The Queen's Husband
About the Book
From the time they were in their cradles, Victoria and Albert were destined for each other. However, the passive Albert is well aware that marriage to a quick-tempered, demonstrative young woman like Victoria could result in unnecessary scenes and stormy court feuds.
And he is right. The young Queen, as well has having to endure her constant pregnancies, is in perpetual revolt against any encroachment on her position – and Albert is doing just that.
Despite attempts on her life and crises like the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, her family – Albert and their nine children – is her prime concern. The Victorian age is truly under way – but the real power behind the throne was the queen’s husband.
Praise for Jean Plaidy
‘One of the country’s most widely read novelists’
Sunday Times
‘One of our best historical novelists’
News Chronicle
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781446427286
Published by Arrow Books in 2008
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Copyright © Jean Plaidy, 1973
Initial lettering copyright © Stephen Raw, 2008
The Estate of Eleanor Hibbert has asserted its right to have Jean Plaidy identified as the author of this work.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
First published in Great Britain in 1973 by Robert Hale and Company
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099513551
Available in Arrow by Jean Plaidy
III: The Little Cousin of Kensington
VII: Shots on Constitution Hill
XI: Not the Queen, but Albert’s Wife
XII: A Long Holiday for the Baroness
XIII: A Visit to the Continent
XVIII: Lord Palmerston Offends the Queen
Praise for Jean Plaidy
‘Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and
drama’
New York Times
‘Outstanding’
Vanity Fair
‘Full-bodied, dramatic, exciting’
Observer
‘Plaidy has brought the past to life’
Times Literary Supplement
‘One of our best historical novelists’
News Chronicle
‘An excellent story’
Irish Press
‘Spirited … Plaidy paints the truth as she sees it’
Birmingham Post
‘Sketched vividly and sympathetically … rewarding’
Scotsman
‘Among the foremost of current historical novelists’
Birmingham Mail
‘An accomplished novelist’
Glasgow Evening News
‘There can be no doubt of the author’s gift for storytelling’
Illustrated London News
‘Jean Plaidy has once again brought characters and
background vividly to life’
Everywoman
‘Well up to standard … fascinating’
Manchester Evening News
‘Exciting and intelligent’
Truth Magazine
Jean Plaidy, one of the pre-eminent authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century, is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. Jean Plaidy’s novels had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide by the time of her death in 1993.
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Available in Arrow by Jean Plaidy
The Tudors
Uneasy Lies the Head
Katharine, the Virgin Widow
The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The King’s Secret Matter
Murder Most Royal
St Thomas’s Eve
The Sixth Wife
The Thistle and the Rose
Mary Queen of France Lord Robert
Royal Road to Fotheringay
The Captive Queen of Scots
The Medici Trilogy
Madame Serpent
The Italian Woman
Queen Jezebel
The Plantagenets
The Plantagenet Prelude
The Revolt of the Eaglets
The Heart of the Lion
The Prince of Darkness
The Battle of the Queens
The Queen from Provence
The Hammer of the Scots
The Follies of the King
The French Revolution
Louis the Well-Beloved
The Road to Compiègne
Flaunting, Extravagant Queen
The Isabella and Ferdinand Trilogy
Castile for Isabella
Spain for the Sovereigns
Daughters of Spain
The Victorians
The Captive of Kensington Palace
The Queen and Lord M
The Queen’s Husband
The Widow of Windsor
Chapter I
ALBERINCHEN
The family were in the summer residence, the charming little schloss called Rosenau, some four miles from Coburg; and the two Grandmamas had come to visit them. The first thing they did when they arrived was to hurry to the nursery for both Grandmama Saxe-Coburg and Grandmama Saxe-Gotha doted on the two little boys, Ernest aged five and Albert, fondly known as Alberinchen, just a little over a year younger.