Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria visited Dunkeld in 1842 during the Royal Progress through Scotland with Prince Albert. They were entertained by the 8th Duke of Atholl on the lawn beside the Cathedral on the site of Dunkeld House. In 1844 she passed through on a visit to Blair Atholl. She had a meal in the Atholl Arms Hotel where the original receipt can be seen. Lastly in 1868 she visited the widowed Duchess of Atholl who lived in St. Adamnam’s Cottage within the Cathedral Grounds. This was pulled down in 1890.

Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert loved Scotland. Their early journeys to Scotland, including visits to Dalkeith Palace, Taymouth Castle and Dumbarton will be examined, as well as their stays at Balmoral, to which they formed a deep attachment. The author, Jeanne Cannizzo, illuminates the private side of the royal couple's life away from their public life in London. Our Highland Home: Victoria and Albert in Scotland includes images from the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland, the Royal Collection Trust, and many public and private collections throughout the United Kingdom. Our Highland Home: Victoria and Albert in the Highlands.

Queen Victoria's Life in the Scottish Highlands examines the watercolor paintings commissioned by Queen Victoria while visiting Scotland and describes the activities of the Queen in Scotland. Queen Victoria's Life in the Scottish Highlands: Depicted by Her Watercolour Artists.

A century after Queen Victoria's death, debate still rages surrounding her relationship with her gillie, John Brown. Were they ever married? What was the extraordinary hold he had over her? This biography aims to shed new light on these questions and to discover the truth behind Brown's hold on his royal employer. Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, the Queen found solace in the companionship of John Brown, who had commenced his royal employment as a stable hand. He became "The Queen's Highland Servant" in 1865 and rose to be the most influential member of the Scottish Royal Household. While the Queen could be brusque and petulant with her servants, family and ministers, she submitted to Brown's fussy organization of her domestic life, his bullying and familiarity without a murmur. Despite warnings of his unpopularity with her subjects by one Prime Minister, the Queen was adamant that Brown would not be sacked. The Queen's confidence was rewarded when Brown saved her from an assassination attempt, after which he was vaunted as a public hero. The author reveals the names of republicans and disaffected courtiers who related gossip about Queen Victoria and John Brown and their purported marriage and child, and identifies those who plotted to have Brown dismissed. Based on research in public, private and royal archives, as well as diaries and memoirs of those who knew Brown and interviews with his surviving relatives, this text analyzes the relationship between Queen Victoria and Brown. John Brown: Queen Victoria's Highland Servant.

How was Queen Victoria influenced by her closest male ministers, relatives, advisers and servants? John Van der Kiste is the first to explore this aspect of Victoria's life; focusing on four roles - mentors, family, ministers and servants. A soldier's daughter, Victoria lost her father at the age of eight months. Although her uncle Leopold did his best to be a substitute father, the absence of her real father probably influenced her throughout her life, not least in choosing her husband. Her close and faithful relationship with Albert is one of the great royal love stories but her relationships with her sons were much more stormy. However, with most of her heads of government she enjoyed relatively cordial relations - in widowhood she showed a decided partiality for Disraeli, who acquired for her the title Empress of India, but disliked Gladstone, complaining that he "speaks to me as if I were a public meeting". Queen Victoria's relationships with her servants are also explored, from the liberal influence exerted over the increasingly conservative queen by her private secretary, Ponsonby, to the outspoken John Brown and the Indian Munshi, who both antagonised those around her. Sons, Servants and Statesmen: The Men in Queen Victoria's Life.