Queen Victoria, the Mistress of Charlecote and the Stafford House ball

For centuries people have been hoping for a chance to catch a glimpse of royalty. However, in the Victorian era formally meeting royals at intimate events like the theatre and balls usually meant you had found your place in high society, especially if you were personally introduced to the Queen by a member of her inner circle.

Having been born to a Welsh Baronet, Mary Elizabeth Lucy (née Williams) grew up within the higher class. In 1823 she married politician, George Hammond Lucy and made her home at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire, where they raised their seven children. After almost twenty-two happy years of marriage, Mary Elizabeth’s life changed drastically when her husband passed away. Their eldest son, and George’s heir, William Fulke Lucy, was still under the legal age to fully inherit the Charlecote estate, leaving Mary Elizabeth in charge until he turned 21.

As was the custom of the time, the family spent the next two years in mourning for George. Then, in summer 1847 Mary Elizabeth rented a house in Hanover Square in London for two months of the social season as a way to subtly present her two daughters, Emily and Caroline (Carry), into society. As they were still in the final stages of mourning, the mother and daughter trio missed out on some of the first few balls of the season. However, in June they received an invitation to one of the most prestigious events of the year… a ball at Stafford House (now known as Lancaster House) near St James’s Palace. Upon reading the invite Mary Elizabeth was surprised by what she saw. Not only had she and her daughters been invited to ‘the ball of the season’, but she had been offered a chance to be introduced to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by the ball’s host, Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes and a close friend of the monarch. Unsurprisingly, Mary Elizabeth was quick to accept the invite and soon commissioned London dressmaker, Laville, to create three lavish new gowns for the occasion.

The luxurious ball took place on 16th June 1847 and exceeded everyone’s expectations, including the queen’s. At half past nine in the evening Victoria left Buckingham Palace with her husband, Prince Albert, and embarked on the ten minute journey to Stafford House, where the Duchess of Sutherland was waiting to greet them. With the band of the Royal Horse Guards playing the national anthem, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were escorted past the beautifully decorated grand staircase and to the library, where the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Cambridge, and the family of the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar, along with a small circle of important guests, were waiting.

Half an hour after the Queen’s arrival, Mary Elizabeth, Emily and Carry arrived at Stafford House and were swiftly directed ‘up the grand staircase into the magnificent gallery’, which Queen Victoria described as looking ‘beautiful with their handsome decoration, furniture, pictures & masses of flowers’. However, the mother and daughter trio were cutting it close. Just as they had been arriving, Queen Victoria and the rest of the royal party, including the hostess and her daughters, were leaving the library and making their way to the extravagant gallery and banqueting hall, where the 1300 guests were gathered.

As the party entered, the band of thirty performers played another rendition of the national anthem. According to the memoirs of Mary Elizabeth Lucy, ‘the Queen… bowed and smiled as she walked past us into the ball room, where she took her seat on a crimson velvet cushioned bench with the Duchess of Sutherland on her right and the Duchess of Saxe Weimar on her left; Prince Albert, the Royal Princes, and the Duke of Wellington standing grouped around’.

As the guest of honour, Queen Victoria opened the ball with a dance with the Hereditary Duke of Saxe Weimar. As was often speculated during Victoria’s early reign, Mary Elizabeth Lucy later recalled how Queen Victoria ‘dances beautifully and is very graceful, though short and a bad figure’. Measuring around 4’11” Queen Victoria’s height and stature was frequently criticised, with Mary Elizabeth even remarking that the petite monarch ‘carried a bouquet nearly as larger as herself’. However, looking back today it is impossible to imagine how Victoria would have looked anything other than elegant as she floated around the ballroom in her dress of ‘white tarlatan embroidered in colours round double skirts, with a wreath of flowers mixed with many diamonds on her head’. In comparison to the critical observations of the Queen, both Mary Elizabeth and Victoria were mesmerised by the beauty of the Duchess of Sutherland, whom the both agreed ‘looked so handsome and young’ (Queen Victoria’s words) and like ‘an Empress in a dress of the richest white silk and fine lace trim’d with bunches of stephanotis and a profusion of diamonds on her head’ (words of Mary Elizabeth Lucy).

As the night progressed, Mary Elizabeth stood and watched as Emily and Carry danced alongside royals and ‘the elite of aristocracy’.  Having used all of their energy dancing, at midnight the grand selection of guests went into the two drawing rooms, where a grand supper had been displayed, where a half an hour refuel took place before dancing resumed. At about twenty past one, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert took their leave and exited to another salute from the band. Mary Elizabeth and her daughters, however, remained until approximately four o’clock. Whilst Mary Elizabeth mentions in her memoire that she had been invited to personally meet the Queen and Prince, there is no official record of them being introduced. However, Mary Elizabeth does mention that the Queen had been ‘highly delighted and said she had come from her home to a palace,’ but whether this came from a private conversation or a public declaration we will never know.

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