Prince Albert: A Victorian Superhero Revealed - History Documentary
In this history documentary we discover the little-known yet profound role Prince Albert played in shaping British culture, governmental policy, and even international relations in Victorian Britain. With access to private papers and thousands of photographs, historian Saul David examines Albert's influence and innovative ideas, which transformed the nation's fortunes and created a legacy that lives on to this day.
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00:00The Victorian age shaped modern Britain and all over the country one man left his mark.
00:11He was the architect of the Victorian era. He was the man who really created the Victorian
00:17world as we understand it. He was a visionary and he would imagine things and then make them happen.
00:23From architecture to education to living conditions Prince Albert was an innovator and an idealist.
00:33He had this great reforming impulse. I think he had this great civic impulse.
00:38He was on a human level stitching out for the poor in a way that very few public figures were.
00:46Yet during his lifetime Albert's ambitions were often thwarted.
00:51He was loathed by the royal household. He was hated by the court.
00:56They make sausage jokes, they make breakfast jokes, they make pretzel jokes.
01:01They didn't want a troublemaker. They wanted Albert simply to be a court flunkie.
01:09I'm Saul David, a writer and historian. I've been given remarkable access to the royal archives.
01:16So that was the template? Absolutely yes. I mean it's astonishing.
01:21Where Albert's personal letters. There's a sort of cry for help really. Yes absolutely.
01:26And intimate photographs. Wow. Help us understand his struggles and his achievements
01:32in more detail than ever before. Victoria in a way is the least Victorian of people.
01:37It is Albert who's the true Victorian.
01:40They revealed the genius of the man I believe was king in Albert name.
01:56Windsor Castle has been a royal residence for nearly a thousand years.
02:02At its heart stands the great round tower, home to the royal archives and photographs.
02:10This space holds the most complete collection of documents and pictures relating to Albert's life.
02:17Now as part of a massive digitization project, over 20,000 personal letters,
02:24diaries and photographs will soon become available online to scholars and the general public.
02:29This remarkable photograph is one of the most important in the history of the Royal Library.
02:35This remarkable photograph looks as if it was taken yesterday.
02:43Curator Kathleen Langford begins by showing me a rare object that sums up Prince Albert's
02:48unique vision and what he stood for. The detail is absolutely extraordinary.
02:55This was taken in 1848 so at the time Prince Albert was about 28, 29 in his prime effectively.
03:02This is at a time when photography had only just been invented, black and white obviously.
03:07There's already colour so how did they manage to do that?
03:09It's created by sort of adding very fine coloured pigments to the surface of the work.
03:14It sort of combined all of his loves, his love of art, his love of science,
03:18love of technology and it creates this amazing unique visual product.
03:22And interestingly of course at a time when some people would have been suspicious of this medium,
03:26he embraces it immediately doesn't he? It's like this is new.
03:29Yes, he completely embraces it. I think the photograph shows Albert
03:32how he wished to be viewed as sort of he's looking ahead, he's looking towards the future.
03:37While Albert would carve out a role as a leader in British society,
03:42he first arrived in England as a teenager from a minor German principality.
03:48Albert had been promised to Queen Victoria as the husband when he was a baby. It was all arranged.
03:54Albert's grandmother, the Duchess Augusta is absolutely thrilled because she's immediately
04:01has this plan that Albert should marry his little first cousin the Queen of England and
04:05this will be his destiny. It's the biggest career opportunity
04:09he will ever have is to marry Victoria. Luckily Victoria was delighted by the
04:15prospect of marrying Albert. He's described somewhere as the
04:18most handsome prince in Europe and you can tell from Victoria's diaries that she takes
04:23one over to him and she's absolutely bowled over. Albert turns up in the hall at Windsor Castle
04:31and Queen Victoria comes to the head of the staircase and she's absolutely smitten.
04:36She says she sees Albert and he is beautiful underlined.
04:41There's this wonderful diary entry where she says, you know, I went for
04:44a ride with my dearest Albert who was wearing white cashmere pantaloons, nothing underneath.
04:54The wedding took place in St James's Palace in February 1840.
05:00Their love for each other was clear.
05:04What's less well known is the homesickness that Albert felt when he came to England.
05:10The manager of the Royal Archives, Bill Stockting, is showing me one of Albert's earliest letters
05:15recording the young prince's sadness at leaving Germany.
05:19Here we have a copy letter to his aunt, of course Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent,
05:26in December 1839. So still very early days, so he's beginning to think about
05:31what this now actually means for him. Let's see what he actually writes.
05:36What a mass of emotions of the most diverse kind seize and overwhelm me.
05:41Hope, love for dear Victoria, the pain of leaving home, the parting from your dearest kindred.
05:49Albert comes from Coburg, which is a tiny principality in southern Germany. It's about the size of Fulham.
06:01Coburg was known as the stud farm of Europe because so many of the Saxe-Coburg family
06:08were married to influential princes and members of the sort of European elite.
06:15Albert never had any friends in his whole life. He didn't have a friend.
06:21He only had family and it was a small family. He was brought up with his brother and it broke
06:28his heart really when he was separated from his brother. Victoria sensed Albert's unhappiness.
06:35She understood how much he missed his homeland, so she organised a very personal gift for him.
06:41She secretly commissioned the photographer Francis Bedford in June, July of 1857 to go to Coburg
06:47to photograph the sites and sort of scenes and the people associated with Prince Albert's childhood,
06:52including his brothers. There was no expense spared on birthday presents and I think Queen
06:56Victoria thought this was a really significant sort of present to give Albert to sort of relieve
07:00some of the homesickness he would have been feeling. Wow, it's incredible. I mean that could
07:04have been taken, I don't know, a couple of years ago, couldn't it? This particular photograph that
07:09we're looking at now is where he was born and grew up. It's quite interesting seeing his childhood
07:13home. It's relatively modest, isn't it? It wasn't massive but it was what he really adored and Queen
07:18Victoria does write that if she hadn't been Queen she would have loved to have lived here and it
07:22would have brought him a lot of joy, I think, in his time in England to look at this album
07:26and revisit through the photographs the sites and people associated with his childhood home.
07:32Albert was leaving his beloved homeland behind, although his family life in Coburg was not always
07:38happy. His parents' marriage ends spectacularly badly. Albert loses his mother when he's five. I
07:46mean she doesn't die when he's five but his mother runs away with another man. Albert was determined
07:52to reverse that and demonstrate to the world that he and Queen Victoria were going to have
07:58the ideal family with nine beautifully behaved, well-read, multilingual children.
08:06Albert threw himself into his new role as husband and father, pouring his time and energy into
08:12raising his children. This is part of a series called the World Children album of which five
08:18were compiled together by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. They're remarkable documents. A private
08:23photograph album records some of the most intimate family moments. This is the first time it has been
08:30filmed. This is a photograph of Prince Arthur taken in 1857 by the photographer Cal Deasy,
08:36who was very popular with the royal family. It's meant to replicate the cherubs at the bottom of
08:40the Sistine Madonna by Raphael and we know that Prince Albert was a great fan of Raphael. Now this
08:46I'm guessing is an image that the royal family would have intended to have been kept private.
08:49Yes, it's their photographs that were only to be enjoyed by them privately, not for public
08:53consumption. Here is another photograph of Prince Arthur presenting himself as a military drummer.
08:59He goes on of course to become a field marshal so it's clear that his fate is sealed as far as
09:04his occupation is concerned. Sort of foregrounding that later life, yeah. Here we have a portrait of the Prince of Wales
09:09as a young teenager. Future Edward VII, we all remember it much later in life, a slightly more
09:14rotund with his beard and look at him. And here he is as a young boy and then as we turn
09:19the page again there's a photograph here of a young Princess Alice, is a young woman.
09:24One photograph in this album represents an extraordinary royal first and reveals Albert's
09:30instinctive grasp of public relations. There is a photograph here that was sort of intentionally
09:37private but then did go on to have a public life. Initially it was a private commission,
09:42they must have been suitably happy with it that they allowed for it to then be published as an
09:45engraving in newspapers. Wow, incredible. And would that have been the first photograph the public in
09:51the UK would have seen of the royal family? It was definitely the first photograph that was ever
09:55publicly exhibited of the royal family and I think it's particularly telling that they agreed to that
10:00because it sort of shows the royal family as they wish to be seen. You can sort of see there is a
10:05sort of united family front, Queen Victoria looking very motherly, tenderly at her newborn baby.
10:11It's interesting isn't it, so they're using photography for their own pleasure of course and
10:16to record their children as they're growing up like we all do but actually there was a
10:19almost a political or a public image message in all of this. I think that's true, I think they
10:24were very aware of what photography could do in terms of their public image so they're presented
10:29as sort of unified loving family but also a very stable family. I think that's particularly key
10:33when you're considering sort of the monarchy and how they wanted to present themselves as a stable
10:36monarchy. There's quite a lot of evidence that Albert's promotion of the royal family as a
10:45perfect family on the throne works. The royal family does come to be seen in that way and that
10:52it does therefore gain a great deal of acceptance and legitimacy. Despite creating the perfect family
11:00Albert was frustrated in his domestic role. Being a father and husband wasn't enough for him.
