ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the prevalent historical interpretation of the period 1837–61. Queen Victoria’s partisanship culminated in the ministry’s making what The Times described as ‘the broadest and most unconstitutional use of Her Majesty’s name for the purposes of influencing the suffrages of her subjects’ in the 1841 election. The view of Prince Albert as the father of the contemporary constitutional British monarchy, party and politics, has a long historical pedigree. The monarch in the Coburg model was to have an active, indeed decisive, political role. Leopold’s advice to Victoria in January 1838 was to ‘preserve these elements’ of royal power and ‘to contrive by every means to strengthen them again’. Political commentators observed that this showed that Albert occupied an unprecedented constitutional position, Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne’s consort, never having shown the interest or ability to play a part in government.
