Queen Victoria's favorite attendant was arguably her Principal Dresser, Marianne Skerrett, who became a confidante after Baroness Lehzen's departure, with Victoria expressing deep distress at her passing, though she also had strong attachments to her ghillie John Brown, a personal servant, and other key figures like her dresser Marie Downing Williams, indicating deep bonds with those in her personal staff rather than just formal ladies-in-waiting.
Queen Victoria's Ladies of the Bedchamber
John Brown. Scottish gillie; Queen Victoria's favourite servant. Brown's popularity with the Queen did not extend to the rest of her household and her family, who found his manners and his drinking habits offensive. Her affection reached its height when he defended her from an assassination attempt in 1872.
In 1880, she tried, unsuccessfully, to stop William Gladstone - whom she disliked as much as she admired Disraeli and whose policies she distrusted - from becoming Prime Minister.
Lady Flora Elizabeth Rawdon-Hastings (11 February 1806 – 5 July 1839) was a British aristocrat and lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent.
Florence became a celebrity, and Queen Victoria was a huge fan, admiring Miss Nightingale's modesty and her apparently tender care for her men.
Gutes Fräuchen/ Gutes Weibchen
Meaning 'good little wife', these were the favourite German names of endearment used by Prince Albert to refer to Victoria in private.
Victoria initially was rather unpleasant towards him because she didn't know him. However, when she got to know him, she enjoyed him being her adviser. Victoria was sad to see him retire after the death of Lord Drummond.
The relationship of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria is one of the great love stories in the history of the British monarchy. Deeply devoted to one another, the couple had nine children during their 21-year marriage. After Albert's death, Victoria wore black for the rest of her life.
The Queen's cipher was discreetly embroidered into each garment. The numbering system (in this case '35') was to help the household staff to identify and sort the linen after laundering, and possibly because such garments were ordered in quantities and then worn in rotation.
“Long before her successful marriage to Prince Albert, Princess Victoria had an affair with the dashing Scottish 13th Lord Elphinstone.
I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right.
She demanded that Lady Flora submit to a medical examination, thereby all but accusing her of being pregnant out of wedlock. Turns out Lady Flora had cancer, not a bun in the oven. Her family was outraged and stirred up public opinion against Victoria for smearing Lady Flora's reputation.
Although she may either have received a retainer or may not have received compensation for the service she rendered, a lady-in-waiting was considered more of a secretary, courtier, or companion to her mistress than a servant.
Kenna became the King's mistress. Aylee had died in Fated. Mary released Lola as her lady. Greer was stripped of her title and forced to leave the castle because her husband unknowingly funded an assassination attempt.
She conceived the strongest antipathy to the great Liberal William Gladstone, whom she dubbed a 'half-mad firebrand'. Driven apart both by political differences and temperamental incompatibility, by the time he became Prime Minister for the fourth time, they mutually detested each other.
5 The strength of your British police service is that we police by consent. As the founder of modern policing, Sir Robert Peel, said 'the police are the public and the public are the police'. Consent comes from the knowledge that your police officers are impartial and accountable for their actions.
It was what Victoria had dreaded, but the couple knew nothing of artificial contraception, which in any case was illegal, and the queen was a passionate Hanoverian. A Regency Bill empowered him to act in event of the incapacity or death of the queen.
Queen Victoria's last words were faint, but believed to be either "Bertie" (her son, the future King Edward VII) or "Albert" (referencing her beloved deceased husband, Prince Albert), said as she passed peacefully at Osborne House in 1901, surrounded by family, with her eyes open and a look of calm.
Born May 1, 1850, Prince Arthur William Patrick, named after the Duke of Wellington, was from the start Queen Victoria's favorite son. “This child is dear, dearer than any of the others put together, [after Albert] the dearest and most precious object to me on earth,” Victoria wrote.
He has four children, two of them illegitimate, the other two legitimate: Jazmin, Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, Gabriella, and Jacques.
Albert was completely faithful to her rare gentilmen of that time . They remained married for about 22 years, although, like every couple, they had small arguments In December 1861 Prince Albert died . Victoria mourned him rest of her life.
Though neither man names the disease, the subtext is clear: Ernest contracted syphilis during a wild night in Paris – a misfortune that could befall anyone, really. The doctor offers no rebuke. Instead, he shifts blame by lamenting that “the women who carry this disease” are often asymptomatic.
Eventually, she was diagnosed with congenital deafness after her grandmother, the Princess of Battenberg, identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist.