0:00:05 > 0:00:10Queen Victoria, the great matriarch, reigned over a quarter of the world.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14To her subjects, she was revered as Queen.
0:00:14 > 0:00:19To her family, she was often feared as a domestic tyrant.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Queen Victoria's desire to control her children, I think,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29was pathological.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33She ruled the roost domestically and she was just jolly well determined
0:00:33 > 0:00:36that her children were going to behave like subjects.
0:00:36 > 0:00:37As they grew into manhood,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40her sons could break free from Victoria's clutches,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44but the daughters were always kept on a far tighter rein
0:00:44 > 0:00:46by their demanding mother.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Everything with Victoria was about me -
0:00:48 > 0:00:53my needs, my need for love, my need for care, my need for company.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57It was never, ever really a case of, "What can I do for them?"
0:00:58 > 0:01:02In danger of being suffocated, the daughters hit back.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Louise is not prepared just to do what her mother says,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07but always comes out fighting.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09In a great untold family saga,
0:01:09 > 0:01:13the headstrong princesses fought to escape their mother.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17They shocked the Queen by forging their own independent lives,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19and there was more.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25A marriage to an alleged homosexual, a career risking disease and death.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30A scandal with a renowned artist, a passion for revolutionary ideas.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35And, in daring to tear up the Queen's rule book,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39they became unlikely champions of the independence of women.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Her daughters, they really wanted to see the position of women changing,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45and they were all slowly and gradually
0:01:45 > 0:01:47working in their own societies
0:01:47 > 0:01:50to try and bring about a change in women's lives.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54But Queen Victoria was not going to let her daughters go
0:01:54 > 0:01:56without a fight.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12Osborne House, Queen Victoria's holiday home on the Isle of Wight
0:02:12 > 0:02:17where she and her husband Prince Albert came to find peace
0:02:17 > 0:02:18and seclusion from the world.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Here, the Royal children could roam freely.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27Little did they know
0:02:27 > 0:02:30they were at the heart of Victoria and Albert's master plan -
0:02:30 > 0:02:35to mould the perfect Royal dynasty, role models for the nation
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and marriage partners for European royalty.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Victoria and Albert had quite well-worked ideas
0:02:42 > 0:02:45about what the future of their children should be,
0:02:45 > 0:02:52even down to selecting who else among the royal houses of Europe
0:02:52 > 0:02:54might be suitable for marriage partners.
0:02:55 > 0:03:01The five Royal princesses were not meant to have independent lives.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Their destinies were to be controlled by the Queen.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06She let them know at all times
0:03:06 > 0:03:09that she wasn't just their mother, she was their Queen,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14and they had no chance to disobey her, they weren't allowed to by law.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22Victoria was to find that she couldn't always have it her own way.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25In a drama of conflict and determination,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27as the daughters grew up,
0:03:27 > 0:03:32they were to challenge their set roles as princesses and women.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Clever Vicky, the Princess Royal,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38would outrage the Queen with her radical ideas.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Alice, devoted as a child, so disobeyed her mother
0:03:42 > 0:03:46that Victoria once called her the real devil in the family.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52Beautiful Louise was to shock with her rebellious spirit
0:03:52 > 0:03:54and controversial causes.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59And loyal Beatrice, who lived chained to her mother's side,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02would bid for freedom through marriage to the love of her life.
0:04:05 > 0:04:06But in the 1850s
0:04:06 > 0:04:10the young princesses were living in an idyllic regal bubble.
0:04:14 > 0:04:15Privilege was their life.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Louise, for example, grew up, as a toddler,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27she would put her hand out if she met anyone in the corridor.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Little tiny, chubby little legs, wandering around,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33saw somebody, out would go her hand.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36They were expected to kiss it, which indeed they did.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44They were taught never to forget their position as princesses.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46Their governess told them...
0:04:46 > 0:04:51"Go, my dear, put yourself in the best place, before everybody."
0:04:55 > 0:05:00In 1861, the settled world of the princesses came crashing down.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Their father, Prince Albert, died at the young age of 42.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18The daughters didn't just have to deal with their own bereavement,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21but also the overwhelming grief of their needy mother.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25A governess predicted catastrophe...
0:05:25 > 0:05:29"The worst, far the worst, is yet to come."
0:05:30 > 0:05:33And no-one bore the brunt of their mother's grief
0:05:33 > 0:05:35more than the four-year-old Beatrice.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Victoria clung to Beatrice,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44absolutely clung to her almost from the moment Albert died.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47In fact, one of the first things she did when Albert died
0:05:47 > 0:05:52was rush out to the nursery and grasp the sleeping child to her bosom
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and took Beatrice into her bed with her.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00"Sweet little Beatrice comes to lie in my bed every morning,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03"which is a great comfort.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07"I so long to cling to and clasp a living being."
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Beatrice became a sort of mourning toy for Victoria.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17She cuddled Beatrice to her and the image that always comes up
0:06:17 > 0:06:22is of her sort of almost like sucking the life out of her,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24it's almost vampiric.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Trying to extract something from her
0:06:26 > 0:06:30that really no four-year-old child can possibly give.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32Looking back on this,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36we could say that the way Victoria behaves towards Beatrice
0:06:36 > 0:06:38almost amounts to a sort of child abuse.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Er, it has a very profound effect on Beatrice's psyche, on her outlook,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48on her whole personality and it's hard not to see that as cruel.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Beatrice was not alone.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59Albert's death seemed to intensify Victoria's darker side.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01All of the princesses were to be dominated
0:07:01 > 0:07:04by their self-obsessed, controlling mother.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10She really just felt that all she'd ever wanted was her and Albert
0:07:10 > 0:07:14and she really makes the children feel dreadful about it.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17I mean, she seemed to have blamed the children very much.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21She would, I think, much rather have lost her children than her husband.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Where once the Royal homes, Windsor and Osborne,
0:07:26 > 0:07:32were places for fun and play, they were now mausoleums of grief.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36The oldest princess, Vicky, remarked...
0:07:36 > 0:07:40"Everything is so different, the old life, the old customs have gone."
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Victoria seemed more interested in her past than the children's future.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53She had her late husband's clothes laid out daily in his dressing room,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57hot water for his shaving was delivered each morning.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00She preserved his apartments exactly as they had always been.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07There are ways in which Albert's death is never quite acknowledged.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11There's something about the coming of the next generation
0:08:11 > 0:08:13that she finds very difficult
0:08:13 > 0:08:16because, I suppose, there's a sense in which
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Albert's death and Albert himself are receding back into history,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25and she's doing absolutely everything she can to stop that from happening.
0:08:29 > 0:08:30At the time of Albert's death,
0:08:30 > 0:08:35Victoria's five daughters ranged from 4 to 21 years old.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37The princesses had a problem -
0:08:37 > 0:08:40how to cope with their unmanageable mother.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Vicky had found independence by marrying a German prince
0:08:47 > 0:08:48and moving to Berlin.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52It fell to the 18-year-old Princess Alice
0:08:52 > 0:08:55to take on the burden of the grieving Queen.
0:08:57 > 0:09:03In a sense, Alice almost took the place of Albert after he died.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07She comforted Victoria, you know, she tried to be a stable presence,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11a rock that Albert had been, she didn't cry in her mother's presence,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15she held back her tears, she'd cry only alone in her room.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19She really threw herself wholeheartedly
0:09:19 > 0:09:21into making Victoria's life bearable.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27Alice didn't only give emotional support to her widowed mother,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30she also took charge of the Queen's official business.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35Alice, effectively,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38was the only person having close access to the Queen,
0:09:38 > 0:09:40the whole world was shut out.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44There were very few people allowed to have any contact with her
0:09:44 > 0:09:46in those first few months,
0:09:46 > 0:09:48so Alice would be the one
0:09:48 > 0:09:51to steer essential papers in her direction that needed signing.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54It was very difficult for the business of government
0:09:54 > 0:09:55after Albert died.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59And Alice really was effectively the only intermediary.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05The demanding role took its toll on the young princess.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Apparently, physically it was hard on her
0:10:08 > 0:10:13because a nice podgy girl turns into an anorexic wreck
0:10:13 > 0:10:17and her fiance was totally flabbergasted when he saw her again.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Albert's plan had been to draw Germany and Britain together
0:10:23 > 0:10:26through royal inter-marriage. Before he died,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30he had arranged Alice's engagement to a German prince, Louis of Hesse.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Victoria was in a quandary.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36She could not bear to lose her daughter,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39but her late husband's wishes had to be respected.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Six months after his death, the marriage went ahead.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52But there was to be no grand wedding,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56just a small service in the Yellow Drawing Room at Osborne House.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59For the grieving Queen,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02her daughter's joy was no cause for celebration.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08"Poor Alice's wedding - more like a funeral than a wedding -
0:11:08 > 0:11:10"is over and she is a wife!
0:11:11 > 0:11:12"I say God bless her,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16"though a dagger is plunged in my bleeding, desolate heart
0:11:16 > 0:11:18"when I hear from her this morning
0:11:18 > 0:11:22"that she is proud and happy to be Louis' wife!"
0:11:23 > 0:11:27It's not, "I'm so happy for you, you have a husband who loves you."
0:11:27 > 0:11:31It's, "I'm so sorry for me because I haven't got anyone any more."
0:11:31 > 0:11:34And she was like that with all her children.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39And Alice was allowed out of deep mourning for about a day
0:11:39 > 0:11:44to wear white and went away with an entire trousseau of black.
0:11:44 > 0:11:45It was very grim.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53By marrying, Alice escaped her mother's suffocating grief.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Her new life was to be a minor royal in provincial Germany.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02She was following in the footsteps of her elder sister Vicky.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Three years before, the Princess Royal had been married off
0:12:05 > 0:12:09to a much grander prince, Frederick of Prussia,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and she had been enduring life in the stiff Prussian court ever since.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Being a princess in the 19th century sounds absolutely miserable.
0:12:18 > 0:12:24Vicky, particularly, er, off in Prussia, and very, very isolated,
0:12:24 > 0:12:29very, very suspicious of some of the people around her,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33living a fairly kind of unfulfilled existence.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36To be propelled off into the world like that
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and to be planted in an alien environment,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42I think, must have been pretty unsettling.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Seeking solace from her family at home,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Vicky regularly wrote to her mother,
0:12:49 > 0:12:54but the letters she received back were not always ones of comfort.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59On hearing that Vicky was newly pregnant, the Queen wrote to her.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03"The horrid news has upset us dreadfully."
0:13:04 > 0:13:06The princess valiantly replied...
0:13:07 > 0:13:10"You know I love little children so much
0:13:10 > 0:13:13"and I own one must feel rather proud
0:13:13 > 0:13:17"to think one has given life to an immortal soul."
0:13:17 > 0:13:21"Very fine, dear, but I own I cannot enter into that.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25"I think much more of us being like a cow or dog at such moments,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30"when our poor nature becomes so very animal and unecstatic."
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Vicky may have been 700 miles from Windsor,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38but that was no escape from her indomitable mother.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41The pair exchanged 8,000 letters
0:13:41 > 0:13:43in what would be a life-long correspondence
0:13:43 > 0:13:45that showed both mutual love,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48and the Queen's obsessive and demanding manner.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55With Vicky, she has the possibility of being her true self
0:13:55 > 0:13:57and she is remarkably unguarded.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00Victoria is one of the great letter writers of the 19th century,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05she pours out what's on her mind, which is often a stream of anxieties.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15"Your answers yesterday by telegram are not quite satisfactory
0:14:15 > 0:14:19"and you don't say whether your cold is better or not.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22"Were you feverishly unwell with it or not?
0:14:22 > 0:14:26"I get terribly fidgeted at not knowing what is really the matter."
0:14:31 > 0:14:34"I really hope you are not getting fat again.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37"Do avoid eating soft, pappy things or drinking much -
0:14:37 > 0:14:39"you know how that fattens."
0:14:42 > 0:14:45They would fire these things off to each other all the time,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49and the ones that are coming from Victoria are trying to exert,
0:14:49 > 0:14:54from hundreds of miles away, the kind of control that she tried
0:14:54 > 0:14:57to exert over her children, you know, when they were small.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00And so there were these directives,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03telling Vicky about how to micromanage her life.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08"I wish you for the future to adopt the plan of beginning your letters
0:15:08 > 0:15:11"with the following sort of headings - yesterday, or day before,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15"we did so and so, dined here or there
0:15:15 > 0:15:17"and then where you spent the evening."
0:15:19 > 0:15:22She ruled the roost domestically, and that, I think,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25was the key thing, she was just jolly well determined
0:15:25 > 0:15:29that her children were going to behave like subjects.
0:15:29 > 0:15:35Queen Victoria's...desire to control her children, I think,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37was...pathological
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and I think was that of a domestic dictator.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44The Queen wasn't just a domestic tyrant,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47she could seem shockingly unsympathetic.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50When a pregnant Vicky fell down the stairs
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and badly sprained her ankle, her mother wrote...
0:15:54 > 0:15:57"I fear you exaggerate as you so often used to do.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59"Others who do not know your disposition
0:15:59 > 0:16:02"think you are really ill, which you are not."
0:16:04 > 0:16:06Vicky seemed to be cowed by her mother
0:16:06 > 0:16:08and often begged for forgiveness.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12"Don't be angry, dear Mama.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16"It is very painful to think I have annoyed you or displeased you."
0:16:19 > 0:16:24The courtier Baron Stockmar was horrified by the correspondence.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27BARON STOCKMAR: "Her mother is behaving abominably to her.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31"The Queen wishes to exercise the same authority and control
0:16:31 > 0:16:33"over her that she did before her marriage
0:16:33 > 0:16:37"and she writes constant letters full of anger and reproaches."
0:16:41 > 0:16:45One issue above all brought Victoria into fierce conflict
0:16:45 > 0:16:48with both Vicky and Alice in Germany.
0:16:48 > 0:16:49Breastfeeding.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54The Queen detested babies. She called them froglike.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Victoria absolutely refused to breastfeed her children,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01which is kind of surprising
0:17:01 > 0:17:05because it was becoming very, very acceptable for women,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09even fashionable for women to breastfeed their babies,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12upper-class women were doing it as well.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18The Queen commanded her daughters not to breastfeed their own babies.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21But Vicky and Alice would later disobey their mother,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25asserting a woman's right to breastfeed, whatever her status.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Victoria was disgusted and outraged at her daughters' disobedience...
0:17:33 > 0:17:35"It does make my hair stand on end
0:17:35 > 0:17:39"to think that my two daughters should turn into cows."
0:17:42 > 0:17:45The Queen took her revenge on her daughter,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48naming a cow in one of her dairies Princess Alice.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59For years after Albert's death,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Victoria's remaining unmarried daughters -
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Helena, Louise and Beatrice -
0:18:05 > 0:18:09were prisoners in the vaults of grief that were the Royal palaces.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14No-one found life more claustrophobic
0:18:14 > 0:18:18than the second youngest daughter, Princess Louise.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23She constantly chafed against her mother's unyielding grip.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Louise was a bit of a rebel
0:18:25 > 0:18:28and her mother described her as rather backward
0:18:28 > 0:18:31and rather difficult,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33ie, she was a bit more trouble.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37She was a teenager - just - when her father died,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41just at the age when she thought her world, her horizons would widen,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44and they narrowed considerably.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48And she was watched and protected all the time and it was stifling.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Victoria would unleash her power at random.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Louise once arranged to have tea with a friend at court
0:18:58 > 0:19:01only to be forced to cancel when, on a whim,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03the Queen stopped her from going.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Louise's note of apology to the courtier
0:19:07 > 0:19:11seemed to be a thinly disguised attack on her mother.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14"The Queen seems not to wish me to leave her,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17"therefore I have to ask to be excused,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21"but not without me expressing my great disappointment
0:19:21 > 0:19:22"at not being able to come."
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Victoria very jealously guarded her children's affections.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33She really disliked it when they formed close companionships
0:19:33 > 0:19:36with each other, let alone with people outside the family.
0:19:36 > 0:19:37She seemed to believe
0:19:37 > 0:19:42that she had to be the kind of flame around which they all revolved.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47"Never make friendships.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49"Girl friendships and intimacies are very bad
0:19:49 > 0:19:51"and often lead to great mischief."
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Victoria not only prevented Louise from having friendships,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04she also forbade the entertainments
0:20:04 > 0:20:08that were usually part of a princess's upbringing.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11When she was 17, she should have had her coming out dance
0:20:11 > 0:20:15as every other girl of her age was having.
0:20:15 > 0:20:16And the Queen refused.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20She said that she had not opened the ballroom at Buckingham Palace
0:20:20 > 0:20:21since Albert had been alive
0:20:21 > 0:20:24and she wasn't going to do it for any dance for Louise.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Queen Victoria's efforts to limit her daughters' social lives
0:20:32 > 0:20:37may have had its roots in her own isolated and loveless childhood.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39She recalled her loneliness.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41"I was not on comfortable
0:20:41 > 0:20:45"or at all intimate or confidential footing with my mother."
0:20:45 > 0:20:50It comes from being this very cloistered only child
0:20:50 > 0:20:55and I think she was very hungry for proper human love and attention.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59And as soon as they knew she was heir to the throne,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01she was made to feel the centre of attention,
0:21:01 > 0:21:03she was the most important person
0:21:03 > 0:21:06because she was going to be Queen of England.
0:21:08 > 0:21:09As a mother herself,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Victoria found it difficult to show her children affection,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15even when they were very young.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18"Only very exceptionally do I find
0:21:18 > 0:21:23"the rather intimate intercourse with them either agreeable or easy."
0:21:26 > 0:21:29She had very ambivalent feelings about all her daughters,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and she's one of those people with a very small heart, Queen Victoria,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35so if she's liking, say, two or three of the children at once,
0:21:35 > 0:21:40it means that the other six are out of it and she detests them.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Victoria's disapproval
0:21:43 > 0:21:46could demolish her daughters' self-confidence.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48As a girl, Louise had once said...
0:21:48 > 0:21:53"I am so stupid and useless."
0:21:58 > 0:22:03The Queen seemed to judge her children by their looks,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05always prizing beauty.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10"You are wrong in thinking that I am not fond of children.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14"I am. I admire pretty ones immensely."
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Victoria was particularly unimpressed with Helena,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24the middle child nicknamed Lenchen, whom she criticised
0:22:24 > 0:22:27for being the least good-looking of the five princesses.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34"Dear poor Lenchen has great difficulties with her figure.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37"Her features are so very large and long
0:22:37 > 0:22:39"that it quite spoils her looks."
