Queen Victoria’s love affairs and astonishingly high sexual libido have been unveiled in a new TV documentary.
Popular on LondonNet
The queen, who died in January 1901 aged 81, has always been portrayed as a sexually and emotionally repressed monarch, but the fascinating British TV documentary Queen Victoria’s Men shows she was actually extremely keen on both men and sex.
After marrying her cousin, Prince Albert, she recounted their passionate wedding night in a letter.
She said: “It was a gratifying and bewildering experience. I never, never spent such an evening. His excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness. He clasped me in his arms and we kissed each other again and again.”
Historian Tristam Hunt revealed Victoria was incredibly fond of making love to Albert.
He added: “She enjoyed the physical side of their relationship – but rarely the consequences. At one point, she had nine children under 15 and deeply resented the physical and emotional repercussions of child-bearing, because pregnancy and babies got in the way of sex.”
To avoid their children interrupting any passionate trysts, Victoria instructed Albert to install a switch by her bedside which activated mechanical locks on the bedroom door.
However, after Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria went into mourning until she employed Albert’s friend John Brown as her personal assistant.
The pair’s close relationship caused the public to nickname Victoria Mrs. John Brown and also sparked a hit 1997 movie starring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly.
Victoria also became close to Benjamin Disraeli when he was appointed Prime Minister of England in 1868. She bought him many gifts, which he thanked her with through seductive poetry.
Victoria’s affairs continued when she became the Empress of India at the age of 68 and met a young Indian servant called Abdul Karim, who taught her about his culture and his native language of Hindustani.
When Victoria died in 1901, she instructed staff to bury her in her wedding dress with a cast of Albert’s hand next to her and a photograph of John Brown next to her.
It was recently discovered she was wearing Brown’s mother’s wedding ring when she was buried, sparking rumours she married Brown before her death.
However, Hunt disagrees with the reports, insisting: “There was a deep, powerful connection between them, but for all her sensuality and passion, and need of a man, she could never have loved another after Albert.”
Queen Victoria’s Men is on Channel 4 on Monday at 9pm.
