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They pass along the sandy track of the Mall, past Buckingham Palace and into the fields of Hyde Park. The rider hears the chime of a church clock and digs his heels into the horse, urging it to go faster. It's already 11:15 and he's late. Squinting in the morning sun, he tears past carriages and families out for their morning strolls, not even pausing to tip his hat. Finally, he sees his destination looming in the distance: Kensington Palace. The man slows his horse to a stop at the gates.
He swings himself down from the saddle and hands the reins to a servant. Inside, a series of corridors lead him to a grand set of doors. An attendant opens them and he enters a room filled with smartly dressed men, all looking as austere as the occasion requires. Rays of sunshine pour through the windows, glittering on the polished floor and illuminating the oil paintings and priceless antiques. Towards the back of the room is a long table, headed by a red and gold throne.
While the royal seat itself is empty, every other chair is taken. The men, like the latecomer, are clad entirely in black, a sign of mourning for their king. William IV was pronounced dead just hours ago, and it's time to meet his successor. With all the seats at the table occupied, the man takes his place at the back of the room. He glances around at the distinguished attendees already here. It's like a roll call for the most important gentlemen from the British Isles and beyond.
There's the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne at the front, next to the Duke of Sussex and the portly King of Hanover. Across from them sits the renowned Duke of Wellington. But before he can get any further with identifying the guests, the doors to the red saloon room swing open and a hush descends. Ninety pairs of eyes fix on the figure who has just walked in. She's a young woman, eighteen years old, though she looks years younger.
Her chestnut-brown hair is tied neatly on top of her head, and her long gray gown accentuates her petite figure. At barely five feet tall, as she walks along the wooden floorboards, her tiny feet hardly make a sound. Under the scrutiny of her eminent guests, the young woman marches to the table and sits down on the golden throne. Though he wouldn't dare laugh, the man notices with concealed amusement that her feet don't even touch the ground.
But all humor vanishes when the woman clears her throat and speaks. She addresses the men in a voice that is so controlled, so powerful, that despite her tender age and tiny stature, there's no mistaking her suitability for the role she has been ascribed. Her name until the early hours of the morning was Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent. But with the death of her uncle William just five hours ago, she now has a different role to play.
This diminutive teenager has become Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Victorian Age has begun. Queen Victoria was Britain's longest reigning monarch until Elizabeth II, her great-great-granddaughter, surpassed her. Over 63 years, Victoria oversaw Britain's expansion into an industrial powerhouse. Her era was one of innovation and empire, but it was also a time of huge social disparity.
While the wealthy prospered, many of her subjects languished in poverty. And despite having a female head of state, the women of her nation had precious few rights. As Britain transformed, so did Victoria herself. During her reign, she matured from a naive queen into a sovereign known as the widow of Windsor and later the grandmother of Europe. But behind the palace doors, what was life like for this young woman who held such power in a man's world?
Can she be credited with the developments of her age, or was she merely a figurehead? And with modern politics eschewing empire in favor of independence, how should she be remembered? I'm John Hopkins from Noisa. This is a short history of Queen Victoria. In 1818, the British royal family is in a bad way. Acting as king on behalf of his mentally ill father, the Prince Regent George IV is greedy and profligate.
He's dragging the institution of the monarchy through the mud with his various financial and romantic scandals. Worse still, neither he nor his equally unpopular brothers have any legitimate heirs. The prince regent's only daughter died in childbirth just one year ago, and her baby was stillborn. With these two generations of future monarchs wiped out in one blow, the line of succession is at risk.
The race is on between George and his brothers to produce an heir. On May 24, 1819, the baby race is won by the Prince Regent's younger brother Edward, Duke of Kent. His German wife, Marie-Louise Victoire, gives birth to Alexandrina Victoria in the dining room of Kensington Palace. With her grandfather still king, she is technically fifth in line to the throne. But within two decades, she'll be the most powerful woman in the world.
As a baby, Alexandrina Victoria is spoiled by her parents. They're charmed by her plump cheeks and bright blue eyes. She's paraded around in her pram for family members to admire, and everyone wonders what type of monarch she'll make, if such a day arrives. In 1820, tragedy strikes her happy family when the Duke of Kent dies from pneumonia while holidaying in the West Country.
