Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T05:16:18.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Queen Victoria's civil list: what did she do with it?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

William M. Kuhn
William M. Kuhn
Affiliation:
Carthage College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Queen Victoria made important financial concessions to parliament over the course of her reign. She accepted a smaller civil list and a smaller annuity for her consort than had been paid to any of her predecessors. She disclosed the accounts of the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, both of which had formerly been considered private property. She also reduced her income by subjecting it to the newly re-instituted income tax. Despite these concessions, she managed to acquire a considerable private fortune. The principal sources of this fortune were improving incomes from the two duchies and better management of the civil list. Both sources benefited from reforms imposed by the prince consort. The queen used her private fortune to pay for items formerly paid for from public funds. She built houses and erected monuments. She paid partly for the golden jubilee and wholly for the debts that accumulated when the civil list became inadequate from the 1880s. Parliament in turn used evidence of her private fortune to decrease the size and number of public grants to her offspring. Thus, increased parliamentary supervision and better regulation of the civil list improved the queen's private financial position, but also reduced the public burdens.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1993 , pp. 645 - 665
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Bagehot, Walter, The English constitution, in St John-Stevas, Norman (ed.), The collected works of Walter Bagehot (15 vols., Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1965–1986), V, 243Google Scholar.

2 Eric Hobsbawn, ‘Mass producing traditions: Europe 1870–1914’, in idem and Terence Ranger (eds.), The invention of tradition (Cambridge, 1983), p. 282.

3 Cannadine, David, ‘The context, performance and meaning of ritual: the British monarchy and the “invention of tradition”, c. 1820–1977’, in Hobsbawn, and Ranger, (eds.), Invention of tradition, pp. 101–64Google Scholar.

4 Hitchens, Christopher, The monarchy (London, 1990)Google Scholar; Wilson, Edgar, The myth of British monarchy (London, 1989)Google Scholar; Nairn, Tom, The enchanted glass: Britain and its monarchy (London, 1988)Google Scholar.

5 On Bagehot's ambivalence toward the monarchy see Kuhn, William M., ‘Ceremony and politics: the management of British royal ceremonial, 1861–1911’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins, 1990)Google Scholar, ch. 1; on liking for state and show, ‘The cost of public dignity’ (1867), in Collected works, St John-Stevas, (ed.), V, 413Google Scholar; on the diffusion of education, ‘English republicanism’ (1871), V, 426.

6 For what follows see Roseveare, Henry, The treasury: the evolution of a British institution (London, 1969), pp. 88–9Google Scholar; Beattie, John M., The English court in the reign of George I (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 106–9Google Scholar; Reitan, E. A., ‘The civil list in eighteenth-century British politics: parliamentary supremacy versus the independence of the Crown’, Historical Journal, IX, 3 (1966), 318–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reitan, E. A., ‘From revenue to civil list, 1689–1702: the revolution settlement and the “mixed and balanced” constitution’, Historical Journal, XII, 4 (1970), 571–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, London, Public Record Office (P.R.O.), Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, pp. 1–100.

7 Beattie, , English court, p. 269Google Scholar.

8 ‘Code of instructions issued by the treasury… to the auditor of the civil list for the time being’ (1895), P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/274–87, p. ii.

9 Brooke, John, King George III (New York, 1972), pp. 203–16Google Scholar.

10 Roseveare, , Treasury, p. 120Google Scholar.

11 ‘Code of instructions… to the auditor’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/274–87, pp. iii–iv, 4.

12 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 39.

13 Longford, Elizabeth, Victoria R. I. (London, 1964), pp. 73–4Google Scholar.

14 Ames, Winslow, Prince Albert and Victorian taste (London, 1967), p. 132Google Scholar.

15 Ponsonby to Welby, 12 May 1888, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/316–18.

16 On the pensions see ‘Civil list notes’ (Feb. 1901), P.R.O., Treasury Papers, T 168/52/15–31, p. 6; on the other expenses see ‘King's Personal Staff’, in Hamilton to Hicks Beach, 9 Mar. 1901, Gloucester, Gloucestershire Record Office, Hicks Beach Papers, D2455/PCC71.

17 Brooke, , George III, p. 211Google Scholar; ‘Code of instructions… to the auditor’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/274–87, p. 5.

18 See, for example, Salisbury to Edwards, 21 Nov. 1898, Hatfield House, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury Papers.

19 Select committee appointed to inquire into the accounts of income and expenditure of the civil list (Parl. Papers, 1837–38, XXIII), pp. 12–14.

20 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 41.

21 ‘Civil list notes’ (Feb. 1901), P.R.O., T 168/52/15–31, p. 7.

22 Ibid.; ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, pp. 41, 59.

23 P.D., 1837, XXXIX, 1300; S.C.…[on] the civil list (P.P., 1837–38, XXIII), pp. 6–7.

24 See ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, pp. 13–27 for most of what follows on the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.

25 P.D., 1837, XXXIX, 160, 1133.

26 Haslam, Graham describes the duchy after Queen Victoria';s accession as ‘a publicly accountable private estate’ in his essay, ‘Modernisation’, in Gill, Crispin (ed.), The duchy of Cornwall (Newton Abbot, London, & N. Pomfret, Vt, 1987), pp. 51–2Google Scholar.

27 Leopold protested to Victoria, Queen that he returned nearly £40,000 of it annually; see 31 Jan. 1840, in Benson, Arthur Christopher and Esher, Viscount (eds.), The letters of Queen Victoria (1st ser., 3 vols., London, 1907), I, 270–1Google Scholar.

28 Thompson, Dorothy, Queen Victoria: the woman, the monarchy and the people (New York, 1990), p. 36Google Scholar.

29 Quoted in James, Robert Rhodes, Albert, prince consort (London, 1983), p. 90Google Scholar.

30 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 98.

31 She thought paying taxes was infra dignitatem; see Hamilton diary, 7 & 9 May 1901, London, British Library (B.L.), Hamilton Papers, Additional (Add.) MS 48678, fos. 43, 45.

32 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 15 for 1840–90; for 1899 see Select committee on the civil list (Parl. Papers, 1901, V), p. 34.

33 Report to her majesty the queen from the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, 1873 (Parl. Papers, 1874, XXXIII).

34 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T250/2/I/499–549, p. 17 for 1845–95; for 1899 see S.C. on the civil list (P.P., 1901, v), p. 35.

35 On mineral revenue see Burt, Roger and Atkinson, Michael, ‘Mining’; on Prince Albert's improvements see Haslam, ‘Modernisation’, both in Gill, (ed.), Duchy of Cornwall, pp. 51, 209–11Google Scholar.

36 There was an annual charge of £1, 700 on class VI that went to supplement the pay of the ladies-in-waiting. Technically this should have been added to the salaries class (II) of the civil list, but continued to be deducted from class VI throughout the reign. See ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 42.

37 Ibid. pp. 81–4 shows two different figures: £824, 025 and £807, 130. It appears that there was some dispute over the actual amount. See also S.C. on the civil list (P.P., 1901, V), p. 22, which confirms the higher of the two figures.

38 von Stockmar, Baron E., Memoirs of Baron Stockmar, Müller, F. Max (ed.) (trans., 2 vols., London, 1872), II, 116–26Google Scholar.

39 Peel had reservations about the prince's reforms and insisted particularly that the value of the household political offices should not be reduced; see Martin, Theodore, The life of his royal highness the prince consort (5 vols., London, 1877–1880), I, 158Google Scholar; and Pound, Reginald, Albert: a biography of the prince consort (London, 1973), p. 92Google Scholar.

40 Calculated on the basis of figures in ‘Notes on th e civil list, 1897’ P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, pp. 81–84.

41 Ibid. p. 44.

42 Hatherley to Gladstone, 25 Sep. 1871, B.L., Gladstone Papers, Add. MS 44205, fos. 204–6.

43 Hamilton diary, 11 Jul. 1889, B.L., Hamilton Papers, Add. MS 48651, fos. 39–40.

44 John Bateman, Great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (reprint of 1884 4th edn, New York, 1970). p. 372.

45 On dukes and earls see Cannadine, David, The decline and fall of the British aristocracy (London and New Haven, 1990), pp. 710–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Cook, Chris and Keith, Brendan, British historical facts 1830–1900 (New York, 1975), pp. 239–40Google Scholar.

47 Kuhn, William M., ‘Queen Victoria's jubilees and the invention of tradition’, Victorian Poetry, XXV, 3–4 (1987), 108Google Scholar.

48 See S.C. on the civil list (P.P., 1901, v), p. 22. However, the committee only ha d figures up to and including 1899. According to E. W. Hamilton, the queen incurred a larger deficit in 1900 than in any previous year; see Hamilton diary, 8 Mar. 1901, B.L., Hamilton Papers, Add. MS 48677, fo. 138.

49 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, pp. 44–5.

50 Beattie, , English court, pp. 109, 269Google Scholar; P.D., 1863, CLXTX, 499–500.

51 £60,000 of the total came from his father's civil list, while £65,000 was charged on the consolidated fund; see Cook, Chris and Stevenson, John, British historical facts 1760–1830 (Hamden, Ct, 1980), p. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 See correspondence between Sir Charles Phipps, keeper of the queen's privy purse, and Gladstone, 15 & 23 Dec. 1862, B.L., Gladstone Papers, Add. MS 44280, fos. 38–43, 46–50, 52–7.

53 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 61; see also Gladstone's memorandum, spring 1862, B.L., Gladstone Papers, Add. MS 44280, fo. 138. Gladstone later told Dilke that he regretted the matter had not been submitted to a parliamentary select committee; see Gwynn, Stephen and Tuckwell, Gertrude M., The life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke (2 vols., London, 1917), I, 426Google Scholar. The princess royal had been somewhat better provided for with a dowry of £40,000 and annuity of £8,000 on her marriage to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858.

54 For much of what follows on 1871–2 see Kuhn, William M., ‘Ceremony and politics: the British monarchy, 1871–1872’, Journal of British Studies, XXVI, 2 (1987), 137–46Google Scholar.

55 For Gladstone's copy of What does she do with if? see ibid. p. 142, n. 21; a Treasury copy is in P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/229–52.

56 Ponsonby, Arthur, Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria';s private secretary (New York, 1943), p. 71Google Scholar.

57 The Illustrated London News, Royal Issue 1990, pp. 64–5.

58 SirMagnus, Philip bart., King Edward VII (London, 1964), pp. 65, 89Google Scholar.

59 Ibid. p. 217.

60 Gwynn, and Tuckwell, , Dilke, I, 425–6, 449, 523, II, 101, 119–21Google Scholar.

61 ‘Crown appanage fund’ (Jun. 1888), P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/332–5, pp. 1–7; for draft see T 250/2/I/303.

62 ‘Appanage fund’ (Jul. 1888), P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/347–9, pp. 1–5.

63 Hamilton diary, 24 Feb. 1889, B.L., Hamilton Papers, Add. MS 48650, fo. 60.

64 Annual Register, 1889, pp. 153–9.

65 Select committee on grants to members of the royal family (Parl. Papers, 1889, XI), pp. 1–47.

66 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 46.

67 ‘Civil list notes’ (Feb. 1901), P.R.O., T 168/52/15–31, p. 15.

68 ‘Notes on the civil list, 1897’, P.R.O., Welby Papers, T 250/2/I/499–549, p. 46.

69 Mallet, Victor (ed.), Life with Queen Victoria: Marie Mallet's tetters from court 1887–1901 (Boston, 1968), pp. 98, 119–20Google Scholar.

70 Ponsonby, , Henry Ponsonby, p. 359Google Scholar.

71 Jenkins, Roy, Sir Charles Dilke: a Victorian tragedy (London, 1958), p. 145Google Scholar.

72 Magnus, , Edward VII, pp. 217–18Google Scholar.

73 Hamilton diary, 10 Feb. 1901, B.L., Hamilton Papers, Add. MS 48677, fo. 113.

74 Ibid. 15 Jun. & 22 Jul. 1901, fos. 62, 83. See also Knollys to Salisbury, 15 Jun. 1901; Salisbury to Balfour, 16 Jun. 1901; and Hamilton to Sandars, 17 Jun. 1901; all three in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng. hist. C. 718, fos. 67, 65, 69 respectively.

75 Magnus, , Edward VII, p. 289Google Scholar.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Kuhn, , ‘Ceremony and politics: the British monarchy 1871–1872’, p. 138, n. 11Google Scholar.

79 Hamilton diary, 16 Jul. 1889, B.L., Hamilton Papers, Add. MS 48651, fo. 46.

80 Balfour to Salisbury, 26 Jan. 1901, B.L., Balfour Papers, Add. MS 49691, fos. 124–34.