Queen Victoria's Secrets - Full Documentary

[Music] what would Britain be without pictures like these and without this family [Music] but what would Britton be without this lady one and a half centuries ago Queen Victoria founded an empire on which the Sun never set never before had Britain been so mighty this little lady survives several assassination attempts she married a German Prince and most of her nine children followed her example but by the end of her life Germany had become too passive there was a great war in the air its outbreak a matter of years the First World War was to become the cruelest Psalter ever seen and at the same time an absurd family feud Victoria's dream of Peace in a European family was shattered on her deathbed [Music] spring 1819 a carriage rushes from the south coast of England to London a British nobleman at the reins he is a human wreck a loser but he is a royal blood the Duke of Kent he and his family Lodge with German relatives as he can't afford to live in London in the carriage his very pregnant German spouse and her Midwife the hope for son has to be born in England for with a bit of luck he'll one day the king of England on the 24th of May 18-19 the child is born in Kensington Palace near Hyde Park a healthy baby girl Alexandrina Victoria only a few days later the Midwife Charlotte Sebald is ordered to return to Germany as she's needed at home a four-week journey away Coburg in this castle - a child is born who's to play a vital role in Britain a boy called Albert 21 years later his cousin in London who's nearly the same age will ask for his hand in marriage the dream couple of the 19th century [Music] Victoria spends her childhood at Kensington Palace her father dies early on in her life from now on Victoria is raised as a German English will be only her second language she was entirely on her own this is interesting she was isolated from other children and she never met anybody ever they much until she turns 18 she has to sleep in her mother's room as the adolescent Victoria enjoys glimpses of well-built men the Duchess also fears an attempt on the life of the future Queen the waltz is very fashionable but not for Victoria too much physical contact with men she begins to loathe her mother the teenager starts to write her thoughts and feelings down she is to keep a diary until the end of her life you may understand she writes to her uncle but my feelings are pretty strong now that the season is returning and I've been a very good child not even wishing to come to town till now Windsor Castle in 1838 the King William the fourth is terminally ill in these rooms great efforts are made to keep him alive until Victoria comes of age a Regency in the hands of Victoria's mother whom he hates must be avoided he achieves his goal the King dies at two o'clock in the morning a few weeks after Victoria's 18th birthday Victoria is woken immediately and addressed as your majesty for the first time she promises I will be good she is crowned at the age of 19 the new Queen herself commemorates the ceremony in a watercolor Victoria's task is a difficult one more than 100 years earlier the House of Hanover brought progress to England but has in the meantime lost its good reputation the monarchies image has been run down by weak kings Victoria wants to give the crown back its shine Victoria's favorite uncle Leopold advises her to marry in order to avoid false expectations sooner than she'd like Prince Albert her cousin from Cobourg is ordered to come to London for her inspection what happened was that Queen Victoria did not want to be bulldozed didn't want to be pushed into this marriage she had her own views and the more they tried to push him on the more she she resented it all marriage is such a lottery the happiness is always an exchange she writes in her diary and adds though it might be a very happy one still the poor woman is bodily and morally the husband's slave [Music] in the end it was that they met she was very taken by him he was very handsome man he was charming he had a great way with people she found a very sympathetic figure and in the end she simply fell in love with him entry in her diary after the wedding night we didn't sleep much he looked so beautiful in his shirt only Victoria tells her adviser Mel born the next morning about a very satisfying and confusing night Cobourg is still the ancestral seat of Albert's family beyond a dense forest lies kallenberg the castle now owned by his descendants here comes the head of the family Prince andreas was raised in the United States and is trying to translate his family's traditions into modern times the prince and his forester will feed the deer and see if they're good for hunting yet nowadays the cobourg had no political power whatsoever but 100 years ago they occupied more Thrones than any other aristocratic family bismarck refer to them mockingly as the stud of Europe well the family Lincoln first of all we were related directly to my great-great-grandmother British grandfather Albert the values of these families being liberal being earnest living up to things that you are expect from other people I think these are values to be proud of Albert's last pleasure before leaving for London hunting foxes and hares will remain one of his favorite pastimes in Britain - a welcome change to the daily routine where language plays no part in whant at that time in the 1800 40s was an open country heaven for people who sought political asylum but that doesn't necessarily mean that they will result prejudices against the nations of the continent and when Victoria married Albert there were a lot of questions Hey why does it have to be a German stayed difficult for him at the beginning because Queen Victoria didn't like the idea of sharing with him some of the affairs of state she was very jealous Victoria is to be the boss in their private life - Albert wants to go on a long honeymoon but she rejects this roughly in a letter three days longer is out of the question she is the queen Albert feels neglected his wife prefers to listen to her governess and confidant the German Louise lazy the Queen felt that she would lose her authority if she said her position with him and she was backed up in this by Baroness Leighton who felt that she also would lose her influence over Victoria Albert plots and schemes behind the Queen's back he wants to send lazin back to Germany Victoria is furious but finally Albert gets his way and after that the relations between Albert and Victoria were much much karma and he became to all intents and purposes a Co Manik Albert's strongest weapon is Victoria's great desire to have him near their love life prospers only nine months after their wedding night the Midwife is called [Music] the Queen expects a male heir to the throne if she has a daughter the child will be drowned she wants rights to uncle Leopold and states in her diary but children in their first six months are little more than plants it is a girl never mind she promises Albert next time it will be a prince [Music] she hated childbirth she hated all those pregnancies and don't forget she had nine children and she only rarely liked didn't like babies she liked children when they were three or four years old they become little characters little people Buckingham Palace the changing of the guards then as now the most popular wall spectacle in London the public part of an expensive show for which Britain is being envied by the whole world loss of privacy as the price the royal family has to pay as representatives of the constitutional monarchy for Victoria a serious problem the thing was that she and Prince Herbert liked a very cozy informal life and they certainly didn't get it a Buckingham Palace or at Windsor they seek refuge in the countryside the picturesque Isle of Wight Shan Indians south coast Norris Castle is where Victoria used to spend holidays with her mother she wants to buy the castle with the 12 foot thick walls for the owner asked to higher price the royal couple buy the cheaper land nearby Albert builds his queen a dream palace in the Italian style I was born house [Music] he himself draws the plans and imports materials from all over Europe everything is well-planned elbert overseas even the smallest details personally and Victoria begins to learn to control has sometimes passionate feelings he becomes her best advisor even on matters of government Prince Albert's writing room and here we can imagine the Prince Consort sitting at his desk toiling away on his massive correspondence as well as all the other motive various projects that he was involved with he was an incredibly busy champ he graduated from being as he called himself ajust the husband in the house to being the master of the house and here we can see in the Queen sitting room very symbolic in the center of the room these two working desks which the Queen and the Prince Consort would have worked out side-by-side the masses of correspondence that they would have got through they might have letter writing and writing generally that they both did was phenomenal and it was really from this room at Osborne House that the the British Empire and was controlled sharing bed and desk they create a new dynasty which only two generations later will embrace all the important wall houses in Europe Viki is to become the wife of the German emperor her resemblance to Albert makes her Victoria's favorite child the longed-for Prince Edward he is to become King of England in spite of all the trouble he causes the Queen Alice the future Princess of hessin her daughter is to marry the Russian Tsar Alfred future regent of saxe-coburg and Helena future Princess of schleswig-holstein Louise the only one of the nine children to marry a British subject and Arthur his daughter is to become queen of Sweden Leopold will marry a princess of vaulteq Piermont he has to die young of haemophilia Beatrice future Princess of Battenberg she will burn her mother's Diaries after her death this happy family gives an example for an entire era Queen Victoria will never be this content again a favorite pastime was swimming in the bay here at Osborne and here we are standing in front incredible contraption here was the Queen's bathing machine and it's basically a large changing room and it would have been winched from the back it would have run along these grooves here these sort of almost like railway tracks I suppose here we've got the changing room and the Queen would have changed from her day clothes into her bathing costume the bathing machine a Victorian invention bringing into line the demands of morality and the desire for pleasure the common people step into the water unshielded the Queen on the other hand must not be observed rail tracks lead right into the water [Music] she would change she would be the machine would have been lowered into the water the steps would