Was Queen Victoria really married twice?

She was the queen known for her unswerving devotion to her husband and whose love for him was so strong that she remained in mourning for him for forty years after his untimely death. However, a new book claimed that Victoria actually formed another lasting romantic relationship and that, most shockingly, Prince Albert wasn’t her only husband.

The claim is made in Victoria’s Secret by Fern RIddell which hits bookshops on July 31. The book discusses whether Queen Victoria’s servant, John Brown, was more than just a devoted ghillie to the monarch and whether the two actually went through a marriage ceremony.

The claim that Victoria married John Brown

At the heart of this discussions is a deathbed confession from a minister at Balmoral where Victoria and John Brown met and where they spent much time together. Kenneth MacLeod died in 1872 and just before he passed away, he said that he had conducted a secret wedding between Queen Victoria and John Brown in Scotland. Fern Riddell says the claim is even more intriguing as Scottish law allows private marriage without the need for banns.

The book also focuses on a small piece of jewellery which the author argues could be a sign that Victoria and John Brown were hiding their marriage in plain sight. John Brown began to wear a gold signet ring on the little finger of his left hand from 1872 onwards. At the time, signet rings were usually worn by the upper classes – although John Brown was paid well in excess of the usual servant’s wages and could easily have afforded such a piece.

However, Fern Riddell argues that the choice of hand was significant. At the time, marriages between people of different classes and in which titles and ranks couldn’t be shared by the spouse of the lower class were known as ‘left hand marriages’. Did John Brown wear a ring on his left hand to show the world, discreetly, that he had in fact married a queen?

The relationship between Queen Victoria and her faithful servant has been the subject of debate for over 150 years. As early as 1865, gossip appeared in some publications hinting that the bond between monarch and ghillie was far more than that of mistress and servant. The nickname of Mrs Brown, which became the title of an Oscar nominated film about the relationship, was readily used in some quarters in the 1860s.

Centuries of gossip

The whispers did little to deter Victoria who gave John Brown an envied position in her household. His chambers were close to hers and he accompanied her on important events around the country. In turn, he was devoted to his queen and more than once he risked his own life to save her from an assassination attempt.

However, he also enjoyed privileges that few others attained with Victoria’s Secret discussing how the queen allowed her servant to smoke in her presence even though all other men were barred from such a practice. It’s seen as a sign of intimacy between the two as is the queen’s decision to attend the funeral of John Brown’s father who was a Highlands farmer.

There is an even more shocking claim in the book and the Channel 4 documentary that is being released alongside it and it’s given away in the title of the programme, Queen Victoria: Secret Marriage, Secret Child? The show speaks to a Minnesota woman, Angela Webb-Milinkovich, who is descended from John Brown’s brother, Hugh. She says her family always spoke of Hugh and his wife, Jessie, never having a child of their own. Instead, their only daughter is alleged to have been the baby girl born to Joh Brown and Queen Victoria.

Angela Webb-Milinkovich has said she would undergo a DNA test to prove the claims. The Royal Family hasn’t responded to any of the allegations or to this offer.

John Brown died in 1883 and Victoria passed away in 1901. On her death, she asked for mementoes of John Brown as well as Prince Albert to be placed in her coffin.

At the time, there was much focus on the relics of Albert being laid to rest with those of his devoted widow. For over a century, Victoria and Albert’s great love story has been partly based on him being her only husband. Now, this new book claims that the truly deep love between Albert and Victoria was followed by another important romantic relationship for the queen.

Victoria’s Secret by Fern Riddell is published by Ebury Press on July 31 at £22.