a name that became the title of the 1997 film starring Judi Dench as the Queen and Billy Connolly as her beloved servant.
It was also claimed that Brown was sleeping in a room adjoining the Queen’s bedroom.
‘I think he is sometimes there, and that’s because she sees him as a protector, she sees him as a bodyguard,’ Professor Williams says.
But the revelation prompted the foreign secretary, the Earl of Derby, to say the arrangement was ‘contrary to etiquette and even decency.’
On the Mail’s podcast, Mr Hardman says many of the rumours seemed to have a ‘misogynistic angle’ to them.
‘I mean, male monarchs have always had favourites, mistresses, and no one’s thought the lesser of them,’ he says.
‘Queens can’t do that, can they?’
In August 1876, on Prince Albert’s birthday, Brown was given a portrait of himself that Victoria had commissioned.
However, seven years later, Brown fell ill with an infection. His death in March 1883 triggered in the Queen another descent into despair.
In a further sign of how much she adored the strapping 6ft gillie, Victoria commissioned Alfred Lord Tennyson – one of Britain’s greatest writers to write the inscription on his tombstone.
He was buried at Crathie Kirkyard, the Royal Family’s favoured church near Balmoral.
In a letter to former home secretary Viscount Cranbrook, which was only unearthed in 2004, Victoria opined about Brown in the third person.
She wrote: ‘Perhaps never in history was there so strong and true an attachment, so warm and loving a friendship between the sovereign and servant…’
The monarch called him ‘one of the most remarkable men’ and said he had a ‘tender, warm, heart’ combined with ‘honesty, independence and unselfishness’.
John Brown poses in a kilt, with ceremonial pistols on his hip
The grave of Queen Victoria’s faithful servant John Brown, at Crathie Kirkyard near Balmoral
Further eulogising came in the form of a life-sized statue of Brown, which Victoria had installed at Balmoral.
The inscription read: ‘Friend more than Servant. Loyal. Truthful. Brave. Self less than Duty, even to the Grave.’
Even more evidence of their relationship may have existed in a memoir Victoria wrote about Brown, but courtiers refused to let her publish it and had it destroyed, along with the servant’s own diaries.
Ahead of her death in 1901, Victoria insisted that Brown’s mother’s wedding ring – which he had given to her – be placed on her right hand.
She also wanted a photograph of him in her left hand, hidden by flowers.
Also in her coffin was a lock of Brown’s hair and several of his letters to her.
It was the ultimate, final sign of the esteem in which she held the brash Scot.
Listen to episode two of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things to hear Professor Williams’ and Robert Hardman’s verdict on Victoria’s relationship with Brown.
Robert Hardman is the author of books including Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II and Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story.
Professor Kate Williams is the author of 2018 book Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots, along with many other works.
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