The Queen's Knight

Unique and engrossing, this is a true story of suppressed passion and domestic intrigue at the heart of Victoria’s court.After an illustrious military career in the Crimean War, during which he won a Victoria Cross, Howard Elphinstone was appointed guardian to Queen Victoria’s favourite son, Prince Arthur, later Duke of Connaught, who was Governor General of Canada from 1911-16. Martyn Downer’s book includes a fascinating account of Arthur’s first trip to Canada in 1869, which took place despite the threat of his assassination by Fenian terrorists intent on revenging the Irish famine. During his eventful tour, Arthur took part in the defence of Canada following the Fenian raid at Saint John in May 1870. With relations between Britain and the United States at low ebb, Elphinstone also took the prince on a controversial tour of America which culminated in a frosty reception from President Ulysses Grant at the White House. Elphinstone remained in Court until 1890 when he was drowned in a tragic accident. During this period he became one of Queen Victoria’s closest confidants and a father figure to her nine children. His journals and remarkable correspondence with the Queen, much of which is published here for the first time, shed fascinating and intimate new light on the world of the Victorian Court. The Queen’s Knight is a captivating portrait of the close and affectionate relationship between Victoria and Elphinstone, and sheds new light on the frail human being at the heart of a vast empire.