Beyond the Veil: Queen Victoria’s Secret Fascination with the Paranormal

Though most biographers frame Victoria’s interest in spiritualism as a symptom of grief following Prince Albert’s death in 1861, there are compelling signs that her fascination with the spirit world predates that tragedy.

In November of 1839, a young Queen Victoria reportedly asked her then-fiancé, Prince Albert, whether he believed in spirits. His answer—"I rather do believe in them"—was perhaps more than polite agreement. It may have been the beginning of a shared interest that later grew in private.

Victoria often brought up supernatural topics in conversation, particularly with Lord Melbourne and members of her household. For a sovereign also serving as head of the Church of England, such interests straddled a theological fault line.

Christianity held little patience for necromancy or the occult, and Victoria’s private inquiries into the paranormal stood in tension with her public duties.

Small wonder, then, that much of the evidence for her spiritual explorations would later be suppressed—or destroyed.

One of the earliest documented episodes linking Victoria to the world of psychics occurred in July of 1846.

At Osborne House, the Queen entertained a young clairvoyant named Georgiana Eagle, dubbed "The Mysterious Lady." Only 11 years old at the time, Georgiana demonstrated psychic abilities that astonished the small audience—Victoria and Albert included.

While court records remain silent on the incident, a fascinating piece of corroboration survives: a gold watch believed to have been gifted by the Queen herself. The inscription reads: "Presented by Her Majesty to Miss Georgiana Eagle for her Meritorious and Extraordinary clairvoyance produced at Osborn House, Isle of Wight, July 15th, 1846.”

Although the word "Osborne" is misspelled, the inscription is consistent with other royal gifts made to children and young performers. The watch passed through notable hands, including spiritualist journalist W.T. Stead and famed medium Etta Wriedt, before being stolen in the 1960s and later recovered by the College of Psychic Studies in London.

Victoria’s interest didn’t remain idle. At Osborne House, a peculiar room known as the Horn Room became associated with spiritual activity.

Furnished almost entirely from antlers collected by Victoria and Albert during their Scottish hunts, the room was secluded and atmospheric—an ideal location for private séances.

Though no official log of these gatherings survives, multiple accounts suggest the Queen used the Horn Room for clandestine communication with the dead. Whether as participant or observer, her presence in these gatherings marks a sharp contrast to her public image of pious sobriety.

The death of Prince Albert in 1861 devastated the Queen, plunging her into a mourning that reshaped her reign. In this psychological landscape of grief and yearning, a 13-year-old medium named Robert James Lees emerged.

Lees, born in Leicestershire in 1849, reportedly had his first clairvoyant experience at age three. By adolescence, he was delivering spirit messages to captivated audiences.

Following Albert’s death, one such séance in Birmingham purportedly featured the voice of the late prince speaking through Lees. A transcript made its way to the Queen, and her interest was piqued.

Testing the boy’s authenticity, Victoria sent two trusted confidants—disguised—to attend a séance. They returned stunned: Lees, they claimed, knew their true identities and conveyed intimate messages from Albert no outsider could have known.

Shortly thereafter, the Queen invited Lees to Buckingham Palace.

Though the specifics of his palace visits remain murky, reports suggest Lees conducted multiple séances for the monarch. After the final session, Victoria offered to retain him as a resident court medium.

Remarkably, Lees declined, allegedly following the advice of a spirit guide. He instead recommended another intermediary—John Brown.

Known to history as Queen Victoria’s fiercely loyal Highland servant, John Brown’s bond with the monarch has long intrigued historians. Theories about a romantic relationship abound, but some researchers suggest something more metaphysical bound them together.

According to spiritualist author J.H. Brennan, Brown acted as a medium for Prince Albert, passing messages from beyond. Brennan writes, "Mediums would visit Buckingham Palace and hold séances… but John Brown became her conduit to Albert.”

While the Queen’s journals were heavily edited and censored after her death, references to Brown often escaped the red pen, hinting at an unorthodox intimacy that confounded courtiers and amused satirists.

To Victoria, however, Brown may have been more than a friend or servant—he may have been her spiritual lifeline. Upon his death in 1883, she called him her "only true friend."

After Victoria’s death in 1901, her family moved swiftly to curate her legacy. Documents referencing séances, spiritualist correspondence, and private conversations were culled from her diaries and letters.

Dr. Julia Baird, author of Victoria the Queen, lamented the extent of this purge: “The kinds of document bonfire-burning that can make a historian weep.”

Much of what we know today survives through alternative archives and third-party accounts. Letters between mediums, articles in The Spiritualist and Light, and objects like the Georgiana Eagle watch provide fragmentary but persuasive evidence.

Victoria’s interest in the supernatural wasn’t limited to séances. During a visit to Crathes Castle in Scotland, she reportedly encountered a ghostly figure known as the Green Lady.

According to local lore and royal accounts, Victoria saw a green mist floating across a room, scooping up a small spectral child before vanishing into a fireplace.

Legend holds that the Green Lady was a servant girl who became pregnant out of wedlock and vanished. Her body—and that of her child—was later discovered hidden beneath the hearth.

Victoria’s alleged encounter echoes similar stories of the Queen being unusually receptive to paranormal presences.

Queen Victoria’s fascination did not occur in a vacuum. The Victorian era was awash in spiritualist enthusiasm.

Following American medium Maria B. Hayden’s visit to London in 1852, séances became a cultural phenomenon. Writers like Charles Dickens and Alfred Tennyson dabbled in table-rapping, and spiritualist churches sprang up in urban and rural settings alike.

High mortality rates, particularly among children, drove many to seek solace in the idea of afterlife communication. Spiritualism, with its promise of continued connection, offered emotional relief that traditional religion sometimes could not.

Queen Victoria remains a towering figure of history—a woman of contradiction, conviction, and enduring curiosity.

Though remembered for her moral restraint and imperial certainty, the evidence suggests a parallel legacy: that of a woman drawn to the mysteries of life after death.

Through séances in shadowed rooms, whispered messages from mediums, and encounters with wandering spirits, Victoria’s relationship with the paranormal reveals a complex private life concealed behind monarchical rigidity.

In seeking comfort through spiritualism, she joined countless Victorians who longed for connection beyond the veil.