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Documentary, Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled Part: 1
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00:00Britain's longest reigning monarch, mother of nine, grandmother of Europe and empress of India,
00:09Queen Victoria ruled in a century of revolution, turbulence that crossed other European monarchs
00:15their thrones, while Victoria reigned supreme. Yet Victoria, that great figurehead of empire,
00:23was at all times a woman who formed intimate relationships with those around her.
00:28Some conventional, some not so conventional.
00:35But perhaps the Queen's most enduring relationship was that with her pen.
00:41She was one of the 19th century's most prolific diarists.
00:46From childhood to widowhood, she put her thoughts onto paper.
00:51Matters of state, family gossip, current affairs, diplomacy and death,
00:56she recorded her thoughts on everything and everybody.
01:00She was famously terse, frequently enraged, passionately romantic, and she poured her emotions out onto paper.
01:11Those close to her were afraid her more alarming opinions might escape in written form, causing havoc.
01:16The poor woman is bodily and morally the husband's slave.
01:23Much of her writing was destroyed after her death, and a great deal, unfortunately, edited by her daughter Beatrice.
01:33What survives frequently reveals a woman quite different to the one we think we know, the solid, black-clad matron.
01:40I've spent the last five years reading through Queen Victoria's journals and through thousands of her unpublished letters.
01:47I've almost come to regard her as a friend.
01:50There are those who would dismiss her as a hysterical egomaniac.
01:54But for me, she is a human being of passion, yes, of enormous eccentricity,
02:00but also somebody, contrary to what's so often said about her, who was easily amused.
02:04Her writings are the key to understanding factors that shaped Victoria's personality.
02:11The tortured relationship with her mother, the dominant men she'd clung to in search of a father figure,
02:17the power struggle that made her marriage to Prince Albert a battleground.
02:21I want to use her papers to try to read the mind of the woman who ruled the world.
02:29She was a daughter, a wife, a mother, the queen of a growing empire.
02:34Friends and family came and went.
02:37It was her pen, which was her constant companion and friend.
02:41Despite running the most powerful nation on earth,
03:05throughout her reign, Queen Victoria always found time for her journal.
03:09She used her pen therapeutically to express her innermost thoughts,
03:17which is why her writings are so much more than just a record of events.
03:22Many of them are kept at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.
03:28Oliver Erkert Irvin is the librarian there.
03:30It isn't easy to decipher her handwriting, but it's worth the effort.
03:37Here in widowhood, she recalls happy times with Prince Albert.
03:41But look, here we are.
03:42December 27th, 1860, at Windsor.
03:44My angel always drove me from a seat behind, sitting astride with his feet in large boots
03:53and his fur-lined coat with fur gloves, and he enjoyed it so much, and it was so pretty.
03:59Yes, that's a very touching one, because that's when she's in the first throes of grief
04:02and she's writing out happy memories.
04:04The noiseless moving of the sledge.
04:07It's almost like a Russian novel, isn't it?
04:11If Victoria's works were to be bound as a collection, there would be some 700 volumes,
04:17more than 50 million words.
04:20The volume, I mean, it's colossal, isn't it?
04:23The volume of correspondence, of writing of papers is, of course, colossal.
04:27I would expect to find Victoria's writings in almost every archive in the world
04:31and in many personal and private archives.
04:33Indeed, yes.
04:34Specifically thinking of the journal, actually, which is enormous, isn't it?
04:38It is indeed enormous, yes.
04:40Once she'd begun this habit, perhaps prompted by her mother, of keeping a journal,
04:45it became a habit for the rest of her life.
04:47Yes, we're very fortunate that, indeed, that she kept such a journal.
04:50It provides a fantastic, observational, vivid and honest account of her life.
04:55It's an extraordinary survival.
04:56Of course, the later volumes, Princess Beatrice's, are in her hand rather than Queen Victoria's.
05:01Victoria was never afraid to speak her mind.
05:04And we don't know whether she'd have wanted her diaries edited.
05:08Oliver, however, has no doubts.
05:11Why did Princess Beatrice copy her mother's journals
05:14rather than just leaving the mother's journals as they were?
05:17Well, she was asked to.
05:19By whom?
05:19By her mother.
05:20If you bear in mind that the diaries are written for Queen Victoria by herself
05:23and not necessarily with posterity in mind,
05:26it came a realisation towards the end that some exercise in editing,
05:29perhaps even reduction in some places to avoid offending members of the family
05:34or others, indeed, where Queen Victoria had, at the moment of writing,
05:38felt able to be fully and freely expressive.
05:40The sweetness and spiciness of what survived her edit
05:47simply stokes our interest in what Beatrice cut out.
05:52How much more was there, for instance,
05:54about the fraught relationship between the Queen and her mother?
05:59The dynamics of the first relationship Victoria ever knew
06:03deeply affected her whole life.
06:05It is said that the death of Prince Albert in 1861
06:11was the greatest tragedy of Queen Victoria's life.
06:14But it wasn't the first.
06:16The death of her mother, nine months earlier,
06:19provoked a tsunami of emotions which stirred up intense inner conflicts.
06:24It is dreadful, dreadful to think we shall never see that dear, kind, loving face again.
06:34The outbursts of grief are fearful and at times unbearable.
06:40As she wrote these loving words,
06:43Victoria was rewriting her own history.
06:46Since her teens, she'd loathed her mother, the Duchess of Kent.
06:49On becoming Queen, she'd moved her out of her court and shunned her.
06:55They'd barely spoken properly for years.
06:58But when her mother died in March 1861,
07:01Victoria suddenly realised what she'd lost.
07:08As most children do when their parents are dying,
07:11Victoria sorted through her mother's effects.
07:13Amongst them, small pink love notes,
07:17written to Victoria when she was a young girl
07:19and placed under her pillow.
07:23My dearest, beloved Victoria,
07:27let me say a few words to you
07:28before you shut your dear little eyes.
07:32In some hours, this year is closed.
07:35Let us thank the great and almighty God
07:37for all the many blessings we experienced this year.
07:40Well, you can imagine with what shock
07:45Victoria read these letters in grown-up life
07:47after her mother had died.
07:50Since she and her mother had become estranged,
07:52Victoria had told herself that her mother had been unkind,
07:55that she'd had an unhappy childhood.
07:57And here was visible, tangible evidence
08:00that her mother had adored her
08:02and that there had been many periods of joy in her childhood.
08:06She had the letters bound up
08:07in this magnificent leather volume
08:10and pricked out on the cover
08:12the words,
08:14From Dear Mama.
08:15She was born in May 1819
08:28at Kensington Palace,
08:30but it might as well have been in Germany.
08:33Her mother was German,
08:35Princess Victoria of Saxe-Crobog-Saldfeld.
08:38She barely spoke English.
08:41She was the widow of Prince Charles of Leiningen.
08:43Victoria's father was her second husband,
08:47the Duke of Kent.
08:48But he was to die just eight months
08:50after Victoria arrived.
08:55That she never knew her father
08:57was arguably the single most important factor
09:00in Victoria's psychology.
09:03The Queen would spend her life
09:04searching for a father figure.
09:08Widowed a second time,
09:09the Duchess of Kent
09:10was by royal standards impoverished.
09:13Her brother-in-law, King William IV,
09:15allowed her to carry on roughing it rent-free
09:17here at Kensington Palace,
09:19where she fell prey
09:21to the ambitious John Conroy.
09:29Historian Kate Williams
09:30has chronicled events at Kensington Palace.
09:33She really needed someone to depend on,
09:35and Conroy stepped in.
09:36He saw the vacuum, really.
09:38Stepped in and made it his own.
09:40And really, pretty much made himself almost king.
09:45For little Victoria,
09:47looking for a kindly man to play papa,
09:50schemer Conroy was a disaster.
09:53In diaries written in adulthood,
09:55she paints him as a sort of pantomime villain,
09:58and her childhood as miserable.
10:00I led a very unhappy life as a child.
10:04Had no brothers and sisters.
10:06Never had a father.
10:08Was not on comfortable
10:09or at all intimate
10:10or confidential footing with my mother.
10:14These words,
10:15written when she was a grown-up,
10:17paint a pretty bleak picture.
10:19But the truth was more nuanced.
10:23Yes, she was a poor, fatherless girl
10:25who, for the rest of her life,
10:27craved male attention.
10:30Yes, Sir John Conroy was a bully and a cad.
10:34Yes, the Duchess of Kent was a silly goose.
10:37And between them,
10:39the Duchess and John Conroy
10:40devised something they called
10:42the Kensington System.
10:44It meant total separation from the court.
10:47And here, in Kensington Palace,
10:49it meant that the child was never alone.
10:52She shared a bedroom with her mother.
10:54She never ate anything
10:55which hadn't been tasted first.
10:57She wasn't allowed on this staircase.
10:59Unless she was accompanied.
11:02The Kensington System was really a way
11:04in which the Duchess of Kent
11:05and John Conroy,
11:06in particular Conroy,
11:07wanted to control Victoria.
11:09This vision that she would come to the throne
11:11at 12, 13,
11:13and they'd be in charge.
11:14And Conroy, presumably,
11:16was the chief agent of this system.
11:19The Duchess of Kent was a woman
11:20who really was out of her depth.
11:22She was out of her depth in Britain.
11:23And she knew the royal family hated her.
11:25She couldn't really speak English.
11:26When Conroy came along,
11:28he said, you know,
11:29I can see an opportunity here.
11:30And so Victoria,
11:31this tiny, plump little child,
11:33this really little toddler,
11:35she's everyone's passport
11:36to glory,
11:37to riches,
11:38to massive grandeur.
11:39It was a repressive regime.
11:44But while Victoria's diaries
11:46recall a lonely childhood,
11:48we must remember she was prone
11:49to reinterpreting her own story.
11:54Deirdre Murphy is curator
11:56of the Victoria Revealed exhibition
11:58at Kensington Palace.
11:59So this is the room
12:01that Princess Victoria
12:02was supposedly born in.
12:04Oh, she was born here?
12:05Yes, she was born in this room.
12:07One of her dolls' houses?
12:08Yes, from the late 1820s.
12:11And she had lots of dolls?
12:12She had lots of dolls.
12:14She made them herself
12:15with her governess,
12:16Baroness Leighton,
12:17and together had lots of fun
12:18dressing them.
12:19There were animals.
12:20She had a beautiful-looking
12:21Charles Spaniel named Dash.
12:24She would play with him
12:24in the gardens
12:25and every now and then
12:27would dress him up in costumes.
12:29She did have quite a happy childhood
12:30when she looked back on it.
12:32She saw it as unhappy.
12:33And I wonder whether you think,
12:34in fact,
12:35it was the bullying of Conroy
12:36when she was a teenager
12:37that led her to have this view.
12:39I completely agree with that.
12:41These memories
12:42that she brings back
12:43throughout her life
12:44later on
12:45are not necessarily reliable
12:48because she changes her view
12:50from time to time.
12:51So in 1872,
12:53her eldest daughter, Vicky,
12:55is marrying and having children.
12:57She writes to Vicky
12:58about how difficult
12:59her childhood was,
13:00giving her advice
13:01about how to treat
13:02her own children.
13:03And this is a theme
13:05that marks through
13:06her letters and correspondence.
13:08But we clearly can't rely
13:09on that completely
13:10because she clearly
13:11had fun here,
13:13she was indulged
13:14and had a pretty good deal,
13:16actually.
13:16At half past six,
13:23we went to the play
13:24to Drury Lane.
13:24It was Shakespeare's
13:26tragedy of King John.
13:27The principal characters
13:28were King John
13:29and Mr Macready
13:30who acted beautifully.
13:32We came to the very beginning
13:33and stayed to the very end.
13:35I was very much amused.
13:39Her mother and Leighton
13:41and Victoria
13:42were stage-struck
13:43and they often came here
13:44to the glitzy London West End,
13:47the Theatre Royal Drury Lane
13:48as one of their favourites,
13:50to the play,
13:51to the opera,
13:51to the ballet.
13:52You and I,
13:53to give ourselves a treat,
13:55might go to the opera
13:55or the ballet
13:56two or three times a year.
13:58Victoria,
13:58as a teenager,
14:00went to the opera
14:01two or three times a week.
14:07Victoria's family
14:08ruled in turbulent times.
14:10Her uncle,
14:11King William IV,
14:12was the last monarch
14:13to appoint his own
14:14Prime Minister
14:15in defiance of Parliament.
14:20The people demanded changes
14:21to the corrupt electoral system
14:24and sweeping reforms
14:25in 1832
14:27did little to dispel
14:28the scent of revolution
14:29in the air.
14:31Trapped in Kensington Palace,
14:34Princess Victoria
14:34was ignorant of it all.
14:37What Victoria did come
14:38to realise, however,
14:39was the future
14:40that awaited her.
14:42There were no other
14:43legitimate heirs
14:44to the throne.
14:46This young girl,
14:47three-quarters German,
14:49was next in line.
14:50And didn't Conroy
14:52and the court know it?
14:54They knew
14:54that whoever influenced
14:56this child
14:57influenced
14:58the future British
14:59head of state.
15:02Which is why,
15:04when she was 13,
15:06Conroy and her mother
15:07took Princess Victoria
15:08on a tour
15:09across the country.
15:10They sensed
15:11that if the monarchy
15:12were to survive,
15:13it must be more visible.
15:16Free from the claustrophobic
15:17atmosphere of Kensington,
15:19Victoria found herself
15:20exposed to the world outside,
15:23a world of industrial change
15:24and burgeoning unrest.
15:26Instead of the safety
15:27of the nursery
15:28with her dolls,
15:30she found herself
15:30looking into the faces
15:31of the poor,
15:33grimy,
15:33with smoke
15:34and soot.
15:35and she wrote
15:37about her experiences
15:38in her journal,
15:39given and read
15:41by her mother.
15:42We have just passed
15:43through a town
15:44where all coal mines are
15:45and you see the fire
15:46glimmer at a distance
15:48in the engines
15:48in many places.
15:49The men,
15:50women,
15:51children,
15:51country and houses
15:52are all black.
15:55Professor Jane Ridley
15:57has written
15:57A Life of the Queen.
15:59It's quite interesting.
16:01She was sent on those tours,
16:02which she rather hated,
16:03around England,
16:04and the pressure
16:05she was under
16:05I think is quite extreme.
16:06I think it might account
16:07for why she actually
16:08hated appearing in public
16:09later on in life.
16:10I think her mother
16:11saw keeping a journal
16:12as part of the training
16:13of being a monarch.
16:14It's fascinating.
16:15So it was in a sense
16:16part of the Kensington system,
16:17the journal.
16:17I would say it was.
16:18I saw a diary of somebody
16:20who was at one of these things
16:21in Plymouth
16:21and this person noticed
16:23that at dinner
16:24the little princess
16:25didn't say anything.
16:26She just looked round the table
16:27all the time.
16:27She kept looking, looking
16:28and they asked afterwards,
16:29you know,
16:30what's wrong with this child?
16:30Why was she looking
16:31at all the people?
16:33And Conroy said
16:34she's being trained
16:35to remember who they are
16:36and when she gets back
16:38she'll be tested on them
16:39by her mother.
16:40And if you look
16:40at the entry in the diary
16:42you see a long, long list
16:43of names,
16:44none of whom she could have named,
16:45none of which could have
16:46made any sense to her at all.
16:48It's hard to say exactly when
16:50but by her early teens
16:52the princess had come
16:53to see what her mother
16:54and Conroy
16:54were up to.
16:58Victoria was coming
16:59to realise her position
17:00as a pawn
17:01in the political power game
17:03and she came to feel
17:05that her mother
17:05was siding with Sir John Conroy
17:08against her.
17:10Things came to her head
17:11here in the seaside town
17:13of Ramsgate
17:14on a fateful day
17:15in autumn 1835
17:18when her hatred of Conroy
17:21was confirmed
17:21and she came to loathe
17:24as her mother.
