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n When Alexandrina Victoria was born to Edward, Dukenof Kent and his German wife, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, inn1819, there were few who would, or could, have seen how the course of her lifenwould run. Edward was the fourth son of King George III and every reasonablenexpectation was that one of his elder brothers would provide the heir to thenBritish throne, but when they all died without legitimate, surviving issue,nVictoria became heir presumptive.
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| Victoria as a girl |
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nIn 1830, a Regency Act was passed which madenprovision for Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, to act as Regent shouldnher uncle, the reigning King William IV, die whilst his heir was still a minor.nVictoria came of age in May 1837 and the King died in June of the same year,nthus avoiding the need for the Regency, and the young, new Queen was greetednwith mixed feelings.
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| Victoria as a girl |
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nMany felt sympathy for the girl, raised in suffocatingnseclusion by a domineering, manipulative mother and her scheming lover, SirnJohn Conroy, but she was also the next in the line of Hanoverian monarchs, andeeply unpopular House of German philanderers, wastrels and rakes, (hernpredecessor, William IV, had had at least ten, and maybe more, illegitimatenoffspring, who were regarded as rapacious, opportunistic drains on the publicnpurse, and his predecessor, George IV, was an even more notoriously debauchednspendthrift).
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| Queen Victoria Coronation Portrait |
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nIn the early years of her reign, the majority of people werenwilling to give the small, slim girl-queen the benefit of the doubt and manynwere won over by her quiet dignity, her modesty and obvious abilities in thenoffices of state. There was gossip that Lord Melbourne, the Whig prime ministernand her advisor, had untoward influence and maybe more over this young monarchnand tongues wagged freely, as they will, but things came to a head in 1839,nwhen it was rumoured that Sir John Conroy, lover of Victoria’s mother, hadnseduced a lady-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, in a carriage on the returnnjourney from Scotland.
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| Lady Flora Hastings |
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nLady Flora loudly denied all this but as her waist begannto swell, the fingers pointed and the accusations flew, and yet Lady Florancontinued with her declarations of innocence. Sir James Clark, the courtnphysician, suspected that the rumours were true and passed his suspicions on tonLady Portman, a royal lady-in-waiting, who in turn informed the Queen. In annenormous error of judgment, the Queen, who hated both Conroy and the ‘odious’nHastings, ordered a medical examination of the Lady, who at first refused tonsubmit but then graciously agreed, and was found to still be a virgin. Victorianprivately apologised to Lady Flora and thought that to be the end of thenmatter, but when the Lady died a few months later, a post mortem revealed thatna large liver tumour had distended her abdomen, giving the appearance ofngravidity, something which the medical examination had overlooked.
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| Young Victoria |
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nConroy, thenHastings family and the Tory opposition continued to use the case as a weaponnagainst Melbourne and the Whigs; they demanded the removal of Sir James Clarknbut an obstinate Queen refused to act and maintained a stony silence. Lettersnappeared in the press, reparation was demanded and apologies called for, all tonno avail. The socially influential Hastings family, who were Tories, turned thenfeelings of the royal court and the public tide of opinion against the Queen,nwith Lady Flora being portrayed as the ‘victim of a depraved Court’.nVictoria was seen to be dabbling in party politics; she liked Melbourne and hisnWhigs and disliked the ‘cold, odd man’, Sir Robert Peel and the Tories.
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| Sir Robert Peel |
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nShe wanted Melbourne to stay at the Palace and to continue to advise her, andnher behaviour was seen as unconstitutional, irregular and unbending. There werensome who began to refer to her as ‘Mrs Melbourne’, it was reported that thenDuchess of Montrose had hissed at her in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, innpublic she was booed and jeered, and the coach she sent to the funeral of LadynFlora Hastings was stoned as it passed to the cemetery. A second crisisndeveloped at the same time, when the Whigs and the Tories clashed over thenquestion of slavery in the colonies. The Whigs sought to implement earlier Actsnof Parliament that would abolish slavery, a move opposed by the Radicals andnthe Tories (and the plantation owners of Jamaica), and a Bill to removenconstitutional and political power of the slave owners was opposed in thenCommons.
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| Lord Melbourne |
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nMelbourne resigned in opposition to the vote and Victoria invited Peelnto form a government but then Peel insisted that the Whig ladies of the RoyalnHousehold were replaced by Tory equivalents. These Whig ladies were Victoria’snfriends and confidantes and she saw no reason why they needed to be replaced;nPeel insisted, Victoria refused, Peel demanded, Victoria dug in her heels andnthe Duke of Wellington was sent for. Wellington claimed he was too old and deafnto take charge and advised Victoria to acquiesce to some small changes butnVictoria was not about to alter her decision.
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| Young Victoria |
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nShe was the Queen, she ruled thenRoyal Household and she alone decided who would be her Ladies. Peel declined tonform a government and Melbourne and the Whigs returned to power but althoughnmany sided with the Queen and felt it was their gentlemanly duty to do so, manynothers felt that her petulance was just that old Hanoverian selfishness wearingna different hat and that she had irreparably damaged her position. What thengirl obviously needed was the firm hand of a husband to keep her in order.
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