The Letters of Queen Victoria

This nine-volume selection from the letters of Queen Victoria, with ancillary material, was commissioned by her son, Edward VII, and published between 1907 and 1932, with a gap of almost twenty years between the third and fourth volumes. The editor of the ‘Third Series’, which covers the years from 1886 to 1901, was George Earle Buckle (1854-1935), a historian and former editor of The Times, who continued the editorial policy of his predecessors, but who needed to tread carefully, as many of the people mentioned in documents of the final part of Queen Victoria’s reign were still alive when Volumes 7-9 were published between 1930 and 1932. Volume 8 covers the period 1891-5, and describes continuing political strife over Ireland, and the death of the Duke of Clarence, second in line to the throne. Lighter moments include a royal command performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.