17:30It was after a tour
17:31of the north
17:32Victoria was exhausted
17:34and sickly
17:34when they arrived here
17:35at the Albion Hotel.
17:39She had a very sore throat
17:40and she became iller.
17:42The doctor came,
17:43the doctor went,
17:44said she was all right.
17:45Her mother refused
17:46to believe her
17:47thought she was just
17:48making a fuss.
17:49Conroy said she was shamming.
17:50So this goes on
17:51for several days.
17:52Victoria getting
17:52quite dangerously ill.
17:55Where artisans
17:56are now creating
17:57a new bijou hotel,
17:59Victoria lay in her bed
18:00at a low ebb.
18:02John Conroy
18:03seized his opportunity.
18:05He clumsily
18:05barged into her bedroom
18:07and tried to make her
18:08sign away
18:09her future powers
18:10as queen.
18:12His idea was
18:13to have a regency
18:14with the Duchess of Kent
18:15with the Duchess of Kent
18:15ruling in Victoria's stead
18:17and, of course,
18:19John Conroy
18:20ruling the Duchess.
18:24Sick as she was,
18:26the 16-year-old,
18:27backed up by her governess,
18:29Louise Leitson,
18:30refused Conroy.
18:32It would seem that Sir John
18:33was all but violent with her.
18:34I resisted in spite of my illness
18:39and their harshness,
18:41my beloved Leitson
18:42supporting me alone.
18:43From now on,
18:49Victoria was just waiting
18:50to be 18
18:51and rid of the influence
18:53of Conroy and her mother.
18:55She began to forget
18:56her happy childhood
18:57and dwell only
18:58on the sad things.
19:00The experience
19:01at Ramsgate
19:02had poisoned
19:03her childhood memory
19:05and fuelled her resentment
19:06against her mother.
19:07The myth
19:08of the totally
19:09unhappy childhood
19:10was born.
19:12But
19:13Victoria was also
19:14possessed
19:15of a sense
19:16of destiny.
19:18She knew
19:19that Uncle William
19:21wasn't going to be alive
19:22for much longer.
19:25The king had fathered
19:2712 children
19:27but no living
19:29legitimate heir.
19:31In June 1837
19:32he died in his sleep
19:34of a heart attack.
19:37Her mother
19:38woke
19:39Victoria.
19:43I got out of bed
19:44and went into my
19:45sitting room
19:46only in my dressing gown
19:47alone
19:48and saw them.
19:50Kneeling before her
19:51the Archbishop
19:53of Canterbury
19:54and the Lord Chamberlain
19:56were now
19:56her subjects.
19:58Victoria
19:59more German
20:00than British
20:00was now
20:01Queen.
20:03She was ready
20:03to throw herself
20:04into the role
20:05the survival
20:06of the monarchy itself
20:07depended on her success.
20:10I am very young
20:10and perhaps in many
20:12though not in all things
20:13inexperienced
20:14but I am sure
20:15that very few
20:16have more real goodwill
20:17and more desire
20:18to do what is fit
20:19and right
20:20than I have.
20:23Victoria was now
20:24free of the Kensington
20:26system
20:26and all it represented
20:28but she was just
20:2918 years old
20:31and she needed help
20:32to be head of state.
20:34Luckily
20:35help was at hand
20:36in the form of somebody
20:38who himself
20:39needed
20:39human companionship.
20:41Her aristocratic
20:42wig prime minister
20:43Lord Melbourne.
20:44cometh the time
20:52cometh the father figure.
20:55Melbourne
20:55was everything
20:56that Conroy
20:57wasn't.
20:58He was loving
20:59kind
20:59and emotionally
21:00intelligent.
21:01He saw what she needed
21:03and he lavished it on her.
21:07In her diary
21:08Queen Victoria
21:09had described herself
21:10as the little
21:11fatherless girl.
21:12Now the 58-year-old
21:14prime minister
21:15made sure she felt
21:16in control
21:17but safe
21:18in his care.
21:20It was he
21:21who prepared
21:21Victoria
21:22and who stage-managed
21:24the momentous
21:25coronation
21:25here at Westminster
21:27Abbey
21:27in June 1838.
21:31Since 1066
21:33almost every
21:34English monarch
21:35has been crowned
21:36here.
21:38Victoria
21:39had been raised
21:40to be ready
21:41for this pivotal
21:42moment in her
21:42own life
21:43and that of the
21:44nation
21:44since her birth.
21:49There was a two-day
21:50fair in the park.
21:52There were illuminations.
21:53There was a
21:54firework display.
21:55There were people
21:56swarming into central
21:57London
21:58to see their new
21:59Queen.
22:00She was woken
22:01at 4am
22:02by the booming
22:03of the guns
22:04in the park.
22:06And yet
22:06she doesn't mention
22:08her mother once
22:09when she came to
22:09write it up
22:10in her journal.
22:10the central figure
22:12for Victoria
22:13on her coronation
22:14day
22:14was Lord M.
22:16My excellent
22:24Lord Melbourne
22:24who stood very
22:25close to me
22:26throughout the
22:26whole ceremony
22:27was completely
22:29overcome at this
22:30moment and very
22:31much affected.
22:32He gave me such
22:33such a kind
22:33and may I say
22:34fatherly look.
22:37First things first,
22:38Victoria wanted to
22:39get rid of
22:40Sir John Conroy.
22:42Conroy realised
22:43that his luck
22:43had run out.
22:44He wanted to
22:45cash in his chips.
22:45He claimed that
22:47Victoria had privately
22:48offered him
22:49a huge pension
22:50of £3,000 a year
22:52and an English
22:53peerage.
22:54Well, Melbourne
22:54wasn't having any
22:55of that,
22:56though he did
22:56offer Conroy
22:57an Irish
22:58peerage
22:59which was
22:59refused.
23:00The influence
23:01of Conroy
23:02was now
23:03decisively
23:04over.
23:04There is no
23:11end to the
23:11amusing anecdotes
23:13and stories
23:14Lord Melbourne
23:14tells and he
23:15tells them all
23:16in such an
23:17amusing and
23:18funny way.
23:20The passionate
23:21friendship
23:22which sprang
23:23up between
23:23them gave
23:24to the young
23:25Queen the
23:25security she
23:26craved and
23:27to Melbourne
23:28reeling from
23:29a shattered
23:29marriage
23:30someone to
23:31care for.
23:32Really,
23:33every day he
23:34was with us,
23:34sometimes for
23:35five hours a
23:35day they'd
23:36ride together,
23:37they'd do
23:37jigsaws together,
23:38they'd play
23:38cards together.
23:39He participated
23:40in all of this
23:41and through
23:42this constant
23:44being by the
23:45Queen's side
23:45he gained a
23:46lot of influence,
23:47a lot of power
23:48and essentially
23:49he could really
23:50tell her what
23:51her role was.
23:52So what he had
23:53was something
23:53people envied
23:54incredibly.
23:57Her education
23:58started here.
24:00The journals
24:01bubbled with
24:02her conversations
24:03with Lord M.
24:04said,
24:05they talked
24:05of everything
24:06under the sun
24:06from French
24:07history to
24:08Shakespeare,
24:09from mixed-race
24:10marriages to
24:10Whig society
24:11gossip.
24:12It wasn't just
24:13a political
24:14process that
24:15Lord M.
24:15introduced her
24:16to,
24:17it was life
24:18itself.
24:20Her relationship
24:21with Melbourne
24:22was helped
24:23along by a
24:23charming weakness
24:24on the part
24:25of the Queen.
24:26She always fell
24:27for men
24:27who made her
24:28laugh.
24:29the flirty,
24:31fun-loving
24:31teenage queen
24:32leaps from
24:33her pages.
24:35I asked
24:36Lord M.
24:36how he liked
24:37my dress.
24:37He said he
24:38thought it
24:38very pretty
24:39and that it
24:39did very well.
24:41Talked to my
24:41having taken
24:42a bath,
24:42his seldom
24:43doing so.
