The French court is a “place of artifice,” he rants, full of deceit, where the king has “vulgar” taste and the women lack “purity.” (What about the men? Sounds like they’re more guilty when it comes to philandering. He finds more to complain about once the queen and her entourage arrive at Louis Philippe’s grand summer chateau. Victoria has broken free of her depression, but Albert is slipping deep into his own. Having learned that Leopold might be his father, the prince is having an identity crisis – to the point where he’s drawing himself in the mirror and then splashing ink over his portrait if this efficiency-prizing prince is wasting ink, he really must be upset.
Those incestuous families are precisely why Albert has sunk into a depression. Nineteenth century interfamilial royal politics are a doozy, especially given all the inbreeding. Worse, Louis Philippe is a “master of duplicity,” according to Robert Peel. Victoria therefore decides to visit the king and convince him to change his mind this plan, however, is complicated by her uncle Leopold’s desire to marry someone from his family to the Spanish princess – Louis Philippe is going to assume Victoria is protecting her own dynastic interests.
But Victoria’s government is against this match, viewing it as an aggressive expansion of France’s influence. The French King Louis Philippe wants to marry his youngest son to the Spanish princess, thus garnering his family a chance at the Spanish throne. Victoria and Albert are traveling to a godless country where the women wear makeup, undergarments are hung up to dry in open courtyards, mistresses are passed from father to son, and the bread comes oddly shaped: France. Find our previous Victoria content, including recaps of season 1, here. Read our recaps of the previous and following episodes. Victoria is available to stream for Passport members.
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