Queen Victoria and John Brown

[nahthatsnotforme]

Several news articles lately and a new Channel 4 documentary on Thursday presented by Rob Rinder suggesting they had a child.

I can believe they were in a relationship; she was a young woman when widowed but a child seems a
little far fetched.

Will give it a watch though.

I read an article about this yesterday. I think she was supposed to be 46 when she had a child by him. Her tenth child! The author claims it’s not possible to do anDNA test to establish the truth but why not? Her great great great niece is still alive .

I think it’s because non of the RF will give a dna sample for them to compare it to

She has many direct descendants, not just the British RF.

Well how many illegitimate children did the kings/princes of the past have?(answer....an awful lot).
If true hopefully the baby was given to a good family and had a good life.

Quite. How many illegitimate children did George IV have?
David Cameron is descended from King William IV, through his mistress, Dorothea Jordan.

If true, she was brought up by her Uncle and his wife.

Rather easier to conceal the illegitimate child of a king than a queen though, surely.

Well we know Vicky was very fond of bedroom activities.
If Albert hadn't died she probably would have had even more children with him.

She was kind of dumpy - easy to hide a bump.

Also she was a recluse.

Now I have the Horrible Histories "Al and Vic" song in my head 😂

Very true.

One of the articles I read said that her doctor had told her not to have sex any more in her late thirties due to post natal depression. She also had a prolapsed uterus when she died. .

She was indeed!

She liked the sex (apparently) but not the pregnancies and babies.
Albert could have used a condom 🤔
(they were around back then)

I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a physical relationship with him—she clearly enjoyed sex. It was pregnancy and babies she couldn’t stand. It’s hard to believe, but stranger things have happened.

It suited Prince Albert to keep her pregnant which allowed him more access to state papers, politicians etc than he should have had. As far as the monarchy went, he did it a favour by dying when he did.
I doubt Victoria was up for a tenth pregnancy and, if her uterus was already prolapsed after nine pregnancies, it would have been tricky. Plus she was at least 46.

Good points!

Actually Albert contributed a great deal in his role. When he died the Queen more or less gave up, so perhaps he was necessary to in much the same way as PP. He was a very intelligent, measured and cultured man with great ideas .

Yes but he overstepped the mark quite frequently. It wasn't his place to see state papers or interfere in constitutional matters, but he did. Times had moved on when PP was around and his role was very much circumscribed but he had free rein within those limits eg Duke of Ed Award Scheme.

Victoria was far from stupid but he tried to infantilise her to an extent, making her believe she couldn't make decisions without his input.Controlling in fact.
Her breakdown when he died was partly because she had become too dependent on him.

I find the child idea hard to believe for all the reasons given by pps, but I’ve just read that the Queen’s chaplain made a deathbed confession that he had married them in Crathie Church.

I’d like to read more on this but it sort of makes sense because Victoria wore JB’s mother’s wedding ring in her coffin and had a photo of him concealed under a bouquet. I can imagine they’d have to have kept the marriage secret, so who knows?

Very intriguing!

It's very intriguing, as you say, @CoffeeCantata . I know that her son Edward VII and also her daughter Princess Beatrice destroyed certain letters and diary extracts when they went through her personal effects.

I saw this in the papers earlier, I’m sceptical to say the least , there is always someone claiming to be the love child of royalty and important historical figures, what interest is there ? , what do they hope to achieve? .
personally I’m just not interested.

I think it’s because non of the RF will give a dna sample for them to compare it to

There's bound to be some connection who could be used.

I'm frankly sceptical.

Staggeringly unlikely in my view. She was very conscious of what it meant to be royal, and even her doctor did not see her naked. She was also quite a hypochondriac. And she controlled the lives of her children quite closely. So the chances of her a) allowing a servant to be that intimate and then b) actually getting pregnant at 46 and c) maintaining the pregnancy without problems given she had been told not to have any more and had a prolapsed uterus and d) giving birth in such a manner that no one ever divulged it and e) not leaving a trace of any instructions around such a child which are likely to be very detailed is so remote as to be zero!