24:45Talked to my
24:45having wished
24:46to roll in the
24:47grass when I was
24:47in the garden,
24:48which made him
24:48laugh.
24:49As a young
24:50man,
24:51he had been
24:51outstandingly
24:52good-looking
24:53and he still
24:53is.
24:54He was
24:54incredibly
24:55charming.
24:55He knew
24:56everybody.
24:57He takes
24:57upon himself
24:58not just
24:59to sort
24:59of educate
25:00the young
25:01queen,
25:01but also
25:01to act
25:02in effect
25:02as her
25:03private
25:03secretary.
25:04Her
25:04journals
25:04during the
25:05Melbourne
25:05years
25:06are
25:06fascinating
25:06because
25:07she wrote
25:07down
25:07absolutely
25:07everything
25:08that he
25:08said.
25:09Melbourne,
25:10more than
25:10anybody,
25:11is making
25:11her a
25:11British
25:12queen.
25:15Politically
25:15speaking,
25:16the relationship
25:17between Queen
25:17Victoria and Lord
25:18Melbourne had
25:19no significance
25:20whatsoever.
25:21Lord M was
25:22absolutely out
25:23of sympathy
25:24with his own
25:25times and
25:26while the
25:26pair were out
25:27together laughing
25:28and riding,
25:29the country
25:30was in a
25:31state of
25:31unease.
25:34Great
25:35riots had
25:36broke out
25:36at Birmingham
25:37again.
25:38Houses burnt
25:39and others
25:39plundered,
25:40which he,
25:41Lord M,
25:42feared was
25:42to be
25:42expected.
25:45Melbourne
25:46protected
25:46Victoria,
25:47but the
25:48national movement
25:48for working
25:49class
25:49emancipation
25:50that produced
25:51the People's
25:52Charter
25:52couldn't be
25:53ignored.
25:55There was
25:55trouble with
25:55the sugar
25:56trade.
25:57And then,
25:57in 1839,
25:59a parliamentary
25:59defeat over
26:00Irish
26:00independence
26:01forced Melbourne
26:02to resign.
26:04She'd felt
26:04safe,
26:05secure,
26:05and much
26:06loved.
26:07Now she
26:08felt alone,
26:09exposed.
26:10It was
26:10almost as
26:11though he
26:11died.
26:12All my
26:13happiness
26:13gone,
26:14that happy,
26:15peaceful life
26:16destroyed.
26:17That dearest,
26:18kind Lord
26:19Melbourne.
26:20No more
26:21my minister.
26:22The Prime
26:23Minister's
26:24replacement
26:24was the
26:25Tory,
26:26Sir Robert
26:26Peel.
26:27He had
26:27no charm,
26:28no sense
26:29of humour,
26:29and he
26:30couldn't flirt.
26:31Lord M's
26:32charm had
26:33given him
26:34power over
26:34Victoria.
26:36Peel's lack
26:36of it almost
26:37guaranteed a
26:38battle of
26:38wills.
26:39Their first
26:40meeting sparked
26:41a constitutional
26:42crisis.
26:44Peel almost
26:45immediately said,
26:46you've got to
26:47change your
26:47ladies.
26:48The ladies
26:48of the
26:48robes,
26:49the ladies
26:49of the
26:49bedchamber,
26:50they once
26:50are wigs,
26:51they now
26:52have to
26:52be Tories.
26:53And Victoria,
26:54she couldn't
26:55cope with
26:55this.
26:56She said to
26:56Peel,
26:56I'm not
26:57changing my
26:57ladies.
26:58I am
26:59not doing
26:59this.
27:01Peel
27:01surprised her
27:02by saying
27:03in that
27:03case,
27:04he wouldn't
27:04be her
27:05Prime
27:05Minister.
27:06It
27:06became
27:07known as
27:07the
27:07bedchamber
27:08crisis.
27:09Robert
27:10Peel
27:10was a
27:11very
27:11astute
27:11politician.
27:13By refusing
27:13to be
27:13Prime
27:14Minister,
27:14he demonstrated
27:15quite a lot
27:15of things
27:16to the
27:16world at
27:16large.
27:17He
27:17demonstrated
27:18that
27:18Victoria
27:19was a
27:19weak
27:19partisan.
27:21He
27:21also
27:22demonstrated
27:22that she
27:23was trying
27:24to exercise
27:24the kind
27:25of monarchical
27:26power which
27:26no longer
27:27existed in
27:28Britain.
27:29This was
27:29the last
27:30time the
27:30British
27:30monarch
27:31ever
27:31openly
27:32defied
27:32a
27:33represented
27:33politician.
27:36Victoria
27:36felt
27:37victorious,
27:38but her
27:38intransigent
27:39pointed up
27:40her
27:40immaturity.
27:42That she
27:43put her
27:43own selfish
27:44needs before
27:45those of
27:45Parliament
27:46was visible
27:46to all,
27:47and the
27:47ramifications
27:48were immense.
27:50Peel's
27:50refusal to
27:51serve
27:51created a
27:52vacuum.
27:54Melbourne
27:54was forced
27:55to return
27:56as Prime
27:56Minister
27:57of a
27:57weak,
27:58weak
27:58government
27:58which lasted
27:59just two
28:00more years.
28:02The political
28:03system had
28:04been shaken
28:04by a young
28:05girl's
28:06tantrum,
28:07the sort
28:07of behaviour
28:07a more
28:08enlightened
28:08mother might
28:09have influenced
28:09if she'd
28:10been more
28:11present in
28:11Victoria's
28:12life.
28:14The Duchess
28:15was now
28:16very much
28:16behind the
28:17scenes,
28:18but she was
28:19nevertheless
28:19quietly engineering
28:20her daughter's
28:21future,
28:22and her
28:23own.
28:25The question
28:26on everybody's
28:26lips was
28:27who was the
28:28young queen
28:28going to
28:29marry,
28:30and broadly
28:30speaking,
28:31there were
28:31three options.
28:33She could have
28:33married her
28:34cousin in
28:34England.
28:35George,
28:36Duke of
28:36Cambridge,
28:37who was a
28:37soldier her
28:38age.
28:39They were
28:39fast friends
28:40throughout their
28:41lives,
28:42but George
28:43used to say
28:43rather ungallantly
28:44he'd never
28:44wanted to
28:45marry plain
28:46little Victoria.
28:47Old William
28:48IV had wanted
28:49her to marry
28:49into the
28:50Dutch royal
28:50family,
28:51but Victoria
28:51was having
28:52none of that.
28:53The two
28:53eligible princes
28:54of Orange
28:55were frightful
28:56oafs.
28:57And then
28:58there was the
28:58third option,
28:59favoured by
29:00Uncle Leopold,
29:01King of the
29:02Belgians,
29:03and by her
29:03mother.
29:04And that
29:04was that
29:05she should
29:05forge a
29:06political
29:07alliance with
29:08her
29:08Coburg
29:08cousin,
29:10Prince Albert.
29:12Since
29:131714,
29:15the English
29:16Hanoverian
29:17royal family
29:18had been
29:18German.
29:20Victoria
29:21was by
29:22descent a
29:22member of
29:23this family,
29:24but her
29:24mother was
29:25of a different
29:25line, the
29:26Saxe-Coburg
29:27Gautas,
29:28and so was
29:28Albert.
29:29They saw
29:30in this
29:30marriage a
29:31chance for
29:32the family
29:32effectively to
29:34take over
29:34the running
29:35of Great
29:35Britain.
29:37They had
29:38met before
29:39as teenagers.
29:4117-year-old
29:42Albert and
29:42his brother
29:43Ernest had
29:44encountered
29:44Victoria at
29:45a family
29:45get-together
29:46in England.
29:47Ernest was
29:48taller and
29:49funnier.
29:52Dr. Carina
29:52Ohrbach is
29:54a biographer
29:54of Queen
29:55Victoria.
29:57The first
29:58time he
29:58came over
29:59with his
29:59brother
30:00Ernest,
30:00she saw
30:01that Ernest
30:01was the
30:02more
30:02interesting
30:02one because
30:03it was
30:03lively one
30:04and the
30:05fun-loving
30:05one.
