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Day 17 - Queen Victoria
Mar. 17th, 2018 07:08 pmQueen Victoria
Other than living a very long time and being the only heir to the throne, I did not see a great deal that she did - she was a monarch with little actual governing power, she didn’t like being pregnant nor caring for babies, she hid in her palace for 40 years after Albert died and most of her children married their first cousins, just as she did. Sounds more like a hillbilly bio than a queen.
Okay, let me start again. Her mother had kept her isolated as a child and she often said her childhood was dismal. Queen Victoria came to the throne when her Uncle William died at 71. She was 18. She wrote in her diary: "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen."
Her first cousin Albert was sent to meet her and she fell in love with him, proposed and married him, making him Prince Consort. They had 9 children before he died at 42. Victoria wore mourning black the rest of her life.
She reigned longer than any British monarch until her great, great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II.
Early biographies are not considered valid because the release of her diaries revealed just how involved in governing England she really was. Victoria was a very short woman, rather stout (like me) and quite plain spoken.
She also loved animals. She kept dogs all her life and, by all accounts, her favorite Pomeranian, Turi was with her on her death bed at her request. She always kept dogs as pets and was given a pair of goats when she became queen by the Shah of Persia that became the mascots of for the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
According to the NYTimes, these two books, one a bio and the other a novel both might be worth a look.
One of the Earliest photos of Queen Victoria
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A paiting of Victoria and her family:
Other than living a very long time and being the only heir to the throne, I did not see a great deal that she did - she was a monarch with little actual governing power, she didn’t like being pregnant nor caring for babies, she hid in her palace for 40 years after Albert died and most of her children married their first cousins, just as she did. Sounds more like a hillbilly bio than a queen.
Okay, let me start again. Her mother had kept her isolated as a child and she often said her childhood was dismal. Queen Victoria came to the throne when her Uncle William died at 71. She was 18. She wrote in her diary: "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen."
Her first cousin Albert was sent to meet her and she fell in love with him, proposed and married him, making him Prince Consort. They had 9 children before he died at 42. Victoria wore mourning black the rest of her life.
She reigned longer than any British monarch until her great, great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II.
Early biographies are not considered valid because the release of her diaries revealed just how involved in governing England she really was. Victoria was a very short woman, rather stout (like me) and quite plain spoken.
She also loved animals. She kept dogs all her life and, by all accounts, her favorite Pomeranian, Turi was with her on her death bed at her request. She always kept dogs as pets and was given a pair of goats when she became queen by the Shah of Persia that became the mascots of for the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
According to the NYTimes, these two books, one a bio and the other a novel both might be worth a look.
One of the Earliest photos of Queen Victoria
\A paiting of Victoria and her family:
