0:00:03 > 0:00:08For centuries, kings and queens have been set apart from the rest of us,
0:00:08 > 0:00:12depicted as god-like giants
0:00:12 > 0:00:15or virile warriors
0:00:15 > 0:00:19or fertile mothers of the nation.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22But if you strip away the regal facade,
0:00:22 > 0:00:24the reality's very different.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29We've had mad monarchs and bad ones
0:00:29 > 0:00:33and sexually inadequate kings and infertile queens.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36In this series, I'm going to reintroduce you
0:00:36 > 0:00:41to our monarchs as human beings, people rather like you and me.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44I'm going to investigate their medical problems,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48study their doctors' reports, read their private letters
0:00:48 > 0:00:51and examine their most intimate possessions.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55I'm going to reveal the chinks in the royal armour,
0:00:55 > 0:01:00because I believe, ironically, that the lives of these kings and queens,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04the survival of the monarchy, the fortunes of the nation, have been
0:01:04 > 0:01:09determined, not so much by their strengths but their weaknesses.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23In 1817, the 21-year-old Princess Charlotte
0:01:23 > 0:01:25was second in line to the throne.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30She was the monarchy's great hope.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Charlotte seemed eminently fit to rule.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40And even better, she was about to give birth to her first child,
0:01:40 > 0:01:44securing the royal succession for another generation.
0:01:46 > 0:01:52At 7pm on Monday 3rd November, Charlotte's contractions began.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57She retired to bed, in her room just there, attended by her husband,
0:01:57 > 0:02:03Prince Leopold, and Sir Richard Croft, a celebrated male midwife.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08At 3.30 the next morning, Croft decided it was time to summon
0:02:08 > 0:02:12the privy counsellors, who were going to witness this royal birth.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16At 5.45, the Home Secretary arrived,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19at 6am, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23at 7.30, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27There was nothing for them to do but sit and wait here in the gallery.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30The anticipation was enormous,
0:02:30 > 0:02:36this was to be the first royal birth in 21 years, since Charlotte's own.
0:02:36 > 0:02:42The whole future of the Hanoverian dynasty rested on this baby.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53200 years ago,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56the country had fallen out of love with the ruling Hanoverians.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03The blind old king, George III, had lost touch with reality
0:03:03 > 0:03:08and his son and heir, the Prince Regent, was deeply unpopular
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and addicted to drink and drugs.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17But his daughter, Charlotte, looked set to rescue both the dynasty
0:03:17 > 0:03:19and the monarchy itself.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25She offered the tantalising prospect of a fresh start for the crown
0:03:25 > 0:03:31and the birth of an entirely new concept, a happy royal family.
0:03:36 > 0:03:42In 1860, Charlotte got engaged to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44She was head over heels in love.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48This is a letter she wrote about him to her best friend.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51It's a very chatty and open letter,
0:03:51 > 0:03:53it's surprising un-royal
0:03:53 > 0:03:56and it's in Charlotte's very exuberant and slightly
0:03:56 > 0:04:00out of control handwriting, just like she was herself.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03She says here that she finds Leopold quite charming.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08She goes on to say that a princess never set out in life
0:04:08 > 0:04:12or married in such prospects of happiness.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16Real domestic ones like other people.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22After centuries of dynastic marriages and unhappy relationships,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25Charlotte and Leopold were breaking the royal mould.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30They wanted something different, a normal and happy family life.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Charlotte was the most popular member of the royal family
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and her marriage prompted national rejoicing.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51Within 18 months of the wedding,
0:04:51 > 0:04:56the country was poised to celebrate the arrival of the next royal heir.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00The man responsible for Charlotte's labour was Sir Richard Croft,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03the country's leading male midwife.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07'He's left us a minute-by-minute record
0:05:07 > 0:05:09'of his most important delivery.'
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Well, it's an extraordinary document.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16It's a very detailed account of a birth in the early 19th century.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21So she goes into labour at 7pm on the Monday.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23Mm-hmm. At 11 on Tuesday morning,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27she had dilated to the size of a crown piece, but very thin.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30So that's not very much progress in 24 hours.
0:05:30 > 0:05:31It's not very good
0:05:31 > 0:05:35and he's beginning to suspect that something is not quite right.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40He's talking here about a uterine discharge of a dark green colour.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42That doesn't sound good.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46No, well, this is a sign that the baby is in distress or already dead.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52It means the baby has been so badly affected by the process of labour,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55that it starts pooing in the womb
0:05:55 > 0:05:58and then swallowing this substance.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03Eventually, Charlotte does give birth, after 50 hours of labour.
0:06:03 > 0:06:04The baby is stillborn.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09- They rub his body with salt and mustard...- Yes.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14..But no animation was ever restored.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17That must have been so frustrating.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20He was legitimate, he'd come to term, he was the right gender,
0:06:20 > 0:06:22but then it all went wrong.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Exactly, this was the most important baby in the whole of Great Britain,
0:06:26 > 0:06:32obviously, and they did try and revive the boy for a long time.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36And the mother seems to have survived, doesn't she?
0:06:36 > 0:06:39She's doing reasonably well. She's quite composed and says,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41"Well, if this is God's will, then that's it."
0:06:41 > 0:06:45And she feels tired, she wants to rest.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48And at midnight, Charlotte starts complaining
0:06:48 > 0:06:53about a singing in her ears and she feels unwell, she throws up.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58And very tragically, she dies at about 2.30 in the morning.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03He says here, then "the scene closed" at 2.30 and all he could do
0:07:03 > 0:07:07was give her cordials and stimulants, but that was no good.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Despite the depth of the detail,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14it's still not clear what actually killed Charlotte,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18but it's likely that a haemorrhage caused her to bleed to death.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22Croft was tortured by feelings of guilt
0:07:22 > 0:07:26at his failure to save the lives of two heirs to the throne.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Three months later, he killed himself.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36The nation was shocked
0:07:36 > 0:07:40by the sudden loss of the monarchy's next two generations.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52After the tragedy, Leopold opened up the gardens of Claremont House,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57so people could come and see the place where Charlotte had died.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01In particular, this grotto, down by the lake, became
0:08:01 > 0:08:07a site of pilgrimage for people who wanted to remember Charlotte.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Many of them wanted a physical reminder to take home too.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16The roof was covered with this Blue John stone,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21but most of it was snapped off and taken away as souvenirs.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26It's hard to overstate the scale of the grief
0:08:26 > 0:08:28that was felt for Charlotte.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30As one contemporary put it,
0:08:30 > 0:08:36"It was as if every house in the country had lost a favourite child."
