94-640: Captain Cowper Phipps Coles CB (1819 – 7 September 1870), was an English naval captain with the Royal Navy . Coles was also an inventor ; in 1859, he was the first to patent a design for a revolving gun turret . Upon appealing for public support, his turrets were installed on HMS Prince Albert and HMS Royal Sovereign . Coles died in a maritime accident in 1870 when HMS Captain , an experimental warship built to his designs, capsized and sank with him on board. The son of
188-468: A duet , Die Liebe hat uns nun vereint ("Love has now united us"). Felix Mendelssohn described Albert playing the Buckingham Palace organ "so charmingly and clearly and correctly that it would have done credit to any professional". After tuition from George Elvey , the organist at St George's Chapel, Windsor, Albert composed several choral pieces for Anglican worship, including settings of
282-450: A junior Member of the house of Saxe-Coburg ". The position in which Albert was placed by his marriage, while one of distinction, also offered considerable difficulties; in his own words, "I am very happy and contented; but the difficulty in filling my place with the proper dignity is that I am only the husband, not the master in the house." The Queen's household was run by her former governess, Baroness Lehzen . Albert referred to her as
376-405: A minority government and the opposition took advantage of the marriage to weaken his position further. They opposed a British peerage for Albert and granted him a smaller annuity than previous consorts, £30,000 instead of the usual £50,000. Albert claimed that he had no need of a British peerage, writing: "It would almost be a step downwards, for as a Duke of Saxony, I feel myself much higher than
470-612: A peer —partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role. Albert's religious views provided a small amount of controversy when the marriage was debated in Parliament: although as a member of the Lutheran Evangelical Church Albert was a Protestant, the non- Episcopal nature of his church was considered worrisome. Of greater concern, however, was that some of Albert's family were Roman Catholic. Melbourne led
564-548: A "singular example of quartering differenced arms, [which] is not in accordance with the rules of Heraldry, and is in itself an heraldic contradiction." Prior to his marriage Albert used the arms of his father undifferenced, in accordance with German custom. Albert's Garter stall plate displays his arms surmounted by a royal crown with six crests for the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; these are from left to right: 1. "A bull's head caboshed Gules armed and ringed Argent, crowned Or,
658-529: A Duke of York or Kent." For the next seventeen years, Albert was formally titled "HRH Prince Albert" until, on 25 June 1857, Victoria formally granted him the title Prince Consort . Victoria explained, in a letter to Lord Palmerston on 15 March 1857, that she was: "... inclined ... to content herself by simply giving her husband by Letters Patent the title of 'Prince Consort' which can injure no one while it will give him an English title consistent with his position, & avoid his being treated by Foreign Courts as
752-461: A flat deck. The ship was also to be fitted with 5.5 inches (140 mm) of armour in a belt around the waterline. HMS Royal Sovereign was completed in August 1864, ahead of Prince Albert . Like Prince Albert it had only minimal sails intended to steady the ship rather than drive it along at any speed. The low freeboard was countered by hinged sections increasing the height of the sides above
846-642: A keen interest in the improvement of army training, and was involved in the establishment and development of Aldershot in Hampshire as a garrison town and training base in the 1850s. A wooden Royal Pavilion was built there in which he and Victoria would often stay when they attended military reviews. Albert established and endowed the Prince Consort's Library at Aldershot, which still exists. Biographies published after his death were typically heavy on eulogy. Theodore Martin 's five-volume magnum opus
940-509: A knighthood for Charles Darwin, after the publication of On the Origin of Species , which was opposed by the Bishop of Oxford . Albert continued to devote himself to the education of his family and the management of the royal household. His children's governess, Lady Lyttelton , thought him unusually kind and patient, and described him joining in family games with enthusiasm. He felt keenly
1034-463: A long 32-pounder gun and because of its small draft could be moved into shallow water from where it was used to attack Russian government stores in Taganrog . Coles became a hero for this action, when the press correspondent on board Stromboli reported his daring deeds. Coles expanded the idea by drawing up plans for a better raft, mounting a gun enclosed within a hemispherical shield. Admiral Lyons
SECTION 10
#17327840122501128-585: A new design. This was to be based upon the existing HMS Pallas designed by the new Chief Constructor, Edward Reed . The Admiralty provided the original plans of the ship plus Joseph Scullard, constructor at Portsmouth dockyard, to assist. The resulting single turret design was rejected, but the Admiralty instructed Reed to create a larger version with two turrets which became HMS Monarch , laid down in 1866 and completed in June 1869. Coles complained at