30:06But when
30:07they met
30:07the second
30:08time round,
30:08then of
30:09course he
30:09had become
30:10a quite
30:11good-looking
30:11man and
30:11it was a
30:12very hormonal
30:13decision for
30:13her to
30:14marry him.
30:16In autumn
30:161839,
30:18the bright-eyed
30:18prince,
30:19now 20,
30:20came for a
30:21visit from
30:21Germany.
30:23Victoria,
30:24three months
30:24older,
30:25nearly a foot
30:25shorter,
30:26was completely
30:27smitten
30:28smitten by
30:29him.
30:31Albert really
30:32is quite
30:33charming and
30:34so excessively
30:35handsome,
30:36such beautiful
30:37blue eyes and
30:38exquisite nose
30:39and such a
30:40pretty mouth
30:41with delicate
30:42moustaches and
30:43slight but very
30:44slight whiskers,
30:45a beautiful
30:46figure, broad
30:47in the shoulders
30:48and a fine
30:48waist.
30:49My heart is
30:50quite going.
30:51Knowing with
30:55hindsight how
30:56much rested
30:56on that
30:57meeting,
30:57it's hard
30:58not to feel
30:58a little
30:59awestruck
31:00by the
31:01innocence of
31:01Victoria's
31:02emotions when
31:03she first set
31:04eyes on the
31:04youthful Albert.
31:06They were
31:06destined to
31:07become the
31:07grandparents of
31:08Europe, one
31:09of the most
31:10famous couples
31:10in history,
31:11but the path
31:12ahead was not
31:14going to be an
31:15easy one.
31:17Victoria was
31:18extremely vulnerable
31:19emotionally.
31:20she was also
31:21the most eligible
31:22princess in
31:23Europe or in
31:24the world.
31:26As she swooned,
31:27she unconsciously
31:28fell in with
31:29plans laid by a
31:30grand master of
31:31political
31:31manoeuvring,
31:32Prince Albert's
31:33equivalent of
31:34Lord Melbourne.
31:37This was never
31:38intended to be a
31:39love match.
31:40Of course, Albert
31:40was going to
31:41support his wife,
31:42but he wanted to
31:43influence her
31:44politically,
31:45guided himself
31:46by his own
31:47political mentor,
31:48Freiherr Dr. Stockmar
31:49of Coburg.
31:51They wanted to
31:51establish
31:52constitutional
31:52monarchy as
31:53the principal
31:54bullock against
31:55revolution in
31:56Europe.
31:57And the best
31:57way of doing
31:58that was to
31:59marry the
31:59British queen
32:00and have a
32:01large family.
32:03So Albert
32:04took this
32:05marriage on as
32:05a challenge,
32:06and he knew it
32:07would be tough
32:07because that's
32:08what Stockmar
32:09told him when
32:10he was about to
32:11go to England
32:11the second time.
32:12He said,
32:12do you want
32:13to do this?
32:13This is going
32:14to be a hard
32:15life.
32:16You know,
32:16you will have
32:17to help
32:19this woman
32:20in distress.
32:21That's how
32:21he sold
32:22Victoria.
32:24Albert was
32:25a controller
32:25and a cold
32:26fish,
32:27but from
32:27the first
32:28they were
32:29passionately
32:30and physically
32:31in love.
32:34Dearest Albert
32:35took my face
32:35in both his
32:36hands and kissed
32:37me most tenderly
32:38and said,
32:38I love you
32:44so much.
32:46I cannot
32:46say how much.
32:49She was so
32:50besotted by Albert,
32:51by his beauty
32:52and talent,
32:53how he could
32:54play the piano,
32:55dance,
32:56and talk about
32:56her favourite
32:57opera,
32:58that she hardly
32:58realised how much
32:59of her own
33:00freedom and
33:00personality
33:01she was
33:02surrendering
33:03when she asked
33:04him to marry
33:05her.
33:07And marry,
33:08they did.
33:08we both
33:13went to bed,
33:14of course
33:15in one bed,
33:16to lie
33:17by his side
33:18and in his arms
33:19and on his
33:20dear bosom
33:21and be called
33:22names of
33:22tenderness
33:23I have never
33:24yet heard
33:25used to me
33:25before.
33:27This was
33:28the happiest
33:28day of my
33:29life.
33:33There's no doubt
33:34that there was
33:34a strong
33:34sexual attraction.
33:36I think so,
33:36yes,
33:37yes,
33:37definitely.
33:38When one reads
33:38her diaries,
33:39one is
33:39impressed by
33:41her openness.
33:42I mean,
33:42she really
33:43says how
33:44beautiful he was
33:44and how wonderful
33:45it is to be
33:46touched by him
33:47and things like that.
33:48And after they
33:48got married,
33:49she enjoyed him
33:49taking off her
33:51stockings,
33:51putting on her
33:52stockings.
33:52Yes,
33:52having intimacy
33:53for the first time.
33:55So she was
33:55utterly delighted
33:56by him
33:57in a physical way.
33:59That was
34:00lucky.
34:00That was
34:01lucky.
34:01Yes.
34:04The Duchess
34:05of Kent
34:05was not
34:06so lucky.
34:07Victoria
34:08was now
34:09no longer
34:09a child
34:10and felt
34:11able to
34:11flex her
34:12muscles
34:12for all
34:13to see.
34:14She shunned
34:15her mother.
34:17The Duchess
34:17of Kent
34:18was a woman
34:18destroyed.
34:19She couldn't
34:20believe that
34:20Victoria
34:21didn't want
34:21to see her.
34:22Victoria
34:22wanted to
34:23get away
34:24from her
34:24mother
34:24at every
34:25opportunity
34:25and the
34:26whole court
34:26saw this.
34:30Victoria
34:30confided in
34:31her journal
34:32her ongoing
34:33coldness
34:34to her
34:34mother.
34:36It has
34:37been observed
34:38that after
34:38the marriage
34:39I kissed
34:40the Queen
34:40Mother
34:41and only
34:42shook hands
34:42with Mama,
34:43which I
34:44said was
34:45true.
34:46It's
34:47heart-rending
34:48to read
34:48the cry
34:49of the
34:49rejected
34:50mother
34:50seeking
34:51the approval
34:51of the
34:52callous
34:52daughter.
34:54In the
34:54year after
34:54Victoria
34:55married,
34:55her mother
34:56wrote to
34:56her,
34:57Oh,
34:57Victoria,
34:58why are
34:59you so
34:59cold and
35:00indifferent
35:00with your
35:01mother,
35:01who loves
35:02you so
35:03dearly?
35:09But the
35:10Queen had
35:11eyes for
35:11Albert and
35:12Albert alone.
35:14He appeared
35:14to be her
35:15dream come
35:16true.
35:18Victoria
35:18was enraptuous.
35:21Her
35:21mother,
35:21who'd planned
35:22the whole
35:22thing,
35:23was sidelined.
35:24Victoria
35:25took a
35:26lease of
35:26£2,000
35:27a year
35:27on this
35:28house,
35:2836
35:29Belgrave
35:29Square,
35:30and she
35:30dumped
35:31her mother
35:31in it.
35:33It's
35:33handy for
35:33the palace.
35:34I can
35:34see the
35:35trees of
35:35the gardener
35:36Buckingham
35:36Palace from
35:37where I'm
35:37standing,
35:39but the
35:39Duchess of
35:39Kent was
35:40very
35:40definitely
35:41outside the
35:42palace.
35:43Here was
35:43her place,
35:44and her
35:44daughter
35:45had firmly
35:46put her
35:46in it.
35:47place.
35:55What Victoria
35:56wanted now
35:56was solitude,
35:58romance,
35:59and excitement
36:00in company
36:01of her
36:01man and
36:02Superman,
36:04Prince Albert.
36:05They fled to
36:05the most romantic
36:06part of the
36:07British Isles
36:08and furthest
36:08from the
36:09London Court.
36:13Soulful Albert
36:14was already
36:14homesick,
36:15and the
36:16landscape
36:16and even
36:17the people
36:17reminded him
36:18of his
36:18German
36:19homeland.
