Life of the week: Queen Victoria

Hello and welcome to Life of the Week, where leading historians delve into the lives of some of history's most intriguing and significant figures. From ancient Egyptian pharaohs and medieval warriors to daring 20th century spies.

大家好，欢迎来到《本周人物生平》节目，这里的顶尖历史学家将探索历史上一些最引人入胜和重要人物的生平。从古埃及法老到中世纪武士，再到勇敢的20世纪间谍，我们将深入了解他们的生活。

What picture comes to mind when you think of Queen Victoria? For many it will be a grieving woman in her morning gown. Or perhaps a monarch coolly stating we are not amused. From her marriage to Prince Albert to founding many of the royal traditions we know today. Tracy Borman speaks to Lauren Good about Victoria's life and explains why we should rethink our opinion of her.

当你想到维多利亚女王时，你脑海中会浮现出怎样的画面呢？对许多人来说，可能是一个身着晨服的悲伤女子。或者是一位冷静地声称“我们并不觉得有趣”的君主。从她与艾伯特亲王的婚姻到创立我们今天所熟知的许多皇家传统，特蕾西·博尔曼与劳伦·古德一起谈论了维多利亚的一生，并解释了为什么我们应该重新思考对她的看法。

Hi Tracy, thank you so much for appearing on History Extra's Life of the Week series. We're talking about Queen Victoria today. Who was she in a nutshell? Well Lauren, she was quite a remarkable woman. She's one of our most famous monarchs, certainly one of our most famous queens. We haven't actually had many queens regnant. And until Elizabeth II she was the longest reigning monarch in British history. So she was quite a formidable figure.

嗨Tracy，非常感谢你接受采访参与到《历史额外》（History Extra）的“一周人物”系列中。我们今天要谈谈维多利亚女王。简单来说，她是谁？嗯，Lauren，她是一位非常了不起的女性。她是我们最著名的君主之一，无疑也是我们最著名的女王之一。实际上，我们并没有很多女王统治者。在伊丽莎白二世之前，她是英国历史上任期最长的君主。因此，她是一位相当伟大的人物。

And this is an interesting theme I think. She wasn't necessarily born to be queen. She was just the daughter of George III's fourth son Edward Duke of Kent. So George III had 15 children. He had no trouble filling the royal nursery. But unfortunately his many sons didn't particularly like getting married. And so this prompted a bit of succession crisis ultimately. And there was what was known as the baby race after the death of George III's immediate heir, George IV's daughter Charlotte. So suddenly there was a need for an heir. And quickest off the mark was his fourth son Edward Duke of Kent who married a German princess, Victoria. And they pretty soon had a baby.

这是一个我认为很有趣的主题。她并不是天生就注定成为女王，她只是乔治三世的第四个儿子肯特公爵爱德华的女儿。乔治三世有15个孩子，王室的孩子们不愁无人相继。但不幸的是，他的许多儿子并不特别喜欢结婚。因此，这最终引发了一场继承危机。在乔治三世的直系继承人、乔治四世的女儿夏洛特去世后，人们开始进行所谓的宝宝竞赛。突然间，需要一个继承人。首先娶了德国公主维多利亚的是他的第四个儿子肯特公爵爱德华，他们很快就有了一个孩子。

On the 24th of May 1819, the future Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace. Well, we call her Queen Victoria. That wasn't actually her name. It was her second name. But she was christened Alexandrina Victoria. And for much of her childhood was known as Drina. That was her sort of pet name. And then eventually she took the name Victoria like her mother.

在1819年5月24日，未来的维多利亚女王出生在肯辛顿宫。我们称她为维多利亚女王，但那并不是她的名字，只是她的第二个名字。她受洗时叫亚历山德里娜·维多利亚，并且在童年时期一直以Drina为人所知，那是她的小名。最后，她采用了跟她母亲一样的名字维多利亚。

And becoming queen at such a young age Victoria was 18. Wasn't she? Must have had a huge effect despite being the royal heir. What was her accession to the throne actually like? Yes, well, her uncle William IV, who was very close to Victoria, she had dored him actually said on one public occasion that he hoped he would live until his niece was 18. And he did just, you know, by about a month. In fact, just under that. And he died on the 20th of June, 1837. And Victoria was awoken early that morning with the news by the Archbishop of Canterbury. And she was at Kensington Palace. And it's fascinating that her first decision as queen was to spend an hour on her own, because that's something she hadn't been allowed to do during this increasingly restrictive childhood. She wanted to be completely alone. And then she held her first council meeting at Kensington Palace. And that was attended by, of course, all the her ministers and some quite formidable Victorian figures, such as the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo.

