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00:14Spring 1851 the word Victorian enters the English language and a very small
00:22woman enters a very big building she's 4 foot 11 yet somehow she fills it the moment so pregnant
00:34for the future seems holy Victoria is herself flooded with religious or one felt filled with
00:44devotion more so than by any service I have ever heard neither she nor anyone else has ever seen
00:53anything like this building before a greenhouse the size of a palace with a difference that this
01:00is from the beginning a people's palace a popular magazine calls it the crystal palace its grandest
01:09spaces are filled not with courtiers and flunkies steampumps and locomotives a huge showcase for
01:17Britain's industrial Empire just three years before in 1848 Europe had been torn apart by
01:25revolutions the government had feared the same would happen here as it turned out other countries
01:35had war and revolution we had the great exhibition other countries had barricades we had the cheerful
01:44queue for the turnstiles in an era haunted by fears of overpopulation this was one of the greatest mass
01:53movements of people in all of European history six million came to see the show of shows
02:03in 1848 industrial machinery had seemed to be the enemy of ordinary men and women the gaping mechanical
02:11jaws into which countless lives were fed to be spat out again as cotton cloth or nails technology the
02:20prophets of doom had warned was an engine of inhumanity driving working people to desperation or revolt but in
02:30inside the glittering glass house someone seemed to have waved a magic wand over the mechanical
02:36brutes turning them from ogres to busy friendly giants happy to be gazed at on a family outing
02:45not least by the first family of the land assembled amidst the hardware after all Papa Prince Albert the
02:56moving force behind the exhibition was the first prince in European history to wear his connection
03:01with the world of business as a badge of pride not shame
03:09but what about mama as the mother of a rapidly expanding family Victoria might have been expected to
03:17know that if the cult of progress was to make Britain not just a great nation but a good one
03:23be a homemaker not a homebreaker
03:25it would fall to our women to see us through the painful change to an industrial society safe and sound
03:42but of course hers was no ordinary family and despite the family photos Queen Victoria was not exactly Mrs. Average
03:50the age which would bear her name would see transformations in the lives of women which Victoria could never have
03:58imagined in the dazzling springtime of her reign whether she'd welcome them whether she'd even understand them whether she'd be
04:04able to bear her name would see transformations in the lives of women which Victoria could never have imagined in
04:04the dazzling springtime of her reign
04:04whether they'd sweep right past her and her glass palace or that remained to be seen
04:12so
04:25so
04:27so
04:27so
04:28so
04:29so
04:29so
04:39so
04:40so
05:04in 1837
05:061837 when she became queen Victoria was only 18
05:13she was as pure as a rosebud which seemed a welcome change from the decidedly impure reigns of her uncles
05:22George IV and William IV
05:24addicted to the pleasures of the bed and the table and indifferent to the hardships endured by the mass of
05:34their subjects
05:39unlike the uncles Victoria had been brought up a model of virginal moderation and self-denial
05:46no regency pampering for her
05:49at one point she and her mother the Duchess of Kent were forced to move out of Kensington Palace to
05:56save money
05:59so
06:00so Victoria's nursery years were spent at bracingly ordinary places like Ramsgate and Sidmouth
06:12much later in life for some reason Queen Victoria looked back on her childhood as a time of sadness and
06:19loneliness
06:20well it's true that like many middle class and aristocratic children she was subjected to an evangelical regime of prayers
06:29and constant self-examination
06:31she kept a behaviour book full of solemn and self-critical entries
06:37this one for August 1832 reads very very very underlined terribly more underlining naughty
06:50but could Christian betterment the driving force of her generation be taken from self-improvement to bettering the life of
07:00her people
07:01that was the question
07:07on her first excursion through England's heart of industrial darkness the teenage princess would see what she was up against
07:16near Birmingham she travelled through the landscape of a British inferno
07:21sooty and sulphurous
07:24the men, women, children, country and houses are all black
07:29the country is very desolate everywhere
07:33there are coals about and the grass is quite blasted and black
07:38I just now see an extraordinary building flaming with fire
07:42smoking and burning coal heaps intermingled with wretched huts and cards
07:48and little ragged children
07:52but the view from the coach was the closest Victoria got to the bleak reality of smokestack Britain
08:02in any case there was something else on her mind
08:06her upcoming date
08:07her upcoming date
08:08with history
08:09all those tombs
08:11and crowns
08:12and thrones
08:13was she ready?
08:17the moment would arrive all too soon
08:21in the small hours of June the 20th
08:231837
08:24the teenage princess in her nightgown
08:28woken by the arrival of the Lord Chamberlain
08:31and the Archbishop of Canterbury
08:35who acquainted me that my poor uncle the king was no more
08:39and consequently that I am queen
08:43I am very young
08:44and perhaps in many
08:46though not in all things
08:47inexperienced
08:49but I am sure that very few have more real goodwill
08:53and more real desire to do what is fit and right
08:57than I have
09:02at her coronation on June the 28th 1838
09:07the young queen showed what she was made of
09:12carrying the immense weight of the robes and regalia with aplomb
09:17but she also managed something more important than dignity
09:21a glimpse of humanity
09:25when the 87 year old Lord Roll tottered as he tried to mount the steps of the throne to do
09:32homage
09:33Victoria's kind hearted instinct was to rise and go down the steps to meet him
09:41everyone noticed
09:45she was young but not precocious
09:48she knew she needed help
09:50and she was wise enough to ask for it
09:52from someone superbly able to give it
09:55the Whig Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne
10:02he won Victoria's confidence by the simple but inspired tactic of never ever talking down to her
10:09never treating her like a child in need of protection
10:13instead he treated her like an adult
10:16sophisticated enough to enjoy his worldly wisdom
10:19his political gossip and even his off-coloured jokes
10:25under his guidance
10:27Victoria's confidence in her public persona blossomed
10:34and she was of course the most desirable catch in Europe
10:41Victoria's mother had thrown banquets and balls
10:44to ensure Victoria met the most eligible princes
10:49including her Saxe-Coburg cousins
10:52Ernest and Albert
10:59it may well have been her uncle Leopold
11:02who in the spring of 1839
11:04first made the suggestion to Victoria
11:06that she might like to marry Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg
11:10and like all young women
11:12she probably initially found the subject a bit embarrassing
11:16but once she got used to it
11:18helped by that handsome
11:19or as she put it
11:21angelic
11:21German head
11:22well, she pretty much ran the show
11:25virtually grabbing hold of her curly head intended
11:29and sprinting for the altar
11:34It was Victoria who supplied the ring
11:37asked Albert for a lock of his hair
11:40and wallowed in the kissing sessions
11:47but if she sometimes seemed determined to wear the trousers
11:51in this marriage
11:52there were also other times
11:54especially right after the wedding
11:56when Victoria simply melted away
11:58into the amazed bliss of conjugal love
12:05When day dawned
12:07for we did not sleep much
12:08and I beheld that beautiful angelic face by my side
12:12it was more than I can express
12:15he does look so beautiful in his shirt only
12:19with his beautiful throat seam
12:23Already the second day since our marriage
12:26his love and gentleness is beyond everything
12:30and to kiss that dear soft cheek
12:33to press my lips to his
12:35his heavenly bliss
12:40My dearest Albert
12:42put on my stockings for me
12:44I went in and saw him shave
12:48a great delight for me
12:55Victoria and Albert's passion for each other
12:58was a strictly private matter
13:04But for countless numbers of Britons
13:06in the suffocatingly overcrowded industrial cities
13:10like Manchester
13:11bedroom privacy was an unimaginable luxury
13:16Manchester was the very best
13:19and the very worst
13:20taken to terrifying extremes
13:23a new kind of city in the world
13:26the chimneys of industrial suburbs
13:28greeting you with columns of smoke
13:31200,000 drones
13:33packed into the hive
13:35to make money
13:36for the lords of Cottonopolis
13:40an American visitor
13:42taken to Manchester's black spots
13:44saw
13:46wretched
13:47defrauded
13:48oppressed
13:49crushed
13:50human nature
13:51lying
13:53in bleeding
13:54fragments
13:56and thank God
13:58for not having been born
13:59poor
14:00in England
14:08The cotton mills
14:10were brutally demanding taskmasters
14:16in England
14:17whole families
14:18spent almost all of their working hours
14:20tending to the machinery
14:28children were given menial but dangerous jobs
14:32like scavenging cotton fluff from beneath the moving machinery
14:41as bad as all this was
14:43it was even worse
14:45when there were no jobs at all
14:47in the first years of Victoria's reign
14:50hands were being laid off
14:52in tens of thousands
14:57it would be a woman
14:58Elizabeth Gaskell
15:00who would be the whistleblower
15:01the first of Victoria's sisters
15:04to stick her neck out
15:05amazingly
15:06her blazing protest
15:08took the genteel form
15:10of a novel
15:12but what
15:12a book
15:13when Mary Barton
15:15was published
15:16in 1848
15:17nobody
15:17not even Charles Dickens
15:19had gone as far as Gaskell
15:21in looking dead on
15:23at the grim reality
15:24of industrial misery
15:30the middle-class wife
15:32of a Unitarian preacher
15:34Gaskell took herself
15:35right into the lower depths of the city
15:37to the gin palaces
15:39and open sewers
15:41dark, reeking alleys
15:42where skin and bones children
15:44played among the rats
15:48in Mary Barton
15:49you didn't just see
15:50you heard working-class Manchester
15:52in the pages of literature
15:55for the very first time
15:56to most of her readers
15:59it must have been a language
16:00more foreign
16:01than French
16:02or German
16:10we do not want dainties
16:12we want bellyfuls
16:14we do not want their grand houses
16:16we want a roof to cover us
16:19from the rain
16:19and the snow
16:20and the storm
16:23I
16:24are not alone
16:25to cover us
16:26but the helpless ones
16:28that cling to us
16:29in the keen wind
16:30and ask us
16:31with their eyes
16:32why
16:33we brought them
16:34into the world
16:35to suffer
16:41by the time you'd finish
16:43Mary Barton
16:44one word
16:45struck like a hammer
16:46over and over again
16:47would have lodged
16:48in your memory
16:49that word was
16:50just clammed
16:51starved
16:52you say it
16:53and you call up
16:54the entire knife-edge world
16:56of struggling to survive
16:57that Elizabeth Gaskell
16:59had created
17:03Elizabeth Gaskell believed
17:05that honest
17:06graphic
17:07social reporting
17:08could make a difference
17:10she wrote to her cousin
17:12my poor Mary Barton
17:14my poor Mary Barton
17:14is stirring up all sorts
17:15of angry feelings
17:16against me in Manchester
17:19but those best acquainted
17:21with the way of thinking
17:22and feeling
17:22among the poor
17:23acknowledge its truth
17:24which is the acknowledgement
17:26I most of all desire
17:28because evils being once
17:30recognized
17:30are halfway on
17:32towards their remedy
17:34one of Gaskell's fans
17:36the social philosopher
17:38Thomas Carlyle
17:39thought it was pointless
17:40to try and improve
17:42a system
17:42so fundamentally
17:44inhuman
17:45as industrialization
17:49nothing is now done
17:51by hand
17:51all is by rule
17:53and calculated
17:54contrivance
17:55on every hand
17:56the living artisan
17:57has driven
17:58from his workshop
17:58to make room
17:59for a speedier
18:00inanimate one
18:03the shuttle drops
18:04from the fingers
18:05of the weaver
18:05and falls into
18:06iron fingers
18:07that ply it fast
18:08there is no end
18:13to machine
18:25for Carlyle
18:26there was only one route
18:28to salvation
18:29Britain must turn aside
18:31from the machine
18:32and summon up
18:33the spirit
18:34of the Christian centuries
18:35of the Middle Ages
18:37the last time
18:38we'd taken it for granted
18:40that faith
18:41was more important
18:42than money
18:46to bring about
18:47this great conversion
18:48from Babylon
18:49to Jerusalem
18:50nothing less
18:51would do
18:52than a Christian
18:53revolution
18:54in building
18:55and no one
18:56was more convinced
18:57of this
18:58than the greatest
18:59of the Gothic
19:00revivalists
19:01Augustus
19:02Welby
19:03Northmore
19:04Pugin
19:04a new generation
19:06of churches
19:07would be in the
19:08front line
19:09in the war
19:09to save
19:11Victorian souls
19:14Pugin was never happy
19:16just to sound off
19:17though
19:18he believed
19:19with all the fervour
19:20of the old faith
19:21that a properly
19:22beautified church
19:23was the very face
19:25of heaven
19:29and before he died
19:30brutally early
19:31at the age of 40
19:33he made sure
19:34especially here
19:36at the church
19:37of St Giles
19:37in Cheadle
19:38Staffordshire
19:39to let some people
19:41see
19:41how gloriously
19:43colourful
19:44it could be
19:53but however
19:54spiritually nourishing
19:56this might have been
19:57it wasn't going to put
19:58bread on the tables
19:59of the needy millions
20:01Victoria's first decade
20:03as Queen
20:03was also a time
20:05of economic hardship
20:06for many
20:07of her subjects
20:08a slump
20:09in foreign trade
20:10had led to
20:11mass layoffs
20:11in the industrial cities
20:13bread
20:14was an unaffordable
20:15luxury
20:16for the unemployed
20:17who blamed the
20:18Corn Laws
20:19for keeping
20:19cheap imported wheat
20:21out of Britain
20:23working class anger
20:25and desperation
20:26was close
20:27to boiling point
20:29for middle class reformers
20:31the answer
20:31was easy
20:32all we need to do
20:33is to get rid
20:34of the Corn Laws
20:35and all will be well
20:39but the militant spokesmen
20:41of the working people
20:42weren't convinced
20:43they wanted more
20:44only a truly popular government
20:47a democracy in fact
20:49would do something
20:50about their distress
20:53they set out their demands
20:55in the People's Charter
20:57a new Magna Carta
20:59for the modern age
21:01it demanded
21:02the right to vote
21:04for all men
21:05secret ballots
21:06annual parliaments
21:10how to get them
21:12moral force
21:13if we may
21:14physical force
21:16if we must
21:20in a climate
21:21of fear
21:22and hatred
21:22people had to decide
21:24just where
21:25their loyalty lay
21:26if you were
21:27on the right side
21:28of the tracks
21:29if you owned
21:29one of the great
21:30cotton spinning mills
21:31like this one
21:32in Ancotes
21:33you would think
21:34the Charsis
21:35were just a mob
21:36misled by demagogues
21:38besides
21:39whoever said
21:40capitalism
21:40was a funfair
21:42as long as you
21:43kept your hands
21:44off the market
21:44well the market
21:46sooner or later
21:46would right itself
21:47and the poor
21:49the people
21:50who worked here
21:51who are hungry now
21:52would be feeding
21:53off the fat
21:54of the land
21:55tomorrow
21:59on april
22:0110th
22:011848
22:02a monster
22:03Chartist petition
22:04signed by
22:05nearly 2 million
22:07men and women
22:07so huge
22:09it would take
22:09two hackney cabs
22:11to get it to parliament
22:12was brought
22:13to london
22:16around 150,000
22:18Chartists
22:19with bands
22:20and banners
22:20and green
22:21red and white rosettes
22:23converged on
22:24Kennington Common
22:25for the biggest
22:26political rally
22:27in british history
22:31the government
22:32was ready for them
22:33london was turned
22:35into a huge
22:36armed camp
22:37with mounted
22:38guards
22:38guns
22:39and even cannon
22:40posted at critical
22:41sites like the
22:42tower of london
22:43and the bank of
22:44england
22:44soldiers were posted
22:46on the mall
22:47to prevent access
22:48to buckingham palace
22:49but the royal family
22:51had fled
22:51to the isle of wight
22:55faced with this
22:56immense display
22:57of strong
22:58armed force
22:59the leader
23:00newspaper owner
23:01and MP
23:02Fergus O'Connor
23:03was left with no
23:04choice
23:04he gave orders
23:06that nobody
23:07should provoke the
23:08troops
23:08however goaded
23:09for the result
23:11would have been
23:12a bloodbath
23:12some of the younger
23:14firebrands
23:15thought it was
23:16a sellout
23:19but then
23:20what was Fergus O'Connor
23:21supposed to have done
23:22unleashed his people's
23:24army
23:24on the soldiers
23:25of the queen
23:26only to get them
23:27mown down
23:28now what good
23:29would that have done
23:30because of the working
23:31people of britain
23:34and besides
23:35just look at this
23:37photograph of the
23:38meeting on the common
23:40the very first
23:42political photograph
23:43in our history
23:46not exactly about
23:48storm the barricades
23:50are they
23:55it may have ended
23:57for the moment
23:57the threat of the
23:59kind of revolution
23:59that had spread
24:00through European
24:01capitals in 1848
24:03happening here too
24:05but the dream
24:06of so many working
24:08people
24:08for somewhere decent
24:10to live
24:10enough to eat
24:11for a share
24:13in a Victorian
24:13bonanza
24:14was as urgent
24:15as ever
24:17if they weren't going
24:18to get it
24:19by armed revolt
24:20then they would get
24:21it in the British
24:22way
24:23in small
24:24but decisive
24:25steps
24:26by coming together
24:27in self-sufficient
24:29communities
24:33this is all that survives
24:35intact of those little
24:37pipe dreams
24:37one of the cottages
24:39of the Chartist
24:40Land Company
24:41settlement
24:41at Great Dodford
24:42in Worcestershire
24:46Founded in 1845
24:48the Land Company
24:49was the brainchild
24:50of none other
24:51than Fergus O'Connor
24:54it bought land
24:55it bought land
24:56which it divided
24:56among its members
24:57into small holdings
24:58meant to take people
25:00out of the industrial
25:01slums
25:02and back
25:03to the rural world
25:04of their forefathers
25:07they get a few acres
25:09to grow their own food
25:10and make a small living
25:14do or die
25:15was the motto
25:16of the incoming settlers
25:18to places like
25:19Great Dodford
25:19and their work
25:20was no picnic
25:21breaking soil
25:23planting hedges
25:24making roads
25:25with no
25:26certain outcome
25:32but some of them
25:33were determined
25:34to make a go of it
25:35especially Chartist women
25:37Anne Wood
25:38for example
25:39who lived in a cottage
25:40very much like this one
25:41was just an Edinburgh
25:42charlady
25:43but one with enough
25:44Scottish thrift
25:46and determination
25:46to save up
25:47ÂŁ150
25:48to put down
25:50for a lot
25:51at Great Dodford
25:53that gave her
25:54the pick of the crop
25:55and after settling
25:57at number 36
25:58along with her two daughters
26:00Anne did well enough
26:02at any rate
26:02to lead a long life
26:04dying at 86
26:09so when all the sound
26:10and fury
26:11had ebbed away
26:12what seemed to count
26:13for most
26:14was making a home
26:15not a revolution
26:18Prince Albert
26:19Prince Albert himself
26:20understood this
26:21in the year
26:22of the Great Exhibition
26:23he commissioned
26:24and had built
26:25model lodgings
26:26for the working class
26:28later
26:29they were rebuilt
26:30at Kennington
26:31on the very site
26:32of the Chartist revolution
26:34that wasn't
26:35and as the boom years
26:38of the 1850s
26:39replaced the hungry 40s
26:41Britain had never seemed
26:43so middle class
26:44starting
26:45with the monarchy
26:50the thousands
26:51of photographic
26:52visiting cards
26:53circulating the country
26:54showed the Queen
26:56and Prince Albert
26:56not on their
26:57aristocratic
26:58high horse
26:59but acting out
27:00the rituals
27:01of middle-class life
27:04respectable
27:04reliable
27:06even
27:07a little boring
27:10Queen Victoria
27:11was to have
27:12nine children
27:13in all
27:13and never had
27:14Britain had a monarch
27:15who went to such
27:16lengths
27:17to advertise
27:18her domestic pleasures
27:20to the nation
27:24the stroll
27:25in the park
27:29the romp
27:31with the children
27:35the sing-song
27:36round the tree
27:37at Christmas
27:38and on the Isle of Wight
27:48a modest
27:49little seaside
27:50getaway
27:51Osborne House
27:55designed by Albert
27:56and relished by Victoria
27:58as an idyllic retreat
27:59from the pressures
28:01of rule
28:08the world
28:09it was here
28:10at last
28:11that Albert
28:12who'd been kept
28:12from meaningful
28:13public work
28:14got his desk
28:16sitting beside hers
28:17from which he could
28:19direct his campaign
28:20to make industrial Britain
28:22a better
28:23as well as a richer place
28:27to see them together
28:29beavering away
28:30you'd suppose
28:31it was a perfect partnership
28:34but not so perfect
28:36that this couple
28:37in every other respect
28:38so mutually devoted
28:40were spared
28:41all arguments
28:43they had their spats
28:44just like the rest
28:45of us
28:49Victoria is too hasty
28:51and passionate
28:51for me to be able
28:52often to speak
28:53of my difficulties
28:56she will not hear me out
28:57but flies into a rage
28:59and overwhelms me
28:59with reproaches
29:00and suspiciousness
29:01want of trust
29:02ambition
29:06envy
29:06for her part too
29:08Victoria wasn't above
29:10letting rip
29:11when she got too
29:12worked up
29:12single people
29:14she'd occasionally
29:15let it be known
29:16were often
29:17much better off
29:18than unhappily
29:19married couples
29:20forced to stay
29:22together
29:22by convention
29:26all marriage
29:27is such a lottery
29:28the happiness
29:29is always
29:30an exchange
29:31although it may be
29:32a very happy
29:33one
29:34still the poor
29:35woman is bodily
29:36and morally
29:37the husband's slave
29:40that always sticks
29:41in my throat
29:46astonishingly
29:47this echoed
29:48exactly the kind
29:49of thing
29:49coming from
29:50the mouth
29:50and the pen
29:51of two of the most
29:52daring critics
29:53of the Victorian
29:54conventions
29:54of marriage
29:55John Stuart Mill
29:57and Harriet Taylor
29:58husband and wife
29:59for seven years
30:00tortured lovers
30:03in a way
30:03for a lot longer
30:05and the joint authors
30:06of On the Subjection
30:08of Women
30:11This was
30:12don't forget
30:13an age
30:14in which a woman's
30:15property
30:15automatically passed
30:17to her husband
30:18when they got married
30:19husbands had the right
30:21to beat their wives
30:22as long as the cane
30:24was no thicker
30:25than their thumb
30:26and to lock them up
30:28for refusing sex
30:40in 1830
30:41the philosopher
30:43John Stuart Mill
30:44went to a dinner party
30:45which changed his life
30:47forever
30:49he was struck dumb
30:51by the vision
30:52of a swan throat
30:53and dark
30:55enormous eyes
30:56they belonged
30:58to one
30:59Harriet Taylor
31:00writer
31:01poet
31:01and unhappily
31:03married wife
31:06between the soup
31:07and the port
31:08John and Harriet
31:09were swept away
31:10by an instantaneous
31:12knowledge
31:12that they'd found
31:14their true soulmates
31:18but being two serious
31:20intellectuals
31:21Mill and Taylor's
31:22forbidden love
31:23couldn't just be
31:24a selfish
31:25private passion
31:26it had to be
31:27thought out loud
31:28as a public issue
31:30their situation
31:32made only too clear
31:34the hypocrisy
31:35of the loveless
31:36Victorian marriage
31:40In some slave codes
31:41the slave could
31:43under certain
31:44circumstances
31:44of ill usage
31:46legally compel
31:47the master
31:47to sell him
31:49but no amount
31:50of ill usage
31:51without adultery
31:52superadded
31:53will in England
31:54free a wife
31:55from her tormentor
31:57Surely
31:59there had to be
31:59another way out
32:00than adultery
32:02or suffering
32:03misery
32:03and silence
32:06What had to be done
32:08was to expose
32:09marriages
32:09as the property
32:11transaction
32:12they often were
32:13and then use
32:14education
32:15and law
32:16to enlighten
32:17and protect
32:18women
32:22Taylor and Mill
32:23would have to wait
32:2419 years
32:25for a chance
32:27to practice
32:27what they preached
32:32In 1849
32:33Harriet's
32:34unloved husband
32:35finally died
32:37freeing the way
32:38for her to marry
32:39John Stuart Mill
32:41but not before
32:43he formally
32:43renounced
32:44all the rights
32:45the law
32:46gave him
32:47over his wife's
32:48property
32:48and person
32:53Their happiness
32:54was short-lived
32:55Harriet Taylor
32:57died of TB
32:58in November
32:591858
33:00but there would
33:02be an epitaph
33:03all their ideas
33:05poured into
33:06on the subjection
33:07of women
33:08their book
33:09that Mill
33:10published
33:10in 1869
33:15Happy and equal
33:16marriages
33:17were no longer
33:17its only concern
33:19women
33:20who made up
33:21almost half
33:21the workforce
33:22of Britain
33:23should have pay
33:24equal to their labour
33:25and most breathtakingly
33:28of all
33:28they should have
33:29the vote
33:32It was a book
33:34whose ideals
33:34gave powerful
33:36momentum
33:36to the women's movement
33:40After the second
33:41reform act
33:42in 1867
33:44almost all
33:45male
33:45householders
33:46had the vote
33:47which made the fact
33:48that female
33:49householders
33:50hadn't
33:51seemed glaringly unfair
33:53Mill
33:54himself an MP
33:55had tried to argue
33:57their case
33:57and even won
33:58the support
33:59of 73
34:00other MPs
34:02The vote
34:03was lost
34:03of course
34:04but the words
34:05had been spoken
34:06and they were heard
34:08especially loudly
34:09in Mrs Gaskell's
34:10Manchester
34:11The breakthrough
34:12had been made
34:13A democracy
34:15worth the name
34:16could not
34:17be just for men
34:24Queen Victoria
34:25may have had her doubts
34:27about unhappy marriages
34:28but this
34:29was a violation
34:30of God's ordering
34:31of right relations
34:32between the sexes
34:34She let it be known
34:36in no uncertain terms
34:37what she thought of
34:39This mad wicked folly
34:41of women's rights
34:42with all its attendant horrors
34:44on which her poor feeble sex
34:47is bent
34:47forgetting every sense
34:49of womanly feeling
34:50and propriety
34:55There was fit
34:57and proper work
34:58for women to do
34:59Victoria allowed
35:00but only the kind
35:01which used the qualities
35:02of tenderness
35:03which God had given
35:05to their sex
35:07Nurses for example
35:08were rightly called
35:09sisters
35:10and matrons
35:12But was it
35:13quite right
35:14for the Queen's own nephew
35:16to call one of them
35:17Mammy?
35:20Florence Nightingale
35:21may well have garnered
35:23the reputation
35:23back in Britain
35:25among civilians
35:26as the Angel of Mercy
35:27in the Crimea
35:28but the woman
35:30whom surviving soldiers
35:31most adored
35:32and for the very good reason
35:33that she saw them
35:35through the worst
35:36was the most forgotten
35:37and the most unlikely
35:38of Victoria's sisters
35:40and her name
35:41was Mary Seacole
35:45Mary Seacole
35:46was West Indian
35:47the daughter
35:48of a Scotsman
35:49and a Jamaican woman
35:51Largely self-taught
35:52her Caribbean remedies
35:54became famous
35:55after they'd been shown
35:56to stop
35:57violent dysentery
35:58and to bring
35:59yellow fever
36:00and cholera victims
36:01back from death's door
36:07When Britain joined
36:09the Crimean War
36:09in 1854
36:10she tried
36:12to volunteer
36:12her services
36:13at the front
36:16of the government
36:17but Mary
36:17didn't exactly
36:18fit the profile
36:19of middle-class nurses
36:21she was turned down
36:23by the likes
36:24of Nurse Nightingale
36:27So Mary
36:28got herself
36:29to the Crimea
36:30under her own steam
36:32and with her own funds
36:33and once she got there
36:34she did something
36:35truly extraordinary
36:39Mary Seacole
36:40built her
36:41British Hotel
36:42right on the front line
36:44and it doubled up
36:45both as a refectory
36:47feeding the boys
36:48about to go into action
36:49and a recovery station
36:51for the sick
36:52and wounded
36:55Every morning
36:56she'd make up
36:57great vats
36:58of nutritious food
36:59like rice pudding
37:01saddle up a pair
37:02of mules
37:03and ride
37:04into the heart
37:05of the action
37:05looking for the wounded
37:07to whom she'd
37:08dole out food
37:09hot tea
37:10medicine
37:11but most of all
37:13motherly love
37:18mortars would whiz past
37:20the big old woman
37:21trundling along the lines
37:25Upon these occasions
37:27those around would cry out
37:29lie down mother
37:30lie down
37:32and with very undignified
37:34and unladylike haste
37:35I had to embrace the earth
37:39After the war was over
37:41the soldiers
37:42fated her
37:43at a charity gala
37:46She'd become
37:47briefly
37:48an eminent
37:50Victorian
37:54Suppose though
37:55women drawn to help the sick
37:57went one stage further
37:59and dreamed of being
38:01a doctor
38:01Now that
38:03was a different story
38:07In 1860
38:08Elizabeth Garrett
38:10enrolled as a surgical nurse
38:12at Middlesex Hospital
38:13but her sights
38:15were set higher
38:16In between the swabs
38:18and the bedpans
38:19she was looking
38:20carefully
38:21at surgical operations
38:22and she was also
38:24cutting up body parts
38:25in her bedroom
38:29This improvised education
38:31made her
38:32bold enough
38:32to take the hospital's
38:34medical
38:34not nursing exams
38:36and when the time
38:37came to publish
38:38the results
38:39one E. Garrett
38:41had come
38:42top
38:45Ordered to keep the outrage
38:46secret
38:47she went public
38:48instead
38:49Nine years later
38:51the French gave her
38:52an MD
38:53and in 1874
38:54the first medical college
38:56expressly for women
38:57was set up
38:59in London
39:01For Victoria
39:03the mere idea
39:04of slips
39:05of girls
39:05looking at
39:06much less
39:07cutting up
39:08the naked bodies
39:09of dead men
39:10was an unthinkable
39:11indecency
39:14But no doctor
39:15was of any help
39:16to her
39:17in the greatest crisis
39:18of her life
39:20For in
39:211861
39:22the same year
39:23that Elizabeth Garrett
39:25cut her way
39:26into medicine
39:27Albert contracted
39:29typhoid
39:30which after
39:31a few months
39:32of horrifyingly
39:33swift
39:34deterioration
39:35ended
39:36in his death
39:37in December
39:41Everything in those
39:43last weeks
39:43became suddenly
39:44invested
39:45with an almost
39:46religious significance
39:47here for example
39:49here for example
39:49is the last book
39:50read to Albert
39:51Scott's
39:52Peverell of the Peak
39:53and on the flyleaf
39:54the Queen has written
39:55this book
39:56was read
39:57up to
39:58the mark
39:59on page 81
40:00to my beloved husband
40:01during his fatal illness
40:04and within three days
40:06of its terrible termination
40:10you turn to page 81
40:11and here's how it reads
40:13he heard the sound of voices
40:16but they ceased to convey
40:17any impression
40:18to his understanding
40:19and in a few minutes
40:21he was faster asleep
40:23than he'd ever been
40:24in the whole course
40:26of his life
40:31Victoria buried her beloved Albert
40:34in the Italian mausoleum
40:36she built here at Frogmore
40:38in Windsor Great Park
40:50Albert's death
40:51threw Victoria
40:53into a paroxysm
40:55of grief
40:55not for her
40:57the stoical acceptance
40:58of the inscrutable
41:00will of the almighty
41:01she had lost
41:02not only her co-ruler
41:04but her helpmate
41:05and vanished too
41:07was her domestic idyll
41:08at the abyss
41:10of her misery
41:10she must have thought
41:11that all chance
41:13of contentment
41:14had gone
41:17my life as a happy one
41:19is ended
41:20the world is gone for me
41:23if I must live on
41:25and I will do nothing
41:26to make me worse
41:27than I am
41:28it is henceforth
41:30for our poor
41:31fatherless children
41:32for my unhappy country
41:34which has lost all
41:35in losing him
41:42death was an immense presence
41:45in Victorian life
41:47perhaps because it was the one conquest
41:50denied to the soldiers
41:52and the engineers
41:53and the captains of industry
41:55who seemed to be able to conquer everything else
41:58if they couldn't stop their loved ones
42:02from going to their graves
42:03they could at least create the illusion
42:05in marble and photographs
42:07that they were still alongside
42:09those who mourned them
42:13this
42:13in her distraught
42:15inconsolable grief
42:17Victoria knew
42:18how to do
42:20with religious devotion
42:22she set out Albert's
42:24shaving equipment
42:25every morning
42:27and fresh evening clothes
42:29and a clean towel
42:30every evening
42:34missing his physical presence
42:36she slept with his nightgown
42:38by her side
42:44the exuberant
42:45headstrong
42:46young woman
42:47shrank
42:48into the hard shell
42:49of a
42:50forbidding
42:51inconsolable
42:52widow
42:53for whom
42:54the least sign
42:55of merriment
42:56was a betrayal
42:57of Albert's
42:58sainted
42:59memory
43:01she seemed
43:02in a way
43:02which no one
43:03accustomed to the
43:04strong-minded queen
43:05could ever have imagined
43:07somehow
43:08no longer in charge
43:10of either herself
43:11or
43:12the country
43:14Victoria's sense
43:16of moral calling
43:17so strong
43:18from the beginning
43:19of her reign
43:20had become so
43:21dependent
43:21on Albert the Good's
43:23judgement
43:23that now that he was gone
43:25she seemed
43:26at a loss
43:27about how
43:28and where
43:28to exercise it
43:30it never occurred
43:31to her
43:31that women
43:32alone
43:33either as widows
43:34or spinsters
43:35might be able to do
43:37good by themselves
43:38to make a life
43:40even a career
43:41on their own
43:47if she wanted to see
43:49how this could be done
43:50all she needed to do
43:52was to take her pony
43:53trap
43:54a mile or two
43:55down the road
43:55from Osborne
43:56to Freshwater
43:57to visit someone
43:59who though
44:00neither widow
44:00nor spinster
44:02was very much
44:03her own woman
44:08the photographer
44:09Julia Margaret Cameron
44:13since Victoria
44:14was herself
44:15an avid collector
44:16of photographs
44:17she might have been
44:18curious about
44:19this eccentric
44:20half French woman's
44:22notorious darkroom
44:26for Julia Cameron
44:28photography
44:29was not just
44:30an amateur
44:30hobby
44:32the poetic
44:33lyricism
44:34of her photographs
44:35disguises
44:36the hard need
44:37she had
44:38to make some money
44:42worse
44:43she seemed
44:44perversely
44:45to glory
44:46in the male mess
44:47of camera work
44:50flouncing around
