Queen Victoria, Family and Descendants


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Leslie2006 said:
I have "Born to Rule". It's pretty informative if you ask me. It goes into detail about Ena's wedding...
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I did feel sorry for Queen Ena. She and King Alphonso were so in love until the hemophilia made its ways into their family. Then she had to deal with his infidelities. But she loved him until the end.:(
 
I liked the way the author quoted from some of her letters to him, so sweet!. I thought the details about Ena's splitting up with Alfonso were interesting. I had never heard about it before. She must have suffered so much. When you look at pictures of her, she always looks so sad.

After reading this book, you have to think twice about becoming a princess. I don't think ONE of them had a really happy life!
 
I liked this book. My friend and I were actually just talking about it, and he said he thought it was boring the way it was written, but I disagree. I liked how it wasn't just one person featured. Although I'd've liked to see more on Queen Maud.
 
This sounds like a very interesting book. Another book everyone might like is called 'Victoria's Daughters' that I read a few months back & I enjoyed it very much.
 
Thank you for the link. It does look like a good book, and I'm glad it's got stuff about Princess Louise in it.
 
I managed to get a copy of "Victoria's Daughters" from our poorly stocked library. I was particularly interested in the discussions of Canada and Princess Louise. I strongarmed "Born to Rule" back from my sister and reread it. I was very disappointed that there wasn't more on Queen Maud. I would also have liked something concerning Princess Margaret of Connaught,who would have been a queen had she lived.
 
The 1997 Edition and the Companion Edition are great resources for anyone interested in Royalty, especially the ones not so prominent in the news. Marlene gives us some nice biographical information and follows with a superb geneaological chart. Excellent and highly recommended! :)
 
This is obviously a different book, but how many of our members also have this edition by Charlotte Zeepvat?


"MII"
 
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Margrethe II said:
This is obviously a different book, but how many of our members also have this edition by Charlotte Zeepvat?
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Queen Victoria's Family is an excellent book with over 200 pages of photographs, some never published before. Highly recommended! :)
 
Warren said:
Queen Victoria's Family is an excellent book with over 200 pages of photographs, some never published before. Highly recommended! :)
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I actually bought this copy in Sydney. I had been looking for it everywhere in Melbourne & to no evail. I go to Sydeny, walk into Dymocks and its the first book I see.lol. What luck! Although it was a little more pricey than what it would have been in Melbourne I still bought it and three other hardcover pictorial books on HM the Queen & the Queen Mother.

Note to all Aussies...If you want any royal books, go to Sydney!!!



"MII"
 
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The Zeepvat book is really, really something. I like it a lot. There are some rare ones, but the best part about the book is that it covers soo many people. I'm a big OTMA fan, and I was pleased that they and their mother's family (the Hesses) were included.
 
I've thought about buying this book (it's on my wish list on Barnes & Noble's website) but I haven't gotten around buying it yet. Is it mainly pictures with information about who's in the pictures? Will you get your money's worth on this book?
 
wow I never see her before thank you for sharing... My favorite royal family Is Queen victoria.... I loved old picture.... old fashioned...

karla64
 
Lady Jennifer said:
I've thought about buying this book (it's on my wish list on Barnes & Noble's website) but I haven't gotten around buying it yet. Is it mainly pictures with information about who's in the pictures? Will you get your money's worth on this book?
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Are we talking about Charlotte Zeepvat's Queen Victoria's Family? This is a picture book with a difference: pics on every page, but the story is in the captions, which contain a wealth of information about the people depicted. It is very well laid out and structured, and the pics cover the full range from the grand to informal family snaps. With three very detailed family trees at the end, you can't go wrong. :)
 
Warren said:
Are we talking about Charlotte Zeepvat's Queen Victoria's Family? This is a picture book with a difference: pics on every page, but the story is in the captions, which contain a wealth of information about the people depicted. It is very well laid out and structured, and the pics cover the full range from the grand to informal family snaps. With three very detailed family trees at the end, you can't go wrong. :)
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Ohhh Warren, now you've got me tempted to hit the buy button on my wish list on Barnes & Noble :D
 
I have bought this book today and read it quickly and I am quite satisfied - it`s not very informative for me about Alix or Maud, but it offers some new facts about Ena or Missy which I didn`t know and I think that the autor managed to describe the caracters of the princesses quite well. they had really interesting (and sometimes very unhappy:( ) lives.
 
rani said:
I managed to get a copy of "Victoria's Daughters" from our poorly stocked library. I was particularly interested in the discussions of Canada and Princess Louise. I strongarmed "Born to Rule" back from my sister and reread it. I was very disappointed that there wasn't more on Queen Maud. I would also have liked something concerning Princess Margaret of Connaught,who would have been a queen had she lived.
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By the way, I just thought I'd mention that the other day a friend of mine had an extra copy of "Victoria's Daughters" and sent it to me! I'm in the middle of reading a stack of advanced reviewer copies right now but as soon as I finish (tomorrow or Thursday) I'm going to start on VD.
 
