We're looking back at an episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina. She's one of Britain's best-loved queens, but Victoria's parentage made her an unlikely heir. When she became queen at 18, she rebelled from her upbringing. But an early marriage to her cousin Albert changed the way she lived and ruled.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Saturday. Everyone, since Valentine's day, is coming up soon. We thought we would take a moment to look back at a historical love story, and that is Victoria and Albert Courtesy of previous years,
Sarah Anti Billina Victoria is definitely one of our problematic favorites. I very open that she is problematic ruler and a fascinating woman, and I love her despite her many flaws, but this episode is
really focused on the two of them and their relationship and how they got together rather than hurt
I'm as monarch or the greater story of what was happening in the world. There are some scanned
mention, though including the lady Flora. Hastings scandal that we have done a whole episode on, but otherwise enjoy. A royal love story, welcomed
stuff you missed in history. Class from housetop works dot com
yeah
hello and welcomed the package. Unfair, Dolly and I'm going to try and wording and to me earlier seemed like Queen Victoria is our classic background pine camp character. We ve joke before that. She just popped up when you least expected she really does. I think somebody even suggested once that we have some stock.
The noise whenever Queen Victoria appears, but until recently she had
gotten podcast to herself earlier this spring. We find
We did an episode on Victoria, focusing on her last great friendship, which was a relationship with her indian teacher, Abdul Karim, and I was
a strange, lesser known side of Victoria Life, and it was also late in her life.
The time Karim New Victoria. She was an elderly woman. In the period we focused on with she was in her seventies and eighties. That was, it was late in Victoria's rain.
Yeah, but listeners are usually more interested in the queen's early years, probably largely because of the recent film Young Victoria, which I'm sure a lot of listeners have seen its
romance ribbons and no nine kids in the picture. Yet for victorian Albert. So we're gonna talk about that site, a victorious life her romance with her husband specifically, but will also rivers
one of our common themes, which is that of the sad royal childhood, and understand that we have to first look at why Victoria became queen in the first place. So it's pretty remarkable that the throne went to Victoria because her father was the fourth adult son of George, the third. Usually, if you have that many kids, the throne, isn't going to go to the daughter of the fourth son. However George, the third sons weren't that inclined to marry and produce legitimate offspring, ITALY, so consequently, this crisis developed in one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, so George, the third and his wife Charlotte, had fifteen children and for me,
Here's their eldest son had acted as regent fur, his insane father, he was known as the Prince regions and later George, the fourth, so the Prince Regent had a legit air of his own daughter named Charlotte and for all
time she was really the darling of the country, and it really seemed like the succession was guaranteed when she married the future king of the Belgians Leopold, but an eighteen, seven
in an age, twenty one she died in childbirth and her son was still born so to join.
Patients right there wiped out at one time and the country went into a deep mourning. Ok, further still airs there wasn't like they're. Just are no children around.
But the error there, mostly middle aged princes and they dont, have kids, though the races off the first prince of the blood. The first son of George, the third to make an air, gets his debts cancelled by the prince,
reach, is a pretty good deal. Has a lot of these guys are into gambling and fast living anyway? The evidence
as easy as it seems right now. It's not at all, so the Prince Regent will obviously start with him he's the eldest son. He was separated from his wife, so there is no chance there of another error. The same went for the next in line the Duke of York and after him there's the Duke of Clarence. The third son, though heat he took,
took this challenge up. If you could call it that, and he married a german princess, but unfortunately-
none of their children survived infancy. So the next son, in line it all, came down to the Duke of Kent and he dumped as long
I must stress and married a woman who had already had children, so he knew she was first
Victoria, Mary Louisa, who was the daughter of the Duke of Sex, Coburg, Sol felled, and she was also the widow of german prince, though bingo we have are winners in this couple. Finally, yes,
so unromantic when you save fertile may put it that way about. That is what it was all about. Going for an once. The duchess became pregnant. The Duke of Kent started making plans for the child to be born on English. Soil they'd been living in Bavaria at the time and he wrote that they need to get back in order to quote
under the child. My wife bears virtually as well as legally English, but the region hadn't exactly followed through on that
or cancel your dad. Steel and the Duke couldn't find the funds to move his entourage until March of eighteen, nineteen, and so by the time the duchess actually
Outback on english soil. She was already eight months along yeah. They had trouble getting lodgings to because these brothers, the Prince Regent in the Duke of Kent, really didn't get along very well, but the Prince Regent does grant them apartments in Kensington Palace and on May 24th, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen Alexandrina Victoria was born and she was
big, healthy baby and things look promising. She got her name, though. The Alexandrina, apart from her godfather who was the Russians, are Alexander, the first and the story behind that. As is kind of strange and also further speaks to this feud between the brothers, the regent had forbidden, Victoria's parents to use any of the standard names that royal baby girls were being called Charlotte. Elisabeth Georgina can kind of sea his rationale behind Charlotte, not having the new
air named the same thing as his decease daughter, but still a weird stipulation and as a result, the people of England stolen
highly sure what her name was even up to the morning of her a session at age. Eighteen be Alexandrina or Victoria, even though she had actually always gone by Victoria as girl in her.
But the little princess was really boring. Just in the nick of time, though, for this family, because only eight month after her birth, her father, the Duke of Kant, died, and so six days after that George, the third died, and that made the Prince Regent. Finally, George, the fourth and that made Victoria third in line to the throne after her to uncle, but she gets even closer as the years go by and these uncle start took to die off when the eldest of the two uncles died in eighteen, twenty seven, she was obviously one step closer and eventually, when George the fourth died in her uncle, the Duke of Clarence became William. The fourth Victoria was next. In line from,
Stirling soap from bird. She was raised to be a likely queen, although not a guaranteed queen it. It would. You still didn't know if somebody might have a kid between her birth and and when she came to the throne
but it's interesting, even though she was raised as a queen the whole time. Nobody really told her of her position until she was about ten years old, though there is that classic story where she had
family tree inserted into a history book and studied it and suddenly pronounced. I will be good and is so that's probably likely untrue. The other chew competing versions of that starts pretty good story, but it's a little hard to back up and Victoria
self remember, the realization is being a lot more dramatic, and then that makes sense to me for our this girl who was not raised to to know she was going to be queen. She said I cried much, I'm learning it and even deplore this content
you it seem like a really natural reaction, as you pointed out, because her life turned out to be pretty rigid because of this future of hers. She had lots of lessons languages like Italian and
in writing history, music, drawing arithmetic geography.
Religion. She learned all kinds of Asia. Yes, maybe that wasn't so bad, but it did make your life pretty busy, but she also didn't get a lot to eat ass. She had bread and milk serve to her in a silver bullet
had a really early bedtime lots of exercise,
and most notably strict isolation. He I thought we could. We could add the less than that
Not much food in the early bedtime in the exercise into the that's kind of standard for the lives of many british, aristocratic children at this time, but this strict isolation with something unique and it was
the design of her mother's companion in Advisor a guy named Sir John Conroy and the duchess herself, and they called it the Kensington System, and it was the way Victoria was brought up. It was a course of rigorous private studies and isolation from her peers and consequently Victoria's main companion during her early years with her elder half sister Feodora, her her mother's daughter by her first marriage and after Feodora left to Mary that she was quite a few years. Older than Victoria Victoria was pretty distraught and turn to her governess, a woman named Louise Litz and, and she really became her her main companion and
This sort of heard her defence against her this conniving Conroy character who, with such a strong influence in her household yeah, and she really needed it because Conway even kept her away from her own family. He encouraged the duchess to keep Victoria away from her quote wicked and
rules and by isolating Victoria from her print paternal family. The royal family Right Conroy, hope to create a better position for himself should William. The fourth died.
Were victorious majority, and that was really the plan because, hopefully, if Hope Labour Conrad,
If William, the fourth died, then the duchess of Kant would become Regent and because Conroy controlled the duchess of can't he would essentially role England so as all play for power
definitely and at one point when Victoria was sick with serious illness Conway and the duchess even tried to pressure the sixteen year old princess in to extend
her minority from aged eighteen to age. Twenty one. She refused, though, now with the help of her governess, actually that with something that really endeared the woman to her
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but a Kensington system obviously could maintain this strict privacy. Con constantly I mean she was a queen to be and fell in eighteen thirty, the duchess of Kant decided that she wanted to sort of validate than her own education system, but also show off her daughter to Victoria's future people. So she set up this fear
of examinations by three cleric than Victoria performed really well. The duchess was valid. Validated has, I think, the cleric sad jelly,
we couldn't, you can do anything better, she's being educated, just as she should be, but the duchess also arranged for Victoria to travel, some and see her country, and that was pretty a pretty major event in young Victoria,
yeah in eighteen, thirty, two before Victoria toward the Midlands and North Wales, she was given a journal by her mother and she kept a journal for the rest,
life. I think we talked about that alot in they victorian Abdul Cream episode. Yes, though, we know that she eventually even starts die like journaling in Hindostanee, which is pretty
yeah, but what s interesting is when you look at these early journals, sometimes the politely restrained and trees and Victoria's journals of that time period. Contrast with the quote behaviour books that she kept from eighteen, thirty and on for her governess and these books. Basically, I mean you told me a little bit about them. Sarah yeah, it's basically like her governess, wanted her to judge herself so right down her her appeal
in on her contact on her how she performed in her studies for the day and do that every single day. So a real self judgment so just to illustrate some of the differences you see between the two, sometimes I'm in one behavior book entry from September, one thousand eight hundred and thirty two. She wrote that she had been very very very.
A very horribly naughty, with many exclamation points, I'll caps to all calves about, on the same day as the horribly naughty entry. All she wrote in her own journal is that the heat was intolerable, though I mean, I think this gives you sort of a sense of Victoria as a young girl, she's she's third of dramatic. She has this dramatic flare to her, maybe melodramatic them when they but she's also good it at either concern
doing things or it or just sort of sort of playing it cool. You know not divulging everything in her journals, maybe because no, no afraid of parent might read it or just practicing for the restraint she would need,
queen so she had a lonely childhood, but not a completely miserable one. She had a ton of pets. She, like plain, dress up.
Like to writing. She wrote compositions inspired by popular novels and she also water, coloured and would paint costumes and poses after attending the theatre concerts,
She was also strongly attached to her uncle Leopold, her mothers, brother and the one time husband of the Charlotte who had died in childbirth when we mentioned earlier in this episode, he
in Surrey until becoming king of the Belgians in eighteen, thirty one and its through Leopold work that she meets her future match. Nea fell only three months after Victoria's bird.
Her mother and Leopold other brother, the Duke of FACTS, Coburg fulfilled, also had a child named Albert and it's it's really kind of Q Victoria's born at the beginning of the summer and Albert's born at the end of the summer. But Albert was the second son with no fortune coming his way, though all long from his birth, his family, can hope for this match with cousin victorious, since she clearly had some good things come into insurers, though, for victory, seventeenth birthday, the plans there, the family starts to try to put this plan into action and Albert and his brother earnest
and his father all visited England, but Albert was kind of an awkward teen. At this point he thought was really are actually had fainting spells. He didn't really like
Damn thing and Victoria with was sort of aviation young girl. Even there. She was raised in such strict isolation and she really had more of a crush on these three visiting persian princes anyway, so very to put Albert on the back burner.
He didn't make a great first impression by apparently she put him on the back burner and how she did to you, but
we need to move on anyways, because Victoria had some pretty big changes coming her way. Yes, early on
June twentieth, eighteen, thirty, seven, king, William, the fourth died. He had managed to stay alive,
just long enough for his niece to reach majority, she was barely eighteen when he passed away and after being told of
new position Victoria met with the Privy council, and they were really impressed with her. She
carried herself well. She spoke well plus it was
of romantic to have this teenage queen when she's really an unknown quantity. At this point because of the coming ten system and the way she's been raised, but for victory, I was just a total relief. She was free at last and she moved a Buckingham palace and for the first time she had a room to herself and she is sort of on bad terms with her mother because of the way
if she had brought John Conroy and her life and all of that and pushed her mother away into a faraway apartments in Buckingham Palace and sent Conroy off entirely and really enjoyed her independence and sort of lived it up, as as you might expect, a teenager too, but later that it was the least sensible and satisfactory tie
in her whole life. So she she clearly realise that sheep over indulged a little bit in her new found freedom, didn't maybe take her role as seriously as an she wished. She had later,
and there were some errors that she made in that early period. She started a close relationship, for example, with Lord Melbourne than Prime Minister. He boosted herself confidence but also shaped her Paul
tax. She became a wig at this time and taught her to partly ignore social
problems or write them off as the issues of agitators ia and that partisanship, which, of course the queen was not supposed to be a vertically partisan link that really lead to trouble in two crises broke out in eighteen, thirty, nine and the first was the Hastings affair, and this is just sort of it. A scandalous would be pregnancy story about this
Clay Victoria, Forest Lady Flora, Hastings who, with a maid of honor with Tory connection so divergent from Victoria's own politics, to undergo a pregnancy examination, and it turned out that Hastings was not pregnant. That was sort of scandal number one than within a year. Hastings died of a tumor that hadn't been diagnosed by
victorious physician scandal number two. While that's going on, though there is another another issue burrowing, yet the bedchamber crisis,
occurred when Melbourne resigned in eighteen, thirty nine and was replaced by conservative Sir Robert Peel. The Victoria wanted to keep her old, wig ladys of the bedchamber, so peel wouldn't take office and thus causing huge scandal. Yeah, though, victorious desire to be independent of pearly kind of at root, though to scandals we just mentioned
independent as in single too, and that desire did not go over well with parliament with her people. She made an error,
Victoria reluctantly started to interview eligible protestant princes. It was kind of slim pickin, though,
in eighteen, thirty, nine. She invited cousin Albert back to England from his studies of the University of Bonn and he's not an awkward teenager anymore, victorious smitten. She wrote in her journal Albert really is quite charming and so extremely handsome. A beautiful figure brought in the
elders and a fine waste. My heart is quite going yeah. He was the one and she liked to it. She saw, and since he was not allowed to Victoria proposed marriage sister
a few days later, and the couple were married, that February February, tenth eighteen, forty and it wasn't the most popular marriage match that could have been added
at first. Parliament wasn't pleased, though, that the crown was about to get you
more German, that's how they saw the couple even spoke german at home, so that was a big deal and also the british Aristotle
see, found Albert to be overly moral to academic and to artistic, but the marriage
so ironed out some of controversy or we're happy at least that she was married and there would be an error in the future yeah
certainly changed the way Victoria plan to rule which were gonna look out as well yeah. This is about where the movie
Victoria leaves off. I think they have the can join the desks limit super cute, but that's not exactly how things were going, though, that the desks did exist there. I was pleased to one and not so, for the first few months, Victoria was really determined to to stay independent. She she liked ruling on her own, and so they did work at those conjoined tandem desks, but Albert only got to blot her signature, which were a very ambitious and talented and educated man. This was pretty frustrating,
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Of course, we all know Victoria starts to have lots of kids and biology, really change the course of things for her. She got pregnant within weeks of the wedding and bit by Bit Albert started to take on more important tasks. He would send dispatches he'd attend meetings with ministers. He even got the key to the secret boxes and over time he also started to change the way. The Tory I thought about things and affect her politics. Even her governess was dismissed. The who had been the former
an influence in her life and in eighteen. Forty two there was an attempt on her life and and the kids just kept on coming to write. Will there were so many of them we're just gonna last off their names really quickly: Princess Royal Victoria, also known as the Vicki Prince
of Wales led the later Edward, the seventh princess Alice, Prince Alfred Princess Helena, Princess Louise Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold and Princess
Beatrice and the grandchildren started arriving only two years after her last child was born. So
sure you did not have a gap in mother in so to speak. Now she really didn't and because she was out of commission so much of every year, every single year Albert really took on an almost regent like role, and he did in fact
regency bill that allowed him to act in the event of Victoria's death or incapacity, but by one thousand eight hundred and forty five and observer named Charles Gravel Road quote. It is obvious that while she has the title, he is really discharging the functions of the sovereign
the king, to all intents and purposes, and Albert, saw his role, though, as advisor to the queen ass. He later told
the Duke of Wellington. His goal was to quote to be the natural head of the family superintendent of her household manager of her private affairs.
Her soul, confidential adviser in politics, and only assist in her, can
indications with the officers of the government. Her private secretary and permanent Minister
he do all that at the expense of his own identity and pretty much working himself to death in the process
yeah? But he wasn't going after titles or where public recognition. He just wanted to play this role and do it for Victorian two to hopefully do good at least the tests that that's how he saw it. So their marriage, though, was generally considered to be a happy one and something
we sat a model for people in the victorian era. They focused heavily on educating their children. They had these sort of middle class tastes, especially the Torah, because Albert did, after all, really like science and technology and art that sort of thing, but the Korea liked reading Dickens, novels and going to circuses and seeing waxwork that sort of thing and the couple also laid their privacy and there really famous for that Albert Bill, residences that
was born and bow moral castle for them to escape to and and as we think we mentioned in the cream of dual absurd. Those retreats really become even more important. Maybe to Victoria in her in her later life,
Ripe Victoria also should be thought of as the model victorian wife and mother figure. She had serious posts, partum depression at times, and she did not like being present
and she really them like babies- that much in general, she didn't even really like kids. She called pregnancy, the quote
shadow side of marriage and compared herself to occur
or dog, while she was pregnant, who think that's kind of shocking I'd, say coming from someone who her identity as all tied with these family, portraits of her and Alber and all of their little tiny kids at around the Christmas tree or sitting around at home. Relaxing it. It does seem different, but I mean it's just to show that this couple had an effect on on their country for sure, but they also led a private
personal life to yeah, but part of her dislike of childbirth was that she wished she gotten more time with Albert alone in late eighteen, sixty one
Albert who is forty two years old at the time
much older, looking raced off to Cambridge to chastise his eldest son over an affair he'd had with a prostitute and after
Albert caught Pneumonia and took to bed doctors diagnosed what he had as typhoid fever, but that was probably a mistake
egg modern analysis shows on their hadn't been typhoid fever in the area at all right.
And so, but at the time that's what they thought it was,
they dosed him with brandy until he died and the
Victory, always blame the death on their son Albert, had known for some time that he wasn't feeling very well so was probably stomach. Cancer is what we now think he had. He had definitely been sick or something but Victoria, as as we talked about in the last absurd and as most people now went into deep mourning after Aubert's death and she she said of him without Albert everything loses its interests, but we need to check whether legacy to because of the
The idea of the the happy Couple Victorian Albert, almost emerges more after the fact, because, while alive Albert had been often unpopular and sometimes even used as a scapegoat, because he was foreign victorious decision to name as Prince Consort, for instance, in eighteen, fifty seven had been terribly mocked. She'd she tried to justify it. By thing, will are adult children are going to start to out rank him because he, the foreign prince, but people just thought it was
dicky decision, but over time it became clear that he had greatly assisted Victoria and helped shape her monarchy and that their happy
strong marriage had influenced the country's tastes and morals, so people started to think
couple fondly especially by the queen's old age and by the height of her popularity. So the perception of them together definitely changed over the years and looking back to the left, quite a legacy. Albert's grand achievement with, of course, the eighteen fifty one great exhibition at the Crystal Palace and even over the years that people looking back on that realised what a high point it had been for England and another great legacy of theirs, is the Victoria and Albert Museum, which sort of originally came out of the great exhibition. But with was named the Victorian Albert Museum really really late and Victoria's life, clearly
touching tribute for her. I'm sure. Thank you so much for joint action on this Saturday. If you have heard an email address or a facebook url or something similar over the course of today's episode, since it is from the archive that might be out of date, now you can email us at history, podcast at how stuff works, dot com and you can find us all over social media at missed in history, and you can subscribe to
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Jackie, enjoying the birthday party yeah two year old age, but unfortunately I have to go unleashing a car today. So well, you can LISA car right from your phone with the roadmap. Look you can do it right here at is pretty cool Dave and deliver the car right dear House really! Well I better get. My house then see welcome to the future car leasing. Brutal gives you access to hundreds of cars online or on the roadmap, with Crystal clear browsing, weaving, deliver the car rights, your house so hit the road the easy way with Roto.
Transcript generated on 2020-01-14.