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Charlotte's death was a national catastrophe.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46It robbed the country of the prospect of a rejuvenated crown.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Her loss set off a wave of public commemoration.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56From hastily published biographies to teapots,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58the image of the dead princess was everywhere.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03So here we have a teapot.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07A commemorative memorial teapot, that's fabulous, isn't it?
0:09:07 > 0:09:10But we've got a weeping Britannia.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14We've got Charlotte on a sort of funerary monument.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16This is really macabre, isn't it, to drink your tea
0:09:16 > 0:09:19out of a teapot commemorating a dead princess?
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Yes, and it was a relatively new thing.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Of course, what was commemorated a couple of years earlier
0:09:24 > 0:09:27was the happy union of Leopold and Charlotte.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29And when you think about reaction to dead princesses,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32- a very obvious parallel springs to mind, doesn't it?- Of course.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35And in fact, the phrase "England's Rose", that we all know from
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Elton John's song for Diana,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40the very same term was used of Princess Charlotte.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42It was, she was associated with roses.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47She was called the English Rose. She liked wearing roses in her hair.
0:09:48 > 0:09:54Charlotte's death exposed the brutal reality of hereditary monarchy.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58One accident of biology had left the whole Hanoverian dynasty
0:09:58 > 0:10:00facing extinction.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Although King George III had 15 children,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10Charlotte had been his single legitimate grandchild.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13The only hope was that one of the king's unmarried sons
0:10:13 > 0:10:15might have a legitimate child.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22These disreputable royal dukes now raced to ditch their mistresses,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25marry eligible Protestant princesses
0:10:25 > 0:10:27and be the first to produce an heir.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36Clearly there was something quite comical, farcical, almost,
0:10:36 > 0:10:38about this race to reproduce.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41The satirist, Peter Pindar, put it like this.
0:10:41 > 0:10:47"Hot and hard, each royal pair, are at it hunting for the heir."
0:10:48 > 0:10:53But to another poet, Shelley, this wasn't comedy, this was tragedy.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58In his poem England in 1819, he said that George III
0:10:58 > 0:11:06"Is an old, mad, blind, despised and dying king.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11"His sons, the princes, are the dregs of their dull race.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16"These are rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
0:11:16 > 0:11:21"but leech-like to their fainting country cling."
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Shelley's capturing here a new public mood,
0:11:24 > 0:11:29a sense that George III and his sons are unfit to rule.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35For the House of Hanover, though,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39the baby race did at least have the desired effect.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41On May 24th, 1819,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45the Duke of Kent's new German wife gave birth to a daughter,
0:11:45 > 0:11:50Princess Victoria. She would become first in line to the throne.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Victoria owes not just her position
0:11:53 > 0:11:58but her very existence to the death of her cousin Charlotte.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03Victoria's father died when she was still a baby,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07leaving her upbringing to his widow, the Duchess of Kent,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and her private secretary, Sir John Conroy.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18At Kensington Palace, the young princess lived under
0:12:18 > 0:12:23an educational and moral regime, devised by Conroy and her mother.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29It became known as the Kensington System.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Victoria was kept under constant surveillance,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38not allowed to go anywhere or meet anyone,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42except under her mother or her governess' watchful eye.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51Victoria's beloved collection of over 130 dolls
0:12:51 > 0:12:54offered a temporary escape from this unhappy home.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00These are the companions of Victoria's lonely childhood.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03There's something awfully poignant
0:13:03 > 0:13:05about her collection of little dolls.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07She designed the costumes herself.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11They were often made by her governess, Baroness Lehzen,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15and I think they show a powerful imagination at work.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17They're inspired by the ballet dancers
0:13:17 > 0:13:20and opera singers Victoria admired.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25They're not wearing normal clothes, they're in fancy dress and she
0:13:25 > 0:13:29gives them names and often invents a lurid back story for each one.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31The saddest thing of all, though,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35is that she wasn't playing with her dolls with other little girls,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40she played either by herself or with her 40-year-old governess.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49What was the point of the Kensington System?
0:13:49 > 0:13:51What did it want to achieve?
0:13:51 > 0:13:54They were trying to make Victoria less like a Hanoverian.
0:13:54 > 0:13:55This was a family that was
0:13:55 > 0:13:57rather unpopular with the public
0:13:57 > 0:14:01and they wanted to remake her as a different kind of monarch.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04You know, they wanted a new kind of monarch,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07a monarch rather more like a middle-class English family.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Victoria was this little person who had to be protected from all
0:14:11 > 0:14:14of this wickedness emanating from the rest of the family.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19And to prove that she was different from her disreputable uncles,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Victoria was sent out to meet
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and hopefully to charm her future subjects.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29They presented her to the public, but in a very prescribed way.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32They made her go out on these tours of England, where
0:14:32 > 0:14:35they went around in a carriage and they had this itinerary and she was
0:14:35 > 0:14:39presented to people and waved out of the carriage at them.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42So it's like doing a publicity campaign for a celebrity today.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46They're occasionally allowed to appear, in the right place, with
0:14:46 > 0:14:50the right people, at the right time and this sort of builds an appetite.
0:14:50 > 0:14:51Yes, they wanted her to be popular
0:14:51 > 0:14:53and they wanted her to be well liked.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56But all of this was highly controlled, it was all about
0:14:56 > 0:15:00managing the image, so that when she did come to the throne,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03she would have a kind of base of popularity.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06People would know her, people would recognise her and
0:15:06 > 0:15:08people would feel well disposed towards her.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Almost inadvertently,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13the Duchess and Conroy were laying the foundations
0:15:13 > 0:15:18for a new relationship between subjects and their sovereign.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Yet their motivation wasn't public interest, it was private ambition.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26They hoped that when Victoria became queen,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28she'd be so reliant on their guidance
0:15:28 > 0:15:32that they'd be rewarded with positions at the heart of her court.
0:15:35 > 0:15:41In the summer of 1835, Victoria made a gruelling tour of the country.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43She spent the autumn in Ramsgate
0:15:43 > 0:15:45to recover her strength.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53During the course of her holiday, Victoria fell dangerously ill.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55It's not quite clear what was wrong with her.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59It could have been typhoid or it may have been a physical reaction
0:15:59 > 0:16:02to the strain she'd been under at home.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07Her hair started to fall out, she lost weight, she was feverish but
0:16:07 > 0:16:10her mother and Conroy dismissed all of this.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12"Childish whims", they said,
0:16:12 > 0:16:17more evidence that Victoria wasn't fit to rule without their advice.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20It was only when Victoria became delirious that her mother
0:16:20 > 0:16:22became seriously concerned.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Victoria is so ill that for five weeks
0:16:35 > 0:16:39she can't even leave her room at the lodging house.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43Her mother and Conroy try to take advantage of this situation,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46to consolidate their power over her.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Her mother brings in a document for Victoria to sign,
0:16:50 > 0:16:54saying that she will make Conroy her private secretary.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58This would have given him an official position of great influence,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02very near the heir to the throne, but she won't sign it.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04So her mother sends in Conroy himself.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08He comes into the sick room, he stands over her bed,
0:17:08 > 0:17:14he puts the pencil in her hand, but still Victoria refuses to sign.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20Eventually she recovers from this illness, but from this point on,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Conroy is clearly the enemy in her eyes,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27and in this battle at Ramsgate
0:17:27 > 0:17:32we can see a clear indication of the queen Victoria will become.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37It was these early struggles that forged the steel in her soul.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43Victoria wouldn't have to wait long to get her revenge
0:17:43 > 0:17:45on her mother and Sir John.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Less than two years after her visit to Ramsgate,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54her uncle, King William IV, was on his deathbed
0:17:54 > 0:17:57and she was poised to inherit his throne.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03And the last act of this story comes
0:18:03 > 0:18:05when the death of William is announced.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08And from that moment, a kind of shutter comes down
0:18:08 > 0:18:11between Victoria and these two people who have been attempting to
0:18:11 > 0:18:14manipulate her for all these years.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18And the first thing that she asks for is an hour on her own,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22in private, something that she's never experienced in her whole life.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27The new queen had thwarted her mother
0:18:27 > 0:18:32and Sir John's best efforts and would reign entirely by herself.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Ironically, it was their training that had given Victoria
0:18:35 > 0:18:38the strength of will to reject them.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Yet the Kensington System had also left an indelible
0:18:43 > 0:18:47and troubling stain on Victoria's character.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52The 20th June 1837 was Victoria's first day as queen
0:18:52 > 0:18:56and her first duty was to meet her privy council.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58They'd all arrived here at Kensington Palace,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00more than 200 of them.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Old men dressed in black suits, they were an intimidating audience.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09But little Victoria went in and she read her declaration
0:19:09 > 0:19:11in a firm and clear voice.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16The counsellors were overwhelmed by her poise and her dignity.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18The Duke of Wellington said,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22"Not only did she fill her chair, she filled the room."
0:19:22 > 0:19:25So her training for the throne had worked,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29it had given her the resolve, the strength to be a queen.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34At the same time, though, it had warped her personality.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39The isolation and the attention all being on Victoria had made her
0:19:39 > 0:19:42far too used to getting her own way, and if she didn't get it,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44she'd throw a temper tantrum.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49It had created a personality that was wilful and imperious.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58As monarch, Victoria could no longer rely on
0:19:58 > 0:20:01established power and privilege.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05What the country now demanded wasn't so much continuity
0:20:05 > 0:20:07but royal reinvention.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Queen Victoria would solve the problem that had plagued
0:20:12 > 0:20:14the monarchy for centuries.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16She would secure the succession
0:20:16 > 0:20:21by producing not only an heir but several spares as well.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25But simple biological success was no longer enough
0:20:25 > 0:20:27to keep a dynasty on the throne.
0:20:27 > 0:20:33Victoria and her heirs would inherit less power than ever before.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Victoria could no longer rule, she could only reign.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Henry VIII had been responsible only to God.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46His successors had been answerable to Parliament as well,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49but Victoria's family would be held to account
0:20:49 > 0:20:54by an even greater power - public opinion.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58For a queen to prove herself fit to reign, she needed to come
0:20:58 > 0:21:02down from her throne and show herself to her people.
0:21:02 > 0:21:08Subjects no longer expected their kings and queens to be semi-divine,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12they wanted a monarch who was almost ordinary.
0:21:15 > 0:21:21But what was normal for her subjects was entirely new for a queen.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24Just like her cousin Charlotte, 20 years earlier,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Victoria was determined to enjoy a happy domestic life.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33In 1840, she married her first cousin Prince Albert
0:21:33 > 0:21:38and they set about creating the family she'd always longed for.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was designed
0:21:48 > 0:21:52by Albert as their private haven, away from the public display
0:21:52 > 0:21:55of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59At least by royal standards, this was an ordinary family home.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05For centuries, kings and queens had tried to keep their private life
0:22:05 > 0:22:06pretty much private.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10When they did appear in public, it was often in the context
0:22:10 > 0:22:14of a ballroom or a grand reception with hundreds of people present.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18But now it's as if Queen Victoria flings open the doors
0:22:18 > 0:22:22of her private home and invites her subjects in.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27This is a new age of the mass media and it's actually Prince Albert
0:22:27 > 0:22:31who comes up with a brilliant new public relations strategy.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37He invents the concept of the Royal Family and he allows himself
0:22:37 > 0:22:42and his wife and children to be depicted as an ordinary family.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45They almost look like a middle-class family here,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47enjoying their Christmas tree,
0:22:47 > 0:22:52with just one single maidservant in the background.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55This is Victoria and Albert redefining what it means
0:22:55 > 0:22:57to be fit to rule.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02They see their job as to set a moral example for the nation to follow.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Victoria and Albert believed that this campaign must begin with
0:23:09 > 0:23:12the education of their children.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14But by the age of just eight,
0:23:14 > 0:23:20Victoria's son and heir, Bertie, was already causing serious concern.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24The Prince of Wales seemed slow and rather stupid
0:23:24 > 0:23:28and his mother feared that he was not fit to inherit her throne.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30To get to the root of his problems,
0:23:30 > 0:23:35Albert turned to the new pseudoscience of phrenology.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Phrenologists analyse the size and shape of the head,
0:23:39 > 0:23:44supposedly to reveal an individual's intelligence and character.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50In October 1850, Britain's leading practitioner, George Combe,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52examined Bertie's skull.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58So here's Combe's report of his visit. What actually happened?