He leaves behind enormous debts and a wife who struggles to speak English, and an infant daughter who, by the time she's eleven, will be heir to the throne. Terrified at the pressures of raising her daughter alone, the Duchess retreats to Kensington House and enlists the help of a man called Sir John Conroy. Tracey Borman is a historian, author, and joint curator for Historic Royal Palaces.
Sir John Conroy was an interesting character and a huge influence over Victoria's early life. So he'd been hanging around her family for some time. He was her late father's equerry. And then he sort of transferred to the service of Victoria's mother. And the two became very close. Obviously, as there always were in these situations, there were rumours about just how close Victoria's mother and Sir John Conroy actually were. But he
But he was a very dominant figure. He clearly liked to rule the roost. He really heavily influenced Victoria's mother and therefore Victoria herself. And she speaks of him as a devil incarnate and monster. Conroy implements a strict regime for the young princess known as the Kensington System.
Forbidden from spending time alone or even from walking downstairs without holding an adult's hand, Victoria is now forced to share a bedroom with her mother and isn't allowed out without her governess. She has to record her behavior in a book at the end of every day and submit her diaries for her mother and Conroy's inspection. She's also prohibited from dancing and meeting strangers and is allowed only bland foods.
The Kensington system was really the brainchild of Conroy. And he introduced it when it became obvious that Victoria was going to be queen one day as she moved closer to the throne. And really, it was all about control. So he wanted to sort of mould her into a future queen. But also a lot of the Kensington system was just about keeping her safe because she was pretty much the only contender for the throne. So an awful lot rested on this young woman's shoulders.
As the years go by, the princess grows increasingly frustrated in her gilded cage. Without any friends, she relies on the company of her governess and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash. But this lonely, regimented childhood comes to a sudden end three weeks after her 18th birthday on June 20, 1837. At 6:00 a.m., the princess is awoken by her mother and told that her uncle, King William IV, is dead. She is now the queen. And she doesn't miss a beat.
That same morning, she holds an audience with Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, meets the 97 members of her Privy Council, and changes her name from Alexandrina to Victoria. But to Conroy and her mother's disappointment, she rejects their help. Writing in her diary for the first time as Queen, she promises to do her utmost to fulfill her role. Just weeks after her succession, Victoria moved the royal household away from her unhappy home of Kensington to Buckingham Palace.
With its grand marble entrance and never-ending maze of 785 rooms, it feels far more like a monarch's home than the walled gardens of Kensington ever did. Victoria banishes her mother and Conroy to a distant suite of apartments in the palace, and only communicates with them through letters. But that isn't to say she's completely isolated. Her own apartments connect to those of her governess via an adjoining door, and the two will remain close well into Victoria's reign.
After just over a year as queen, her official coronation takes place at Westminster Abbey. Over 400,000 spectators line the streets of London to watch their young sovereign ride past in her golden carriage. After the unpopular reigns of her uncles, it's encouraging to feel such enthusiastic support. But Victoria is about to discover just how fragile a royal reputation can be.
In January 1839, scandal grips Buckingham Palace when 32-year-old Flora Hastings, one of Victoria's mother's ladies-in-waiting, is suspected to be pregnant. Not such a scandal on its own, except Flora is unmarried, and it just so happens that she is a close friend of Sir John Conroy and was seen taking a carriage ride alone with him. Perhaps Conroy is the baby's father.
Having never forgiven Conroy for poisoning her childhood, this possibility is too tempting for Victoria to ignore. If the rumor is true, Conroy would face banishment from the palace and personal ruin. Swayed by an emotional desire for revenge, Victoria disregards Flora's vows of chastity and orders her to undergo a brutal and invasive medical examination. Afterwards, doctors report to Victoria that it doesn't look as though Flora is pregnant, but add that they can't be certain.
After months of scathing gossip and social humiliation, instigated primarily by Victoria's meddling, Flora Hastings dies. The post-mortem reveals she's been suffering from cancer of the liver. News of the Queen's misjudgment spills out of the palace and into the newsrooms of London, where it's greeted with fury. The Hastings family blame the Queen for failing to provide the medical treatment she needed and subjecting her instead to a degrading inspection.
Just months ago, Victoria's youth was praised as refreshing, but now she's denounced as vindictive and childish. With her reputation now hanging by a thread, some take the opportunity to critique Victoria further. Members of the opposition party, the Tories, draw attention to her own relationship with her 58-year-old prime minister, Lord Melbourne.
