The royal Christmas tree at Windsor Castle
Though Queen Charlotte (the consort of King George III) had practised the tradition before, it was Prince Albert who really encouraged and popularised the festive event of decorating a Christmas tree.
But at Windsor Castle, on December 14th, in the year of 1861 when the festive tree would have glittered and shone with the light of hundreds of candles, when the royal children should have been looking forward to a joyous event, all plans were discarded, all lights were doused ~ because of their father's sudden demise at the age of only 42.
Victoria and Albert enjoying Christmas with their children
Following Prince Albert's death Victoria still celebrated Christmas day, but she hated to spend it in Windsor, the place of her husband's death. Instead, she travelled to the Isle of Wight and the Italianate palace of Osborne House where the family had previously spent many happy times with their father.
The royal family in happier times
However, after 1861, she was no longer joined by her oldest son. The Prince of Wales, preferred to spend his Christmases at Sandringham, claiming that Osborne House was 'utterly unattractive'.
Bertie, (Edward) the Prince of Wale, and his father, Prince Albert, on the right.
Perhaps an element of guilt influenced the young man's decision, for shortly before his father's death there had been a notorious scandal involving the future king and an actress by the name of Nellie Clifton. All of the press publicity had caused Prince Albert enormous distress. He wrote several letters to Bertie and then, in appalling weather, set off to Cambridge to meet his son and implore him to change his decadent ways.
Prince Albert's deathbed at Windsor
The stress of that situation, combined with pre-existing poor health (and some say the state of the Windsor drains) led to a fatal illness. Diagnosed as suffering from Typhoid fever, Albert came home from seeing his son and died in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle.
Queen Victoria, so cruelly and suddenly widowed, never recovered from Albert's loss. She entirely blamed the Prince of Wales, as illustrated by this line which is taken from a letter written to one of her daughters: "That boy...I never can, or ever shall look at him without a shudder."
In the VV's new novel, The Goddess and the Thief, Victoria's grief is dramatised, as is her interest in spirit mediums: those who claimed to be able to contact the soul of her dead husband. She continued to try and contact him throughout her remaining widowed years - with John Brown, her friend and confidante, often acting as a medium: the vessel through which Albert's soul returned. There were said to be many reports of private seances being held, written about by the Queen herself - a notoriously regular diarist. But these were destroyed at her own death, being viewed by other family members as embarrassing and scandalous.
What a shame! What fascinating reading they would have made.