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Well, it's clear from the report that he has concerns,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05serious concerns about Bertie and his development.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07He stresses that his brain is abnormal.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11The quality of the brain of the Prince of the Wales was abnormal?
0:24:11 > 0:24:12Yes.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16"Producing feebleness and excitability.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18"The anterior lobe was deficient in size."
0:24:18 > 0:24:20His brain was too small.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22His brain was too small and the smallness of his head is
0:24:22 > 0:24:26something which a number of people, including Gladstone, commented upon.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31And it says here that "the organs of combativeness, self-esteem
0:24:31 > 0:24:35"and firmness are in excess." Now where would they be, then?
0:24:35 > 0:24:39Well, if we look at a phrenological head from the period,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42they would be organs number five, which is round there,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44which are part of the propensities -
0:24:44 > 0:24:48which are the organs which humans have in common with animals.
0:24:48 > 0:24:49And also,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52number ten would be self-esteem.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Self-esteem, so he had a big bulge up there, he loved himself.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59He loved himself, yes. And number 15 would be of firmness.
0:24:59 > 0:25:00Of firmness.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03It was often commented upon by his tutors
0:25:03 > 0:25:06that he was a very obstinate child and very uncooperative.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Yes, he used to fly into temper tantrums during lessons
0:25:08 > 0:25:11- and that sort of thing. - Yes, so that would be organ 15.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13Combe also says here, I'm afraid, that
0:25:13 > 0:25:17"there was a great deficiency in the intellectual in Bertie's case."
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Yes, that the area of the forehead would be small and in that,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23and Combe would be too polite to say so in this report,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26but in that, Combe believed that he took after his mother.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28He'd observed Queen Victoria at the opera
0:25:28 > 0:25:30soon after she came to the throne
0:25:30 > 0:25:33and commented on the want of length in her forehead region.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36What does that mean, that she's not got a very big brain?
0:25:36 > 0:25:38It means essentially that she's rather thick, yeah.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Prince Albert and Combe have a discussion about where Bertie
0:25:42 > 0:25:44gets it from - has he inherited it?
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Combe says, "I stated plainly my suspicion that his son had inherited
0:25:49 > 0:25:55"not only the quality of the brain but its form from King George III
0:25:55 > 0:25:57"and I pointed out all that this implied."
0:25:57 > 0:25:58And the implication is,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02George III was mad - is this madness running in the family?
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Yes, I mean, that's clearly a concern for many people at the time
0:26:06 > 0:26:09and inheritance is a big part of a phrenological analysis.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12But the crucial thing for Combe is that, whatever the configuration
0:26:12 > 0:26:16of the brain, there was no inevitability about this process,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20that through education, any tendency towards madness could be combated.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27At the Swiss Cottage, in the grounds of Osborne House,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30each of the young princes and princesses
0:26:30 > 0:26:33had a little garden to grow fruit and vegetables.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39Here, Albert hoped to mould his children into practical,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42responsible and virtuous members of society.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48And with strict discipline and hard work, he believed he could
0:26:48 > 0:26:54reform Bertie's character and make him a worthy successor to Victoria.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58The Swiss Cottage symbolises everything that Prince Albert
0:26:58 > 0:27:02had hoped for from his children's education.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06He wanted them to grow up as well-informed and industrious
0:27:06 > 0:27:09and moral, but for Bertie, the cottage was
0:27:09 > 0:27:13the opposite of all that. For him, it was a place of sanctuary.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17He snuck away from his tutors, down here, to indulge in
0:27:17 > 0:27:21that classic act of teenage rebellion, smoking in secret.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24His parents were fearful for the future.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Their son and heir was already showing signs of revolt
0:27:27 > 0:27:29against the regime.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33By the time he was 19,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37Bertie's youthful rebellion was in full swing.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42In the summer of 1861, he was sent to an army training camp in Ireland.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Away from the watchful eyes of his parents,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50he seized his opportunity to sleep with an actress, Nelly Clifton.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53The news did not go down well at home.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59When Prince Albert discovered that his son had lost his virginity
0:27:59 > 0:28:01to Nelly, he was thrown into anguish.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05He wrote Bertie a letter saying this experience had caused him
0:28:05 > 0:28:08more pain than he'd ever yet felt in his life.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12And he followed up the letter with a surprise visit to Cambridge,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14where Bertie was studying.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17They went for a long walk in the country lanes together,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21during which Bertie got them lost and it started to rain.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25They came back with Albert feeling cold and miserable and feverish.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30But they had made it up, this was a moment of reconciliation.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33The truce, though, would only last for three weeks.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37The next time Bertie saw his father, he was on his deathbed.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45On the 14th December 1861, Albert died at Windsor Castle.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47He was just 42.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53His doctors believed that typhoid fever was to blame,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56but Victoria was convinced that the stress caused
0:28:56 > 0:28:59by Bertie's behaviour had also played a part.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07The newly widowed queen retreated to Osborne, where, day after day,
0:29:07 > 0:29:12her inconsolable weeping could be heard throughout the house.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16It's hard to overstate the importance of what Albert did
0:29:16 > 0:29:19to keep Victoria emotionally stable.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22His death was cataclysmic for her
0:29:22 > 0:29:25and without him, she really lost her way.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28There were established conventions of mourning,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31but she quickly went above and beyond them.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35She turned their homes into shrines to Albert.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37Here's their marital bed and he's still in it.
0:29:37 > 0:29:43A portrait of him on his deathbed hangs above his pillow.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47She slept here with his old nightshirt in her arms
0:29:47 > 0:29:51and at the foot of the bed, she's installed a plaque
0:29:51 > 0:29:54with the date of the first night that they spent together here
0:29:54 > 0:29:57and the date of the last as well.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02Victoria, without Albert, was like a completely different person.
0:30:02 > 0:30:03As she said herself,
0:30:03 > 0:30:06"His death marked the beginning of a new reign."
0:30:10 > 0:30:13Victoria was consumed by her grief.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Alarmingly, it seems that without Albert,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24she might buckle under the strain of being queen.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27It's a very typical letter of condolence,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30written to Mary Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln,
0:30:30 > 0:30:31after his assassination.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35And it's an opportunity, and Victoria grabbed all of them,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38to express and reiterate her own grief.
