Victoria's Daughters

If a person read only Jerrold Packard's book on the Victorian era he would have a very good picture not only of the events that happened during Victoria's 63 years on the throne, but of the royals and all their connections as well. We see up close Victoria's five daughters, but her four sons and all of their husbands and wives and all of their children get scrutinized in this biography and come to life. The writing is energetic, and descriptive and in the hands of this talented writer you will become so to speak a Victorian.Since I have been preceded by several excellent reviews of "Victoria's Daughters" I'll try to add my thoughts without being redundant.At the center of it all, of course, was Queen Victoria, the spider at the center of the web who could feel every tremor made by her vast family, and who was remarkably full of horse sense, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphors, and "an astonishingly observant and informed monarch" After the death of the Prince Consort, Victoria hid away from the world and seemed to relish wallowing in the trappings of death. She even dictated how her children should speak when referring to Papa- in muted voices with no laughter allowed. Little Beatrice, only four at the time of her father's death, was dressed in black and forbidden to run around and make the noises of a normal little girl with the result that she became cripplingly shy and tongue-tied. Victoria meddled outrageously in her married daughters' lives, peevishly ridiculing her daughter Alice for breast feeding her babies even naming her cow "Alice." When she finally came out of the closet and appeared in public for her Diamond Jubilee after decades of withdrawal and was thunderously cheered by her subjects who were thrilled to have their sovereign back, Victoria seemed to finally have achieved a degree of happiness. She doted over her grandchildren far more than her own children and even endured the patter of little feet, lots of little feet.But there was no doubt who was head honcho here, though. Although she insisted she did not make class distinctions, commit any act of lese majeste and you'd get one of Victoria's "we are not amused" glares. Nevertheless, in the last years of her life Victoria became much more loveable, a rock solid epitome, and a rather endearing one, of the greatest empire the world had ever known. Victoria was, in a sense, England, a core of strength, immutable, and of course not permanent, yet she seemed so. And it could be said that she never went away.Let us now observe the five daughters. Remember that Victoria also had four sons, but this is the daughters' book.VICTORIA (Vicky) 1840-1901Vicky captured her father Albert's heart from the moment of her birth and she was always his favorite child. She was exceptionally intelligent as well as pretty, but she received so much admiration that she grew up thinking a great deal of herself and although not arrogant, she would never back down. She was married at seventeen to Crown Prince Frederick (Fritz) of Prussia and entered the lion's den of Germany's royal family. Fritz's parents hated each other and quarreled constantly, and were cold to the warm-hearted Vicky. Vicky's parents absurdly thought the young girl could steer Germany towards being a democratic monarchy but the chancellor, Otto van Bismarck, wished to mold Germany into a powerful military state. Bismarck loathed Vicky and Fritz and thwarted their liberal ideals with great success. Fritz was dying of throat cancer when he finally became emperor and lived only 99 days, too short a time to accomplish any of his idealsVicky's oldest son William became Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was a very unstable man given to loutishness but he did have periods of kindness. However, when he became emperor after his father's death he did all he could to shove his own mother into the background, in fact the cruel bulldozer of history practically buried the memory of Vicky and all her good works with various charities. But she is slowly coming into her own as an island of integrity amid chaos.ALICE (1843-1878)Alice had a long nose and the hooded eyes of her mother, but she was considered attractive at the time. She was a person who always seemed to be on a mission. At 18 years old she nursed her dying father, an extraordinary thing for a girl of that era to do, let alone a princess. When Albert died at 42, Alice took care of her mother who pretty much went off the deep end and took literally years to recover. Alice was married to Grand Louis IV of Hesse, a small German duchy, a few months after her father's death but the wedding was gloomy with Victoria staring the whole time into the painted eyes of Albert on a nearby portrait.Alice died at 35 on the exact same day as her father, December 14. She was only 35, but had caught diphtheria from one of her children, again being a nurse. Of Alice's seven children, the most consequential was Alix, a very beautiful but oddly uncharismatic girl who grew up to marry Tsar Nicholas of Russia and became