Emma VS

“Even at rock bottom, when her doctors had thought she would go mad with grief, Victoria had spoken of endurance. She was 'determined', she wrote, that as a widow 'no one person, may he be ever so good ... is to lead, or guide, or dictate to me'.”
― Lucy Worsley, Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow

“Historian Dorothy Thompson has pointed out the double standard at work here. A king's having a mistress was regrettable, but ultimately acceptable. The possibility, though, of a female ruler having a sexual relationship outside of marriage, causes dismay and prurient ridicule.”
― Lucy Worsley, Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow

“With Bertie's illness, Victoria's return to her best self, the self she had lost in Albert, had begun.”
― Lucy Worsley, Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow

“This bonnet, worn with resolution, had caused some upset. Her government had asked its queen to appear more ... queenly. 'The symbol that unties this vast Empire is a Crown not a bonnet,' complained Lord Roseberry. But Victoria stoutly refused, and 'the bonnet triumphed'.”
― Lucy Worsley, Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow