A society sex scandal that almost cost Victoria throne
IT WAS the public ‘sex scandal’ that nearly cost a young Queen Victoria her throne.
Now a lavish eight-part ITV drama starting tonight will explore the little-known story of how she tried to smear a dying woman with a false accusation of sexual impropriety.
ITV hopes the racy storyline will help it take on the BBC’s hugely popular Poldark in the ratings. A second series of the Cornish-set drama begins next Sunday at the same time.
Victoria’s behaviour towards Lady Flora Hastings, lady-inwaiting to the Queen’s mother, will shock many viewers because it is often left out of traditional histories. Victoria’s dislike of Lady Flora stemmed from the lady-in-waiting’s close relationship with the Queen’s scheming mother, the Duchess of Kent, and the Duchess’s self-serving confidant Sir John Conroy.
Victoria resented the way the trio tried to control every aspect of her life as a Princess. When she became Queen, she was determined to block their plans to wield power from behind the throne. In the drama, Victoria decides to act when she notices that Lady Flora – played by Alice OrrEwing – appears to be pregnant. Aware that she and Sir John had recently shared a carriage, she assumes they are lovers and is determined to bring the ‘scandal’ into the open. The Queen, played by Jenna Coleman, forces Lady Flora to undergo the humiliation of a medical examination – only to find she is a virgin and is in fact suffering from a fatal tumour. Victoria later asked the dying woman for her forgiveness, which she gave.