Queen Victoria was furious with then Prime Minister Lord Salisbury for his government’s failure to bring Jack the Ripper to justice during his infamous 1888 murder spree.
The revelation comes from TV historian Lucy Worsley, who made the discovery after unearthing a telegram sent by the monarch while she was filming her new BBC series.
The telegram contained Queen Victoria’s admonitions to Lord Salisbury about the inability to resolve the Ripper case, despite his repeated assurances.
While exploring Kensington Palace, the childhood home of Queen Victoria, Worsley found the telegram which read: ‘This new, most gruesome murder shows the absolute necessity of most decisive action.
‘All these courts (the narrow streets of Whitechapel in East London) need to be lit up and our detectives need to be improved. They are not what they should be.”
The TV historian also revealed that the telegram was written in code to prevent others from reading her top secret comments.
The code included a dressing down of the Prime Minister in which the monarch said: ‘You promised that you would consult with your colleagues in the event of the first murder. These things haven’t been done.’
Reflecting on the discovery of the nearly 140-year-old telegram, Worsley shared her excitement and how she felt chills.
TV historian Lucy Worsley (pictured) discovered the telegram Queen Victoria sent to then Prime Minister Lord Salisbury during filming for her new BBC series
A screenshot from the Jack the Ripper episode of Lucy Worsley’s new BBC series
While some may be surprised to see a monarch handle the affairs of the time this way, Worsley says this was not unusual for Queen Victoria.
‘Queen Victoria is putting serious pressure on her Prime Minister to find and capture the murderer. She was shocked by these heinous crimes.
“It’s actually very Queen Victoria to delve into the details of something that’s going on and have a very strong opinion about it,” she said.
Worsley also commented on the Queen’s sense of female solidarity in expressing sympathy for the victims of Jack the Ripper.
The gruesome saga also paved the way for a whole new sect of media, where media outlets fixate on a particular story in an attempt to get readers to obsess over it. The tactic is now even called ‘ripperology’.
More than a century later, the fascination with the case lives on, with the killer still at large, and the way the case was originally handled remains a prototype for crime reporting to this day.
The show, Jack the Ripper: Lucy Worsley Investigates, airs on BBC2 on January 3 at 9pm.