0:00:04 > 0:00:08Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, had a dream for the
0:00:08 > 0:00:14monarchy - a dream that would depend for its success on their four sons.
0:00:14 > 0:00:19They saw their court as a new Camelot
0:00:19 > 0:00:22and what they were doing in rearing these sons, in particular,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25was creating a new order of chivalry.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30Princes must be raised to look as if they deserve their position,
0:00:30 > 0:00:35princes must be better than anyone else
0:00:35 > 0:00:39Bertie and Affie, Leopold and Arthur -
0:00:39 > 0:00:44they would be standard-bearers of a new moral monarchy.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50But princes rarely turn out that way.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Bertie is a throwback -
0:00:55 > 0:00:59he has a nicely old-fashioned aristocratic attitude towards sex,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02which is that you get as much of it as you can with whoever you can.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Affie is like a kind of second-rate version of Bertie, you know,
0:01:09 > 0:01:11he's really not very bright.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14And he's constantly having affairs with other people.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16The relationship between Victoria
0:01:16 > 0:01:20and her sons would be an epic drama of sex
0:01:20 > 0:01:22and defiance...
0:01:23 > 0:01:27..a battle of wills the Queen was determined to win.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Really one could only call her a control freak.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36Her behaviour was that of a domestic dictator.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41"Every inch of liberty is taken away from one, and one is watched,
0:01:41 > 0:01:46"and everything one says or does is reported".
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Then there was this kind of sense that, you know, you may be able
0:01:49 > 0:01:54to defy a mother but how dare you even consider defying a sovereign.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58The battle with the Queen would dominate - and scar - her sons.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04But it would have a surprising outcome - and from it, the monarchy
0:02:04 > 0:02:09would emerge re-invigorated in ways Victoria could never have foreseen.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24On November 25th 1861 the Queen's husband, Prince Albert,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28dashed to Cambridge for a meeting with their oldest son, Bertie,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31who would later rule as King Edward VII.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38The 20-year-old Prince of Wales, who was at university,
0:02:38 > 0:02:43had committed what his parents believed to be a mortal sin -
0:02:43 > 0:02:48he'd had sex, with a woman, while staying at an army base in Ireland.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52The problem with Bertie's escapade
0:02:52 > 0:02:56with Nellie Clifden, who was a good-time girl-cum-actress
0:02:56 > 0:02:59was that it was pretty average rites of passage for any young
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Victorian gentleman, they all went off
0:03:02 > 0:03:05and had a night with a prostitute or went to a brothel.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08But Albert's response was absolutely hysterical,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12he had this pathological fear about the power of sex
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and what it could do in terms of bringing scandal and dishonour
0:03:15 > 0:03:21on the British Royal Family and he went into complete meltdown.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Victoria and Albert were engaged in a project to rescue
0:03:29 > 0:03:31the monarchy,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34to convert it into a model family which ordinary
0:03:34 > 0:03:36people could look up to and admire.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42At the heart of the project was a romantic fantasy -
0:03:42 > 0:03:46that at Windsor Castle they had recreated the court of Camelot.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Queen Victoria's favourite painting of Albert was of him
0:03:50 > 0:03:54wearing medieval armour, and I think she did think of him
0:03:54 > 0:03:57as a sort of pure medieval knight, a kind of King Arthur figure.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00And I think she thought she was handing on to her sons
0:04:00 > 0:04:03ideals of purity and chivalry.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09The aim was to bury the memory of the debauched House of Hanover
0:04:09 > 0:04:12who had ruled Britain before Victoria -
0:04:12 > 0:04:16and so insulate the monarchy from the revolutions sweeping Europe.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25Theirs would be a new dynasty for a new age - pure and virtuous.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Their sons - latter-day knights.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33It was a fantasy that had sexual morality -
0:04:33 > 0:04:37personified by the saintly Albert - at its core.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42But Bertie had let the side down.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51As he and his father walked in the countryside near Cambridge,
0:04:51 > 0:04:53they were caught in a downpour.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Albert returned to Windsor with a fever...
0:05:01 > 0:05:03and was dead within three weeks.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08The Queen was inconsolable.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12He was her world.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19He arranged, controlled, organised every aspect of her life
0:05:19 > 0:05:20and the family's life.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28She said it was like tearing the flesh from her bones.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30She was utterly rudderless.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38A single mother of 42 - she would now have to cope alone, not just
0:05:38 > 0:05:40with Bertie, but three other boys -
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Alfred, always known as Affie, who was 17,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Arthur, who was 11,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51and the youngest, Leopold, who was eight.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57As they approached manhood, the prospect filled Victoria with dread.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Sex was an area that she couldn't control.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06The Queen was no prude, but when it came to telling her boys how
0:06:06 > 0:06:10to behave in that area, she was at a loss, all at sea,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14because in that area, in particular, she needed her husband.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Victoria had no doubt whom she held responsible for her loss -
0:06:20 > 0:06:22the Prince of Wales.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28Basically, Victoria blamed Bertie for Albert's death.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32She decided that it was the shock of the Nellie Clifden affair that
0:06:32 > 0:06:35had sort of tipped Albert over
0:06:35 > 0:06:38and she decided that it was Bertie's terrible, terrible behaviour
0:06:38 > 0:06:42and character that had killed her beloved husband.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46In letters, Victoria made her feelings plain.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52"I never can or shall look at him without a shudder.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54"This dreadful, dreadful cross kills me."
0:06:56 > 0:07:00The terrifying thing about that line in the letter is not,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03"I never can," it's "I never SHALL look at him,"
0:07:03 > 0:07:07as if she's preparing for the rest of her life to reject her son.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Victoria's relationship with her eldest son had been
0:07:12 > 0:07:15difficult from the first.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18From earliest infancy, Bertie was a disappointment to both
0:07:18 > 0:07:20of his parents.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24The problem with Bertie is that he is temperamentally
0:07:24 > 0:07:29very different from Prince Albert, and that is unforgivable.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Victoria's letters
0:07:32 > 0:07:38when Bertie was a child suggest an almost physical distaste.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41"Handsome I cannot think him, with that painfully small
0:07:41 > 0:07:46"and narrow head, those immense features and total want of chin."
