The young queen Victoria wasn't plain, but neither was she pretty. Had she not been The Queen she would probably not have been the dream object of some lovesick English citizens, as she might very well have been passed over as an insignificant woman. However, when she escaped from the strict rules of her mother, The Duchess of Kent, and her attendant/lover, Sir John Conroy, to become The Queen (1837) instead of the bullied dumpling she was before that event she still held a severe grudge against the people who had helped them in their efforts to keep her within the so-called "Kensington System" which she loathed.
The Duchess of Kent and a very young Victoria
The pair of them took an interest in every nook of the life of the young girl, which makes it understandable that the first thing she asked for when she was told that now she was The Queen was to be alone: No more sleeping in the room of her mother, and no more obedience to Sir John Conroy whom she detested. Presumably The Queen didn't forget or forgive easily, but the target she chose for her revenge wasn't her mother, but one of her ladies-in-waiting: Lady Flora Elizabeth Rawdon-Hastings (1806-1839).
Having been a helper of The Duchess of Kent and her associate, Sir John Conroy, Lady Flora may have seemed to be the perfect target for a revenge, and Victoria chose her weapons with great care. She let it be known that she found it strange that an unmarried woman like Lady Flora had such a big underbelly as she did. Thus implying that Lady Flora had forgotten the rules of unmarried women as to chastity and that she must be pregnant, she succeeded in implying that the close friend/lover of her mother may have seduced her. Poor Lady Flora at first refused to have a medical inspection, but only for a while, as the suspicions that were instituted by none less than The Queen herself were considered very grave in nature: She had to give in to undergo an examination.
And what was the conclusion of this humiliating examination? Well, there was no baby, no clandestine affair with the detested associate/lover of The Duchess of Kent, but a tumor of the liver that killed Lady Flora in 1839. At that time, Queen Victoria had lost her popularity with her otherwise loving and supporting people because they sided with the poor, sick Lady Flora.
As to The Queen, she regained her popularity after marrying her cousin, Prince Albert - who was the nephew of her mother - and giving birth to 9 children even though she didn't like being pregnant. I wonder whether she sometimes thought of Lady Flora and her non-existing "pregnancy" or whether she chose to forget all about it. Maybe she even read the poetry of Lady Flora?
https://www.youngqueenvictoria.co.uk/queenvictoriarevivalthe-lady-flora-hastings-scandal
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lady-Flora-Hastings
Wikipedia
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