Albert, Prince Consort cousins, brothers King Pedro V of Portugal and Prince Ferdinand, died of typhoid fever within 5 days of each other in early November. On top of this news, Albert was informed that gossip was spreading in gentlemen's clubs and the foreign press that the Prince of Wales was still 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 to discuss his son's indiscreet affair. In his final weeks
Grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Prince Albert on 10 February 1840 by William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in Westminster (London). (Albert died fourteen-and-a-half years before Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on 1 May 1876.) Queen Victoria, at times, had contentious relations with her children. She had trouble relating to her children when they were young, some of this possibly owing to her own isolated childhood. She also, occasionally, resented that they interfered with time that she would prefer to spend with Albert. Both Victoria and Albert weren't above playing favourites with their children, and