1222-541: A patron and purchaser of pictures and sculpture, the commission was set up to promote the fine arts in Britain. The commission's work was slow, and the palace's architect, Charles Barry , took many decisions out of the commissioners' hands by decorating rooms with ornate furnishings that were treated as part of the architecture. Albert was more successful as a private patron and collector. Among his notable purchases were early German and Italian paintings—such as Lucas Cranach
1316-486: A public carriage ride, Albert and the pregnant Victoria were shot at by Edward Oxford , who was later judged insane. Neither Albert nor Victoria was hurt, and Albert was praised in the newspapers for his courage and coolness during the attack. He was gaining public support as well as political influence, which showed itself practically when, in August, Parliament passed the Regency Act 1840 to designate him regent in
1410-561: A realignment of the Saxon duchies the following year; and Albert's father became the first reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . Albert and his elder brother, Ernest , spent their youth in close companionship, which was marred by their parents' turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Pölzig and Beiersdorf . She presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at
1504-624: A reputation for supporting public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery worldwide, and he was entrusted with running the Queen's household , office and estates. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was a resounding success. Victoria came to depend more and more on Albert's support and guidance. He aided the development of Britain's constitutional monarchy by persuading his wife to be less partisan in her dealings with
1598-413: A revolving turret and Ericsson claimed the idea of a revolving protected gun was an old one. The Times suggested that Marc Brunel had given Coles the idea. Coles' design aim was to create a ship with the greatest possible all round arc of fire, as low in the water as possible to minimise the target. This proved to be a weakness in designs he created, because he was unwilling to compromise these aims for
1692-555: A trip to Coburg in October 1860, when he was driving alone in a carriage drawn by four horses that suddenly bolted. As the horses continued to gallop toward a wagon waiting at a railway crossing, Albert jumped for his life from the carriage. One of the horses was killed in the collision, and Albert was badly shaken though his only physical injuries were cuts and bruises. He confided in his brother and eldest daughter that he sensed that his time had come. Victoria's mother and Albert's aunt,
1786-596: Is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy . It ranks above commander and below commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a colonel in the British Army and Royal Marines , and to a group captain in the Royal Air Force . There are similarly named equivalent ranks in the navies of many other countries. In the Royal Navy, the officer in command of any warship of
1880-493: Is struck by a bullet, which did not happen in real life. In the United Kingdom, Albert was styled "His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" in the months before his marriage. He was granted the style of Royal Highness on 6 February 1840, and given the title of Prince Consort on 25 June 1857. Upon his marriage to Queen Victoria in 1840, Prince Albert received a personal grant of arms , being
1974-691: The Te Deum and Jubilate , and an anthem , Out of the Deep . His secular compositions included a cantata , L'Invocazione all'armonia , and Melody for the Violin , which Yehudi Menuhin later described as "pleasant music without presumption". In August 1859, Albert fell seriously ill with stomach cramps. His steadily worsening medical condition led to a sense of despair; the biographer Robert Rhodes James describes Albert as having lost "the will to live". Albert later had an accidental brush with death during
SECTION 20
#17327840122502068-721: The Trent Affair —the forcible removal of Confederate envoys from a British ship, the RMS Trent , by Union forces during the American Civil War —threatened war between the United States and Britain. The British government prepared an ultimatum and readied a military response. Albert was gravely ill but intervened to defuse the crisis. In a few hours, he revised the British demands in a manner that allowed
2162-507: The Blue Room at Windsor Castle , in the presence of the Queen and five of their nine children. He was 42 years old. The contemporary diagnosis was typhoid fever, but modern writers have pointed out that Albert's ongoing stomach pain, which left him ill for at least two years before his death, may indicate that a chronic disease such as Crohn's disease , kidney failure or abdominal cancer