维多利亚在如此年轻的时候便成为了女王，她18岁了，对她来说肯定有很大的影响，尽管她是王位的继承人。她登基时的情景是怎样的呢？是的，她与维多利亚关系很亲密的叔叔威廉四世曾在公开场合表示，他希望自己能活到他侄女18岁。事实上，他确实实现了这个愿望，差不多只差一个月。他于1837年6月20日去世，维多利亚在那天早上被坎特伯雷大主教告知了这个消息。她当时在肯辛顿宫。有趣的是，她作为女王的第一个决定是独自待上一个小时，因为在她成长的过程中，她是越来越受限制的，没有能够独自待着的时候。她希望完全独处。然后，她在肯辛顿宫举行了她的第一次内阁会议。当然，出席会议的有她的部长们，还有一些相当重要的维多利亚时代的人物，如滑铁卢战役的英雄威灵顿公爵。

Now, the Duke of Wellington had had a very low opinion of her predecessors, in particular, George IV. But he was enormously impressed with this 18-year-old who was still very naive in what it meant to be queen. And he described her as having an ease and self-possession. He said she not merely filled her chair. She filled the room. And he thought she acted as if she'd been performing the part for years. So she might have lacked experience, but one thing Victoria did not lack right from the beginning was presence.

现在，威灵顿公爵对先任女王，尤其是乔治四世，非常看不起。但是，他对这个18岁的年轻女子印象深刻，她对于作为女王所需的成熟和经验还非常天真。他描述她拥有自如和自信的态度。他说她不仅仅是坐在椅子上，她填满了整个房间。他认为她表现得像是多年来一直在扮演这个角色。因此，虽然维多利亚可能缺乏经验，但从一开始她就不缺乏气场。

And I often find it interesting to examine the upbringings of these people from history, especially monarchs, because they can be quite unusual. What was Queen Victoria's upbringing? Like, definitely unusual. And if you believe Victoria's version of events, it was a miserable childhood. She was always talking about this, writing about it, complaining how suffocating it was.

我经常发现考察这些历史人物的成长背景很有趣，特别是君主们，因为他们的背景常常很不寻常。维多利亚女王的成长经历是怎样的呢？简直是异常的。如果你相信维多利亚的说法，她的童年是悲惨的。她经常谈论这个问题，写着关于它的文字，抱怨有多么令人窒息。

We perhaps have heard of the Kensington system, which was introduced by Victoria's mother and her mother's favourite, the despised Sir John Conroy, who Victoria called the Devilling Carnot. She hated Conroy. But he really replaced her father. Her father died quite early in Victoria's life, and her mother was very much dominated by Conroy. And they introduced the Kensington system when it became obvious that the young Victoria was going to be Queen one day. And it was very restrictive. And for example, she was never allowed to be alone. She had to hold somebody's hand when she was walking downstairs, even when she was well old enough to manage on her own. But that's any part of the story.

我们或许听说过肯辛顿系统，这是维多利亚的母亲和她母亲的宠臣，被维多利亚戏称为“魔鬼卡诺”的不受欢迎的约翰·康洛伊引入的。她讨厌康洛伊，但事实上他取代了她父亲的位置。她父亲在维多利亚很小的时候就去世了，她的母亲受到康洛伊的极大控制。当年轻的维多利亚将成为女王时，他们引入了肯辛顿系统。这个系统非常限制她。例如，她从不被允许单独行动，即使她已经长大到足够自己照顾自己的年纪，下楼时还要牵着别人的手。但这只是故事的一部分。

And actually, for most of Victoria's childhood, she was a pampered, rather spoiled little girl. She was surrounded by adored pets and musicians. And she went on carriage rides around Kensington Garden seaside holidays, always showered with presents.

事实上，维多利亚的大部分童年都是一个被宠溺的、有点被惯坏的小女孩。她被心爱的宠物和音乐家们包围着。她经常坐马车在肯辛顿花园附近兜风度假，总是被礼物所淹没。

And actually, she grew up, can I say, a spoiled brat and quite badly behaved actually, so much so that her governess, Baroness Lason, introduced a behavior book, which still exists in the royal collection. And she told Victoria to record her own behavior every day. So how do you think you did today? And it seemed to have been something that Victoria was quite honest about, because in one entry, Victoria admitted to having been very, very, very, very horribly naughty. Each word underlined four times and in capital letters. So goodness knows what she did on that day. So I think actually, it was a mixture of, as she became older, yes, it was a bit more suffocating. But her early years were very indulged, very spoiled. And her character really paid the price for that, I think.

实际上，她长大后，可以说，是一个被宠坏并且非常不听话的孩子，以至于她的女家庭教师拉松女爵引入了一本行为规范书，这本书至今仍保留在皇室收藏中。她告诉维多利亚每天记录自己的行为。那么你认为你今天表现得如何呢？似乎维多利亚对此非常坦诚，因为在一篇记录中，她承认自己当天非常非常非常非常糟糕。每个单词都被划了四次线并用大写字母书写。真不知道她那天做了什么。所以我认为实际上，随着她渐渐长大，的确有些窒息。但她早年的生活非常放纵，非常被宠爱。而她的性格为此付出了代价，我认为。

Can we continue digging beneath this title of Queen for a moment? You've given us an insight there into what she was like as a child. But what was Queen Victoria's personality like as she grew older?

