Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

[Lady Jennifer]

Well the knickers sold for more than expected:

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Derbyshire | Queen's bloomers sell for £4,500

[eponabri]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I was wondering if anyone could tell me why Victoria always wore a white veil after she was older? It seems to be in every picture.

[gogm]

She mourned for her husband Albert who died 14 December 1861.

[tan_berry]

I have been reading lately on Queen Victoria and his "almost king" husband Prince Albert and now I look forward eagerlier for the new movie with Emily Blunt as the young queen. When she was crowned she was 18 years old and one month, and she became queen of the nation and the balls, that she enjoyed as the youngster she was, enjoying too a freedom she has never had before, because her mother was so afraid of some accidental or not problem.

It seems she was never aware of the hemophilia problem, because she married a first cousin and it was such a good marriage, that she tried to marry several grand-children among themselves.

They tried very hard, with their eldest daughter Vicky, Empress of Germany, to influence with liberal ideas the german empire, without success. Her husband died when they were both 42 years old, which did not help for reaching the goal, because he was more interested and had more knowledge on politics.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by tan_berry

When she was crowned she was 18 years old and one month...

19 years and one month: born 24 May 1819 and her coronation was 23 June 1838.

[Avicenna]

Originally Posted by tan_berry

They tried very hard, with their eldest daughter Vicky, Empress of Germany, to influence with liberal ideas the german empire, without success. Her husband died when they were both 42 years old, which did not help for reaching the goal, because he was more interested and had more knowledge on politics.

It would have been better to start being liberal at home, in England. Just think of these famous lines written by the Queen to prime minister Gladston May 6, 1870: (summary in my own words)

She believes it is unnatural and against all sense to give women the right to vote or to make them equal in professions!

Now, how liberal was this Queen? Only when it came to the point of intervening abroad it seems to me.

[tan_berry]

The author I have been reading, Stanley Weintraub, means liberal in politics for the time being. England already had elections, and the Queen and her husband did not intervene in politics openly, although they did. In Germany the kaiser was still the real power, still absolute power, and their grandchild Wilhelm II got rid of the legendary Prince Bismarck, prime minister for a long time for his grandfather Wilhelm I, whenever he decided it. So the empire was politically ultraconservative when the subjects were not anymore, it lacked flexibility in relation to the zeitgeist, which Queen Victoria, her husband, and their daughter Vicky and her husband, the heir, could foresee, and the result of this contradiction was that the empire fell down. I interpreted that from what I read.

[Avicenna]

Tan_berry, you certainly have a point there. Just two notes from my side: first of all Germany - or Prussia as I should because The German Reich only came to life in 1871 - had a parliament. It was this parliament which had a dispute with Wilhelm I in 1862 in matters of army reform. Wilhelm I was willing to abdicate in favor of his son Friedrich. However, Friedrich declined. Thus, came Otto von Bismarck who saved the monarchy. Only due to Bismarck's constitutional reform the position of the monarch was strengthened. Christopher Clark has shown this in his book on Prussia.

What I blame to Vicky is her narrow-minded English view. Of course she was right with her idea of a constitutional monarchy according to the English model. But she was so focused on this one idea. On the other handside she refused the Bismarck social reforms end of the 1860ies. Those were the basis even for today's social system!! But Vicky preferred a traditional benevolence - or should I say charity? - towards the poor. Truth is, she was indoctrinated at 15 years by personal studies with her father - the Prince Consort - and took his view without questioning. Due to the early death of Albert she henceforward devoted her life to realising his ideas. Without reviewing them, without revising them. A waste of human material - a tragedy, for she could given her life far more purpose plus it would have facilitated her life in Prussia/Germany.

[tan_berry]

Thanks, Avicenna, now I understand better.