Walk into any gift shop in the Scottish Highlands and you’ll see him. He's the burly, bearded man in a kilt standing just a step behind the most powerful woman in the world. People have been gossiping about John Brown and Queen Victoria for over 150 years, and honestly, the rumors haven't aged a day. Was he a secret husband? A psychic medium? Or just a very loyal, very blunt servant who knew exactly how to handle a grieving monarch?
The truth is way more interesting than the tabloid versions.
Victoria was a woman defined by her mourning. When Prince Albert died in 1861, the lights basically went out in the British Monarchy. She retreated. She wore black. She became the "Widow of Windsor." But then came John Brown. He wasn't a polished courtier. He didn't use the flowery language of the elite. He was a rough-around-the-edges Highland gillie who had been a favorite of Albert's, and he ended up being the only person who could pull Victoria out of her deep, dark funk.
The Man Who Refused to Bow
John Brown didn't care about your titles. That was his secret weapon. While the rest of the Royal Household walked on eggshells around the grieving Queen, Brown would tell her to her face if she was being ridiculous. He called her "wumman." He told her when her dress was getting dirty. He even famously told her to sit still when she was being fussy.
You’ve got to imagine the scene. Here is a woman who rules over a massive chunk of the globe, and this Scottish servant is treating her like a regular person. She loved it. It was refreshing.
He became her "permanent outdoor attendant" in 1864. But he was more than that. He was her protector and her gatekeeper. If you wanted to see the Queen, you usually had to go through Brown first. This, predictably, made the rest of the royal family absolutely livid. They called him "The Queen's Highland Servant," but behind his back, the whispers were much nastier. They nicknamed her "Mrs. Brown."
Why the John Brown and Queen Victoria Connection Scandalized England
Society was obsessed with propriety, and the friendship between John Brown and Queen Victoria broke every single rule in the Victorian playbook. The class divide in the 1800s was supposed to be a canyon. You didn't bridge it. Yet, here was Victoria, giving Brown expensive gifts, commissioning portraits of him, and even creating a special "Devoted Service Medal" just for him.
📖 Related: Hairstyles for women over 50 with round faces: What your stylist isn't telling you
There’s a famous painting by Sir Edwin Landseer showing Victoria on a horse, with Brown holding the bridle. It’s a huge piece of art. When it was exhibited, people didn't see a Queen and her servant; they saw an intimacy that felt "wrong" for the era.
The gossip wasn't just idle chatter. It reached the highest levels of government. Even the Swiss genealogist Anthony Camp explored the persistent (though unproven) rumors that the two had secretly married. Some even suggested there was a secret child, though most serious historians like Julia Baird, author of Victoria: The Queen, find no evidence for that. What we do have evidence for is an emotional dependency that was total and absolute.
The Evidence in the Journals
Victoria was a prolific writer. She wrote millions of words in her diaries. Interestingly, after she died, her daughter Princess Beatrice edited the journals heavily. She spent years literally cutting out and burning the parts she thought were too scandalous.
Why burn them if there was nothing to hide?
Well, "something to hide" doesn't always mean a sexual affair. It could just be that the Queen’s language was so deeply affectionate and "un-queenly" that the family felt it would damage the monarchy's image. In the surviving letters, Victoria refers to Brown as her "best, truest friend" and "the kindest, most devoted soul." She relied on him to keep her steady, literally and figuratively. He was the one who wrestled a would-be assassin to the ground in 1872 when a man named Arthur O'Connor tried to point a pistol at the Queen. Brown was a hero in her eyes.
Life at Balmoral: A Scottish Escape
To understand their bond, you have to look at Balmoral Castle. London was for duty, but Scotland was for the heart. In the Highlands, the rigid rules of the court softened.
👉 See also: How to Sign Someone Up for Scientology: What Actually Happens and What You Need to Know
- Brown was in his element there.
- The Queen felt "free" from the prying eyes of the press.
- They spent hours trekking through the heather together.
But back in London, the press was ruthless. A satirical magazine called The Tomahawk published a cartoon showing an empty throne with Brown leaning against it, smoking a pipe. It was a scandal. People were genuinely worried that a Scottish servant was effectively running the country by whispering in the Queen's ear.
He was also known to have a bit of a drinking problem. The "Mountain Dew" (whisky) was always nearby. Any other servant would have been sacked in a heartbeat for being drunk on duty. Not Brown. Victoria excused his "little lapses" because his loyalty was absolute. He was the wall between her and a world she felt was increasingly cold.
The Death of Brown and the Final Secrets
When John Brown died in 1883 from erysipelas (a nasty skin infection), Victoria was devastated. Again. It was like losing Albert all over happened. She wrote that his death left her "utterly desolate."
She turned his room at Osborne House into a shrine. A fresh flower was placed on his pillow every single day, a tradition that continued until her own death nearly twenty years later. That’s not just "liking a servant." That’s profound, deep-seated grief.
The most telling detail, though, comes from her funeral instructions. Victoria was a master of the "final message." She was buried in her white wedding veil (for Albert), but she also had very specific items placed in her coffin that the public wasn't supposed to know about.
- A cloak belonging to Albert.
- A plaster cast of Albert's hand.
- A lock of John Brown's hair.
- A photograph of John Brown.
- The wedding ring that belonged to John Brown’s mother.
She had these items placed in her left hand and hidden from view by flowers. She took the physical evidence of her love for Brown to the grave.
✨ Don't miss: Wire brush for cleaning: What most people get wrong about choosing the right bristles
What Most People Get Wrong
People want the story of John Brown and Queen Victoria to be a simple romance or a simple lie. It was neither. It was a complex, co-dependent relationship born out of trauma. Victoria was a woman who was never allowed to be alone, yet she was incredibly lonely. Brown provided a bridge to a "normal" life she could never have.
Was it sexual? Most modern historians lean toward "probably not," simply because of the logistics of palace life and Victoria's own strict moral code. But was it a "love match" in an emotional sense? Absolutely. Brown gave her the strength to remain Queen when she wanted to give up.
If you want to understand the real Victoria, you have to stop looking at the grumpy old lady in the photos and start looking at the woman who walked the Scottish hills with a man who wasn't afraid to tell her she was wrong.
How to Explore This History Today
If this story fascinates you, there are a few things you should do to see the evidence for yourself.
Visit Balmoral if you can. The statues and memorials she built for him are still there, tucked away in the grounds. They are surprisingly intimate. You should also watch the 1997 film Mrs. Brown starring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly. While it takes some creative liberties, it captures the vibe of their relationship better than any dry textbook ever could.
Read Julia Baird’s biography Victoria: The Queen. It’s probably the most well-researched look at the Brown years, using archives that were previously restricted. It moves away from the "did they or didn't they" gossip and looks at how Brown actually influenced her political decisions and her mental health.
Finally, check out the Royal Collection Trust's online archives. They occasionally digitize the sketches Victoria made of Brown. You can see the affection in the way she drew him—not as a servant, but as a man who was the center of her world.
The story of the Queen and her gillie is a reminder that even the most powerful people in history are, at the end of the day, just looking for someone who actually understands them. Someone who doesn't mind if their shoes are muddy. Someone who stays.