36:21Victoria,
36:21too,
36:22loved the
36:23Highlanders.
36:24She enjoyed
36:24their lack
36:25of deference,
36:26how they
36:26treated her
36:27as if she
36:28was a
36:28human being.
36:30There was
36:30a quiet,
36:32a retirement,
36:33a wilderness,
36:35a liberty,
36:36and a solitude
36:37that had
36:37such a charm
36:38for us.
36:40You can
36:41hear the
36:42relief in
36:42Victoria's
36:43words.
36:44Her joy,
36:45at being
36:45out of
36:46London
36:46and away
36:47from
36:47state's
36:48duties.
36:48They both
36:49loved the
36:49great outdoors,
36:50Victoria and
36:51Albert.
36:51He liked
36:52going
36:52deerstalking.
36:53She was a
36:54very good
36:54watercolourist
36:55and liked
36:55to take
36:55her sketchbook
36:56out onto
36:56the hills.
37:03Gilly,
37:03Sandy Reid,
37:04knows the
37:05places that
37:06made her
37:06heart sing.
37:08So what
37:08were her
37:08favourite
37:09views when
37:09she was
37:09round here?
37:10Well,
37:10I think
37:11at one
37:11time she
37:11just loved
37:12to go
37:12on her
37:13picnics
37:13and
37:14tulloch
37:14the hill
37:15over on
37:15her right
37:16there.
37:17That was
37:18her favourite
37:18picnic spot.
37:20She would
37:21get on the
37:21pony,
37:22ride-side
37:23saddle,
37:24up the hill
37:24and Albert
37:25would go off
37:26stalking and
37:27she would
37:28just wait.
37:29They would have
37:30a picnic
37:30waiting for him
37:31coming back
37:32again.
37:32Have you
37:33heard whether
37:34Prince Albert
37:34was a good
37:35shot or not?
37:36Well, I don't
37:38think he was
37:38really a good
37:39shot like,
37:40you know,
37:40but he always
37:43seemed to have
37:43what you would
37:44call hard luck.
37:48In the evenings
37:49they would
37:49retire to the
37:50homes of the
37:51Scottish nobility
37:52for whisky
37:53and flings.
37:56I danced
37:57several quadrilles
37:58and valses
37:59finishing up
38:00with a galop
38:01with Albert.
38:02Ah, the
38:04innocence of
38:05young love
38:05that they were
38:06in for an
38:07extraordinary
38:07journey together.
38:09Neither of
38:09them wanted
38:10to surrender
38:11their independence.
38:12Both wanted
38:13power and
38:15more than is
38:16the case in
38:17most marriages
38:17there were to
38:18be some
38:19furious clashes
38:20of wills.
38:25Initially
38:25Albert thought
38:26he'd won
38:26because Victoria
38:27said she'd
38:27obey him
38:28in the
38:28marriage ceremony
38:29but that was
38:30just for show.
38:31Victoria saw
38:31Albert as a
38:32helper.
38:32Nothing better
38:33in her vision
38:34she was writing
38:35letters and Albert
38:36was getting the
38:37blotting paper.
38:38That was his role.
38:39He wanted to be
38:40king.
38:40He wanted to
38:41have power.
38:43Albert wanted
38:43control and all
38:45he had to do
38:46was to let nature
38:47take its course.
38:48Within a month
38:49of the wedding
38:49Victoria was
38:51pregnant.
38:52When she first
38:53fell pregnant
38:53she was pretty
38:54miserable.
38:55She just thought
38:55this has happened
38:56so quickly
38:56and she wrote
38:57to Uncle
38:58Leopold
38:58who was
38:59thrilled
38:59and so
38:59excited
39:00she said
39:00if I have
39:01a nasty
39:02girl
39:02at the end
39:03of all my
39:03trials
39:04I'll drown
39:04it.
39:06Victoria was
39:07conflicted.
39:08She adored
39:08Albert
39:09and he wanted
39:10more children
39:10but with every
39:11pregnancy
39:12she had to
39:13give him
39:13more executive
39:15power
39:15and he hadn't
39:16reckoned on
39:17her fury.
39:18after she gave
39:20birth to the
39:20princess royal
39:21Vicky
39:22she suffered
39:23from terrible
39:23postnatal depression
39:24and there was
39:25a most awful
39:26row with
39:27Prince Albert.
39:29There is often
39:30an irritability
39:31in me
39:31she wrote
39:32which makes
39:33me say
39:33cross and
39:33odious things
39:34which I don't
39:35myself believe
39:36and which I
39:36fear hurt
39:37Albert.
39:38Albert just
39:39couldn't cope
39:40with the
39:40swings of
39:41emotion
39:42and with
39:42the rows
39:43and he wrote
39:44in despair
39:45to old
39:46Dr Stockmar
39:47who is both
39:48a medical
39:48doctor
39:48as well
39:49as his
39:49political
39:49advisor
39:50for advice
39:52Victoria is
39:53too hasty
39:54and passionate
39:54for me
39:55to be able
39:56often to speak
39:56of my
39:57difficulties
39:57she will
39:58not hear
39:58me out
39:59but flies
40:00into a rage
40:01and overwhelms
40:02me with
40:02reproaches
40:03of suspiciousness
40:04wound of
40:04trust
40:05ambition
40:06envy
40:07She was at
40:10once furious
40:11and adoring
40:13she missed
40:14the brief
40:14but golden
40:15period when
40:16Albert was
40:16hers alone
40:17she was jealous
40:19of the children
40:19on whom he
40:20lavished his
40:21attention
40:21She hated
40:24being pregnant
40:25and she hated
40:25she wasn't enjoying
40:27any of the
40:27children
40:28that's really
40:29sad
40:29I mean
40:29in his letters
40:31he kept saying
40:32why do you
40:33always nag them
40:34why can't you
40:34be kind to them
40:35and she
40:36didn't have
40:37many motherly
40:38feelings
40:38because she
40:39was so obsessed
40:40with her
40:40husband
40:40Victoria was in a
40:46very difficult
40:46position
40:47on the one hand
40:48she was the
40:48Queen of England
40:49on the other
40:50she was a young
40:51married woman
40:51who simply
40:52couldn't stop
40:53losing her temper
40:54and sometimes
40:55the rages amounted
40:56to almost
40:56madness
40:57she was married
40:59to a cold-hearted
41:01control freak
41:02who punished her
41:04when she lost her temper
41:05this made her feel
41:07even more inadequate
41:09but how she strove
41:10to improve herself
41:12locked away
41:18in Windsor Castle
41:19are the most
41:20fascinating
41:20of the Queen's
41:21diaries
41:21written later
41:22in her marriage
41:23they were
41:24Victoria's secret
41:25and they demonstrate
41:27how Albert had her
41:28in an emotional
41:29flux
41:30by terms
41:31angry
41:31elated
41:32even
41:33self-flagellating
41:35this volume
41:37is called
41:37Remarks
41:38Conversations
41:39Reflections
41:40and here's
41:42what she writes
41:42on her wedding
41:44anniversary
41:44February the 10th
41:46what cause
41:47have I ever
41:48for gratitude
41:49and yet alas
41:51how often
41:52and even
41:53to my distress
41:54on this holy day
41:56does my foolish
41:57susceptibility
41:58and irritability
42:00cause me
42:01misery for moments
42:02and annoyance
42:04to that most
42:05perfect and unselfish
42:07of human beings
42:07my adored
42:09husband
42:09she confides
42:16all these
42:16pathetic feelings
42:17about how unworthy
42:18she is
42:18and how
42:19she can't
42:20control herself
42:21and
42:21and you get
42:22the feeling
42:23that this woman
42:23has been made
42:24to feel
42:25that she is
42:25sort of inadequate
42:26in this relationship
42:28how much
42:29do you think
42:29Albert
42:29controlled her
42:31I think it was
42:33a controlling
42:34relationship
42:34Victoria endlessly
42:35trying to improve
42:36herself
42:37and to impress
42:38Albert
42:38Albert with her
42:39success in
42:41making herself
42:42a better person
42:43you get the impression
42:44that at the end
42:45of every year
42:45Victoria has a
42:46sort of
42:47moral account system
42:48if you like
42:49she doesn't
42:49you know
42:49we do our
42:50accounts
42:50Victoria did
42:50her moral accounts
42:51Albert was succeeding
42:56where Sir John Conroy
42:57had failed
42:57acquiring executive
42:59power by stealth
43:00his design
43:02was grand
43:03he wanted to change
43:05the course of history
43:06and the children
43:07were his weapons
43:08creating more
43:09and more of them
43:10was part of a
43:10master plan
43:11devised with
43:12Baron Stockmar
43:13for the security
43:14of England
43:15and Europe
43:16Albert knew
43:17that for a ruling
43:18monarch there was
43:19no such thing
43:20as a private life
43:22the birth of each
43:23and every one
43:24of his children
43:24made a political
43:26statement
43:26Europe was moving
43:28in a republican
43:29direction
43:30Albert was determined
43:32to reverse this trend
43:33by making those children
43:35European kings
43:37and queens
43:38Albert didn't want
43:44to be thought of
43:45as the young man
43:46from Coburg
43:47meetly fitting
43:48into the traditions
43:49of the English
43:49royal house
43:50he needed to be seen
43:54as a political force
43:56and he looked
43:57for a powerful
43:58physical manifestation
43:59of his presence
44:00which is why
44:04in 1845
44:05he acquired this estate
44:07Osborne
44:08on the Isle of Wight
44:10overlooking the Solent
44:11in one of the most
44:12idyllic spots
44:13in southern England
44:14it was to be
44:15his project
44:16he designed it
44:17he made it
44:18Osborne was to be
44:19the embodiment
44:20of Prince Albert's
44:21ideals of family life
44:23ideals
44:24which Queen Victoria
44:25herself
44:25enthusiastically
44:27endorsed
44:28it is impossible
44:35it is impossible
44:35to imagine
44:35a prettier spot
44:36we have a charming
44:37beach
44:38quite to ourselves
44:39we can walk
44:40anywhere
44:40without being
44:41followed or mobbed
44:42you might think
44:48you are entering
44:48the palace
44:50of an Italian
44:50renaissance prince
44:52of the kind
44:53that Prince Albert
44:54visited it
44:55when he was a teenager
44:56I don't know where you are
44:59only it's the palace
45:01of a modern
45:02renaissance prince
45:03the architectural design
45:09was Albert's
45:10as was the original
45:11interior decor
45:12every artwork
45:14and sculpture
45:15steeped in
45:16enlightenment ideals
45:17it was originally
45:19minimalist
45:19the later
45:20knick-knackery
45:21and clutter
45:22is all Victoria
45:24when they first
45:25came here
45:25she already had
45:26three small children
45:27so she happily
45:28let him take a lead
45:30in matters aesthetic
45:31but as the family grew
45:32so did his ambition
45:34these desks
45:37in Queen Victoria's
45:39sitting room
45:39are a symbolic
45:40reminder
45:41of how much
45:42she came to depend
45:43upon her husband
45:44one for Albert
45:45one for her
45:47actually it was Albert
45:48who did most
45:49of the day-to-day work
45:50of the head of state
45:51signing documents
45:52reading cabinet papers
45:53and so forth
45:54while Victoria
45:55gave birth
45:57to nine babies
45:58Albert drew
45:59more and more
46:00political power
46:01to himself
46:02for a decade
46:07Victoria saw Albert
46:09through a thick
46:10hormonal fog
46:11sometimes
46:12her resolve
46:13slipped
46:14I am every day
46:16I am every day
46:16more convinced
46:17that we women
46:17if we are to be
46:19good women
46:19feminine
46:20and amiable
46:21and domestic
46:22are not fitted
46:23to reign
46:24the other
46:28great Victorian diarist
46:29Charles Greville
46:30noted that
46:31whilst Victoria
46:32had the title
46:33after a few years
46:34of marriage
46:35Albert was
46:35king to all
46:37intents and purposes
46:38the royal family life
46:40was tellingly
46:41immortalised in oils
46:42by the German artist
46:44Winterhalter
46:45when this picture
46:50was first exhibited
46:51at the royal academy
46:52in 1847
46:53it was very much
46:54criticised
46:55they thought
46:56the queen of England
46:57lacked decorum
46:58she was showing
46:59so much bare flesh
47:00her husband
47:02is extending
47:03a sexy finger
47:04into wifey's
47:05moist little palm
47:06but what I think
47:08is so interesting
47:09about this picture
47:09is that although
47:10Queen Victoria
47:11is wearing her coronet
47:12it is Albert
47:14who is centre stage
47:16it's a picture
47:22of familial contentment
47:24but also
47:25of Albert's success
47:27by now he'd achieved
47:29what he left
47:29Germany to do
47:31perhaps his greatest success
47:36was Princess Vicky
47:38whatever happened
47:39to Albert in the future
47:40she would carry on
47:42his work
47:42perhaps even
47:44control her mother
47:45the Princess Royal
47:54was every inch
47:55Prince Albert's daughter
47:57there was a tremendous
47:58kinship
47:59between Vicky
48:00and Albert
48:01and obviously
48:02the queen felt
48:02a little bit envious
48:03of this
48:04but there was pride too
48:06the family had visited
48:08Bloorcastle back in 1844
48:10when they first set eyes
48:11on an estate
48:13up in the north
48:14at Balmoral
48:14her mother wrote
48:16of her happiness
48:16at the toddler's maturity
48:18Albert walked up
48:20the steps with me
48:21I holding his arm
48:22and Vicky his hand
48:23amid the loud cheers
48:25at the people
48:26all the way
48:26to the carriage
48:27our dear Vicky
48:28behaving like a grown-up person
48:30not put out
48:31nor frightened
48:31nor nervous
48:32eleven years later
48:39now aged fourteen
48:40Vicky was back here
48:41with the family
48:43in the landscape
48:44of the highlands
48:45that so reminded
48:46her father
48:46the Prince Consort
48:47of the dear
48:48German Heimat
48:49Victoria and Albert
48:58had long planned
48:59to marry each of their children off
49:00to different European royal houses
49:03in a series of political alliances
49:05and this
49:06the first such political scheme
49:08was much the most significant
49:10the Queen had vilified
49:15her manipulating mother
49:16but the master plan
49:18she and Albert had for Vicky's
49:19was every bit as Machiavellian
49:21she and Friedrich Wilhelm
49:23crown prince of Prussia
49:25known as Fritz
49:25were mere pawns
49:27in a place
49:28in a place
49:29in a place
49:29in a place
49:30in a place
49:30Victoria put the would-be lovers
49:32in the most romantic of settings
49:34a place she and Albert
49:36loved
49:37the Queen
49:40knew the effect
49:41these surroundings
49:42could have
49:43on sensitive youth
49:44the possibilities
49:45had her all a flutter
49:46Fritz looks very well
49:53altogether looking more manly
49:55and his moustache
49:56becomes him
49:57the visit
49:58makes my heart
49:59beat as it may
50:00and probably
50:02will decide the fate
50:03of our dear
50:04eldest child
50:05he was 23
50:09she was 14
50:11little more than a child
50:13in her sprig white
50:14muslin dress
50:15trimmed with red ribbons
50:17but it was the start
50:19of a romance
50:20they walked
50:22on the slopes
50:23of Craig Nabahn
50:24he picked her
50:25a sprig of white heather
50:27and there
50:28they had their first kiss
50:30the plan had worked
50:34Vicky loved Fritz
50:37and that night
50:38ran into her mother's room
50:39to tell her
50:40having engineered
50:42the whole thing
50:42Victoria
50:43conflicted as ever
50:44now tried to take control
50:46insisting Vicky
50:48delay marriage
50:48until she was 17
50:50Queen Victoria
50:52felt the classic envy
50:53that mothers
50:53so often feel for daughters
50:55when they emerge
50:56from childhood
50:57into womanhood
50:57especially if the daughters
50:59have been very close
51:00to the father
51:00she complained
51:02of Vicky's
51:04waywardness of temper
51:05sharp answers
51:06and lack of self-control
51:07a pretty ripe case
51:09you might imagine
