Great Scandals of the VictoriansDebbie BlakeLabel: Pen & Sword HistoryDescription: Great Scandals of the Victorians features a collection of true stories that shocked outraged angered or simply amused the Victorians in nineteenth-century Britain. Drawing on a wide variety of original material seven disreputable stories that dominated the national newspapers for many weeks are explored including the Great Warwickshire Scandal a highly publicized divorce case where for the first time in history a Prince of Wales was called to give evidence in court; a ‘baby’ scandal that disrupted Queen Victoria’s court and threatened the monarchy; the sex scandals of the Abode of Love a mysterious religious cult founded by a defrocked clergyman Henry James Prince and the sensational trial of Fanny and Stella two outrageous cross-dressers accused of sodomy.Some scandals though traumatic for the people involved produced a positive outcome such as the scandalous custody battle between Caroline Norton and her husband which led to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act granting mothers custody of their children following a divorce and the case of 13-year-old Eliza Armstrong sold to a brothel keeper for £5 which caused a major scandal and public outrage but also led to a change in the law raising the age of consent from 13 to 16 years.
