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The Papers of Ueen Victoria on Foreign Affairs A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of The Papers of ueen QVictoria on Foreign Affairs Part 1: Russia and Eastern Europe, 1846-1900 UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Files from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle THE PAPERS OF QUEEN VICTORIA ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS Edited by Kenneth Bourne Part 1: Russia and Eastern Europe, 1846-1900 Guide compiled by Blair D. Hydrick A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of CIS 4520 East-West Highway • Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1902. The papers of Queen Victoria on foreign affairs [microform] edited by Kenneth Bourne. microfilm reels. — (Files from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle) Accompanied by printed reel guide compiled by Blair D. Hydrick. Contents: Pt. 1. Russia and Eastern Europe, 1846-1900. ISBN 1-55655-184-3 (microfilm) 1. Great Britain — Foreign relations ~ 1837-1901 — Sources — Manuscripts — Microform catalogs. I. Bourne, Kenneth. II. Hydrick, Blair. IE. Title. IV. Series. [DA550.V] 327.41-dc20 92-9780 CEP Copyright Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II1990. This is a reproduction of a series of documents preserved in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, published by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen. No further photographic reproduction of the microfilm may be made without the permission of University Publications of America. Copyright © 1990 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth H. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-184-3. TABLE OF CONTENTS General Introduction v Introduction: Part 1: Russia and Eastern Europe, 1846-1900 xii Reel Index Reell Russia, 1864-1874, Vol. H.41 1 Russia, 1874-1880, Vol. H. 42 4 Reell Russia, 1881, Vol. H.43 7 Russia, 1881, Vol. H.44 10 Russia, 1884-1891, Vol. H.45 11 Reel 3 Russia, 1892-1895, Vol. H.46 15 Russia, 1896, Vol. H.47 18 Russia, 1896-1900, Vol. H.48 20 Annihilation of Cracow, 1846-1847, Vol. H.49 22 Reel 4 Poland, etc., 1848-1865, Vol. H.50 24 Poland, 1863-1864, Vol. H.51 27 Coronation of Alexander n at Moscow, 1856, Vol. H.52 31 Correspondent Index 33 GENERAL INTRODUCTION The papers of modern British sovereigns have suffered as many vicissitudes as have other private collections. Almost all of William IV's papers, official as well as private, were probably destroyed by his executors,1 and large quantities of George IV's either upon his death or nearly a century later.2 So, too, was a large quantity of Edward VIITs.3 Nor, in between, did Queen Victoria's papers survive entirely unscathed. The original manuscript of her diary, from the time of her accession to the throne, was destroyed by her youngest daughter, and the transcript the Princess had previously made both omitted substantial portions and amended others. The 111 manuscript volumes now extant apparently represent only about a third of the original.4 Other important parts of the Queen's papers are also known to have been destroyed, including correspondence with Lord Granville. The destruction even extended to other collections outside the Royal Archives, so-called "very Private" letters to Disraeli being weeded out from the Hughenden Papers and subsequently destroyed.5 Yet, overall, Queen Victoria's papers fared far better than those of her uncles or her son, amounting still, not merely to a formidable collection of private correspondence, but also to what one might almost describe, albeit with important qualifications, as a sort of National Archive in miniature. Walter Bagehot, in a famous passage, thus summed up the powers of the mid-century monarch in Britain: "To state the matter shortly, the sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as our own, three rights—the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn."6 When this was written, in the 1860s, Bagehot was stating an ideal rather than a fact; in practice Queen Victoria often claimed—and sometimes even exercised—more power than was indicated by constitutional niceties. In any event, her interest and activity accumulated a vast quantity of paper at Windsor. In addition to family letters and material relating to the affairs of the Royal Household, this included much correspondence with her ministers. The most important was, of course, that with her Prime Ministers, who not only had to consult her about ministerial and other appointments but also had to keep her regularly informed about governmental and political affairs in general so that she could properly perform her acknowledged constitutional role. Thus, in addition to the correspondence regarding the passing political questions of the day, there were also regular reports from her Prime Ministers both of 1 Sir Robin Mackworth-Young, "The Royal Archives, Windsor Castle," Archives, XIII (1978), pp. 117-128. Subsequent references are to this article, which, together with Mackworth-Young's later The Royal Archives and Prince Albert, Coburg, 1985, in the series of essays edited for the Prince Albert Society by A. M. Birke, gives a short but comprehensive summary of the Royal Archives and of the Victorian Archive in particular. 2 Sir Philip Magnus, King Edward the Seventh, London, 1964, p. 461. 3 Mackworth-Young, p. 124. 4 Ibid., p. 123. 5 Magnus, p. 461. 6 Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution, World's Classics ed., London, 1929, p. 67. v the cabinet meetings and of proceedings in Parliament, and letters from other cabinet ministers regarding the affairs of their departments, from foreign monarchs and others regarding political as well as personal matters, and from a variety of other officials and private individuals. In many cases these were accompanied by drafts or copies of the Queen's replies and by important memoranda and other relevant papers. Apart from ministerial and parliamentary crises, which were by nature fitful, the Queen's principal interest was in foreign affairs. The sovereign indeed expected to see all incoming Foreign Office despatches and to approve everything sent out in her name. But even before Victoria's accession in 1837, the bulk was already too large for the task to be done in good time, if indeed at all. Already, therefore, the Foreign Secretary had resorted to sending her only selected correspondence and instructions, the latter not infrequently after they had already been despatched abroad and on the assumption that they could, if necessary, be recalled or amended en route. The young Victoria, moreover, was unable to cope with all that was expected of the sovereign and relied on Foreign Secretary Palmerston only a little less than on Prime Minister Melbourne. A couple of months after her accession, she requested the Foreign Secretary not to send her any more foreign despatches until she had finished those she already had.7 Shortly afterwards Palmerston directed that only "the most interesting" despatches should go to Windsor, an instruction amended at the Foreign Office to "interesting and romantic."8 When, the following summer, her first Ascot arrived, he minuted for the Foreign Office: "The less you send the Queen this next week... the better."9 But the Queen was by no means uninterested in foreign affairs, and already, though very tentatively, before the end of 1838 had complained to her Prime Minister that when he was not with her, she heard "nothing" about them.10 After her marriage in February 1840 to a foreign prince with decided views about the role of constitutional monarchy in Britain and a major interest in foreign affairs (as well as with many relatives abroad), this naive inquisitiveness escalated rapidly into personal and political confrontation. Prince Albert was the instrument by which his mentor Baron Stockmar hoped to see the British monarchy reformed and revitalized. "The Baron's idea of monarchy," wrote one of the Prince's biographers, "was that of a sovereign, wise and laborious, withdrawn from the sordid clash of party and exercising power which was unobtrusive but decisive."11 After three months of marriage, however, Prince Albert still found that he was "only the husband, and not the master in the house."12 For her part, Queen Victoria seemed as anxious as her ministers to exclude him from political business. "Albert helped me with the blotting paper when I signed," she wrote about transacting affairs of state a fortnight after her marriage.13 During her first confinement, however, Albert received and made notes for her about all cabinet business and in consequence was, with the Prime Minister's concurrence, given in December 1840 the keys to the secret boxes containing confidential government documents. More than that, he was, by the time of the 7 Brian Connell, Regina v. Palmerston. The Correspondence between Queen Victoria and Her Foreign and Prime Minister. 1837-1865, London, 1962, p. 9. 8 Sir Charles Webster, The Art and Practice of Diplomacy, London, 1961, pp. 188-9. 9 Ibid., p. 188. 10 7Wd.,p.243. 11 Roger Fulford, The Prince Consort, London, 1949, p. 58. 12 Theodore Martin, The Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, 5 vols., London, 1875-80, i. 71. 13 Fulford, p. 55. vi ministerial crisis the following year, taking an active part between the Queen and her ministers and to that end was allowed to be present at an official audience between the Queen and her Prime Minister.14 With Peel as Prime Minister from 1841 to 1846, Albert established for the monarch—and for himself—a reinvigorated role in political affairs. This mutual confidence also extended to the relations of the Queen and her Consort with her new Foreign Secretary, Aberdeen. When the Queen protested that despatches were being sent off before she approved them, she accepted his excuse that he was merely following precedent.15 With Palmerston back at the Foreign Office, however, she and her Consort would not rest so contented.
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