sold Queen For One Week, Victoria Confirms the Authority of Her Ambassadors

On Tuesday, June 20, 1837, King William IV of Great Britain died of pneumonia. He had no lawful heirs and his 18-year old niece, Victoria, stood next in line for the throne. As she herself wrote, “I was awoke at 6 o’clock by Mamma, who told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here, and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing-gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham (the Lord Chamberlain) then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen. Lord Conyngham knelt down and kissed my hand, at the same time delivering to me the official announcement of the poor King’s demise.”

Since the credentials of ambassadors terminate when the monarch who has appointed them dies, one of the first orders of business for the new Queen was to notify the other reigning sovereigns that she was confirming the authority of her ambassadors to their nations. One of those to be notified was Charles Albert, King of Sardinia (which then also embraced Savoy, Piedmont and Genoa).

Letter Signed, Kensington Palace, London, June 27, 1837, to Charles Albert, whom she addresses as “Sir My Brother.” “Your Majesty will have learnt by my letter of the 23rd instant the afflicting intelligence of the decease of His late Majesty, my most honored and beloved Uncle, of blessed memory, together with my accession to the throne of the Kingdom. In consequence of these events, it becomes one of my first duties to confirm and renew the credentials granted by His late Majesty to the Right Honorable Sir Augustus John Foster, baronet, a member of my Privy Council, as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Your Majesty. Feeling confident that the conduct of Sir Augustus John Foster hitherto will have merited Your Majesty’s perfect approbation by his endeavors on all occasions to strengthen and improve the friendship and understanding so happily subsisting between the two crowns, I request that Your Majesty will continue to give entire credence to all that Sir Augustus John Foster shall communicate to you in my name, especially when he shall renew to Your Majesty the assurances of the invariable esteem and distinguished consideration with which I am, Sir my Brother,Your Majesty’s good Sister, Victoria R.” The original envelope with her seal is still present.

Victoria became England’s longest reigning monarch, her offspring governed Europe, and she gave her name to an era. This letter confirming the authority of her ambassador was amongst the very first she sent as monarch, and with the others like it, allowed her nation’s foreign ploicy to continue uninterrupted. As for Charles, his son, Victor Emmanuel II, became the first King of united Italy.