15 Pieces of History That Victoria Did Differently
By Lacy Baugher
Alice Orr Ewing, Catherine Flemming and Paul Rhys
(Photo: Courtesy of ITV Plc)
The Flora Hastings Scandal Wasn’t During Victoria’s Coronation
The series made the interesting decision to splice the scenes of Flora’s examination in with shots from Victoria’s coronation. It made for some dramatic imagery, to be sure. But that’s not actually when these events took place.
They did actually take place, though.
Yes, in case you thought that Victoria made the Flora Hastings scandal up? It didn’t. Flora was indeed a real lady-in-waiting to the queen’s mother, the Duchess of Kent. Victoria didn’t like her much, because she was partly responsible for the young queen’s super strict upbringing. So when she began to display a mysterious swelling of the abdomen, suspicion grew that the young woman was pregnant. (Out of wedlock, naturally.) Victoria herself believed that her arch-nemesis Sir John Conroy was most likely the father. Tired of the scandal, Flora eventually ended up writing a letter to The Examiner declaring her innocence. She ultimately submitted to an examination by royal doctors, who determined that she wasn’t pregnant. However, she did have an advanced cancerous liver tumor and only months left to live.
This examination took place in 1839, well over a year after Victoria’s coronation. (Who would have ever scheduled those two events to coincide anyway?) The show did get the public reaction to the queen’s accusations right though. There was much sympathy for poor Flora, particularly after her death. An ugly press campaign slammed her for spreading false rumors about the dead woman. People hissed and jeered at Victoria when she went out. It was…pretty bad, as such things go. Only her marriage and subsequent pregnancy the next year restored her to the public’s favor.