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Even his voice annoyed her, making her...
0:07:50 > 0:07:52"So nervous I could hardly bear it."
0:07:56 > 0:08:00To help create the perfect knight of their fantasy, Victoria
0:08:00 > 0:08:05and Albert had imposed on Bertie an intense educational regime,
0:08:05 > 0:08:06which overwhelmed him.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12His parents' disapproval crushed him.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Bertie didn't realise that he was going to become King of England
0:08:19 > 0:08:21because he assumed it would be his older sister, Vicky,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24and it had to be pointed out to him by a tutor that he would be
0:08:24 > 0:08:27King, because he was just convinced that Vicky was
0:08:27 > 0:08:31so much cleverer than he was that she would automatically be Queen.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37"I had no boyhood," Bertie would lament in later life.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42Now his misdemeanour with Nellie Clifden meant that,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46for Victoria, her son, christened Albert after his father,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50was not just a disappointment, but a disgrace.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55She had one Albert being replaced by another Albert
0:08:55 > 0:08:57and it was like some horrible joke.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00This dreadful, kind of, parody of
0:09:00 > 0:09:05her husband suddenly sitting there smirking at her.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07Her life just fell apart.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Victoria was forced to confront a dreadful truth -
0:09:15 > 0:09:19her oldest son had not inherited his father's personality -
0:09:19 > 0:09:21he'd inherited hers.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Queen Victoria, is a Hanoverian, you know,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30her father was a Hanoverian, and she has many of the characteristics.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32She loves sex.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36She has a terrible temper, and a huge amount of common sense,
0:09:36 > 0:09:41basically, and her son, Bertie, is a copy of her, but more extreme.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48For Victoria, sex outside marriage was a threat to the dynasty -
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and in letters to Bertie she piled on the guilt.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55"Let it be your constant admonition to make up,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59"by a future spotless life, for that which, alas,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01"can never be undone."
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Her relationship with her second son, Prince Alfred,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10was initially less complex.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Two and a half years younger than Bertie, Affie had
0:10:14 > 0:10:17been his father's favourite son.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21He was mechanically minded, he was intelligent, certainly more
0:10:21 > 0:10:25intelligent than Bertie, and he seemed to have a lot of promise.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32From a young age, Affie displayed a love for the Royal Navy -
0:10:32 > 0:10:36and the image of the sailor prince captured the public imagination,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39spawning a spate of patriotic ditties.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44# God bless our sailor prince
0:10:44 > 0:10:48# God bless our sailor prince
0:10:48 > 0:10:51# Long may his name be... #
0:10:51 > 0:10:53For a time, Prince Alfred
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and the Prince of Wales were educated together.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58But it was not to last.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03When Affie was 11 and Bertie 14,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07the two boys were caught smoking together.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Fearful Affie would be contaminated by Bertie's poor behaviour,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13their parents separated them.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24For the next three years Affie lived alone with his tutor,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28away from his family, while Bertie stayed at home.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Affie taught himself the violin, in secret, to impress his parents.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38He was not a natural musician.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42At the age of 14 he joined the Navy.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47He was at sea when his beloved father died, three years later.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49You can imagine the loneliness,
0:11:49 > 0:11:54the grief of this, really, still young boy - just 17 - on active
0:11:54 > 0:11:58service, serving his country...
0:11:58 > 0:12:00far away from the father
0:12:00 > 0:12:04that he'd loved and never being able to finally say goodbye.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12In the spring of 1862, Prince Alfred returned to a court in mourning -
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and a Queen incapacitated with grief.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20As if losing his father wasn't bad enough,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Affie was faced with a mother who frankly couldn't communicate,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26couldn't operate effectively for a number of years.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30In other words, in some senses, he'd lost not one parent, but two.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36A grieving Affie returned to sea.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39A few months later the Queen discovered he'd had sex with
0:12:39 > 0:12:41a young woman in Malta.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43She was horrified.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50"Affie has dealt a heavy blow to my weak and shattered frame
0:12:50 > 0:12:53"and I feel quite bowed down with it.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56"There is not a particle of excuse.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00"His conduct was both heartless and dishonourable."
0:13:00 > 0:13:05Sailors might indulge themselves in port. Princes couldn't.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Like Bertie, Affie's behaviour threatened the Queen's
0:13:08 > 0:13:12cherished vision of a virtuous, pure monarchy.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14And he would suffer the same fate.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Subsequently, Queen Victoria expresses deep distrust
0:13:19 > 0:13:24and dislike and real horror, sometimes, at the presence
0:13:24 > 0:13:27of Affie and says that she can't bear to be with him.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29Certainly the Queen never forgave him for that and their
0:13:29 > 0:13:33relationship from this point onwards was fractured almost beyond repair.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40Victoria's two oldest boys had failed her.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44Rather than Knights of the Round Table, they'd proven all too
0:13:44 > 0:13:48susceptible to the temptations placed in the way of princes.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56The Queen now shifted her attention to her third son - Arthur.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02Nine years younger than Bertie, Prince Arthur was always Victoria's
0:14:02 > 0:14:06favourite - as she made quite clear in letters to her husband.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11"This child is dear, dearer than the rest put together, thus after
0:14:11 > 0:14:16"you he is the dearest and most precious object to me on earth."
0:14:18 > 0:14:20Arthur could do no wrong.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23The other sons suffered as a result of their being frozen
0:14:23 > 0:14:25out of their mother's love and interests.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28And when your mother's the Queen of England
0:14:28 > 0:14:31it's going to have a very real impact on your life.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39From a young age, Arthur was fascinated by the army -
0:14:39 > 0:14:42he helped build a toy fort at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Here at last was a prince who might truly live up to his father's
0:14:50 > 0:14:51chivalric ideals.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59However, Arthur's behaviour in the classroom was not much better
0:14:59 > 0:15:01than that of his eldest brother,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04as his tutor made clear in a letter to the Queen.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09"Prince Arthur has not even on any single one occasion done
0:15:09 > 0:15:12"anything which was recommended to him kindly.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15"By firmness alone and that of an unintermittent
0:15:15 > 0:15:19"and most trying kind, has any improvement ever been obtained."