Victoria's relationship with Lord Melbourne, Lord M, as she called him, her first prime minister, has been the subject of much discussion and debate because it was extraordinarily close. There have been rumours of a romantic attachment.
But actually, it was more of a father-daughter relationship. And I think you find this with Victoria throughout her life. She's looking for the father she lost when she was just a few months old. That's why she wants Lord Melbourne to fill that role. But it's not only their intimacy that rings alarm bells. Politically, too, their relationship is problematic.
She was a bit unconstitutional in her relationship with Lord Melbourne because she did not want him to lose power. And then when he was ousted from government, she still consulted him. Now that was in direct breach of the constitution and really sparked a lot of controversy. A monarch by now was supposed to be strictly impartial, but Victoria was very far from that when it came to Lord M.
With criticisms flying at her left, right and center, Victoria knows there's only one thing she can do to save her declining image. Something that will silence the speculation about her private life once and for all. The queen needs to marry. Fortunately, her family has just the man in mind. Her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in what is now Germany. Three months her junior, and from a distinguished European monarchy, Albert is the perfect match.
Though they'd met before, it's not until 1839 that the 19-year-old queen is actively looking for a husband and notices traits she'd missed before. She's drawn in by Albert's serious, brooding demeanor, and he's not bad-looking either. The good news is, these feelings are reciprocated. On October 15, Victoria asks for Albert's hand in marriage, according to royal protocol that applies regardless of gender.
If Albert's masculinity is hurt at being proposed to by a woman, he doesn't let it show and hastily accepts. As soon as news of their engagement breaks, royal fever spreads through the nation and wedding preparations get underway. It's late in the morning of February 10, 1840. Twenty-year-old Victoria sits next to her mother in a golden carriage as it rattles along the Mall. She can hear the wind and rain hammering against the roof as the horses splash through puddles.
But even louder than the sound of the gathering storm is the crowd outside. Despite the miserable weather, the air rings with cheers and applause. Now and again, enthusiastic choruses of the national anthem are lifted by the wind. Victoria peers out of the small carriage window, wiping away the condensation with her hand. Everywhere she looks, she sees more and more spectators. Endless crowds line the route, carpeting the pavements and beyond in a sea of soggy red, white,
Shortly after midday, the carriage slows to a stop outside of St. James's Palace. A liveried footman lends an arm as she delicately climbs out, careful not to dirty her dress with puddles. She smiles to herself as she hears the crowd's collective intake of breath the moment they catch sight of her white dress. In choosing to wear this pale color, she's straying far from tradition, as up until now, brides have worn brightly colored gowns.
But Victoria is keen to carve out her own reputation. As attendants gather to make the final touches, the breeze flutters the orange blossom headdress that sits on her hair in place of a crown. A simple set of diamond earrings and a necklace sparkle in the light. Her jewelry is modest, yet beautiful. Victoria has allowed herself some extravagance, though. Trailing behind her is an 18-foot train made of intricate white lace.
Now, with the twelve bearers in place, ready to carry it, Victoria makes her way to the entrance. As she approaches, she can hear the trumpets playing a fanfare inside, and the murmurings of the three hundred strong congregation. Finding her favorite uncle, the Duke of Sussex, waiting outside the chapel, Victoria takes his arm and inhales deeply. The second the trumpets cease, the huge mahogany doors creak open, and an organ begins to play.
Queen Victoria walks solemnly down the aisle, past Lord Melbourne, her relatives and ladies-in-waiting, as well as various aristocrats from all over Europe. Finally, she reaches the altar, where Prince Albert awaits, looking dashing in his crimson jacket and white breeches. In this moment, standing before the tall, handsome figure of her soon-to-be husband, Victoria is not the Queen of England, but a young woman about to marry the love of her life.
At the wedding reception that afternoon, guests are served slices of the enormous cake, measuring ten feet in circumference and made up of three intricate tiers. Meanwhile, Victoria breathes a sigh of relief. She's passed this royal test with flying colors.
She appreciated that she had a job to do in restoring the monarchy in the hearts of her people because she came to the throne after a string of pretty disastrous kings, really, the wicked uncles. So Victoria kind of tried to reverse all of that. And she appreciated that people wanted to see their queen. And that's why she chose white, because she knew that crowds were going to turn out to watch her wedding. And so she chose the most visible color possible.
And this was Victoria's cleverness, really, because she did a number of other things that were unconventional for the time, but since have become tradition. And you find this, you know, so many so-called ancient royal traditions start with Victoria. Shortly after returning to Buckingham Palace following her brief honeymoon, Victoria discovers that she's pregnant. Victoria is horrified by the unexpected news, as she knows all too well how dangerous pregnancy can be.
After all, the only reason she's on the throne is because her cousin died in childbirth. Though she appreciates the need to provide heirs, she had hoped for at least a little time alone with her husband first. And while many royal mothers-to-be might spend their first pregnancies in eager anticipation, making plans for the nursery and deciding on names, Victoria has a much more serious concern. One June evening, while out for a carriage ride with Albert, she is shot at by an 18-year-old bartender, Edward Oxford.
He misses the first time, but tries again with a second pistol. Oxford is immediately apprehended and judged to be insane. While he spends 27 years in a criminal asylum, Victoria is unharmed and will go on to survive another six assassination attempts throughout her lifetime.
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In November of 1840, 21-year-old Victoria gives birth to a baby girl whom she names after herself. Just a year later, her son and future heir, Albert, joins the family, the second of what will be nine children.
As a mother, Victoria was, I think in a way, quite distant, quite strict. She was pregnant a lot, but she hated being pregnant. And she didn't actually like children very much either. So she was fulfilling her duty as queen, you know, filling that royal nursery with heirs and spares.
And I think for her, Albert came way, way, way before the children in terms of importance to her and in terms of the affection that she showered on him. Though Victoria, Albert and their brood are revered as the perfect British family, motherhood isn't plain sailing for Victoria. Postpartum depression becomes a regular occurrence. And with her grandfather's history of mental illness, staff at Buckingham Palace worry for the young queen's health.
But many babies take their toll physically, too. Much later, after her death, it's discovered that she suffered from a hernia and a prolapsed uterus. Although the root of these conditions is uncertain, they're likely to have been caused by births and many years of pregnancy, and would have left her in significant pain. But Victoria rarely complains. Acutely aware of her role as monarch, mother, and wife, she understands the power of public perception.
Victoria and Albert really prompted a shift in the monarchy. And it was a very important one because until Victoria's reign, the focus had very much been on just the sovereign. They made it much more about the royal family. So they liked to present themselves as this model for the rest of society to emulate. They were a devoted, faithful couple. They had many children. They were very morally upright.
And so the monarch then kind of became the moral head of the nation. And this was what all Victorians should aspire to, this very loving domestic setup, really, that Victoria and Albert epitomized. Despite sitting on the most powerful throne in the world, at home, Victoria answers to her husband, as is typical of 19th century marriages.
As Prince, Albert is very much junior in rank to his wife. In her marriage vows, however, she promised to obey him. She may be the Queen of England, but Albert is the king of their marriage. Whenever the couple argue, Albert writes letters to his wife detailing everything he believes she did wrong and waits for her to apologize to him.
He issues her with a behavior book, which she's ordered to fill in after every disagreement. And if he is satisfied with her entries, he hands her a certificate of improvement. Victoria must call him master, while he conversely addresses her as my child.
This was an age where husbands absolutely sort of set down the law for their marriage, set down the rules. And this was shown really clearly in a census return that was taken in Victoria's early marriage. And the census was at Buckingham Palace. I love the fact Victoria's occupation is queen. Albert, though, is listed as head of the household. So there's no sense that even though she is queen and Albert is merely her consort,
that they've sort of reversed the natural order of things. Victoria, in her marriage, wanted to be utterly conventional. With each pregnancy and birth, Albert's influence grows. By 1850, after a decade of marriage, he has full access to state papers. He regularly attends audiences with the Queen's ministers, cuts the family spending, and reduces Victoria's personal allowance.
He uses the money they save to build Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, an estate which will become a personal favorite of the Queen. Victoria seems to accept her somewhat contradictory place beneath her husband, telling her uncle in a letter, "We women are not made for governing." As the Queen enters her thirties, her kingdom flourishes around her. The age of steam hurtles on, and the railways rapidly replace carts and carriages.
