Queen Victoria's Last Love Page #3

"at Windsor Castle. "

"Flow'rets fair as the morning light

"wake for you, the earth be white,

"With hearts of gold

and a breath of may,

"and a wish from my heart

to yours today. "

It's hardly likely that

the earth was going to be white

in India, but never mind.

At the Viceroy's Mansion

in Calcutta,

Abdul's attempt to ingratiate

himself cut no ice.

For somebody to start writing

in that very personal way

to the Viceroy of India,

an aristocrat of incredible

standing, was extraordinary.

Imagine it - you've been

made Viceroy of India,

you're dealing with the massive

problems of the subcontinent,

you're constantly

dealing with people

at the highest level

of that society,

and then suddenly, out of the blue,

a Christmas card arrives

from Abdul Karim.

What do you do with it?

Why's he written it?

Who is he?

Although Christmas was important,

it was very much a family thing,

and an intrusion from outside

was not, I think, really expected.

I just don't think that

anybody really felt

that you really

ought to use Christmas

for sending some sort of a greeting.

Well, why not just

send an ordinary letter?

But it was wrong,

and difficult, therefore,

to make a reply,

and it was better overlooked.

I don't think it was a question

of snobbery or anything like that.

It was just incomprehensible,

somehow.

Karim's card was returned

and quietly buried

in government files in Whitehall.

When Queen Victoria

learnt of the slight,

she leapt to Abdul's defence.

Victoria liked to

stir things up, you know?

We know this because

although she knew

that the Viceroy despised Abdul,

she insisted that

the Viceroy should reply.

You know, now

the Viceroy was perplexed.

He would not deign

to write to a lower,

a creature from the lower orders,

but he had to respond, you know.

There was a place for everyone

and everyone had a place.

But Karim didn't have a place.

And so it made life complicated,

An intruder, any dirt that

sort of got into the machinery,

it was difficult to know

how to remove it.

The Christmas card fiasco,

and Karim's promotion

as the Queen's Secretary,

stung the royal household

into attack.

They used as a weapon Lord Elgin's

former assistant Fritz Ponsonby -

the son of Victoria's

private secretary.

Fritz had been despatched

to Abdul's hometown of Agra.

His mission - to investigate

Karim's family credentials,

and he came up with

some powerful ammunition.

At court Abdul had given

the impression that his father

was a high-flying surgeon-general

in the Indian army.

The truth was rather less glamorous.

Abdul was, let's say,

slightly economical with the truth

about his family background,

and he pretended that his father had

had a position in the Indian Army,

been a glamorous surgeon.

Fritz Ponsonby discovers

that Abdul's father

was in fact a lowly apothecary

at the jail in Agra

and that Abdul's background

was not nearly

as exalted as Abdul pretended.

Ponsonby's enquiries revealed

that Abdul was the second

of six children from a family

of decidedly modest means.

His father was a hakim,

or native doctor, at Agra Jail.

A young man of limited education,

Abdul had also been employed

at the jail as a lowly clerk,

but used his father's connections

with the British authorities

to push himself forward

for royal duty.

When news reached the British court,

the feathers began to fly.

Here was a man, who,

in the view of the Victorian

was of a very low class,

and in the view of the Victorian

was from a lesser race.

"By your presumption and arrogance,

"you've created for yourself

"a situation that can no longer

be permitted to exist.

"You are an impostor.

"On the subject of your origin,

"we have a certificate

from India about your father.

"You are from a very low class

"and can never be called a gentleman.

"To be called 'Secretary'

is perfectly ridiculous. "

Abdul's embellishment of his past

deepened the household's hostility.

But the Queen-Empress herself

took a radically different view.

As the household began to make

their attacks on Abdul,

researching his family background,

saying he made grandiose claims,

saying he was dishonest

and that sort of thing,

this just enraged Victoria.

The worse the attacks got,

the more she defended him.

The Queen comes out with an

interesting statement for the time,

that it's "race prejudice" -

because there are a lot

of people at the time

who thought that, well,

the world is organised into races,

and some are better than others.

I mean, this was

an era of social Darwinism,

so she was definitely

taking a stand on that.

"To make out the Munshi is low

is really outrageous.

"Abdul feels cut to the heart

at being thus spoken of.

"The Queen is so sorry

"for the poor Munshi's

sensitive feelings. "

Under royal protection,

Abdul prospered.

The Queen gave him

not one but three houses -

at Balmoral, Windsor, and this one

in the grounds at Osborne.

She brought Karim's Indian wife

to live at court,

and even offered

intimate marital advice.

"My dear Abdul, I spoke

to Dr Reid about your dear wife.

"It may be she has

twisted something inside,

"which would account for

things not being 'regular'.

"I have had nine children myself,

"and there is nothing

I would not do to help you both. "

As the Queen's favourite,

and as an Indian,

Karim was almost

universally despised

by Victoria's staff and family.

And it wasn't only

the colour of his skin

that made Abdul the subject

of bitter resentment.

If one knew him today,

he would be a pain in the arse.

He was pompous, conceited -

you can see it in his face -

and absolutely did not think

of knowing his place.

He pushed for whatever he could get

and he was a bit of a rogue.

He was so pushy, and he was

always trying to get more and more.

You know, he got a huge amount

of money out of the Queen.

Obviously, you know, he got

a bit too big for his boots.

You know, he wanted

to be given his...

what he considered

his correct status.

And when he was on the train,

he wanted to have

a whole carriage for himself.

I mean, he always wanted

to be the top.

And then the other Indian servants

didn't like him either,

because he was domineering

and unkind to them.

He certainly doesn't

come out of it terribly well.

He was manipulative.

He simply abused the dignity

in a way that he shouldn't have had

as a personal servant to the Queen.

He abused it.

Karim was so confident

of his own importance

that by the year of Victoria's

Diamond Jubilee

he appeared to regard himself

not as Her Majesty's servant,

but as her master.

In October 1897,

a photograph is published

in The Graphic

of Queen Victoria sitting at a table

with Abdul standing right

in the centre of the photograph.

So the Queen in the photograph

is a little old lady

with a rather bent back.

Abdul is looking straight to camera,

a strong, big, solid figure,

and much more dominant

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