'Victoria' Season 2 Episode 6 Spoilers: The Queen Turns Her Back on Ireland
The sixth episode of "Victoria" season 2 will show how the Queen reacted to the historic famine in Ireland and show that being a royal does not mean having all the power.
Between 1845 and 1859, Ireland underwent the so-call Great Famine, a period of mass starvation and disease. It was a time when a third of the country's population was dependent on potato, which made it very difficult for them when the crop hit a deadly famine — causing the lives of at least a million Irish.
At that time, Queen Victoria was known as the monarch who turned her back on Ireland, despite knowing their situation. Most believe that the royal did not give any care at all about the Irish's doomed fate.
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The upcoming episode, titled "Faith, Hope & Charity," hopes to show that the young Victoria (Jenna Coleman) struggled to help them out, but was proven powerless by the people around her.
Horrified by the deaths sweeping Ireland, Victoria will try to persuade the government to send help. However, the cynical Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel (Nigel Lindsay) was more concerned about the votes he might lose if they share their wealth to help save lives in Ireland.
Victoria also would not be able to get help from Prince Albert (Tom Hughes). He was always known in the series as the man who had an opinion about everything, but this was one issue he refused to take part in. He chooses instead to keep busy on the re-design of Westminster's drainage system.
With Britain already a constitutional monarchy at that time, Queen Victoria is powerless against all the government officials who are blocking her attempts to help Ireland.
To make it worse, Sir Charles Trevelyan (Edward Bennett), who is in charge of administering the little relief efforts the country was willing to give, believes that the mass starvation brought by the famine could be the best way to curb Ireland's overpopulation, which means he is also not very concerned about it.
"Victoria" season 2 episode 6 airs Sunday, Feb. 18, 9 p.m. EDT on PBS.
