2. Poor Lady Flora

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Lucy Worsley explores Queen Victoria's reign through significant encounters. The new Queen's greatest weakness was her close political association with the powerful Whigs, and one of the ways their Tory enemies capitalised on this was through Lady Flora Hastings. A young, unmarried, lady-in-waiting at Buckingham Palace, Lady Flora was observed in the spring of 1839 to have a swelling in the stomach. Victoria, suspecting that she was 'privately married' (i.e. pregnant) insisted that Lady Flora be brutally examined by her own doctor. The Tories stoked rumours that the young Queen's court, ruled over by the cynical Lord Melbourne, had become a scandalous, debauched place. And when Lady Flora died of what turned out to be liver disease, Victoria was roundly criticised as heartless. With this story of wombs and misunderstandings, the gloss had come off the young Queen's crown. With the historian Kathryn Hughes. Readers: Michael Bertenshaw, Susan Jameson & Sarah Ovens Producer: Mark Burman First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2019.