11:07When Albert first arrived in England the sense of letdown must have been terrible. He had no
11:15status at all. His only status was that he was the husband of the Queen of England. Albert's allowance
11:21from the civil list is way less than he expected and this is a deliberate snub. Albert asks for
11:29I think it's £50,000 a year as an allowance and Parliament just says no, you know, we're not
11:37giving this, you know, he's a carpetbagger, he's on the make. It's a very tricky position to be in
11:45and there's a very sad letter he writes to one of his friends when he says, you know,
11:50I'm the husband but not the master in the house.
11:55The royal archives contain a remarkably candid letter from Albert revealing the depth of his
12:00dissatisfaction. In a letter we have here to his mentor and advisor Baron Stockmar, we see that
12:07very clearly if we start down here at the bottom of the page. My attention has until now been
12:12directed to a host of trifles. I mean by these domestic and court arrangements and to these I
12:18have chiefly applied myself feeling that we shall never be in a position to occupy ourself with
12:23higher and graver things dealing as we have to do with these near nothings. So it's a sort of cry
12:31for help really isn't it? Yes, absolutely. Albert was fulfilling his primary duty as royal consort
12:39yet was increasingly determined to carve out a public role for himself.
12:43A role that would match his ability and his ambition. Albert does want power certainly
12:49but he doesn't want power for power's sake. He wants power to do good.
13:00The royal archives at Windsor Castle hold a remarkable collection of documents that
13:04are helping us build a new portrait of Prince Albert.
13:10Albert is basically given the education and the training of somebody who's going to become
13:16effectively a king. As a young man Albert went to university and did the grand tour of Italy.
13:23He studied history, politics and architecture and excelled in the arts and sciences.
13:29In England however he was sneered at for being a German and an intellectual.
13:34If he spoke out on matters of state he was ridiculed. If you look at all the cartoons of
13:41him at the time, I mean they make sausage jokes, they make breakfast jokes, they make pretzel jokes,
13:46there's the general suspicion that the British have towards foreigners of any kind wearing
13:52funny clothes and speaking with funny accents. So here he arrives in England, extremely able young
13:58man, bursting with political ideas and of course given no executive or political role at all.
14:05He writes to the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne who's of course very close to Queen Victoria
14:10and he says to Melbourne, you know, what is the precedent for me as the husband of the Queen?
14:18What role can I expect to play? So what's the response to his query to Melbourne? Well here
14:24from a letter a little over a week later we have a copy of the letter from Melbourne back to the
14:30Prince. Your serene Highness is entering no doubt upon a state and situation of some difficulty
14:36in as much as it is one of a peculiar and extraordinary character and of which there
14:41have been little experience. He's clearly warning him the possibility that we've never had this
14:46situation before and he's not really holding out much hope or expectation. I don't think that was
14:51what he was wanting to hear. If you look here again your serene Highness says it will be
14:59certainly prudent that your serene Highness should not take an active part in those political
15:04questions which divide parties in this country. I mean that's quite clear isn't it? Stay out of
15:10politics and it must have come as quite a blow to Albert. Absolutely yes Albert is getting very
15:16frustrated. Disappointed by his rebuff from the Prime Minister Albert turned his attention to the
15:23royal household where he could find an outlet for his leadership ambitions. One thing he can do is
15:30is to look at the royal finances and he is you know he's an outsider and he starts looking at
15:38some of the practices that have gone on and he's absolutely gobsmacked. His first project is
15:44basically to try and reform the palaces, to reform Buckingham Palace and Windsor. One of the shocking
15:52things to this day about Britain for foreigners when they come here is realising how badly
15:58everything is run but it was particularly badly run in the royal household. In Buckingham Palace
16:05there was one person in charge of cleaning the inside of the windows and another person in charge
16:09of cleaning the outside of the windows and so because they didn't coordinate you could never
16:13see through the smutty smog ridden windows. All these palace officers like the Lord Chamberlain
16:20and the Lord Steward they don't work with each other and they're all you know the famous story
16:24about how it's the duty of the Lord Chamberlain to lay the fire but he can't light it it's the
16:29Lord Steward who has to put a match to it. At Windsor Castle every single day they prepared
16:36huge sides of beef and whole cows and pigs and lambs being conveyed down corridors but with
16:45nobody to eat them of course because I mean the Queen and Prince Albert hardly ever went to Windsor
16:49in those days. The levels of petty corruption and inefficiency were almost inexhaustible.
16:55By tackling the household accounts Albert was beginning to assert himself. He could prove his
17:01worth by saving money. You can see here that we have a list entitled savings on the civil list for
17:081848 and here set out probably by a household clerk is set out the salaries of the major
17:16officials of the households of the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Steward, the Master of the Horse and so on
17:21but also what their allowances were. And I suppose the question is does he succeed?
17:26These papers show very clearly that year-on-year savings were being made and by 1848 here we're
17:33looking at a figure of over £34,000 was being made so it's been estimated from about 1842 to
17:391853 that over £55,000 was in fact saved so in today's money that's probably about four and a
17:46half million pounds. He was loathed by the royal household, he was hated by the court, he was hated
17:54by all the flunkies because of course he was exposing how absolutely useless they were of their jobs.
18:01Albert did more than balance the books. He wanted to modernize and innovate and the crown properties
18:08became his proving ground. In a corner of the Windsor estate stands an impressive building.
18:14A model dairy that showcases Albert's passion for form and function.
18:28The whole idea behind the dairy was to keep it cool. The milk had to be kept at a low temperature
18:35so every part of the building was designed for ventilation and to keep the milk cold.
18:40Prince Albert wanted a functioning building that was ornamental and beautiful but was practical.
18:47Curator Carly Collier is showing me an original plan for the interior of the dairy.
18:52So this is a design by John Thomas for the creamery in the royal dairy, one of the walls,
18:57as we can see incredibly detailed. That was the template for the actual dairy? Absolutely yes and
19:02we know that Prince Albert was very much engaged. He looked at designs as they were progressing
19:08so this really is his vision. I can see the ground plan here of the whole creamery. How does this
19:14section actually fit into the plan? So we're looking at this short edge of the building here
19:19and you can see the fountain there and that was producing water to help cool the atmosphere and
19:24the water was running down and there was a system by which it ran underneath the marble tables
19:30on which the bowls which contained cream were kept to again contribute to cooling them. I mean it's
19:36one thing actually drawing this out, it's quite another thing building it. I can imagine the person
19:40responsible, the architect, for putting this together must have thought really? That amount of detail!
19:49Albert had a very strong view that good design should be matched with industrial manufacturing
19:57and that the two should be welded together. He always stressed the idea that functionality
20:03should come first and that this place worked as a working dairy.
20:09Growing in confidence and with substantial savings from the household accounts
20:13Albert now set his sights on an even more ambitious architectural project.
20:23So is this Osborne Gully? Absolutely and this was the private residence for the Queen and for
20:29the family and at a stage during building operations and the main wing over to the left-hand
20:34side there at an advanced stage of construction but I'm not quite sure if what we can see is
20:41the remnants of some scaffolding? Yeah it's definitely poking up above the structure.
20:47This was painted by the Queen's own watercolour tutor, a Scottish artist called William Leighton
20:52Leach. So he would have been at Osborne to teach the Queen and he was clearly interested in this
20:57incredibly important building project that was going on around him.
21:01It strikes me looking at this very beautiful and small but detailed painting that you can see in
21:07it the growing influence of Albert in the royal family in relation to buildings. Certainly his
21:13building projects were ambitious and incredibly impressive and we have this wonderful record of
21:19it. Osborne became a place where Albert could test his ideas about architecture, design and
21:25engineering. He's able to indulge all his great passions. There's a special tower built from which
21:33he stands looking down where the trees are planted. There's a man in the field with a flag
21:39but where the tree is to be planted or not and he's a great tree planter, Albert. It's very,
21:44very Albertian in the sense that when you go inside there are his corridors and rooms laid
21:52out as if it were some kind of seaside place on the Mediterranean but at the same time it's
21:58all very practical. For example all the sewage in the house comes down and irrigates the garden
22:04and there are all sorts of details like that which make one realise this is Albert's house.
22:10It's a sort of a fantasy of what an Italian villain might look like and it's been incredibly
22:16influential because there are lots of copies of the Osborne type building all over the world.
22:22The house that Albert built was a beautiful home for his wife and family.
22:29He also wanted to share the treasures of the Royal Collection with the wider public.
22:36His most ambitious artistic project used the new medium of photography to create a definitive survey
22:42of the works of the great Renaissance artist Raphael.
22:46So here we have a very large photograph the Sistine Chapel tapestry cartoons.
22:55Wow of course this is early days of photography we're talking about the 1850s I think is the
23:00earliest example. Absolutely this is very much an early and innovative use of photography to
23:07reproduce artworks. I mean I am flabbergasted that in the 1850s you're able to produce something of
23:13that quality in photography. It is really rather magnificent they were really really very well
23:19received. So far Albert's influence was confined to life inside the palaces. He had the capability
23:28to do so much more. His chance to make a difference to Britain would come as
23:33royal dynasties across Europe were coming under violent attack.
23:48By the late 1840s Prince Albert was reforming the royal household
23:52and building a lavish new home at Osborne.
23:55And then in April 1848 he was brought alarming news of social unrest.
24:001848 is a year of complete turmoil all over Europe. I mean you know you've got the French King
24:08Louis-Philippe has been deposed. There's revolution in Austria.
24:14Albert understood the potential consequences. The British monarchy might be the next target.
24:20Albert was very afraid in 1847 coming into 1848 that there would be a revolution in Britain.
24:29Historian Onyeka Nubia has come to Kennington Common,
24:32site of one of the largest citizen protests of the 19th century.
24:37Over 100 years ago in 1848 here in Kennington Common, thousands of working men gathered.
24:44They gathered because they wanted the right to vote. They wanted the right to vote.
24:48They gathered because they wanted the right to vote. Very frightening,
24:51very dangerous to the establishment. They were part of the Chartist movement,
24:56a working class campaign for political reform that swept the country in the late 1830s and 40s.
25:04Now we often think of the right to vote as a principal cornerstone of western democracy.
25:08We think of it as something that is a fundamental human right that everybody should have.
25:13But in 1848 that wasn't the case. But the people that gathered here wanted it to be.
25:18Artisans, skilled labourers, unskilled labourers, the unemployed, they all gathered here because
25:24they wanted one thing, which was a say in the future and the destiny of their country.
25:30There's a real moment when it seems as if this is going to erupt into a revolution,
25:35as on the continent, and Albert and the Queen are sent off to be safe at Osborne.
25:40The Chartist mass meeting at Kennington was reported across Britain
25:45and made a major impression on Prince Albert.
25:49The photograph's collection holds a unique artefact that's evidence of Albert's growing
25:53social awareness. So this is the Chartist meeting on Kennington Common, taken on 10th April 1848.
26:01You really get a sense of the atmosphere. There's sort of an energy to the photograph.
26:05You do get a sense of the movement of people, the crowds, specifically the details of the flags,
26:12and also the details of the buildings in the background.
26:14It's absolutely fascinating, isn't it?
26:16And how long after the photograph was actually taken did Prince Albert acquire it?
26:20So we believe that he acquired this in May of that year,
26:22so only a few weeks after the actual event.
26:24Prince Albert was particularly understanding of the fact that the social and working conditions
26:30of the poor weren't great at that time. And I think by purchasing this work,
26:33it shows his sympathies towards that. And he often said, like those with station, wealth,
26:38and sort of education, should use that to be able to assist people
26:42and make sure that their conditions were better.
26:48Albert was torn in his mind. On the one hand, he had a horror of revolutionaries,
26:54a horror of socialism. On the other hand, he could see that there was justice in the Chartist cause.
27:00He buys the photograph, I think, because he is fascinated in popular movements,
27:04and he feels very deeply about the plight of these people.
27:09He understands that the world is changing, and I think there is a huge
27:13kind of moment for him. And he sees that, you know, it's not enough for the ruling class to rule,
27:20because that's their job.
27:22He wanted the political class to realise that the grievances of the Chartists,
27:28of the labouring classes, were legitimate grievances. Their living conditions were appalling.
27:35Their health non-existent, their education non-existent.
27:39Only weeks after the Chartist protest, Albert gave voice to his concerns.
27:44He spoke out at a public meeting.
27:47He makes this incredible speech where he says, we, the ruling class, cannot exercise power
27:52without responsibility. We must put something back.
27:56We have here in the archives the actual draft of that speech that he made,
28:01and I'll just read out a few extracts to give you a sense of what he was trying to get across.
28:05He writes of,
28:07My feelings of sympathy and interest for that class of our community
28:11which has most of the toil and least of the enjoyments of this world.
28:16And to show the way how man can help man is more particularly the duty of those who,
28:22by the favour of providence, enjoy station, wealth and education.
28:29He wasn't a socialist in any sense of the word, but he was, on a human level,
28:34sticking up for the poor in a way that very few public figures were.
28:40The following day, every newspaper published the Prince's speech.
28:45Albert's campaign for change was up and running.
28:49Prince Albert believed education, formal education through schools and colleges
28:54and universities was an absolute necessity for the life of a nation.
28:59Very, very few people in Britain had ever believed that, certainly never expressed the belief.
29:05Once again, Albert would test out his ideas close to home.
29:10When he realised the children of the Osborne estate workers didn't have a school of their own,
29:15he had a new one built specially for them.
29:19This document is evidence of Albert's systematic approach to a lot of things in life,
29:24but in this case, education.
29:26It's headed Children List Of On Estate, and then there are a series of headings,
29:31the name, the age, whether they're at school or not, their state of education,
29:36whether they can read or write, read only, neither, imperfectly or otherwise.
29:43We've got Charles Bull, who's 17, and you might have hoped he could read or write.
29:49He can do neither.
29:50And what you see here, and what is particularly significant,
29:54is that the younger children in the list generally have higher educational attainment.
29:59James Hunt, he's nine.
30:02He is at school, and yes, he can read and write.
30:05He believed passionately that for people of the labouring classes to get on in life,
30:11and therefore for Britain to prosper as a country,
30:14it was necessary for them to have education.
30:18This is evidence that even in a small way on the Isle of Wight, it could work,
30:22and if you translate this right across the United Kingdom,
30:25you really would have a revolution in the education of the working classes.
30:30Albert's ideas were starting to be taken seriously.
30:34His next project was the inner cities,
30:36encouraging wealthy benefactors to fund housing for the urban poor.
30:42If you were a working-class family in one of these newly built hellhole cities,
30:50in the black country, in the north, or in London itself,
30:54life wasn't much fun.
30:56And your children were going to die of rickets and cholera and typhus
31:01and all these horrible diseases.
31:02You were piled on top of one another, so crowded that you had to,
31:06I mean, half the family had to take it in terms of going to sleep
31:08and the other half had to be wandering the streets.
31:12Albert threw himself into the problem,
31:17commissioning a team of experts to come up with new solutions to the housing crisis.
31:22This is a publication of the designs for model houses
31:28that were built under the aegis of Prince Albert.
31:32He financed these houses.
31:33And then this publication was produced in order to literally provide
31:39a blueprint for these residences for future builders,
31:43how to build them, the sorts of costs that would have been involved.
31:48And that is married with a series of plans.
31:52I mean, it strikes me looking at all the detail in this,
31:54extraordinary detail in this, Carly.
31:56This is quintessential Albert.
31:58It's got the design, it's got the costing.
32:00I mean, nothing really is left out, is it?
32:02This is the blueprint for an early form of social housing.
32:06And I suppose the question is, was it actually used?
32:08Did this change housing in Britain?
32:12It was certainly very influential.
32:14And this publication was instrumental in changing attitudes
32:18towards the housing of the working poor.
32:23The model cottage designed by Albert's team
32:26still stands at the very place where the Chartists once gathered, demanding change.
32:32Kennington in South London.
32:35And although it's one building,
32:37it actually comprises four apartments for four families.
32:40And it's got some really innovative features for the time.
32:42Katie Leighton-Jones is a social historian specialising in housing.
32:47It's got a very large parents' bedroom,
32:50which was spacious and gave them some privacy,
32:52which was unusual for the working classes.
32:54It's got two children's rooms, which were separate from the living room,
32:57which gave them really a sense of that middle-class parlour
33:00that the other classes enjoyed.
33:02Albert really believed that if you could tackle the living standards
33:05of the working classes, really improve their quality of life,
33:08that you could also tackle social problems and social conflict in society.
33:16Another of Albert's ambitious housing projects
33:19was an innovative five-storey apartment building,
33:22replacing a block of decaying working-class slums in central London.
33:29Every flat in Parnell House had running water,
33:32a lavatory and a minimum of three bedrooms.
33:35I think the main impact of buildings like Parnell House
33:39was that they really raised expectations for how the labouring classes could live.
33:44And they themselves then had improved aspirations,
33:47what they wanted from their lives and what they expected from society.
33:56This image was produced when the building was brand new
33:59and it had its first residents.
34:01And you can see it's astonishing how little has changed.
34:06The residents of that time still had pot plants.
34:09You've got the same wrought iron railings and even the same light fittings.
34:13And right in the centre, in this open space
34:15that was so important in the model dwellings,
34:17you've got people enjoying the outdoors with their little child and the family,
34:21because after all, this building was built for families.
34:26Parnell House was used as a model for generations of social housing.
34:31And Albert was earning respect across Britain
34:34as a leader striving to build a fairer society.
34:38By his own industry, he really invents the idea of the hard-working royal.
34:43The royal who justifies their existence by doing good.
34:47And, you know, Victoria, you know, never worked as hard as he did.
34:54Albert was no longer confining his energies to charity and social reform.
34:58An extraordinary collection of documents in the royal archives
35:01reveals his ambition for a more powerful role in British public life.
35:06You can see the level of detail in this book, you know, written in his own hands.
35:11But it's also a very telling indication of the role he was beginning to play.
35:15It's a record of his political dealings.
35:19He is absolutely immersing himself in the business of government.
35:22He's recording all these conversations,
35:24He's recording all these conversations,
35:26this correspondence that's coming in from ministers,
35:29and also with significant figures in the empire.
35:32On this page, a report of a conversation with Sir Robert Peel.
35:37Peel, of course, is prime minister at this time,
35:39so this is a hugely important political conversation.
35:43And it absolutely underpins that he is determined
35:47that he will play his part in the political life of this country,
35:50whatever the establishment wishes or wants.
35:55Albert has become totally indispensable to Victoria.
35:58He basically runs the show, and she is well aware of it.
36:03It is Albert who has taken all the decisions,
36:07Albert who has had the new projects,
36:10Albert who has controlled her relationships with the politicians.
36:15And her role is basically reduced to copying out letters
36:19that Albert has already drafted before she gets up in the morning.
36:23And saying what Albert tells her to say.
36:26Albert was winning over the politicians and the people.
36:30His next big idea would cement his place in history.
36:34A world-class event that few believed was possible.
36:38It would test Albert's resilience to the limit.
36:53In 1851, Albert would embark on his greatest gamble.
36:58A daring project to unite his many passions
37:02and bring together people from the four corners of the globe.
37:06Albert believed that trade and invention and technology
37:11would unite the human race and there would be universal peace.
37:14And that was really the extraordinarily idealistic thought
37:19behind the great exhibition.
37:24A vast palace, the largest man-made glass structure on Earth,
37:28would house the world's first trade fair with over 100,000 exhibits.
37:34We look back on it at the pinnacle of the 19th century.
37:38But at the time, everyone thought it was going to be a disaster.
37:42In Parliament, they said the exhibition would fail.
37:45London would be overwhelmed with crowds,
37:48spreading disease and hiking up prices.
37:51Once again, Albert faced prejudice and mistrust.
37:55They thought Albert was a spy, a foreign spy.
37:59And they thought, wanting all the people of the world to come and exhibit,
38:05Indians, Persians, Chinese people were invited to exhibit their wares.
38:10I mean, there must be something wrong with that.
38:13They're trying to infiltrate.
38:15They thought that a hailstorm would make the glass roof break.
38:19The American president wouldn't come
38:20because he was worried about being decapitated by the glass.
38:23You know, there was all this kind of ludicrous sort of rumours
38:26and so forth that were going about.
38:29As the days ticked down to the grand opening,
38:32Albert was under enormous personal pressure.
38:35The stress and public criticism were relentless.
38:39This is a wonderful letter written by Prince Albert
38:41just weeks before the great exhibition actually takes place.
38:44And he writes,
38:46Dear Mama, I am at present more dead than alive from overwork.
38:50The opponents of the exhibition work with might and mean
38:52to throw all the women into panic and to drive myself crazy.
38:57The strangers they give out are certain to commence a thorough revolution here,
39:01to murder Victoria and myself and to proclaim a red republic in England.
39:06The plague is certain to ensue from the confluence of such vast multitudes
39:10and to swallow up those whom the increased price of everything
39:14has not already swept away.
39:16For all this, I am to be responsible.
39:19There's irony in this, there's humour,
39:21but there's also a sense of the toll
39:24the whole business of putting on the exhibition is taking on Albert.
39:28Albert was a brilliant, natural bureaucrat.
39:31I mean, civil servant, creator.
39:33He could see projects through in a way that is, I think, very rare.
39:37He was a visionary and he would imagine things and then make them happen.
39:42That's an extraordinary thing and it's very...
39:43In a way, that's quite un-English.
39:47Finally, on 1 May 1851, Queen Victoria, with Albert by her side,
39:52declared the great exhibition, her husband's brainchild, open.
40:02Queen Victoria realised this was Albert's great day,
40:05it was Britain's great day, and they went in
40:08and, as she describes it in the journal, of course, it was an absolute triumph.
40:12It was amazing.
40:14I mean, hallelujah chorus was never more appropriately sung.
40:21In the five months the great exhibition was open to the public,
40:24an astonishing six million visitors passed through its doors.
40:29Albert's visionary idea became one of the greatest achievements
40:32of the Victorian age.
40:34In 1857, Victoria creates Albert Prince Consort.
40:38And, of course, that's the name that we've come to know Albert by,
40:42as THE Prince Consort.
40:44And the fact that Victoria is able to do this for her husband
40:47and feels this need to do this,
40:50is just an indication of how far he's come.
40:54A remarkable letter in the Royal Archives reveals Albert's feelings
40:58at finally receiving the acceptance and recognition he has fought so hard for.
41:04This is a very moving letter about a great moment in Albert's life,
41:08because 17 years after he first arrived in this country,
41:12he is able to tell his stepmother about a change of title.
41:16And he writes,
41:17Dear Mama, I have not said a word to you about my change of title,
41:21and I now present myself before you as an entire stranger,
41:24as Prince Consort.
41:26I was certain to appear to them, and by them he means the British people,
41:30in the long run like a stranger in the land,
41:32as my sons alone were English princes, and I merely a Coburg prince.
41:38But now I have a legal status in the English hierarchy.
41:45Albert was finally being accepted by the British establishment.
41:49Yet the energy he invested in making Britain a better place was taking its toll.
41:55If you look at photographs of Albert after the age of 30,
41:58he does look prematurely old.
42:00He's not fit, his shoulders are sloping.
42:03He's not a well man.
42:05For whatever reason, he was a dying man.
42:08I think from his mid-30s you can see he was a dying man.
42:11He basically killed himself, I think, through overwork.
42:13Nobody quite knows what he dies of.
42:15You know, people think it may have been typhus or stomach cancer or Crohn's disease.
42:20God knows.
42:21In the winter of 1861, while staying at Windsor Castle, Albert fell desperately ill.
42:29As he lay on his sickbed, Queen Victoria read to him.
42:32Well, this really is, I think, a very sad object.
42:35It's an edition of a Walter Scott's Peverell of the Peak.
42:38I'm a very popular author at the time.
42:40And you can see here that this marker has been tipped into the volume,
42:45and a clue as to what that signifies is in this inscription at the front,
42:49which is in Queen Victoria's own hand.
42:52This book was read up to the mark in page 81 to my beloved husband
42:56during his fatal illness and within three days of its terrible termination.
43:04On the 14th of December, 1861, Albert died with Victoria at his side.
43:11He was 42 years old.
43:13It's extraordinary, isn't it?
43:14This clearly was the last thing she was reading to him.
43:17And she wants to mark that.
43:19You know, obviously, it's very precious to her.
43:21She's put a mark in it, and here it is,
43:24kept forevermore as a sort of memorial to their last few days together.
43:29Absolutely, and Queen Victoria kept many memorials, and this is yet another one.
43:34It's unbelievably sad that somebody with all that talent and so much to offer,
43:42both on a private and public level, should have died so young.
43:46The Observer newspaper captured the nation's grief.
43:50England will not soon look upon his like again.
43:55From the point of view of the monarchy,
43:57Victoria has lost the man who has effectively ruled Britain for the past 20 years.
44:04People say that Queen Victoria went over the top.
44:06She didn't.
44:08The mourning was absolutely justified.
44:10She was right to regard it as one of the great appalling tragedies of the 19th century.
44:16MUSIC
44:19Britain had lost a dynamic young leader with so much to contribute.
44:24Yet Albert would leave a remarkable legacy.
44:28This is a wonderful document and really part of our cultural history,
44:31because it shows the plot of land...
44:36..that Albert bought with the £200,000 profit from the Great Exhibition.
44:41You can see here, in this section here, this blue section,
44:45and the intention is to create a cultural quarter,
44:47a lasting legacy from the exhibition.
44:53And that plot of land was London's South Kensington.
44:57Profit from that exhibition in 1851 ultimately financed what we call the Albertopolis,
45:06the V&A, Imperial College, what eventually became the Royal Albert Hall,
45:13Natural History Museum, the Science Museum,
45:15the Royal College of Organists, the Royal College of Music, all these things.
45:19This was an element of our culture, our cultural heritage, that was created by Albert.
45:25Albert's idea for the Great Exhibition
45:27and then ultimately to have a lasting legacy for that exhibition.
45:32At the heart of South Kensington stands the museum that bears Albert's name, the V&A.
45:39Famously, Victoria thought it should just be called the Albert Museum,
45:42and she had to be convinced that it should be called the Victoria and Albert Museum.
45:47When we think about the V&A today and we think about Albert's role
45:51in its creation, we think of two words, which are ingenuity and imagination.
45:59The purpose of this place, as Albert envisaged it,
46:02was to showcase the greatest works of human ingenuity.
46:06It was there to inspire artists and architects and engineers and designers
46:11to spark the imagination of the next generation.
46:19I don't think people do him justice because they don't really understand what he did for us.
46:27He was one of the great kings we never had.
46:36Channel 4, loving the royals.
46:42Seven o'clock tomorrow night, from Greek Germanic sailor of dubious repute
46:45to pillar of the second Elizabethan reign, Prince Philip, the plot to make a king.
46:50Let's follow the eight by the story of the royal family over three decades,
46:53from the 1920s to the end of World War II, the Queen's lost family.
46:57Next tonight, cinema royalty.
46:59John McLean, Die Hard 4.