The Young Victoria

Princess Victoria:
Do you ever feel like a chess piece yourself? In a game being played against your will.

Prince Albert:
Do you?

Princess Victoria:
Constantly. I see them leaning in and moving me around the board.

Prince Albert:
The Duchess and Sir John?

Princess Victoria:
Not just them. Uncle Leopold. The king. I'm sure half the politicians are ready to seize hold of my skirts and drag me from square to square.

Prince Albert:
Then you had better master the rules of the game until you play it better than they can.

Princess Victoria:
You don't recommend I find a husband to play it for me?

Prince Albert:
I should find one to play it with you, not for you.

Duchess of Sutherland:
Look at that demure little head. And all of us wondering what's inside it.

Lord Melbourne:
We'll find out soon enough.

Princess Victoria:
[to her mother] Oh, and if you think that I will ever forget that you stood by silent and watched him treat me thus, you are dreaming!

Queen Victoria:
[to the Council] I am young, but I am willing to learn, and I mean to devote my life to the service of my country and my people. I look for your help in this. I know I shall not be disappointed. Thank you.

Sir Robert Peel:
She starts on your watch, Lord Melbourne. Guard her well and keep her safe from harm.

Prince Albert:
[accepting his letter from Victoria] As a matter of interest, will a time come when I read them first?

Baron Stockmar:
You'll enjoy this. She has a real flair for description.

Queen Adelaide:
You'll have to decide on a husband soon. What about Leopold's candidate?

Queen Victoria:
I can't marry the man they want me to marry.

Queen Adelaide:
Every suitor will come with strings attached.

Queen Victoria:
Can't I be my own mistress for a while, haven't I earnt it? Dear Lord M, he's so very kind, I couldn't have asked for a better tutor.

Queen Adelaide:
You may dream of independence, but you won't get it. From now on, everyone will push and pull you for their own advantage, Melbourne more than the rest. Just remember, you are the queen. He's a politician. And politicians, whatever their creed, always resent the monarchy. They pass through, you stay. So just keep dear Lord M in his proper sphere.

Queen Victoria:
He's already chosen the new household.

Prince Albert:
I'm going back to England.

Baron Stockmar:
There must be a reason if you wish to visit Her Majesty.

Prince Albert:
Then find me a reason.

Queen Victoria:
I do want to help them, whatever you say. And not just the laboring poor, but the hungry and the homeless, and... There are people who are lost, and whose business is it to see to their welfare?

Lord Melbourne:
Well, in my experience, ma'am, it's best to let these things develop naturally. If you interfere, you risk overturning the cart.

Queen Victoria:
Well, Prince Albert doesn't agree. He's made a study of the working man's condition, he's full to the brim with ideas for their improvement.

Lord Melbourne:
Is he indeed? How inspiring.

Queen Adelaide:
You are confusing stubbornness with strength, my dear. And I warn you, the people will not like you for it.

Prince Albert:
I just got your note. I was riding.

Queen Victoria:
Sit, please.

Prince Albert:
The park is marvelous.

Queen Victoria:
I'm so pleased you like it. I do want you to feel quite at home... I'm sure you're aware why I wished you to come here. Because it would make me happier than anything, too happy really, if you would agree to what I wish.

Prince Albert:
And stay with you?

Queen Victoria:
And stay with me.

Prince Albert:
And marry you?

Queen Victoria:
And marry me!

[Watson smiles and giggles as she hears to laughter from inside newly-married Victoria and Albert's room]

Baroness Lehzen:
Have you woken Her Majesty?

Watson:
No ma'am.

Baroness Lehzen:
Don't you think you should?

Watson:
No ma'am. Not this morning I don't.

Sir John Conroy:
[watching the crowd outside the palace] How changeable they are. They hate you, they love you, they hate you.

Duchess of Kent:
They punished her. They never hated her.

Lord Melbourne:
Your Highness, there's your opening if you'll take my advice...

Prince Albert:
Lord Melbourne, forgive me but you seem to have confused me with a member of your club. I am not your drinking companion nor your whist partner. I am the husband of your sovereign. And as such, I will make my own decisions, and I neither seek nor invite your advice. Good evening.

Queen Victoria:
I will not have my role usurped! I wear the crown! And if there are mistakes they will be my mistakes, and no one else will make them! No one, not even you!

Prince Albert:
I am leaving before you excite yourself and harm the child.

Queen Victoria:
You will go when I dismiss you. I am your queen, and I am telling you to stay!

Prince Albert:
Good night, Victoria. [exits]

Queen Victoria:
[storms over to door] You may not go! You may not go! I order you to stay here in this room! Albert!

Prince Albert:
For pity's sake, smile, woman. Anyone would think we had quarreled.

Princess Victoria:
Don't talk to me.

Queen Victoria:
[sobbing] I'm so sorry! I thought I was going to lose you!

Prince Albert:
I don't think he was a very good shot.

Queen Victoria:
Why did you do it? So stupid, why did you do it?

Prince Albert:
I had two very good reasons. First, I am replaceable and you are not.

Queen Victoria:
You are not replaceable to me!

Prince Albert:
Second, you're the only wife I've got or ever will have. You are my whole existence, and I will love you until my very last breath.

Sir John Conroy:
You're too young! You've no experience. You're like a china doll, walking over a precipice...

Princess Victoria:
Well then I must smash! For it's too late to mend my ways now.

Princess Victoria:
Now, I am quite married.

Prince Albert:
[repeated line, to Victoria] Good morning, wife.

Sir John Conroy:
[outraged] I cannot believe I'm being subjected to this interrogation.

Prince Albert:
[sitting behind a desk, piled with papers] You're not being subjected to anything, Sir John. You have been in charge of the Duchess's finances for many years. Indeed, you have made public statements testifying to their health.

Sir John Conroy:
I have!

Duchess of Kent:
And I am so grateful.

Prince Albert:
All I am asking is that you will be so good as to tell us exactly where the money has gone.

Sir John Conroy:
You are very intent, Baroness. Are you making a study of me?

Baroness Lehzen:
Someone should.

Princess Victoria:
Lord Melbourne says French doctors kill their patients. English ones just let them die.

Prince Albert:
You know when we are old and surrounded with our children we will look on this as the day our life began.

Queen Victoria:
Not TOO surrounded please...

[Victoria climbs on top of Albert and holds him down by the wrists]

Queen Victoria:
...and not too soon.

Prince Albert:
Oh. I am expecting a very LARGE family.

[Victoria giggles and Albert and Victoria embrace]

[opening lines]

Princess Victoria:
[voiceover] Some people are born more fortunate than others. Such was the case with me. But as a child I was convinced of quite the opposite. What little girl does not dream of growing up as a princess? But some palaces are not at all what you would think. Even a palace can be a prison. Mama never explained why she would have someone taste my food, why I couldn't attend school with other children or read popular books. When my father died, Mama and her advisor, Sir John Conroy, created rules. He said they were for my protection, and he called it The Kensington System. I could not sleep in a room without Mama, or even walk downstairs without holding the hand of an adult. I learned the reason for all this when I was eleven: my Uncle William was the King of England, yet he and his three brothers could boast only one living child. And that was me. Sir John's dream was that the King would die and there would be a regency where my mother would rule England and he would rule my mother. So I began to dream of the day when my life would change and I might be free. And I prayed for the strength to meet my destiny.

Prince Albert:
Victoria.

Princess Victoria:
It's all right, Lehzen. Albert can take me up. [to Albert] You'll have to hold my hand. Mama insists. I hope you don't mind.

Prince Albert:
Not in the least.

Princess Victoria:
What did you want to say?

Prince Albert:
Only that I understand more than you think of what your life is.

Princess Victoria:
Do you?

Prince Albert:
My childhood wasn't easy, either. I lost my mother when I was a boy.

Princess Victoria:
I know. She died.

Prince Albert:
No. That is, she did die. Eventually. But she was sent away long before that. There was some difficulty... It was all hushed up and no one talks of it now. But I know what it is to live alone, inside your head, while never giving a clue as to your real feelings.

Princess Victoria:
Did Uncle Leopold ask you to tell me that?

Prince Albert:
No. He actually told me never to mention it.

Princess Victoria:
Well, how little he knows me.

Prince Albert:
[pause] May I write to you? [She smiles]