0:30:38 > 0:30:44So she says here that she's "utterly broken-hearted" by the loss
0:30:44 > 0:30:48of her own beloved husband, who was the light of her life,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53He was her stay, he was her all, he was absolutely everything to her.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56She's now reached the state where she actually feels
0:30:56 > 0:30:58comfortable grieving perpetually.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02Now, this is three years on from her bereavement and nothing's changing.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Do you think that today we'd describe Victoria
0:31:05 > 0:31:07as clinically depressed?
0:31:07 > 0:31:10She definitely was very, very depressed and also suffering
0:31:10 > 0:31:14an extreme clinical form of grief that now is recognised.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18And of course, today, she'd be having bereavement counselling.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21But the trouble is, she was queen,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23she was monarch and there was a job to do.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28And very quickly, her male ministers became very impatient with this,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32because the business of the monarchy was in a state of stasis, they just
0:31:32 > 0:31:36wanted her basically to pull herself together and get on with the job.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41For centuries, royal doctors had given glowing reports
0:31:41 > 0:31:45of their patients' health, assuring the nation
0:31:45 > 0:31:49that the monarch was mentally and physically fit to rule.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51But now the grieving queen demanded
0:31:51 > 0:31:55that her medics take the opposite tack.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59Some kind of excuses had to start being made for her
0:31:59 > 0:32:01and the easiest thing was to get Dr Jenner,
0:32:01 > 0:32:06her very dutiful and rather sycophantic medic,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09to write a few royal sick notes, and in fact what he did
0:32:09 > 0:32:12was publish an anonymous piece in the Lancet saying
0:32:12 > 0:32:16the queen was in this very febrile state and any kind of pressures
0:32:16 > 0:32:20on her to do the job more than she was already doing would provoke
0:32:20 > 0:32:22a complete and utter mental breakdown,
0:32:22 > 0:32:26which of course was a complete nonsense because, in many ways
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Victoria was extraordinarily robust, even in her grief.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Victoria was risking her reputation.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40As the months of her withdrawal turned into years,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43her doctor's excuses began to wear thin.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51In 1864, some unknown person put up a sign on the gate
0:32:51 > 0:32:53of Buckingham Palace, saying,
0:32:53 > 0:32:58"These commanding premises to be let or sold in consequence
0:32:58 > 0:33:01"of the declining business of the late occupant."
0:33:02 > 0:33:07Since Albert's death, Victoria had spent hardly any time here.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11She'd withdrawn to the seclusion of Osborne or Balmoral,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15away from the strain of her official duties.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18As time went on, though, her subjects began to get frustrated
0:33:18 > 0:33:22with having a queen that they never saw and this would develop
0:33:22 > 0:33:26into a crisis for the whole institution of the monarchy.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30People got used to doing without a queen, so her critics said,
0:33:30 > 0:33:32"Do we need one at all?"
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Never since the execution of Charles I
0:33:35 > 0:33:39had the case for republicanism seemed as strong.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48The popular press was quick to pick up on this new mood
0:33:48 > 0:33:50of public disquiet.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54Daringly subversive cartoons began to appear,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57hinting that the queen might not be fit to reign.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07We've got the empty throne, the robes have been tossed aside,
0:34:07 > 0:34:09the crown's been left behind and discarded
0:34:09 > 0:34:12and the British lion is looking very grumpy indeed.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Well, I think he represents, in a way, the disgruntled public,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19who hadn't seen their monarch now for the best part of six years
0:34:19 > 0:34:24and this is a long time for the queen not to be visible like that.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28She was not performing her duty as monarch, opening Parliament,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31cutting ribbons, unveiling things.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34How does Victoria respond to this growing criticism?
0:34:34 > 0:34:35Well, she's very stubborn,
0:34:35 > 0:34:40she thinks she can carry on trading on this kind of pot of goodwill
0:34:40 > 0:34:44that she and Albert had built up over their 21 years indefinitely.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46But the public are becoming impatient.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48This is a huge change, isn't it?
0:34:48 > 0:34:52At very first, she'd been a very diligent monarch, hadn't she?
0:34:52 > 0:34:54I would say she was almost despotic.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56She loved being queen, she loved the power.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59She was full of energy, full of vibrancy and life
0:34:59 > 0:35:02and in a way, the moment Albert came along,
0:35:02 > 0:35:07that kind of vibrancy was knocked out of her as she more and more
0:35:07 > 0:35:11took almost second place to him as the controlling partner.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Albert's death almost destroyed Victoria personally
0:35:18 > 0:35:23and yet, his loss may have been the making of the modern monarchy.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30What do you think would have happened if Albert had lived,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33if he'd gone on being the knowledgeable, energetic,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36interventionist monarch that he'd sort of been?
0:35:36 > 0:35:39I think there would have been a serious constitutional crisis.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42And of course, this is the irony, because, in a way,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Albert's death changed the course of history, in that
0:35:45 > 0:35:49there might have been a much more major confrontation,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53because Albert fundamentally was getting much too powerful.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56So do you think that Albert's dying, in a way,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00ensured the survival of the monarchy as a weakened,
0:36:00 > 0:36:02more ceremonial, more feminine institution?
0:36:02 > 0:36:07Absolutely, that's the huge irony of this terrible tragedy,
0:36:07 > 0:36:09is that, in fact, it probably saved the monarchy.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Victoria's long withdrawal from public life
0:36:15 > 0:36:19dramatically reduced the political significance of the crown.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23But in Albert's death,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26she found a new way to exert her moral influence.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31When she eventually emerged to face her subjects once again,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34she was a monarch transformed.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38This is an everyday outfit of Victoria's from the 1890s.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41And you can see here, from the size of the bodice,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45that she was now pretty much as wide - that's the waist,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49as she was tall - that's the length of the skirt.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52This is 30 years since Albert's died
0:36:52 > 0:36:56but she's still plunged into deepest, darkest mourning.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58As well as the black dress,
0:36:58 > 0:37:03we've got a black cape to go round the shoulders, in crepe,
0:37:03 > 0:37:06which is the definitive mourning material, very dull.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10And here's a matching armband to go with it.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13The only other colour that she wore was white.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18This is her widow's cap, her sad cap as her daughter Beatrice called it.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22It forms a little peak over the forehead there
0:37:22 > 0:37:26and the streamers flowed down over the shoulders at the back.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31She also wore white underwear, but that was only because black dye
0:37:31 > 0:37:35was still too unstable to be worn against the skin.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Here's the defining image of Victoria, the widow in black.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45And this is how she presented herself to her people.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48At her Diamond Jubilee in 1897,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52she didn't appear in a crown, she wore widow's weeds and a bonnet.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55She'd become much more than the mother of the family,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59she'd become a matriarch, the mother of the whole nation and this
0:37:59 > 0:38:05was a new way to be a queen, to get her authority from her morality.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13While Victoria became a model widow in black,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16the wayward Prince of Wales was cultivating a very different image.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26The account books of his Savile Row tailor detail
0:38:26 > 0:38:32the expansion of both the royal wardrobe and the royal waistline.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35This book contains Edward's personal measurements.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40When he first came in 1860, he was just 19 years old,
0:38:40 > 0:38:45slim and slender, his waist then was 29-and-a-quarter inches.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49But as the years went by, his life of pleasure took its toll.
