Inside Queen Victoria's 'thirsty' diaries: The raunchy entries that reveal 'teenage girl' romance with Prince Albert
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On a sepcial episode of the Mail's Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, Robert Hardman and Kate Williams are joined by History Hit's Dr Kate Lister to delve into Queen Victoria 's sex life.
Dr Lister, hosts the chart-topping Betwixt The Sheets podcast, which specialises in the erotic lives of legendary figures from ancient times to today.
Despite being Britain's most famous monarch and a woman of the prudish Victorian era, Queen Victoria was surprisingly open about her passion for her husband, Prince Albert.
Victoria's personal diaries - a staggering 62 million words across her lifetime – reveal the Queen's candid desire for the German Prince, from their 1840 wedding until his death in 1861.
Hardman, Williams and Dr Lister unpack the raciest revelations from the diaries and bust the biggest myths about Victoria and Albert's sex life.
Queen Victoria's 'sexy' diaries
When Queen Victoria assumed the throne at just 18 years old, her ministers and family presented her with an ultimatum: marry quickly or remain in Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of her domineering mother, the Duchess of Kent.
Throughout Victoria's childhood and into her late teens, the Duchess and her lover John Conroy had controlled the young princess through what they called the Kensington System. This regime monitored her every movement and regimented her daily life.
Now, as monarch, Victoria desperately wanted distance from her mother's influence.
Faced with this choice, she agreed to seek an eligible suitor.
According to historian Kate Williams, the young Queen was genuinely delighted when Prince Albert was presented to her as a potential match.
She said: 'In her diaries, Victoria wrote how she felt this immediate outpouring of love for Prince Albert.
'The Queen had a pretty miserable childhood, so when they get married at this very young age, all this devotion just comes streaming out of her.
'In 1839, when she first sees Albert climb the steps of Windsor Castle, she writes how he is the most handsome prince in Europe.
'Later that year, Victoria describes Albert coming in from a rainy day, saying: 'He looks so handsome in his white cashmere britches with nothing on underneath.'
Victoria's excitement reaches fever pitch on their wedding night, which she labels the 'happiest day of her life' her diaries.
'She is totally thirsty for him', Williams joked.
'After her wedding night, Victoria says that she didn't think it was possible to be so happy. She talks about the bliss of watching him shave, and how wonderful it is when he helps her put on her stockings.
'She wrote: I never spent such an evening. My dearest Albert, sat on a footstool beside by my side - 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. Oh, this was the happiest day of my life!'
Within three months of her marriage, Victoria had conceived her first child - a daughter she would name Victoria, continuing the family tradition.
Albert and Victoria went on to have nine children in total, which Williams believes wasn't just because the Queen 'loved the joys of the marriage bed.'
She explained: 'Everyone watches Victoria and Albert's marriage like hawks. They want Victoria to get pregnant; that's her big job.
'Victoria has to secure the throne. The family's prestige had been dented by her naughty uncle, King William IV, who managed 10 illegitimate children by 1800.
'She sees sex with Albert as her duty, that she must start producing heirs quickly – although she never expected to get pregnant within three months.'
As Dr Lister observed, this passion for Albert continued right up until the prince's death in December 1861.
Albert succumbed to typhoid fever at the age of 42, leading Victoria to withdraw from public life for several years.
'She is head over the heels for this guy', Dr Lister noted.
'Throughout her life, she writes obsessively about him. How beautiful his face is, how handsome he looks in a certain shirt and what it feels like lying next to him.
'It is real teenage girl crush stuff. They have arguments too because there's a real power struggle going on.
'You have a weird dynamic because she's Queen, but is still trying to adhere to this very Victorian morality of submitting to your husband.
'It get very tense at times but she definitely fancied him the whole way through. I have no doubt about that.'
To hear Betwixt The Sheet's Kate Lister debunk some of the myths about Victoria and Albert's sex life, including an apparent fetish for bicycles, search for Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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