The Queen's grief was overwhelming, and the tepid feelings the public had felt previously for Albert were replaced by sympathy. The widowed Victoria never recovered from Albert's death; she entered into a deep state of mourning and wore black for the rest of her life. Albert's rooms in all his houses were kept as they had been, even with hot water brought in the morning and linen and towels changed daily. Such practices were not uncommon in the houses of the very rich. Victoria withdrew from public life and her seclusion eroded some of Albert's work in attempting to re-model the monarchy as a national institution setting a moral, if not political, example. Albert is credited with introducing the principle that the British royal family should remain above politics. Before his marriage to Victoria, she supported the Whigs; for example, early in her reign Victoria managed to thwart the formation of a Tory government by Sir Robert Peel by refusing to accept substitutions which Peel wanted to make among her ladies-in-waiting.