The intensely revealing and entertaining account of a great royal
secret and hidden love story--an unbuttoned history of Queen Victoria's
loves and intrigues.
Long before her successful marriage to Prince Albert, Princess Victoria
had an affair with the dashing Scottish 13th Lord Elphinstone. After the
liaison was exposed, Elphinstone was banished to India, appointed
Governor of Madras, which allowed Victoria's mother to engineer a royal
union for her with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. After five years of
pining for Elphinstone, Victoria finally gave in and married Albert.
Despite a successful marriage, Victoria never forgot Elphinstone and
after a decade in India he returned to her side as Lord-in-Waiting at
Court. He only left her to take up the critical role of Governor of
Bombay during the Indian Uprising of 1857. Elphinstone died soon after
in June 1860 from a fever.
Many attempts were made to bury the memory of Lord Elphinstone, his
long-running relationship with the monarch and his grand service for the
Empire, but Victoria recorded it in letters to her confidant, her
first-born, the Princess Royal: "Vicky." The revealing correspondence,
like a ticking time-bomb, sat in a German castle attic until 1945 when
King George VI, Victoria's great-grandson, sent a courtier, MI5
operative Anthony Blunt, on seven special missions to gather the
letters.