0:38:49 > 0:38:57By 1905, once he was king, his waist had gone up to 46-and-a-half inches.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01He'd basically spent those years at one long country house party,
0:39:01 > 0:39:05with competitive shooting and gambling and gourmet meals
0:39:05 > 0:39:09and a procession of socialite mistresses.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13The clothes he ordered were suitable for a life like this.
0:39:13 > 0:39:21Here we've got him ordering fancy trousers and a lounging coat
0:39:21 > 0:39:25and here a blue silk smoking jacket
0:39:25 > 0:39:27to wear at Sandringham,
0:39:27 > 0:39:31his new country house that was the centre of this pleasure-seeking.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35And down here, to match the coat,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38a blue velvet cigar case.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Now, his mother Victoria hated Edward smoking.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46In fact, she felt that his whole life was full of self-indulgence.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49Her own court at this time was very quiet,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52very respectable, very mournful
0:39:52 > 0:39:56and she felt that he was bringing the monarchy into disrepute.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59As she wrote to one of her daughters, "He more and more shows
0:39:59 > 0:40:03"how totally unfit he is for ever becoming king."
0:40:08 > 0:40:13And by the time she died, on the 22nd January 1901, it wasn't
0:40:13 > 0:40:17just the queen but most of her people who expected the new king,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20Edward VII, to make a very disappointing monarch.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Edward was a reluctant king.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31"I'd have liked it 20 years ago," he said.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34You can understand his lack of enthusiasm.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38His mother had endlessly told him he wasn't up to the job
0:40:38 > 0:40:40and others shared her doubts.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44And despite all the trappings of imperial majesty,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48he inherited less power than ever before.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Even with the inauspicious start, though,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54Edward would be a surprising success as king.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59He seemed to grasp what the role had to be in the 20th century
0:40:59 > 0:41:03and to know just how far he could go within its limits.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08He had a natural feeling for how to reign as opposed to rule.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Above all, he understood the power of appearances.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29This is Edward's monument to Victoria,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32with her statue looking right down the middle of the Mall.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36And Edward redesigned this whole area as a vast stage,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40for the performance of epic public ceremonies.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44It's tempting to see the statue as Edward's revenge
0:41:44 > 0:41:49on his reclusive mother, because he's placed her right at the centre
0:41:49 > 0:41:54of all the razzmatazz and spectacle that she'd done such a lot to avoid.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59I think the monument's also Edward's intention for the future
0:41:59 > 0:42:03of the monarchy and he saw it very differently from Victoria.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07He felt that the survival of the institution depended on pomp
0:42:07 > 0:42:12and circumstance and the art of putting on a good show.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18By the time Edward came to the throne,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22the state opening of Parliament had come to display two things -
0:42:22 > 0:42:25the monarchy's symbolic importance
0:42:25 > 0:42:27and its political impotence.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Since Albert's death, Victoria had reluctantly performed
0:42:34 > 0:42:38the ceremony just seven times in 40 years.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45So here we've got a letter informing the Lord Great Chamberlain that
0:42:45 > 0:42:50"it is not Her Majesty's intention to open Parliament in person."
0:42:50 > 0:42:54What sort of risks does Victoria run in refusing to do what is her duty?
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Well, the only thing that makes the monarchy survive is its visibility.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01And they have to be seen, they have to perform, they have to go
0:43:01 > 0:43:06round opening hospitals, receiving bouquets off some small children.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08If they don't do that, there's no purpose in them.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11But then when we turn forwards to the next year,
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Victoria has died, her son, Edward VII, has come to the throne
0:43:15 > 0:43:18and here we've got almost exactly the same letter
0:43:18 > 0:43:21but it's got a very different conclusion and it says that
0:43:21 > 0:43:25"it IS His Majesty's intention to open Parliament in person."
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Yes, Edward's decided that he'd like to do it and he wants to do it
0:43:28 > 0:43:29and he needs to do it.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32What's the arrangement that he makes to refashion
0:43:32 > 0:43:33this ceremony as he wants it?
0:43:33 > 0:43:37Well, he makes a lot of detailed changes to the ceremony itself,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40but the real change is his presence and his presence in state.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44He's in a gilded coach, he's accompanied by the Horse Guards
0:43:44 > 0:43:48with some plumes flying, breastplates glistening.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51He's wearing the regal crown, the great crown on his head.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55So he's giving the people ceremony, he's giving them exhibition,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58he's giving them flamboyance. He's enjoying every minute of it,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01but it's got a great purpose as well, it's making him more popular.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03I like this bit here,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06it says the king is quite happy with the number of tickets he's
0:44:06 > 0:44:10received for his friends and someone has put in brackets, "ladies".
0:44:10 > 0:44:13I think this shows a certain nerve, let's put it frankly.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16These are the king's mistresses who will all turn up together.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20It's an extraordinary situation when you think of it, how many dozens of
0:44:20 > 0:44:24women, all who knew that they slept from time to time with the king,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27sitting in a row or in two rows in a gallery of the House of Lords.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29When you think about it, it's bizarre, isn't it?
0:44:29 > 0:44:31- It is to us, yeah. - Well, but not to him.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34I don't know whether it's to his credit or not,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36but demonstration that he didn't care a damn.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39What are some of the other things that Edward says
0:44:39 > 0:44:40that he wants changed?
0:44:40 > 0:44:43The first one is the specification that the queen shall have
0:44:43 > 0:44:45her throne next to him.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48It will be similar to his but it will be smaller than his.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50The more I've thought about this document,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53the more I've felt sorry for the poor old man.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56I mean, he's there sitting in Windsor or Buckingham Palace
0:44:56 > 0:44:58and there's nothing better to do
0:44:58 > 0:45:00than worry about the size of the queen's throne.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Not a very enviable life, is it?
0:45:02 > 0:45:04It just shows the limitations of monarchy.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06You're messing about with little bits of trivia,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09rather than getting on with something worth doing.
0:45:09 > 0:45:10It's ironic, really, isn't it?
0:45:10 > 0:45:12He's made this a much more royal occasion.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14He's there, the queen's there,
0:45:14 > 0:45:16all the princes and princesses are there.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18There's a lot more show attached to it,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21but in reality, the monarchy's less powerful than ever.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24I think it's a very human characteristic -
0:45:24 > 0:45:27the weaker you are, the bigger noise you make.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31In Yorkshire they say, "If you can't fight, wear a big hat."
0:45:31 > 0:45:34And this is the king not able to fight for power
0:45:34 > 0:45:37but wearing a big hat.
0:45:41 > 0:45:46In place of private morality, Edward offered public magnificence.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51In his brief reign of nine years,
0:45:51 > 0:45:55he'd established a tried and tested model of modern monarchy
0:45:55 > 0:45:57for his successors to follow.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06Unlike his father, George V didn't have much natural charisma.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10He didn't enjoy making speeches or public appearances.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14In previous centuries, this could have been a real drawback,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18but what his subjects wanted, particularly during World War I,
0:46:18 > 0:46:25was diligence, sobriety and unflashy hard work, and these they got.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28And George had two essential characteristics
0:46:28 > 0:46:30for a 20th century monarch.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35Firstly, a self-sacrificing sense of duty and secondly,
0:46:35 > 0:46:40brutal pragmatism when it came to the survival of the institution.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43For a man with so much respect for tradition,
0:46:43 > 0:46:48he carried out one act of quite startling reinvention.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52At the lowest point of the war, he broke two centuries
0:46:52 > 0:46:56of royal ties with Germany. He changed his family's name
0:46:56 > 0:47:01from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the much more British-sounding Windsor.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04This is a king who understood
0:47:04 > 0:47:07that he ignored popular opinion at his peril.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13During the First World War,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17George had watched aghast as the crowned heads of Europe tumbled,
0:47:17 > 0:47:21among them his cousins, the German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25He became convinced that
0:47:25 > 0:47:29if the British monarchy was to survive, he and his family
0:47:29 > 0:47:33must dedicate themselves to tireless public service.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36At the forefront of this royal charm offensive,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39he placed his son and heir, the future Edward VIII.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48As Prince of Wales, Edward took on a new role
0:47:48 > 0:47:51as a sort of roving ambassador for the crown.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55He visited what seems like every single corner of the empire
0:47:55 > 0:47:59and it has to be said, these tours were a roaring success.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03He had an instinctive feel for the sort of youthful informality
0:48:03 > 0:48:05that people would just love.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08And that's captured in this quintessential 1920s object,
0:48:08 > 0:48:13a set of cigarette cards recording the places he visited.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17Here he is with the cowboys.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20This one's called Welcome to Barbados.
0:48:20 > 0:48:25Here's the prince with a little wallaby in Australia.
0:48:25 > 0:48:30Here he's being escorted by a smiling Maori belle
0:48:30 > 0:48:34and this one sums it all up - Our Genial Prince.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37People started to call him Prince Charming.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43It seems that Edward was doing a much better job as Prince of Wales
0:48:43 > 0:48:47than either his father, George VI, or his grandfather, Edward VII.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Edward was shaping up to be the perfect monarch
0:48:51 > 0:48:53for the 20th century.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58But Edward's private letters reveal his true feelings
0:48:58 > 0:49:00about his official duties.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06In 1920, the prince was on a tour of Australia.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09From here he wrote home to Mrs Freda Dudley Ward,
0:49:09 > 0:49:15wife of a Liberal MP, mother of two and his current mistress.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20Edward's talking here about the "ghastly tour"
0:49:20 > 0:49:22that he's on at the moment.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25He's worn out but he must carry on as usual,
0:49:25 > 0:49:30with "camouflaged smiles" and so-called cheeriness.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32Oh dear, he's not enjoying it at all.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35Well, this is a rather interesting paradox, isn't it?
0:49:35 > 0:49:38Between the kind of public persona and the private passions
0:49:38 > 0:49:40that are seething away.
0:49:40 > 0:49:41Because we know from press reports,
0:49:41 > 0:49:44these tours went down rather well, that they did cement
0:49:44 > 0:49:47imperial authority in far-flung parts of the globe.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50He was popular, he was seen as the embodiment of youth and poise
0:49:50 > 0:49:53and vigour and exuberance and all these kinds of things.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55And yet, we also know from his letters that he absolutely hated it.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58He'd spend all his time in private, railing against the fact
0:49:58 > 0:50:02that he was there and pined to be home, to be back in the old country
0:50:02 > 0:50:05and at this point, in the arms of Mrs Freda Dudley Ward.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08Here's a bit, he said, "Perhaps I would become something
0:50:08 > 0:50:13"like my bloody father or even worse, if I lost you."
0:50:13 > 0:50:16So he sees her as a sort of bulwark against royal duty
0:50:16 > 0:50:18and his proper job as Prince of Wales.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21He sees her, yes, as a kind of rock and a bulwark,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23but I think the question one has to ask is,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26how he thought this relationship was actually going to pan out.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28- But she's married.- She's married.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30- He's crazy. - He's the Prince of Wales.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34There's something quite infantile about the letter, really.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38He's writing to his mistress in baby language.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41He was "cwying himself to thleep."
0:50:41 > 0:50:43He's writing with a lisp and he says here
0:50:43 > 0:50:46"I'll be such a good little boy, my Fredy."
0:50:46 > 0:50:48This is very infantile stuff, isn't it?
0:50:48 > 0:50:52It is. It's this kind of perpetual boyishness that he both cultivated
0:50:52 > 0:50:54and I think had cultivated for him.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58Because the newspapers used to call him the little man.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01What do you think this letter presages for the future?
0:51:01 > 0:51:04I think it's very ominous, I think it foreshadows all kinds of trouble.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07This is only 1920, he's only just started on these imperial tours.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10He's only just become the public face
0:51:10 > 0:51:13of this renascent British monarchy and already he's seething about it,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15already he's expressing his dissatisfaction,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18already he's talking about his father and the other members
0:51:18 > 0:51:21of the royal family in the most disparaging terms.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24And I think there's a whole heap of trouble looming across the horizon.
0:51:28 > 0:51:34In 1924, Edward paid a much publicised visit to New York.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37He was now 30 and his continued failure to marry was
0:51:37 > 0:51:42causing his father and his own advisers growing concern.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46Inevitably, Edward's status as the world's most eligible bachelor
0:51:46 > 0:51:51made him a prime target for the American press.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54Edward found himself very much at home in America,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57he liked the energetic pace of life there.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01But the rules of the game regarding the press were very different.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05His every single move was closely followed by hordes of journalists.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09They were effectively treating him like a Hollywood celebrity.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12The prince said that he resented the spying
0:52:12 > 0:52:15of "those damned Yank pressmen."
0:52:15 > 0:52:19He was on the front page of the paper every single day
0:52:19 > 0:52:22of his tour, no matter how trivial the story.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24Here we've got...
0:52:24 > 0:52:26"Heir To The Throne Laughs At Joke."
0:52:26 > 0:52:29And here we've got...
0:52:29 > 0:52:32"Prince Flees From Girls at Polo Fields."
0:52:32 > 0:52:35Lower down, sub-heading -
0:52:35 > 0:52:36"Girls See Him, Anyway".
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Now, piles of these cuttings made their way back to
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Buckingham Palace and reached the desk of George V
0:52:43 > 0:52:46and the king and his more straight-laced courtiers
0:52:46 > 0:52:48were absolutely scandalised.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59Away from the limelight, Edward sought out aristocratic refuges
0:52:59 > 0:53:04like Belton House, home to his old friend Lord Brownlow.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Hidden away in the depths of the Lincolnshire countryside,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16it guaranteed the prince's privacy.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20And by 1934, he'd found another married woman to accompany him
0:53:20 > 0:53:24to this and other royal retreats.
0:53:29 > 0:53:34Lord and Lady Brownlow's visitors book shows who came to stay here
0:53:34 > 0:53:37in the 1930s and there's some very famous names.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40We've got Cecil Beaton
0:53:40 > 0:53:43and Evelyn Waugh
0:53:43 > 0:53:48and Ernest Simpson and a certain Wallis, his wife.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51She was the Prince of Wales' new mistress.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55On the very next page, we have Edward himself.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Edward arranged for Wallis to be included in his invitations
0:53:59 > 0:54:02to country houses and when he was here at Belton,
0:54:02 > 0:54:06he felt he was a million miles away from Buckingham Palace.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11At a private house, he believed he could act like a private individual
0:54:11 > 0:54:15and only this charmed circle need know what he was up to.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18But this was dangerously naive.
0:54:18 > 0:54:24The fears of his father and Edward's advisers were very well founded.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30On the 20th January 1936,
0:54:30 > 0:54:34George V died and Edward inherited the throne.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39His father had warned,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43"After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12 months."
0:54:46 > 0:54:50It now looked like Edward might fulfil this prediction even faster.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Forced to assume a role he'd never really wanted,
0:54:55 > 0:55:00the new king seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown
0:55:00 > 0:55:05and after decades of respectful silence about his private life,
0:55:05 > 0:55:09the autumn of 1936 saw news of Edward's affair
0:55:09 > 0:55:12splashed all over the British press.
0:55:13 > 0:55:18But the king stubbornly clung onto his one source of emotional stability.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22Whatever the cost, he refused to give up Wallis.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26Contemporary reports of their relationship suggest that
0:55:26 > 0:55:29she was very much the dominant figure, he was very much subservient
0:55:29 > 0:55:31and that he rather liked this.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33I mean, there are accounts of dinner parties,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35at which they were both present, at which he would be in a state
0:55:35 > 0:55:38of almost perpetual terror lest he offend her.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40It's that kind of, I think,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43domineering relationship, almost, that she had over him.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47If Edward had been born 100 years earlier than he was,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50you can imagine it would have been kind of acceptable for him
0:55:50 > 0:55:53to have Mrs Simpson as a longstanding mistress and for him
0:55:53 > 0:55:56to have been king, but he's just not going to get away with it, is he?
0:55:56 > 0:55:59He would have had much more room for manoeuvre
0:55:59 > 0:56:01100 or 150 years previously.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Public morality, certainly, in the second half of the 19th century
0:56:04 > 0:56:06because much more middle-class
0:56:06 > 0:56:09and upper-class people were much more likely to be judged
0:56:09 > 0:56:12by the standards of those lower down the social scale.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15And the great shock, I think, to Edward's system was,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19suddenly the newspapers, certainly the UK newspapers,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22had no mention of Mrs Simpson before, suddenly she's emblazoned
0:56:22 > 0:56:26on every page and Edward found that the public wouldn't stand it.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Bourgeois morality wouldn't put up with Mrs Simpson,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31it was as simple as that.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35Once Wallis was granted a divorce,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39it became clear that the king was intent on marrying her.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45But Edward's public position now made it impossible for him
0:56:45 > 0:56:48to fulfil his private desires.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52Parliament refused to grant permission for the king's marriage.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57And as monarch, he no longer had the power to defy the politicians.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03When Edward gave up the throne to marry Wallis,
0:57:03 > 0:57:07he was doing something that no king had ever done before,
0:57:07 > 0:57:12he was declaring himself unfit to rule.
0:57:12 > 0:57:18He wasn't a monarch, he was just a man and an unhappy one at that.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21This is how he put it in his abdication speech.
0:57:21 > 0:57:27"I have found it impossible to discharge my duties as king
0:57:27 > 0:57:32"without the help and support of the woman I love."
0:57:33 > 0:57:37Princess Charlotte and Queen Victoria had paved the way to this,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42the idea that even a monarch can't live without love.
0:57:42 > 0:57:47And this was the end of a journey that had started 500 years before.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Henry VIII had been this figure with god-like powers,
0:57:51 > 0:57:56powers that had trickled away over the course of half a millennium,
0:57:56 > 0:58:00to leave this uneasy truce between Parliament, public opinion
0:58:00 > 0:58:04and a man who wasn't up to the job.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08But of course the abdication wasn't the end for the monarchy,
0:58:08 > 0:58:10far from it.
0:58:10 > 0:58:16The Royal Family now closed ranks, replaced Edward and marched on.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18It was the same as ever -
0:58:18 > 0:58:24when faced with failure, the British monarchy reinvents itself
0:58:24 > 0:58:26and will continue to do so
0:58:26 > 0:58:28for the foreseeable future.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd