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Documentary, Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled Part: 2
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00:00In 1897, Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations were the expression of supreme confidence.
00:10She was Queen of Great Britain. She was Empress of India. Her empire, in fact, stretched all over
00:16the world. What made the event so remarkable wasn't just the fact that the streets of London
00:23were thronged with thousands of people singing God Save the Queen, as that the 78-year-old
00:29monarch was prepared to be seen in public at all. The widow of Windsor, as she was known,
00:36struggled with public appearances because she was shy, but also because she was still ostensibly
00:42in mourning. For 36 years, she'd been the embodiment of grief. But appearances are deceptive. Behind
00:51this well-known image of Victoria lies another story to that of the heartbroken widow.
00:56It was only part of the truth about Victoria, whose marriage had been a source of constraint,
01:03as well as deep love. The loss of her beloved husband and of her mother was a terrible blow,
01:12but it also initiated a process of liberation for a woman who'd spent her entire life under
01:20the shadow of domineering men. Victoria had been a pawn in a political game as a child and young
01:27queen. Her angel, Prince Albert, had used her pregnancies as a way to gain power and punished
01:34her for resenting it. But in her widowhood, Victoria, although bereft and deranged, was free
01:40to embark on a way of life and on loves that were to make her last four decades her most productive
01:47and exciting. And luckily for us, she committed all her feelings to paper. She wrote more than 50
01:56million words. Some were judged so shocking by her children that when she died, they were destroyed.
02:02I've spent the last five years reading Queen Victoria's journals and unpublished letters,
02:08and I've come to feel something almost approaching awe for her. Behind that stout old lady in black
02:15sitting at her writing table was a passionate human being, and, contrary to what is so often said,
02:21she was frequently and easily amused.
02:421861 was Queen Victoria's Annus Horribilis. The deaths of her mother and her husband left her distraught.
02:49She fled London. It was presumed that her absence from the capital meant she was doing nothing,
02:56left inept by grief. In her journal, she bewailed the loss of her lover, her friend, her crutch.
03:04He did everything, everywhere. Nothing did I do without him, from the greatest to the smallest.
03:10My first word was, I must ask Albert.
03:13In her delirium, she turned the man she'd often resented and fought with into a demigod.
03:23What Victoria didn't realise, at 42 years old, was that marriage had infantilised her.
03:30Marriage does infantilise people. She'd come to rely on Albert for absolutely everything.
03:36She'd don't see him first thing in the morning and say,
03:38What dress should I put on? In politics and in personal life, he had restrained her and controlled her.
03:45And now, his life was over, but her life wasn't over.
03:49Little by little, she would flap her wings and become free.
03:53And her first small steps to freedom were taken here, in Coburg, in modern-day Germany.
04:04Her homeland and the birthplace of Albert and her mother.
04:08She confessed her ongoing love affair with Germany in her journal.
04:13If I were not who I am, my real home would be here.
04:17Victoria was three-quarters German.
04:25She idolised the land and the people.
04:27The very air smelled like Albert, and she breathed it in.
04:32When she started coming back to Coburg, her brother-in-law, Ernst, Albert's brother,
04:37expected her to stay with him in his grand baroque palace in the middle of town, Schloss Ehrenberg.
04:42But she preferred to be here, in Schloss Rothenau, beautiful hunting lodge about five miles out of town,
04:49where Albert was born.
04:50It's a place full of his childhood memories, surrounded by quietness, by the hills and the forests.
05:00Inconsolably bereaved, she certainly was.
05:02And you can see here a page from the visitor's book she wrote, in 1862,
05:08Victoria Regina, the desolate widow of my beloved Albert.
05:20A direct descendant of Prince Albert keeps the line alive today in the nearby Schloss Kallenberg.
05:28Hubertus is the hereditary prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
05:32So let's enter one of the rooms here, please.
05:37Oh, wonderful. Thank you very much.
05:40You, sir, are the great, great, great grandson of Prince Albert.
05:46Yes, that is correct.
05:46This is where we show the family relationships between the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family and the British.
05:55Oh, look, that's a marvellous winter house.
05:57Yes, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
05:59So that's after he's arrived in Britain.
06:02Yeah, yeah, it was in the early 1840s.
06:05Yes.
06:05Well, he went bald.
06:06Oh, and look at this beautiful painting.
06:08She didn't dress very well, but she had stupendous jewels.
06:12That's what the French noticed, didn't they, when she went to Paris.
06:14Yes.
06:15After she was widowed, she became even more attached to Germany, even more conscious of her German roots, didn't she?
06:22And Coburg was a particularly special place.
06:25Well, Queen Victoria's roots are indeed very German.
06:28She was definitely fluent in the German language, and even after the too early death of Prince Albert, she still was very much in love with Germany and especially Coburg, and she came back to open up a monument for Albert here in 1865 on the marketplace.
06:47That was also one of the very few public appearances, apparently, that she did after his death.
06:53Oh, yes.
06:55Victoria had always loved melodrama since her days as a young queen.
07:00And now, in her mourning, she made her loss blindingly clear to see, ever dressed in black.
07:07She desired everyone to enter into her grief.
07:13Dr. Carina Ohrbach, an expert in Anglo-German relations, sheds light on Victoria's behavior after Albert's death.
07:20She's such a bad psychologist, because Albert told her, don't overdo it, please, when I'm gone, and she does exactly the opposite.
07:30She puts him on this pedestal, she drags her children into the room once a year, the room he died in.
07:37She keeps preaching to him all the time how wonderful he was, and it is absolutely ridiculous, because the children, of course, hate it after a while and resent everything about this idealized father.
07:48So it achieves the absolute opposite.
07:49She went back again and again and again to Coburg.
07:54Yes, I think she would have loved to live just in a little cottage in Germany with Albert. That was her ideal.
08:00And it was home. It was the Heimat, wasn't it?
08:02Yes, she feels relaxed, because when she talks German, she can be a different person.
08:06In her English identity, she has to be the queen.
08:09In Germany, she's just a kleine Frau, as Albert calls her.
08:14Grief-stricken Victoria may have been, but inept, she certainly wasn't.
08:18She was about to demonstrate her political astuteness in Germany.
08:22Germany, then not a unified country as we know it today.
08:26Germany was merely a notion.
08:31The question was, would the various small German duchies and city-states come together in a peaceful federation,
08:39or would they allow themselves to be bullied by the northern kingdom of Prussia into becoming a modern militaristic nation?
08:46That was the central political drama of Victoria's time, and in that drama, she stood plum centre stage.
08:56In the summer of 1863, the queen came here, to Schloss Ehrenberg.
