The present monarch is Queen Victoria, who has reigned the British Empire since June 20, 1837, and East Plate since November 17, 1839. In this capacity, she and other members of the royal family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of the British Empire and East Plate. However, the Queen is the only member of the royal family with any constitutional role according to the East Plate Constitution Act 1858 which granted the colony its own constitution. As the monarch lives predominantly in the United Kingdom and has never been to East Plate or any of the other British colonies, and while several powers are the sovereign's alone, most of the royal governmental and ceremonial duties in East Plate are carried out by the monarch's representative, the Governor of East Plate.

The Crown primarily works as a guarantor of continuous and stable governance and a nonpartisan safeguard against abuse of power, meaning that there are cases where the sovereign or their representative could have the duty to act directly and independently from the British and Eastplatine Cabinet to prevent genuinely unconstitutional acts. The actual need for a such guarantor is the source of many debates among Eastplatine political circles, but the relative stability of East Plate, which has enjoyed more than 40 years of continuous democracy in a continent where civil wars, coup d'etats and political instability are commonplace, is seen by a majority as proof of the Crown's success and is one of the main reasons for the colony's strong sense of loyalty to the British Crown and the Royal Family.

In addition, the monarch, as the embodiment of The Crown, is regarded as the personification of the Eastplatine colony, and as such, along with his or her viceregal representatives, must remain strictly neutral in political terms, although this is not always the case in East Plate, where Governors, despite claiming to be non-partisan, usually favour one faction within parliament, meaning that it is not uncommon for Governors to be replaced following a government change. The monarch is also the employer of all government officials and staff (including viceroys, judges, members of the Armed Constabulary and parliamentarians), the guardian of foster children and owner of all state lands, buildings and equipment, state-owned companies, and the copyright for all government publications. The monarch is also at the apex of the Eastplatine order of precedence and, as the embodiment of the state, is also the focus of oaths of allegiance.

The sovereign is also responsible for rendering justice for all his or her subjects and is thus traditionally deemed the fount of justice. The Royal Coat of Arms as well as a portrait of the sovereign are always displayed in all Eastplatine courtrooms. It is also considered that the sovereign "can do no wrong" as the monarch cannot be prosecuted in his or her own courts (judged by himself or herself) for criminal offences. The monarch does, however, not personally rule in judicial cases, with that royal prerogative being instead performed in trust and in the monarch's name by officers appointed by the sovereign to work on his or her name. Despite this, the royal prerogative of mercy, granting of immunity from prosecution and pardoning offences against the crown are all directly exercised by the sovereign or Governor, typically without needing to follow the advice of the cabinet. This is commonly seen in the actions of Governor Lucas Higgins, who regularly exercises his right to pardon, in the Queen's name, men and women condemned for committing homosexual behaviours (although it is almost certain that the Queen has no direct knowledge of this).

Those concessions have, for the most part, been very well-welcomed by the colony and foreign powers, and are one of the main reasons fomenting British loyalty in East Plate, although particular sectors of society feel that further concessions, especially regarding the Crown, should be given to East Plate. Most precisely, many consider the creation of the title of "Queen of the Orientals," which would be given to Queen Victoria, starting the process of creating a de-facto independent monarchy for East Plate, sharing the same monarch as the British Crown, with its own symbols and traditions. Those in favour of the creation of the title argue that proclaiming Victoria Queen of the Orientals would further strengthen the ties between the colony and the Empire, binding the colony even more to Britain, as well as making the Queen "closer" to the colony and elevating her prestige.

In addition, it is also argued that the title of "Queen of the Orientals" would better represent the reality of the colony, as it would do a better job at including the Hispanic population living in East Plate, as the term "Oriental" has been used for centuries to describe the people living in the territories of East Plate under the different governments of Spain, Portugal, Brazil and the Oriental Republic, meaning that the Hispanic population could feel much more represented than with the mostly English term "Eastplatine" or "East Plate," reassuring them their rights as British subjects.

