Did Victoria marry an impostor?

Treason! Period drama that has the nation hooked hints Albert was illegitimate, so...

DURING his lifetime, Prince Albert was the archetypal Victorian patriarch who came to symbolise a new age of respectability.

But the second series of the ITV drama Victoria will include the explosive claim that Queen Victoria’s husband may actually have been illegitimate.

In the hit Sunday night drama, Albert attends the funeral of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the man he has always assumed was his father.

But as he struggles to come to terms with his grief, the Prince discovers a dark family secret that casts doubt on his own paternity.

The controversial storyline in episode four of the new series – to be shown on September 17 – is likely to divide historians.

A source close to the production said: ‘It’s an explosive storyline because, if Prince Albert was indeed illegitimate, what would that mean to his marriage to Victoria? Victoria would have married an impostor and goodness knows what the implications of all that would be.’

The drama will portray Albert as totally unaware of the long-standing court gossip surrounding his paternity until he attends Ernest’s funeral in 1844. His world is turned upside-down by the bombshell revelation.

The insider said: ‘There had always been speculation about Albert’s father but it was not something people wanted to dwell on. It was certainly something they did not want to share with him.

‘In the drama, when Albert discovers the truth it rocks him and we will see him spiral out of control as he struggles to come to terms with the revelation.’

The show’s claim is not the first time questions have been asked about Albert’s paternity, but it will give the issue a fresh and controversial airing.

In the past, there has been speculation that Albert’s father may have been a Jewish courtier or his mother’s former lover, Baron Alexander von Hanstein, or that Albert’s uncle Prince Leopold, played by Alex Jennings in the series, was his father.

The speculation stems from the fact that the marriage between Albert’s mother, Princess Louise, and her husband Ernest was a deeply unhappy one. Ernest, 17 years older than Louise, was a cruel man who cheated on her constantly.

For her own part, Louise appears to have found comfort in the arms of other men. In 1824, the couple separated and set up dual residences with Louise banished from court and having to say goodbye to Albert and his older brother Ernest. Two years later, the marriage was officially dissolved and Louise secretly married her former lover, von Hanstein. Her new-found happiness was short-lived, however, and she died of cancer in 1831.

Julian Fellowes, the Oscarwinning dramatist who wrote the screenplay for the film The Young Victoria, said he was aware of speculation about Albert’s paternity but had never heard of the rumours regarding his uncle. Lord Fellowes said: ‘Most people thought von Hanstein was the man. If it was true – and it is quite unprovable – she was driven to it by her husband’s cruelty and infidelity, and quite honestly, her son Ernest and her husband were both significantly unattractive, so perhaps we are all in von Hanstein’s debt.’

He added: ‘Someone may be trying to explain Leopold’s devotion to Albert, but he was just as devoted to his niece, Victoria, and another nephew, Ferdinand, whom he made King Consort of Portugal.’

‘When Albert discovers the truth it rocks him’