0:15:20 > 0:15:25The Queen, though, was determined her angel could do no wrong.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30"Dear boy, he is so innocent, so amiable and affectionate that
0:15:30 > 0:15:34"I tremble to think to what his pure heart and mind may be exposed.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39"There is no blemish, no fault like there was in poor Affie -
0:15:39 > 0:15:43"no falsehoods and want of principle, nothing but real goodness".
0:15:44 > 0:15:47For the rest of his youth, Victoria would have one
0:15:47 > 0:15:52goal for Arthur above all others - to keep him
0:15:52 > 0:15:56as far away as possible from his libidinous older brothers.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04The heir, the sailor,
0:16:04 > 0:16:09the soldier - the first three sons had their roles clearly outlined.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12But what of the fourth - Prince Leopold?
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Twelve years younger than Bertie, Leopold was the cleverest and most
0:16:20 > 0:16:25intellectually curious of the boys, as Victoria herself recognised.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29"His mind and head are far the most like of any of the boys
0:16:29 > 0:16:31"to his dear Father."
0:16:32 > 0:16:34But he was not a child she warmed to.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38As with Bertie, her criticisms focused on his appearance.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43"A very common looking child, very plain in the face,
0:16:43 > 0:16:48"clever but an oddity, and not an engaging child.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51"The ugliest and least pleasing of the whole family."
0:16:53 > 0:16:58If we look back on the letters Queen Victoria wrote, describing
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Leopold as a small child, there are moments which strike
0:17:02 > 0:17:06horror into one's heart, she is overwhelmed by his physical
0:17:06 > 0:17:08ugliness, she describes him as common-looking.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Leopold had haemophilia - a disease which prevents
0:17:16 > 0:17:19the blood from clotting.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25Potentially fatal, he had inherited it from his mother -
0:17:25 > 0:17:28although she was not a sufferer.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30From Victoria and her children,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33the disease would flow into the royal bloodlines
0:17:33 > 0:17:39of Europe, afflicting the monarchies of Spain, Germany and Russia.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Leopold's illness was diagnosed when he was six years old.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49She punishes both herself and Leopold for his illness.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54At the same time, she turns him into an emblem of Victorian popular
0:17:54 > 0:17:59culture, which is this figure of the saintly suffering invalid.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05It was a sentimental image, familiar to the readers of Dickens.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Like the little boy in Dombey and Son, who is ever so sweet
0:18:09 > 0:18:14and saintly, and close to heaven, and he might die at any moment,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18but that's OK, because God will take him.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21She's trying to cast Leopold in that mould,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25which is really rather unfortunate, because what she has is not
0:18:25 > 0:18:29a saintly child, it's a very feisty, sort of, quick-tempered child,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33who is determined he's going to overcome his illness.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Prince Leopold was abroad convalescing when his father died.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47Ever self-absorbed, his mother wrote him an anguished letter.
0:18:50 > 0:18:51"Poor Mama is more wretched,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55"more miserable than any being in this world can be!
0:18:55 > 0:18:59"I pine and long for your dearly beloved Papa so dreadfully!"
0:19:02 > 0:19:06When Leopold returned to Britain, Victoria sent his tutor firm
0:19:06 > 0:19:07instructions.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12"Take care and make poor little Leopold understand
0:19:12 > 0:19:15"that his return will be a very sad one, that he
0:19:15 > 0:19:18"comes back to a house of mourning and that his poor,
0:19:18 > 0:19:23"broken-hearted mother cannot bear noise, excitement, etc."
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Not yet nine, the walls were closing in on Leopold.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34In time, his home would become a prison.
0:19:39 > 0:19:40Victoria, meanwhile,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43was still wrestling with the morals of her eldest son
0:19:43 > 0:19:48and heir - rumoured - in the wake of the Nellie Clifden affair - to have
0:19:48 > 0:19:53developed an insatiable appetite for the pleasures of the flesh.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Because of Bertie getting into all these scrapes and Victoria
0:19:59 > 0:20:01and Albert both having no sense of humour
0:20:01 > 0:20:04and no sense of proportion about it at all, it became essential...
0:20:04 > 0:20:09once Victoria was widowed, to marry Bertie off, in a hurry.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16To keep him out of mischief, Bertie was packed off on a trip to
0:20:16 > 0:20:20the Holy Land, with a middle-aged clergyman.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22They had to send him
0:20:22 > 0:20:25abroad in such a way as he couldn't pick up prostitutes everywhere
0:20:25 > 0:20:29between Paris, Vienna, Jerusalem, wherever he was travelling.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33So they sent him on a tour of the Levant with the future
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Dean Stanley -
0:20:36 > 0:20:37it's a ridiculous...
0:20:37 > 0:20:41holiday that they sent him on, I mean, totally inappropriate.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45While Bertie toured the monasteries of the Middle East,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48his mother set in train plans for a wedding with
0:20:48 > 0:20:53Princess Alexandra of Denmark, known as Alex.
