- [Narrator] At the end of her reign,

this was Victoria's favorite pose, the grim impress,

disapproving and prudish,

she seems to preside over a joyless world

in which dominant men,

gave their submissive women little pleasure,

particularly in the bedroom.

Sexual relationships were often unhappy affairs.

But the Victorians uncovered a far more complex,

even the queen herself was an ardent lover,

it was the fun she and Albert enjoyed in bed,

that gave her marriage enduring power and that marriage,

became an inspiring example to the entire nation.

It was an example that many simply could not follow,

their failure condemned them,

to live in a harsh and unforgiving world.

Princess Victoria was born into a wicked world.

In the 1820s the upper classes knew,

how to drop their knickers,

weekend house parties were an excuse for bed swapping,

aristocratic access was satirized by popular cartoonists.

One of their chief targets was George the fourth,

Victoria's uncle a spendthrift divorcee,

lampooned for his love of mistresses,

the respectable middle-classes despised him.

- Do stop, stop wriggling my dear.

- [Narrator] In 1826, Victoria visited her uncle

for the first time.

- Victoria had a bunch of sleazy uncles,

they were not only narrow dual uncles

and spendthrift uncles they were also womanizing uncles,

she was in a very peculiar situation,

where she had a great number of uncles

and a great number of aunts but no cousins

because all the children they had were illegitimate.

- [Narrator] When the little princess arrived at court,

she was received by the King and his mistress.

- Give me your little paw, that's it, hey.

- [Narrator] Victoria was charmed.

(gentle music)

Victoria had a lot in common with her desolate uncles,

she shared their passion for pleasure,

she adored the theater, music and dancing

but this sensual pleasure loving world was being swept away,

by a new religious movement.

Evangelical Christianity had grown up

with the new middle classes,

its followers with a new Puritans,

expected to be pious, hardworking and chaste,

the evangelicals rejected,

the sexual depravity of the upper classes

and preached to return to godliness and virtue.

Victoria's advisors decided,

that she would represent this new era of respectability,

where her uncles had been wicked, she would be good.

Her innocence and virtue would be a fresh start

for the embattled monarchy.

Victoria came to the throne in 1837,

when she was 18 years old.

The young queen recorded her good intentions in her diary.

- [Victoria] I am very young and perhaps in many,

they're not all things inexperienced

but I am sure that very few have more real goodwill

and more real desire to do what is fit

and right than I have.

- [Narrator] Her moral upbringing had paid off

but her passionate nature had not been quite tamed,

she was hungry for life.

She was fascinated by her prime minister Lord Melbourne,

Melbourne was a rakish wit,

who'd survived a series of scandals,

he was one of the old order, an embodiment of everything,

she had been kept away from so far,

she spent up to six hours a day in his company,

entranced by his racy stories.

(indistinct chatter)

- Melbourne, frequented all the posh mansions in London,

Lady Holland's dinner parties and so on

and he came back with lovely stories to tell her stories

of sexual intrigue and of people running off

with other Duchesses or Dukes wives or husbands

and he retailed them to her

and she learned a lot about society

and maybe all she ever knew about sex from these stories.

- [Narrator] Their relationship grew so close,

that people began to gossip.

The wilder side of Victoria's nature,

loved Melbourne's stories but faced with a real sex scandal,

her moral upbringing triumphed with terrible consequences

for one of her own staff Lady Flora Hastings,

the crisis that followed is still remembered,

by the Hastings family today.

- When I was young I used to go up to stay,

in my grandmother's house next to the castle

and my grandmother when we wrote letters home,

used to produce these sheets of little stamps like this

with Lady Flora's picture on,

so, that's her memory was kept alive.

- The condition of that early of that-

- [Narrator] Early in 1839,

Buckingham palace was buzzing with rumor,

the unmarried Lady Flora Hastings,

had just returned to court she was not feeling well,

her stomach was swollen within days Queen Victoria,

had jumped to a shocking conclusion.

- [Victoria] We have no doubt that she is,

to use plain words with child.

- [Narrator] Panic gripped the court,

Melbourne fueled the scandal and Victoria had to act.

- Victoria was certain that there was hanky panky at court

and yet Lady Flora Hastings was a extremely virtuous woman,

it was totally unlikely but Victoria speculated about this

and finally decided,

that she had to purify her court of this lady.

- [Narrator] Lady Flora, herself was appalled by the charges

to clear her name she agreed to the indignity

of an internal examination.

The doctor certified that she was a virgin

but confusion remained.

- [Victoria] Sir, Charles Clark had said,

that though she is a virgin still that it might be possible

and one could not tell if such things could not happen

but there was an enlargement in the womb like a child.

- [Narrator] But Flora was not pregnant,

a few weeks after the examination,

she died from cancer of the stomach.

- The family were very angry

because she'd been completely ignored by Queen Victoria,

all the time she was ill and really suffering

and I think the final straw is that,

the family never received any apology from anybody at court,

either public or private after Flora died.

- [Narrator] As news of Flora's innocent death broke,

the country fell out of love with the queen,

she and Melbourne were booed when they appeared in public,

the reputation of the monarchy

as the moral arbiter of the nation was under threat.

Many of Victoria subjects believe the young queen,

needed the steadying hand of a husband.

Three months after Lady Flora's death,

Victoria awaited the arrival

of her German cousin Prince Albert,

a Royal wedding would certainly restore her lost popularity

but Victoria was not sure.

- [Victoria] All reports of Albert are most favorable

but I might like him as a friend,

as a brother, as a cousin but not more.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] The young queen was enjoying her freedom,

marriage might undermine that independence.

- Albert was now 19, he was much taller than she was,

she was only an inch under five feet tall,

very, very slight young lady, Albert was handsome,

Albert, just floored her the first time she saw him

and we know that from her diaries.

- [Victoria] It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert,

who is beautiful.

Such beautiful eyes, an exquisite nose

and such a pretty mouth with delicate mustaches.

- [Narrator] Victoria was fortunate,

she fell in love with her prince,

after only four days she told Melbourne,

she had decided to marry Albert.

- But there was a problem she was queen,

he was a second son in an obscure principality in Germany,

even though he was a cousin, she had to propose to him.

- [Narrator] On the afternoon of Tuesday,

the 15th of October, 1839, Queen Victoria sent for Albert.

- You must be aware why I wished you to come,

it would make me too happy

if you would consent to what I wished.

(gentle music)

- That was probably the first time,

she had ever kissed a man when she proposed and they kissed,

she was a quick study.

- [Victoria] Oh, to feel I was and I'm loved,

by such angel as Albert was too great delight to describe,

he is perfection, I told him I was quite unworthy of him.

- [Narrator] Her prince charming had a troubled past,

as a child he'd lost his mother when he was five,

she'd been driven from home by her husband's debauchery,

Albert was determined his marriage would be different.

This golden couple seemed to have it all,

physical passion on a bedrock of virtue and morality,

the evangelicals rejoiced, the nation was delighted.

The Royal partnership became the ideal

of the perfect marriage

but others found marriage a terrible trap.

- What is so amusing?

- Nothing.

- Show me. - No.

- I said, show me.

- [Narrator] In 1827, Caroline Sheridan,

destined to be one of the most influential women

of the century married George Norton,

a member of the aristocracy.

- Well, George and Caroline Norton,

were my great, great, great grandparents

and I suppose that one has to feel quite proud

of being descended from Caroline Norton

but very much not the case for George,

George Norton seems to have had,

almost no redeeming feature at all from what one can tell,

he had two particularly outstanding courses,

towards Caroline, one being meanness,

the other being cruelty.

- He became violent fairly early on in the marriage,

he put a boiling kettle of water on her hand,

he pushed her down the stairs,

when she was seven months pregnant and caused a miscarriage,

he apparently became so violent on one occasion,

that the servants felt they had to protect her from him

and she'd spent the night,

locked in the nursery with the babies,

it was clearly an appalling situation.

- [Narrator] It was a very different marriage

from the idealized partnership of the Royals

but there was no escape for Caroline,

a divorce was only possible,

through an individual act of parliament,

Caroline was trapped.

(ominous music)

Caroline Norton was trapped in a violent marriage

with no possibility of divorce,

she yearned for male affection,

risking scandal by entertaining a visitor,

while her husband was out,

the visitor was the prime minister Lord Melbourne.

- Commanding the admiration of their attentive auditors.

- I do wish you could say these things to me,

before I've had my tea.

- Are you very hurt?

- They would spend hours sitting on the sofa,

chatting about politics quite often I think,

this was unusual of course

because gentlemen did not on the whole visit married ladies,

except in any company with other people,

Caroline of course was unchaperoned at this point,

so, they were actually alone and this,

obviously raised eyebrows when it became known publicly.

- [Narrator] Norton, saw the rumors as an opportunity,

to make money remarkably he accused Melbourne of adultery,

taking him to court under a bizarre law,

called criminal conversation.

- Criminal conversation is an antiquated,

kind of civil action, it isn't a criminal action at all

and it's nothing to do with conversation,

the conversation here refers to sexual intercourse,

it's a civil action that is brought by a husband,

against an adulterous wife's lover