Initially faced with popular mistrust, Prince Albert (1819-61) fought hard to establish his own role both in public and in his marriage to Queen Victoria. Before he died, he came to be recognised as an influential figure in a kind of dual monarchy, acting as an intermediary with prime ministers and orchestrating the hugely complicated but ultimately successful Great Exhibition of 1851. This collection of speeches, edited by Sir Arthur Helps (1813-75) and published in 1862, was compiled at the request of the widowed Victoria. The speeches reflect the Prince's standing in public life and his unusual position as a consort who was afforded wide-ranging responsibilities. Clerk of the Privy Council, Helps had known Albert personally and his introduction provides an overwhelmingly positive character sketch. Official biographer Theodore Martin's five-volume Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort (1875-80) is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.
