The Shadow of Great Britain

”Seven years.” Peel’s tone lightened a little as he reached this point. ”When we first met, she wasn’t yet twenty. I remember it was 1812, I had just obtained the post of Governor of Ireland in the Liverpool Cabinet, busy all day pushing police reforms in Ireland. Though in most people’s eyes I was already doing quite well then, her family were not satisfied with me; they thought I was just an ordinary Politician with no title and no hereditary peerage. Her mother was particularly opposed on this point. In the old lady’s own words, the daughter of a General in the Army was not a match for ’this assistant minister, Robert Peel’.”

Arthur asked with a smile, ”So what was it later that made Mrs. Old Floyd change her mind?”

”Heh...” Peel plainly did not think highly of his mother-in-law. ”That was seven years later, in 1819, when I became chairman of the Gold Standard committee in the Lower House.”

At this, Peel lowered his head and gave a short, derisive laugh. ”Her mother was still hesitating at the time—she was set on marrying her daughter to one of those men who held seats in the House of Lords. Even in the year I took the chair of the Gold Standard committee, she still regarded me as a businessman’s son without Nobility, insisting that whatever honors I had were all piled up out of blue paper, unlike those of a real gentleman.”

He paused, picked up the wine flask, and poured himself another half-glass. ”Julia, though... she was the one who argued back with her mother, saying: If I have to wait for some man with an ancestral title in his hand to marry me, I’ll probably never get married in my life.”

Arthur chuckled softly. ”It seems Mrs. Peel had a remarkably accurate eye.”

”She also said something else.” Peel put down his glass, a slight smile surfacing in his eyes. ”She said: Mother, if I’m wrong, then at worst a few years later I’ll come back home. But if I’m right, then the man I’m marrying won’t be just an ordinary Member of Parliament, but the next Cabinet Minister.”

”And in the end...” Arthur raised an eyebrow. ”You didn’t let her down.”

Peel nodded lightly. There was pride on his face, but his tone remained as restrained as ever. ”She waited seven years for me, and I kept her waiting three more. Three years later, I became Home Secretary, and I stayed in that post for eight years straight.”

”Then, five years after that, you became Prime Minister,” Arthur teased. ”Even if your term as Prime Minister wasn’t very long.”

”Enough, that’s the end of my romantic history. Now, Arthur, you really ought to tell me what exactly it is you intend to do.”

Arthur leaned against the fireplace, as if he had been waiting for him to ask at last, and blinked. ”It’s actually not that complicated, Sir. If you were willing to take even half the effort you spent on Mrs. Peel and invest it in Her Majesty the Queen, there wouldn’t be any irreconcilable conflict between you and her.”

Peel frowned. ”What do you mean?”

Arthur raised his glass as though toasting him. ”I mean, young ladies are not that hard to handle—if, that is, you’re not prepared to flatter them, indulge them, or try to win their favor. In that case, at the very least, outside the realm of politics you must keep on good terms with those who do please her. Of course, I’m not talking about myself here; you and I have always had good relations. For the moment, those who can exercise influence over the Queen, apart from Viscount Melbourne, are that Belgian pair, Stockma and Leopold. And you— the Tory Party—have already lost the first round, over the appointments of Court Ladies. If in the next round, namely the question of the Queen’s future consort, you’re beaten again, then...”

”1837 British General Election”

Note: Orange represents the Whig Party, blue represents the Conservative Party. All six university constituencies—2 seats for Oxford University, 2 for Cambridge University, 1 for University of Dublin, and 1 for the combined constituency of the four universities of Scotland (Edinburgh University, University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen, University of St Andrews)—were taken by the Conservative Party.