All language subtitles for The Queens That Changed the World s01e03 Queen Victoria.eng

Across the centuries,
and around the world...

..women have ruled kingdoms
and built empires.

She could not be hidden,
she could not be suppressed.

Now, we discover the real story
of six iconic queens.

She tore the city down.

Despite the fire, despite the whole
city being massacred,

we still have these walls.

In this series we follow in
the footsteps...

Here it is, the Chapel Royal,
a pretty magical place.

..of history's most important
female monarchs...

She believed that every single man
who fought on the battlefield

in her name, was worthy of honour
and respect.

..to find out how they overcome
the prejudices of their times...

She is their mother,
she is their commander,

she is their goddess.

..and the challenges facing
their reigns...

This was a dangerous place to be.

She wouldn't have shown any fear,
but I'm sure she felt it.

..to change their world, and ours.

She is sassy, she is fearless.

She is badass queen.

14th of January 1878.

Queen Victoria is at her
family home, Osborne House,

on the Isle of Wight.

Osborne House is one of the most
beautiful places.

And it's here that she is about
to make history.

With Alexander Graham Bell,

Victoria makes the UK's first
publicly-witnessed

long-distance telephone calls.

ringing Cowes,
Southampton and London.

This is an incredible replica of
the original telephone

that Victoria used

here at Osborne House

to make a telephone call.

And what I love about it is,

it's called a Tel Bell,
not a telephone,

which we use today.
It looks incredibly simple,

but this is the dawn
of our mobiles.

It's incredible.

Victoria is so impressed by
this invention,

she wants to keep it.

But she is no stranger to
the wonders of the industrial

and technological revolution that
are happening during her reign.

If you think of the
Victorian century

as a time that's kind of dull
and a bit boring

and very prudish and moral,

it's not. This is the time of some

of our greatest
technological advancements.

As a monarch, she could have taken
a very traditional view

and been quite scared or awkward
around technology,

but she isn't.
She absolutely embraces it.

She's excited by it,
she's curious about it.

And we see that at Osborne House.

Alexandrina Victoria is born on
the 24th of May 1819

at Kensington Palace.

With three uncles in line for
the throne ahead of Edward,

her father, Victoria
is never meant to rule.

She was merely the daughter
of George III's fourth son.

George III had many children,

but the problem was

they didn't like marrying very much.

They had mistresses
rather than wives,

so they struggled to produce
any legitimate children.

So ultimately, Victoria became first
in line to the throne

against all the odds.

And she realised this when she was
about ten years old.

Life for the princess, however,
is anything but a fairy tale.

Unfortunately for Victoria,

her father dies when she's very,
very young.

She has no memories of him

and this leaves her in the power
and control of her mother,

the Duchess of Kent.

Victoria had had
a very close relationship

with her mother in her early years,

but all of that changed quite
dramatically

when it became clear that she
was going to be queen.

Unfortunately, the Duchess is under
the power of John Conroy.

After her father's death in 1820,

Conroy, who had been
his personal assistant,

offered his services to
the widowed Duchess

who appointed him controller
of her household.

But when the young princess
becomes heir,

he decides to take control
of her too.

Conroy's decision to
protect Victoria

is to invent this thing called
the Kensington System.

It was incredibly important
as the future monarch

she remained safe,

so she was constantly supervised

at all times.

She couldn't even walk down
the stairs

without somebody holding her hand.

Every kind of moment,
from who she talks to,

to how she spends her time,
to how she washes,

how she dresses, is controlled
by other people.

She has no personal freedom,

she has no personal time
and definitely no personal space.

It grew suffocating for Victoria

and she started to really
try to rebel

against this very controlling
environment.

But she was in this vice-like grip
by her mother

and by the despised Conroy.

Also, at this time, she's been
trained as the monarch-to-be,

so the Duchess of Kent,
her mother, holds grand parties,

at which Victoria is often
displayed.

So she's meeting the people who are
going to be in her government

while she's a teenager,
while she's very young,

but she's only ever seen
in public

in the Duchess's or John Conroy's
control.

When you look at
the impact on child stars

and people in Hollywood who often
become public figures

at a young age,
that leaves its mark.

There is a difficulty there

in how to navigate your
adolescent life

in the glare of the public eye.

And there's also often
a discomfort with -

are people being nice to me
because of who I am?

Do they genuinely like me?

Or are they treating me this way
because of my role

or my persona or my public face?

6:00am on the 20th of June 1837,

and Victoria is woken at
Kensington Palace.

Visitors have arrived
with important news.

The King is dead.

When Victoria first found out that
her uncle had died

and she was therefore now Queen,
she felt sorrow.

But it's fascinating that
the very first thing

Victoria chose to do as Queen was
to demand some time on her own.

She steps out of the confines
of the Kensington System,

out of her mother's control,
and it's almost immediate,

She makes sure that the people
who've been controlling her life

are separated from her court and her
immediate circle of influence.

Victoria is not willing to be
controlled by anyone any more.

Young, free and Queen,

Victoria can finally become her
own person.

But this newly emancipated
18-year-old

is about to learn some serious
life lessons.

When Queen Victoria ascended
the throne,

the Whig politician Lord Melbourne
was in political power,

and Victoria took
a strong liking to him.

I think it was probably more of
a paternal relationship,

but there were rumours of romance
because Victoria doted on Melbourne,

and she relied on him utterly.

And their relationship was
incredibly close,

much more so than was usual
for a monarch

and their Prime Minister.

And she was seen to be breaching
the Constitution

because she so clearly
favoured him.

We have to remember that
Victoria is blossoming

in a particularly patriarchal
society.

She's a very young queen,
seen as, yes, very headstrong

and ambitious, but also vulnerable
and naive.

Although Victoria's behaviour
towards Lord Melbourne

raised some eyebrows,

it was another crisis that would
shock the nation.

When Victoria separates from
her mother

and she's getting rid of every
kind of part of John Conroy

and the Kensington System,

she also decides to get rid of
the people

who have kind of controlled
her life.

And she has a lot of anger
and intense rage.

And she takes that out on one
of her mother's ladies-in-waiting,

Lady Flora Hastings.

Flora has a swollen belly.

The Queen spreads the rumour
she is pregnant

with the illegitimate child
of John Conroy.

She gossips with Melbourne about it.

She gossips with other
ladies-in-waiting,

and it's a huge scandal.

Spread by the Queen, by Victoria.

It turned out that Flora had
progressed liver cancer.

The swelling in her stomach,

which had caused
the pregnancy rumours,

was in fact a tumour.

The Hastings family,
along with Lord Conroy,

who was a little bit miffed that
Victoria had jettisoned him

to the side,

started a public attack within
the press against the Queen.

She is vilified as this bitchy
teenage girl,

stupid young girl,

spreading horrifying rumours about
a very pure young woman

and destroying this life.

When Flora's funeral happens,
there are cries of

"Here is the victim,
where is the murderer?"

This is absolutely horrifying.

It is one of the first and
probably most important crises

of Victoria's reign.

This situation was the catalyst
for Victoria

realising that she needed to mature,

and she needed to,
not just become Queen,

but start acting like a queen.

But how does a queen restore her
tattered reputation?

For all her youth, Victoria
absolutely understood the stakes.

And she understood that any hint
of scandal or immorality

around her own queenship,

it would be ten times worse than
for her predecessors,

because they were men.

So she understood
the job ahead of her,

that she had to stabilise
the monarchy through her morality,

through her dignity.

Her reputation had to be
entirely without reproach.

28th of June 1838.

The day of Victoria's Coronation.

Britain loves a party
and a coronation is no different.

And so Victoria's Coronation is
something that is seen to be

exciting and decadent
and a show

and to bring everyone
together

to look at this tiny,
beautiful princess.

400,000 people line the streets
surrounding Westminster Abbey

hoping to gain a glimpse of their
new queen.

When Queen Victoria
ascended the throne,

she was inheriting,
patriarchal monarchy.

She really needed to carve
out her name for herself

as the new power of Modern Britain.

So her challenge was

to insert herself within society,

within politics, within the economy,
within industry,

and actually assert her power

and become the leading ruler
and the face and symbol of Britain.

What Victoria does next will change
the British monarchy forever.

The previous monarchy were
incredibly disconnected

from the people. They were
effectively a PR disaster.

They were known
for holding lavish parties,

flaunting their rich in front
of the people.

The crown was teetering on the edge,

People were starting to question

whether they needed
a monarchy at all.

Victoria had to bring it back

from the brink.

The French had done away
with their own monarchy

just 40 years earlier.

Revolution was a very real threat
for Great Britain.

But after the Flora Hastings
scandal,

it was Victoria's own morality that
needed saving first.

At this point, her reputation
is lying in the gutter

and she needs to do something
very quickly to pull herself out.

As a young woman within
Victorian society,

there would've been that expectation
that she would marry

and bear children.

Before ascending the throne,

plans had already been made that
Victoria would marry her cousin,

Prince Albert -
the son of her mother's brother.

From the age of six years old,

Prince Albert knows that
he is supposed to marry Victoria,

that it's his destiny.

Victoria is quite happy playing
the field.

She's got Princes of Europe
coming to see her.

She's the new, kind of,
queen on the scene.

Victoria did like Albert,

although when they first met
when they were around 16, 17,

she actually thought she was
a bit too young for him.

She goes away,
she has a couple of years partying.

The Flora Hastings scandal happens,

and then she realises that she
really needs to make

a big PR move to establish herself

and her reputation back in
the public eye.

When she re-meets Albert,
she's pleasantly surprised.

She thinks that he's
incredibly handsome.

She falls in love with him.
And from there the rest is history.

The pair marry on
the 10th of February 1840

in the Chapel Royal
at St James's Palace.

The wayward queen is now
a respectable married woman.

Victoria becomes pregnant very
quickly after their marriage,

almost instantly.

And we have beautiful stories from
her about her wedding night -

of it being the most romantic

and amazing experience
she's ever had.

So, we know they had a very physical
and passionate relationship

resulting in nine children.

What's also interesting though,

is that over the years,
she led us to believe

that she didn't particularly like
having babies or being pregnant.

So it's interesting to think
about why

she might have had such
a big family.

Was it just because she was enjoying
the activities in the bedroom

with her husband?
Or was there something more to that?

If you consider the fact
that she only became queen

because her uncles didn't have
families of their own,

didn't have long lineages
to pass the crown to...

..maybe she also saw the value in
sort of cementing her position

and her lineage in the monarchy,
by having lots of children.

Once Victoria and Albert have
started having their family,

it becomes very clear
to Victoria that they need

a place that's a family home.

And this is something that is
a passion project

that she gives to Albert.

Located on the Isle of Wight,
a very modest residence,

Osborne House, is bought,
then demolished.

And the first phase
of Albert's vision

for their family home is completed
in 1846.

Osborne House held such
a place in Victoria's heart.

This was her and Albert's
seaside retreat.

It's where they could go away
from the cares of the world,

of her queenship,
and just be a family.

We're sitting here in
the drawing room of Osborne House

and this is very much
a family room

where Victoria and her family
would've sat, played, sung,

and had time together.

But we can see from its opulence
that it's also somewhere

that could have entertained visiting
monarchs, visiting dignitaries.

During this time, the new couple
hatch a plan

for how modern monarchy should look.

And a painting still hung in
Osborne House today

reveals how they did this.

For almost 800 years,

the history of the monarchy had
focused on the monarch themselves.

That changed with Victoria
and with Albert.

And both of them consciously
shifted the focus

onto the royal family.

Their intention with this was
to restore the morality

of the monarchy,

to give their people this sort
of blueprint

for what an ideal family life
should be.

This painting was produced in 1846

when Victoria is just 27 years old.

She's relatively newly married

and relatively new to the throne.

And this painting really tells us
so much about the strategy

that she continues throughout
her life,

and that she's putting in place,
at this early stage,

to present herself both as queen
and as a wife and mother.

This painting gives a sense
of just how complex it is

to negotiate this symbolically
and in practice.

We have at the centre of the image,

Queen Victoria and Albert seated
equally on similar thrones

next to each other.

There's a huge red curtain that
frames the back of the scene,

and they're seemingly sat on
a carpeted stage

or a plinth of some sort.

And this really gives a sense of
a theatrical scene,

that Victoria and Albert are placing
themselves on a literal stage,

presenting themselves in
a way that is theatrical,

that is thought through
and choreographed.

Victoria's son Bertie is positioned
right next to her.

But crucially,
he's not meeting her gaze,

he's meeting the eyes of his father.

And this tells us that true to
19th century convention,

19th century values, this is a child
who respects his mother,

but ultimately is answerable to
the authority of his father.

Queen Victoria understands
the times that she lives in.

And the age that has become
associated with her

was a particularly
conservative period

in terms of relations
between men and women.

She acknowledges that.

And she knows that her status is
also dependent

on her having a fully
functioning marriage.

But the power is always with her.

It's not with Albert.
Albert is merely consort.

He is never king.

We know that the year after this
painting was produced,

it went on display at
St James's Palace,

and it was seen there by over
100,000 members of the public.

So this is really effective
marketing for the royal family.

And a strategy employed by
the royals ever since.

1st of September 1842.

Victoria and Albert are making their
first official visit to Edinburgh.

When Victoria came to the throne,

she wanted to show her people that
the monarchy could earn their keep,

that they were hard workers

and that they were of value to
the public.

Gone were the days of
the partying princes -

the new modern monarchy would be
working royals.

One of the things that Victoria
and Albert did

was to make lots of public visits.

Suddenly it became a thing for
the Monarch and her family

to open hospitals or factories
or visit the sick.

They got the fact that it was
crucial for the Monarch

to be seen as much as possible

and for members of
their family as well.

And this hadn't happened before.

It's likely that there was
a whole range of factors

that enabled Victoria to realise
that actually her public image

was going to be key.

Part of it might also have come
from her realising

that the days of ruling your
subjects or sitting in your seat

of power in your palace were over.

And that if you wanted
to sustain your role as a monarch,

it was very much going to have
to be of benefit to the people

and very much going to be
about their service,

the value that you bring
to your people.

As technological advances within
the printing industry

paved the way for mass circulation
of newspapers,

the Queen was quite often
front-page news.

And Victoria realised
the power of positive PR.

I think it's fair to say Victoria
was the first celebrity monarch.

She was followed wherever she went,

the popular press reported
on her every move.

The more Victoria was seen,

the more she was written about in
popular favour in the press,

and the more she became one of
the people.

They really became, as a couple,
part of their own subjects.

Victoria becomes patron
to 150 institutions,

including many charities.

Civic visits become
the Queen's new currency.

It was with Victoria that the notion
of public service really began.

It was also Victoria who began
the concept of charity,

a sort of philanthropic monarchy
raising funds, donating funds.

And that charitable function

was one of the things that
saved the monarchy.

But, for Victoria,

being an accessible queen
comes at a terrifying cost.

10th of June 1840.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
are parading for their public

around Hyde Park in London.

She was newly married.

She was actually five months
pregnant at the time

when she went on a carriage ride.
And shots were fired.

GUNSHOTS

It's an assassination attempt.
And it's not an isolated incident.

She becomes a target
for people who are disaffected,

unhappy, don't like the monarchy,
have political issues.

And we see that in the amount of
times people try to assassinate her.

It's horrifying.
It's seven different men.

One so determined,
he tries it twice.

I think that's one of the reasons

why Osborne House becomes
so important to her.

It is a separation from the
life of monarchy,

from being able to be that
accessible

and in danger from her public,

from the people who
are supposed to love her.

Osborne House becomes not just a
family home, but a sanctuary.

As a young, pregnant woman,

regardless of the fact that
she's queen,

the shock, the impact
of that traumatic event,

must have left its mark.

But what's really fascinating is
that throughout her reign,

actually there would be several more
assassination attempts

and yet she would go back out
to meet the public

time and time again.

And I think that may have also
led in part

to the success of her relationship
with her public.

Because, they must have seen that
she really was dedicated

to their service,
even at great personal risk.

She was determined
to be seen by her people,

and she wanted to win their respect

and their loyalty
and admiration.

And I think there was something
in her that craved that,

because there was always an
outpouring of affection for Victoria

after each assassination attempt.

And I think she grew quite
addicted to that.

1839.

A new invention is revealed
to the world - photography.

Queen Victoria is enchanted
by this technology.

She is also the
first British monarch

to have her life recorded
by a camera.

For the very first time,
the public across the country

can see what their Queen
really looks like.

One of the biggest innovations
in Victoria's reign

is the advent of photography.

It changes the world in
so many ways,

and it changes Victoria's reign.

She really harnesses
this technology

in a way that other monarchs had
harnessed portraiture before them.

May 1860.

Victoria uses this invention
in a way that will change

how the monarchy is perceived
and consumed,

and elevate the status of
the royal household

in a way never seen before.

Victoria and Albert give permission
for their photographs to be released

on what are known as
carte de visite.

Now, these are essentially
photographs

that are attached to card.

And they are very much
a sociable item.

They can be collected,
they can be traded, and crucially,

they're available to purchase
for most people with an income.

And so suddenly we see her image
entering the homes,

not only of the elite,
but of the middle classes

and even the working classes.

By the 1880s you could pick-up
a dozen of these cards

for about five shillings.

Which is around a day's wage for
the average London labourer.

This was the first time that
a photograph of the monarch

could be placed within

ordinary working people's houses,

which only amplified her
public image.

These images of
Victoria and Albert

seemingly living their everyday life

are really intended to make them
relatable

and to make the audience who are
seeing them,

who are buying their image,

make them feel intimately connected
with them, like they know them.

And this intimacy, this connection
between the Queen and her subjects,

is absolutely crucial to how she
manages how she's perceived.

In the first few years in which
these images of Victoria and Albert

are being released into the world,
3-4 million copies are sold.

So this is a queen who is more
visible than ever before,

and for a relatively low price,

she's available
to everyone in her kingdom.

This was a defining moment

because it was the first time that
images of the royal family

were being made available

for sale to the public.

And that moment is so key
for not only the royal family,

but for public figures in general.

Because it started
a cascade of public interest

in the celebrity figure, the image.

If you like, it was social media
in its real infancy

because here the royal family are
presenting themselves

as they want to be seen.

And selling that image
to the world.

But the same technology would also
bring home the atrocities of war,

and one of the biggest crises
Victoria faced in her reign.

1853, the start of the Crimean War.

It's not just photographs of
the royals that are making waves

and causing innovation.

There's also photography
of daily life,

but also really importantly,
war photography comes into being.

The first photographs that are taken
of conflict are in the Crimea.

These images that are
then reproduced

and disseminated in Britain,
change Britain's dynamic,

change its understanding
of warfare.

The Crimean War was a severe test
for Victoria

as it was her first foreign policy
crisis.

The Crimean War was fought
between 1853 and 1856,

on the Crimean Peninsula between
Russia and our current-day Ukraine.

It was fought between Britain,
France, and Turkey as the allies,

and Russia as the enemy.

Britain was worried about Russia's
attempts to expand their influence

over the Turkish Ottoman Empire

and the danger that posed
to trade routes,

especially access to India.

But it was a brutal war that claimed
an estimated 500,000 lives.

One of the saddest things
about Crimea

is not the number of people
who were lost in battle,

but the fact that so many more
were lost through disease

and malnutrition.

While there is nothing new about
the shocking conditions

the soldiers dealt with,

this was the first campaign to be
covered by a war correspondent,

who was able to relay
the horror of what he saw

to readers in the UK.

Alongside the bleak photographs,
the coverage is damning.

Victoria sees the impact these
photographs of the Crimean War

have on the British public.

And she's not only personally
moved by them,

but she really understands that
this is a crucial moment

in her reign where she needs to
react to them.

She needs to show her humanity,

really to present herself not
only as the head of state

and the head of the army,

but also someone who's concerned
with the human cost

and bridging that relationship
between the public

and the Armed Forces overseas.

Victoria understands
the importance of embracing

the values of the time,

not only as a mother to her family,
but as a mother to the nation.

She visited sick and injured
soldiers

in military hospitals.

She kept in touch
with the troops,

sending them supplies
or whatever it might be.

And she really threw her full weight
behind the war effort.

This is a depiction of Victoria
visiting a military hospital

in Chatham in Kent,
where she's come to see veterans

who've been fighting
in the Crimean War.

They're wounded soldiers recovering
now in Britain.

It's a relatively formal occasion.

She has her husband
and some of her children there.

But we get a sense not only
of her as the head of state

visiting this official
institutional building,

but also of the woman,
of an empathetic person.

She connects monarchy
with loss by her people.

If someone gives their life
for her in her name,

she wants to recognise that,
she wants to respect it.

She does that by giving her name
to a new award, the Victoria Cross,

which came into existence
on the 29th of January 1856

to honour acts of valour
across all ranks.

1861.

Victoria's world is about
to turn upside down.

As a double act,
Victoria and Albert were unbeatable.

In 1861, it all came crashing down

when Albert suddenly died.

It is a devastating period
for the government,

for the monarchy, because she really
fades from public view.

For ten years from Albert's death
in 1861,

Victoria was effectively a recluse.

All of that public reputation
she'd built

ever since she became Queen
in 1837 was lost

because no longer was she
part of the people.

But in 1870, when her son
and heir to the throne Bertie

recovers from a near fatal
bout of typhoid,

Queen Victoria reluctantly
re-emerges

at a Service of Thanksgiving
and rediscovers her purpose.

It was as if she'd never been away.

There was a huge outpouring
of admiration and love

that Victoria was totally
overwhelmed by.

And she was hooked.
She was back to stay.

1887.

Queen Victoria has been on
the throne for 50 years -

the first woman
to hit this milestone.

And only the second monarch
in history

to hold a jubilee celebration.

So, Victoria decides to put on
a party like no other.

It's Queen Victoria's
Golden Jubilee,

and this is really special.

I mean, incredible in all ways,
really.

And of course,
it's a time of empire.

Britain is at the height of empire.

So what do they want to put on show?

The whole empire.

You know, they want to
bring princes from India

who will come dressed to
the nines in their pearls

and their jewellery
with all their attendants.

And the paparazzi will be excited.
It'll be a grand show.

It was a huge moment in
Victoria's reign

because for many years she'd been
effectively in retirement

And there was a growing Republican
movement during that time,

people resented not
seeing their queen,

but now she was back
and this was one of the first

and the most opportune
moments to celebrate the queen.

50 years on the throne.
That was some achievement.

And so Victoria and her government
really went to town.

The Golden Jubilee bolstered
Victoria's reputation.

Her face was emblazoned on
everything from mugs to plates

to biscuit tins
to mark the occasion.

The two-day event began with
a lavish outdoor breakfast

next to Prince Albert's mausoleum
in Windsor,

followed by a train journey to
Buckingham Palace for a banquet.

The next day Victoria processed
in an open carriage

to Westminster Abbey for
a ceremony of Thanksgiving.

I think there was
a real sense of pride,

not just in Victoria,
but in what she represented.

This was a very self-confident age
for Britain.

While the Jubilee celebrations
focused on the Queen,

they also affirmed Britain's place
as a global power.

At the start of her reign,
Britain was seen as a trading power,

but now it was a superpower.

Victoria is now an institution.

She's a constitutional monarch.

The decisions are not her own,
but they are taken in her name.

Everything is done in her name,

and she is the proud ruler
of all, not just India,

but all these other colonies.

Queen Victoria was definitely
an imperialist, you know,

down to the core of her being.

The fact that it is her portrait
that is hanging everywhere.

There are these images
of her everywhere,

in every office in every corner
of the world,

all over the British colonies.
She enjoys that.

And the Golden Jubilee is
a fantastic opportunity

to show the world just how big
Victoria's empire is.

Soldiers paraded through London.

Victoria held huge state dinners

attended by foreign kings
and princes,

along with the governing heads
of Britain's overseas colonies.

For the British government, the
benefits of empire were commercial.

It gave them freer trade routes

and it made them
an incredibly rich nation.

So they were fully behind
the concept of empire.

For Victoria,
I think it was rather different.

She liked the titles
and the seniority

of being the most senior
monarch in Europe.

It was important that Victoria won
hearts and minds across the empire

because it showed Britain's
continued strength.

She was the symbolic image
of Britain,

I think the fact that she
was a woman

is one of the reasons why she was
able to keep that empire together.

She was able
to offer herself

as the embodiment of
the grandmother,

but also as a benevolent ruler,

the mother of the empire,
in a way in which a man can't.

And I don't think that we should
believe that Queen Victoria

was naive to the power of her
womanhood and her position.

I believe she was cognisant
of it and aware.

It is soft power hidden behind
or inside a velvet glove.

The real power lay
with her government.

But her government needed Victoria.

She was like the acceptable face
of empire.

She was a figurehead,
a very maternal figure as well.

And she commanded huge respect
across the world.

She's very effective at creating
messaging around her

and she's very careful in
the way in which she's seen,

so that the atrocities that are
committed under imperial rule,

for some reason
are not attached to her name.

The reality of it is, of course,

that the empire did some very,
very unpleasant

and unsatisfactory things,

wiping out whole sets of generations
of peoples

in the places that it colonised.

But with the symbol
of Queen Victoria,

much of that could be repackaged.

Seen through modern eyes,

there are deep-seated problems
about Victoria and empire,

but during Victoria's reign,
Britain truly led the world.

So it was a huge part
of her identity.

At the time, her people took
enormous pride

in the fact that Britain
was this superpower.

During her reign she would also use
her own family

to gain power beyond the empire.

While she is the ruler of
the British Empire,

there is this argument that what
the British Empire

couldn't achieve with force of arms,
it would do through strategy.

And we can see this
with Queen Victoria's family.

Victoria became known as
the Grandmother of Europe

because her children married into
many European dynasties

and monarchies.

So what it meant is that not only
having power over her empire,

Victoria also had influence
across Europe.

This influence and power,
however, would end with her.

As Europe is cut up in
the aftermath of the Great War

and monarchies collapse,
her dynasty is left in tatters.

And by the end of World War II,

the tide of popular opinion has also
turned against the Empire -

a legacy Britain is still coming
to terms with today.

Victoria dies at 6:30pm
on the 22nd of January 1901,

at the age of 81.

She dies of a cerebral haemorrhage
brought on by a number of strokes

surrounded by many members
of her family,

especially Bertie,
who will now become King.

This beautiful watercolour
is from 1901

and it's by the painter
Amedee Forestier

and it's of Victoria's
lying in state

here in the dining room
at Osborne House.

I think it's very reflective of who
Victoria was,

in that it's very intimate,
it's private,

before she goes on public display.

And I think it just gave the people
who loved her

that moment to say goodbye.

One million people packed into
London for her funeral.

They wore black.
They were all in mourning.

Not because they had to,

but because they actually genuinely
felt that grief,

that this moment had gone, you know,
this family member has gone.

The monarch and matriarch who had
adorned the mantle pieces of homes

up and down the country,
was no more.

Queen Victoria made such a mark

because she rose from
the ashes into the public eye,

and sustained being a queen of
the people

throughout the 19th century.

She understood what it was about
the monarchy

that people valued and loved -

the pomp, the pageantry,
the ceremony.

So much of what we see today had its
origins with Victoria.

I don't think Victoria would ever
have predicted

the success that she had as
a monarch

or what would've happened
during her reign.

This is such an incredible period
of our history.

And I think when she did pass away
at the turn of the 20th century,

it would have been in the knowledge
that she stood above

every other monarch
that came before her.

There is no-one like her.

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