Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a plan to use their nine children to unite Europe’s various monarchies into one big, happy family. Unfortunately for those royal houses, Queen Victoria herself appears to have spontaneously developed a gene mutation for the inherited clotting disorder hemophilia. With son Leopold affected, and two of her daughters as…
Tag: Queen Victoria
29. Prince Albert Victor of England
Before he was King Edward VII, Queen Victoria’s son “Dirty Bertie” lived a few different lives. There was his endless womanizing and brothel-patronizing, which prompted that nickname, as well as “Edward the Caresser.” But after a particular romantic scandal that Queen Victoria blamed for his father’s death, Bertie married and fulfilled his duties to the…
28. Young Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany
As we continue looking at the lives and times of Queen Victoria’s children and grandchildren, we’re going to keep bumping into people who changed the course of human history, often for the worse. But when it comes to Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria’s first grandchild, events beginning with his breech birth lend a bit…
26. Queen Victoria’s Nine Children
In her first decade and a half on the throne, Queen Victoria was pregnant for more than 40% of it. This was an irony, as she herself disliked the condition of pregnancy, and was no fan of small children, either. And yet, her lusty romance with her husband ultimately produced nine children, and a new…
23. Victoria and Albert’s True Romance and Unusual Victorian Pastimes
We tend to think of Queen Victoria attired in black, with a dour countenance, but as a young queen she was anything but. Her marriage to Prince Albert was the rare love match, and according to her surviving letters and journal entries, the two enjoyed a vibrant intimacy, albeit in an era where birth control…
22. A Scandalous Beginning: Sir John Conroy, Lord Melbourne, and the Lady Flora Hastings Affair
Queen Victoria was just 18 when she assumed the throne in the United Kingdom in 1837. She ruled for more than 63 years and is considered truly one of the great monarchs in history, but her reign did not start without a few hiccups. Looking at her first two years on the throne or so,…
21. Young Princess Victoria and the Kensington System
We tend to think of royal upbringings as fairly entitled, but for the future Queen Victoria, her childhood was more like a hostage situation. After her father’s death when she was just an infant, her mother and (maybe) her mother’s lover went to great lengths to control every aspect of her life. Young Victoria was…
17. Queen Victoria’s Trashy Hanoverian Uncles
It’s almost a historical accident that England’s Queen Victoria, granddaughter of King George III, was born at all. Her father, George III’s fourth son, shared his many brothers’ predilection for the freedom of a bachelor’s life, so when the heir apparent of the next generation, Princess Charlotte, died in childbirth, the princes of England found…