Victoria

When I was developing this blog, all I could think of for a title was Queen Vic's Bookshelf.  My name is Victoria, after all, and hey, I can call myself a Queen all I want!  But it's also because I find Queen Victoria of England to be a fascinating figure.  She is one of a handful of women who have ruled over England in her own right, but she was raised in such isolation that she didn't have a great idea of what life was really like.  She had her moments of petty selfishness, and she made some bad decisions, but she she still managed to be a strong figure and is well remembered.  She became Queen just about a month after her 18th birthday, and her staunchest companion was her husband, Albert.  His death of typhus rocked her world, and she wore black mourning clothes for the rest of her long, fascinating life, and she is widely known as the Grandmother of Europe due to the number of children she had.  However, a lot of the books, movies and TV shows I see about the Queen are of her later years, after Albert's death.  So much happened when she was a young woman that I think it is really important to learn about that as well.  I added a picture (above) of an older Queen Victoria, looking to me a bit contemplative and sad.

Last year, PBS (in America) broadcasted the first season of the series Victoria.  It's based on Daisy
Goodwin's book of the same name.  Season two is currently airing in England, so I imagine it will come to the states in January or so.  The book, and series, follow the early reign of Victoria.  The prologue takes place when the Princess is 16 and falls ill.  As she is recovering, her mother and her mother's odious Private Secretary, Sir John Conroy, try and force Victoria to sign Regency orders.  If she had signed them, Victoria's mother would have essentially served as the ruler of the country until Victoria was 21 or even 25, but the Duchess of Kent was so far under Conroy's thumb that he would have been the de facto ruler.  NOT something that anyone really wanted, trust me.  Victoria did not sign these orders.  The book itself picks up with the announcement that Victoria's uncle, King William IV has died, and that Victoria is Queen.  Some of her first moves are to distance herself from her mother and from Conroy, neither of whom she trusts.  This does make her very close to the current Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, which is almost as dangerous.  It's not dangerous in the sense of Conroy, who is really an unlikable character any time he is represented, but in the sense that it makes Victoria seem to favor Melbourne's political party.

As the book continues, we see the first few years of Victoria's reign and some of the first few controversies.  The first occurs before she is even coronated.  In an attempt to discredit and get rid of Conroy, Victoria believes her mother's companion, the devout Lady Flora Hastings is pregnant by the man.  She demands a medical examination and it is discovered that the "child" was a tumor and that Lady Flora was incredibly ill.  Upon hearing the news, Lady Flora basically gives up the will to live and eventually passes.  Victoria is sorry for what she has done, but she nearly refuses to go see the woman who's life she has ruined.  Eventually she does, but it is as Lady Flora is dying. When Victoria apologizes for her actions, Lady Flora baldly tells her that only God can forgive the Queen.  She tells Victoria that she must, essentially, grow up.  Her people aren't dolls for her to play with.

Towards the end, we meet the love of Victoria's life, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gothe.  He is really the one who starts to influence the Queen and help her to grow up.  He has an excellent understanding of the world and, because it's his Uncle Leopold's fondest wish, has been groomed his whole life to be Victoria's husband.  Of course, Albert was only ever Prince Consort, not King, but that does not diminish his power.  Their relationship is really, to me, quite sweet.  I enjoy a good romance.  The book ends with their engagement.

I love this book because of the details.  Everything is beautifully portrayed and accurate with the exception of one thing.  That one thing is a thing that I see a lot when I find books and movies and such about Victoria and it REALLY upsets me.  Lord Melbourne and Victoria DID NOT and I repeat DID NOT have a romantic relationship!  He was nearly forty years older than her, and seemed more like a father figure to the girl who had never had a father.  I really wish people would stop romanticizing the relationship and let it be what it actually was.  However, I understand that it creates drama for the young Queen who is incredibly naive.

My copy of this book has reading questions in the back, so that you can ask them in a book club or something like that.  The last one really strikes my interest.  It asks "Did you feel the same way about her [Victoria] at the beginning and the end of the book?"  I know that I didn't.  A young Victoria really didn't know what she was doing and had misguided ideas of what it meant to be Queen.  Her maturity by the end really makes me smile.  I'll let you form your own opinions though!

The series aired on PBS in America, and is a Masterpiece Classic performance.  In it, the young queen is played amazingly well by Jenna Coleman.  While Coleman's character in the show Dr. Who annoyed me, she has amazing acting chops and really manages to capture the naivete and maturation of the young Queen.