In fiction, the
Victorian era is often portrayed as a
period of demureness. And Queen Victoria
herself is usually shown having
puritanical tendencies. While Queen Victoria is often
thought of as prim and prudish, in reality, she was
actually quite fond of sex and had a deep appreciation
for the naked human form. Oh, my. Today we're going to take a look
at some unusual facts you never knew about Queen Victoria. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel. And let us know in the
comments below what other royal facts you
would like to hear about. Long ago, life was clean,
and the rich were so mean. Croquet lawns, village greens-- Victoria was my queen. Although she was often
depicted as uptight, Queen Victoria was
reportedly quite comfortable with
the human figure. In fact, an exhibit of the
paintings the royal couple gifted to one another revealed
that Victoria's tastes were actually more erotic than
her husband Albert's. While his tastes ran
closer to the demure, Victoria gave her
husband several paintings that featured bare flesh,
including William Edward Frost's "Una among the
Fauns and Wood Nymphs" and "The Disarming of Cupid,"
as well as Franz Xaver Winterhalter's "Florinda." She also commissioned an
intimate portrait of herself, now known as 'the secret
picture,' which was made to be seen only by the prince. While it might not look
particularly tantalizing to us, Victoria's languid pose,
her far-off, unfocused gaze, and her free-flowing hair
would have been considered fairly risque at the time. When she had her first
child, Vicky, Victoria was awestruck by the
miracle of birth, telling her ladies
in waiting, "it seems like a dream
having a child." However, her opinion
on babies and children changed as the years passed. And, to be fair, you
probably wouldn't be raving about the
joys of pregnancy and motherhood, either, if
you delivered nine children in under 17 years. Victoria's attitude
changed so much when a newly-married
Vicky expressed her joy at the thought of
being a mother, the queen told her
daughter, "I think much more of our being like a cow
or a dog at such moments, when our poor nature becomes so
very animal and un-ecstatic." Points for honesty at least. She also expressed her
disgust about marriage, saying, "the poor
woman is bodily and morally the husband's slave. That always sticks
in my throat." Not the rosiest
picture of marriage, but, again, you have
to respect the honesty. Hemophilia has been referred
to as "the royal disease"-- we have a video on it, and
you should check it out-- because it was passed down to
a number of European ruling families through Queen Victoria. It is a rare, inherited disease
that affects blood's ability to clot. Victoria's son Leopold
had hemophilia, and two of her
daughters were carriers. Her daughter Beatrice, who
married into the Spanish ruling family, passed the gene
to Spain's male heir. One of Victoria's
other daughters, Alice, had a daughter who was
a carrier of the disease, also, and passed it on to Russia's
male heir to the throne. Sometimes in life
and love, you get more than you bargained for. We also did a whole video
on this, but just to recap, during the course of her
reign, Queen Victoria was attacked on at least
seven separate occasions by mad men, some
of whom may have harbored unhealthy
fascinations with the queen. Many of these attempts
happened while she was traveling in her carriage. And at least four of the
attempts involved a gun. Although several shots
were fired at Victoria, she made it through each
attempt physically unscathed-- with one exception. On the evening of June 27,
1850, as Victoria and three of her children were on their
way back to Buckingham Palace, a well-dressed man
approached the royal carriage and struck Victoria in
the head with his cane. Apparently the blow
was so strong that it crushed the queen's bonnet
and drew some blood. The queen, however was fine. She even called the attacker
out for hitting a woman and implied he was
a coward compared to the braver would-be assassins
who had tried shooting her. As part of their efforts to
control the future royal heir, Victoria's mother
and Sir John Conroy developed a disciplinary regime
called the Kensington System, which limited young
Victoria's freedom and kept her under
constant supervision. It ensured that Victoria
would be accompanied by someone at all times. And we really mean "all times." Her mother slept beside
her, and she wasn't even permitted to walk down
the stairs without someone holding her hand. Absolutely all of her actions
were controlled and monitored. However, despite always being
in the company of others, she led a considerably
isolated life. Her mother and Conroy
limited her interactions with the rest of
the royal family and almost never allowed
her to meet other children. Their hope was that,
through this strict regimen, the two adults would be able to
control and manipulate Victoria once she was crowned. Unfortunately for
them, they severely underestimated Victoria's
resilience and willpower. The first two things
Victoria asked for upon reaching
the age of maturity were an hour of complete
solitude and her own bedroom. Since Victoria wasn't allowed
to play with other children, she spent much of her time
playing with her dolls. Nobody knows exactly how
many dolls the queen had, but it must have been a
lot, given that 132 of them have been preserved. And she played with them
until she was 14 years old. The dolls themselves were plain,