Where horse-drawn stagecoaches dominated at the start of the century, people and goods are now whisked across the country over six times faster. Conservative by nature, Queen Victoria is less than enthusiastic about many of the changes taking place. But there are certain developments that she embraces. In 1842, she becomes the first monarch to ride a train, when she makes a private rail journey from Windsor to Paddington Station.
While she enjoys the ride, Albert is concerned by the high speed. So Victoria limits trains to 40 miles per hour during the day and 30 miles per hour at night. And it's not only the railway that Victoria enjoys. She and Albert are fanatics of a new technology that's taken the world by storm: photography. The royal couple obsessively take and collect family photographs and even reenact their wedding portrait from a decade earlier, especially for the camera.
But there is a darker side to this age of progress. As the Industrial Revolution sweeps across Britain, coal and steam-powered machines are welcomed into the workforce, while human labourers are shown the back door. Slums spring up in cities blanketed by smog, where barefooted children beg for food, carrying their malnourished infant siblings while their parents try to scrape a living. For those who manage to find work in factories, conditions are inhumane.
Men, women and children as young as nine slave away for 14 hours a day, six days a week. They take home mere pennies, all the while breathing in toxic fumes. The plight of the poor doesn't go entirely unnoticed, though. Writers such as Charles Dickens shine the spotlight on these pressing issues. And Prince Albert himself is an energetic social campaigner.
Shocked by the overcrowded dwellings of the poor, he commissions alternative buildings to make better use of limited space and provide some comforts. Albert also successfully campaigns for improved education for children, as well as fairer working conditions. In 1846, he publicly supports the repeal of the hated corn laws, which keep the cost of grain artificially high in order to benefit wealthy landowners.
For her part, Victoria arranges for food parcels to be distributed among the so-called "deserving poor". But with so many exciting technological developments at every turn, it's easy for the middle and upper classes to turn a blind eye to society's problems and instead celebrate its successes. It's a warm, sticky morning in May 1851. A young woman walks briskly through London's Hyde Park, gripping the hands of her two children. She marches down the sandy tracks to where a crowd is swelling.
Thousands of people chatter excitedly as bands blast out patriotic tunes and souvenir merchants tout their wares. The woman's children pull her forward towards what's rumored to be the event of the century, the great exhibition of the works of industry and all nations. The sun emerges from behind a cloud, and suddenly the woman is dazzled as it hits the building in front of them. It's enormous, three stories high and made entirely of glass.
All around it, colorful flags snap proudly in the breeze. Propelled by impatient tugs on both hands, the woman laughs and walks towards the exhibition's entrance, where she hands three tickets over. And as the family pass through the huge double doors, they enter a different world. A dazzling pink fountain sparkles at the center of the enormous room, a golden statue glistening in the water's reflection.
Behind it, a great tree grows from the ground to the glass ceiling. Along one wall, a crowd surges around an enormous steam-powered instrument. Finding her way to the front, the mother sees that it is hovering above a tiny white egg. Now a hammer swings down and delicately cracks the shell.
There is a peal of laughter and applause as the demonstrator explains this enormous mallet can crack eggs just as easily as it can build ships. Smiling, the woman walks on, past a display of adding machines, predicted to put bank clerks out of work. Printing contraptions rumble loudly as they churn out pages of paper. The astonishing exhibition goes on and on. As she mounts the stairs, the visitor is bathed in multicolored light,
the entire upper level is framed by stained glass windows. To the twinkling tunes of a magnificent piano, her children waltz ahead through displays showcasing the many cultures of the world. She runs her hand over tapestries, silks, and thick furs from the furthest reaches of the Empire, and admires hand-crafted furniture inlaid with ivory and gems.
There's even an enormous Greek statue of a man made entirely of white marble, wearing nothing but a small chain. But it's when she emerges into the final room that her heart stops. Surrounded by guards, a spectacular gemstone shines in its glass cabinet. It's the famous Indian jewel, the Koh-i-Noor diamond. A sign nearby tells her it once adorned the Mughal emperor's throne, before passing between Afghan and Sikh leaders and eventually finding its way here.
At 105.6 carats, it's one of the largest diamonds in the world. As she heads downstairs, back to the pink fountain, she is lost in a daydream of wonder. As her children talk incessantly about what they've seen, it's as if they've just walked through every single country. The great exhibition draws six million visitors over five months throughout the summer of 1851.
The brainchild of Prince Albert, it's created alongside architects and engineers to showcase the achievements of the Industrial Revolution. Albert curates 10,000 exhibits from all over the world, from Canada to India. But he makes sure to give Britain the star role, leaving no doubt as to which country is leading the way. To each and every visitor, from low-paid laborers to celebrities such as Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Charles Darwin, and Queen Victoria herself,
the Great Exhibition is unforgettable. Ticket sales generate a staggering £186,000, more than £32 million today, which is then invested in building the South Kensington Museums that cement Albert's legacy forever. As the 1850s pass, the social landscape is changing. There are growing demands that all men, not just wealthy landowners, should have a say in who represents them in Parliament.
Although it won't be until 1918 that this wish is granted, the 1860s sees all property-owning men over the age of 21 given the right to vote. Personally, Victoria accepts this extension of democracy, but she draws the line at women's suffrage. Despite her position as a female head of state, she refers to the idea of votes for women as "a mad and wicked folly."
Overseas, Britain flexes its military muscles by taking territories in Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa, and Hong Kong. Victory over the Russians in the Crimean War further reinforces British military dominance. To Victoria, her subjects, and the rest of the world, Britain is unstoppable.
The Victorian period was undoubtedly the most self-confident period in royal and indeed British history. And this was the age of empire when Britain boasted an empire on which the sun never set. It was so vast.
Now, there were a number of drivers for that imperialism, but I think that at the heart of it was this strident belief that Britons were almost like the master race, the superior race, that they had a right
to colonize other countries, bring them under their wing, introduce them to a sort of civilizing influence, which sounds absolutely abhorrent today. But it was a genuine belief at the time that the British race was superior. However, while Britain and its empire are seemingly invincible, two members of the royal household are not. In March 1861, Victoria's 74-year-old mother passes away.
Although her death shocks and saddens the Queen, it's a mere hiccup compared to what comes next. Just before the following Christmas, her beloved Prince Albert suddenly dies. Aged just 42, he had been suffering from a mysterious illness for weeks. Though doctors don't really know what finishes him off. At the time, they speculate tuberculosis or pneumonia, but modern medics suggest it may have been stomach cancer. Albert's premature death devastates Victoria.
Seconds after doctors confirm his passing, she tears from his bedside to the nursery, where her four-year-old daughter Beatrice is fast asleep. Waking her up, she cradles the little girl and sobs into her arms. Palace staff watch in despair as Victoria is paralyzed by grief. She has to be undressed by her maids and carried to bed. Three weeks after Albert's death, Victoria attends a meeting with her privy council, but is so distraught that she's unable to utter a single word.
Before the funeral, she hires an artist to make a plaster mold of Albert's lifeless hand and has it placed beside her bed. On her instructions, his medicines stay where they are in the bathroom cabinets, his clothes are laid out every morning, and servants must continue to fill his bathtub with hot water.
On Albert's death, Victoria's grief spiraled to irreversible depths. And she just could not bear to let him go. She could not come to terms with the fact that he had left her, albeit not voluntarily. At first, the British public grieve alongside their queen. They too feel the loss of Albert, who had been such a prominent figure for over 20 years. But a fast-paced decade follows, and the British public moves on.
The 1860s sees the erection of the revolutionary Clifton Suspension Bridge and the opening of the Sewers Canal, as well as many major educational reforms. But even in 1870, Victoria is still in deep mourning, and public patience is wearing thin. In the eyes of her subjects, the Queen is not behaving as a head of state should.
She never recovered. And she reacted by giving up her public royal duties. Now, it is important to make the distinction that she didn't stop being queen. She still carried out her private constitutional duties. But she retired from public life. She could not bear to be seen by her people. And she made mourning an art form. The court was draped in black. The queen forever wore black.
members of the public start calling her "the widow of Windsor". One disgruntled subject even pins a notice to the gates of Buckingham Palace, which reads: "Available to let due to declining business". Although Victoria isn't ready to come back into the spotlight just yet, the years following Albert's death aren't entirely devoid of happiness. Throughout the 1860s and 70s, Victoria finds some pleasure in the friendship of a Scottish servant.
John Brown is a stern, strict man who says exactly what he thinks. He refuses to bend to Victoria's will and is known to stand up to her when he believes she's in the wrong. It's something that makes him unpopular with the rest of the royal family, who consider him a disrespectful commoner. But Victoria adores him. Perhaps she finds his unapologetic manner refreshing or even charming. Maybe she simply values his opinion.
Whatever the reason, the pair grow extremely close, and Brown becomes Victoria's most trusted friend and advisor. Predictably, rumors of a blossoming romance run rife, and though there may be truth to this, Victoria never admits it. And yet, Brown isn't the only man in her later life. In 1874, Britain's new Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, makes it his mission to coax the stubborn Queen back into the public sphere.
Employing a heavy dose of flattery for his venerated queen, he assures her that despite Parliament's growing influence, true power still lies in her hands and her hands alone. Over time, Disraeli's fawning wins Victoria over, and she finally emerges from the shadows of grief. But there is something different about her, something she's never had before. Freedom.
Victoria comes back, and with gusto, I think, in the 1870s. We see a real difference with the way Victoria rules once she comes back from this self-enforced retirement from public duties. And I think now, finally, she's free. She doesn't have her mother's controlling influence, certainly doesn't have Albert's either. Obviously, Sir John Conroy is long gone in Victoria's life.
And now you almost get the sense she's coming into her own in a way, even though she's forever mired in deep sadness over Albert. She is at least free and she has opinions and she's not afraid to express those opinions. So much so that I think the ministers who persuaded her to come back actually wish she would go away again because she starts meddling in politics in a deeply unconstitutional way.
Victoria takes an active interest in foreign policy and finds that she enjoys it. In 1875, she pens a strongly worded letter to the German Emperor in an attempt to avert a second Franco-German war when tensions rise over territory in Europe. As her eldest daughter is married to the Emperor's son, it's in Victoria's best interests to avoid conflict. Thankfully, her letter is a success.
Three years later, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary's imperial actions are threatening Britain's grasp in the East, and Victoria fights back. Having watched her empire grow so powerfully over the years, she is determined to retain control. Disraeli rewards her support with the title "Empress of India," an honor which not only attends to her ego but sends a signal to the rest of the world that India is off limits.
Alongside greater involvement in politics, Victoria picks up Albert's baton of social justice. She supports the Royal Commission in supplying housing for the poor, and donates food and clothing to the needy. When the Second Boer War breaks out in southern Africa, she visits injured soldiers, and establishes the Royal Red Cross to recognize the efforts of military nurses like Florence Nightingale.
Her reputation is on the mend, but it's in 1887 when she celebrates 50 years on the throne with her golden jubilee that her popularity skyrockets. Knowing how the public love a royal spectacle, the 68-year-old queen rides down the Mall in an open-topped carriage, waving to the sea of Union Jacks that greet her.
That evening, fireworks rain from the night sky, and the round tower of Windsor Castle lights up with a new, impressive invention: electric light bulbs. As well as restoring her popularity, it is now that Victoria sees the arrival of a unique gift in the form of a new friendship. John Brown's death a few years ago left an empty space in her heart. But as she heads into her 70s, her household is joined by a young man from India.
Abdul Karim was a servant of Victoria's who joined her service after the Golden Jubilee.
And something about him really caught Victoria's attention. And against all the odds, because it was not a particularly tolerant society, Victorian Britain, but against those odds, Victoria and Abdul became incredibly close. And I think this is Victoria at her best because she treated him almost like an equal. They were, I think, almost friends. And she...
She was really eager to soak up his culture, to understand it. Victoria learns all about Karim's hometown of Agra, where his father works in a hospital and where he himself enjoyed a decent education. Deciding that servant's work is beneath him, she promotes him to the position of munchi, meaning teacher or clerk.
Karim spends hours teaching Victoria to speak, read, and write his language, Hindustani, and indulges her curiosity with vivid descriptions of his country. Curries make their way onto the royal menu and become one of the queen's many favorite foods. In return, Karim is showered with extravagant gifts: houses, titles, rooms in royal residences. Most prized of all, though, is the queen's affection.
But Karim is deeply unpopular with the rest of the royal household. Motivated by jealousy, as well as the racism ubiquitous to the time, the royal circle spend their days trying to oust the Munchi. Victoria has always known her own mind, though, and she now implores those around her to see reason. As long as she's queen, Karim stays.
With memories of John Brown still fresh to many of Victoria's friends and family, her intimate relationship with Karim feels a little bit like déjà vu.
Victoria develops these intense relationships with men throughout her life. So Lord Melbourne, Abdul Karim, also John Brown, her Scottish ghillie or servant. And I think, Victoria, you could describe her as being a sort of man's woman. I think she liked male company. She sought out
strong men or sort of very strident male characters. And clearly she felt comfortable playing almost a subservient role, even to servants such as John Brown and Abdul Karim. The private life of the aging queen may fill the pages of the newspapers, but her ability as a monarch is rarely questioned.
The later years of Victoria's reign see yet more advances for Britain, including the opening of the London Underground with the Metropolitan Line. Electric lighting and telephone systems are installed in the royal residences. The Queen even receives a telephone call from Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. In 1897, 78-year-old Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
She is the only monarch ever to have reigned for 60 years. And in yet another groundbreaking moment, her Jubilee is the first royal event to be filmed. And now, with her nine children and 42 grandchildren, linked to monarchies in Denmark, Germany, Russia, Sweden, and Spain, she is affectionately known as the Grandmother of Europe. It's New Year's Day, 1900, and the world waves goodbye to the 19th century.
But for Queen Victoria, the new millennium brings little to celebrate. Aged 81 years, she is now a shadow of the woman she once was. Her sight is marred by cataracts, and rheumatism forces her to use a wheelchair. Robbed of her usual voracious appetite, she loses almost half of her body weight. And she's beset by tragedy too. Her beloved fourth child, Prince Alfred, dies of throat cancer. And her eldest daughter, whom she calls Vicky, is diagnosed with breast cancer.
To make matters worse, her heir, Bertie, is shot at by a protester in Belgium over Britain's involvement in the Second Boer War, a conflict in which one of her grandsons is killed. In early 1901, Victoria's physical and emotional trials culminate in a series of mini-strokes, and everyone prepares for the worst. Family, friends, and servants visit her sickbed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight to say goodbye. They don't have long to wait.
Early in the evening on January 22nd, Victoria asks for her Pomeranian dog, Turi, to jump up onto her bed, perhaps remembering her very first canine friend, Dash. Whatever the reason, it's her final request, because moments later she peacefully passes away. At first, Victoria's death is met with confusion. She had been on the throne for so long that no one can remember the protocol for what happens when a monarch dies.
But the line of succession at least is clear enough. Just as she changed from Alexandrina to Victoria all those years ago, her son Albert takes a new regnal name and becomes Edward VII. At Queen Victoria's state funeral, her coffin is paraded from Paddington Station to Windsor Castle, before being laid to rest at the Frogmore Mausoleum, next to Prince Albert. Above their shared resting place, the inscription reads, "Farewell, most beloved."
Here, at length, I shall rest with thee." But what no one knows, until Victoria's diaries are published years later, is that her coffin contains tokens of a secret past. Following the late queen's wishes, her trusted doctor, Sir James Read, places a lock of John Brown's hair in her left hand, along with a small photograph of him. The items are concealed from view by a bunch of strategically placed flowers.
But though she is now at rest, the country she leaves behind is heading into one of the most traumatic episodes in its history. Just over a decade after her death, the world witnesses unprecedented horror in World War I. Today, Queen Victoria remains one of the most famous women in the world. Her name can be found on statues, parks, and roads from Britain to Australia.
In part, her enduring fame is down to the age that she reigned over, an era of unparalleled self-confidence for Britain. But it's important to separate Victoria, the woman, from the Victorian age. Victoria put the respect back in the monarchy and gave the people something to admire. And I think they felt a real connection there.
She introduced ceremonies that are still followed today. This idea of whether it was a wedding or a coronation that hundreds of thousands of people would turn out to see. Her public processions were the stuff of legend. So I think it's a real testament to her strength of character and the strength of her image that she weathered that very dangerous storm of public disapproval when she retired for pretty much a decade after Albert's death. But they forgave her.
And then, in fact, they loved her even more than they had before. So I think that's a big part of why we're still talking about and in some cases celebrating Queen Victoria. Next time on Short History Off, we'll bring you a short history of Michelangelo. He still is thought of as this kind of quintessential artist who is...
a kind of romantic figure who works alone, who is misunderstood, who has conflicts with patrons. You know, there are so many images anyway that have entered into popular culture and that are just these indelible things. The fingers from the Sistine ceiling, the pose of David, for example. Those few things actually continue to have a life of their own. That's next time.