A formal proposal was made to the Parliament of East Plate in 1862, and even went as far as being considered in Britain itself. However, it never materialised despite significant support in East Plate, as the response in Britain was mostly unfavourable to the idea, with many arguing it would indirectly elevate East Plate above the rest of the British colonies which would not have a similar title granted to them, and that it would even potentially start the process of elevating East Plate to an equal position to that of Britain itself, something that was simply not going to be tolerated. Some even opposed the proposal saying that it was the result of "Eastplatine rebelliousness to British rule" and an act of "Eastplatine defiance," despite its proponents repeatedly assuring that the idea was the product of the contrary: Eastplatine loyalty and admiration to the Queen. The patriation attempts were nevertheless not opposed by everyone, including Queen Victoria herself, who reportedly said that she felt sympathetic to the Eastplatine cause, although it was most likely due to the Queen seeing that her influence was on the decline all across the British Empire, and believing that a new title could help to boost her influence over East Plate.

The patriation attempts were briefly rekindled in 1876 when the title of Empress of India was given to Victoria with the Royal Titles Act 1876, but once again failed to gain traction as the matter was eclipsed by the Indian title and the celebrations and preparations related to the ascension of the Empress during the Imperial Durbar of 1877.

She was raised under the Kensington System, an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by Victoria's mother and her comptroller Sir John Conroy, designed to render Victoria weak and dependent upon them. The system, among other things, prevented Victoria from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable, and isolated her from most other children of her age, making her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel named Dash her closest companions during play hours. Nonetheless, the system failed to succeed, as Victoria grew to resent Conroy and refused to appoint him to any important role within her court. In addition, despite being a constitutional monarch, Victoria proved to be strong, attempting to influence government policy and ministerial appointments several times.

By 1836, Victoria's maternal uncle Leopold, who had been the king of the Belgians since 1831, arranged for the 17-year-old Victoria to meet with Prince Albert, the son of his brother Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, with the intention of marrying the Prince to the future Queen. No formal engagement was reached despite Victoria's firm interest in Albert, but it was assumed that the match would take place in due time.

Victoria turned 18 on 24 May 1837, and less than a month later, on 20 June 1837, William IV died at the age of 71, which meant that Victoria had become Queen of the United Kingdom, narrowly avoiding a regency. At the moment of Victoria's accession, the government was led by the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne, who became a powerful influence on the politically inexperienced monarch. It is believed that Victoria saw him as a father figure, while Melbourne was "passionately fond of her as he might be of his daughter if he had one." At the start of her reign, she was very popular, but her reputation suffered in an 1839 court intrigue when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, developed an abdominal growth that was widely rumoured to be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by John Conroy. Victoria believed the rumours, and as she hated Conroy, she came to despise Lady Flora. Victoria ordered Lady Flora to undergo an intimate medical examination to determine if she was pregnant. When she undertook the examination, it was found that she was a virgin. Lady Flora died in July, and the post-mortem revealed that the abdominal growth was caused by a large tumour on her liver. Victoria came under heavy public criticism for her actions, and was even hissed at and jeered by people on the streets.

At around the same time, the Oriental Republic was annexed to the British Empire after the initial opposition of Lord Melbourne, who had also influenced the Queen to oppose the annexation of the young South American republic. Despite Victoria never making any public statement regarding the creation of the Crown Colony of East Plate, rumours quickly reached the colony about Victoria's apparent displeasure with the annexation, and together with the rumours regarding Lady Flora, the reputation of the British monarch was heavily tarnished in Eastplatine territories, to the point that it looked extremely unlikely for the colony to ever accept her rule. Her reputation was further damaged when Melbourne resigned and Robert Peel, a Tory (which Victoria detested) was commissioned to form a new ministry. At the time, it was customary for the prime minister to appoint members of the Royal Household, who were usually his political allies and their spouses. Many of the Queen's ladies of the bedchamber were wives of Whigs, and Peel expected to replace them with wives of Tories. This led to the "bedchamber crisis", where Victoria, advised by Melbourne, objected to the removal of her ladies of the bedchamber, resulting in Peel refusing to govern, and consequently, resigning his commission, allowing Melbourne to return to office. After this incident, she became known in most of East Plate as "Ms. Melbourne."

Victoria remained largely unpopular in East Plate until she proposed to Prince Albert on 15 October 1839. They were married on 10 February 1840 in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace, London. Victoria was truly in love with Albert, with her writing: "his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His sweetness and gentleness - really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a husband!." Albert became an important political advisor as well as the Queen's companion, replacing Melbourne as the dominant influential figure in the first half of her life, slowly restoring Victoria's popularity in East Plate thanks to her "fairytale marriage" with Albert, which sparkled interest and admiration in the colony. Albert's progressive and innovative way of thinking also ignited admiration in East Plate, further boosting the Queen's image. After Queen Victoria and Albert's wedding, most Eastplatine weddings started to feature brides wearing white dresses similar to Victoria's, especially among the English aristocratic families, which were soon copied by the rest of the Eastplatine society, leaving a long-lasting influence on Eastplatine weddings for years to come.

An engraving showing Victoria and Vicky

The Queen's unsympathetic view of pregnancy was met with apathy by the government of East Plate, which sought to censor any mention of the Queen's displeasure with being pregnant in newspapers, as her negative view of pregnancy was considered to be contrary to the interests of the colony due to its underpopulation and the then ongoing efforts to anglicise the colony by boosting the numbers of English-speaking settlers. It was believed that if the commoners saw her Queen opposing being pregnant, or even showing displeasure about it, people would not be interested in having large families, slowing the colony's development and transition from a Hispanic colony to a full English one.

In response, the government of East Plate promoted the publication of engravings and sketches of the Queen (some made by herself and leaked to the Eastplatine government by a journalist, and others completely false and made up by local artists) performing motherly activities like bathing her children, feeding them, or playing with them. This, together with the Queen's love story with Albert, had the involuntary effect of seriously boosting the Queen's popularity in the colony, as people began to see her as "more human" and could feel empathy with her despite not personally knowing who she was. However, upon finding out about the publications, the Queen was reportedly furious, going as far as saying that the engravings were "the most hideous things" and ordered to censor them. The Eastplatine government, seeing the success of the sketches, caved to the Queen's demands and stopped promoting its publication, but not without first publicly "disposing" of around 100 other engravings and sketches in Montevideo's main square, which were quickly recovered by local printers who continued to make copies of them.

In 1845 Ireland was hit by a potato blight, leading to a famine in which, over the course of the next four years, over a million Irish people died, with another million emigrating to the Americas. While the Queen became known as "The Famine Queen," the government of East Plate defied the Imperial Government by granting loans and subsidies for Irish people to migrate to East Plate, despite the latter's opposition as the Whig government in London pursued a laissez-faire economic doctrine. Despite the Eastplatine government portraying itself as a "defender of the Irish people" and claiming that it was acting following "basic human principles to protect those in need," it is clear that it was acting on behalf of its own interests to populate the colony and extend its workforce, as well as diminishing the Hispanic original population influence over the colony by drowning it with new settlers. It is estimated that around 100.000 Irish people came to East Plate from 1845 to 1849 compelled by the Eastplatine promises of abundant food and extensive religious tolerance, forever changing the demographics of the colony and its culture. The strained relations caused by the famine between many of the new Irish migrants and the British government also temporarily boosted Eastplatine nationalism and republicanism, with the Queen finding herself at the centre of a new wave of public outrage and unpopularity due to her government's apparent lack of interest for the Irish.

In 1848, Victoria gave birth to her sixth child, Louise, with the aid of a new anaesthetic: chloroform. She was so impressed by the relief it gave from the pain of childbirth that she used it again in 1853 at the birth of her eighth child, Leopold, and in 1857 at the birth of her ninth and final child, Beatrice, despite opposition from members of the clergy, who considered it against biblical teaching, and members of the medical profession, who thought it dangerous. Meanwhile, news of this reached East Plate, inspiring the newly created Philanthropic Society of Oriental Dames to push to include chloroform as a treatment of pain relief for mothers in various hospitals of the colony, arguing that "if the Queen uses Chloroform, it must be safe." The push ended with the Metropolitan Convalescent Hospital (later renamed to the Princess Louise Hospital in 1874 in honour of Victoria's daughter), operated and funded by the organisation, being the first hospital in the colony to offer chloroform to mothers during childbirth.