44:51in a converted
44:52hen house
44:53that was her studio
44:54her dresses
44:55and hands
44:56stained with black
44:57silver nitrate
44:58conscripting
44:59men and women
45:00models
45:00like a recruiting
45:01sergeant major
45:02and bellowing
45:03terrifyingly
45:04at them
45:05if they moved
45:06before they were told
45:09needless to say
45:11the men
45:12who ran
45:12the Royal Photographic
45:13Society
45:14refused to take
45:15her seriously
45:17away
45:18admiring the
45:19enthusiasm
45:19of Mrs Cameron
45:20the committee
45:21regrets that
45:22they cannot concur
45:23with the lavish
45:24praise which has
45:25been bestowed on
45:26her productions
45:27by the non-photographic
45:28press
45:29feeling convinced
45:30that she will
45:31herself adopt
45:32an entirely different
45:33mode of representing
45:34her poetic ideas
45:35when she has made
45:37herself acquainted
45:37with the capabilities
45:39of the art
45:41what they meant
45:43of course
45:43was that a soft
45:45woman
45:45couldn't be expected
45:46to master
45:47machinery
45:48chemicals
45:49the hard
45:50technology of the
45:51job
45:51let alone make a
45:53professional career
45:54out of it
45:55despite Julia's
45:56obvious success
45:57at both
45:58but some of the most
46:00powerful
46:01and intelligent
46:02of the Victorian
46:03great and good
46:05Tennyson
46:07Carlisle
46:09and the astronomer
46:11Sir John Herschel
46:12who had obediently
46:13posed
46:13were not deceived
46:15by the poetic light
46:16of her work
46:18they embraced her
46:20as the greatest
46:21portraitist
46:22of her age
46:29Julia's triumph
46:30in making a profession
46:31as an artist
46:32must have been noticed
46:34by all the young women
46:35of the 1870s
46:36and 1880s
46:38who wanted more
46:39for themselves
46:39than just a destiny
46:41as wife
46:42and mother
46:50After Girton College
46:51the first
46:52Oxbridge College
46:53for women
46:54opened its doors
46:55near Cambridge
46:56in 1873
46:57they had
46:59for the first time
47:00somewhere
47:01that would
47:01educate them
47:02liberate them
47:03if they chose
47:04from middle class
47:05domesticity
47:09but even as they
47:10drank in knowledge
47:11behind the red walls
47:13of Girton
47:13some of those young
47:15women longed
47:16to get beyond
47:17the cloister
47:20the old ways
47:21of women's useful work
47:23teaching
47:24preaching
47:25nursing
47:25were no longer enough
47:27nor was just being
47:29an educated
47:30designer
47:30of the house
47:32beautiful
47:34they were drawn
47:35instead
47:36as Elizabeth Gaskell
47:38had been a generation
47:39earlier
47:39to the ugliness
47:41everywhere
47:42in a Britain
47:42feeling
47:43once more
47:44the strain
47:45of economic crisis
47:48some of them
47:49even decided
47:50to make that new home
47:51in the places
47:52most shocking
47:54to their parents' generation
47:56in the slums
47:57in the slums
47:58of the industrial cities
47:59to steep themselves
48:01in the dirt
48:02and anger
48:03of their poor
48:05abused sisters
48:08to face up to
48:09harsh truids
48:10the kind
48:12spelled out
48:12by the young
48:14George Bernard Shaw
48:17the war
48:18your slaves
48:19are beyond
48:20caring for your cries
48:21they breed
48:23like rabbits
48:24and their poverty
48:26breeds filth
48:27ugliness
48:28dishonesty
48:28disease
48:29obscenity
48:31drunkenness
48:32and murder
48:36the bravest
48:38the bravest
48:38of this new generation
48:39could even face
48:41head on
48:42the most unpalatable
48:43truths
48:44like that link
48:45between breeding
48:47and destitution
48:49Annie Besant
48:50was the kind
48:51of do-gooder
48:52clergyman's wife
48:53unthinkable
48:54a generation
48:55earlier
48:56and still unthinkable
48:57to the likes
48:58of the Queen
48:59Annie Besant
49:00had scandalized
49:01the country
49:02by publishing
49:03contraception advice
49:04for working people
49:06such impertinence
49:08would not go
49:09unpunished
49:10however
49:10and Annie found herself
49:12the victim
49:12of a court order
49:14she lost custody
49:15of her daughter
49:16to her former husband
49:18an unforgiving time
49:20for women judged
49:21as unfit mothers
49:22but nothing
49:24would stop her
49:25crusading
49:27searching round
49:28for a woman's cause
49:29Annie found one
49:31in the teenage
49:32match girls
49:33who worked
49:34amidst
49:34phosphorus fumes
49:35for Bryant and May
49:36in East London
49:37they were paid
49:39just between
49:40four and ten shillings
49:41a week
49:42and if they had
49:43dirty feet
49:43or an untidy bench
49:45they were fined
49:46taking more money
49:47out of their
49:48already pathetic wages
49:52Most horrifying
49:53of all
49:53the girls ran
49:55the constant risk
49:56of contracting
49:57the hideously
49:58disfiguring
49:59fossey jaw
50:00since Bryant and May
50:03persisted
50:04in the use
50:04of phosphorus
50:05which other
50:06match companies
50:07had given up
50:10At the same time
50:11the company was paying
50:13huge dividends
50:14to its shareholders
50:15a disproportionate number
50:17of whom
50:17Annie enjoyed revealing
50:19were the clergy
50:22Annie wrote an article
50:24about the plight
50:24of the match girls
50:25for her campaigning
50:27newspaper
50:27The Link
50:29and together with
50:30fellow socialist
50:31campaigner
50:32Herbert Burrows
50:33she distributed
50:34copies of it
50:35at the gates
50:36of the factory
50:38The owners of
50:39Bryant and May
50:39threatened the girls
50:41with instant dismissal
50:42if they didn't sign
50:43a document
50:44repudiating the article
50:46and the journalists
50:48but instead of signing
50:50the girls went
50:51en masse to Annie
50:52and Burrows
50:53with their story
50:54they told her
50:55You had spoken up
50:57for us
50:57we weren't going
50:59back on you
51:01A strike committee
51:02was formed
51:03Besant and Burrows
51:05promised to pay
51:05the wages
51:06of any girls
51:07dismissed
51:07for their action
51:08George Bernard Shaw
51:10volunteered
51:11as the cashier
51:12of the strike fund
51:131400 girls came out