我们可以继续深入探讨“女王”这个称号吗？你给我们提供了一个她小时候的了解。但是维多利亚女王长大后的个性是什么样的呢？

So I think lots of people quote something that really Victoria never said about, you know, I am not amused. And when you see photographs of Victoria, she looks like a sort of very sour-faced old woman, very miserable, distraught, of course, after the death of her husband Albert and really a mourner for the rest of her life. That was not the real Victoria. So the young Victoria was completely different to that. She came to the throne, something of a party girl. She was like a breath of fresh air. Now that she was at last free from that Kensington system, she was always going out and partying all night. She was at balls and assemblies. She was very sociable. She loved to laugh. And she was naturally very gregarious, very outgoing. She loved company, much more so actually than her future husband Albert, who at one of their early meetings, he attended one of her birthday parties and was absolutely wiped out by it and had to go to bed early. And Victoria was still up partying till the early hours. So I think your listeners, they should hopefully question that image of we are not amused, the dour old Victoria. She was very different to that.

所以我觉得很多人引用了维多利亚从未说过的话，“你知道的，我不感兴趣”。当你看到维多利亚的照片时，她看起来像一个非常严肃的老妇人，非常痛苦，当然，在她的丈夫阿尔伯特去世后，她一生都是一个悲伤的人。那不是真正的维多利亚。所以年轻的维多利亚和她完全不同。当她登上王位时，她是一个完全不同的女孩。她就像一股清新的空气。现在她终于摆脱了那个肯辛顿的体系，总是外出和狂欢整个晚上。她参加舞会和聚会。她很善于社交。她喜欢笑。她本性上非常好合群，非常外向。她喜欢有人陪伴，实际上比她未来的丈夫阿尔伯特更多。在他们的早期见面之一，阿尔伯特参加了她的生日聚会，结果他简直是被彻底搞垮并不得不早早上床睡觉了。而维多利亚还在继续狂欢到凌晨。所以我希望你的听众们能够对“我不感兴趣”的那种严肃的老维多利亚形象抱有怀疑。她和那个形象非常不同。

And you've just mentioned Albert there. What was the marriage like between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert?

你刚刚提到了阿尔伯特。维多利亚女王和阿尔伯特亲王的婚姻是怎样的呢？

Well, it is often depicted as one of the great love stories in royal history. Certainly, there was a strong physical attraction between them. I think they genuinely loved each other. And Victoria found him intriguing and fascinating when they first met. And really they'd been destined for each other pretty much from birth. He was a German prince. They were born very close together. Just a few weeks apart, in fact, the same midwife delivered both Victoria and Albert, little known but fascinating fact. And yeah, she thought when he came to England when she was a teenager, and as I say, he attended a birthday party, she thought that he was very amiable and unaffected, as she said. But then he returned again and a few years later. And then when she saw him, it was sort of like love at second sight. And she was writing in this famous journal of hers, you know, all about how fascinating he was and how good looking and she danced with him all night. And so really, this was a love match for Victoria. So there is that side of it. But I think there's almost a more, we would probably consider it a more sinister side today, in that it was quite a coercive relationship. I don't think that's overstating it in that Albert did dominate Victoria and he did bend her to his will. If she was as he saw it, wayward or disobedient. Yeah, he would he would discipline her almost like a child. And then, and then when she did something that he approved of, he would call her dear, good child. So she was actually quite submissive to Albert and and his word was law. And yet this was the woman who began her reign, saying, I dreaded the thought of marrying. I was so accustomed to having my own way that I thought it tend to one, I shouldn't agree with anybody. And Albert changed all of that.

嗯，这通常被描绘为皇室历史上伟大的爱情故事之一。当然，他们之间存在着强烈的肉体吸引力。我认为他们真心地爱着彼此。维多利亚在他们初次相遇时就觉得他很有趣，很迷人。实际上，他们从出生开始就注定要在一起。他是一位德国王子。他们出生在离得很近的时候，事实上，同一个助产士帮助维多利亚和阿尔伯特出生，这是个鲜为人知但很有趣的事实。当他在维多利亚十几岁的时候来到英国参加一个生日晚会时，她觉得他非常亲切和自然。但几年后，他再次回来。当她看到他时，好像是第二次相遇的爱情。她在她著名的日记中写道，他是多么迷人和英俊，她整晚都和他跳舞。所以对于维多利亚来说，这是一场真正的爱情。所以有这样的一面。但我认为今天我们可能会认为这是比较不好的一面，因为这是一段相当强制性的关系。我认为这并没有言过其实，因为阿尔伯特确实支配着维多利亚，他会迫使她按照他的意愿行事。如果她在他看来是任性或不服从的，那么他就会像对待孩子一样纠正她。然后，当她做一些他认可的事情时，他会称她为亲爱的、乖孩子。所以维多利亚对阿尔伯特非常顺从，他的话就是法律。然而，这个女人在开始统治时说过，我害怕结婚的想法。我太习惯按照自己的方式行事，以至于我以为我不会同意任何人的。而阿尔伯特改变了这一切。

That's so interesting. And within this marriage, how many children did Victoria and Albert have?

这太有趣了。在这个婚姻中，维多利亚和阿尔伯特有几个孩子？

So they had nine children together. This was a woman who hated being pregnant, didn't really like children very much. But she had nine of them. She was pregnant almost straight after they got married. And she was almost continually pregnant.