Also during 1857, East Plate was hit by the worst Yellow Fever epidemic in its history, killing as many as 8.000 people in just a few weeks in Montevideo. The Queen sent her condolences to the people of Montevideo and reportedly made a personal donation of £500 to Eastplatine hospitals and charitable organisations, which earned the Queen the sympathy of many in the colony.

After returning from the visit, Albert was very unwell and diagnosed with typhoid fever by William Jenner. He died on 14 December 1861, just two weeks after the visit. Victoria was undoubtedly devastated. At first, she regarded her son with distaste as frivolous, indiscreet and irresponsible, and held him responsible for the death of Albert due to his worries over the Prince of Wales' philandering, even writing that he had been "killed by that dreadful business." She later wrote to her eldest daughter, Vicky, which by now was married to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and had given birth to Wilhelm (second in line to the German Empire's throne): "I never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder" referencing to the Prince of Wales.

Engraving of John Brown

In March 1864, a protester stuck a notice on the railings of Buckingham Palace that announced "these commanding premises to be let or sold in consequence of the late occupant's declining business," sparkling furore in Eastplatine press, with various engravings and drawings being made about the supposed protester, ridiculing the Queen and the monarchy. Victoria was starting to be seen as a weak monarch by the Eastplatines, especially by the Irish migrants, and some even started wondering if East Plate even needed a monarch, with many claiming that "a President was all they need." However, the popularity of Victoria started to improve when The Southern Star, a newspaper known to be, in general, supportive of the monarchy, started to run stories romanticising Victoria's sadness for Albert, claiming that it was proof of Victoria's deep devotion to her husband, and showed that the Queen was just as human as any other Eastplatine. The newspaper often tried to portray Victoria as a loving and caring wife, and a role model for all Eastplatine women.

After the death of Albert, Victoria became increasingly dependent on another man: the Scot John Brown, which was an outdoor servant (or gillie) at Balmoral and a personal friend to Prince Albert. He is immensely appreciated by many, including the Queen, for his competence and companionship, but also resented by others, especially the Queen's children, ministers and palace staff, for his influence over the Queen and his informal manner. John Brown became a friend and supported the Queen deeply after the passing of Albert. Victoria is known to give him many gifts as well as creating two medals for him, the Faithful Servant Medal and the Devoted Service Medal. Brown is the person with whom Victoria spends the most time, and he attends her whenever she needs him. He became some sort of "walking encyclopedia" of Queen Victoria's likes and dislikes, and truly devotes his life to her. While Albert still had his own agenda while alive, John Brown made the Queen his sole agenda, from dawn to dusk.

The Queen's closeness to John Brown quickly raised suspicions, and rumours started to circulate that there was something improper in their relationship, especially in Eastplatine newspapers. Victoria herself dismissed the chatter as "ill-natured gossip in the higher classes," but that did not kill the rumours, and instead fueled them even more, as many started to question why the Queen was paying attention to the rumours, when she normally ignored any other gossip which involved her and rarely made her opinions public. By 1867, Eastplatine press was openly talking about a "secret marriage" between the two, and many referred to the Queen as "Mrs. Brown." In a way, it is said that Brown released Victoria from Albert: he released her inner capacity for hedonism and fun, finding freedom in her friendship with Brown. She went as far as writing "It is a real comfort, for Brown is devoted to me. So simple, so intelligent and so unlike an ordinary servant!."

In 1868, Queen Victoria made public extracts of her private diaries, publishing "Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands" which sold hundreds of copies in East Plate, becoming a great success. This was the first time a British Monarch ever published a book, and portrayed a Queen Victoria deeply at odds with the construction of a "whipping monarch" built around her and her mourning of Albert. Victoria's book sparked great interest in Highlander culture in East Plate, but what really caught the attention of the colony (and most British subjects around the world) was Victoria's adoration of John Brown, as portrayed in the book.

Engraving of Arthur O'Connor being apprehended
by John Brown and another man.

John Brown is also known to have saved Victoria's life several times, with newspapers often making extensive reports about the incidents. Most of these events are related to accidents while riding carriages, but he has also frustrated an assassination attempt on the Queen in 1872 when a 17-year-old teenager named Arthur O'Connor climbed the fence of Buckingham Palace and sprinted across the courtyard without detection. When the Queen's carriage returned to the palace after a ride at Hyde and Regent's Park, O'Connor rushed up to its side, rising a flintlock pistol mere centimetres away from the Queen. John Brown sized the teenager by the neck and tackled him to the ground as the Queen was rushed to safety. O'Connor was sentenced to a year in prison and 20 strokes with a birch rod, and was eventually exiled to East Plate where he lived in a small village in the North Blackwater Territory.

Another popular rumour started when Brown was rumoured to have started a romance with Lady O'Claire, something that many in the Royal Household were happy to learn as it could mean that he would marry her, removing Brown from the Queen's side. However, to the surprise of many, O'Claire married another man in 1873, with many people claiming that Queen Victoria herself arranged the marriage to get her away from Brown.

He stayed in East Plate for three whole months, visiting several places and performing various ceremonial duties around the colony, gathering large crowds of people wherever he went, with immense portraits of the Prince adorning many of the buildings of each city he visited. While in Montevideo, he opened the newly built Alfred Hall, named in his honour, and laid the foundation stone for a new railway station in Queen's Wells. He then visited Clarence, where he was received by a display of fireworks and later invited to attend a bullfight in the city's newly opened bullring, an activity which he found "barbaric but exotic." He also planted trees in Prince's Square and laid the foundation stone of St John's Cathedral. Alfred's tour of East Plate continued with visits to Port Lewis and Peaceheaven, where he toured the Liebig Extract of Meat industrial plant and tasted East Plate's famous meat extract which he jokingly found "slightly less appalling than drinking the broth of a boiled shoe." He also visited the city of Alberton, named in honour of his father, Prince Albert, where he participated in the establishment of a College of Music, due to his fondness for music.

On 6 August 1867, with the motive of his birthday, he visited the small city of Presbury where a public ball was held in the Prince's honour, followed by an official ceremony to rename the city to Alfredton. He also laid the foundation stone for a new town hall for the city. During his stay in the city he was approached by a little boy who gifted him an Eastplatine Monk parakeet, which he kept as a pet. Allegedly, like many other parakeets, it was able to pronounce some vocabulary, routinely repeating the words "the Prince," "Alfred," and "Affie," with the Prince declaring that the parakeet was "the most curious and intriguing animal."

He departed East Plate in September 1867, with hundreds of Eastplatines waving him off from the Port of Montevideo as he sailed towards Australia to continue with his world tour aboard HMS Galatea. His arrival to Australia was also marked by enthusiasm and happiness as it was also the first time a member of the royal family visited Australia. However, the visit was not nearly as successful and peaceful as the Eastplatine one, as a failure and tragedy quickly became common during his tour, including an assassination attempt in March 1868, which prompted the Prince to say "the Australian people are certainly very hospitable and kind, but I wish I never had left East Plate."

Queen Victoria never accepted any of the invitations, sending instead other representatives of the British Empire to act on her behalf, as she felt that she could not leave Britain for long periods of time. Transatlantic travel is an arduous journey, taking three weeks or longer, even if the weather is favourable. However, when the 1870 invitation reached Buckingham Palace, the general feeling was that the Queen could not simply refuse the invitation as she had previously done, as East Plate had not only developed to be a successful and loyal British colony, but also proved to be an excellent host after Prince Alfred's visit in 1867. In addition, Eastplatine newspapers were constantly producing gossip and rumours about the Queen's possible romance with John Brown, and there was risk that the image of the Crown could be seriously damaged by another refusal. It was feared that a mere representative on her behalf would simply not suffice, unless the representative was another high-ranking royal, and thus, the Queen accepted the invitation on behalf of her son, Prince Albert Edward (Bertie), heir to the throne, just as she had done in 1860 when she was invited to Canada to open the Victoria Bridge.

Until this moment, heirs to the British throne had only visited Canada, and the visit of Prince Albert Edward was seen as an important acknowledgement of the colony's growth and importance to the Empire. On August 10, 1870, the Prince of Wales, his wife Alexandra of Denmark, and his retinue left from Plymouth, England. On the morning of September 7, the prince stepped ashore in Montevideo to deafening cheers from thousands of spectators who had spent the night carousing and setting off fireworks. Despite a sudden rainstorm, about which the Prince later commented "East Plate received me just like Britain would, with rain," the cheers continued as the prince processed in an open carriage through the ceremonial arches erected across the streets, hung with patriotic banners, flags and bunting. In preparation to the Prince's arrival, the colonial government took special care to disguise every shanty and shabby building in Montevideo with evergreen trees and flowers, to prevent the Prince from seeing anything deemed undesirable.

On the very same afternoon of his arrival, the Prince laid the final stone of St. Patrick's Hospital, and two days later he attended what was billed as "the largest ball ever held on South America," hosted in an elegant wooden pavilion constructed at the foot of Montevideo Hill. Surrounded by gardens lit by twinkling lanterns, the hall featured refreshment tables with fountains of champagne encircling a gigantic dance floor on which the prince reportedly danced tirelessly until 5 a.m. The next night, more than 5.000 citizens dressed in their finest gathered in the ballroom for a gala concert that included music specially written in the prince's honour. The following day, he took part in a military review and went aboard HMS Vanguard, the newest ironclad of the Eastplatine Colonial Navy, which took him to his second destination, Port Williams, in the province of New Oldenburg, as the ballroom complex began to be dismantled, with a statue of Bertie being erected nearby.

The arrival of the Prince to Port Williams

The prince then undertook a tour of many eastern towns in New Oldenburg that lasted for around a week, and finalised with him opening an agricultural exhibition at Swindon's "Crystal Palace," which was designed to look similar to the Crystal Palace erected to host the great exhibition of 1851, organised by Bertie's father, Prince Albert, and Henry Cole. The next day, he took a special express train to Clarence, with huge crowds gathering at all the stations that the train passed by. The train made a brief stop at the town of Hythe, where he had lunch with Stewart Douglas, the Colonial Secretary, at Bardale Castle, which, according to Bertie "resembled an English country house more than a castle." Once he arrived in Clarence, he was received with a huge public banquet, followed by a ball, which was attended by so many people that the floor collapsed and had to be repaired. This caused no injuries but delayed the dancing till midnight.

The tour ended on November 23 in Port Lewis, where crowds in the harbour cheered and waved handkerchiefs as the prince was ferried out to the ship that would send him home. By any measure, the visit of Prince Albert Edward had been an astonishing success. Eastplatine, and even Argentine, Paraguayan and Brazilian newspapers rang with praise for the prince, who with his charm, good humour and spirited dancing showed a new face of royalty to South America: one of youth, happiness and celebration, opposed to the sad, dark and rather miserable face of Victoria and her never-ending mourning of Prince Albert. According to The Southern Star, the visit of the prince had "called the attention of the civilised world to East Plate, proving that the British Royal Family was immensely popular everywhere, deserving the highest praise."

However, not all newspapers were as supportive as The Southern Star, with some running stories about supposed encounters of the prince with various women while in East Plate, further popularising the image of the Prince as a "playboy prince." In particular, Eastplatine press took a special interest in Clementine Douglas, the second daughter of Steward Douglas, who was found to be pregnant and gave birth to a bastard in 1871. The fact that the unmarried daughter of an Eastplatine Colonial Secretary had given birth to a child was in itself a great scandal, but when The Montevideo Times published a story that claimed that one of the servants at Bardale Castle had seen Bertie and Clementine entering into a bedroom alone, rumours that the Prince of Wales had impregnated Clementine were unstoppable, and when the same newspaper claimed that Buckingham Palace regularly sent cheques to Bardale (allegedly to support Bertie's lovechild) the rumours became truth in the minds of the Eastplatines, who nicknamed Clementine "the Princess of Bardale." Clementine's reputation was so tarnished by these rumours that, despite his father's efforts to marry her to various men, she died unmarried when she took her own life by jumping from a bridge in Montevideo in 1873. Her suicide was seen as nothing but a de-facto confirmation by the press, who now rumoured that Bertie wrote a letter of condolence to the ex-Colonial Secretary of East Plate.

The suicide of Clementine Douglas