Duchess of Kent

The Duchess of Kent is Victoria's mother, a woman used to controlling her daughter's every hour under the strict Kensington regime. As Victoria ascends to the throne, the Duchess still expects deference and closeness, unable to accept that the girl she raised now outranks and increasingly resists her.

Catherine Flemming plays her less as a villain than as a mother genuinely baffled by her own irrelevance, which makes the tension sharper than simple hostility would. The show uses her to dramatize how power upends family hierarchy overnight, and Flemming lets wounded pride show through the formality.