Melbourne, a wise and kindly father-figure to her in the first years of her reign—her own father, the Duke of Kent, had died when she was an infant. Victoria also mistakenly assumed that Peel wanted to replace all of her ladies—her closest friends and companions at court—when in fact Peel wished to replace only six of the twenty-five ladies, but failed to make his intentions clear to Victoria. Late in life Victoria regretted her youthful intransigence, writing to her private secretary, Arthur Bigge: "I was very young then, and perhaps I should act differently if it was all to be done again." Fictional portrayals The Bedchamber crisis appears in the 1845 novel Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli. The crisis is depicted in the 2009 film The Young Victoria and the 2016 television-drama series Victoria. References 1839 in the United Kingdom 1839 in politics British monarchy Queen Victoria Robert Peel