0:20:53 > 0:20:59Alex was rather like Bertie, not particularly well educated.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02She was very beautiful and she was very good natured.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04I don't think she was particularly bright
0:21:04 > 0:21:08and she certainly wasn't interested in any intellectual pursuits.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10Perfect for Bertie, in other words.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14And the prince was happy to do as he was told.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19One of the things that his parents had managed to school him in was
0:21:19 > 0:21:24the fact that you would marry the person that you were told to marry.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26And I think he decided that that was fine, you know,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29that was his fate and actually, thank god, you know,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32they'd chosen somebody who was pretty and fun.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35TRUMPET VOLUNTARY
0:21:38 > 0:21:43The young couple were married at Windsor in March 1863.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47The Queen, still dressed in mourning,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50a somewhat gloomy presence.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56After the ceremony Bertie and his bride were obliged to share
0:21:56 > 0:21:59the wedding photo with the groom's mother, who resolutely
0:21:59 > 0:22:04ignored them, staring instead at a bust of her dead husband.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13The Queen installed the newlyweds at Marlborough House,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16just a few hundred yards from Buckingham Palace.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21It quickly became clear she expected to exert the same control
0:22:21 > 0:22:24over Bertie's adult life, as she had over his childhood.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Victoria, right from the beginning of the marriage, tries to set
0:22:30 > 0:22:34a timetable, she tries to dictate how much time
0:22:34 > 0:22:37they are allowed out, how much time Alexandra is allowed, for
0:22:37 > 0:22:41example, riding in the park, which I think, initially, is not at all.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50Victoria recruited the household servants as spies - including the
0:22:50 > 0:22:55doctor who was required to pass on details of Alex's menstrual cycle.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59Really, one could only call her a control freak.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01She went on and on and on.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05And she felt that, as Queen, she had the right to go on and on.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12But Bertie was showing surprising resourcefulness.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17Bertie was very good at somehow slipping through these nooses.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21He reacted to her by being incredibly polite
0:23:21 > 0:23:24You never see in his letters, or in his behaviour, that he's exactly
0:23:24 > 0:23:29scared of her, but he works out ways of, sort of, skirting her.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34And very quickly, he and Alexandra managed to establish, actually,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38a very, very sociable circle at Marlborough House.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Gradually, Bertie dismissed the servants the Queen had
0:23:45 > 0:23:50imposed on him and began to display qualities his mother lacked.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56I think he realises the one thing he has, that his parents don't
0:23:56 > 0:23:59have, is he can make people like him.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01I think his parents had no use for charm.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Marlborough House was the opposite of the Queen's gloomy court -
0:24:08 > 0:24:11open, inclusive, glamorous.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14It reflected Bertie's extrovert personality
0:24:14 > 0:24:18and provided an alternative vision of monarchy - one where the stress
0:24:18 > 0:24:24was not on morality and sexual purity, but on theatre and show.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35The Queen, though, could see only danger in the prince's
0:24:35 > 0:24:38lifestyle and his aristocratic friends.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43"At no time for the last 60 or 70 years was frivolity,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46"the love of pleasure, self-indulgence
0:24:46 > 0:24:52"and idleness carried to such excess as now in the higher classes.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56"It resembles the time before the first French Revolution.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59"It is most alarming, although you do not observe it,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01"nor will you hear it."
0:25:05 > 0:25:09Victoria now devoted her efforts to keeping her remaining
0:25:09 > 0:25:12sons as far away as possible from the den of upper class
0:25:12 > 0:25:15iniquity that was Marlborough House.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Where Affie and Arthur were concerned,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22she had the ideal solution.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27What Victoria's reign coincides with is the most extraordinary
0:25:27 > 0:25:29expansion of Empire.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32And it was genius, in a sense, for Albert
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and later Victoria to set up a system which is still in play
0:25:35 > 0:25:40today, of sending young princes out into the world to somehow bind
0:25:40 > 0:25:43the mother country to these far-flung colonies.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51The princes would be ambassadors of Empire - binding colonies,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54not just to the mother country, but to the crown.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59But for Affie - the second son -
0:25:59 > 0:26:03it was a role that did not come naturally.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Affie does seem to have been rather boring,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09the kind of man who would start an anecdote about something that
0:26:09 > 0:26:13had doubtless happened to him a very long way away, on some voyage,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17on some trip, and everybody would quietly edge out of the room.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24His violin playing hadn't improved, either.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28It came to epitomise a grating, discordant personality.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34"Fiddle out of tune and noise abominable,"
0:26:34 > 0:26:36complained one unwilling listener.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Deprived of his beloved father, distant from his mother, by
0:26:42 > 0:26:47his mid-20s, Affie had a reputation as a drinker and a womanizer.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53He is a kind of second-rate version of Bertie, you know,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56he's really not very bright, he's really not very interesting.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59and he's constantly having affairs with other people.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06In 1867, Affie was dispatched to Australia.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09His limitations were cruelly exposed.
0:27:09 > 0:27:15Affie proved to be the most incompetent
0:27:15 > 0:27:19ambassador for Britain that you could possibly imagine, really.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21He wasn't a particularly tactful figure.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24I mean, there he was, scooting through Australia, waiting to be
0:27:24 > 0:27:27received by all of these local dignitaries.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31If he didn't fancy meeting them, he would just drive the coach
0:27:31 > 0:27:33straight past and leave them all standing there.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40What he was really interested in doing was shooting things.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42He shot possums,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44wombats.
0:27:44 > 0:27:51He had no restraint, at all, when it came to massacring animals.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54GUNSHOTS AND SCREAMING
0:27:54 > 0:27:57But the tour ended in high drama.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01On March 12, 1868, at a picnic in Sydney, Prince Alfred
0:28:01 > 0:28:04suddenly found himself at the other end of the barrel.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09This character comes up and shoots him in the back,
0:28:09 > 0:28:10almost from point blank range.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Now, very luckily, the bullet just misses his spine,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19passes through his chest cavity and lodges in his ribs at the front.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23And this is a shot, frankly, that easily could have killed him.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26The would-be assassin was an Irish republican.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29The Prince made a swift recovery.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34But the Queen was unsympathetic - seeming almost to resent
0:28:34 > 0:28:37the attention her son was receiving.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41"I am not as proud of Affie as you might think, for he is
0:28:41 > 0:28:45"so conceited himself, and at the present moment receives ovations as
0:28:45 > 0:28:50"if he had done something, instead of God's mercy having spared his life."
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Prince Arthur - Victoria's favourite - proved rather more
0:28:57 > 0:28:59successful as a colonial ambassador.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03He also delighted his mother by managing to steer
0:29:03 > 0:29:05clear of sexual scandal.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11"I have excellent accounts of Arthur. He at least follows
0:29:11 > 0:29:16"in his beloved father's footsteps as regards character and sense of duty."