have been submerged and in water so that she would be able to come out underneath the canopy walk down the steps into the sea completely unseen remyxx of the world bathing machine can still be seen today stone rail tracks discovered on the Queen's private beach [Music] Albert builds a Chalet with a vegetable garden for his children they sell the fruit to relatives so as to learn how to handle money he also teaches them strategy and tactics it's a fort it was built in the 1850s for the Royal children and it's here that I suppose the children and grandchildren would have been doused in war games which perhaps didn't augur too well for the future so perhaps it wasn't a terribly good idea but it must have been an incredibly exciting place for children to play the military is held in high esteem the wounds of the Napoleonic Wars have not yet healed in Britain Victoria intends to normalize relations with the former enemy France she meets Napoleon the third is taken by his charm and even flirts with him [Applause] the two countries are finally united fighting the Russians on the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856 the Crimean War was a turning point in history for the first time in centuries England and France were united and this was also due to the good understanding between Queen Victoria and ruin upon all France there is also a technical revolution going on in the 19th century people experienced huge changes in the world in just one generation the most spectacular innovation is the railway and English invention England in the 1800 40s or the muzzle end of the railways it was also a significant effect that under her reign Trevor became something democratic up to that time it was impossible for the average people to leave their town or their village but the railroad was a step to a democratization of traveling but there was also opposition to progress some churchmen saw in the new trains instruments of the devil physicians warned about the dangers to health generated by traveling 20 miles per hour Victoria immensely enjoyed travelling by train Albert was a bit different he once complained to the conductor about the velocity of the car [Music] at the forefront of England's progress Darwin Stanley Livingston their names of world famous even today they research the unknown parts of the world and the secrets of human origin Victoria shows a great interest in the missionary David Livingstone taking great risks he crosses Africa's jungles and follows the hitherto unexplored Zambezi River in 1855 Livingston discovers some gigantic waterfalls in honor of his Queen he calls them the Victoria Falls the queen is flattered and requires a personal report from Livingston these adventurous expeditions give way to the Empire the first economists scientists followed by salesmen followed by soldiers the foundation of modern imperialism progress takes huge strides no other country industrialize --is is completely and rapidly as Britain but there is a high price to pay exploitation great poverty and the suffering of millions before the Industrial Revolution happened people used to work on the land and although they may have been poor they at least were able to make a living they could kill a goat they could get eggs they could live but when they were taken and made to work in factories it was really slave labor they were paid virtually nothing many work up to 16 hours a day and they're happy doing so the alternative is misery parts of England have unemployment rates of up to 90 percent children often find work easily mostly in mines they are small and have paid far less than grown-ups the lure against child labour does exist on paper but will not be applied for years to come Victoria and her family live far removed from this reality the Queen asks her government regularly about the welfare of her people but still strongly believes in the separation of the classes many are unable to make a living hundreds of thousands of people die during several years of crop failure in Ireland the people are becoming dissatisfied amongst other things with their queen there are seven assassination attempts on the Queen's life Victoria is never injured and even tempts fate by choosing to drive through London in an open carriage this bravery makes her more popular than ever according to court and press all the assassins are mentally ill [Music] [Applause] [Music] Albert to is to gain a reputation in his own right he creates his own greatest monument the first World Exhibition in history the press is opposed to the project the inhabitants of London refused to see why they're beautiful Hyde Park should be ruined by the exhibition but Albert gets his way the world exhibition of 1851 was a magnificent event it was a showcase of contemporary culture contemporary technology the doors open on the 1st of May 1851 all important countries and cultures show their achievements up to 700,000 visitors attend the opening weekend such an event has never taken place before the press is full of praise and the Queen is very proud of Alva it was a breakthrough for all of it yet planned this event yet almost ruined his health in planning it and he gained widespread respect after the exhibition closed in fall 1851 it's a most impressive construction the Crystal Palace due to a devastating fire this masterpiece of early glass architecture did not outlive the exhibition when the exhibition closes after five months at a great profit six million people have been to see it the German prince and his Forester inspect the damage done by wild boar the previous night for Prince andreas of saxe-coburg and Gotha Albert's German descendant heiress to critic tasks are not always easy to deal with old hunting privileges can be a burden today last night some wild boar had done damage to a meadow next to the princes property the Prince's Forester is worried about compensation claims by the farmer who owns the land money is always a problem and it's the same story with Shas kallenberg a fairytale castle but nobody talks about running costs in fairy tales [Music] the keeper of the princes archive allows us a glimpse behind the scenes this old furniture has seen better days the state of Bavaria has agreed to finance a large part of the castles renovations in return the prince is obliged to open the house to the public as a museum for 30 years to come this is how it used to look and with the help of Bavaria's government it might soon be a music room again a masterpiece on the upper floor is the open fireplace made of Delft tiles some of which strangely disappeared during the last century sometimes the prince is given a surprise in his own castle dr. jota the prince's archivist has come across some long-forgotten treasures of a Victorian past while looking through his stock today it is a box with some of its baby clothes a box containing clothing one buys for oil harness Prince Consort one an infant what's that you've got there yes this must contains things belonging to Victoria you see the initials V R Victoria Regina beautiful things isn't that serious issue an instant special here's a little pink bow she was obviously 1861 Edward causes a public scandal at his military school colleagues have prepared a special treat for him an actress hidden in his bed he's greatly amused Albert arrives and calls him to account Albert returns home exhausted and feverish typhoid [Music] his body weakened by overwork Albert's dies in Windsor shortly before Christmas in Victoria's eyes her son Edward is responsible for his father's death on the day of his funeral the British people begin to realize what they've lost Jim Albert now he is idolized and worshipped in an almost romantic manner Victoria is unable to cope with Ellis from this day on until her death 40 years later she will only wear widow's weeds Balmoral in Scotland every year in the early summer the Queen is greeted here with a parade by the Royal Guards British tradition at its best Balmoral is the site of the world family's summer holiday a tradition started by Queen Victoria over a hundred years ago [Music] [Music] in the years after Albert's death Victoria spends more and more time in the seclusion of the Scottish Highlands far away from London and far away from politics year after year after year here in the foggy mountains she'd spent her holidays with Albert enjoying extensive picnics or walks with the family balmoral this castle was also designed by Albert himself after his death there is nothing but sad silence in the corridors Victoria can't bear any noise even her children have to be quiet all pleasures are prohibited laughing is forbidden in her presence she mourns Albert in the same passionate way as she loved him she sort of went into an orgy of grief and shut herself away I mean I think she always always mourned for Albert everything was put out his nightwear and his shaving-water and everything was put out as though he was still living there when Orbitz died Queen Victoria's mourning was deep and genuine he was the great laugh of her life he was her life and he was her most trusted adviser she remained out of the public eye for many years and when she merged she appeared in a black dress in the only occasion on which she emerged was the dedication of another Albert Memorial somewhere Victoria even takes the trouble to go to cobourg when a statue of Albert is erected on the marketplace in London she covers him with gold there is another memorial for Albert at Balmoral but sometimes the memories there are overwhelming when Victoria wants to be on her own she seeks the seclusion of the widow's house accompanied by no more than two servants one of them is her Gilly John Brown he is to play an increasing and vital role in her private life at that stage in her life I think she was rather selfish because she should have thought of her children and the help that they needed and not only had children but the country so I would have said you know for sort of 10 or 15 years of her life she was extraordinarily selfish Victoria considers suicide she fears losing her mind there are rumors in the press about seances there without any proof on the Isle of Wight Albert was not only responsible for a fine house he also rebuilt a church whipping him a special entrance for the Queen 25 years after Albert's death Victoria's daughter Beatrice celebrates her wedding at whipping ham Church as she is the baby of the family it was thought she would remain unmarried and stay with her mother we know from the Queens Diaries how much she envied her daughter her happy partnership her presence makes the wedding more like a funeral bright colors are allowed for only a few hours after dusk everything has to return to the obligatory black in London the queen who has simply disappeared is causing increasing displeasure her popularity suffers badly and in Parliament the question of the usefulness of