Queen Victoria took DRUGS!
the famous monarch enjoyed opium and cocaine as a young lady…
Queen Victoria has a reputation for being a strait-laced monarch, yet as a young lady she enjoyed taking drugs and partying late into the evening!
The first episode of a new five-part series on the private lives of Britain’s kings and queens reveals secrets about Victoria’s personal life, including how she indulged in marijuana, opium and even cocaine.
‘Queen Victoria enjoyed laudanum, which is opium mixed with strong alcohol,’ says historian Tracy Borman, who presents the series. ‘She would take a tincture of it first thing in the morning. This meant that she was often quite drunk for the first part of the day!’
Victoria was just 18 when she became Queen in 1837, and in the early part of her rule rebelled against her strict mother by experimenting with drugs and attending lavish dances. The use of laudanum was common among the aristocracy of Victorian England, yet it wasn’t the only substance the young Queen enjoyed.
‘She had a racy medicine cabinet,’ says historian Tony McMahon. ‘She was also partial to marijuana and insisted upon chloroform during childbirth. She loved drugs!’
Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert went on to have nine children. Following his death in 1861, she became reclusive, but still dabbled in illicit substances.
‘Towards the end of her reign she met a young Winston Churchill,’ says Tracy. ‘Apparently the pair would chew gum laced with cocaine together! There was more to her than the grand titles and popular images would suggest.’