0:29:17 > 0:29:19But for the fourth son - Leopold -
0:29:19 > 0:29:23watching his brothers travel the world, there was only frustration.
0:29:30 > 0:29:31Battling his haemophilia,
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Prince Leopold had grown into an intelligent, thoughtful teenager.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39A talented pianist,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42he yearned to escape the stifling atmosphere at court.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48But for him there could be no knightly role.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Instead, his mother continued to treat him as a saintly invalid.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59"All the essentially English notions of manliness must be
0:29:59 > 0:30:01"put out of the question."
0:30:01 > 0:30:03"He must be constantly watched.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06I do not wish that any attempt should be made to
0:30:06 > 0:30:08remove him from me."
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Victoria compounded Leopold's problems by placing him
0:30:14 > 0:30:18in the care of Archie Brown, younger brother of her
0:30:18 > 0:30:20unpopular highland servant, John Brown.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26What the Queen had done was to put a bully in charge of her son.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30And there are no two ways about it, Archie Brown bullied him.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Leopold described his treatment in letters.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39"He is fearfully insolent to me.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41Hitting me on the face with spoons for fun.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45He does nothing but jeer at and be impertinent to me every day.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48I could tear him limb from limb... I loathe him so."
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Archie taunts and teases him.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59And he's completely at the mercy of this.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04And the gentlemen of the household knew this.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08And were on Leopold's side, and tried very, very hard
0:31:08 > 0:31:12to suggest to the Queen that Archie Brown was not the right person.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17And of course all the Queen saw was English prejudice,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19and she didn't listen.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22And this went on for years.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30Leopold was now approaching the age Victoria feared most in her sons.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33But where sex was concerned, she felt his haemophilia
0:31:33 > 0:31:36made him different, as she told one of her daughters.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43"But oh! The illness of a good child is so far less trying
0:31:43 > 0:31:47than the sinfulness of one's sons, like your elder brothers.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49Oh! Then one feels that death in purity
0:31:49 > 0:31:53is so far preferable to life in sin and degradation!"
0:31:56 > 0:31:59She's talking about a boy of 13 here.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03And the one thing Leopold very definitely doesn't want
0:32:03 > 0:32:06is to die in purity or any other way.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09He'd rather have the life in sin and degradation.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15In letters to friends, Leopold poured out his anger.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19"The life here is becoming daily more odious and intolerable.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26"Every inch of liberty is taken away from one, and one is watched,
0:32:26 > 0:32:29"and everything one says or does is reported.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34"Oh, how I do wish I could escape from this detestable house.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38"I am looking forward to the day I shall be able to burst
0:32:38 > 0:32:42"the bars of my iron cage and fly away for ever."
0:32:47 > 0:32:51The battle of wills was also intensifying between the Queen
0:32:51 > 0:32:53and the Prince of Wales.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Everything Victoria, disapproved of, Bertie does.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Victoria was really down on smoking,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Bertie is never without a cigar in his hand.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Victoria disapproved of dining out with the aristocracy.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Bertie is constantly dining out with the aristocracy.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09It is a rebellion.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Um, against um, what Victoria's court stands for.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20The Prince of Wales was now in his late 20s.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22He was a father of three.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28But his sociability was beginning to tip over into a voracious hedonism.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33'Bertie was in every sense a very greedy person.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36I suppose if you were a psychiatrist you would say that was
0:33:36 > 0:33:39a sign that he was a very needy person, emotionally.'
0:33:39 > 0:33:42And so I think he looked, as he grew up,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47for emotional satisfaction from physical appetites.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53As Bertie's waistline spread, the image of a pure,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57chivalric knight fitted ever less comfortably.
0:33:58 > 0:33:59Bertie is a throwback.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03He has an old-fashioned aristocratic attitude towards sex,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07which is that you get as much of it as you can with whoever you can,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10you try not to get caught and if you do you pay people off.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14Freed of parental constraint,
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Bertie plunged himself into a world of pleasure...
0:34:17 > 0:34:18CORK POPS
0:34:18 > 0:34:23..regularly visiting brothels and keeping a string of high-society mistresses.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Behaviour that may also have had its roots in his unhappy childhood.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Many people would think he was a scarred human being.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Freud says the reason men go to prostitutes is to take
0:34:35 > 0:34:37revenge on their mother.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44His long-suffering wife, Alex, had little alternative
0:34:44 > 0:34:46but to tolerate Bertie's philandering.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53But then in 1870, Bertie's scandalous private life
0:34:53 > 0:34:57burst into the open when he was named in a high-profile divorce case.
0:35:00 > 0:35:05It's tremendously humiliating and it's extremely shocking and he
0:35:05 > 0:35:09is certainly seen as having pulled the Royal Family into disrepute.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14This was a direct threat to the Queen's vision of a pure
0:35:14 > 0:35:16and virtuous monarchy.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22But when the prince appeared in court something strange happened.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25He was asked just a handful of questions
0:35:25 > 0:35:27and allowed to leave the witness box.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33Someone in the background, it seems, had pulled strings.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Whenever there's a crisis this happens, Victoria stands by him.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41And that was very important to his survival in the case.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46Because it meant the government, Gladstone, the Prime Minister, also backed Bertie.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50And that meant that he wasn't... He was given an easy ride in court,
0:35:50 > 0:35:52he wasn't given a tough cross-examination.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55I mean, I don't think for a moment she believed
0:35:55 > 0:35:58that Bertie was innocent, in these various divorce cases.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02I think that she felt she had to say so,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05for the good name of the Royal Family.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Mother and son had closed ranks.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16And by 1870, the Queen had good reason to feel the monarchy was under threat.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24She had been in mourning for almost a decade, effectively a recluse,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28and the sympathy of the British people was beginning to wear thin.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32William Gladstone, a Liberal Prime Minister Victoria loathed,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34expressed the problem bluntly.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39"To speak in rude and general terms, the Queen is invisible
0:36:39 > 0:36:42and the Prince of Wales is not respected."
0:36:43 > 0:36:47One wag placed a sign on the railings at Buckingham Palace
0:36:47 > 0:36:49declaring the premises vacant,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52the late occupant having retired from business.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57With republican sentiment growing, the Prince of Wales
0:36:57 > 0:37:01found himself with a rare opportunity to lecture his mother.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04"If you sometimes came to London from Windsor
0:37:04 > 0:37:09"and then drove for an hour in the Park, the people would be overjoyed.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12"We live in radical times, and the more the people see
0:37:12 > 0:37:16"the Sovereign the better it is for the people and the country".
0:37:18 > 0:37:20But the Queen refused to budge.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25And Bertie, along with the rest of his siblings,
0:37:25 > 0:37:29knew that a direct confrontation with her was out of the question.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34She let them know at all times that she wasn't just their mother,
0:37:34 > 0:37:39she was their Queen, and they had no chance to disobey her.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43They know that she can get you a job,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47she can dish out a nice house, and she can certainly dish out...
0:37:47 > 0:37:50..money, you know, from the civil list.
0:37:53 > 0:37:59The family was at an impasse, the Queen refusing to end her seclusion,
0:37:59 > 0:38:01the children terrified to challenge her.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06It was the greatest crisis of Victoria's reign.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Then, in November 1871, the Prince of Wales fell ill
0:38:14 > 0:38:19at his newly-acquired country estate of Sandringham in Norfolk.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22The diagnosis typhoid.
0:38:22 > 0:38:29The very illness from which his father was believed to have died from precisely ten years before.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Queen Victoria comes up to Sandringham.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37It's all slightly embarrassing, because Bertie with his typhoid, is raving away.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41He's got terrible dementia and raving away mentioning the names
0:38:41 > 0:38:43of various mistresses that he shouldn't mention, and Alex
0:38:43 > 0:38:48has to be sent out of the room because he's saying such unmentionable things.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51And all the Royal princes are sort of giggling, you know,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54all his brothers are giggling downstairs at the things that he's saying.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57So, on the one hand it's quite funny, but on the other hand,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00nobody...You know, there was a real danger that he might die.
0:39:02 > 0:39:08The illness reached its climax on December 14th, the anniversary of Albert's death.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12The newspapers carried regular bulletins.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17And the prince's life hung in the balance.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25And then amazingly, he turns the corner and recovers.
0:39:25 > 0:39:30And this has the extraordinary effect of causing a complete sort of flip-flop in public opinion.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32CROWDS CHEERING
0:39:33 > 0:39:36A few months later, huge crowds turned out
0:39:36 > 0:39:40for a service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43CHOIR SINGS
0:39:45 > 0:39:51By almost dying, Bertie had established an emotional bond with the people.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54His infidelities and his philandering, it seemed,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58didn't matter, despite the Queen's fears.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05And she too, persuaded to come out of seclusion for a day at least,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08was rapturously received.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10The threat to the monarchy had evaporated.
0:40:12 > 0:40:13CROWD CHEERING
0:40:15 > 0:40:19But the conflict between Victoria and her youngest son,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22was now reaching crisis point.
0:40:23 > 0:40:29By the start of the 1870s, Leopold was plotting an escape route...
0:40:29 > 0:40:31..Oxford University.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36He is an intelligent and intellectually curious man,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39in a way that a number of his brothers weren't.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43But he also longs for the chance to live anywhere
0:40:43 > 0:40:47but under his mother's roof and this is what Oxford represents to him.
0:40:47 > 0:40:48BELLS TOLL
0:40:48 > 0:40:51He sees it as a place where he can fit in.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55It won't matter if he's not that strong, or if he's sometimes ill.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57He's clever.
0:40:57 > 0:40:58BELLS TOLL
0:41:00 > 0:41:03But, as ever, there was an obstacle.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Her policy is one of silence.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11When Prince Leopold asks to go to university at Oxford,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Queen Victoria didn't speak to him about it for seven months.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Why couldn't he be content to sit at home and read books,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22or play the piano with his sister?
0:41:22 > 0:41:25She makes it a health argument, but it isn't, really.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27It's a keeping him at home argument.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Leopold was persistent.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36Finally the Queen gave in.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39But she did so grudgingly.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43"The inconvenience that it will entail on me
0:41:43 > 0:41:48"in not having a grown-up child in the house will be considerable.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52"I have consented on the condition that it is merely for study,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55"and not for amusement that you go there."
0:41:57 > 0:42:02She insisted the Prince live at a house in North Oxford with hand-picked minders
0:42:02 > 0:42:05and that any friends be restricted to young men -
0:42:05 > 0:42:08"marked out either by birth
0:42:08 > 0:42:13"or by their quiet and steady qualities as fit acquaintances."
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Really, the whole idea was,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19"If you're going to Oxford, I'm still in charge."
0:42:19 > 0:42:24"And you will have as much of Oxford as I say you will have."
0:42:24 > 0:42:28"You can go to lectures but I don't want you to enjoy yourself,"
0:42:28 > 0:42:29is the bottom line.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34But enjoy himself, Leopold did.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44Oxford would be a dream-like interlude in his life,
0:42:44 > 0:42:49during which he moved into the orbit of the Liddell family,
0:42:49 > 0:42:51whose daughter, Alice, had provided the inspiration
0:42:51 > 0:42:54for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland .
0:42:58 > 0:43:00Alice was now a young woman,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03and Leopold was even rumoured to be in love with her.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07But it was another character in the story
0:43:07 > 0:43:10who would have been most familiar to him.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14The Queen... you don't have to squint very hard at
0:43:14 > 0:43:17to realise is a parody of his mother
0:43:17 > 0:43:21losing her temper all over the place,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26um, stomping around, being wildly unpredictable.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33Here at last was a world of ideas,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36of intellectual stimulation, of freedom.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43But in 1876, Leopold's time at Oxford came to an end.
0:43:45 > 0:43:46He was 23
0:43:46 > 0:43:50and still desperate to find a useful and fulfilling role in life
0:43:50 > 0:43:54as far away as possible from his mother.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59It was a problem his oldest brother, now in his mid-30s,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02was also wrestling with.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03For all his hedonism,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07the Prince of Wales yearned to be treated as a grown-up.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10I think Victoria does infantilise him,
0:44:10 > 0:44:13she doesn't give him a chance to grow up, certainly.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16You know, she criticises him for not being responsible, not working
0:44:16 > 0:44:18and yet she doesn't allow him any responsibility,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20it's a no-win situation for him.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23Bertie pleaded to be given a key
0:44:23 > 0:44:26to the Queen's government dispatch boxes,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29so that he could share in her official duties,
0:44:29 > 0:44:31and learn the profession of monarch.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34He was refused.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38Victoria's reason for not giving him access
0:44:38 > 0:44:41is saying that he's indiscreet and she tells everybody that,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44"Bertie, if you tell him a secret, he'll tell everybody at a dinner party
0:44:44 > 0:44:47"and the secret will no longer be a secret."
0:44:48 > 0:44:50Bertie deeply resented this
0:44:50 > 0:44:54and was angry that he was often kept out of the family business.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00"I do not think that I am prone to 'let the cat out of the bag'
0:45:00 > 0:45:04"as a rule, or to betray confidences.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07"It is often with great regret that I either learn first from others
0:45:07 > 0:45:09"or see in the newspapers,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13"hints or facts stated with regard to members of our family."
0:45:20 > 0:45:24In 1875 the Prince of Wales took matters into his own hands,
0:45:24 > 0:45:29and organised for himself a trip to Britain's richest possession -
0:45:29 > 0:45:31India.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34The Queen, so keen to see her younger sons
0:45:34 > 0:45:37act as ambassadors of empire, was furious.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41Victoria didn't want Bertie to go to India
0:45:41 > 0:45:43because she thought there would be a scrape.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47She had visions of him climbing on rope ladders up,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49up the walls of Indian harems.
0:45:52 > 0:45:58But Bertie surprised her. He was charming, he was gracious.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00He remembered names and faces
0:46:00 > 0:46:03and played the part of an imperial prince to perfection.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10Like Prince Alfred, he carried out a wholesale slaughter of wildlife.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14But these hunting trips with the maharajas
0:46:14 > 0:46:17were all part of the performance.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19He grasps the theatre of empire -
0:46:19 > 0:46:23he knew how to dress, he knew how to present himself,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26he knew how to put himself on display.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31He believed in ostentation and this was part of the role of monarchy.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35Indian princes, were incorporated into the whole royal mystique,
0:46:35 > 0:46:40and their loyalty was partly generated
0:46:40 > 0:46:46by the spectacle that he created, going past on his elephant,
0:46:46 > 0:46:49looking the part of a kind of living god.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53India proved the perfect stage
0:46:53 > 0:46:58for Bertie's ceremonial, theatrical Vision of monarchy.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01It would be a template for all royal tours that followed.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07The Prince also revealed himself to be more enlightened
0:47:07 > 0:47:09than most colonial officers.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11He told one:
0:47:11 > 0:47:14"Because a man has a black face and a different religion
0:47:14 > 0:47:18"from our own, there is no reason why he should be treated as a brute."
0:47:22 > 0:47:26The Queen, who loved India and Indians, agreed.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31But Bertie's ceremonial vision of monarchy left her unmoved.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34She complained her son's letters were boring.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37"Bertie's progresses lose a little interest
0:47:37 > 0:47:41"and are very wearing as there is such a constant repetition
0:47:41 > 0:47:46"of elephants, trappings, jewels illuminations and fireworks."
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Queen Victoria was jealous of the success
0:47:52 > 0:47:54of her eldest son in India,
0:47:54 > 0:48:00she thought that the key thing was her imperial position
0:48:00 > 0:48:04not his vulgar jaunts to the ends of the earth.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10While the Prince of Wales was on his way home,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Victoria stole his thunder, accepting a proposal
0:48:13 > 0:48:16from her favourite prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19that she be crowned Empress of India.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22She didn't even tell Bertie
0:48:22 > 0:48:27who found out from the press and was furious.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31"In no other country in the world, would the next heir to the throne
0:48:31 > 0:48:37"have been treated under similar circumstances in such a manner."
0:48:37 > 0:48:40I think it's very interesting that Victoria really conforms
0:48:40 > 0:48:44to the Hanoverian tradition of being poisonous to your heir,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47treating the heir, really, almost as an enemy
0:48:47 > 0:48:51and yet Bertie doesn't respond in the conventional Hanoverian fashion,
0:48:51 > 0:48:52he never intrigues against her,
0:48:52 > 0:48:56so, he in a way is the one way who understands
0:48:56 > 0:49:00the way in which politics are changing and Victoria doesn't.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04William Gladstone - the leading statesman of the day -
0:49:04 > 0:49:06could see Bertie's qualities.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09"He would make an excellent sovereign.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11"He is far more fitted for that high place
0:49:11 > 0:49:14"than her present Majesty now is.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19"He would see both sides. He would always be open to argument.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22"He would never domineer or dictate."
0:49:22 > 0:49:26But the Queen's own comments on her son remained chilling.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31"I often pray he may never survive me,
0:49:31 > 0:49:33"for I know not what would happen."
0:49:37 > 0:49:43Victoria continued to exclude her oldest son from all state business.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Her youngest, meanwhile, was launching another bid
0:49:50 > 0:49:52to escape her clutches.
0:49:52 > 0:49:57In 1882, Leopold married Princess Helen of Waldeck in Germany.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01The Queen accepted the match
0:50:01 > 0:50:03but was embarrassed by the sight of Leopold
0:50:03 > 0:50:06leaning on a walking stick at the wedding...
0:50:07 > 0:50:11"It is a sad exhibition and I fear everyone must be shocked at it.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14"I pity her but she seems only to think of him
0:50:14 > 0:50:17"with love and affection."
0:50:19 > 0:50:24The couple quickly produced a child and Leopold then put himself forward
0:50:24 > 0:50:27for the role of governor of Victoria, in Australia.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31About as far away from his mother as he could get.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34But the Queen blocked the move.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40"His first duty is to me, but this he has never understood.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43"Sad and suffering as I am, I was made quite ill
0:50:43 > 0:50:47"by this new and totally unexpected shock."
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Leopold pleaded with his mother.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58"My brothers have been given appointment after appointment,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00"and though the many sad disappointments of my life
0:51:00 > 0:51:05"have not led me to expect much, it would indeed be bitter to lose this,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08"the last thing I shall ever beg of you."
0:51:09 > 0:51:11Not for the first time,
0:51:11 > 0:51:13the stress of conflict with his mother
0:51:13 > 0:51:16undermined Prince Leopold's health.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Mental health, emotional health can affect bleeding in haemophilia,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24and certainly, this seems to be borne out with Leopold.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27Throughout his life, it's very striking that
0:51:27 > 0:51:30when he clashes with his mother, his health declines.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Leopold went to the south of France to recuperate.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42There, on March 27, 1884, he banged his knee
0:51:42 > 0:51:45while climbing the stairs at the Yacht Club in Cannes.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50The accident caused severe internal bleeding
0:51:50 > 0:51:52and he was carried back to his hotel.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58He wrote to this wife, actually it's a heart breaking letter,
0:51:58 > 0:52:03because it ends, "Darling, the pain is struggling so with me,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05"I cannot write more".
0:52:05 > 0:52:09And the signature physically tails off.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11And this is his last letter.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21Leopold died in the night from what were described as "convulsions".
0:52:21 > 0:52:25He was only 30 - his short life blighted not just by illness,
0:52:25 > 0:52:30but also, it seems, by his mother's mania to control.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Victoria mourned Leopold's death -
0:52:36 > 0:52:40but lamented his refusal to resign himself to the life of an invalid.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46"For dear Leopold, there was such a restless longing
0:52:46 > 0:52:48"for what he could not have,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51"that seemed to increase, rather than lessen."
0:53:02 > 0:53:04Victoria - now an old woman -
0:53:04 > 0:53:09had lost the one son who genuinely resembled his sainted father.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17The other three were now well into corpulent middle age.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22Only Prince Arthur, now commander of the British army in Bombay,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24was on good terms with his mother.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29She remained determined to view Bertie as a disappointment.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32While Affie - the other black sheep -
0:53:32 > 0:53:36was about to bring the story of Victoria's family full circle.
0:53:39 > 0:53:44In 1893, Affie became Duke of Saxe-Coburg in Germany,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47a title he had inherited from his father's family.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55He moved into the Palace of Rosenau,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59where Prince Albert had been born 74 years before.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02It was not a happy homecoming.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07This character who's been used to roaming the high seas
0:54:07 > 0:54:11all of a sudden is placed in this landlocked, relatively insignificant
0:54:11 > 0:54:15little German principality, where things don't go terribly well.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19We have a sense at the end of Affie's life of a man
0:54:19 > 0:54:23who is isolated by disappointment and unhappiness.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27He had become commander-in-chief of the British Navy,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30but when he became Duke of Saxe-Coburg had to give that up.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Victoria and Albert had dreamed of a Europe
0:54:37 > 0:54:41united in peace and harmony through their family.
0:54:41 > 0:54:46But Affie now found himself a dynastic relic,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50an English prince stranded in the newly united Germany,
0:54:51 > 0:54:56subordinate to his overbearing and erratic nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Estranged from his wife and drinking heavily,
0:55:01 > 0:55:05the Sailor Prince died of cancer in 1900.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07He was 55.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Six months later, the remaining family
0:55:14 > 0:55:18gathered at Osborne around the death bed of the Queen herself.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Of her nine children, three were now dead
0:55:24 > 0:55:30and the oldest, Vicky, lay dying in Berlin, also of cancer.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35For all of them, life had been a struggle to survive
0:55:35 > 0:55:38the extraordinary personality of their mother.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44I feel that none of her children doubted their love for her.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47What they may have questioned is the nature of that love
0:55:47 > 0:55:50and there are certainly occasions when all nine of her children
0:55:50 > 0:55:54had reason to consider Victoria's love rather a selfish thing.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56I think they did a very good job, actually,
0:55:56 > 0:56:02of what could have been quite a crippling emotional experience,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05being endlessly harangued about how imperfect they were,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09in comparison with their perfect father.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12Really it was not until after Victoria's death
0:56:12 > 0:56:16that they could really, really live their own lives.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21None had felt the weight of her disapproval more than Bertie.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28On her deathbed, his mother asked him to kiss her and he wept.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30A kind of reconciliation.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35She died the next day,
0:56:35 > 0:56:40her body laid out beneath the death portrait of her beloved husband,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43who had died 40 years before.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52Victoria was buried amidst grandeur
0:56:52 > 0:56:56befitting the queen of the world's greatest imperial power.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00She was the grandmother of Europe.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Five reigning monarchs and seven grand princes
0:57:04 > 0:57:08escorted her to her grave - most of them related to her.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12But within 14 years, they would be in conflict
0:57:12 > 0:57:15as the dynastic web Victoria had woven across Europe
0:57:15 > 0:57:19unravelled in war and revolution.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Of the great imperial dynasties of Europe,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26only Victoria's would survive,
0:57:26 > 0:57:30in no small part because of the abilities of her son,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34now King Edward VII, who would reign for nine years
0:57:34 > 0:57:37with tact, charm and diplomacy.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41Bertie is the great survivor.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45He comes to the throne, and he makes a huge, huge success of being king,
0:57:45 > 0:57:49within relatively limited tramlines I suppose,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51but he is a very, very successful king.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Victoria and Albert had believed in a monarchy
0:57:58 > 0:58:03that reigned by moral example. A new Camelot.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06But morality has never sat easily with princes.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09Bertie offered an alternative.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12A monarchy providing ceremony and theatre,
0:58:12 > 0:58:18ranking public duty above domestic virtue.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19In the century since -
0:58:19 > 0:58:23as media scrutiny has grown ever more intense
0:58:23 > 0:58:29Bertie's vision has generally proved a safer option for the Royal family.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd