He was the rugged mountaineer with a face “carved in 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 more than a century.
In the mail New podcast, columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams examines how Brown’s relationship with Victoria blossomed over more than two decades.
They were so close that it is rumoured that they slept in adjoining rooms and the Queen referred to him as “darling” in her letters.
And when the Queen died in 1901, she was buried wearing the wedding ring that had once belonged to Brown’s mother.
But did she really marry the 6ft 2in, kilted Scot in a secret ceremony near Balmoral, her beloved Scottish estate?
That is the key question explored in the second episode of Queens, Kings and Cowardly Thingspublished today.
Talking about the podcastProfessor Williams says: “It’s the million dollar question. And it’s the question that the 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 more than a century.
John Brown became Queen Victoria’s most trusted servant after the death of Prince Albert.
Victoria initially befriended Brown after she and Albert took over the lease of Balmoral in 1848.
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Brown, then 21, had lived in the area since he was a child 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 that seemed carved from granite” – as the monarch’s private secretary described him – was appointed leader of the Queen’s pony by Albert.
His role saw him accompany Victoria as she rode her steed into the countryside surrounding Balmoral.
As Brown helped her improve her riding skills, the pair grew closer.
But it was the tragic death of Prince Albert from typhoid fever in 1861 that deepened their relationship even further.
While the destitute monarch was spending her time holed up at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the Queen’s daughter Princess Alice suggested that Brown come down from Scotland on her pony.
Rejuvenated by recent travels 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 other servants increasingly resentful.
However, Victoria refused to listen to her family and courtiers and insisted that Brown accompany her everywhere.
He was at her side in 1872 when a teenager made the last of several attempts on the Queen’s life.
Armed with a pistol, teenager Arthur O’Connor climbed the fence of Buckingham Palace and waited for the Queen as she returned home from a service at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Violent newspaper columns began referring 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 at Queen Victoria’s side for more than 20 years.
John Brown (centre, kilt) stands beside Queen Victoria’s carriage as it prepares to arrive 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 point his gun at his head was thwarted by Brown, who grabbed him after he dropped his pistol.
The servant’s role in saving the Queen further strengthened his place in her affections, but also deepened her dislike for him and gave rise to even more rumors about their relationship.
In 1885, it was claimed that the Queen’s chaplain, the Reverend Norman Macleod, had made a startling deathbed confession. It has since been studied in depth by historians.
He claimed to have presided over Victoria and Brown’s marriage at Crathie Kirk in Scotland.
Although this claim has been disputed, some historians, such as biographer A.N. Wilson, believe that the ceremony actually took place.
Slanderous newspaper columns began referring 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 slept in a room next to the Queen’s bedroom.
“I think sometimes he’s there, and that’s because she sees him as a protector, she sees him as a bodyguard,” Professor Williams says.
But the revelation prompted Foreign Secretary the Earl of Derby to say the deal was “contrary to etiquette and even decency”.
In The Mail podcastMr Hardman says many of the rumours seemed to have a “misogynistic angle”.
“I mean that male monarchs have always had favourites, lovers, and no one has considered them less important,” she says.
“Queens can’t do that, can they?”
In August 1876, on Prince Albert’s birthday, Brown received a portrait of himself that Victoria had commissioned.
Seven years later, however, Brown fell ill with an infection. His death in March 1883 sent the Queen into another spiral of despair.
In another sign of how much she adored the sturdy 6ft 8in Gillie, Victoria commissioned Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of Britain’s greatest writers, to write the inscription on her gravestone.
He was buried at Crathie Kirkyard, the royal family’s favourite church, near Balmoral.
In a letter to former Home Secretary Viscount Cranbrook, only discovered in 2004, Victoria gave her opinion of Brown in the third person.
She wrote: ‘Perhaps never in history has there been such a strong and true bond, such a warm and loving friendship between sovereign and servant…’
The monarch called him “one of the most extraordinary men” and said he had a “tender and warm heart” combined with “honesty, independence and altruism.”
John Brown poses in a kilt with ceremonial pistols on his hip
The grave of Queen Victoria’s faithful servant John Brown in Crathie Cemetery, near Balmoral.
Further praise came in the form of a life-size statue of Brown, which Victoria had installed at Balmoral.
The inscription read: “Friend more than servant. Loyal. Truthful. Brave. Selfishness less than duty, even to the grave.”
There may have been further evidence of their relationship in a memoir Victoria wrote about Brown, but courtiers refused to allow her to publish it and destroyed it, along with the servant’s own diaries.
Before her death in 1901, Victoria insisted that Brown’s mother’s wedding ring (which he had given her) be placed on his right hand.
He also wanted a photograph of him in his left hand, hidden among flowers.
Also in her coffin was a lock of Brown’s hair and several of his letters to her.
It was the final and ultimate sign of the esteem he had for the brazen Scot.
Listen to Episode two of Queens, Kings and Cowardly Things to hear Professor Williams and Robert Hardman’s verdict on Victoria’s relationship with Brown.
Robert Hardman is the author of books such as 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 the 2018 book Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots, along with many other works.