2256-483: The British Parliament , but he actively disagreed with the interventionist foreign policy pursued during Lord Palmerston 's tenure as Foreign Secretary . Albert died in 1861 at the age of 42, devastating Victoria so much that she entered into a deep state of mourning and wore black for the rest of her life. On her death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII , the first British monarch of
2350-630: The Duchess of Kent , was the sister of both Albert's father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victoria's mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his two sons to visit her in May 1836, with the purpose of meeting Victoria. William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander , second son of
2444-458: The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , named after the ducal house to which Albert belonged. Prince Albert was born on 26 August 1819 at Schloss Rosenau , near Coburg , Germany, the second son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg . His first cousin and future wife, Victoria , had been born earlier in the same year with the assistance of
2538-473: The Isle of Wight as a private residence for their growing family. Over the next few years a house modelled in the style of an Italianate villa was built to the designs of Albert and Thomas Cubitt . Albert laid out the grounds, and improved the estate and farm. Albert managed and improved the other royal estates; his model farm at Windsor ( Shaw Farm ) was admired by his biographers, and under his stewardship
2632-685: The Lincoln administration to surrender the Confederate commissioners who had been seized from the Trent and to issue a public apology to London without losing face. The key idea, based on a suggestion from The Times , was to give Washington the opportunity to deny that it had officially authorised the seizure and thereby to apologise for the captain's mistake. On 9 December, one of Albert's doctors, William Jenner , diagnosed him with typhoid fever. Albert died at 10:50 p.m. on 14 December 1861 in
2726-466: The Prince of Orange . Victoria was well aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. She wrote, "[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful." Alexander, on
2820-526: The Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum . The area was referred to as " Albertopolis " by sceptics. In 1852, John Camden Neild , an eccentric miser, left Victoria an unexpected legacy, which Albert used to obtain the freehold of Balmoral. As usual, he embarked on an extensive programme of improvements. The same year, he was appointed to several of the offices left vacant by
2914-685: The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 , and had to fight for every stage of the project. In the House of Lords , Lord Brougham fulminated against the proposal to hold the exhibition in Hyde Park . Opponents of the exhibition prophesied that foreign rogues and revolutionists would overrun England, subvert the morals of the people, and destroy their faith. Albert thought such talk absurd and quietly persevered, trusting always that British manufacturing would benefit from exposure to
Cowper Phipps Coles - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-600: The Russian and Ottoman empires . Palmerston was more bellicose, and favoured a policy that would prevent further Russian expansion. Palmerston was manoeuvred out of the cabinet in December 1853, but at about the same time a Russian fleet attacked the Ottoman fleet at anchor at Sinop . The London press depicted the attack as a criminal massacre, and Palmerston's popularity surged as Albert's fell. Within two weeks, Palmerston
3102-635: The University of Bonn , where he studied law, political economy, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and he excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding. His tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel . The idea of marriage between Albert and his first cousin Victoria was first documented in an 1821 letter from his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who said that he
3196-524: The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom differenced by a white three-point label with a red cross in the centre, quartered with his ancestral arms of Saxony . They are blazoned : "Quarterly, 1st and 4th, the Royal Arms, with overall a label of three points Argent charged on the centre with cross Gules ; 2nd and 3rd, Barry of ten Or and Sable , a crown of rue in bend Vert ". The arms are unusual, being described by S. T. Aveling as
3290-671: The siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War against the Russian Empire . On 13 November 1854 promoted to commander and on 2 August 1856 was commanding officer of the paddle boat Stromboli in the Black Sea . It was during the Siege of Taganrog that he and other British naval officers and sailors constructed a 45-foot (14 m) raft named Lady Nancy from twenty-nine casks lashed together with spars. The raft supported
3384-647: The "House Dragon", and manoeuvred to dislodge the Baroness from her position. Within two months of the marriage, Victoria was pregnant. Albert started to take on public roles; he became President of the Society for the Extinction of Slavery (slavery was still lawful in most parts of the world beyond the British Empire); and helped Victoria privately with her government paperwork. In June 1840, while on
3478-417: The Admiralty agreed to construct a ship, HMS Prince Albert , which had four turrets and a low freeboard, intended only for coastal defence. Coles was allowed to design the turrets, but the ship was the responsibility of the chief Constructor Isaac Watts . Coles had another proposal, to take an existing timber ship, remove its upper decks and existing broadside guns and replace them with four turrets on
3572-613: The Allied strategy after the Tsar decided to fight a purely defensive war. Early British optimism soon faded as the press reported that British troops were ill-equipped and mismanaged by aged generals using out-of-date tactics and strategy. The conflict dragged on as the Russians were as poorly prepared as their opponents. The Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen , resigned, and Palmerston succeeded him. A negotiated settlement eventually put an end to
3666-467: The Board of Admiralty was split. Eventually the Board agreed to pay for the construction of a ship, although this was to be supervised by Coles himself in an Admiralty-approved yard; Laird Brothers agreed to build her. Plans for HMS Captain were submitted to the Admiralty as would be normal, but Reed declined to 'approve' them, instead marking all drawings 'not objected to'. He eventually resigned over
3760-490: The Channel fleet and successfully weathered a gale. Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Symmonds commanding commented favorably on both Captain and Monarch . Captain achieved 14.25 knots (26.39 km/h; 16.40 mph), compared to Monarch ' s 14.9 knots (27.6 km/h; 17.1 mph) under steam, but with smaller engines. Under sail, Captain was faster. All in all, she was hailed as a vindication of Coles' ideas. In August,
3854-543: The Curragh, the Prince of Wales was introduced by his fellow officers to Nellie Clifden , an Irish actress. By November, Victoria and Albert had returned to Windsor, and the Prince of Wales had returned to Cambridge, where he was a student. Two of Albert's young cousins, King Pedro V of Portugal and his brother Ferdinand , died of typhoid fever within five days of each other in early November. On top of that news, Albert
Cowper Phipps Coles - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-653: The Duchess of Kent, died in March 1861, and Victoria was grief-stricken. Albert took on most of the Queen's duties despite his continuing chronic stomach trouble. The last public event over which he presided was the opening of the Royal Horticultural Gardens on 5 June 1861. In August, Victoria and Albert visited the Curragh Camp , Ireland, where the Prince of Wales was attending army manoeuvres. At
4042-509: The Elder 's Apollo and Diana and Fra Angelico 's St Peter Martyr —and contemporary pieces from Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Edwin Landseer . Ludwig Gruner , of Dresden, assisted Albert in buying artworks of the highest quality. Albert and Victoria were shot at again on both 29 and 30 May 1842, but were unhurt. The culprit, John Francis, was detained and condemned to death, although he
4136-436: The Prince and his eldest son were other than deeply affectionate". Philip Magnus wrote in his biography of Albert's eldest son that Albert "tried to treat his children as equals; and they were able to penetrate his stiffness and reserve because they realised instinctively not only that he loved them but that he enjoyed and needed their company". Albert was a talented amateur musician and composer. For his wedding, he composed
4230-578: The Prince and home affairs: His influence over the Queen was on the whole liberal; he greatly admired Peel, was a strong free-trader, and took more interest in scientific and commercial progress, and less in sport and fashion than was at all popular in the best society. In 1847, Albert was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge after a close contest with the Earl of Powis . Albert used his position as chancellor to campaign successfully for reformed and more modern university curricula by expanding
4324-474: The Prince of Wales failed at his lessons, Albert caned him. Corporal punishment was common at the time, and was not thought unduly harsh. Albert's biographer Roger Fulford wrote that the relationships between the family members were "friendly, affectionate and normal ... there is no evidence either in the Royal Archives or in the printed authorities to justify the belief that the relations between
4418-476: The Reverend John Coles and his wife Mary Ann Goodhew Rogers, Cowper Phipps Coles entered the Royal Navy at the age of eleven. On 9 January 1846, he was promoted to lieutenant and on 5 December 1849 posted to Phaeton commanded by George Augustus Elliot. On 24 October 1853, he was posted to Agamemnon as flag lieutenant for his uncle, Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons . He distinguished himself at
4512-573: The affair in July 1870, two months before the disaster. Construction commenced in January 1867. Captain was designed to have a freeboard of only 8 feet (2.4 m), but owing to mistakes in construction leading to increased weight, the ship eventually floated 14 inches (360 mm) lower in the water. She had a full set of sails and the highest masts in the navy. She was completed in January 1870, and initial trials were successful. In May, she accompanied
4606-468: The age of 30 in 1831. The following year, their father married his niece Princess Marie of Württemberg ; their marriage was not close, however, and Marie had little—if any—impact on her stepsons' lives. The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels , where Adolphe Quetelet was one of their tutors. Like many other German princes, Albert attended
4700-647: The best products of foreign countries. Victoria opened the exhibition on 1 May 1851 in a specially designed and built glass building known as the Crystal Palace . It proved a colossal success. A surplus of £180,000 was used to purchase land in South Kensington on which to establish educational and cultural institutions, including the Natural History Museum , Science Museum , Imperial College London and what would later be named
4794-409: The claim that he introduced Christmas trees to Britain, are dismissed by scholars. Recent biographers such as Stanley Weintraub portray Albert as a figure in a tragic romance who died too soon and was mourned by his lover for a lifetime. In the 2009 film The Young Victoria , Albert, played by Rupert Friend , is made into a heroic character. In the fictionalised depiction of the 1840 shooting, he
SECTION 50
#17327840122504888-595: The country and across the British Empire . The most notable are the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial in London. The plethora of memorials erected to Albert became so great that Charles Dickens told a friend that he sought an "inaccessible cave" to escape from them. After Albert's death, Victoria withdrew from public life and her seclusion eroded some of Albert's work in attempting to remodel
4982-479: The death of the Duke of Wellington , including the mastership of Trinity House and the colonelcy of the Grenadier Guards . With Wellington's death, Albert was able to propose and campaign for modernisation of the army, which was long overdue. Thinking that the military was unready for war and that Christian rule was preferable to Islamic rule, Albert counselled a diplomatic solution to conflict between
5076-478: The deck; these were dropped down to allow the guns to fire. Coles later took command of Royal Sovereign for the July 1867 Naval Review . While these ships were building, Coles made further proposals which the Admiralty resisted pending completion of the trial ships already under construction. However, once Royal Sovereign was completed and had received favourable reports, he requested Admiralty assistance in creating
5170-416: The departure of his eldest daughter for Prussia when she married her fiancé at the beginning of 1858, and was disappointed that his eldest son, the Prince of Wales , did not respond well to the intense educational programme that Albert had designed for him. At the age of seven, the Prince of Wales was expected to take six hours of instruction, including an hour of German and an hour of French every day. When
5264-447: The disaster after midnight on the night of 6 September. It emerged that the ship had a maximum righting moment at an angle of heel around 18 degrees. If she was pushed over beyond this angle, the moment declined. By contrast, Monarch had a maximum restoring force at an angle of 40 degrees, so that any heel up to this limit would always meet increasing resistance. In 1856, Coles married Emily Pearson, niece of Admiral Lord Lyons . Coles
5358-503: The event of Victoria's death before their child reached the age of majority. Their first child, Victoria , named after her mother, was born in November. Eight other children would follow over the next seventeen years. All nine children survived to adulthood, which was remarkable for the era; biographer Hermione Hobhouse credited the healthy running of the nursery on Albert's "enlightened influence". In early 1841, he successfully removed
5452-635: The houses of the very rich. Albert's funeral was held on 23 December 1861 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle . His body was temporarily entombed in the chapel's Royal Vault. A year after his death, his remains were deposited at the Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore , which remained incomplete until 1871. The sarcophagus, in which both he and Victoria were eventually laid, was carved from the largest block of granite that had ever been quarried in Britain. Despite Albert's request for no effigies of him to be raised, many public monuments were erected all over
5546-466: The inclusion of a forecastle and poop which prevented the guns firing fore and aft, and the high position of the guns 17 feet (5.2 m) above water level, but his objections were dismissed. Reed maintained the features were all intended to improve seaworthiness. Coles once again resorted to appealing to public opinion to obtain support for a ship more closely in accord with his design ideas. The civilian First Lord remained agreeable to his plans, although
