As a young woman, Queen Victoria was drawn to pleasure, but her advisers decided it would be more beneficial for her to champion the rising puritanical movement led by the Evangelicals. This would be a fresh start for the monarchy and help her to rise above the dreadful reputation of her uncles. Queen Victoria was fortunate enough to fall in love with her prince and enjoy their physical passion on a bedrock of virtue and morality. The public were delighted, and their marriage became an inspiring example to the whole nation. Not everyone lived in marital bliss, however – as Victorians Uncovered exposes. Caroline Norton suffered at the hands of her abusive husband, but the law forbade her from divorcing him. Novelist George Eliot could not marry the man she loved because he was legally bound to remain married to another. How did these less fortunate women cope? And what effect did it have on Victoria's popularity?

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