We watched "The Young Victoria" the other night on a Netflix DVD. It was surprisingly moving. Imagine being an 11 year old girl and being shown charts and given explanations to make clear why you live and are treated the way you are. Not only are you an heir to the throne of Britain but you are related to nearly every royal family in Europe. So, that's why you are required to hold an adult's hand every single time you descent a staircase. Falls must be prevented because you are so valuable.
That same value makes you a natural target for all sorts of adult and complicated conspiracies. The most bothersome of these is pushed by your mother's private secretary, depicted as an ambitious man of high energy and limited intelligence. The idea was that during Victoria's child and teen years, she might become queen, were the right deaths and cases of childlessness to occur. As a child and young teen, Victoria's mother would be regent, overseeing her daughter. The mother's private secretary would be in the perfect position to wield power and influence. As things turned out, the private secretary lost influence and position and Victoria became a queen in her own right at the age of 18.
Imagine what would happen if the US suddenly chose an 18 year old very sheltered girl, not allowed to read novels or attend the theater except for operas, to head the country. People were not stupid then, as now, and used all sorts of controls and ideas to make things work out. The royal power was limited and Parliament did most of the governing but as far as the mass of people were concerned, the Queen was a somewhat sacred person, the honor, force and continuity of the nation incarnate. The Queen had limited knowledge of people, power, economics, politics and nearly everything else.
With luck and pluck and some good support from her first cousin, soon to be her husband, Albert, this woman became the longest reigning British monarch (the current Queen, Elizabeth II, may surpass this record) and the longest reigning female monarch in history. She was born in 1819 and died in 1901, a period covering a great many important events and innovations in our lives.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
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