Queen Victoria's secret crush on Indian servant revealed

London, Apr 21 (ANI): Queen Victoria's love for her Muslim servant had almost threatened to disrupt her Jubilee celebrations after her Royal Household refused to condone her shockingly intimate friendship with an Indian servant any longer.

It was a relationship that violated Victorian taboos of race and class, and threatened to destabilise the monarchy and the Empire yet, her deep affection for her servant has been almost forgotten.

A new Channel 4 documentary, Queen Victoria's Last Love, rediscovers how, as courtiers plotted to depose the royal favourite, the nation's Jubilee celebrations teetered on the brink of chaos.

The story began a decade earlier, in June 1887, when tall, handsome Abdul Karim, aged only 24, arrived at court as a 'khitmagar', one of two Indian servants recruited as waiters at the Queen's table.

Queen Victoria, lonely and in need of male companionship, in her Golden Jubilee year, was 68 and had never recovered from the loss of her dear Albert some 26 years earlier.

"When he first appeared at court, Abdul looked wonderful in his gorgeous sashes and turbans," the Daily Mail quoted royal biographer Professor Jane Ridley as saying in the documentary.

"Queen Victoria always had a great appreciation of male beauty. So when she saw him, kissing her feet... how could she resist?" he said.

Kitchen archives at the Queen's favourite residence, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, reveal that curries featured on the menu every Sunday during lunchtime. Had some excellent curry, prepared by one of my Indian servants," the Queen remarked in her diary later that summer.

Soon he was teaching her Hindustani, having somehow led the Queen to believe he was a man of some education.

"Young Abdul teaches me. He is a very strict master and a perfect gentleman," she wrote in her diary.

From then until the end of her life, the elderly Queen kept a daily record of her studies and proved an adept pupil, writing in a neat Hindi hand. Karim became her 'Munshi', the Hindi word for teacher.

But their translation exercise books betray a more flirtatious relationship.

"He wrote things like, "The Queen will miss the Munshi very much. Translate. Hold me tight. Translate." It does seem quite personal and intimate.' The Queen seemed to think of Karim almost as a son, affectionately signing letters to him as 'your loving mother'," Lucy Worsley, curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, said.

Her indiscreet affection caused consternation among the Royal Household, led by the Queen's private secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby and her doctor Sir James Reid.

The courtiers' resentment came to a head after the Queen promoted Karim to Indian Secretary.

On being rebuked by the Queen for not reciprocating to her favourite servant's Christmas card the Viceroy - the Earl of Elgin despatched his aide-de-camp - Fritz Ponsonby, son of the Queen's private secretary - to inquire in Karim's home town of Agra.

The enquiry revealed that the Munshi had given all the wrong information regarding himself and that he had previously been employed as a clerk.

Sir James Reid delivered a blistering put-down: "By your presumption and arrogance you have created for yourself a situation that can no longer be permitted to exist," he thundered. "You are an impostor. You are from a low class and never can be a gentleman."

The Queen was livid. To everybody's horror, she now wanted to bestow a knighthood on him.

On the eve of the Diamond Jubilee, she even threatened to pull out of the celebrations.

The Royal Household delivered an ultimatum, triggered by Dr Reid's revelation that Karim had contracted a venereal disease. Courtiers threatened to resign rather than allow the Munshi to accompany them on a royal holiday in France. In a fit of rage, the Queen swept everything off her desk.

But then her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales, conspired with Dr Reid and encouraged him to deliver another ultimatum.

"There are people in high places who know Your Majesty well, Who say to me that the only charitable explanation that can be given is that Your Majesty is not sane, and that the time will come when, to save Your Majesty's memory and reputation, it will be necessary for me to come forward and say so," " threatened the brave Scottish doctor when he faced her next day.

The threat hit home and Queen Victoria was forced to concede defeat and didn't bestow knighthood on him, although he remained at her side throughout the celebrations.

However, when she died, in 1901, he was dismissed from Court, just days after attending her funeral, and sent back to India.

All his letters and mementos from the Queen were confiscated and destroyed. (ANI)