According to a new documentary, Queen Victoria had a secret lovechild for her husband. A woman here speaks out about her descent from the royal family.
Queen Victoria and John Brown were not only secretly married, they had a love child, a new documentary will claim. Historian Dr Fern Riddell believes she has found proof that the monarch and her manservant were deeply in love – and that the Queen gave birth to her tenth child, a girl called Mary-Anne, whose father was John.
“I think Victoria and John had a crazy love,” She says, “I think I have some proof that they got married, and I really do think there’s a good chance they may have had a child together.”
“Big claims,” according to TV lawyer Rob Rinder, who appears in the documentary with a skeptical eye on her findings. If you’re correct, our understanding of history is altered.
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Riddell reveals in her new book, Victoria’s Secret, that she has discovered a direct descendant of Minnesota-based, USA-based Mary-Anne _ Angela Webb. She was raised knowing all the tales about her family coming from an illegitimate branch of British royalty but never thought it could be proven. John Brown was her grandfather’s great uncle.
She shows off a basket of heirlooms in the Channel 4 programme and explains: “They were originally Queen Victoria and John Brown’s and have made their way to me. There are books, there’s jewellery, there’s documents.
Queen Victoria commissioned this brooch. It says March 29, 1896. It also has a back hair lock.
This is Victoria’s handwritten note. The royal seal is present. On the 27th, which would have been the anniversary of his passing, the recommendation is to place a wreath and flowers in the deceased’s bed.
Angela claims that John Brown was more than just a close friend of Queen Victoria’s in the story she grew up with. She claims that her family is descended from the child who was conceived as Mary-Anne, the child of Queen Victoria and John Brown, and that there was a romantic relationship.
Dr. Fern claims that the Brown family’s undiscovered secret archive proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the couple were lovers and that John’s brother Hugh was raising her daughter Jessie with his wife. The unborn couple relocated to New Zealand with the child, which helped prevent scandal.
But later it’s said that Queen Victoria begged them to return to Scotland with the child – and they did. In the film, Dr Fern says that the end of Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert had been an unhappy time. Victoria had struggled through her nine pregnancies and suffered from post-natal depression, plus symptoms including hallucinations that may have been mistaken for the madness that had afflicted King George.
She claims that the couple would have had to practice celibacy because doctors had warned against any additional pregnancies. She is therefore instructed to end any sexual relations with her husband in her late 30s. For her, it will be a real problem with their marriage.
Dr. Fern thinks that the queen had a strong sex desire from the beginning. She adored physical pleasure, and she was sensual. A young Victoria’s claim that she and Albert were riding in the rain and that he had “nothing under them,” which she had also underlined, was untrue.
Fern says she understands why Victoria was drawn to John Brown at the time because he was attractive and shrewd. You can see why Queen Victoria is irresistibly drawn to him, she says.
The couple spent more time in Scotland at Balmoral, where John would have spent much of his time with Victoria, when their marriage becomes strained. According to Dr. Fern, “This gives a wounded Queen a chance to flirt with a powerful, seductive young man.”
The monarch wrote to John’s brother Hugh in 1886 to let him know how she felt about his brother, among other things, one that was discovered in the Brown family archive in 1886. It reads, “I held and took his dear kind hand.” No one loved him more than I did, I told him. No one loves you more than I, he replied, and neither do you.
In one Christmas card she tells her lover: “My lips may give a message better of Christmas love than even my letter.” And in case that wasn’t clear enough, another says: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”
Rinder agrees this could only mean they had a “deep, meaningful and enduring” love affair. But the affair was hushed up, and so too was the pregnancy, Dr Fern believes, which happened when the Queen was in mourning over Prince Albert and out of public life.
She declares, “I think there was a surprise baby, spirited away to New Zealand,” and provides proof that Victoria and John were secretly married. Then, after Victoria and John made their first public appearance, they arranged to bring Hugh, Jessie, and Mary-Anne home.
When Dr. Fern contacted her with inquiries about her ancestry, Angela was “flabbergasted.” She wants to conduct a DNA test because she thinks she can “see” myself in pictures of Queen Victoria.
She claims, “I’d love to be able to demonstrate that their love story was truly beautiful.” It would be wonderful to be able to claim that John Brown was her second-greatest love because of this fact.
However, the American admits, “I’m not sure how I’ll feel if it’s established that I am a descendant of Queen Victoria.”
- Secret Marriage, Secret Child: Queen Victoria? on Channel 4 on Thursday, July 31 at 9 p.m.
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Source: Mirror
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