Fact or Fiction: Inside Episode 6
From princesses to ponies to Peel, find out what’s fact and what’s fiction in Victoria Season 2, Episode 6!
- 1.
Fact or Fiction: The princess really suffered from a life-threatening fever.
Fact: Vicky, the Princess Royal, was very sick from a fever, an event that caused the rift resulting in Lehzen’s departure.
- 2.
Fact or Fiction: Victoria was forced to fire Lehzen.
Fact: The Baroness and Albert had never liked one another, but when Princess Victoria fell ill, and Lehzen’s chosen doctor, Sir James Clark, failed to correctly diagnose and treat her, Albert held her, and by extension, the Queen, responsible for Vicky’s severe decline. After a serious argument, Lehzen was sent back to Germany.
- 3.
Fact or Fiction: Did Albert show up at parliament and unwittingly undermine Peel?
Fact: Albert did attend the House of Commons’ 1846 Corn Laws debate, and was criticized by rival MPs for his unspoken support of Peel.
- 4.
Fact or Fiction: Peel's private secretary, Edward Drummond, was shot and killed.
Fact: Indeed, Edward Drummond was killed by an assassin who possibly mistook the private secretary for Peel; the killer, Daniel M’Naghten, was mentally ill and had developed paranoid delusions about the Tory party.
- 5.
Fact or Fiction: The repeal of the Corn Laws caused Peel's downfall.
Fact: When Peel joined with the Whigs to repeal the Corn Laws, he broke with his party’s position, and resigned after the repeal was won.
- 6.
Fact or Fiction: Leopold made a gift of a Shetland pony, Herbert, to Victoria.
Fiction: However, Victoria had a pair of Shetland ponies, Alma and Flora, who were given to her by King Victor Emmanuel.
