John Brown (servant)

John Brown, around 1870

John Brown (born December 8, 1826 in Crathie , Scotland , † March 27, 1883 in Windsor Castle , England ) was a servant of the British Queen Victoria . His relationship with Victoria was the subject of numerous speculations and suspicions, at times Queen Victoria was even dubbed Mrs. Brown .

Early years

John Brown was the second of eleven children of the Scottish tenant John Brown and his wife Margaret Leys. He first worked as a farm hand and finally became a stable boy with Sir Robert Gordon in Balmoral in 1842 . Here he also got to know the royal family, which Balmoral acquired as a country estate. Queen Victoria's first diary entry, in which John Brown is mentioned, dates from September 8, 1849. She describes a trip to Dhu Loch , where she was accompanied by John Brown as “gillie” (Scottish word for “servant”) has been.

From around 1851 John Brown was permanently employed as "gillie" in Balmoral and was often responsible for the Queen's safety on behalf of her husband Prince Albert or had various tasks to do outdoors. Prince Albert, who had loved to be with him, allowed him freedoms that only a very trusted servant would be allowed to do. When the widowed Queen traveled to Germany in 1862, Prince Albert had died in December 1861, she had her own pony wagon with her and Brown was responsible for it. In the coming year, the Queen had several carriage accidents in which she was saved from serious accidents by her Scottish servant. Brown was reputed to be reliable, handsome, and most notable for the fact that he always wore his Scottish kilt .

The Queen's Highland Servant

Sir Edwin Landseer Queen Victoria with John Brown outside Osborne House , 1866

In 1864, Victoria's personal physician Jenner demanded that she ride all winter. Since she refused to be accompanied by a strange groom, they sent to John Brown. His duties soon extended beyond driving the horse, and in early 1865 Victoria decided to keep him entirely to herself. In a memorandum, she defined his position: He should be responsible for safety on horseback and in carriages, for her clothes outside and for the dogs. Brown became known as "the Queen's Highland Servant", who took his orders exclusively from the Queen. His wages were £ 120 a year. He became increasingly indispensable for Victoria. In June 1865 this relationship became the subject of widespread gossip. This was due to a painting by Edwin Landseer of the Queen on horseback, whose reins John Brown is holding. From the working sessions, Landseer reported that the Queen had devoured a certain Scottish servant, she did not want anyone else to serve her and marked him in various ways, far beyond what is usual in this position. In the tabloids, John Brown was the target of cruel jokes, and Victoria was referred to as "Mrs. Brown". The Queen herself held John Brown in high esteem, among other things because of his open-hearted remarks and casual behavior. However, those around her and her family saw this more as naughtiness and tactlessness. He entered Victoria's room without knocking, called her simply “woman”, remarked when he didn't like her dress: “What kind of clothes are you wearing today?”, And he gave it in public, despite Appropriate accompaniment, the orders. Relatives and courtiers tried in vain to get rid of this favorite. The so-called “Great Smokers Dispute of Balmoral” became particularly well known: Brown complained to the Queen that the royal smokers forced him to stay up late and that he had to get up early to be ready for them. Victoria then instructed that the smoking rooms, out of consideration for the servants, be closed at midnight. The public reacted alienated and mocked the fact that the royal family now had to be considerate of a servant. The queen did not care either about Brown's strong tendency towards alcohol, which was known at court.

John Brown with Queen Victoria and Princess Louise

The general gossip about Victoria and John Brown even went so far as to suggest that the Queen married her servant. When Victoria went on a trip to Switzerland in 1868 , rumors surfaced that she had given birth to a child of his - Victoria was 49 years old at the time. The trip to Switzerland was to be one of the few trips abroad during Brown's service time. He hated traveling abroad. Lady Longford wrote in her biography of Victoria: “Since he himself hated the language, the sights and the smells, he forced her to maintain a strict Balmoral regime in Baveno, Mentone or Cannes. The royal tour company rarely left early, and since Brown could smell Fenians everywhere , he refused to stop during a trip to avoid the crowd… ”Lady Longford called this one of the few disservice John Brown did the Queen. A short time later there were rumors and hopes to get rid of him that John Brown would marry the dressing maid Miss Ocklee, but she married someone else in 1873 and Brown was to remain unmarried.

Most of all, John Brown was envied for his numerous prerogatives: he granted hunting and fishing rights on the royal lands of Scotland, and it was common knowledge that a recommendation from the Highlander for a job or promotion was worth more than a prince. Victoria also demanded that Brown be treated particularly politely and considerately, which annoyed dignitaries at court. Eventually the highlander was even awarded the title of esquire . In early 1872, John Brown prevented an assassination attempt by the Fenian Arthur O'Connor in front of Buckingham Palace . The queen thus had another reason to insist on her highland servant. She donated a gold Victoria Devoted Service Medal for a very special act of sacrifice for the monarchy , the first being given to John Brown. Brown later received a Silver Faithfull Service Medal for ten years of faithful service. Victoria is said to have personally determined the design of both medals.

