FILM · 2009 · UK
The Young Victoria
22 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (22)
- #001
The dress Victoria wears at her first meeting with her council is a replica of the dress Queen Victoria wore at that meeting. It survived and, as of 26 March 2012, is on display at Kensington Palace as part of the new Victoria Revealed exhibition. It is shown to the public in the Red Saloon (the actual room of her first Privy Council). Its colour has faded to brown because black dye was not stable at the time.
- #002
The construction of the very long green bed cost £25,000. The Duke and Duchess of Rutland, the owners of Belvoir Castle, bought it after filming.
- #003
The scene in which Albert is shot while protecting Queen Victoria from an assassination attempt is based on a real attempt that took place on 10 June 1840. Edward Oxford, an unemployed bartender, fired two pistols at the Queen's carriage as she and Albert rode on Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace. The film, however, contains several significant deviations from the facts. In real life Albert was not injured. The court could never prove that Oxford fired anything but powder from his guns. Oxford was acquitted on grounds of insanity and sent to the criminal lunatic ward of Bethlem Royal Hospital. Neither Victoria nor Albert was ever wounded in another assassination attempt in their lives.
- #004
Each of Emily Blunt's costumes was insured for £10,000.
- #005
Most of the interior scenes were shot at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. The bed used in the honeymoon scene had been slept in by the real Queen Victoria when she visited the castle in 1843. The bedroom was so small that all the cameras had to be placed outside the windows.
- #006
Costume designer Sandy Powell had the opportunity to examine some of the real Queen Victoria's surviving garments kept at Kensington Palace.
- #007
This was Emily Blunt's first leading role.
- #008
This was Emily Blunt's second time playing an English queen: she had played Katherine Howard in Henry VIII (2003).
- #009
In real life Queen Victoria was only about five feet tall. Emily Blunt is 1.70 metres tall, more than a head taller.
- #010
In the film Prince Albert says his favourite composer is Schubert. There is an episode in the film in which Albert leaves and Victoria later calls him back. The piece of the film's score for the section in which he appears is titled Albert Returns and contains music from Schubert's Serenade.
- #011
The 'seaside' scenes were shot at Belvoir Castle, about 70 miles from the sea. The 'sand' is actually on the castle's terrace (the roof of the ground floor). The surrounding Belvoir Vale was digitally replaced with 'seawater'.
- #012
In a letter to Albert, Victoria notes that Buckingham Palace has just been finished and that she will be the first person to live there. Buckingham House was built in the 18th century by the Duke of Buckingham. Queen Victoria's grandfather George III bought it in 1761 as a home for Queen Charlotte. It was renovated and expanded in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- #013
The exterior of 'Buckingham Palace' is actually Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, the birthplace of Winston Churchill in 1874.
- #014
The flexible knitted bonnet Emily Blunt wears in the garden is the same one worn by Rosamund Pike in Pride & Prejudice (2005) when she learns that Mr Bingley has returned to Netherfield, by Catherine Walker in the garden with Catherine in Northanger Abbey (2007), and as an extra in the church in Becoming Jane (2007). Rupert Friend, who plays Prince Albert, was Mr Wickham in Pride & Prejudice.
- #015
The building referred to as Kensington Palace at the beginning of the film is actually Ham House.
- #016
There were a number of men who played important roles in Queen Victoria's life: Conroy, Melbourne, Albert, John Brown and Mohammed Abdul Karim. There is speculation that Melbourne may have filled the void Victoria felt because she lost her father as a baby.
- #017
At about 1 hour 20 minutes, in the scene where Conroy describes to the Duchess what kind of person he could be, two of the paintings in the room are famous paintings of Victoria's early childhood; one with her mother is by the renowned portrait artist William Beechey, and one of her at the age of four is by Stephen Poyntz Denning.
- #018
In both Henry VIII (2003) and The Young Victoria (2009), Emily Blunt plays a member of the British royal family (Catherine Howard and Queen Victoria respectively), while Mark Strong plays a man who had influence over her life (Catherine's uncle the Duke of Norfolk and Victoria's mother's adviser Sir John Conroy), who tries to use and control her to gain power for himself.
- #019
Five actors from the popular series Game of Thrones (2011) appear in this film: Julian Glover (Pycelle), Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis), Josef Altin (Pyp), Tom Brooke (Lothar Frey) and Jim Broadbent (Archmaester Ebrose).
- #020
Both Jim Broadbent and Miranda Richardson appeared in the Harry Potter films.
- #021
Emily Blunt and Michael Maloney also appeared together in the 2003 TV film Henry VIII.
- #022
The author of the novel that Edge of Tomorrow (2014) is based on described Emily Blunt's character as "Queen Bitch"; in this film she plays the future Queen of Great Britain.
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