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Helena was the plainest of the Queen's children
0:22:44 > 0:22:46and she also wrestled with her weight.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49This is not unusual in Victoria's family.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53Victoria herself frequently weighed almost 12 stone,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55despite being only 4 feet 11.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59But it was Helena who was blamed for not getting a grip on her weight.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04By contrast, the pretty Louise had gained the confidence
0:23:04 > 0:23:06to stand up to her over-bearing mother.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Desperate to break away,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Victoria's daughter had an artistic bent which she followed.
0:23:19 > 0:23:20She took up sculpture
0:23:20 > 0:23:23and had her own studio to which she could escape.
0:23:25 > 0:23:26The Queen tried to stop her,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29believing the art form was not ladylike,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33calling it "unnatural" for a girl, and especially a princess.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37But that didn't stop Louise.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41Once Princess Louise set her mind to something, she was a powerhouse,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44she wasn't going to stop, that was her purpose,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47and, as with all things with Louise,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49one track, "I have to get this to happen."
0:23:49 > 0:23:53In choosing sculpture, Louise was probably pushing the boundaries,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56trying to see what her mother would take and what she wouldn't.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02As strong willed as her mother, Louise's determination paid off.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06Victoria gave in
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and let her be the first princess to attend a public school.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16In 1868, Louise went to the National Art Training School,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20joining the pioneering generation of women who were learning sculpture.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29But the Queen was horrified by what her daughter would be exposed to.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35One of the real worries about women enrolling in art class
0:24:35 > 0:24:37was this problem of what they would do in the life class.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42The life class is where you draw or look or sculpt from a nude model.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44It would be much better if she stuck to painting.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47You paint the spaniels, you paint the ladies in waiting,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49but it doesn't require you, as it were,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51to get to grips with the human form.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Victoria would not stand for such unladylike activity.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59She limited Louise's attendance at the school
0:24:59 > 0:25:01by demanding that she stay at home
0:25:01 > 0:25:04to help with the Queen's large private correspondence.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11The other students were astonished at how hard a princess worked.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14They couldn't believe that she was constantly having to miss lessons
0:25:14 > 0:25:16because she was working.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18They'd all assumed she'd be some spoilt brat
0:25:18 > 0:25:22and there she was working harder than any other woman - and men -
0:25:22 > 0:25:23of their acquaintance.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Not one to be stopped, Louise persevered
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and went on to become the first female sculptor
0:25:32 > 0:25:35to have a statue erected in a public place.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41The statue, appropriately enough of her mother,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45still stands outside Kensington Palace, in London.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49I think that Louise was pushing the boundaries
0:25:49 > 0:25:53of the behaviour of women in the mid-19th century
0:25:53 > 0:25:57and also in the moulding, if you like,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00of what we consider the monarchy today.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Louise's 25-year-old sister Vicky, living in Germany,
0:26:11 > 0:26:12was less fulfilled.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Able and clever, she had been groomed by Albert
0:26:18 > 0:26:21to be a force for change in hidebound Prussia,
0:26:21 > 0:26:26but the reality was that she didn't have the influence she had expected.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31Without a role, Vicky set herself up as a matchmaker for her siblings.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Vicky threw herself into this,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38partly, one suspects, because it gave her something to do,
0:26:38 > 0:26:40it gave her a sense of empowerment
0:26:40 > 0:26:43in an environment where she so often felt disempowered.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51The Princess set her sights on her sister Helena.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56Aged 19, this unremarkable young woman was ready to be married off
0:26:56 > 0:26:57to an appropriate suitor.
0:27:02 > 0:27:03Vicky found a match
0:27:03 > 0:27:07that surprisingly delighted the demanding Queen -
0:27:07 > 0:27:10her German friend Prince Christian.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15He was 15 years older than Helena,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18but appeared considerably older than that.
0:27:18 > 0:27:24He is of moderate height, er, stooping, bald-headed.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26Later on, things go from bad to worse.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30In 1891, Helena's brother Arthur shoots Prince Christian in the eye,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32a shooting accident.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35Christian rather takes this on the chin
0:27:35 > 0:27:37and indeed embraces it as an opportunity for fun
0:27:37 > 0:27:40and acquires an enormous collection of glass eyes
0:27:40 > 0:27:43which, at dull moments during banquets or dinner parties,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46he would summon a footman to bring to the table
0:27:46 > 0:27:48for the edification of fellow guests.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54He might have been penniless and homeless,
0:27:54 > 0:27:59but Victoria was thrilled with her un-prepossessing new son-in-law.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03For her, there was an advantage to his poverty.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06The Queen knew that, by marrying Helena,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09Prince Christian would have to settle in Britain
0:28:09 > 0:28:11and live at Windsor with her.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17She won't allow them to marry anybody who will take them away,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21so she has to find these rather sort of tame, neutered -
0:28:21 > 0:28:22well, not physically -
0:28:22 > 0:28:25politically neutered princes who will agree -
0:28:25 > 0:28:28have no money by princely standards -
0:28:28 > 0:28:31and will agree to come and live in Victoria's court,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34because she doesn't want to lose her daughters. So she clings possessively.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39"It makes me shudder..."
0:28:39 > 0:28:42..the Queen had told Vicky when she left home...
0:28:42 > 0:28:46"..when I look round at all your sweet, happy, unconscious sisters,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50"and think I must give them up too one by one."
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Helena and Prince Christian
0:28:55 > 0:28:58remained tied to Windsor for the rest of their lives.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Poor old Christian, who ended up
0:29:03 > 0:29:07in this rather absurd role living on the estate at Windsor,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10managing Frogmore, managing the park,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12and it was his job to do things like
0:29:12 > 0:29:16make sure there weren't too many frogs hopping around at Frogmore.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21His plan to solve this problem was to import ducks into the estate.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24The ducks ate the frogspawn, the numbers of frogs were reduced.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27But this was the kind of thing he had to deal with, you know,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30he wasn't kind of managing the reunification of Germany,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33he was worrying about vermin on the estate at Windsor.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45The marriage may have pleased the Queen, but it angered Princess Alice,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49who saw it for what it was - a cynical ploy to keep Helena at home.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56To Victoria's fury, Alice openly objected to the match.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59The Queen was to call her...
0:29:59 > 0:30:02"A mischief-maker and untruth teller,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04"the real devil in the family."