a constitutional monarchy is discussed openly the public got fed up with it because there was a certain amount of Republican revival at that time many people thought that what was the use of having a queen if she never appeared all this doesn't seem to bother Victoria she summons her ministers to Osborn house or to Scotland to report otherwise she just stays away Scotland far away from the capital the Scots are very special people the traditions which can be rather strange to outsiders Victoria admires their down-to-earth direct attitude hi and they're stubborn as she is herself a simple Scotsman is to lure Victoria out of her seclusion a ghillie John Braun when she was in mourning in the early years it was John Brown who did a lot to snap her out of it to understand to to make her come out of her depression he got her out particularly in Scotland riding when out riding they enjoy visiting the Loch Naggar whiskey distillery they both appreciate a wee sip of the local specialities John Brown the Gilley takes care of his queen much to the anger of the other servants this photograph shows the royal household together with the queen surgeon dr. Reid who knows many of her secrets Victoria's family can't cope with Brown gossip about an unseemly relationship starts when they both retire to the widow's house to spend a few nights there and there was a great friendship affectionate friendship and a certain intimacy between them nobody can tell how intimates their relationship really was amazingly John Brown's name never occurs in the Queen's Diaries but thanks to John Brown Victoria reappears in public a process that took many years she finally begins to take an active part in politics again to a higher degree than before the country has a new prime minister who isn't expected to live up to Victoria's high principles Benjamin Disraeli as a poet and a brilliant master of rhetoric with heavy debts in a gallant way he knows how to flatter Victoria the Queen is absolutely taken by him his opponent Gladstone has no luck with Victoria even though he tries to emulate Albert's ideals he is incapable of flattering the Queen nan Stern wants to improve living conditions in Britain Disraeli prefers to conquer new dominions for the Empire the British Empire is growing after only a few years it embraces a fifth of the world's population and a quarter of the planet Britain's wealth is founded in the colonies natural resources and human labour are declared to be British property Hong Kong Australia the Suez Canal very soon the British feel at home everywhere in the crown colony of Hong Kong cricket is to become a favourite sport and the horse-racing at Happy Valley is a society meeting place even today the poshest district of Hong Kong is still called Victoria we did not see empire as a money box to take gold out of in the way that the Spanish all the Portuguese had but rather to export our way of life let's look look I mean that the our transport systems the rostra see our government and create a new market for British goods we with this empire ever much be produced in this country we would never be able to run out of markets [Music] these markets are defended with great resilience by the British Empire but British people are not welcome everywhere there is more and more resistance in the colonies several revolts have brutally put down [Music] Victoria's reign has often been described as a reign of peace but that's not the truth there were about 200 conflicts or Wars in the colonies and the most brutal one maybe being the mutiny of 1857 in India - opium wars break China's self-confidence there are wars in Afghanistan Zulu land and against the Boers armed conflicts are used to uphold or enlarge the Empire the world's first concentration camp is built by the British during the Boer War outside Europe the word Victorian basically means war Victoria gets a guilty conscience in her diary she requires that native and colored races should be treated as brothers and not as Englishmen too often do fit only to be crushed and shot down Victoria tries to learn Hindustani and employs Indian servants who become her close confidants much to the dislike of her British household she took great trouble to defend people in her own household if they were Indian or African because in those days the rest of the people in our house who were very you know like this but it was putting down the servants and others who were from from foreign countries Queen Victoria was a very thorough minded person she was very modern in this regard in 1876 Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India this title hadn't existed before and was invented by her clever Prime Minister Disraeli in order to flatter his queen and to underline Britain's power he is knighted by a grateful Victoria and later becomes Lord beckons field in the second half of the 19th century there is competition for Britain other countries are beginning to industrialize their economies as well the most successful is the German steel industry Britain's new rival the situation gets dangerous when Prussia takes power in Germany in 1870 the German Confederation attacks France the French can't withstand for long Napoleon the third is defeated a humiliation which will remain long in the national memory of France Germany is also losing its credit in England one thought of Germany with the philosophers one thought of Nietzsche one thought of Goethe but little by little Germany became more military Mari more bellicose because of her Pro German attitude Victoria becomes more and more of an outsider when the King of Prussia is proclaimed German emperor in Versailles after the victory over France Germany ceases to be a loose Federation of small kingdoms it has become an empire and a possible rival for Britain nevertheless Victoria is well prepared the heir apparent in Berlin is already a member of her family her son-in-law with the help of her daughter Vicki she hopes to gain influence at the Prussian Court several times a year Vickie's family is invited to spend their holidays at Osborne House and they gladly accept now the rooms where Victoria's own children grew up are occupied by her grandchildren [Music] even Albert's adventure playground with trenches children's fort and cannon is reactivated here her grandchildren play together practicing war her first grandson is the center of victoria's attention the child of her favorite daughter william ii seen here on the front seat as a child admires his grandmother but he is anything but easygoing the english part of the family dislikes him she was tricky he was arrogant he was opinionated and he was barely made life very difficult for her [Music] [Applause] [Music] sooner than expected William is called to duty when his father unexpectedly dies of cancer the young emperor wants to imitate his grandmother exploring the wide world with a strong fleet [Music] in German shipyards armour plating is welded together to construct mighty battleships Williams ever-larger fleet is making britain's Admirals nervous the dangerous game is still under victoria's control but for how long in the later reign of Queen Victoria Germany and Great Britain more and more became rivals that is due to the fact that since 1871 Britain and the other European nations had to deal with a united Germany which on the international scene sometimes behaved like a parvenu and became more and more powerful for a long time Victoria refuses to recognize the changes in Germany for her it is still Albert's land Anna Dilek Duchy called Coburg with lovely hills and forests and with people as simple and friendly as in Scotland or on the Isle of Wight memories of Albert are everywhere if she wasn't to live in England she writes in her diary she would want to live at Rosa now the place of her late husband's birth is very dear to her [Music] but a wind of change is blowing from Berlin which can also be felt in Coburg here Albert's brother dressed in the Prussian style with spiked helmet great efforts are made to keep the image of one big happy family all of Europe's royalty gathers at a Coburg wedding on the stairs of a Coburg conservatory this well-known photograph of Victoria with the Russian Tsar the German Kaiser and the British heir apparent Edward the seventh is taken Victoria has got two problem children William causes political trouble and Edward is nothing but a useless roue in her opinion and so in a way the the difficult relationship between Britain and Germany continued right through and built up the momentum right until the first world war when the first world war breaks out now that the Germans nor the British are unhappy about it both sides enter it with loud harrah's but just a few weeks later the new dimension of this conflict becomes evident it isn't a local limited an honourable comparison of strengths the question now is complete victory or complete defeat without honor and full of hatred these feelings lead the British royals to abandon their German family name sex Coburg Goethe from now on they choose to be known as Windsor after their ancestral seat all contact to the German relatives ceases this break is still felt today fifteen Gibson female boxers prince andreas and his daughter princess Stephanie have never met the Queen personally so after that two wars the the relationship between the families there were at a zero point in which one can understand it was a very bad situation for two wars to go over and fighting on two different sides but I do think now that slowly this these links of let's say these connections are now coming closer again many of Victoria's achievements are already gambled away in the next generation the question remains why couldn't the family avoid this war the start of the first world war is such a mysterious thing that it's very difficult to know what could have been done to prevent it it's as if the whole of that world had decided to commit suicide at once I think Queen Victoria might have been in the position to prevent it I don't think perhaps that king of with the seventh would have been able to 1897 the Diamond Jubilee a celebration for the Queen with the longest reign in history Queen Victoria is at the height of her popularity for most of her subjects she's become a monument in her own lifetime almost immortal so far she's outlived two of her children and several grandchildren her reputation is beyond compare a name already a symbol for an entire epoch and her myth lives on today Victoria is a favorite with biographers Prince Andreas is hosting a reading at schloss kallenberg another new biography of the Queen according to the editor there is nowhere in Germany more suitable for this book presentation and Prince Andreas has invited the author and some of the neighboring aristocracy [Music] my perception of Queen Victoria changed because at the beginning of my research I imagined her to be a queen