Was the confederacy allies with Queen Victoria?

Answer 1

Although the possibility of recognizing the Confederacy was put before Victoria and Britain, they were disinclined to commit themselves and risk the ire of the United States government. Queen Victoria issued a statement in 1861 that addressed the confederates as â??belligerentsâ??, indicating that while not committed to engaging in the war, Britain had indeed chosen a side.

Answer 2

No, Queen Victoria sent a letter Notice of Neutrality to the United States government, in which she called the Confederates "belligerents". She had demanded an apology when Union forces intercepted a British ship carrying two Confederate diplomats, who had hope to gain assistance abroad. Victoria demanded an apology. The United States disavowed the actions of the officer who had intercepted the ship but issued no apology.

Answer 3

Queen Victoria was quite openly sympathetic to the Union. Not least because she was opposed to slavery in any form, more than once having described it as 'obscene'. According to many accounts, both she and her husband Prince Albert had great regard for Lincoln from quite early in the civil war. Victoria was genuinely and deeply saddened by his assassination, as her letter to his widow evidences.

A minority of wealthy British of the time, mainly those who profited directly from the cotton and arms industries, openly favored the Confederates. Despite their combined and strenuous lobbying throughout the war, they were never able to persuade the British Government to officially recognize the Confederacy.

In part this was because some politicians feared a popular uprising by an irate populace had they done so. It being abundantly clear that almost all the 'lower classes' (i.e. the great majority of the British people) were strongly, sometimes violently, opposed to slavery and its Southern proponents. Many in the British Parliament would anyway have felt ethically bound to support the Union.

Despite this, much was made by the Confederacy of their minority support, it served their cause to exaggerate it and tout it as tacit support by all the British. A false view which many historians have sadly swallowed whole and still recycle even today.

British arms companies were among many who sold weapons to both sides in the Civil War, which they did for their own profit. The sales were not sanctioned by or done in the name of its people, government, or Queen.