51:10of the pot
51:10calling the kettle black
51:12and as the wedding day
51:13approached
51:14Queen Victoria
51:15felt all the usual
51:16cluster of emotions
51:17she will no longer
51:21be an innocent girl
51:23but a wife
51:24and perhaps
51:25this time next year
51:27already a mother
51:28they were married
51:34in January 1858
51:35then the newlyweds
51:37left for Prussia
51:38thus began
51:39one of the most
51:40remarkable correspondences
51:42in history
51:42in which a monarch
51:44of one country
51:44tried to control
51:46the behaviour
51:46of a crown princess
51:48of another
51:49by post
51:50Queen Victoria
51:52does write
51:53lots of
51:53admonishing letters
51:54you know
51:55she doesn't want
51:56to let go
51:57it's very funny
51:59in some ways
52:00that Victoria
52:01thought she could
52:02still control
52:02the way she
52:03behaved at court
52:04whether she was
52:05sitting down
52:05and standing up
52:06I mean even
52:07the tiniest details
52:08it's ridiculous
52:09yeah
52:09to the point
52:09where the German
52:11authorities actually
52:12wrote back to
52:12London saying
52:13can the Queen
52:14please stop
52:15bombarding
52:16the crown princess
52:17with all these
52:18terrible letters
52:18when Vicky wrote
52:20that Fritz was to
52:21be a father
52:22things came to a head
52:23most mothers
52:25at least pretend
52:26to be pleased
52:27at the prospect
52:28of becoming
52:28a grandmother
52:29but when Vicky
52:30became pregnant
52:31this was not
52:32the case
52:33having her nine
52:35children
52:35have placed
52:36great psychological
52:37strain
52:37both on Queen
52:38Victoria herself
52:39and on her
52:41marriage
52:41so in her letters
52:42to Vicky
52:43we find that
52:44she does not
52:44hold back
52:45what you say
52:49of the pride
52:49of giving life
52:50to an immortal soul
52:51is very fine dear
52:53but I cannot
52:54enter into that
52:54I think much more
52:55of our being
52:56like a cow
52:57or a dog
52:57at such moments
52:58when our poor
52:59nature becomes
53:00so very animal
53:01and unextatic
53:03but for you dear
53:04if you're sensible
53:05and reasonable
53:05not in ecstasy
53:07nor spending your day
53:07with nurses
53:08and wet nurses
53:09which is the ruin
53:10of many a refined
53:11and intellectual
53:12young lady
53:12the Queen
53:14the Queen was half
53:15of the most famous
53:16couple of the age
53:17in her letters
53:18to Vicky
53:19she reveals
53:19her ambivalence
53:20about marriage
53:21tells truths
53:23that Princess Beatrice
53:24would surely
53:25have redacted
53:26had she got her
53:26hands on them
53:27but she didn't
53:29they stayed behind
53:31in Germany
53:32and they are
53:33the business
53:33because with these
53:34letters
53:35you see her
53:36unmasked
53:36they're a stream
53:38of consciousness
53:38pouring out of her
53:39two or three times
53:40a week
53:40to her daughter
53:41in Germany
53:41about everything
53:42under the sun
53:43about the
53:44unsatisfactoriness
53:45of men
53:45and of marriage
53:46all marriage
53:49is such a lottery
53:51the happiness
53:52is always an exchange
53:53though it may be
53:54a very happy one
53:55still the poor woman
53:56is bodily
53:57and morally
53:57the husband's slave
53:59that always sticks
54:00in my throat
54:01she must have found
54:04writing in this way
54:05so very cathartic
54:07the Queen's relationships
54:10with all her children
54:12the jealousies
54:13the criticism
54:14show how pivotally
54:16she was affected
54:16by the tensions
54:17and pressures
54:18of her first
54:19formative years
54:20with her own mother
54:21she'd never addressed
54:23that relationship
54:24and in 1861
54:25she ran out of time
54:27ever since Victoria
54:28married and had babies
54:30her own mother
54:30had been an exemplary
54:31grandmother
54:32not a child's birthday
54:34got forgotten
54:35not an anniversary overlooked
54:37but since Conroy
54:39had been totally banished
54:40at the beginning
54:41of the reign
54:41the poor Duchess of Kent
54:43lived in everlasting dread
54:45that she herself
54:46would one day be spurned
54:48Victoria had convinced herself
54:54that it was her mother's
54:56heavy-handed parenting
54:57that had sundered
54:59the bond between them
55:00but she was devastated
55:02when she learned
55:03that her mother
55:04was dying of cancer
55:05I think it came
55:07like a thunderbolt
55:08upon us
55:08and I think I never
55:10suffered
55:10as I did
55:11during those four
55:12dreadful hours
55:13till we heard
55:14she was better
55:14I hardly knew myself
55:16how I loved her
55:17or how my whole
55:19existence seemed
55:20bound up with her
55:21for decades
55:25they'd barely spoken
55:26Victoria had written
55:28the story
55:29of her terrible parenting
55:30and now
55:31she was rewriting it all
55:33in despair
55:34I can't bear to think
55:36of all you have to go through
55:38if only I could be near you
55:40and see you very often
55:42and long to beguile away
55:44the dull hours
55:45when you can't amuse yourself
55:46but it was too little
55:50too late
55:51the duchess didn't live
55:54to see Easter
55:55Victoria threw herself
55:57on Albert
55:58little knowing
55:59that this terrible year
56:00would be their last
56:02together
56:02Albert himself
56:06was a sick man
56:07they now seem to think
56:08he had Crohn's disease
56:10or possibly abdominal cancer
56:12or possibly both
56:13and he died
56:14that same year
56:161861 in December
56:18Victoria was just
56:2042 years old
56:21she'd spent her life
56:23struggling against
56:24an oppressive childhood
56:25and against the tedium
56:26of motherhood
56:27but however difficult
56:29her marriage had been
56:30she had now grown
56:31totally dependent
56:32upon Albert
56:34writing to her uncle
56:40Leopold
56:41she cried out
56:42Victoria was often
56:52on the brink
56:53of instability
56:54now grief
56:55precipitated
56:56a mental crisis
56:57that had some
56:58advisors wondering
56:59if she'd inherited
57:01the famous
57:01Hanoverian madness
57:02it must be said
57:04that mourning
57:05became her
57:06drama queen
57:07that she was
57:081861 was her
57:12Annus Horribilis
57:14her darkest hour
57:15she ended it
57:17as an orphan
57:18and a widow
57:19and it would be
57:21the making of her
57:23the widow of Windsor
57:27as she would come
57:29to be known
57:29was no longer
57:31in the shadow
57:31of her brilliant
57:32puritanical angel
57:34Albert
57:35so there will be
57:37another story
57:38to be told
57:39and it's a story
57:40of liberation
57:41from her
57:41in which Victoria
57:43found herself
57:44alone
57:45able along the journey
57:47to make some
57:47most unlikely
57:48friendships
57:49as she became
57:51her own woman
57:52next time
57:54his life was over
57:56but her life
57:57wasn't over
57:57in widow's weeds
57:59Victoria is
58:00anything but
58:01retiring
58:02her writings
58:04reveal a queen
58:05quite different
58:06to the icon
58:07we thought we knew
58:08freed from Albert
58:09she becomes
58:10a politician
58:11a diplomat
58:12and perhaps
58:13a lover
58:14woman
58:15what are you doing
58:17the most powerful
58:18monarch on earth
58:19is a woman
58:20unchained
58:21is there a feeling
58:21Dr. Reed
58:22knew the nature
58:23of the relationship
58:24yes
58:24and on the verge
58:26of a nervous breakdown
58:51of the relationship
58:54in stent
58:55yeah
58:55but
58:55it's still
58:56over
58:57that Jesús
58:58has a homem
58:58he's a lesbian
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