I may call you Jane, but you must not call me Victoria!” (Erickson, P.11) Usually she had only the company of the Conroy girls, Jane and Victoire, and she had come to hate their father because they never became her friends. Once Victoria had come to realize her own significance and her destiny, it would not be too difficult for even a child to see through Conroy’s deceptions. It has often been affirmed that she never knew for years that she would one day be Queen, and did not understand why men stared at her in the park, sweeping off their hats and bowing. “If so, there could well be a good deal of truth in the oft-told story of Lehzen's slipping a family tree of the royal dynasty into the child's history book in 1830: when Victoria realized the significance of her own place in the royal family, she pondered “I am nearer to the throne than I thought.” Then she said the memorable words, “I will be good.” (British Heritage, P.5, 1998) As assumed heir to William IV from 1830, Victoria became an important personage in the Kingdom. Her mother (that is, Conroy) was careful to keep the Princess's name totally disassociated from that of the King; while William IV was reviled throughout the nation for his opposition to the Parliamentary Reform Bill of 1832, the Duchess, via Conroy, courted the Radical and Whig politicians of the Opposition. While stones were thrown at the royal carriage in London streets, Victoire and Victoria were everywhere cheered as they made a summer "progress" through the provinces. As these journeys continued, every summer, the King became increasingly resentful. In petty spite, he forbade the firing of gun salutes at the appearances of his niece and her mother. “The future Queen instituted the great disciplined life-work of her journals, in which, for the first time, a British monarch recorded conversations, impressions and feelings to the eternal benefit of her biographers...
