Factual error: Lord Palmerston was not a young, fashionable, rakish man-about-town at this time. He was actually 64 when the series begins in 1848, eight years older than Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister, depicted as a much older man.
Factual error: The Duke of Wellington submits his resignation as Commander-in-Chief in 1851. In reality, he remained in the post until his death the following year.
Factual error: The Mistress of the Robes throughout series 3 is the fictional Duchess of Monmouth. The real Mistress of the Robes at this time was the Duchess of Sutherland, who was in the first two series.
Factual error: The King of Prussia appears at the Great Exhibition in 1851 with his son the Crown Prince. In fact, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who ruled Prussia from 1840 to 1861, had no children.
Factual error: Henry Cole is addressed as Sir Henry at the opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851. He was actually not knighted until 1875.
Answer: There seems to be some confusion here. The first son born to Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, was also named Albert (later known as King Edward VII), and was born in August 1844. Prince Albert, Sr.'s father, Ernest I of Germany, died the same year his grandson was born, but the timing of his death would have no bearing on when Albert Jr. was conceived and born. Prince Albert, Sr., Victoria's husband and Albert Jr.'s father, died in 1862. (Victoria's husband was always known as Prince Albert, never as "King Albert" which may explain the confusion.)
raywest ★