John Brown with Dog Spot at Frogmore (Windsor) , 1882, painted by Karl Rudolf Sohn in 1883 after a photograph

In addition to all these indirect favors, there was also concrete evidence in the form of very personal gifts: a volume of poetry in Scottish dialect was dedicated "from his sincere friend VR" in 1869, in 1875 he received a gold watch, in 1879 a leather-bound Bible "from his loyal friend VRI ", more gifts should follow. The Queen also gifted him a house above the Dee where John Brown would live after his retirement and although the Queen rarely attended funerals, she appeared in person at the funeral service for John Brown's father.

John Brown himself took on the job of bringing bad news to the Queen. So he brought her the news that her daughter Alice had died on the very day Albert died. Victoria also sent him to inquire about the sick and dying. His presence was always a sign of the Queen's special and personal concern. As the years went by, the relationship became less and less the subject of sensationalist gossip, but rather Brown's presence was seen as the attentive care it probably had been.

In early 1883, despite the fever and chills, he insisted on a seven-day week, but needed the help of another servant. He fell into a coma on March 27 and died at 10:40 pm that evening. The cause of death was stated to be " erysipelas ", an inflammation caused by streptococci and accompanied by a high fever. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary that she was "terribly moved by this loss, which has robbed me of a person who has served me with so much devotion and loyalty and has done so much for my personal well-being. With him I will not lose just one Servants but a real friend. "

Commemoration

John Brown statue by Joseph Boehm in Balmoral (around 1884)

Bench in memory of John Brown at Osborne House

The Queen ordered that Brown's room in Windsor, where he had died, be left as it had been in his lifetime, with a fresh flower placed daily on his pillow. This instruction was similar to the one she had given after the death of her husband and was carried out until her death. She also commissioned a statue of John Brown from Sir Joseph Boehm , which was erected in Balmoral. The Times published an obituary with Brown's biography written personally by the Queen. In 1884 the Queen published another volume of her diary sheets. The dedication reads, "To my loyal Highlands and especially in memory of my devoted personal companion and trusted friend John Brown," John Brown appears on almost every page. When the Queen found out that John Brown himself had kept a diary, she wanted to have this published too. Their environment prevented this project; the diary was eventually burned by her private secretary. Tennyson wrote the inscription for John Brown's gravestone : Friend more than servant, loyal, truthful, brave: self less than duty even to the grave. After Victoria's death, at her request, a lock of John Brown's hair, a photo of him and the wedding ring of his mother were placed in her coffin. The statues and private monuments that Victoria had erected for Brown were destroyed and removed on behalf of her son, Edward VII . Edward's relationship with Brown was considered difficult. Victoria's successor complained about the great influence Brown had on his mother.

The relationship between John Brown and Queen Victoria was filmed in Her Majesty Mrs. Brown ( Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown ) in 1997 , with Judi Dench as Victoria and Billy Connolly as John Brown. In The Mudlark ( The Mudlark , 1950) Brown is by Finlay Currie played. He appears as a supporting role in Queen Victoria ( Victoria the Great , 1937) and its sequel Sixty Glorious Years (1938), played in both films by Gordon McLeod , who then played Brown a third time in The Prime Minister (1941). In the British TV series Edward the Seventh (1975) he was played by William Dysart.

literature

• Stanley Weintraub: Queen Victoria . Benziger Verlag, Solothurn and Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-545-34070-8 .
• Julia Baird: A queen's forbidden love , in: International New York Times , August 30, 2014, p. 7

Web links

Commons : John Brown  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Raymond Lamont-Brown: Queen Victoria's 'secret marriage' , Contemporary Review. December 2003. Archived from the original on August 2, 2008 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 12, 2009.  
2. ^ Stanley Weintraub: Queen Victoria . Benziger Verlag, Solothurn and Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-545-34070-8 , p. 330
3. ↑ Weintraub, p. 331
4. ↑ Weintraub, p. 332.
5. ^ Herbert Tingsten: Queen Victoria and her time. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01360-9 , p. 87.
6. ↑ Weintraub, p. 335.
7. ↑ Weintraub, p. 340
8. ↑ Weintraub, p. 341.
9. ^ Weintraub, p. 342
10. ↑ Weintraub, pp. 343-344
11. ↑ Weintraub, p. 345
12. ↑ Weintraub, pp. 345–346
13. ↑ Weintraub, p. 348
14. ↑ Weintraub, p. 346
15. ↑ Weintraub, p. 351
16. ^ Tingsten, p. 87
17. ^ Raymond Lamont-Brown: Queen Victoria's 'secret marriage' , Contemporary Review. December 2003. Archived from the original on August 2, 2008 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 12, 2009.