“Dreadful irritation, which is most unpleasant”: Queen Victoria and chickenpox

In October 1849 Queen Victoria and her family were staying at Windsor Castle when illness spread amongst them. The first to fall ill was the thirty-year-old monarch. For seveal days the Queen had felt unwell, with aching limbs, headaches, muscle weakness and difficulty sleeping. However, on 24th October her symptoms began to worsen when a rash began appearing across her face and body. As always, Victoria was quickly checked over by a doctor named Mr Brown, ‘who at once declared I [Victoria] had got chickenpox’ (1). Later that day the Queen’s official physician, Sir James Clark, arrived at the castle to perform another examination. Like Brown, Clark was certain of the Queen’s diagnosis, although no one was sure of how she had been able to contract the illness.

Over the coming days Victoria’s rash persisted, gradually getting worse and aggravating the easily irritated monarch. On the 26th she writes in her journal that she ‘felt free from headache, but the chicken are very much out on my face & over my body’ (3), with irritation she described as being ‘most unpleasant’ (4). Fortunately this didn’t stop Victoria from being able to see her mother, who had gone to the castle to visit her sick daughter. Victoria was also allowed to see her children for a short time at a distance in the garden. As Victoria had already been unwell for some days, it was expected that her children would also fall in within a matter of days. Despite this, precautions were stil put in place to prevent it from spreading amongst the royal nursery. Unfortunately for Victoria this meant not being able to see her children, which she later described as being ‘a hard privation, but one must not be selfish’ (2).

The next day, on the other hand, was the turning point in the Queen’s patience, as she frustratingly writes that she ‘awoke feeling very uncomfortable, miserable & exhausted, after a totally sleepless night’ (5). She adds that su was ‘thickly covered with rash & the irritation almost trying’ (6); preventing her from doing anything productive with her day besides resting.

Fortunately for Victoria, the worst didn’t last long and her ‘nasty eruption’ (7) of spots soon began clearing. By the 29th, only her face looked ‘horrid’ (9), and her mentality had returned to a much more positive state; as she admired in amazement ‘how quickly the worst is past, & indeed I feel quite myself again’ (8). That afternoon she had been allowed to resume one of her daily activities, which was to go on an hours walk in the garden, helping her to feel some sort of normality for the first time.

Despite her improvement, and much to Victoria’s disappointment, she still wasn’t deemed well enough to resume official state duties. On the 26th it was decided that she would be unable to attend the opening of the new London Coal Exchange, which she had been ‘anxious to do, to please our good citizens’ (10). Going in his wife’s place, Prince Albert also took the couple’s two eldest children, Princess Victoria and Prince Albert Edward, who were to make their first ever State appearance. While Queen Victoria was understandably upset to miss such a poignant family occasion, she was able to see them in the garden for a short time following their return.

By the beginning of November, the Queen’s spots were ‘going away wonderfully’ (11) and speculation soon turned to the royal children, who were still awaiting symptoms. On the 4th November the recovered monarch notes that had ‘they caught the illness they must have done so 10 days ago & and in a few days we shall know for certain whether they will have it or not’ (12). Having perhaps tempted fate, the following day both Prince Alfred and Princess Helena came out in a rash of spots on their young faces. Unlike Victoria’s rash, Mr Brown ‘could not say whether they had the chickenpox & by the evening all signs has vanished & they were perfectly well’ (13).

Over the next two days none of the royal brood showed symptoms and the Queen was seemingly more optimistic about them avoiding the illness. That was until the morning of 8th November arrived, accompanied by an array of unwanted spots, which covered the Queen’s third child, Princess Alice, head to toe. As with Queen Victoria, Alice was isolated from all her siblings besides Princess Victoria, with whom she shared a bedroom. The following day Bertie (Prince Albert Edward) was celebrating his eighth birthday, when, to the Queen’s horror, he too had the dreaded rash; along with Princess Helena. It was at this point that the Queen declares that there was to be ‘no more separation now, as it seems to be useless’ (15). However, one-year-old Princess Louise was to remain in two rooms on a separate floor of the castle. Further suggesting Victoria’s frustration with the constant alterations being made to accommodate the illness, she allowed Bertie’s birthday to continue as had originally been planned and the sickly Prince ended up spending much of the day in the company of older boys, who lived outside of the royal household. For the sake of these boys and their families let’s hope that they were already immune from catching the illness!

Having returned to the castle, Sir James Clark pronounced Alice, who had seemingly handled her illness ‘very patiently’ (14), as being well again on the 11th. As got Helena, she had reached the peak of her illness, which came ‘without hardly any discomfort’ (16). Perhaps overcompensating for his sister’s ease in her illness, Bertie reached his peak the following day and was described by his mother as being ‘very uncomfortable’ (17).

For the next ten days all seemed to be recovering well and plans were put in place for the family to travel to their Isle of Wight home, Osborne House. As bags were being packed and arrangements were being made, so were plans to celebrate Princess Victoria’s ninth birthday on 21st November. As the eldest, and perhaps cleverest sibling, Vicky had always been the one to set the standard for her younger siblings to follow. However, on this occasion it was the other way around and, like Bertie at the beginning of the month, Victoria also fell ill on her birthday. This time Queen Victoria seems to have shown more displeasure towards her daughter’s illness; not because it interrupted her birthday celebrations, but because she was annoyed at the prospect of having ‘to change all our plans’ (18) to have a holiday.

To further the Queen’s distress, the following day she woke up to the news ‘that Affie [Prince Alfred] also had the chickenpox’ (19). By now Vitoria had little sympathy left to give her children so instead of comforting them through their illness, she instead made arrangements for either Lady Lyttelton or Miss Hildyard to care for them at Windsor, while she, Albert and the recovered children went to Osborne’s planned. While she was holidaying at her newly built seaside residence, Victoria continued to receive updates on how the abandoned patients’ were doing. Both were reportedly covered in the rash, which doctors believe to be on the verge of clearing up. The doctor’s hope must have offered some comfort to the mother, who ‘felt very sorry’ for the ‘poor children’ (20) that she supposedly ‘felt very sorry’ for leaving behind while they were unwell.

On the 27th November ‘the 2 exiles’ were finally reunited with their family by the sea. Victoria appears to have been much pleased to have her family back together ‘under one roof’ (22) and also seems satisfied in the way that Vicky had ‘very few marks left in her face’ (23), which were ‘fast disappearing’, while Alfred was ‘still much disfigured by his spots. But they are both very well, otherwise’ (24)

© Queen.Victoria.Roses 2025

This article is the intellectual property of Queen.Victoria.Roses and should not be COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances unless permission is given by the author