GOOD LOOKING MEN ONLY NEED APPLY - ROYAL DEMANDS #royal #nostalgia #history

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:07]Queen Victoria, you know, had more assassination attempts on her life than any other monarch simply because a lot of people said they were fed up of not seeing her. Seems a bit cruel really, doesn't it? When you think you step outside and somebody has a gun at you. A lot of people said as well that some of these attempts were not exactly attempts on her life, but to draw attention to the fact that that's the reason why she kept out of the public eye because that way it gave her more time to do really what she wanted. As we all know, she obviously grieved Prince Albert a lot.

[00:00:39]But many people suggested this went on far too long and many prime ministers tried and failed to push her back into the public domain. And it's interesting when you look at this particular story, you know, chums because in today's world, sorry it's the hay fever, but in today's world, you wouldn't get away with it. You just couldn't keep going at that level and expect the public to say, "Oh, all right." You know, whenever you're ready, because people now have a shorter attention span, particularly if you are part of the public f, you know, fraternity, they need to see you. Queen Victoria was kind of known for one particular image and that is the dark clothes, the black dress, you know, the white lace and that's really the image that she wanted to put out there simply because that was a sort of steadfast image. She felt it suited the sort of look and the grieving widow. You know, she kept it going for years as we know.

[00:01:31]Behind palace doors though, things were actually not as simple as you may think.

[00:01:36]And again, when you look deeper into the notes, it's fascinating as to how Queen Victoria really was quite sort of forward thinking in many aspects. I mean she was a lucky monarch in many respects because she also was at the advent of so many things like the telephone, the electric light, the railway system, the London underground, you know, and we have all of the wonderful brilliant minds of that era to thank for pushing that particular uh decade, you know, the Victorian era through so much. As I've often said, it's my sort of two favorite eras really. I quite like the TUDA era, but I do enjoy Victorian and Eduwardian because they dressed up. Everybody had this sort of facade and everybody was a lot more polite and of course there was a level of levels, wasn't there? And as I've often said, I know where I would be. You know what I mean? But what's interesting is one of the bits that I discovered and as ever I like to share with you is exactly what happened as to how her protection radically changed again under her own ideas. Let me explain. Hi Toms. As I say, welcome back. Nice to see you. And as I say, I love I love these sort of archways and stuff because in my mind, um, I see people walking through here with top hats, you know, do you? And sort of like girls, ladies, should I say, with parasels in the sunlight and you know, everybody these walls, it's an it's a strange line that, isn't it? But the line that we all say is you know, if these walls could talk and it's true.

[00:03:04]You go in an older building and you think, "What meetings have gone on in here?" I was in a hotel recently in Whiteall, which used to be the old war office, and you're now sitting in a room that's used by, you know, businessmen having meetings, and you're thinking, "Really big business went on in here."

[00:03:19]Of course, all time moves on, like this archway, like Queen Victoria. You see, Queen Victoria was very concerned about two things. Her own vanity. She liked to be surrounded by good-looking men. And oh, yes. Hence the reason she handpicked some people might say John Brown alongside the Munchie and those are the ones that we really know. But according to the paper, she didn't want um shall we say displeasing vizares. That was a phrase around her, particularly for the male servants. Right? So even if you're a male servant, you had to be a couple of points. You had to be ideally around six foot, which was a big thing for the Victorian era. Men were not normally that tall. But she came up with this idea. And this is one that's traveled through for the rest of what we now know today. You see, originally the royals were protected by exs soldiers. You know, soldiers that had seen terrible atrocities at the front, the Crimea, the Boore, all that sort of stuff. But she wanted somebody who understood real life. What really inspired her was the formation as what we now know to be the Met Police, the British Metropolitan Police. And as people either retired or left that particular force, they were encouraged to take a jewel role. So you could be like an elegant footman, but also as and when the queen went out, you would be then assigned to be what we'd now describe as personal security. Oh, yes. And this was quite good for her because, as I say, they were very good-looking guys. They were tall. They were imposing. They had certain things that they could do, but they were not soldiers. She didn't necessarily want all the regalia. They were almost dressed identical to what we call peelers with the black tunic and stuff like that. Also, what's also very interesting is she wanted to get about a little bit more. So, what a lot of people don't realize is that when Queen Victoria, a little bit like Katherine, the Princess of Wales, you know, we see sometimes Katherine popping up in a supermarket or shopping in the high street in London, if you dress differently, people don't recognize you.

[00:05:21]And the only thing that Queen Victoria needed to do was change the dress, which she did, right? So if she wanted to go out somewhere, maybe to see something at the theater or meet someone in a private house or whatever, then she just changed the dress and it could be a dress that was of a lighter color. You know, it wasn't navy, wasn't dark, wasn't brown.

[00:05:41]The public only were used to seeing her in that picture, the drawing or the painting. And nobody even recognized many a time apparently when she was up and down Kensington Gardens maybe taking an early morning stroll or an afternoon stroll after tea or something like that.

[00:05:57]Nobody realized it was her because unless they saw her looking quite severe with the imagery that we look and this apparently was an idea put to her by these newfound sort of security stroke handlers whatever you want to call them exeilers policemen. And she was delighted with this because it meant she had more freedom without being criticized. Again, in my opinion, another fascinating story. Neil Sha Kensington, London.