Queen Victoria's Last Love Page #3

because he would follow her carriage

in his own carriage.

And it was said, in France,

for example,

that he was a captured Indian prince

that she paraded around

just to show the might

of the British Empire.

But not everybody was so taken

with the Palace new boy.

On entering royal service,

Abdul had landed in a world

governed by strict codes

of class and protocol.

At the top of the court hierarchy

were the ladies and gentlemen

of the royal household.

When Abdul arrived

at the English court,

it was like entering a labyrinth,

with layers and layers of people

going out and out and out.

At the heart of it

are the lords and ladies in waiting.

These are aristocrats,

then you get the actual servants

who do the cooking and cleaning.

So the idea that somebody who's

a servant, who is an outsider,

who has none of this pedigree,

none of this background,

can suddenly leapfrog

into a position

of great closeness to the Queen

is something that they find,

well, not only threatening,

but wrong.

Abdul soon found himself at odds

with the royal household,

led by the Queen's Private

Secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby,

and Her Majesty's doctor,

Sir James Reid.

The household had never been used

to Indian servants,

and, um,

they really didn't like it.

Sir James had to deal

with them medically,

but there was much more to it

than that,

because the Queen was obsessed

by their clothes and comfort.

She was always worrying,

and Sir James had to have special

tweeds made for them,

but they had to be in Indian styles,

because she wanted them

to look exotic.

She gave Henry Ponsonby

a dictionary,

which I can just see

his wry face, you know,

I can imagine him going back

to the family and saying,

"Oh, she's given me a...

"Imagine, she's given me

a Hindustani dictionary,

"and I've got to learn Urdu now. "

Had Abdul just been pleased,

or happy with his position

as a khitmagar,

which is a waiter at table,

and all that,

they mightn't have minded so much.

But it was that he was getting

special treatment.

The Palace simmered with quiet rage

over the servant

who didn't know his place.

But the discontent

was about to boil over

into an unprecedented civil war

between the Queen and her own court.

Christmas, 1887.

At Osborne House, the Queen's staff

and family were looking forward

to the traditional highlight

of the festive season.

There is this rather strange form of

Victorian house party entertainment.

I think it's a shame that it's

fallen by the wayside - the tableau.

What you do is that you get all your

unwilling family and friends,

you get them to dress up,

you build your own scenery.

But it doesn't really matter

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