Queen Victoria Syndrome

The Crown 5×1

Queen Elizabeth II: I am delighted to join you in Clydebank today for the launch of this, the latest royal yacht. I hope that this brand-new vessel, like your brand-new queen, will prove to be dependable and constant. Capable of weathering any storm. I now take great pride in naming this ship "Britannia." I wish success to her. And to all who sail in her.

Prince Charles: I know the Queen thinks the royal yacht is perfect in every way, but as a... an intimate space for newlyweds, it's like a floating observation tank. Every... awkward silence and stilted conversation between bride and gloom glaringly obvious to each and every one of the 200 crew.
Norton Knatchbull: Did you just say "bride and gloom"?
Prince Charles: Did I? Oh! The irony is, I'm the only person this marriage does make gloomy.

Prince Philip: It's outrageous. She never stops. She never complains. She never puts a foot wrong. She's utterly magnificent, and they print rubbish like this.

Queen Elizabeth II: "Queen Victoria Syndrome"? Yes, I saw that. "An aging monarch, too long on the throne, whose remoteness from the modern world has led people to grow tired not just of her, but of the monarchy itself."

Prince Charles: "Queen Victoria Syndrome." What were your conclusions?
John Major: It's just a poll, sir.
Prince Charles: True. Not a reassuring one.
John Major: Polls come and go.
Prince Charles: Dangerous to ignore them.
John Major: Equally dangerous to be guided by them.

Prince Charles: For almost 60 years, my great-great-grandfather, Edward VII, was kept waiting in the wings. It was said that Queen Victoria had no confidence in him. Thought him dangerous. Free-thinking. He longed to be given responsibilities, but his mother refused. Even forbade him from seeing state papers. And yet, when his time came, he proved his doubters wrong, and his dynamism, his intellect, his popular appeal made his reign a triumph.
John Major: What are you saying, sir?
Prince Charles: I'm saying, what a pity it was. What a waste. That his... voice, his... his presence, his vision wasn't incorporated earlier. It would have been so good. For everybody.

Queen Elizabeth II: What people fail to understand is, I see any similarity with Queen Victoria as a compliment. Attributes people use to describe her, constancy, stability, calm, duty, I would be proud to have describe me.

Queen Elizabeth II: When I came to the throne, all my palaces were inherited. Windsor, Balmoral, Sandringham. They all bear the stamp of my predecessors. Only Britannia have I truly been able to make my own. Perhaps for that reason, the connection between me and the yacht is very much deeper than a mode of transport or even a home. From the design of the hull to the smallest piece of china, she is a floating, seagoing expression of me.

Prince Charles: Sometimes these old things are... They're too costly to keep repairing.

John Major: When you imagine the problems you might be confronted with as prime minister, you imagine... tricky sessions at PMQs. The economy in free fall. Going to war. You never imagine this... The House of Windsor should be binding the nation together. Setting an example of idealized family life. Instead, the senior royals seem dangerously deluded and out of touch. The junior royals, feckless, entitled, and lost. And the Prince of Wales, impatient for a bigger role in public life, fails to appreciate that his one great asset is his wife. It's a situation that can't help but affect the stability of the country. And what makes it worse is, it feels it's all about to erupt. On my watch.

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