the empress Alexandra. She was murdered along with her whole family by the Bolsheviks in 1918.HELENA (1846-1923)Helena, always called Lenchen, was perhaps the least remarkable of Victoria's daughters. She "had an enormous Hanoverian bust kept that way by a healthy appetite." However, one gets the feeling she was a kindly and generous soul. She married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein a man 15 years her senior and no great catch, but he agreed to live in England because Victoria wanted Lenchen to be close by and at her beck and call. But Helena "who was basically afraid of the world and found comfort in her mother's golden orbit" was content. Princess Christian and her husband had four children, who passed "golden childhoods," two boys and two girls, and the marriage was a happy one.LOUISE ((1848-1939)Louise was considered to be the most attractive of Victoria's daughters and she also had an astonishing talent for sculpture. Victoria herself had a near professional ability to draw, creating many charming sketches of her children, and Louise inherited the talent in spades. Louise married Lorne Campbell the future ninth Duke of Argyll which caused a big ruckus because Lorne was not royal, but Victoria was running out of suitable princes.Disraeli offered Lorne the Governor Generalship of Canada and the couple found new adventures in the "godawful coldness". However, a sleighing accident in which Louise was thrown against the roof when the plunging horses were out of control and the sleigh turned over, had a profound effect on Louise's health. She returned to England without her husband to recuperate, but their marriage was foundering. They had no children and Lorne was rumored to be homosexual.Nevertheless, the marriage survived and Lorne and Louise eventually came to live in London. Louise executed a sculpture of her mother as a girl of nineteen in her coronation robes. The statue still stands in front of Kensington Palace.Louise could be rather spiteful, and perhaps because of her rocky relationship with her husband, and perhaps bitterness of being childless, "her tongue began to wag unbecomingly" and she remarked nastily after the death of her sister Beatrice's husband, Prince Henry of Battenberg, that Henry had cared for her, Louise, not Beatrice. Needless to say this created a rift between the two sisters. Louise was the most talented of the sisters, as well as being the most difficult. She most certainly had an artist's temperament.BEATRICE (1857-1944)The prologue of Jerrold Packard's book describes the funeral of Princess Beatrice on a cold November day. The chief mourner was Ena, Beatrice's only daughter. Ena had been married to Alfonso XIII of Spain, a lecher from whom she had long been separated. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were in attendance, and solemnly watching from a few feet away was the eighteen year old Princess Elizabeth. "Only a few- only the very oldest-could know the endless splendors that had passed before Princess Beatrice's eyes..."Victoria considered Beatrice, her last child, her treasure and Beatrice returned her love in full measure, but had been brought up in a house of mourning and was so sheltered from the outside world that she was "extraordinarily shy and immature." Victoria had selfishly wanted to keep Beatrice unmarried and living with her as general factotum. When Beatrice fell in love with the handsome Prince Henry of Battenberg, "Liko," Victoria would not allow the marriage. Although they ate at the same table Victoria refused to speak to her daughter and if any remarks were necessary, they were written on paper and passed between them. This idiotic procedure lasted for six months and then Victoria finally gave in. Beatrice married her handsome prince, lived in Victoria's palaces and both waited on the queen and produced four children. The Princess was content with this arrangement but her husband had nothing to do in this stultifying hot house atmosphere, and begged to go on the Ashanti Expedition in West Africa. On the boat home he died of a fever.Victoria doted on Beatrice's four children, who lived with her and were all under foot, and Beatrice herself "commanded the best seat in the house on affairs that spun like a hurricane around the tiny monarch". She served as the elderly sovereign's eyes and ears and ministers could only see the queen through Beatrice. So at the end of Victoria's life, the youngest and least consequential of her nine children became the most important to the Queen. However, Beatrice tended to her mother with a great deal of love, and Victoria always felt that this daughter was her baby, her "Benjamina."Jerrold Packard in this splendid biography brings to full blown life the Victorian era, providing an incredible amount of information including not only the characters of the royals but the political atmospheres under which they lived. He discusses the role of the disease hemophilia which wrecked havoc among Victoria's descendents and so much more in this very revealing biography. Highly recommended!

A subject that fascinates me so I learned so much beyond just Victoria and Albert saga. Thanks to the author.

For anyone interested in reading about Queen Victoria and/or the British Royal Family, Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold Packard is sure to please. When a monarch rules as long and as prominently as Victoria, most books limit themselves to the highlights (or low points) of her reign. And considering that she had nine chileren, all of whom lived to adulthood (a rarity for Victorian times), it is only natural that we really find out very little about them in most biographies. So Victoria's Daughers gives us great details about their lives, thier personalities and especially, their relationship with their famous mother.Vicky is probably the most well-known of the daughters as she became Empress of Prussia and produced the obnoxious and overbearing Kaiser Wilhem. Next comes Alice, who married Louis of Hesse. Alice was nurturing, religious and was responsible for improving the quality of medical care in Germany. She was also the mother of the ill-fated Tsarina Alexandra. Helena was the dowdy, dull daughter but managed to find a husband who was well suited to her and had the longest and happiest marriage. Louise was the most beautiful daughter. She was an artist and also a rebel. She was the only one to marry a commoner and also, was the only daughter to remain childless. Baby Beatrice was the daughter expected to sacrifice her adulthood to care for the Queen. When Beatrice finally fell in love at the late age of 28, it took a 6 month battle before Victoria would allow her youngest child to marry--and only on the condition that Beatrice and her husband make their home with Victoria. There was such an age difference between the children that when Vicky (the oldest) got married, Beatrice (the youngest) was still a baby.This book is filled with many stories and anecdotes about growing up in Victorian society and under Victoria's influence. We learn that Albert, Prince Consort, was actually the better parent while the children were young. He spent countless hours tutoring Vicky and Alice in the skills and knowledge they needed to be first ladies in their new homelands. Ironically, neither Albert nor Victoria thought to prepare Bertie, their oldest son and heir to the throne, for the tremendous responsibilities he would face as King Edward VII. Victoria insisted that her daughters write to her daily and continued to try and influence them throughout their lives. She thought breastfeeding babies was common and vulgar, and was highly upset when she discovered that Alice and Vicky were both breastfeeding their children. Not only did Victoria employ wetnurses for this job, but insisted that these nurses stand while feeding her children--in deference to their royal status! When Vicky and Alice complained to their mother about customs in their adopted lands, Victoria urged them to continue doing things the English way (not something that endeared them to their new subjects). Even when Vicky became Empress of Prussia, Victoria considered her a British princess first and foremost. We also read about the trials and tribulations these daughters faced knowing they might be carriers of that dreaded disease, hemophilia. Alice and Beatrice ended up being carriers, while brother Leopold suffered from the disease. Finally, we read about the large number of grandchildren of Queen Victoria (40 in all) and the many problems associated with them. She was much more patient, understanding and loving to her grandchildren than she was to her own children. Many of this generation became rulers in their own right including King George V, Kaiser Wilhem, Tsarina Alexandra, Queen Ena of Spain, Queen Marie of Romania, Queen Sophie of Greece and Queen Maud of Norway. No wonder she is considering the Grandmother of Europe. There are some minor flaws in this book that prove to be distractions. First, Packard repeats himself over and over again. He keeps telling us that Victoria and Alice were estranged, but yet never really gives us concrete evidence of this. He also relates how the marriage between Alice and Louis was very unfulfilling to Alice, yet she continued to love him dearly (?). I think Packard should have presented the facts without trying to make assumptions. There were also quite a few typos and I wonder where the editor (or proof reader) was on this. Finally, I think the author could have done a better job selecting photographs and perhaps, had more of them. All in all, I think it was a good book that could have been a little better.

An informative and well written book on the subject. You do not get bogged down in too many political facts. The daughters come alive and you want to know the outcome of their lives. Through her letters and comments Queen Victoria is the ever present factor in decisions made by her daughters.If you do not know anything about the era of Victoria this will be an experience.

Bought as a second hand item. In good condition. Book covered Victoria's reign. Informative and detailed as to her relationship with her daughters and their lives.

Haven't had chance to start this book yet but am hoping it will be quite factual, from an American perspective perhaps?

Great read and insight into how Victoria's daughters engaged throughout Europe

My wife really enjoyed the book. A good and informative read.