some Victoria questions - answered!

Ah, the wisdom of Wiki! Right after I blogged my early confusion in The Young Victoria, I found most of the answers sought in Queen V's own Wikipedia page. Amazing, isn't it?

Things I Learned from WIKI...

"The young Princess Victoria was the only legitimate child of the fourth son of George III, the Duke of Kent, who died in 1820. As such, she became heiress presumptive after the death of George IV in 1830.The law at the time made no special provision for a child monarch. Therefore, a Regent needed to be appointed if Victoria were to succeed to the throne before the age of eighteen. Parliament passed the Regency Act 1830, which provided that Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, would act as Regent during the Queen's minority, if she acceded to the throne while still a minor. Parliament did not create a council to limit the powers of the Regent. King William disliked the Duchess and, on at least one occasion, stated that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided..."

"Victoria later described her childhood as "rather melancholy." Victoria's mother was extremely protective of the princess, who was raised in near isolation under the so called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by The Duchess and her comptroller and supposed lover, Sir John Conroy, to prevent the princess from ever meeting people whom they deemed undesirable, and to render her weak and utterly dependent upon them. She was not allowed to interact with other children. Her main companion was her King Charles spaniel, Dash, and she was required to share a bedroom with her mother every night until she became queen.As a teenager, Victoria resisted their threats and rejected their attempts to make Conroy her personal secretary. Once queen, she immediately banned Conroy from her quarters (though she could not remove him from her mother's household) and consigned her mother to a distant corner of the palace, often refusing to see her."

Other things that became clear:
Our Lord Paul Bettany was really Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne
Albert & Victoria's first child, mentioned in the film, was a girl also named Victoria.

I still don't get all that stuff about the formation of governments and all that, so that will require some further research...