09:04While she was here, she thrust herself between the twin camps of Prussia and Austria, before any of her diplomats.
09:12It was her first major activity since she was widowed.
09:15She felt so nervous, all being in state, and I alone, I have no longer my beloved Albert, to guide, cheer, advise, and pilot me through the great difficulty.
09:26Here, in the hall of giants, where Victoria's parents were married, we meet Victoria the diplomat,
09:38meeting with no less a person than the emperor of Austria, and together they drank a toast to the unity of Germany.
09:45So early in her widowhood, we find Victoria alone, but nonetheless an independent woman, negotiating,
09:55not particularly on behalf of England, but on behalf of a peaceful Europe.
10:01Victoria had found the inner strength to exert her power and carry out Albert's political work on her own.
10:08In this instance, she's a sort of arbiter.
10:10She wants to bring together these two Germans, there's Emperor of Austria and then William of Prussia,
10:17and she thinks that there should be some rapprochement or some understanding between the two.
10:23She still hopes for a peaceful solution of the German question.
10:29I mean, during that period, if you'd ask many English newspaper editors, what's the queen doing?
10:34They'd have said she's drawn to sleep, she's drawn into hiding, she's not doing anything.
10:37As a matter of fact, she was deeply politically engaged in Germany.
10:40Yes, I think that's when one underestimates her, because she's hiding in black,
10:45and one doesn't understand that she had her back channels, and she was very much into this back channel work.
10:51And she saw herself, because of Albert, as, well, a diplomat in many ways.
10:58It's interesting, at this time, that we see the British queen becoming, partly through her own marriage and the marriages of her children,
11:06so intimately involved in European politics.
11:10At this time, the British politicians complained that their monarch was too weepy, too reclusive,
11:17not doing her work, not interested in the main political questions.
11:21But Victoria was looking at the future of Europe itself.
11:26That seems to me far less parochial, far less narrow, than the things that many of her cabinet ministers wanted.
11:34And her role in all this was pivotal.
11:37The future of Germany was quite literally being fought out between members of her own family,
11:42with her eldest daughter, Vicky, married to the Crown Prince of Prussia,
11:46and Bertie, married to the Princess of Denmark.
11:49Victoria was caught in the middle of the war between these neighbouring states.
11:54Oh, if Bertie's wife was only a good German and not a Dane.
11:58Not as regards the influence of the politics, but as regards the peace and harmony of the family.
12:04It is terrible to have the poor boy on the wrong side.
12:08The personal was the political for Victoria.
12:11Victoria, intensely German, she nonetheless felt, as all mothers would,
12:15grief that her family stood on opposing sides of the political divide.
12:22While Victoria showed her fortitude on the world stage,
12:26involving herself in European wars of global significance,
12:29she was also finding freedom at home in her personal life.
12:33As a young woman, she'd always sought father figures,
12:37from the flirtatious Lord Melbourne to her angel, Albert.
12:42Now she had another man by her side.
12:45I feel I have here, and always in the house,
12:51a good, devoted soul,
12:54whose only object and interest is my service.
12:58And God knows how much I want so to be taken care of.
13:03These are the words the 45-year-old Victoria
13:06wrote about Albert's highland servant,
13:09a Mr John Brown,
13:10who was brought down from Balmoral to attend Victoria at Osborne in 1864.
13:15I honestly think that if it hadn't been for the highlands of Scotland
13:39and the friendship of John Brown in those ten years after Prince Albert died,
13:43that Queen Victoria would have gone stark staring mad.
13:47She'd always loved it here in Scotland,
13:50since her early visits with Albert.
13:52And the unaffected character of the Highlanders
13:55made such a refreshing change
13:57after the stuffiness of Windsor and Buckingham Palace.
14:03And so it was that the bearded and kilted John Brown,
14:07seven years her junior,
14:09became Victoria's next male dependency
14:11as closest companion and best friend.
14:24Raymond Lament Brown is the Highland servant's official biographer.
14:29She spent far more time with John Brown than with any other person,
14:33certainly more than any member of her family.
14:36Yes, that's true.
14:36He would attend her whenever she needed him.
14:40He understood her very well.
14:42I think something that her family and her ministers didn't understand,
14:47that although she was surrounded by people all the time,
14:51she was very lonely.
14:53And John Brown said to her quite openly,
14:56I think you're just a lonely wee bairn
14:59that needs to be brought out of herself.
15:02And that's exactly what he did.
15:05He sort of pulled her out of her depression.
15:08He became a walking encyclopedia
15:10of Queen Victoria's likes and dislikes,
15:14her neuroses and so on.
15:16He devoted his life to her.
15:19He never went on holiday
15:20and he was always there for her.
15:23In some ways,
15:24it was an even greater commitment
15:25than Albert made himself in his marriage vows,
15:28because it was one of absolute service.
15:31Yes, yes.
15:33Albert, of course,
15:33had his own agenda of the things that he did,
15:37but for John Brown,
15:39from dawn to dusk,
15:40his agenda was Queen Victoria.
15:42Alongside Brown's devotion to the Queen
15:47came an abruptness
15:49and complete disregard for court etiquette,
15:52something which Brown could see that Victoria,
15:55contrary to her steely appearance,
15:56rather enjoyed.
16:00Whilst these qualities of Brown's enraged the household,
16:04they were precisely the things
16:05that made him the ideal companion for Victoria.
16:09Great man that Albert had been,
16:11he'd always been sickly and fussy.
16:14He didn't share his wife's love
16:15of guzzling and drinking.
16:17Whereas Brown loved his whiskey.
16:20He was often tipsy.
16:21He liked pouring whiskey into the Queen's milk
16:23and saying,
16:24Don't stay thirsty.
16:27Victoria wouldn't credit what I'm about to say,
16:29but Brown released her from Albert.
16:32He released her inner capacity
16:34for hedonism and fun,
16:37and she reveled in it.
16:39Cheerio!
16:39Victoria found freedom in her friendship
16:45with this most unlikely of characters,
16:47outriding and laughing in the grounds at Osborne with Brown.
16:52Where she had been suppressed in her childhood
16:55by the cruel workings of Sir John Conroy
16:58and had struggled with an overbearing and scheming husband,
17:01she loved Brown's openness
17:03and dedication to her and her alone.
17:06It is a real comfort,
17:08for Brown is devoted to me.
17:12So simple,
17:13so intelligent,
17:15and so unlike an ordinary servant.
17:18No one could talk to Victoria
17:20as John Brown did.
17:21He held her in check.
17:25There was once an occasion
17:26when a footman came into the room
17:28carrying a tray,
17:29and the poor boy dropped it.
17:30The Queen erupted with rage,
17:32said he should be dismissed to the kitchens.
17:35But John Brown intervened immediately.
17:37Woman,
17:38what are ye doing
17:39to that poor laddie?
17:42Are ye neither upping anything yourself?
17:44The footman was reinstated.
17:47The straight-talking Scotsman
17:49had put the Queen of England in her place.
17:52And she enjoyed it.
17:56But it wasn't just Brown's frankness she relished.
17:59He also filled a deep emotional need in Victoria.
18:03On the fourth anniversary of Albert's death,
18:05she completely defied convention
18:07by bringing Brown to pay his respects
18:10at Albert's Mordelium.
18:11Her writings that day
18:14show just how significant
18:16Brown's response was for Victoria.
18:19When he came to my room later,
18:22he was so much affected.
18:24He said in his simple, expressive way,
18:27with such a tender look of pity
18:29while the tears rolled down his cheeks,
18:32I didn't like to see you at Frogmore this morning.
18:35I felt for ye.
18:36But what could I do for ye?
18:38I could die for ye.
18:40I don't think anybody
18:43could ever have replaced Prince Albert.
18:45But she needed some kind of male clutch.
18:49And John Brown supplied that.
18:53What came next
18:55showed the contradictory nature
18:56of Victoria's character.
18:59The woman who shied away from the public
19:01decided to share her thoughts with everyone.
19:04We tend to think that Diana Princess of Wales
19:08invented the concept of feel my pain.
19:11But Queen Victoria got there before her
19:12with her decision to publish extracts
19:15of her private diaries.
19:18Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands.
19:21It came out in 1868
19:23and was an instant bestseller.
19:26No monarch had ever published a book before.
19:29This one was wholly at odds
19:31with Victoria the Weeping Widow.
19:33The journals chronicle her life of outdoor frivolity.
19:50She felt truly elated
19:52out in the open Highland landscape,
19:54at local dances
19:56and at the annual Highland Games.
20:00Come on, boys!
20:02The games began about three o'clock, she writes.
20:06One, throwing the hammer.
20:08Two, tossing the caber.
20:10Three, putting the stone.
20:12A pretty wild sight.
20:13But the men looked very cold
20:16with nothing but their shirts and kilts on.
20:18They ran beautifully.
20:21The journals are pretty mild stuff.
20:24The remarkable thing about them
20:25is that they were published at all.
20:27Their nice books are bound in green,
20:30embossed in gold,
20:31and pretty soon they'd sold over 100,000 copies.
20:37There is one person, however,
20:38that might be named as the hero of the book,
20:40and that, of course, is John Brown.
20:43Her children hardly got a look-in
20:46and weren't best pleased.
20:48But it seemed that Victoria was unaware.
20:52Instead, she wrote to her eldest, Vicky,
20:55asking for validation of the book.
20:58You have never said one word
21:00about my poor little Highland book,
21:02my only book.
21:03I had hoped that you and Fritz would have liked it.
21:07The reason Vicky might have been avoiding the subject
21:10was that her mother's shameless adoration of Brown
21:13was causing a scandal.
21:15A scurrilous pamphlet entitled
21:18John Brown's Legs appeared in New York.
21:22It was dedicated to those extraordinary legs
21:25who were bruised and scratched darlings.
21:28Here's the Queen looking at a damaged knee.
21:31Good heavens, what a knee!
21:33Sticking out from the kilt of John Brown.
21:36What's so hilarious about this
21:38is that while the American was penning this pamphlet,
21:43the Queen herself was writing a third volume of Leaves
21:46from Our Life in the Highlands,
21:49in effect, a biography of John Brown.
21:51The court and the politicians were absolutely horrified,
21:55and somebody had to be delegated to tell her
21:58that the book was entirely inappropriate.
22:00They chose the poor young Dean of Windsor,
22:04and he went in and told the Queen
22:06that it really wasn't a very good idea
22:07to be writing these memoirs of her life with Brown.
22:10It would be misconstrued.
22:12She erupted with rage.
22:14However, she took the young man's advice,
22:19and the matter was never mentioned again.
22:22I wonder if it still survives somewhere in Windsor,
22:26in those archives,
22:27or whether Princess Beatrice, the wrecker, destroyed it.
22:32Thanks to Victoria's youngest daughter, Beatrice,
22:35no trace remains of the Queen's life with John Brown
22:38in her voluminous journals.
22:41We're left with silence,
22:42as her children were intent on deleting Brown
22:45and anything else deemed unsuitable from history.
22:49It's poignantly sad
22:51that so avid a scribbler and recorder of her times
22:54as Queen Victoria
22:55should have had her words suppressed.
22:58And, of course, the suppression
23:00has the precisely opposite effect upon us
23:02that it was intended to do.
23:04Instead of making us forget about John Brown and Victoria,
23:08it makes us obsessed by the subject.
23:09What we do know is that in favouring Brown,
23:13Victoria showed herself to be a woman desperate for companionship,
23:17irrespective of the social cost.
23:20She'd come such a long way from her days
23:22as the submissive wife of Albert.
23:24With Brown, she was free to do as she pleased.
23:27Of course, people suspected him of sleeping with Victoria.
23:32There's a bit of a feminist issue here.
23:34If she'd been a male monarch going to bed with a parlour maid,
23:38no-one would have batted an eyelid.
23:40It's the idea of a woman crossing the class barrier
23:43that really appalled them.
23:46Especially as the rumours mounted
23:48to that of a secret marriage,
23:50even a love child,
23:52between the Queen and her Highland servant.
23:54A man who was probably
23:58one of the very few people in the world
24:00who ever knew the full truth
24:02about her relationship with Brown
24:04was her last doctor,
24:05Sir James Reid.
24:07Oh, goodness.
24:08The whole collection.
24:10Michela, Lady Reid,
24:11is married to his grandson.
24:13He kept a diary while he worked with her.
24:15Yes, yes, and there are 40
24:17little tiny diaries here.
24:20See, his writing was minuscule.
24:23Oh, isn't it wonderful?
24:24If you read a lot,
24:25you really require a magnifying glass.
24:28And here are some more diaries.
24:30Yes, this is one from March.
24:33This is the Queen and Brown, I think.
24:35Yes, she has a fall.
24:37They were going up and down the stairs,
24:39Brown and the Queen.
24:40Because Brown, of course, carried her.
24:42Reid wasn't allowed so much as to touch her.
24:44Well, he was allowed to offer his arm.
24:46But, I mean, he wasn't allowed to examine her.
24:48No, no, no, no,
24:49certainly wouldn't be allowed to carry her
24:51up and down the stairs.
24:52Whereas Brown was allowed to enfold her in his arms.
24:54Yes, yes, yes.
24:55And they were laughing about it all
24:57and thought it was great fun.
24:59And then the next day,
25:01it says the Queen walked a little in the room.
25:05Brown lifts his kilt and says,
25:08Is it there?
25:09And she lifts her skirt laughing
25:12and says, No, it's here.
25:13She was moving his big manly hand
25:15in the side of her bottom.
25:16Yes, bottom, yes.
25:18But I think she's pointing,
25:19lifting her long skirt and pointing to his knee.
25:21But also, the idea of a woman
25:22lifting her skirt in those days.
25:23Yes, yes.
25:24No, no, it was very forward.
25:26It was raffling.
25:26They were obviously very intimate.
25:28Is there a feeling in the Reid family
25:31that Dr. Reid knew the nature of the relationship?
25:35Yes, there is a feeling.
25:37And we used to tease Granny, as we called her,
25:40his widow,
25:41about John Brown and the relationship.
25:44And she would always shut, clam up.
25:46She clammed up?
25:47Yes, she just laughed and dismissed it.
25:50What do you think?
25:51I don't think they were married.
25:53I don't think they even had an immoral affair.
25:56I think that they expressed their feelings
26:00so much in public.
26:02Had they been having an affair,
26:05they would have been more circumspect about it.
26:09There's also the kind of physical detail
26:11that we now know because of Dr. Reid
26:12examining her body after she died, isn't there?
26:15Yes, she had a prolapsed uterus,
26:19which would have made any form of intercourse
26:23extremely painful, probably impossible.
26:27So I don't think it was that sort of relationship.
26:30And I certainly don't think that she would have had a child
26:33because she was...
26:34Oh, no, that's preposterous.
26:36Preposterous, which has been said.
26:39Oh, yes, it has.
26:44When anybody knows that I'm writing about Queen Victoria,
26:47they've always been asking me the same question.
26:50What was the relationship between John Brown and the Queen?
26:54Were they lovers?
26:56And I'm afraid to say that on that question,
26:57I'm a complete agnostic.
26:59It's plainly not a relationship like that
27:02between her and Albert.
27:04She was so open about loving Brown,
27:06about wanting Brown to hold her
27:08and carry about in public and love with her.
27:10But I'm sure there was no kind of secret,
27:12covert relationship going on.
27:15I think the likeliest thing,
27:17if you actually wanted to force me to make up my mind,
27:19is that they had a tactile, loving relationship,
27:22which involved lots of hugging,
27:24but that they weren't lovers in the true sense of the word.
27:26Victoria was never one for convention.
27:35Despite giving her name to an era of propriety and prudishness,
27:39Victoria was anything but.
27:41Where she loved the openness of Brown,
27:44she couldn't stand those who were reserved around her.
27:47So when it came to her buttoned-up Liberal Prime Minister,
27:50W.E. Gladstone,
27:51she had no tolerance at all.
27:54Mr. Gladstone is a very dangerous man,
27:57and so very arrogant, tyrannical and obstinate,
27:59with no knowledge of the world or human nature.
28:04Victoria was not one to mince her words.
28:07She used every weapon in her armoury,
28:10her psychological illnesses,
28:12her physical illnesses,
28:13to combat what she believed were assaults by the Liberals
28:17on the monarchy itself.
28:20Her undisguised loathing of this humourless intellectual state
28:24showed how very self-assertive Queen Victoria could be.
28:29Gladstone was awkward with the Queen,
28:32and like his hero, Prime Minister Robert Peel,
28:35he didn't have the best way with women.
28:38Thirty years after her run-in with Peel,
28:40Victoria showed herself to be just as belligerent with Gladstone
28:44as she had been in her youth.
28:47One such occasion occurred in the summer of 1869,
28:51when the Lord Mayor of London and Gladstone
28:54asked her to open the new Blackfraer's Bridge.
28:57The Queen was determined to wriggle out of it,
29:01and the drama went on and on,
29:03through the summer and autumn,
29:06with Gladstone bearing the brunt
29:07of most of the Queen's emotional outbursts.
29:10She thought she had clearly expressed
29:14that it was impossible for her to open Blackfraer's Bridge,
29:18but as Mr Gladstone seems still in doubt,
29:21she will repeat her sincere regret
29:22that it is quite out of the question of her
29:24to do anything of the kind in the heat of the summer.
29:27The Republicans and the press, but also the keen monarchists,
29:32were all asking themselves the same question.
29:35If the country functioned perfectly well
29:38with the head of state spending most of her year
29:40either up in Balmoral or down on the Isle of Wight,
29:44why did we need a monarch at all?
29:47And it was to silence that question
29:49that the Prime Minister, Mr Gladstone,
29:51was determined to parade the little woman on this bridge.
29:56And she was equally determined not to be bullied
29:59and not to be put under pressure.
30:03As July wore on, the Queen dug in her heels.
30:07The Queen is much surprised at being again teased
30:10and tormented about this bridge,
30:12having three weeks ago nearly been asked by Mr Gladstone.
30:15And she refused to open it, saying,
30:19the fatigue of the whole thing being much too great
30:21was a day commencing in the heat.
30:25Ever one for mood swings,
30:27when it came to the event,
30:29Victoria decided she could open the bridge.
30:32But what a palaver she had caused in doing so.
30:39Frequently caught in the crossfire
30:41between Gladstone and his Queen
30:42was her private secretary,
30:44Colonel Henry Ponsonby.
30:47His great-granddaughter, Laura Ponsonby,
30:49is the keeper of many a letter
30:51penned by Victoria's idiosyncratic hand.
30:55The Queen's handwriting...
30:57Oh, yes. ..was almost illegible.
30:59Incredibly difficult to read.
31:02I think I'm getting worse at it.
31:04They're rather wonderful,
31:05these deep black borders, aren't they?
31:07Aren't they?
31:08These little letters were coming out of
31:10the Queen's writing desk
31:13every ten minutes.
31:15Quite.
31:17My feeling is that Gladstone found Queen Victoria
31:19almost impossible to deal with,
31:22whereas Henry Ponsonby was far better at dealing with her.
31:25Henry Ponsonby knew what he was doing, I think, in a way.
31:29He did all he could to try and make the Queen
31:31more reasonable with Gladstone,
31:33but she was very, very critical about him.
31:35Henry Ponsonby knew that it was no good contradicting her.
31:39There was a famous story about him,
31:41which he says,
31:42when I say two and two make four,
31:46Queen Victoria says,
31:47no, they make five.
31:49And then he says again,
31:50no, I think they do make four.
31:52And she says, no, you're wrong.
31:55Then he said, I leave it.
31:57I let it drop.
31:59And then we go back to it,
32:00and then it's OK.
32:01He knew if he said no,
32:03Queen Victoria would immediately dig her heels right in.
32:06Henry Ponsonby admired her.
32:09She could be absolutely impossible, of course,
32:11but he managed to sort of cope with it.
32:14And, of course, he had a great sense of humour.
32:16I think that was the saving thing, wasn't it?
32:18He could see how very funny she was.
32:20That's right.
32:21And he got them all laughing at the dinner table.
32:24He said he'd look around at Queen Victoria,
32:27and she's absolutely, you know, giggling away.
32:30She was known as furia, mad laugh, furia.
32:35And that, you start laughing,
32:38and then tears come to your eye, and you shake,
32:40and all this sort of laughter comes up.
32:43She had a lot of furia, didn't she?
32:45Yes, she had a lot of furia.
32:46She was always having the G-dwarfs.
32:48Yes.
32:48Gladstone wasn't particularly humorous.
32:50No, no, I think not.
32:55It was the weird mix of Victoria's humour and hysteria
32:59that the politicians couldn't come to terms with.
33:03So much so, they feared for her sanity.
33:07And you can see why the establishment were worried
33:10when you look at the correspondence
33:11between the Queen and Mr Gladstone.
33:14Have a look at this.
33:15When Gladstone went to stay in Balmoral,
33:19he was awkward and couldn't speak to the Queen.
33:21She often refused to speak to him.
33:23So they would correspond while they were both living in the same house.
33:26Sometimes, it was often the six times a day.
33:30The letters are particularly comic, I think, really.
33:33Gladstone, his letters, beautifully written,
33:37a little pompous, absolutely rational.
33:39And she scrawls frenzily back.
33:42It's as if somebody's screaming through paper.
33:44Here's one which was written in the afternoon.
33:47Just an outburst, really.
33:49It is not to Tahiti, but to Honolulu
33:51that the complaints relative to Prince Alfred refer.
33:56What that was about, who knows?
33:58History doesn't relate.
33:59But you do see what Mr Gladstone was up against.
34:04Victoria capriciously showed her Prime Minister
34:07time and time again that she was Queen
34:10and he couldn't bully her into doing something she didn't want to do.
34:15Victoria maintained her hostility to Gladstone to his dying day.
34:20The grand old man clung to office
34:22long after he became physically incapable.
34:25On and off, he was Prime Minister for 26 years.
34:30I think the most disgraceful thing about Queen Victoria
34:33is the way she behaved at Gladstone at the time of his resignation.
34:37He devoted his entire life to the service of his country
34:41and she offered him not one word of thanks.
34:45She trusts he will be able to enjoy peace and quiet
34:49with his excellent and devoted wife in health and happiness
34:53and that his eyesight may improve.
34:56The Queen would gladly have conferred a peerage on Mr Gladstone
35:01but she knows he would not accept.
35:06Gladstone's decline and death had little effect on the Queen.
35:11Years ago, she had unashamedly fallen for his political opponent,
35:15Benjamin Disraeli,
35:16whose one-nation Toryism was her kind of politics.
35:21Besides, he knew how to make her laugh.
35:26At Disraeli's private home in the heart of Buckinghamshire,
35:30curator Robert Bandy is the proud keeper
35:33of the numerous gifts Victoria lavished on Disraeli.
35:37This is her dining room.
35:40We have an awful lot of portraits in the house
35:43that are gifts from the Queen
35:43and all of them have a crown on the top
35:45to tell us exactly who they came from.
35:47In case you could be in any doubt.
35:48In case you could be in any doubt, exactly.
35:52An unconventional visit to Huwenden in 1877
35:55showed Disraeli's political skill and charm.
35:59When Disraeli collected the Queen from Wickham Station,
36:02he took two carriages with him,
36:04one with slightly faster horses,
36:05so he could welcome the Queen for the first time on the platform.
36:09Obviously, great statesmen, showmen,
36:11lots of bowing and dipping.
36:13Very theatrical.
36:14Very, very theatrical.
36:15People in Wickham loved it.
36:17He popped into the first carriage with the quicker horses,
36:20got back to Huwenden before the Queen
36:21so he could welcome her in exactly the same way,
36:24but for a second time
36:25once she'd got to the front door of the manor.
36:27That's delicious.
36:28And he obviously was mindful.
36:29She was a slightly short lady
36:31and had the bottom two inches of her dining chair
36:34so that her feet were flat on the floor when she sat.
36:37She'd sat on a normal chair, of course.
36:38Her feet would have been dangling in the air.
36:40And he didn't think that was particularly becoming of the line.
36:43That's very funny.
36:44This is another present from her.
36:46So it's the collected speeches of Albert.
36:50This is very remarkable,
36:51because at first she was a little bit...
36:53She disliked him entirely
36:54when he was just a member of the House,
36:57but he grew useful to her
37:00because whereas she complained that Graston referred to her
37:03as though she were a public meeting,
37:05Disraeli gave her the opposite end of the spectrum.
37:07He gave her the tittle-tattle and the gossip,
37:09and he would write fearful notes a day to her from Parliament.
37:12And, of course, she had a very marked sense of humour
37:14and she liked the fact that he made accounts of Parliament and cabinet.
37:18Yes.
37:18That was so amusing.
37:19She laughed over his battle.
37:20Now, who have we here on the chimney piece?
37:23We've got John Brown given by the Queen to Disraeli,
37:27two relative outsiders,
37:29Disraeli, the most unlikely Victorian Prime Minister,
37:32and Brown completely out of the normal social sphere for the Queen
37:36that was drawn in closest to her.
37:39Very much so.
37:41Both Brown and Disraeli gave Victoria the loyalty she always longed for,
37:46and she lapped up Dizzy's endless attention and flattery.
37:50He is so full of poetry, romance and chivalry.
37:56When he knelt down to Kiss My Hand, which he took in both of his,
37:59he said, in loving loyalty and faith.
38:03Disraeli not only amused and flirted with Victoria,
38:07he understood her emotional struggles in life.
38:12Professor Jane Ridley has written biographies of both Disraeli and Queen Victoria.
38:17Disraeli didn't treat her as a stupid woman.
38:21Disraeli treated her as a sort of exotic and wonderful queen.
38:28He also treated her as an equal.
38:31He made her feel by writing her these wonderful sort of confidential letters
38:36that he was telling her everything and that he was her minister
38:41and together they were ruling the country.
38:44So he made her feel good.
38:46She wasn't, you know, before she'd had this awful generation of those dreadful old men,
38:50she called them,
38:50who talked down to her and didn't sort of flatter her in this way.
38:55But Disraeli is on his knees, fluttering her right from day one.
38:59And she loves it.
39:00Who wouldn't?
39:03People smiled at Victoria's crush on Disraeli
39:06and at his shameless camp manipulation of it.
39:10He dubbed her the fairy or the fairy queen.
39:13He was genuinely fond of her,
39:15but he was prepared to exploit the friendship for political ends.
39:19Britain was moving to a position
39:21where eventually every male adult would have the vote.
39:25And many politicians feared
39:26this would mean an inevitable lurch to the left.
39:29Disraeli had his finger on the pulse.
39:31He knew there were thousands and thousands
39:33of lower middle class and working class men
39:35who were natural Tories.
39:37Victoria became the perfect figurehead
39:40for Disraeli's one nation conservatism.
39:42His plans involved Victoria as a symbol of British power,
39:48not just at home,
39:49but stretching far across the world to the empire.
39:54Showing both political astuteness and glorious creativity,
39:58Disraeli announced Victoria was the Empress of India
40:01on January 1st, 1877.
40:05She was delighted with the new title.
40:07My thoughts, much taken up with the great event at Delhi today
40:12and in India generally,
40:14where I am being proclaimed Empress of India,
40:17I have for the first time today signed myself as V, R and I.
40:25Empress of India.
40:28It's a title you might think more appropriate
40:30for a railway engine or possibly even a page,
40:33but it made Britain an imperial power.
40:36India, in all its exotic expanse,
40:40now came under the royal dominion of the fairy.
40:44Of course, sophisticated people flinched at the title,
40:48but Victoria and Disraeli knew
40:49that the vast proportion of the British people
40:51thought the empire made Britain rich.
40:55And for the next 80 years,
40:57the empire was the pride of Britain's conservatives
41:00and the envy of many beyond its borders.
41:03As she'd instinctively used her diplomatic skills in Germany
41:09in the years following Albert's death,
41:11Victoria leaped at the chance
41:13to stand at the helm of Disraeli's political ideals
41:16to galvanise Britain's classes under a powerful monarch.
41:19There's a glorious romance about being Victoria R.I.,
41:25rather than simply Victoria Regina.
41:27It was a real publicity coup in India.
41:30Victoria is extraordinarily popular.
41:32They see her as almost a goddess figure,
41:34even though she never went there in her life.
41:35You know, she has this extraordinary common sense
41:37about sort of predicting what's going to happen
41:40and about politics.
41:41And about the emphasis of India thing,
41:43she was absolutely right.
41:44It was a really astute political...
41:45It was, wasn't it, yes.
41:47But the pair's political romance couldn't last forever.
41:51Disraeli fought on in politics to his dying day.
41:55Victoria showered attention on him right to the end,
41:58bestowing on him a peerage as Lord Beaconsfield.
42:02At his death, she was distraught.
42:05Victoria made the most extraordinary confession
42:17to her friend, Lady Waterpark.
42:19I know you will feel for me
42:22in my great and irreplaceable loss.
42:25I have lost so many,
42:27but none whose loss will be more heavily felt
42:30than this of dear Lord Beaconsfield.
42:32They are remarkable words
42:35when you consider how recently she'd lost
42:38her beloved daughter Alice
42:40and how intensely she'd mourned the Prince Consort.
42:44They show how close Victoria had become,
42:47both in politics and in her heart, to Dizzy.
42:52Gladstone was the dictatorial prime minister.
42:55Disraeli was the true and trusted friend.
42:58As if the death of Disraeli wasn't enough
43:03for Victoria to cope with,
43:05just two years later came the death of the man
43:08who may have been the love of her life,
43:10John Brown.
43:12The Queen was devastated.
43:14The fatherless widow was alone again.
43:18The extent of Victoria's grief on paper
43:21is only known in part.
43:23These words escaped the ruthless Windsor censorship.
43:26I am terribly upset by this loss,
43:31which removed one who was so devoted
43:34and attached to my service,
43:35who did so much for my personal comfort.
43:38It is the loss not only of a servant,
43:41but of a real friend.
43:44Through love and loss, time and time again,
43:48Victoria had the remarkable fortitude
43:50to carry on in the midst of grief.
43:53Far from her widowhood constraining her,
43:56she had the strength to reinvent herself
43:59and was visibly a new woman, aged 68,
44:02celebrating her golden jubilee.
44:06The crowds, from the palace gates up to the abbey,
44:10were enormous.
44:11This never-to-be-forgotten day
44:13will always leave the most gratifying
44:16and heart-stirring memories behind.
44:20The celebrations didn't end in London.
44:24They extended far across the reaches of the empire.
44:27In India.
44:34Am I in India?
44:36No, I'm on the Isle of Wight.
44:38I'm in the Durbar Room.
44:40Victoria added this fantastic wing
44:44to Prince Albert's italianate villa.
44:47And what a symbol of her liberation
44:49from the Albertian past.
44:52Her dominion,
44:53her imaginative grasp of her empire
44:55and of the world itself
44:57had expanded so much in her life.
45:01It's utterly fantastic.
45:02Victoria had never been to India,
45:10but she always had a great affection for its peoples.
45:13She'd far rather hear exotic stories of India
45:16than talk to her boring, Oxford-educated politicians.
45:21And so it was decided in her jubilee year
45:23that a taste of India would be sent to her in England
45:26in the form of two Indian servants from Agra.
45:29One of those servants would turn out
45:33to be her last great attachment.
45:37The man in question was 24-year-old Abdul Karim.
45:41Hired as little more than a footman,
45:43he was to become the new subject
45:45of Victoria's male affections.
45:48Abdul Karim.
45:49Much lighter, tall,
45:51and with a fine, serious countenance.
45:55Victoria loved the company of Abdul Karim.
45:58And now, down the corridors of Osborne House,
46:02the wafted, the delicious aromas of the spices
46:05he'd brought with him from Agra.
46:07Cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, cumin, nutmeg,
46:12drowning up the pong of overboiled cabbage and mutton.
46:16And there he is.
46:19Abdul Karim brought with him India
46:22in all its colour and splendour,
46:24which Victoria welcomed wholeheartedly into her court.
46:28Shrabani Basu is the author of the best-selling book
46:31on Abdul Karim and Queen Victoria.
46:34Unlike Brown, he was a married man.
46:36He was a married man,
46:37and his wife came to the court as well.
46:39Mrs Karim, as she was called, she was veiled,
46:41and it was a good Indian family.
46:43He not only got his mother,
46:44he got his mother-in-law as well.
46:46So there were several of these
46:47borka-clad Muslim ladies around the throne, as it were.
46:51Yes.
46:52The queen was so excited
46:53because she said it's the first parda ladies in court.
46:57If Victoria liked a servant, she didn't hold back.
47:01Abdul was soon promoted to the position of the Munshi,
47:04the queen's Indian teacher.
47:06She wanted to learn about the ordinary people of India,
47:09and this was really important to her.
47:10She wants to learn the language,
47:12and he gives her the everyday phrases,
47:14and she shows off.
47:16She loves showing off.
47:17She has these Indian princes come,
47:18and what better than casually use a Hindustani phrase?
47:21What were the useful everyday phrases that he taught her?
47:24Well, there were the standard things like,
47:26you know, tea is too hot,
47:28or the egg is not boiled enough.
47:31But there were also intriguing phrases like,
47:34I will miss the Munshi very much,
47:36and hold me tight.
47:38Where did that come from?
47:40That's very charming, isn't it?
47:41Do you think she did hold him tight?
47:43I suppose so.
47:45It was a relationship on so many levels.
47:48You know, it was mother, son, grandmother, son.
47:50It was closest friend.
47:53And at the same time,
47:54Queen Victoria liked a strong man next to her.
47:57If you see the pattern from John Brown,
47:59he was six feet tall,
48:01a strong man,
48:02somebody who cared for her,
48:04and the same, Abdul Karim,
48:05six feet two,
48:07standing next to her,
48:09looking after her.
48:10Definitely the physical,
48:11the sensual element was very much part of it.
48:14I think that's very revealing.
48:17None of Victoria's English courtiers liked the Munshi.
48:21They thought he was John Brown in a turban,
48:23but Victoria seemed not to notice,
48:26or perhaps chose to ignore
48:27their snobbish and racist feelings towards him.
48:30Writing to Vicky,
48:33Victoria's words were all praise.
48:34He is so good and gentle and understanding.
48:40All I want,
48:42and is a real comfort to me.
48:44Such a good influence with the others.
48:47Anything Abdul Karim wanted,
48:49he would get.
48:50If he wants a nice room,
48:52he's given the room.
48:53He's given John Brown's old room,
48:55and that is noticed.
48:57She gives him his own carriage
48:58to ride around,
49:00so he goes around Balmoral,
49:01he goes to India on holiday.
49:03Can you tell us about
49:04what the attitude of the courtiers
49:06was towards Abdul?
49:08As soon as he started getting all the favours,
49:10the resentment started as well,
49:12and the Queen accuses them
49:14all the time of racism,
49:16and she insists that they behave
49:19courteously to him,
49:21which they don't.
49:22I mean, the Munshi invites it
49:23because he is a bit arrogant
49:25and a bit full of himself.
49:26He does strut around,
49:27he does rule over,
49:28lord over the other Indian servants,
49:30but that's the position he's been given.
49:33Although unrest at court was mounting,
49:36Victoria didn't seem to care.
49:38She was simply not going to give up
49:40her fondness for her new best friend.
49:43And a shameless display of favouritism
49:45in June 1890 further incensed her household.
49:49The Queen lost a brooch
49:50while she was clambering into her carriage.
49:53One of the footmen
49:54said that he'd seen
49:56Abdul Karim's brother-in-law,
49:58Huwamit Ali,
49:59hovering about at the time.
50:01Somebody told Mrs. Tuck,
50:03the Queen's dresser,
50:04that Ali had pinched the brooch
50:05and sold it to the jewellers in Windsor.
50:09Then they got a note from the jeweller
50:11to prove it.
50:12The Queen was furious,
50:14not with a thief,
50:15but with Mrs. Tuck.
50:17She claimed that in India
50:19it was perfectly normal
50:20to pick things up
50:20which didn't belong to you
50:21and it wasn't considered
50:22dishonesty at all.
50:24And then she rounded on Mrs. Tuck.
50:26This is what you English
50:27call justice.
50:30You English,
50:31coming from the Queen,
50:33who had escaped to Germany
50:34when times had got tough
50:35and although she'd spent
50:37the previous 50 years
50:39on the throne,
50:40evidently never really felt
50:41at home in Britain itself.
50:44As with other members
50:46of the court,
50:47Dr. Reid wasn't keen
50:48on how much time
50:49the Queen devoted
50:50to the Munchie,
50:51especially as he was
50:52so often unwell.
50:54He had to look after
50:56the Munchie
50:56and he sometimes
50:58was kept up
50:59till midnight,
51:00who knew,
51:00and he was
51:01at his wits' end.
51:03The Queen went
51:04several times
51:05to see him
51:05in his room
51:06and stroked his hand,
51:08taking Hindustani lessons,
51:11stroking his neck
51:13and smoothing his pillows.
51:17One doesn't want
51:17to be too indeligable,
51:18but what was the matter
51:19with the poor Munchie?
51:20Oh, well,
51:21first of all,
51:21he'd had scabies,
51:23but that was a bit better.
51:25But this was a big boil
51:26on his neck.
51:27How did Reid
51:28and the Munchie
51:29get along?
51:29Oh, Reid disliked
51:33the Munchie hugely
51:34and thought he was
51:36a bad egg.
51:37He was horrible
51:38to his fellow Indians
51:39and felt his sense
51:41of superiority
51:41over all the others.
51:43Can you see
51:44what she saw
51:45in the Munchie?
51:46It was clearly Reid
51:46couldn't really
51:47understand it,
51:48would he?
51:48No.
51:49I think what she...
51:50He was exotic
51:51and he was a symbol
51:53of India.
51:55Victoria,
51:56oblivious to convention,
51:58turned a blind eye
51:59to the unhappy members
52:00of her court.
52:02But things came to a head
52:03when she insisted
52:04that Munchie join her
52:06on her annual trip
52:07to the sunny Riviera.
52:09Victoria had always loved
52:22coming to France
52:23as a place of escape,
52:25travelling around
52:26in the years
52:26after Albert's death
52:27under the name
52:28of the Countess
52:29of Balmoral.
52:30France represented
52:31freedom for Victoria.
52:33and in 1897,
52:36a royal trip
52:37to Simier
52:37was planned,
52:39staying at the swanky
52:40new Excelsior Hotel
52:41with superb views
52:43of the Mediterranean.
52:44Drove through the town
52:46along the fine
52:47promenade des Anglais
52:49close to the sea,
52:50which looked so lovely
52:52in a wonderful
52:53deep blue colour.
52:54The holiday plans
52:57were going awry.
52:59An almighty row
53:00was about to break out
53:01in the household,
53:03precipitated by Dr. Reid,
53:05who most improperly
53:06told the others
53:07that the poor Munchie
53:08had yet again
53:09gone down
53:10with a dose of the clap,
53:12gonorrhea.
53:12They seized on this
53:14as the perfect excuse
53:15to say,
53:16if the Munchie went to Nice,
53:18they weren't coming.
53:19They were going to be
53:20on strike.
53:22This precipitated
53:23the mother
53:24of all tantrums.
53:26Mrs. Phipps
53:27is chosen
53:27to go tell the Queen
53:28that if the Munchie goes,
53:30we are not going to go.
53:31We are going to
53:32collectively resign.
53:34This is revolt,
53:35and the Queen hears this,
53:37and she gets into
53:38a screaming rage.
53:40She gets up,
53:41she throws everything
53:42down from the table,
53:43so all these letters,
53:45pots, ink vents
53:45crashing down.
53:47Mrs. Phipps
53:47leaves the room
53:49in tears,
53:50and she goes back
53:51and tells them
53:52what's happened.
53:53So, at the end of the day,
53:54they don't resign,
53:56and the Munchie travels,
53:57as he always does,
53:59with the Queen.
54:00So, you know,
54:01it's a victory
54:02for the Munchie.
54:04And it was victory
54:05for the Queen, too.
54:08But when Victoria
54:09paraded with the Munchie
54:10on Nice's famous
54:12Promenade des Anglais,
54:13one of the local newspapers
54:15described the Munchie
54:16as a mere servant.
54:17The Queen was infuriated
54:20and insisted
54:21that the newspaper
54:22print a retraction,
54:23stating that the Munchie
54:25was a learned man.
54:27Far from being her servant,
54:28he was her Indian secretary,
54:30her preceptor
54:31in the Hindustani town.
54:34And, moreover,
54:35one of the most important
54:36personages
54:37auprès de la Reine.
54:40The Queen was always insistent
54:41that the Munchie
54:42be respected.
54:43Remember,
54:45he is my Indian secretary
54:46and considered
54:47as a gentleman
54:48in my suite.
54:51In Victoria's eyes,
54:53a gentleman
54:54wasn't a wealthy landowner.
54:56It was someone
54:57who had admirable qualities,
54:59no matter their
55:00class or race.
55:01I find it
55:02one of Victoria's
55:03most lovable qualities,
55:05her complete lack
55:05of snobbishness
55:06and her disregard
55:08for social constraint.
55:09This was the woman
55:10who had been supposedly
55:11crippled by the death
55:12of her husband
55:13at the age of 42,
55:15but had become
55:15so much more
55:16than the widow in black.
55:19Victoria spent
55:19the last 40 years
55:20of her life
55:21after Albert
55:21finding freedom
55:23in the most unlikely
55:24of relationships.
55:26And despite
55:27living life
55:28shying away
55:29from the public,
55:30she emerged
55:31as an icon
55:32of the era,
55:33a picture
55:33of British power.
55:35Just four years
55:36before her death,
55:37the streets of London
55:38were lined
55:39with her public,
55:40celebrating
55:41her diamond jubilee
55:42in 1897.
55:45No one ever,
55:46I believe,
55:47has met with
55:47such an ovation
55:49as was given to me.
55:50Passing through
55:51those six miles
55:52of streets,
55:53the cheering
55:54was quite deafening
55:55and every face
55:57seemed to be
55:58filled with joy.
56:00Victoria died
56:01in January 1901
56:03after a remarkable
56:0563 years
56:06on the throne
56:07and more than
56:08a century
56:09after her death
56:10her words
56:11still command
56:12our attention.
56:13Victoria had written
56:14instructions
56:15which she gave
56:17to her dresser,
56:18Mrs Tuck,
56:19and to the doctor,
56:20Dr Reed,
56:21and they told
56:22what she wanted
56:23to be put in her coffin
56:24with her
56:24when she'd died.
56:26She was to have
56:27the prince consort's
56:29dressing gown.
56:31She was to have
56:31various photographs
56:33of favourite
56:33grandchildren
56:34and servants,
56:35and she was
56:36to have locks
56:37of their hair.
56:39Perhaps most significant,
56:41she was to be
56:41holding a framed
56:43photograph of John Brown,
56:45and on her finger
56:46was the ring
56:48which he'd given her
56:49as his mother's
56:51wedding ring.
56:52As one walks past
56:54that mausoleum
56:55at Frogmore,
56:56which is nearly
56:57always closed,
56:58it's a strange thought
56:59to think of her
57:00lying there,
57:02surrounded
57:02by all her mementos.
57:06The image is emblematic
57:08of a queen
57:09who liked drama
57:10in life
57:11and now in death,
57:13but sadly
57:13the image isn't one
57:14her children
57:15could tolerate.
57:16All traces
57:17of the queen's
57:18unconventional attachments
57:19were erased.
57:21The munchie
57:22was deported.
57:24Her children
57:25tried to edit
57:25their mother's life,
57:26destroying statues
57:28of John Brown,
57:29censoring her journals,
57:31burning her letters,
57:32but many of her words
57:34survive,
57:36and they provide
57:36a fascinating insight
57:38into this
57:39extraordinary human being.
57:42Victoria had overcome
57:43her pressurised childhood
57:45in a controlling
57:46political system
57:47and had fought
57:48through the power
57:49struggles of her marriage
57:50to a man
57:51who had restrained her.
57:53In the midst of grief,
57:54she emerged
57:55as a woman
57:55free to move
57:56in the world
57:57of politics
57:57and make deep friendships
57:59without constraint.
58:01And in all this,
58:02she revealed herself
58:03a woman
58:03who was anything
58:04but Victorian.
58:06Far from being
58:07prim and proper,
58:08she loved life
58:09in all its richness.
58:10She was blind
58:11to class and colour
58:12and, contrary to what
58:14we think,
58:15had a great sense
58:16of humour.
58:17When you look
58:17at this statue,
58:18she seems so stiff,
58:20so formal,
58:21the queen empress.
58:22but hear her words
58:24and Victoria lives.
58:26I love her.
58:34I love her.
58:36But,
58:36so many people
58:38can see her
58:39in the distance.
58:40Transcription by CastingWords
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