who was more remote from daily events I found out that she was very much interested in what was going on even in her all the days at the end of her life Victoria changes color again no more black but white this is how she wants to die and how she wants to be buried she dictates her world which will be carried out by her private surgeon Victoria feels that the end is coming [Music] in the morning the kaiser wanted to see Queen Victoria he arrived uninvited to open the rest of the family were against him seeing her Queen Victoria to be absolutely fair was very pleased to see him he was after all her first grandchild well here we are in Queen Victoria's bedroom and it was in this room on the 22nd of January 1901 that the Queen died surrounded by her immense family all the family were called in and all her children were arranged round bed at the head of her bed was her son ed with the servants the new who was to be the new king and the German Kaiser Wilhelm a second and he was propping her up with his right arm and on the other side of the bed Sir James feeling her pulse and she kept turning to him and saying sir James I'm very ill I'm very ill and then she suddenly looked up but the picture of the entombment of Christ and then died [Music] the parting shot really are these huge iron gates which were put up after Queen Victoria's death by Edward the seventh to close these Apartments off for 50 years and it wasn't in fact until the present reign in 1954 that these private apartments were open to the public for the first time Victoria took many of her secrets to the grave but one of her perhaps most intimate secrets is now coming to light while she was on her deathbed her private surgeon dr. James Reid kept a diary third-generation descendants of Reid have opened his manuscript to the public a sensation and not only for researchers Reid was in charge of carrying out the Queen's last will before the coffin was closed and brought to London dr. Reid asked the royal family to leave the room he followed Victoria's orders did she want to avoid witnesses the name Browne appears I wish to be buried in a white silk or cashmere dress with a cap and white veil over my face on 15 pages written in 1897 the Queen stipulated what was to be included in her coffin in one hand a keepsake of Albert in the other personal items owned by her Scottish servant Browne a lock of hair for photograph his pocket watch and his mother's wedding ring she writes about bran he was more dear to me than anyone today we know why Victoria's Diaries fail to mention John Brown at the end of her life she'd given orders that important parts of her records should be removed Victoria's last secretary destroyed the papers her daughter Princess Beatrice for the last few years a Queen Victoria's life was her private secretary and that she undertook to burn a lot more than I think she needs have done and a lot more than she was requested Beatrice does far more than just burn the Diaries in her mother's name she rewrites the destroyed parts Victoria's Diaries are to a great extent forgeries I hadn't realized how how difficult she was how emotional how irrational and yet how human and and how forgiving she could be I think the trouble today is that people don't give themselves enough time to think what were her achievements she appeared to be very dumpy and dowdy and frumpy but in fact she had a great aura I saw the other day a picture of her with her laughing in a coach so I think she was not always that that Stern is away she seems to be for the people in contrast to all our believes all the myth about Victoria she was interested in politics she gave advice to her prime ministers and she became real angry when these advice was not heeded when she came to the throne the standing of the British monarchy was at a very low ebb but when she died more than 6 years later her status and legend were beyond that of any other monarch in the world [Music] last pictures of a great queen the photographer on the Isle of Wight takes one last photo in her memory this is really just a case of this funeral which came down Victoria Avenue with thousands and thousands and thousands of people there and it shows them carrying the coffee and just before it went on board the Alberta she is accompanied by soldiers of the Queen's guards in dress uniform on her last journey through the country thousands upon thousands of people lined the way from Osborne House to the mausoleum for the last time side-by-side the German Kaiser and the new British King William and Edward failed to take the opportunity of reconciliation at Victoria's grave [Applause] I will be good those were her words when as a child she learned that she would one day become queen she wrote the same words in her diary following her coronation it was a motto she lived up to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Documentary Base

Views: 1,312,457

Rating: 4.6511536 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries. History, War, Queen, Victoria, Victorian, Queen Victoria, Victorian Documentary, Victoria Secret, British Empire, Empire, History, Politics, Throne, Monarchy, Crown, British, Great Britain, royal family, full length documentaries, documentaries, full documentary, royalty, royal wedding, british history, princess, Queen Victoria's Secrets, queen Victoria documentary

Id: PcROekzqJK4

Length: 57min 52sec (3472 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 29 2019