Queen Victoria

Did Queen Victoria have physical relations with John Brown?

I have been reading some books and articles that say that it is common knowledge in parts of remote Scotland that Queen Victoria has sexual relations with John Brown. I find this incredible – Queen Victoria was simply too uptight and morally conservative. Yes she was buried with a lock of his hair. What do you think about this?

Bottom Line: Probably not, since no officially confirmed marriage records exist for a morganatic marriage in either London or Edinburgh. However, Queen Victoria did have strong emotional ties to her Highland servant, John Brown. At any rate, whatever happened between the two will need to remain Victoria’s secret.

Pros:

Victoria wished to write and publish a biography of John Brown after hs death in 1883, but Dean of Windsor dissuaded her from doing so.

The Queen had Brown’s portrait painted for her private collection.

A lock of Brown’s hair and his photograph along with his mother’s wedding ring, which Queen Victoria usually wore, were placed in her coffin along with personal artifacts associated with Prince Albert.

Historians ordinarily discount the Reverend Dr. Norman Macleod’s alleged death bed confession. Dr. Macleod served as Queen Victoria’s chaplain from 1857-1872.

Con:

Scottish socialist Alexander Robertson, who held a personal grudge against the monarchy, printed a pamphlet alleging that Queen Victoria had married her ubiquitous gillie. Robertson, however, was never charged with libel.

Her private secretary for 25 years, Henry Fredrick Ponsonby (1825-1895), refuted any such arrangement.

Undoubtedly, both Queen Victoria and Brown forged a very close personal bound, but 19th-century social conventions most likely guaranteed it never went so far as contracting a morganatic marriage.

Queen Victoria Part 1