The Queen, The Woman of No Importance, and The Press: A Nexus in Moral Policing.

Over the long nineteenth century, technological changes, coalescing economic, political and religious interests, and small-scale informal social processes underpinned Queen Victoria's reach into the lives of women in court circles. Any gossip concerning a womans reputation resulted in her exclusion from court social circles, with press reactions ranging from an absence of further news about the olfender to a titillating scandal that reinforced prevailing social norms and boosted sales. This discussion reviews the circumstances of three women who fell into this category, with a particular focus on the least visible of them in terms of history: the commoner who became Mary, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]