Prince Albert and the British Constitution
At first allowed by the British politicians “only just as much space as he could stand upon” Queen Victoria’s Consort, nevertheless, succeeded in setting the pattern for modern constitutional monarchy, as G.H.L. LeMay here shows.
In 1854, Prince Albert, then at the depth of his public unpopularity, wrote to his mentor, Baron Stockmar:
The [English] nation, slow of thought and uneducated, had never given itself the trouble to consider what really is the position of the husband of a Queen Regnant. When I first came over here, I was met by this want of knowledge and unwillingness to give a thought to the position of this luckless personage. Peel cut down my income, Wellington refused me my rank, the Royal Family cried out against- the foreign interloper, the Whigs in office were only inclined to concede to me just as much space as I could stand upon.
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