The future Queen Victoria first met her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, when he travelled to England in May 1836. After the meeting, she confided in her journal that she thought him ‘extremely handsome’. When the prince visited England again in autumn 1839 the couple’s feelings developed, and on 15 October Queen Victoria told Albert:

that it would make me too happy if he would consent to what I wanted (that he should marry me

 

This letter was written by Prince Albert in his native German to Queen Victoria on the day of their engagement. In it, Albert writes:

How is it that I have deserved so much love, so much affection? I cannot get used to the reality of all that I see and hear, and have to believe that Heaven has sent me an angel whose brightness shall illumine my life.