15. Queen Victoria Arrived as a Breath of Fresh Air When She Ascended the Throne
An unfortunate feature of today’s world is the proliferation of celebrity stalkers who plague the famous, and sometimes the infamous, alike. Such fame fiends are not a new phenomenon exclusive to the modern era: they have been around for some time, a statement with which Queen Victoria, if she was still around, would wholeheartedly agree. Britain was enamored by the young Victoria when she ascended the throne. Her two predecessors, her uncles, had been old, ineffectual, and corrupt, while their predecessor, the Mad King George III, had been, well… mad.
So when Alexandrina Victoria ascended the throne on June 20th, 1837, she arrived as a breath of fresh air: a young, pretty, innocent, and clean new slate for her realm. Admirers tossed letters into her carriage, the bolder ones visited the palace with marriage proposals, and the creepier ones dedicated themselves to stalking the young queen. The latter’s quest was made easy by the ineptness of Victoria’s staff. Britain’s royal household bureaucracy was a mishmash of inefficiency, ineptness, and outright incompetence.