5640-604: The lease from the owner, the Earl Fife . In May the following year, Albert leased Balmoral, which he had never visited. In September 1848 he, his wife and their older children went there for the first time. They came to relish the privacy it afforded. Revolutions spread throughout Europe in 1848 as a result of a widespread economic crisis. Throughout the year, Victoria and Albert complained about Foreign Secretary Palmerston 's independent foreign policy, which they believed further destabilised Continental European powers. Albert
5734-565: The match would take place. Victoria came to the throne on 20 June 1837, aged 18. Her letters of the time show interest in Albert's education for the role he would have to play, although she resisted attempts to rush her into marriage. In the winter of 1838–39, the prince visited Italy, accompanied by the Coburg family's confidential adviser, Baron Stockmar . Albert returned to the United Kingdom with Ernest in October 1839 to visit Victoria, with
SECTION 60
#17327840122505828-593: The monarchy as a national institution by setting a moral, if not political, example. Albert is credited with introducing the principle that the British royal family should remain above politics. Before his marriage to Victoria, she supported the Whigs . For example, early in her reign, Victoria had managed to thwart the formation of a Tory government by Sir Robert Peel by refusing to accept substitutions that Peel wanted to make among her ladies-in-waiting. Albert showed
5922-597: The more junior Army and Royal Marines rank , and in naval contexts, as a "four-ring captain" (referring to the uniform lace) to avoid confusion with the title of a seagoing commanding officer. In the Ministry of Defence , and in joint service establishments, a captain may be referred to as a "DACOS" (standing for deputy assistant chief of staff) or an "AH" (assistant head), from the usual job title of OF5-ranked individuals who work with civil servants. The rank insignia features four rings of gold braid with an executive curl in
6016-451: The need for better schooling. A collection of his speeches was published in 1857. Recognised as a supporter of education and technological progress, he was invited to speak at scientific meetings, such as the memorable address he delivered as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met at Aberdeen in 1859. His espousal of science met with clerical opposition; he and Palmerston unsuccessfully recommended
6110-415: The nursery from Lehzen's pervasive control, and in September 1842, Lehzen left Britain permanently—much to Albert's relief. After the 1841 general election , Melbourne was replaced as prime minister by Sir Robert Peel , who appointed Albert chairman of the Royal Commission in charge of redecorating the new Palace of Westminster . The Palace had burned down seven years before , and was being rebuilt. As
6204-400: The objective of settling the marriage. Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839. Victoria's intention to marry was declared formally to the Privy Council on 23 November, and the couple married on 10 February 1840 at the Chapel Royal , St James's Palace . Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalised by an Act of Parliament, and granted
6298-405: The other hand, she described as "very plain". Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him "for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert ... He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy." Although the parties did not undertake a formal engagement, both the family and their retainers widely assumed that
6392-464: The practical necessities of sailing ships' rigging, decks sufficiently high to be clear of heavy seas and other necessary superstructures which restricted the guns' rotation. The Admiralty accepted the principle of the turret gun as a useful innovation, and incorporated it into other new designs. However, they could not accept his other ideas on ship design. Coles submitted a design for a ship having ten domed turrets each housing two large guns. The design
6486-494: The raft could be built. On 27 February 1856, Coles was made captain. He was placed on half pay after the war ended and spent his time creating designs for turret ships. Up to this time the principal armament of warships had been batteries of guns firing from fixed ports in the sides of the ship. On 10 March 1859 he filed a patent for a revolving turret, although it is not clear how he came by the idea. The American USS Monitor , constructed by John Ericsson in 1861, incorporated
6580-399: The rank of commander and below is informally referred to as "the captain" on board, even though holding a junior rank, but formally is titled "the commanding officer" (or CO). Until the nineteenth century, Royal Navy officers who were captains by rank and in command of a naval vessel were referred to as post-captains ; this practice is now defunct. Captain (D) or Captain Destroyers, afloat,
6674-494: The revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall —the hereditary property of the Prince of Wales—steadily increased. Unlike many landowners who approved of child labour and opposed Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws , Albert supported moves to raise working ages and free up trade. In 1846, Albert was rebuked by Lord George Bentinck when he attended the debate on the Corn Laws in the House of Commons to give tacit support to Peel. During Peel's premiership, Albert's authority behind, or beside,
6768-411: The rim chequy Gules and Argent" for Mark . 2. "Out of a coronet Or, two buffalo horns Argent, attached to the outer edge of five branches fesswise each with three linden leaves Vert" for Thuringia . 3. "Out of a coronet Or, a pyramidal chapeau charged with the arms of Saxony ensigned by a plume of peacock feathers Proper out of a coronet also Or" for Saxony . 4. "A bearded man in profile couped below
6862-909: The same midwife, Charlotte von Siebold . He was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on 19 September 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau, with water taken from the local river, the Itz . His godparents were his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld ; his maternal grandfather, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg ; the Emperor of Austria ; the Duke of Teschen ; and Emanuel, Count of Mensdorff-Pouilly . In 1825, Albert's great-uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg , died, which led to
6956-492: The ship sailed again with Coles on board. The weather deteriorated, and again she had to face a gale. This time, however, the wind was gusting and unpredictable. Extensive rigging had been necessary to make the ship oceangoing. This forced the creation of a "hurricane deck" above the turrets, which increasingly caught the wind as she heeled over. This may have been instrumental in Captain ' s tragic capsize . Coles perished in
7050-484: The shoulders clothed paly Argent and Gules, the pointed coronet similarly paly terminating in a plume of three peacock feathers" for Meissen . 5. "A demi griffin displayed Or, winged Sable, collared and langued Gules" for Jülich . 6. "Out of a coronet Or, a panache of peacock feathers Proper" for Berg . The supporters were the crowned lion of England and the unicorn of Scotland (as in the Royal Arms) charged on
7144-465: The style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council . Initially Albert was not popular with the British public; he was perceived to be from an impoverished and undistinguished minor state, barely larger than a small English county. The British prime minister, Lord Melbourne , advised the Queen against granting her husband the title of " King Consort "; Parliament also objected to Albert being created
7238-625: The subjects taught beyond the traditional mathematics and classics to include modern history and the natural sciences. Albert gained public acclaim when he expressed paternalistic yet well-meaning and philanthropic views. In an 1848 speech to the Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Labouring Classes , of which he was president, he expressed his "sympathy and interest for that class of our community who have most of
7332-711: The throne became more apparent. He had access to all the Queen's papers, was drafting her correspondence and was present when she met her ministers; he would even see them alone in her absence. The clerk of the Privy Council, Charles Greville , wrote of him: "He is King to all intents and purposes." In 1847, Victoria and Albert spent a rainy holiday in the west of Scotland at Loch Laggan , but heard from their doctor, Sir James Clark , that Clark's son had enjoyed dry, sunny days farther east at Balmoral Castle . The tenant of Balmoral, Sir Robert Gordon , died suddenly in early October, and Albert began negotiations to take over
7426-401: The toil and fewest of the enjoyments of this world". It was the "duty of those who, under the blessings of Divine Providence, enjoy station, wealth, and education" to assist those less fortunate than themselves. His progressive and relatively liberal ideas were expressed by his support of emancipation, technological progress, science education, the ideas of Charles Darwin , and the welfare of
7520-444: The upper ring. When in mess dress or mess undress, officers of the rank of captain and above wear gold-laced trousers (the trousers are known as "tin trousers", and the gold lace stripes thereon are nicknamed "lightning conductors"), and may wear the undress tailcoat (without epaulettes). Albert, Prince Consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861)
7614-491: The war by the March 1856 Treaty of Paris . During the war, Albert arranged the marriage of his fourteen-year-old daughter, Victoria , to Prince Frederick William of Prussia , but Albert delayed the marriage until Victoria was seventeen. Albert hoped that his daughter and son-in-law would be a liberalising influence in the enlarging but very conservative Prussian state. Albert promoted many public educational institutions. Chiefly at meetings in connection with them, he spoke of
7708-452: The working classes. Albert led reforms in university education, welfare and the royal finances, and supported the campaign against slavery. He also had a special interest in applying science and art to manufacturing industry. The Great Exhibition of 1851 arose from the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts , of which Albert was president from 1843, and owed most of its success to his efforts to promote it. Albert served as president of
7802-521: Was "the pendant to the pretty cousin". By 1836, this idea had also arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold , who had been King of the Belgians since 1831. At this time, Victoria was the heir presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn , the fourth son of King George III , had died when she was an infant, and her elderly uncle, King William IV , had no surviving legitimate children. Her mother,
7896-619: Was an operational appointment commanding a destroyer flotilla or squadron , and there was a corresponding administrative appointment ashore, until at least a decade after the Second World War . The title was probably used informally up until the abolition of frigate and destroyer squadrons with the Fleet FIRST reorganisation circa 2001. Ashore, the rank of captain is often verbally described as "captain RN" to distinguish it from
7990-429: Was authorised and supervised by Queen Victoria, and her influence shows in its pages. Nevertheless, it is an accurate and exhaustive account. Lytton Strachey 's Queen Victoria (1921) was more critical, but it was discredited in part by mid-20th-century biographers such as Hector Bolitho and Roger Fulford , who, unlike Strachey, had access to Victoria's journal and letters. Popular myths about Prince Albert, such as
8084-456: Was concerned for many of his royal relatives, a number of whom were deposed by revolutionaries. He and Victoria, who gave birth to their daughter Louise during that year, spent some time away from London in the relative safety of Osborne . Although there were sporadic demonstrations in England, no effective revolutionary action took place. According to historian G. M. Trevelyan , regarding
8178-405: Was himself a nephew, by marriage, of Admiral Lord Lyons, his mother being the sister of Augusta, Lyons' wife. A son was Sherard Osborn Cowper-Coles , metallurgist and inventor of the sherardising process of galvanisation . Coles was also an artist. The National Maritime Museum has a number of his watercolors and sells prints of some of them. Captain (Royal Navy) Captain ( Capt )
8272-525: Was impressed with the ideas and Coles was sent to London to present his ideas to the Admiralty . Plans were prepared for 90-by-30-foot (27.4 by 9.1 m) rafts with a draught of 3 feet 7 inches (1.09 m) which would be used to attack the Kronstadt forts. The rafts would be able to approach through shallow waters not protected by the fort guns. Unfortunately for Coles, the war ended before
8366-493: Was informed that gossip was spreading in gentlemen's clubs and the foreign press that the Prince of Wales was involved with Nellie Clifden. Albert and Victoria were horrified by their son's indiscretion and feared blackmail, scandal or pregnancy. Although Albert was ill and at a low ebb, he travelled to Cambridge to see the Prince of Wales on 25 November and discuss the indiscreet affair. In his final weeks, Albert suffered from pains in his back and legs. Also in November 1861,
8460-478: Was later reprieved. Some of the couple's early unpopularity came about because of their stiffness and adherence to protocol in public, though in private the couple were more easy-going. In early 1844, Victoria and Albert were apart for the first time since their marriage when he returned to Coburg on the death of his father. By 1844, Albert had managed to modernise the royal finances and, through various economies, had sufficient capital to purchase Osborne House on
8554-510: Was re-appointed a minister. As public outrage at the Russian action continued, false rumours circulated that Albert had been arrested for treason and was being held prisoner in the Tower of London . By March 1854, Britain and Russia were embroiled in the Crimean War . Albert devised a master plan for winning the war by laying siege to Sevastopol while starving Russia economically, which became
8648-415: Was rejected as impractical, although the Admiralty remained interested in turret ships and instructed its own designers to create better designs. Coles submitted his plans to anyone who might be interested and succeeded in enlisting a number of supporters, including Prince Albert , who wrote to the first Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Somerset, supporting the construction of a turret ship. In January 1862,
8742-454: Was the cause of death. The Queen's grief was overwhelming, and the tepid feelings that the public had for Albert were replaced by sympathy. The widowed Victoria never recovered from Albert's death; she entered into a deep state of mourning and wore black for the rest of her life. Albert's rooms in all his houses were kept as they had been even with hot water brought in the morning and linen and towels changed daily. Such practices were common in
8836-554: Was the husband of Queen Victoria . As such, he was consort of the British monarch from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Victoria granted him the title Prince Consort in 1857. Albert was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of 20, he married Victoria, his first cousin, with whom he had nine children. Initially, he felt constrained by his role as consort, which did not afford him power or responsibilities. He gradually developed
#249750