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    Widowed queen's devotion to manservant and grief at his death revealed by letter in which she tells of 'so warm and loving a friendship'. Ben Fenton reports

　　The extent of Queen Victoria's love for John Brown, her Highland manservant, is revealed in a letter published today in which she likens her feelings at his death to becoming a widow for the second time.

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　　Victoria's relationship with the unconventional Scot was the subject of profound gossip in the Royal Family and court circles from the time that he began to console her after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861.

　　Her daughters referred to Mr Brown as "Mama's lover" and he was also known in the royal household as her "stallion", while her popular nickname became Mrs Brown after a rumour that she had secretly married the man who had been her husband's favourite ghillie.

　　Until now nothing substantiated the rumours. The Queen's own journal described her reaction to Brown's death in March 1883 merely as being "terribly upset by this loss".

　　But in the recently discovered letter, written to Viscount (later Earl of) Cranbrook, a close friend and former Secretary of State for India, she wrote of "her present unbounded grief for the loss of the best, most devoted of servants and truest and dearest of friends". Victoria, who usually wrote about herself in the third person, went on: "Perhaps never in history was there so strong and true an attachment, so warm and loving a friendship between the sovereign and servant as existed between her and her dear faithful Brown."

　　It is thought the phrase "between the sovereign and servant" was added as an afterthought.

　　The letter goes on to praise Brown in a most personal way: "Strength of character, as well as power of frame - the most fearful uprightness, kindness…combined with a tender warm heart…made him one of the most remarkable men who could be known." It adds: "And the Queen feels that life for the second time is become most trying and sad to bear deprived of all she so needs...

　　"The shock too was so sudden that the Queen is quite stunned."

　　The letter, written two days after Brown died from an attack of the skin disease erysipelas, is published in the latest edition of History Today magazine.

　　It was discovered in the Suffolk Record Office by Bendor Grosvenor, a PhD student at the University of East Anglia, while writing a thesis on Disraeli's government. It had been lent to the archive by the current Earl of Cranbrook. "In terms of evidence of a sexual relationship between them from her own pen, I think this is as close as we are going to get," Mr Grosvenor said.

　　"It's not a billet doux which says 'Darling, you were marvellous last night', but it is a letter to a very close friend of hers in which she compares the death of someone to the death of her husband.[page]分页标题[/page]

　　"I suspect that there was a sexual side to their relationship.

　　"We know that she had oodles of children with Albert and, according to her own account, lots of sex, and she was a young widow (at 42)."

    维多利亚女王与男仆的秘密恋情(图)

　　英国12月15日出版的《今日历史》杂志上刊登了一封维多利亚女王写给其密友的信，信中内容透露了女王与宫廷男仆的秘密恋情。

　　据英国《每日电讯报》12月15日报道，在这封被公之于众的信件中，女王表达了她在男仆约翰·布朗去世后悲痛欲绝的心情，并称自己在感情上如同经历了第2次守寡的痛苦。

　　1861年，维多利亚女王的丈夫艾伯特亲王去世。之后，艾伯特亲王生前喜欢的宫廷男仆、苏格兰人布朗因时常劝慰伤心的女王而和女王走得很近。当时，女王与男仆的亲密关系已成为王宫内人们偷偷谈论的话题。女王的女儿们称布朗为“妈妈的情人”，其他人也暗暗称他是“女王的种马”，女王甚至还被人起了个“布朗太太”的绰号，因为有传闻说女王当时已秘密下嫁给了布朗。

　　然而，到目前为止，没有任何证据证明这些传闻属实。1883年3月，布朗先生因皮肤疾病丹毒去世，女王在她的日记中仅用“他的离去让人很难过”这样轻描淡写的字句记录下她当时的心情。但最近，在被发现的女王写给其密友、印度前国务卿格兰布鲁克子爵的一封信中，人们才看到女王对于男仆布朗的真实感情。

　　喜好用第三人称来描述自己内心世界了女王在这封信中写到：“她因失去最忠诚的仆人和最真诚、最亲爱的朋友而痛不欲生。”她还写道：“在历史上，恐怕没有一位女王与仆人之间的感情能像她与她亲爱的布朗之间的感情那样激烈、真诚和温馨。”在信中，女王更是不吝溢美之词对布朗先生赞赏有加：“坚毅、正直、善良和一颗温柔的心使他成为世上那些最非凡的男人中的一个。”信的末尾写道：“女王倍感伤痛，因为她在这一生中已是第2次被剥夺掉她所需要的一切。这个突如其来的打击，令女王悲痛欲绝。”

　　这封信写在布朗先生去世两天之后。120多年后，它被刊登在了英国著名的《今日历史》杂志上。

　　英国东安格里亚大学的一位名叫格罗夫纳的博士生，在英国萨福克档案馆发现了这一尘封百年的信件。当时，格罗夫纳为了撰写有关英国迪斯雷利政府的论文来到萨福克档案馆收集资料时发现了该信件。格罗夫纳表示：“这封信是我们所能了解到女王与男仆之间关系的最直接的资料。信是女王写给自己最好的朋友的。从信的内容来看，她把一个人的死看成是丈夫的死，可见他们之间的关系何等亲密。我怀疑他们之 间有性关系。我们知道，女王与艾伯特亲王有许多孩子，就像女王所说的，他们的夫妻生活很和谐。而当艾伯特亲王去世后，女王年仅42岁，是个年轻的寡妇。”

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