所以他们一起有了九个孩子。这个女人厌恶怀孕，对孩子也不是很感兴趣。但她生了九个孩子。他们结婚后几乎马上就怀孕了。而且她几乎一直都是怀孕的状态。

For the first, well, certainly more than a decade of her marriage, she was either recovering from a birth or she was pregnant, which had a very profound impact on her queenship because she couldn't be as active a queen as she might have wanted to be. But I think by then she'd been really molded by Albert into this submissive wife.

在她婚姻的前十年，她要么正在康复生产，要么怀孕，这对她的女王地位产生了非常深远的影响，因为她无法成为一个活跃的女王，如同她可能本想成为的那样。但我认为到那时，她已经被阿尔伯特塑造成一个顺从的妻子。

In fact, when they married, she chose to obey. Albert. And she said that she wanted to be married as a woman, not as a queen. And this was shown in, I used to work at the National Archives and I loved delving through the census returns.

实际上，当她们结婚时，她选择顺从阿尔伯特。她说她想以一个妻子的身份结婚，而不是作为一位女王。这一点在我曾在国家档案馆工作时得到了证实，我喜欢研究人口普查数据。

And there was a wonderful census return for Buckingham Palace for the year 1851, where Albert is listed as head of the household at Buckingham Palace. And Victoria, her profession is just listed as queen. But she's not the head of the household. And I think that really spoke volumes.

在1851年的一份精彩人口普查报告中，白金汉宫出现了一份精彩的报告，阿尔伯特被列为白金汉宫的家庭负责人。而维多利亚，她的职业仅被列为女王。但她并不是家庭负责人。我认为这实际上表达了很多东西。

So she was really playing the part of a good Victorian housewife, having lots of children, you know, deferring to her husband, who she said she wished could be king. She would have liked him to be known as King Albert. But of course he was, he was merely Prince Albert.

所以她真的扮演了一位优秀的维多利亚时代的贤妻良母的角色，生了许多孩子，你知道的，对她的丈夫毕恭毕敬。她说她希望他能成为国王，她希望他被称为阿尔伯特国王。但是当然，事实上他只是阿尔伯特亲王。

And during their marriage and Victoria's reign, where were their residences? At the beginning of Victoria's reign, she moved into Buckingham Palace. She couldn't wait to get out of Kenzie to Ren Scottish, suddenly Tartan and the wearing of Tartan becomes very fashionable because Victoria loves it so much.

在维多利亚与她的丈夫的婚姻以及她的统治期间，他们的住所在哪里？在维多利亚的统治开始时，她搬进了白金汉宫。她迫不及待地想离开肯辛顿，去苏格兰的雷恩。突然间，苏格兰图案和苏格兰格子成为了非常时尚的流行元素，因为维多利亚非常喜欢它们。

And they also had a seaside retreat, one of my own particular favourites, because I love the Isle of Wight and it's their Osborne House and it was, you know, to them just heaven and they would go there as often as they could. They built what became known as Swiss cottage in the grounds, which was basically a life-sized dole's house really for their children to play in.

他们还拥有一个海边小屋，那是我自己特别喜欢的地方，因为我爱怀特岛，而他们的奥斯本宅邸就在那里，对他们来说简直是天堂，他们尽可能经常去那里。他们在庭院里建了一个被称为“瑞士小屋”的建筑，实际上就是一个真实尺寸的玩具屋，供他们的孩子们玩耍。

The Albert was very keen on their children actually appreciating the value of hard work and of money and they had allotments that the children had to work in and then earn some money and and sell their vegetables. And I think actually it was a very good, very healthy upbringing for Victoria and Albert's children but they certainly liked their vacations and particularly at Osborne and Balmoral.

艾伯特夫妇非常重视让他们的孩子真正珍惜努力工作和金钱的价值。他们为孩子分配了农田，让他们努力工作，赚取一些钱，并卖掉自己种的蔬菜。实际上，我认为这对 维多利亚和艾伯特的孩子来说是一种非常好的、很健康的成长方式，但他们当然也喜欢度假，尤其是在奥斯本和巴尔莫勒尔。

And all of this sadly came to an end when Albert died in 1861. What effect did his death have on Victoria? I think probably it was the most profoundly moving of all the many diary entries that Victoria wrote that very evening. She wrote all all was over. For Victoria that was almost the end of her own life. She was so deeply shocked.

这一切令人难过的事情在1861年，当阿尔伯特去世时，终结了。他的死对维多利亚有什么影响？我认为，这可能是维多利亚当晚写下的所有很多日记中最令人深感动的一篇。她写道一切都结束了。对维多利亚来说，那几乎是她自己生命的终结。她深深地震惊。

Albert was only 42 years old. He came down with what Victoria just dismissed as a cold. Yeah, she didn't take it seriously. There is a theory that he'd actually been suffering from bowel cancer. There are some symptoms that have been analysed that suggest he hadn't been well for a while.

阿尔伯特只有42岁。他患上了维多利亚刚刚对其不以为意的感冒。是的，她并没有认真对待这件事。有一种理论认为他实际上患有肠癌。有一些症状被分析出来，表明他已经有一段时间身体不好了。

And it hit her like a tent on truck. She never got over Albert's death. She'd only earlier that year lost her mother and that had really had a huge impact on her too even though there was never an easy relationship. But Albert, that was it for Victoria. It was such a turning point in her life in her reign.

她如同被卡车上的帐篷袭击般，沉重打击着她。她对阿尔伯特的死永远无法释怀。就在那一年，她失去了母亲，这对她来说也产生了巨大的影响，尽管她们之间的关系从未容易过。但是阿尔伯特的离世对于维多利亚来说，那是转变人生和王权的关键点。

She became a morna for the rest of her life and her court was draped in black. She wrote letters on paper, edged so thickly with black that there was hardly room for her to write anything. On it morning almost became an art form for Victoria. And the most profound effect of all of this in terms of Victoria's monarchy is that she retired from her public royal duties.

她成为了一位终身的悼念者，她的宫廷被黑色所包裹。她用纸笺写信，黑色的边缘如此厚重，几乎没有空间留给她写什么。对于维多利亚来说，悼念几乎成了一种艺术形式。而所有这些对于维多利亚的君主制产生的最深远影响是，她退出了公共皇室职责。

She could no longer bear to be seen in public. So she retreated from the public lair. She still carried out her constitutional duties. You know, she did what was absolutely required. But people didn't see that and they started to resent that having been very sympathetic towards Victoria for the loss of her adored husband.

她再也无法忍受在公众场合被人看到。因此她从公共视野中退缩了。她仍然履行着她的宪法职责。你知道，她只做了必须做的事情。但人们没有意识到这一点，开始对维多利亚对她深爱的丈夫的失去感到愤慨。

Now they started calling her the widow of Windsor and wears our queen and most damaging of all for Victoria and indeed the monarchy is there was this growing republican movement. People were questioning the purpose of monarchy. We never see the queen. Why are we paying all this money for a monarchy?

现在他们开始称她为温莎的寡妇，并穿着我们的女王服饰，而对维多利亚和整个君主制来说，最具破坏力的是逐渐增长的共和主义运动。人们开始质疑君主制的目的。我们从未见过女王。为什么要为君主制支付如此多的钱呢？

And I think a real crisis point was reached when a protester pinned a notice to the gates of Buckingham Palace that read something along the lines of available to let due to declining business and it made the front page of the times. So this really plunged the monarchy into one of the most dangerous crises it had ever experienced.

我认为真正的危机点是当一名抗议者将一则通告钉在白金汉宫的大门上，通告内容大致是因业务减少而出租，而且这一消息登上了《泰晤士报》的头版。这使得君主制陷入了一场空前危机之中。

And let's go back a little before this stage and talk about her rule as queen for how many years did Victoria actually reign before we delve into some of the intricacies? So she came to the throne in June 1837 and she died in January 1901. So it was 63 and a half years or there about.

让我们回到这个阶段之前，谈谈她作为女王的统治。细节之前，我们先来看看维多利亚女王实际上在位多少年。她登基于1837年6月，逝世于1901年1月。所以她的统治时间大约是63年半左右。

So record breaking. She overtook the previous longest reigning monarch George III and she was hugely celebrated for that because even though there were these moments of crisis in her reign I think longevity goes a long way and the longer you reign in general the more respect you win from your people.

这是创纪录的。她超越了此前最长统治者乔治三世，因此受到了极大的赞扬，因为尽管她统治期间曾遇到过一些危机时刻，但我认为统治时间的长短在很大程度上决定了受人尊敬的程度。总的来说，统治时间越长，你就能赢得更多的人民尊重。

And throughout this reign what do you think were the most fundamental changes or breakthroughs she did make as queen? Well I think she had such an influence on the monarchy itself. Now positively speaking she put the morality back in the monarchy and let's just say it had been at a bit of a low by the end of this endless succession of Georges that we had and her wicked uncles as they became known George IV and William IV his brother who succeeded him for a brief time as I mentioned they weren't all that keen on marriage they much preferred their mistresses and that was fairly typical of George III's children who one source has claimed had 52 illegitimate children between them quite an impressive feat.

在她的统治期间，你认为女王做出的最重要的变革或突破是什么？我认为她对君主制本身产生了如此大的影响。从积极的角度来说，她使君主制恢复了道德标准，而在此之前，我们曾经历了一系列乔治王朝国王的时期，可以说这个标准已经降得很低了。她那些恶名昭彰的叔伯乔治四世和继他位一段时间的威廉四世，对婚姻并不那么感兴趣，更喜欢维持他们的情妇关系，这在他们的父亲乔治三世的子女中相当普遍，据一些消息称，他们共有52个私生子，相当令人印象深刻的壮举。

So there was a sense that you know that the monarchy's public standing was at an all-time low by the time Victoria came to the throne she put the moral heart back into the monarchy but the other thing that she did was this was a time now when the monarch no longer ruled they reigned it was a constitutional position so it was I guess the the semblance of power without any of the reality of it and Victoria didn't try to change that but what she did was increasingly align the nation with the crown so the crown came to represent ordinary people and people's views and this was an important check and balance on government and it really made government aware of of what people on the streets were actually thinking and one prime minister I think it was Disraeli said of Victoria if I knew what the queen was thinking then nine times out of ten I knew what her people were thinking to and that was a real change this aligning of the crown and the people.

所以在维多利亚继位之时，有一种感觉，你知道吧，君主制在公众中的声望已经到了历史最低点。她将道德的核心重新注入君主制，但她所做的另一件事是，这时君主不再掌权，而是拥有象征性的宪政地位，所以可以说是有权力的外表，但却没有任何实际权力。维多利亚并没有试图改变这一点，但她所做的是越来越将整个国家与皇室紧密联系在一起，因此皇冠开始代表普通人和人们的观点，这对政府来说是一个重要的制衡措施。这真正让政府意识到人们在街头的真实想法，一位首相（我想是迪斯雷利）曾这样评价维多利亚：“如果我知道女王在想什么，那么我通常也知道她的子民在想什么”，这是一个真正的变革，将皇冠和人民紧密联系在一起。

But I think the other thing that Victoria really gave the nation and gave the monarchy was the bling the pomp the pageantry the ceremony that had believe it or not been pretty shambolic by the time she came to the throne the georgies hadn't been very good at all of that there were lots of farcical catastrophes in big royal events you know tantrums thrown by monarchs in public and it was all just a bit of a fast and very embarrassing Victoria definitely restored the dignity and she restored the glamour of monarchy and she introduced so many of the ceremonies and traditions that as I said we tend to assume date back hundreds of years there are only really a couple of hundred years old and even if that actually and many of them can be laid at Victoria's door and so really I think it's with Victoria that we get a sense of not just the pomp and pageantry but the history of the British crown and I think that's what's still very much at the forefront today and and it's what's celebrated it's what's emphasized by any canny monarch.

但我认为维多利亚国王给国家和君主制带来的另一件事情就是巴黎、隆重、华丽、典礼等，这些曾经在她登基之前都相当混乱。乔治时期对此并不擅长，一些重大皇家事件中发生了很多笑话般的灾难，君主们在公共场合发脾气，一切都显得有点快速而尴尬。维多利亚女王无疑恢复了皇室的尊严和魅力，引入了许多礼仪和传统。正如我所说，我们往往认为这些仪式和传统已经延续了几百年，但实际上只有几百年的历史，其中许多可以归功于维多利亚女王。因此，我真的认为，正是从维多利亚女王开始，我们对不仅仅是盛况和华丽，还有英国王冠的历史有了更深的认识。我认为这仍然在今天仍然非常重要，并且得到了庆祝，被聪明的君主所强调。

What in your opinion was her biggest achievement? I think Victoria's biggest achievement was to make the monarchy popular again now I mentioned her long retirement from public life more than a decade after Albert's death she still was this widow of Windsor but before that she'd been popular and after that she was popular so her anxious ministers eventually managed to persuade her to come back and resume her public duties and it was like always instantly forgiven her subjects came out to to give thanks for the Queen there was a service of Thanksgiving because her son and heir Bertie the future ed with the seventh had been had been ill and there was a service of thanksgiving for that that Victoria attended almost as the first public thing she did and from then onwards her popularity just grew and grew and not just within Britain but across what we now call the Commonwealth there were still more than the vestiges of empire in Victoria's day and of course she was made empress of India in the 1870s as well and so she was a truly international figure and because she had all of these children so nine children 42 grandchildren and 87 great-grandchildren during Victoria's lifetime I always think imagine remembering the names and the birthdays of all of those that's quite a challenge but because Victoria very cleverly married all of her relatives into the royal families of Europe she became known as the grandmother of Europe and I think her direct descendants occupied the thrones of 10 European countries so there was this complex network of royalty across Europe with Victoria at its centre so I think her legacy was popularity and and also acting as a figurehead for the monarchy as I say not just in Britain but across her empire.

你认为她最大的成就是什么？ 我认为维多利亚最大的成就是让君主制再次流行起来。尽管她在艾伯特去世后的十多年里过着长时间的退隐生活，她仍然是温莎的寡妇。但在此之前，她一直很受欢迎，之后也是如此。因此，她焦虑的大臣们最终设法说服她回来并恢复公务，就像以往一样，她的臣民们立刻原谅了她，纷纷出来感谢女王。还举行了一场感恩典礼，因为她的儿子和继承人伯蒂（未来的爱德华七世）曾病重，而维多利亚参加了这场庆典，几乎是她重返公众活动的第一次。从那时起，她的受欢迎程度不断增加，不仅在英国，而且在我们现在称为英联邦的地区。在维多利亚时代，英国仍然保留着帝国的残余，当然她在19世纪70年代还被封为印度女皇。因此，她是一个真正的国际人物。由于她有这么多的子女，九个孩子，42个孙子和87个曾孙，在维多利亚的有生之年，我总是想象记住所有这些人的名字和生日是多么具有挑战性。但是由于维多利亚巧妙地将自己的亲属嫁入欧洲的皇室，她被人们称为“欧洲的祖母”，我认为她的直系后代担任了十个欧洲国家的王位。所以，在维多利亚的世界里，有这样一个复杂的皇室网络，而维多利亚就是它的中心。我认为她的遗产是受欢迎程度，并且作为君主制的代表，不仅仅是在英国，而是在她的帝国范围内。

On the flip side, Tracy, what do you think was Queen Victoria's biggest failing? Probably her biggest failing was giving too much authority to Albert and I think although it was the greatest tragedy of her reign when he died it was probably the best thing that could have happened to her in terms of her monarchy because people were sort of willing to tolerate Albert but they didn't see him as a king in the way that Victoria did and hoped he would be and she carried on for a little while after his death still acting as if he was there and trying to second guess what he would have done and there's a lovely quote about his dominance over Victoria being so complete that when he died she said you know when when he lived I did nothing move not a finger didn't put on a gown or bonnet if he didn't approve it and so she was going to carry on in that way just second guessing what Albert had done but eventually she she grew tired of that and she started to become her own woman and she was much more successful when she did that but I think that's her failing really was in the early part of her reign and and her marriage and probably of course that long period of retirement that was quite ill judged people respected her for mourning her husband but she took it too far and she forgot her duty and I can tell you as a historian of the monarchy if a monarch forgets their duty that's never a good thing and the people find it hard to accept but if I'm allowed another little failing and I'm sounding like I'm being very negative about Victoria I'm really not but she wasn't a great parent to her eldest son and heir Bertie now there was this weird tradition among the Hanoverian monarchs of hating their eldest son and heir it was just this thing I don't know if they didn't like to think of who was going to come after them so there was this tension between them and it was certainly true of Victoria and Bertie Bertie was the ultimate playboy prince like he completely rebelled against his straight-laced parents Victoria and Albert so he was always to be seen on the kind of French Riviera and Paris and having parties no responsibility but I think that started because he was very aware that neither Victoria nor Albert could stand him Victoria. told him he was ugly Albert called him a thorough and cunning lazy bones and so no wonder he rebelled and of course he became everything that Victoria wasn't and the Edwardian age is seen as this sort of free-for-all and lax morality and it was an age to have fun and some people enjoyed that but ultimately it didn't do the monarchy any favors and this reign came to an end in 1901

相反的，特蕾西，你认为维多利亚女王最大的错误是什么？也许她最大的错误就是过分赋予了艾伯特太多的权力。我认为，尽管他去世是她统治时期最大的悲剧，但对于她的君主制来说，这可能是最好的事情。因为人们对艾伯特还能够容忍，但并不像维多利亚那样把他看作国王，并且希望他能成为国王。她在他去世后的一段时间里还在扮演着他还活着的样子，并试图猜测他会怎么做。关于他对维多利亚的控制是如此完全的一段话很有意思，当他去世时，她说：“你知道吗，当他还活着的时候，我什么事情也不干，动也不动，不穿礼服或帽子，除非他同意。”所以她打算继续按照这种方式，猜测艾伯特会怎么做。但最后她厌倦了那样的生活方式，并开始成为独立的女性。当她这样做时，她更加成功。但我认为她的失败真的是在她的统治和婚姻的早期部分，还有当然那段相当错误判断的退休期。人们尊重她为她丈夫哀悼，但她过分了，忘记了她的职责。作为一个君主制历史学家，我可以告诉你，如果君主忘记了他们的责任，那永远不是一件好事，而且人们很难接受。但如果我被允许再多指出一个小小的错误，这样一来我就像是对维多利亚非常负面了，但我真的不是。她对长子和继承人伯蒂不是一个好母亲。汉诺威君主之间有这种奇怪的传统，最恨他们的长子和继承人，这只是一种习惯。我不知道他们是否不喜欢想到继承自己的人。所以他们之间存在着紧张关系，对于维多利亚和伯蒂来说也是如此。伯蒂是一个彻头彻尾的花花公子，完全背叛了他保守的父母维多利亚和艾伯特的规矩。所以他总是在法国里维埃拉和巴黎晃荡，参加派对，没有责任心。但我认为这是因为他非常清楚，维多利亚和艾伯特都无法忍受他。维多利亚告诉他他丑陋，艾伯特称他为一个彻头彻尾的懒骨头，所以难怪他反叛。当然，他成为了维多利亚的对立面，爱德华时代被认为是一种放纵和道德放松的时代，是一个尽情享乐的时代，有些人喜欢那样的生活方式。但最终，对君主制没有任何好处，这个统治在1901年结束。

How did Queen Victoria die? So, Victoria was, you know, very long lived for the times. She celebrated her 80th birthday in 1899, her golden jubilee, her diamond jubilee. But by the turn of the century, so by the beginning of the 20th century, it was obvious that Victoria's health was starting to seriously decline. And even at her golden jubilee, she'd been so frail that she hadn't actually been able to get out of the carriage to a service of Thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral. So it was obvious she was plagued by arthritis, rheumatism, her eyesight was failing, and towards the end, even her famously sharp memory. She had an incredible memory, never forgot anything, but even that was starting to go towards the very end. Her waistline had expanded, she was very small in stature, she was only about four feet 11, I think, but you can see from her clothes, many of which still survive in the collection at Hampton Court Palace, the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, just how she was putting on weight. She liked her food, but it was probably very unhealthy the way she ate because she was notorious for eating really quickly. And anybody who ate with her had to stop eating the moment she did, so you really had to learn to eat very, very quickly, otherwise you would go hungry. And I don't think that really helped her digestion and her general health. So that by, you know, as I say, the beginning of the 20th century, her health really was in a serious decline. But it seemed unthinkable still to her people that one day, quite soon, the queen would no longer be with them. One commentator, the historian Litten Strayke, he said, "It appeared as if some monstrous reversal of the course of nature was about to take place. The vast majority of the queen's subjects could not remember a time when she had not been reigning over them." And I think those words really resonated last year when we saw the death of now the longest reigning sovereign in British history, Elizabeth II. You know, just that sense of longevity, a sense of a huge change in society because most people couldn't remember another monarch, just as in the later days of Victoria's reign. And where is Queen Victoria buried? So, Queen Victoria is buried at Windsor. And this really became the favorite burial place from King George III onwards. Henry VIII is an example of somebody earlier than that, an earlier monarch, and there are others too. But really, the Hanoverians used Windsor as the place of royal burial. They might have a funeral at Westminster Abbey, but then they would be interred at Windsor, as was Victoria's, of course, beloved husband Albert, who she loved until the day she died. Finally, Tracy, I think many of our listeners, when they think of Victoria, an image of her in her mourning black gowns will come to mind. How do you think we should remember Queen Victoria? I think we should remember Victoria as an extraordinarily strong-willed woman. She was a woman in what was still a man's world in the 19th century, and she had vision, she had ideas, she was courageous, and she did ultimately do her duty. But I think above all else, she was the one who put the pomp and pageantry at the heart of the monarchy. So I would say in a way, she made a greater contribution to the survival of the British monarchy than many, many other monarchs besides. That was Tracy Borman, a best-selling author and historian. To hear more from Tracy, you can watch her masterclass series on the history of the monarchy at historyextra.com. Thanks for listening to today's life of the week. Be sure to join us again next time to learn about another fascinating figure from the past. Hollywood A-lister Nicole Kidman will be joining me, Kathy Anne Taylor, on the Radio Times podcast this Tuesday, the 16th of January. She reveals that in her early days, she was told she would never make it because of her height and discusses how she protects herself from negative press. Plus, she speaks about the loneliness she has felt whilst traveling for work. We also discuss the importance of championing women and why intimacy coordinators are essential. Search the Radio Times podcast and click follow now to listen to the episode with Nicole Kidman available from Tuesday, the 16th of January.

维多利亚女王是如何去世的？维多利亚女王是那个时代非常长寿的人。她在1899年庆祝了80岁生日，举办了黄金和钻石纪念活动。不过到了20世纪初，维多利亚女王的健康明显开始严重下滑。即使在她的黄金纪念活动上，她也非常虚弱，无法下马参加圣保罗大教堂的感恩仪式。很明显她患有关节炎和风湿病，视力逐渐衰退，甚至著名的好记性也开始衰退。她拥有令人难以置信的记忆力，从不忘记任何事情，但就在最后的时刻，这也开始失去。她的腰围增加了，她身材很矮，只有大约4英尺11寸。她的衣服，其中许多至今还保存在汉普顿宫皇家礼服收藏中心，可以看出她怎样变胖。她喜欢吃东西，但她的饮食方式可能非常不健康，因为她以吃得非常快而出名。任何和她一起进餐的人必须在她停止吃饭之时停止进食，否则就会饿着肚子。我认为这并没有帮助她的消化和整体健康。所以到了20世纪初，她的健康状况真的严重恶化了。然而，对于她的臣民来说，还是无法想象女王不再与他们在一起的那一天很快就会到来。一位评论家，历史学家利顿·斯特雷克(Litten Strayke)说，“似乎大自然的某种反常之事即将发生。绝大多数女王的臣民无法记起她统治他们的时光。”我认为这些话在去年我们看到了英国历史上在位时间最长的君主伊丽莎白二世去世时真正引人共鸣。你知道，那种长寿的感觉，对社会的巨大变革，因为大多数人无法记得其他国王，就像维多利亚统治晚期一样。维多利亚女王被埋葬在温莎。从乔治三世开始，这真的成为了最喜欢的王室葬地。亨利八世是早期君主的代表之一，还有其他的。但实际上，汉诺威王朝将温莎作为王室葬地。他们可能会在威斯敏斯特公墓举行葬礼，但之后他们会在温莎下葬，维多利亚女王的至爱亲人阿尔伯特也同样如此，她爱他爱到自己去世的那天。最后，崔西，我认为当我们想起维多利亚女王时，许多人脑海中会浮现出她穿着丧服的形象。你认为我们应该如何记住维多利亚女王？我认为我们应该记住维多利亚女王是一位非常有意志力的女性。在19世纪仍然是男性主导的世界，她拥有远见，有自己的想法，她是勇敢的，她最终履行了自己的责任。但最重要的是，她是将盛况和庄严放在君主制的核心的人。所以我认为，在某种程度上，她对英国君主制的存续做出了比许多其他君主更大的贡献。这是畅销书作者和历史学家崔西·伯曼(Tracy Borman)。要听更多关于崔西的内容，可以在historyextra.com上观看她对君主制历史的专题课程。感谢收听今天的生平介绍。请务必再次加入我们，了解更多过去的有趣人物。