0:30:07 > 0:30:10This was the beginning of a rift between Alice and her mother
0:30:10 > 0:30:13that would never heal.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15Victoria didn't support her daughter
0:30:15 > 0:30:17when, a year later, she was in trouble.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Alice was marooned with her young family
0:30:28 > 0:30:32in the war-torn German state of Hesse-Darmstadt where they lived.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37In the decade after she married, they suffered through two wars
0:30:37 > 0:30:40in which Prussian forces tore Europe apart.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45Alice wrote to her mother...
0:30:46 > 0:30:51"How I pray some end may soon come to this horrid bloodshed!
0:30:52 > 0:30:56"Ah! The misery around us you can't imagine."
0:31:02 > 0:31:03But in England,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Victoria, still seething from her earlier row with Alice,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11sent a flurry of vitriolic letters criticising her daughter.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15"She has become so sharp and bitter,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18"and no-one wishes to have her in their house."
0:31:19 > 0:31:23In her exasperation, Victoria became careless.
0:31:24 > 0:31:25She wrote a letter to Vicky
0:31:25 > 0:31:28telling Vicky everything she thought wrong about Alice
0:31:28 > 0:31:31but, unfortunately, she put the letter for Vicky
0:31:31 > 0:31:34in an envelope addressed to Alice and vice versa.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38So Alice got the letter saying to Vicky
0:31:38 > 0:31:40all the dreadful things she'd done.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43And when Victoria hears this, she's a bit vexed,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47but her comment is to say, well, it's actually jolly good for Alice
0:31:47 > 0:31:50to know what her mother thinks about her.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55The Queen was unrepentant.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59"First of all to say how greatly annoyed and vexed I am
0:31:59 > 0:32:01"at the mistake about the letter,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04"which is shocking and, to me, unaccountable.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10"But I think, as it is, no harm is done, but good will come out of it."
0:32:13 > 0:32:16That's one of the wonderful things about Victoria,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19she never dissembles, she always just says what she thinks
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and I think that's rather splendid
0:32:21 > 0:32:24because so much of courtly etiquette is about keeping your mouth shut
0:32:24 > 0:32:28and being sort of discreet and quiet, not at all Victoria.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Alice continued to defy the Queen.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38She found liberation in nursing and medicine,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40which she knew would shock her mother.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Surrounded by injured soldiers in her war-torn German state,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49she asked Victoria to send help from England.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59ALICE: "Illness and wounds will be dreadful in this heat.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03"Coarse linen and rags are the things of which one can't have enough,
0:33:03 > 0:33:07"and I am working, collecting shirts, sheets,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11"and now I come to ask if you could send me some old linen for rags."
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Alice doesn't want to just be one of these show nurses
0:33:18 > 0:33:20who just put on an apron and don't do anything,
0:33:20 > 0:33:22she really wants to be hands-on.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27This kind of nursing was dangerous.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29The soldiers were suffering
0:33:29 > 0:33:32from contagious diseases such as smallpox.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Undaunted by the risks,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Alice was driven to finding a practical role for herself
0:33:37 > 0:33:40in the world of medicine, saying,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43"Life was made for work and not pleasure."
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Alice's nursing upset the Queen.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51Though she had praised nurses in the past,
0:33:51 > 0:33:55Victoria was appalled that a princess of the Royal blood
0:33:55 > 0:33:58should work so closely with the human body
0:33:58 > 0:34:00and should be so fascinated by its workings.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06She objected to Alice being interested in obstetrics,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10in gynaecology, and particularly in Alice quizzing
0:34:10 > 0:34:13her married sisters and sisters-in-law
0:34:13 > 0:34:17on such matters as what their childbirth had been like,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19what their pregnancies had been like.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22When Louise is going to visit Alice,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27Queen Victoria writes to Louise, "Don't be pumped by Alice.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31"Be cautious and silent about your interior."
0:34:32 > 0:34:34And what Victoria meant by that was
0:34:34 > 0:34:39don't talk about anything to do with sex or anatomy
0:34:39 > 0:34:42because this is not a subject
0:34:42 > 0:34:45that you should be allowing Alice to be involved in.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50In the face of her mother's disapproval,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53Alice stubbornly persisted in her work.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56Advised by Florence Nightingale,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59the Princess established organisations
0:34:59 > 0:35:01which revolutionised nursing in Germany.
0:35:03 > 0:35:10In 1871, she set up beds for the wounded in palace gardens.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14Alice's actions suggest a way forward for monarchy.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19It is, if you like, a precursor to the welfare monarchy we enjoy today,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22that this is hands-on philanthropy
0:35:22 > 0:35:25and it's moving away from a white-glove detachment.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35The Queen would get her own back on her defiant daughter.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Impoverished by the wars,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Alice wrote regularly to Victoria
0:35:39 > 0:35:43begging for money to fund her Royal lifestyle,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46but most requests were simply ignored.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51When Alice returned home for a visit, a courtier described how...
0:35:51 > 0:35:52"Princess Alice at Osborne
0:35:52 > 0:35:56"had talked very loudly at dinner about a horse she wanted,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59"quiet enough for herself and strong enough for Louis.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02"But the Queen changed the discourse pretty smartly
0:36:02 > 0:36:03"to the beef and cutlets."
0:36:06 > 0:36:10Conflict between the Queen and her second daughter
0:36:10 > 0:36:14had pushed them into near estrangement.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18But another princess was also causing trouble.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20Unmarried sculptress Louise was rebellious
0:36:20 > 0:36:24and her looks and charm were wreaking havoc.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31She had lovely wide-apart blue eyes, this fair hair, curly,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33she liked to wear blue ribbons in it.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37She had the best figure of all Queen Victoria's daughters,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40slender, she was very fit,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44she was actually a very well-rounded, delightful person.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47I think that people enjoyed sitting next to her,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49she wasn't at all stuffy.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56One artist said of Louise...
0:36:56 > 0:36:58"If I were a young man,
0:36:58 > 0:37:02"I should not rest until that lovely girl had promised to marry me."
0:37:03 > 0:37:08But for Victoria, having a beautiful daughter had its problems.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13In 1869, when Princess Louise was 21,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18the dashing sculptor Sir Edgar Boehm was invited to stay at Balmoral.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22He was to teach the Princess while sculpting a bust
0:37:22 > 0:37:26of Victoria's Highland servant and confidant John Brown.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31Joseph Edgar Boehm was extremely charismatic and good-looking
0:37:31 > 0:37:35and right from the beginning there was a wonderful rapport
0:37:35 > 0:37:37between him and Louise.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Queen Victoria had asked John Brown to keep an eye on Louise and Boehm,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44and Louise found him incredibly intrusive.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48All of the Royal children did, they felt he was a spy for their mother.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Brown reported to Victoria on the flirtatious couple.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00He and the Queen were then said to have burst in on the pair
0:38:00 > 0:38:02as they enjoyed an intimate moment.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06Louise realised that Brown had been spying.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Louise says, "John Brown, this is your doing,"
0:38:11 > 0:38:15shakes him by the shoulders and says, "Either you go, or I go."
0:38:15 > 0:38:18And after this stormy event, the only solution
0:38:18 > 0:38:22is that somebody must quickly find a husband for Louise.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25While the Princess was not going to be pushed
0:38:25 > 0:38:28into an arranged marriage to a chinless German royal,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31the Queen had precise ideas for her dynasty.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36A husband should above all be royal and come from the right stock.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40The way Queen Victoria described the marriage partners reminds us
0:38:40 > 0:38:43of genetic engineering or something.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46I mean, she was really precise. At one point, she said she wants
0:38:46 > 0:38:50some dark-haired males, she wants some dark blood in there.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53They do talk about marriage partners
0:38:53 > 0:38:55like horse breeding or dog breeding.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03With a desperate shortage of acceptable princes for Louise,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05the whole family became involved,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07each favouring a different candidate.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12"I recommend you to take my advice and not forget Albert of Prussia..."
0:39:12 > 0:39:15"I know the violence of your feelings against him
0:39:15 > 0:39:19"but I have not refrained from again repeating in the interest..."
0:39:19 > 0:39:22"Lord Camperdown is poor but he will be rich at his mother's death.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24"She is the daughter..."
0:39:24 > 0:39:28"A remarkably nice young man with such good manners and good-looking."
0:39:29 > 0:39:30Louise despaired.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36"Everyone is speaking, either for or against this
0:39:36 > 0:39:39"and it is most uncommonly unpleasant,
0:39:39 > 0:39:44"and I am to decide without a proper chance of knowing anyone."
0:39:46 > 0:39:47Louise was a modern woman.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50She did not want to marry anyone of their choice.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53She did not want to marry a foreign prince,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56she was particularly put off Prussian men,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00she allegedly said they smelt bad and had an appalling sense of humour.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07The Queen herself had to admit there were no suitable princes.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12"Times have much changed. Great foreign alliances are looked on
0:40:12 > 0:40:16"as causes of trouble and anxiety, and are no good."
0:40:18 > 0:40:21With much of Europe at war, she was forced to give up
0:40:21 > 0:40:26the plan of marrying all her children to European royalty.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28Victoria reluctantly turned to a reference book
0:40:28 > 0:40:32that listed not royals, but aristocrats -
0:40:32 > 0:40:33Burke's guide to the peerage.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39For once, Louise and Queen Victoria were of like minds,
0:40:39 > 0:40:44that Louise would marry someone British, home born.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46Now, this was completely revolutionary.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Eventually, Louise accepted the proposal of an approved candidate -
0:40:55 > 0:40:59John, Marquess of Lorne, the heir to the Dukedom of Argyll.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04He was a romantic-looking figure.
0:41:04 > 0:41:10He had this lovely, thick, luxuriant fair, fair hair,
0:41:10 > 0:41:16he had Campbell piercing blue eyes and was considered cultured.
0:41:16 > 0:41:22He was politically astute, he had travelled, he had gone to America,
0:41:22 > 0:41:28he wrote articles, he dabbled in writing poetry.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37In 1871, Louise and her British aristocrat were married.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42It was the first time in centuries
0:41:42 > 0:41:45that a princess had been allowed to marry outside royalty.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49The public were thrilled,
0:41:49 > 0:41:53they were really fed up with all this foreign royalty
0:41:53 > 0:41:58stealing their Royal princes and princesses, and they were so pleased.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01It was the best PR move that Louise could have done.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08The public at large might have been pleased,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11but the marriage was an unhappy one.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14Rumours about Lorne may offer an explanation.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18When you try to research the Marquess of Lorne here,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22you come up against a lot of allegedlys, possiblys, maybes,
0:42:22 > 0:42:24about the fact that he was gay.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27There's a great deal of shrouding it all in mystery.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30There's an interesting story that Princess Louise,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33when she and her husband were living in Kensington Palace,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37had the French windows in their apartments bricked up
0:42:37 > 0:42:39so that she could stop her husband getting out at night
0:42:39 > 0:42:41and cruising soldiers in the park.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47The Queen, in a rare show of sympathy,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50came to appreciate how unhappy the marriage was.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54She was very much on her daughter's side,
0:42:54 > 0:42:56and she was never normally on her daughters' side.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59So perhaps she had finally been made aware
0:42:59 > 0:43:01of the true nature of Lorne's sexuality.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Scandal would not die down.
0:43:08 > 0:43:13Much to Victoria's horror, years later, other rumours surfaced,
0:43:13 > 0:43:15this time over Louise
0:43:15 > 0:43:18and her relationship with her former teacher, Sir Edgar Boehm.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25She was visiting him one day in his studio and he collapsed and died.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27The gossips all said
0:43:27 > 0:43:32that he died in her arms, in flagrante,
0:43:32 > 0:43:34but it could be that he just died.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39The Princess could not deny
0:43:39 > 0:43:43that she was at the studio at the time of the sculptor's death.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46She claimed that she had been chaperoned by a lady-in-waiting.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Louise described how, during the visit...
0:43:51 > 0:43:54"Sir Edgar carried a bust to show me.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56"When I entreated him not to,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00"he also pushed some heavy things and must have overexerted himself."
0:44:04 > 0:44:07The Queen was terrified of any damage to the Royal reputation.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11When scandal threatened, she always publicly supported her family.
0:44:13 > 0:44:14But in private
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Victoria continued to fight her never-ending battle for control.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27By 1872, Beatrice -
0:44:27 > 0:44:30the baby Victoria had clung to for comfort when Albert died -
0:44:30 > 0:44:34was her only unmarried daughter.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37The Queen was determined it should stay that way.
0:44:39 > 0:44:40"She is my constant companion
0:44:40 > 0:44:44"and I hope and trust will never leave me while I live."
0:44:46 > 0:44:47Her youngest daughter,
0:44:47 > 0:44:52always known as Baby, er...
0:44:52 > 0:44:56occupied a central position in Victoria's emotional life.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00The consequence for poor Beatrice
0:45:00 > 0:45:04was that she was babified virtually for life.
0:45:04 > 0:45:05It was a tragic existence.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12She was sent off to bed early, she wasn't allowed to become an adult.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Beatrice was totally cowed by Victoria.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Beatrice hardly dared open her mouth at lunch, um,
0:45:20 > 0:45:24except to put food in it in case she said something her mother jumped on.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28However much she wanted to,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32Victoria couldn't keep Beatrice infantilised forever.
0:45:32 > 0:45:33The opposite happened.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37Under the stifling control of her mother,
0:45:37 > 0:45:39she seemed to age prematurely.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43There is a sense in which
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Beatrice and Victoria almost become the same age.
0:45:46 > 0:45:47She appears to take on
0:45:47 > 0:45:50a number of the characteristics of a much older person.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54She begins to suffer from really quite extreme rheumatism,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57her figure fills out, she becomes rather portly.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01Desperate to keep her by her side,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05the ageing Victoria did her utmost to put Beatrice off marriage.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09Dinner guests were reprimanded by the Queen
0:46:09 > 0:46:12for mentioning the words engagement or wedding
0:46:12 > 0:46:15in the Princess's presence.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18At one point, there's a German prince
0:46:18 > 0:46:21that Beatrice may have taken a bit of a shine to.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24And so Victoria arranges for this young man, who is very good-looking,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27to sit beside Beatrice all through a formal dinner
0:46:27 > 0:46:29and she instructs Beatrice
0:46:29 > 0:46:33that she is not to direct a single word to this young man.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35This poor young man doesn't know what he's done,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38he's absolutely baffled, leaves the table
0:46:38 > 0:46:40and thinks, "Well, that's it, obviously I misread the signs,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43"obviously Princess Beatrice is not interested in me at all."
0:46:45 > 0:46:48Despite Victoria's scheming, in 1884,
0:46:48 > 0:46:53Beatrice, the most obedient of daughters, made a bid for freedom.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Aged 27, she fell in love with Henry Prince of Battenberg
0:46:57 > 0:46:59and announced she wanted to marry.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05This is the great moment of Beatrice flexing her muscles,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09this is the one really significant independent action of her life,
0:47:09 > 0:47:13the only time when she puts up a stand against the Queen
0:47:13 > 0:47:15on a matter of any importance.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17She was desperate at that moment to escape
0:47:17 > 0:47:19and to attain this sort of adulthood.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25Victoria flatly refused even to discuss
0:47:25 > 0:47:29the possibility of Beatrice marrying.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34She's furious at what she almost regards as Beatrice's treachery
0:47:34 > 0:47:37and I think that Queen Victoria's response
0:47:37 > 0:47:40is the cruellest thing that she does in her life.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44For about six months, Victoria would not talk to her.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47She communicated to her with little notes.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49They were sitting at breakfast together
0:47:49 > 0:47:51and she would pass her a note with her eyes averted
0:47:51 > 0:47:53because this was such an outrage,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56she was going against what her mother needed.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Everything with Victoria was about me, my needs, my need for love,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05my need for care, my need for company.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09It was never, ever really a case of, "What can I do for them?"
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Eventually, the Queen gave way to her tenacious daughter.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Victoria allowed the marriage to go ahead on the condition, once again,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23that Beatrice and Prince Henry
0:48:23 > 0:48:25should always remain with her at Windsor.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29Victoria was uncomfortable
0:48:29 > 0:48:32with the physical side of her daughter's relationship.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37She hoped and prayed there would be "no results" for some time.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40During the engagement, the Queen had been thankful there was...
0:48:40 > 0:48:44"No kissing, et cetera, which Beatrice dislikes."
0:48:45 > 0:48:50One of the strangest things about Victoria's attitudes
0:48:50 > 0:48:52is the way that she seems to resent
0:48:52 > 0:48:55the sexual and the romantic lives of her children,
0:48:55 > 0:48:59they become an area of difficulty for her.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Victoria did not only need to have power
0:49:05 > 0:49:07over every aspect of her daughters' lives,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10she wanted precedence over them too.
0:49:10 > 0:49:16In 1871, Vicky's father-in-law had been named German Emperor,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19making her the future German Empress.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22The Queen was put out by this potential new title.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Queen Victoria is rank conscious and, in her own mind,
0:49:28 > 0:49:33she is the topmost reigning monarch in the world,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35she is quite clear about that.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40She is therefore troubled by the fact that her eldest daughter
0:49:40 > 0:49:44is going to become an empress and that she herself is not an empress.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51Not to be outdone, Victoria had the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55proclaim her Empress of India first.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59Disraeli was clear about her motives, he is recorded as saying...
0:49:59 > 0:50:02"Her daughter will have imperial rank,
0:50:02 > 0:50:05"and she cannot bear to be in a lower position."
0:50:10 > 0:50:14The Queen also felt threatened by Vicky's intellect.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17Her daughter was interested in scientific progress
0:50:17 > 0:50:21and modern thought, ideas which challenged her mother's world-view.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27Vicky was highly intellectual, she was enlightened,
0:50:27 > 0:50:33she was radical. Queen Victoria said, "Really, you're so radical,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35"I could almost believe that you are a republican."
0:50:35 > 0:50:39So she was very forward-looking,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43very intellectual, very intelligent, very sympathetic,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45and really quite un-royal in a strange kind of way.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50Vicky was that ultimate paradox - the intelligent royal.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57Vicky shocked her mother by reading Charles Darwin's radical new book
0:50:57 > 0:51:02The Origin Of The Species, which put forward the theory of evolution.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06The Queen feared that Vicky was turning into a modern sceptic,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09as she warned one of her daughters...
0:51:09 > 0:51:14"Don't you listen to her, don't you let your firm faith ever be shaken.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17"Don't you read those books,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21"don't follow her advice in many things. Pray, pray don't."
0:51:25 > 0:51:29There could be nothing more profane than the work of Karl Marx.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Vicky read the revolutionary's Das Kapital
0:51:32 > 0:51:34and was eager to hear more of his ideas.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Careful to avoid enraging the Queen,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42she asked her friend, the MP Sir Grant Duff,
0:51:42 > 0:51:46to go and discreetly meet the communist on her behalf.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51Grant Duff, having expected to be disgusted and repelled
0:51:51 > 0:51:53by this firebrand, in fact wrote back
0:51:53 > 0:51:56that he seemed a very genial and rather clever man.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58Marx was obviously at his most charming
0:51:58 > 0:52:02and asked for his compliments to be passed to the Princess Royal
0:52:02 > 0:52:03and her Prussian husband.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10But it was her daughter Louise's interest in a new movement
0:52:10 > 0:52:14that made the deeply conservative Victoria's blood boil.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19The Queen would be a symbol of female strength
0:52:19 > 0:52:22and independence for generations to come.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26Despite this, she was horrified by the rise of the women's movement.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write
0:52:34 > 0:52:39"to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of Women's Rights.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43"It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious
0:52:43 > 0:52:45"that she cannot contain herself."
0:52:50 > 0:52:52It's hard to imagine anybody on this planet
0:52:52 > 0:52:55has ever been less of a feminist than Queen Victoria.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57She thought it was positively wicked.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00She thought women belonged in the home.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02Although she was living at a time
0:53:02 > 0:53:05when there were lots of people who were beginning to ask -
0:53:05 > 0:53:08intellectual middle-class women and upper-class women -
0:53:08 > 0:53:12why they shouldn't have the vote, why they shouldn't go to university,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16why they shouldn't be educated in the same way that boys were educated.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19For Princess Louise,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22female emancipation became a burning commitment.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27The flame had been lit when she went to see Elizabeth Garrett,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30the first woman in Britain to qualify as a surgeon
0:53:30 > 0:53:33and an ardent supporter of women's rights.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35When the Princess arrived,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38the pioneering doctor was up a ladder hanging wallpaper.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Elizabeth Garret was amazed to see this delightful young lady
0:53:45 > 0:53:47who was interested in meeting her
0:53:47 > 0:53:51and wanted to learn all about her training and her education.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54As she was leaving, she said to Elizabeth Garrett,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58"Please don't tell the Queen about my visit."
0:53:58 > 0:54:02Unfortunately, word got out and the Queen was furious
0:54:02 > 0:54:04when she discovered what Louise had done.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08It's psychologically interesting
0:54:08 > 0:54:11that somebody who had been made to really bow down to her mother
0:54:11 > 0:54:13had managed to reach a point
0:54:13 > 0:54:16when she was strong enough and feisty enough and independent enough
0:54:16 > 0:54:19to go against her mother's wishes
0:54:19 > 0:54:22and to do what she wanted to do in terms of meeting this woman
0:54:22 > 0:54:25who was single-handedly changing female history in Britain.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31In 1866, Garrett and other prominent women
0:54:31 > 0:54:35had signed one of the first petitions demanding votes for women.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42Louise supported the controversial movement, but she didn't sign.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45As a Royal, she wasn't allowed to take a political position.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53As Victoria reached old age, the daughters became more daring
0:54:53 > 0:54:56but still had to work hard to avoid their mother's wrath.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Although Victoria had an amazing kind of surveillance system
0:55:00 > 0:55:02and kept tabs on absolutely everybody,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05I think the daughters were very, very good
0:55:05 > 0:55:08at sort of going under the radar and getting involved in activities
0:55:08 > 0:55:11that they knew Victoria would not necessarily be approving of.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13But they did it nonetheless.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Victoria had always encouraged giving to charity,
0:55:18 > 0:55:23but her daughters took the idea of philanthropy one step further.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26In later years, Princess Louise became known
0:55:26 > 0:55:30for her work with hospitals, tirelessly visiting wounded soldiers
0:55:30 > 0:55:32and encouraging nurses.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37She devoted much of her life to helping women find new roles
0:55:37 > 0:55:39at a time when they were expected to stay at home.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46She herself worked vociferously in female education
0:55:46 > 0:55:48and in getting women into work.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52It was very touching, actually, that she wanted to work so hard
0:55:52 > 0:55:55in an area which she very much felt, together with her sisters,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57that their mother was neglecting.
0:56:03 > 0:56:08Other sisters also developed a deep interest in the position of women.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Helena was one of the founders of the British Red Cross,
0:56:12 > 0:56:13helping women get into medicine.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20In Germany, Vicky and Alice broke new ground,
0:56:20 > 0:56:22setting up organisations for women
0:56:22 > 0:56:25that encouraged them to earn an independent living.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32As the 20th century dawned,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36women started to join the workforce in greater numbers than ever before.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40By sheer determination,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43the daughters had not only escaped their mother's clutches
0:56:43 > 0:56:45to carve new paths for princesses,
0:56:45 > 0:56:48but had helped to re-define the female role.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Victoria's daughters open up a whole set of possibilities
0:56:53 > 0:56:56for middle-class and working-class women
0:56:56 > 0:56:58towards the end of the 20th century.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02Things like nursing, social work, local government work, teaching even,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04become professionalised.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06They grow out of that philanthropic moment
0:57:06 > 0:57:10and become career possibilities for ordinary middle-class women.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15The daughters may have been quiet revolutionaries,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19but they were always conscious of protecting the Royal image.
0:57:23 > 0:57:24After Victoria's death,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27Princess Beatrice edited and transcribed
0:57:27 > 0:57:30all of the late Queen's letters and journals.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32She burnt most of the originals.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38The Princess tried to ensure
0:57:38 > 0:57:41that posterity would only see the best side of Victoria.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47But, try as she might, she couldn't hide the fact
0:57:47 > 0:57:52that her mother had been headstrong, emotional and controlling -
0:57:52 > 0:57:55characteristics that her daughters also inherited.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Queen Victoria found her daughters difficult a lot of the time
0:58:00 > 0:58:04and yet, of course, when you look at these strong personalities
0:58:04 > 0:58:08and their radical interests and their great desire to bring about change,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11it stems from them being the daughters
0:58:11 > 0:58:14of this very strong-willed woman who was running the Empire.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18She'd wanted them to have that strength in many other ways,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21she just didn't like it when it came up against her.
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