51:16the company
51:17eventually settled
51:18and Annie Besant
51:19and the girls
51:20were triumphant
51:24She was hailed
51:25as the working girls
51:26champion
51:26and was immediately
51:28sought after
51:28by all sorts of other women
51:30aggrieved
51:31at their treatment
51:35In 1888
51:36Annie campaigned
51:37for election
51:38to the Tower Hamlets
51:39school board
51:40in a dog cart
51:41festooned
51:42with red ribbons
51:44She won
51:45in a landslide victory
51:47polling
51:4715,000 votes
51:49Even before
51:51they had the vote
51:52women showed
51:52they could
51:53and would
51:54win
51:55local elections
52:02Queen Victoria
52:03was not in fact
52:04blind
52:05to the miseries
52:06which so appalled
52:07the young women
52:08social workers
52:09of the 1880s
52:10and 1890s
52:12of the 1880s
52:13Shaken
52:14by some of the
52:15revelations
52:16in the bitter cry
52:17of outcast London
52:18she actually pressed
52:20Gladstone's government
52:21to spend more
52:22of its time
52:23on the problem of housing
52:24and her insistence
52:26produced
52:26a royal commission
52:30for the 1880s
52:31but whether she wanted
52:31to see it
52:32or could have seen it
52:34there were
52:34in the warm
52:35jubilee summer
52:36of 1887
52:38two Britons
52:39nearly a third
52:41of able-bodied
52:42men
52:42were unemployed
52:43now
52:44thousands
52:45of the jobless
52:46were also homeless
52:47sleeping rough
52:49in parks
52:49and squares
52:50some of them
52:51even in open coffins
52:53the undead
52:54of underclass
52:55Albion
52:59but of course
53:01the queen
53:01was kept
53:02well away
53:03from all that
53:05what she saw
53:06were 30,000
53:07poor school children
53:08in Hyde Park
53:09who each
53:10got a meat pie
53:12a piece of cake
53:13and an orange
53:14to celebrate
53:15the great day
53:16of her jubilee
53:19the children sang
53:20god save the queen
53:23somewhat out of tune
53:27it was the kind of thing
53:29which brought a smile
53:30yes a smile
53:32on the face
53:33of the old queen
53:38it would be like this
53:39for the rest of her life
53:41the country bathed
53:43in summer evening light
53:44the faces
53:45well scrubbed
53:46and beautiful
53:48the old lady
53:49at last
53:50something like
53:51the contented matriarch
53:53the grandmother
53:55of the empire
53:56the thrones of Europe
53:58filled with her offspring
54:01there was of course
54:03someone missing
54:04from this national
54:05family photo
54:06in the abbey
54:07amidst all the splendour
54:09Victoria suddenly
54:11felt a pang
54:13I sat alone
54:15oh
54:17without my beloved husband
54:19for whom this would have been
54:21such a proud day
54:25Victoria would have to wait
54:27another 14 years
54:28until 1901
54:30before she would be reunited
54:32with him
54:33to whom the nation and I
54:36owe so much
54:39her long-suffering secretary
54:41Frederick Punsenby
54:43said there was nothing
54:44Victoria enjoyed so much
54:46as arranging funerals
54:48and her own
54:49was no exception
54:57so she ordered
54:59a white
55:00lying in state
55:01and funeral
55:02for herself
55:06in her hands
55:08was a silver crucifix
55:10her white dress
55:11decorated with
55:12cheerful sprays
55:14of spring flowers
55:17there was a touch
55:18of Miss Havisham
55:19about this
55:20the 80-year-old
55:22flower-bedecked
55:23virgin bride
55:24but not jilted
55:25by her beloved
55:27going to join him
55:32when Albert's
55:33memorial effigy
55:34had been ordered
55:35from the sculptor
55:36Marachetti
55:36in 1862
55:38Victoria insisted
55:39on hers being made
55:41at the same time
55:42and with her appearance
55:44and with her appearance
55:44as it was
55:45when he had been taken
55:46from her
55:47so that they would be
55:48reunited
55:49at least in marble
55:50at the same age
55:52in the glowing prime
55:54of their union
55:59the trouble was
56:00no one could remember
56:01where they'd put the statue
56:03made 40 years before
56:04it had in fact
56:06it had in fact
56:07been walled up
56:07in one of the cavities
56:09of a renovated room
56:10in Windsor Castle
56:14Eventually it was found
56:16and laid next to Albert
56:17as per the Queen's orders
56:19and there she is
56:21as if the clocks had stopped
56:22along with the heart
56:24of the Prince Consort
56:27but they hadn't
56:28of course
56:29Victoria
56:30might lie
56:31next to her beloved
56:32dressed as a medieval princess
56:34but he
56:35of all people
56:36had known
56:37it had been progress
56:39which had been
56:40the mainspring
56:40of her reign
56:43Albert
56:44had done his best
56:45to see
56:46that it had been
56:47a force for goodness
56:48as well as greatness
56:49that the surging movement
56:51of the machine age
56:52would be held in check
56:54by the modern
56:55moral anchorage
56:56of the Victorian home
57:01The women of Britain
57:02Victoria's sisters
57:04and daughters
57:05were all supposed
57:06to have been grateful
57:07for this
57:07to bask in the warmth
57:09of the hearth
57:10they tended
57:10but those cosy fires
57:13kindled yearnings
57:14that couldn't be contained
57:15by a placid domesticity
57:17those little liberators
57:20the checkbook
57:21the latchkey
57:22and the bicycle
57:23beckoned over the doorstep
57:25and into the street
57:30and she couldn't tell
57:32any longer
57:32just how the girls
57:34would turn out
57:45the women of Britain
57:46riding with the body
57:47of the Queen
57:47from London to Windsor
57:49was the widow
57:50of one of her
57:50viceroys of India
57:52Lady Lytton
57:54just eight years later
57:56her daughter
57:57Constance
57:58in prison
57:59as a suffragette
58:00would make her statement
58:01about the future
58:02of women in Britain
58:07by carving
58:09with a piece
58:10of broken enamel
58:11from a hairpin
58:13the letter V
58:14into the flesh
58:16of her breast
58:20but it wasn't V
58:22for Victoria
58:23it was V
58:25for Votes
58:27for Votes
58:40and what
58:59the women in Britain
58:59was the only one
58:59who was tucked away
58:59with the skin
58:59and the women
59:00who were just