but the highly imaginative young Victoria dressed them in
exquisitely crafted costumes that she made herself. The dolls' wardrobes were
made of high-quality silk, expensive lace, and
even small jewels. The young princess would dress
the dolls as members of court, characters from plays and
operas, and ballet dancers. One doll was even made to
look like Queen Elizabeth I. There is a tradition of British
monarchs taking a new name once they ascend the throne. For example, King George VI was
born Albert Frederick Arthur George, but he chose to
reign as King George. Queen Victoria's first name
was actually Alexandrina, but she chose to
reign as Victoria. It is said that she chose
Victoria as her regal name as a sign of strength
and a means of asserting her independence from her
mother and Sir John Conroy. Growing up in a highly
controlled environment didn't make Victoria herself
any less controlling. In fact, quite the
opposite-- when it came to controlling
her own children, Victoria pulled
out all the stops, even going as far
as to hire spies to watch over them and report
back on their activities. She also wanted her
youngest child, Beatrice, to remain unmarried
and by her side for the remainder of her life. When Beatrice married,
Victoria was seriously pissed off and refused to speak
to her for nearly six months. While it would be pretty cool
if Victoria proposed to Albert because she had a super
progressive streak in her, the real reason
she did had nothing to do with feminism
or women's rights. It was because, as a
sovereign, she had to. She warmly described the
moment in her journal. "At about half past
12, I sent for Albert." She goes on to describe
how Albert arrived, and, after a few
presumably awkward minutes, she said that it would
make her too happy if he would consent to marry her. To quote the queen herself,
"We embraced each other over and over again. And he was so kind,
so affectionate. I really felt it was the
happiest, brightest moment in my life." While Victoria wasn't
the first royal to wear a white dress
to her wedding-- that honor goes to
Queen Philippa-- she was the royal
who popularized it. Prior to Victoria,
most wedding dresses were colorful, with
red being a favorite at the time she married. Historically, women who chose to
wear white on their wedding day did so not because it was a
symbol of a woman's purity-- which is a widely
held misconception-- but because it was a
sign of one's wealth. During Victoria's time,
ornate white fabric was highly valuable, and it was
difficult and expensive to keep white garments clean. This is why many women
wore colored gowns for their wedding. It was easier to
hide the stains. However, that
Victoria chose to wear white to show off her wealth
isn't a foregone conclusion. Some scholars argue
that the queen actually wore white as a
sign of support for the workingclass lace-workers. Handmade lace was
swiftly becoming replaced with
factory-produced lace, and many textile workers
found themselves unemployed. By choosing a white
dress, Victoria was able to more
prominently showcase the intricate lace of her
dress and make a statement. There's some debate
about the life expectancy during the Victorian
period, but most studies place the average death
age between the late 30s and the late 50s. Queen Victoria,
stubborn as she was, lived until the age of 81,
reigning for an astounding 63 years. In addition to outliving
her husband Albert, she outlived three
of her children. The first of her children
to die was Princess Alice, who passed away after she
got diptheria from her son. It's said that she
caught the infection after she kissed her son
Ernest, who had the disease. She was consoling him after the
death of one of her daughters, who had died of the
illness weeks before. Victoria's son
Leopold died when he suffered from a
cerebral hemorrhage after he slipped and fell. He was in Canton France at the
time, sent there by his doctor because the warm
weather was better for his joint pain, which
was caused by his hemophilia. The last of Victoria's
children to die before her was Prince Alfred,
the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died of throat
cancer at the age of 55. It's always sad when a child
dies before the parent, but given the life expectancy at
the time, he didn't do so bad. Queen Victoria outlived
her husband Albert, who died at the age of 42
after a two-year -long illness. At the time, doctors
diagnosed him with a violent case
of typhoid fever, but modern doctors disagree. Today's science points
to the conclusion that he actually may have been
suffering from Crohn's disease. Whatever the cause,
Albert's death took its toll on Victoria, who
fell into a deep depression. She was so sad about
it that she even refused to make a public
appearance for nearly three years. The expected period of mourning
during the Victorian era was a year. But Victoria, as usual,
pushed the limits. She mourned the
loss of her husband for the rest of her life,
wearing black for her remaining 40 years. She also ordered that
Albert's rooms stay exactly as he had left them, instructing
her servants to lay out fresh clothes for her
husband every day, in addition to replacing the
water in his basin for washing. Given how lonely
her childhood was, it's not too hard
to understand why. So what do you think? Which are the facts
about Queen Victoria surprised you the most? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
