by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2018
Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar; Credit – Wikipedia
Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar was an advisor to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert from 1837-1847.
Christian Friedrich Stockmar was the second of the four children of Johann Ernst Gotthelf Stockmar and his wife Johanna Christiane Sommer. In 1768, Ernst Friedrich Stockmar, grandfather of Christian Friedrich Stockmar, acquired a manor in Obersiemau close to Coburg, then in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and now in Bavaria, Germany. That is where Christian Friedrich Stockmar was born on August 22, 1787, and where he grew up. The manor has remained in the possession of the Stockmar family to this day.
Stockmar attended the gymnasium (German high school) Casimirianum in Coburg, founded and named for Johann Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (1564-1633). The Casimirianum is still an operating school today.
Gymnasium Casimirianum in Coburg; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
From 1805 to 1810, Stockmar studied medicine at the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen (now in Nuremberg) and the Julius Maximilians University in Würzburg. After passing his exams, Stockmar settled in Coburg and worked with his mother’s brother who was also a physician. In 1812, he became a government medical officer in Coburg and established a military hospital. In January 1814, Stockmar became a senior physician with the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld military forces in the Napoleonic Wars against France.
Engraving of the wedding of Charlotte and Leopold in 1816; Credit – Wikipedia
In 1816, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the youngest sibling of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, married Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only child of George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV) and the only legitimate grandchild of King George III. Stockmar accompanied Prince Leopold to England as his personal physician and became his most influential advisor.
Princess Charlotte was second in the line of succession to the British throne and she would have succeeded her father, the future King George IV, as the queen but on November 6, 1817, a great tragedy struck the British Royal Family. After a labor of over 50 hours, Charlotte delivered a stillborn son. Several hours later, twenty-one-year-old Princess Charlotte died of postpartum hemorrhage. After Charlotte’s death, Leopold continued to live in England and Stockmar stayed in Leopold’s service as his private secretary, comptroller of the household, and political advisor.
On August 12, 1821, Stockmar married his cousin Fanny Sommer, a pharmacist’s daughter from Coburg. The couple had three children:
- Ernst Alfred Christian von Stockmar (1823-1886)
- Marie von Stockmar (1827-1856), married Hermann Hettner, a literary historian, and museum director, had three children
- Carl August von Stockmar (1838-1909) married Anna von Haynau, had seven children
Stockmar represented Prince Leopold at the London Conference on the Independence of Greece. At the conference, the Great Powers established a monarchy in Greece and Prince Leopold was their first choice to be king. Following Stockmar’s advice, Leopold refused because he considered the country too unstable, and Otto of Bavaria became King of Greece. On January 20, 1830, King Ludwig I of Bavaria created Stockmar a Baron.
King Leopold I of the Belgians; Credit – Wikipedia
In August 1830, the southern provinces (modern-day Belgium) of the Netherlands rebelled against Dutch rule. International powers meeting in London agreed to support the independence of Belgium, although the Dutch refused to recognize the new country. On April 22, 1831, Prince Leopold was asked by the Belgian National Congress if he wanted to be King of the Belgians. Leopold swore allegiance to the new Belgian constitution on July 21, 1831, and became the first King of the Belgians.
In 1831, Stockmar retired to his home at Coburg in order not to upset the Belgians by being a foreigner residing at the Belgian court in the capacity of confidential advisor to the king. However, Stockmar continued to be Leopold’s right-hand man. He had been in contact with the leading statesmen of Europe and his deep understanding of European social and political issues impressed all who were associated with him.
In 1837, 18-year-old Queen Victoria came to the British throne. Her mother was born Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the sister of King Leopold I of the Belgians. After the death in 1820 of his sister’s husband, King George III’s son Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Leopold provided much-needed financial and emotional support to his sister and niece. In 1837, King Leopold sent Stockmar to England as an advisor to his niece Queen Victoria. One of Stockmar’s assignments was to assess the distressing situation between Queen Victoria, her mother, her mother’s comptroller Sir John Conroy and Victoria’s former governess and now her unofficial “lady attendant” Baroness Louise Lehzen.
Stockmar also played the role of the Coburg matchmaker. In 1835, the first husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal died after only two months of marriage. King Leopold and Stockmar immediately saw an opportunity for a Coburg match. Through negotiations, Stockmar arranged for Leopold’s nephew Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to marry the widowed queen. The marriage was a happy one and the couple had eleven children.
However, the biggest match was yet to come. King Leopold had another nephew the same age as his niece Queen Victoria. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the second of two sons of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Leopold’s eldest brother. In 1836, the first cousins met for the first time when Albert and his elder brother Ernst (the future Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) were taken by their father on a visit to England. Seventeen-year-old Victoria seemed instantly infatuated with Albert. In 1838, Stockmar accompanied Prince Albert on his tour of Italy partly as a tutor but also intending to satisfy King Leopold and Victoria as to Albert’s fitness for the position already marked out for him in England. In October 1839, Albert and Ernst again visited England, staying at Windsor Castle with Victoria, who was now Queen. On October 15, 1839, the 20-year-old monarch summoned her cousin Albert and proposed to him.
On January 1, 1840, at the State Opening of Parliament, Queen Victoria announced her upcoming wedding. Several days later, Stockmar, as Prince Albert’s representative in London, negotiated the marriage contract with Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston, discussing details about Albert’s Protestant religion, his naturalization as a British subject, his rank, his powers, and his financial provisions. Albert and Victoria were married on February 10, 1840, and Stockmar left England for Coburg in early August. However, he returned in November for the birth of Albert and Victoria’s first child Victoria, Princess Royal. Stockmar had the complete confidence of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, and he became their trusted, unofficial advisor, dividing his time between England and continental Europe. One of the first issues Stockmar worked on was making the royal household more efficient. This did not happen overnight but along with Prince Albert, Stockmar worked on developing a system for running the royal household. He was an early advisor to Queen Victoria on the subject of foreign relations.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle with their eldest child Victoria, Princess Royal; Credit – Wikipedia
In January 1842, Victoria, Princess Royal (Vicky), the 14-month-old eldest child of Victoria and Albert became ill. Vicky’s illness was misdiagnosed as a minor ailment and she was prescribed calomel, a laxative and at that time, a common medicine. Unknown at that time, calomel, which contained mercury chloride, was toxic. Vicky did not become better but rather became seriously ill. Albert confronted Victoria on the incompetence of the nursery staff. There was a very heated quarrel, after which Albert declared that he would leave the affair in Victoria’s hands, and it would be on her head if Vicky died. Stockmar often acted as an intermediary between Albert and Victoria when they were quarreling and he did so in this matter. Vicky did survive and her parents turned to Stockmar for advice on the nursery staff.
In March 1842, Stockmar presented to Albert and Victoria a 32-page memorandum in which he stated that the head of the nursery staff must be someone who was “good and intelligent, experienced in the treatment of children, of kind and refined manners, conciliatory and at the same time firm of purpose.” He even had a person in mind, Sarah Lyttelton, Baroness Lyttelton, who was appointed the superintendent of the nursery. She was so beloved by the royal children that they continued to call her “Laddle” even when they were grown up. Stockmar went on to devise education plans for the two eldest royal children, Vicky and her brother Edward Albert, called Bertie, the Prince of Wales.
Since the winter of 1842, Stockmar lived alternately in England and Coburg. He returned to Coburg in 1847 and lived there on a more permanent basis. He remained Albert’s advisor via letters and Albert continually begged him to come to England. In 1848, Stockmar was appointed the ambassador of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the Parliament of the German Confederation. He supported the unification of German states under Prussia and close relations between the German states and the United Kingdom.
Stockmar’s last residence – Webergasse 21 in Coburg; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
In 1856, Stockmar visited England for the last time and after 1857, he resided only in Coburg. However, he continued corresponding with the Belgian and British royal courts. In pursuit of his idea of a British-German alliance, he supported the marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Friedrich of Prussia, the future Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Stockmar could not attend their wedding in early 1858 for health reasons. In 1860, Albert and Victoria visited him in Coburg. After Albert died in 1861, Victoria came alone in 1862 to visit Stockmar. Vicky and her husband, now Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Prussia, visited him frequently.
Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar died in Coburg following a stroke on July 9, 1863, at the age of 75. He was buried in the simple Stockmar family tomb at Glockenberg Cemetery in Coburg, where the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Ducal Mausoleum is also located. Later, Vicky and her husband erected a tomb for Stockmar in the Neo-Renaissance style. Queen Victoria, who died in 1901, had left a list of items to be buried with her, and among the many items on the list was a locket containing the hair of her trusted advisor, Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar.
Tomb of Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar; Photo Credit – Von Störfix – Selbst fotografiert, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4010172
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Works Cited
- Baird, Julia. Victoria The Queen. Random House, 2016.
- Hubbard, Kate. Serving Victoria: Life In The Royal Household. Harper Collins Publishers, 2012.
- “Christian Friedrich Von Stockmar”. De.Wikipedia.Org, 2018, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Friedrich_von_Stockmar. Accessed 14 May 2018.
- “Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar”. En.Wikipedia.Org, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Friedrich,_Baron_Stockmar. Accessed 14 May 2018.