Princess Beatrice

Sydney Sun-Herald 25 March 2007
A new book on Princess Beatrice

The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter
Matthew Dennison
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

a short extract of the review:

"The widowed Queen Victoria's dependence on her youngest daughter Beatrice was obsessive. Eventually given permission to marry, Princess Beatrice tragically lost her husband and son within a decade. Despite the Queen's reliance on her, Beatrice's only historical significance lies in the criticism of her ruthless editing of the Queen's memoirs [diaries]. Dennison's extensively researched biography is beautifully narrated and sensitively detailed..."
 
I tried to read my mother's copy of Victoria's daughters, but I got bogged down and bored with it (which happens when the story doesn't move along at a decent pace for me). But my mother gave her copy to me when she thinned her collection so someday I may finish it.
 
I immidiately thought: what do we need another Victoria-Albert biography for (there must be hundreds around already)? But I see the author has another angle, focussing on how the couple left their mark on what is now called the Victorian era.
 
True. I've only managed to read a couple chapters of it, but I like what I've read so far. I like how Gill focuses more on the family, rather than JUST Victoria and Albert's positions in the political scheme of things. It's much more interesting to me.
 
Okay....I have FINALLY read this book. Sad to say...I bought it when it first came out and due to work, school, family, etc I didn't have the opportunity to read it. I LOVED IT!

Like everyone else who read the book YEARS ago...I thought it didn't have a lot of information on Queen Maud. I thought most of the information on Empress Alexandra was already well known. But considering the circumstances of her life and death that is not surprising.

I definitely agree that of the Queens (with the exception of Maud) didn't have an easy life. I found myself wanting to know more information on Queen Sophie of Greece and Queen Marie of Romania. I am particulary interested in reading more about Queen Marie (how different her life and that of the British Royal Family) might have been if she had been allowed to marry George V. But I think she would have made his life uncomfortable. It appears that he was quite suited for Queen Mary. Except for how they raised their children, they appeared quite happy with each other.

But back to Queen Marie...can anyone recommend any books on her? The relationship with her inlaws, and her children (particularly that awful Carol) is very interesting.

I also felt very sorry for Queen Ena and found myself not liking Alfonso. Let's see...you were warned that she could have been a carrier (check), you professed to love her (check), the first sign of things going wrong (birth of sick children) you checked out. Not a nice guy IMO. And before anyone says anything...yes I know Alfonso was a man of his times and one of his main duties is to provide heirs, etc. I get it. My problem is that (and I know this is going to drive Elspeth wild!) if you must cheat on your wife...be discreet. I hate when people 1) break their marriage vows and 2) then treat someone they are supposed to care about like garbage. But that' my rant for the day.


Next up...the six daughters of George III.
 
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Zonk said:
But back to Queen Marie...can anyone recommend any books on her? The relationship with her inlaws, and her children (particularly that awful Carol) is very interesting.
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There's only two I can think of about her: the first one is her autobiography, and that one I've only been able to find on amazon. com. The other is more of a photo history of Marie's life. The author is Diana Mandache and it's available through Majesty Magazine.
 
Zonk said:
I also felt very sorry for Queen Ena and found myself not liking Alfonso. Let's see...you were warned that she could have been a carrier (check), you professed to love her (check), the first sign of things going wrong (birth of sick children) you checked out. Not a nice guy IMO. And before anyone says anything...yes I know Alfonso was a man of his times and one of his main duties is to provide heirs, etc. I get it. My problem is that (and I know this is going to drive Elspeth wild!) if you must cheat on your wife...be discreet. I hate when people 1) break their marriage vows and 2) then treat someone they are supposed to care about like garbage. But that' my rant for the day.


Next up...the six daughters of George III.
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*goes wild*

:D

I have to agree that Alfonso doesn't seem like the world's pleasantest person.

Not sure I entirely agree about Maud having an easy life; it sounds as though she wasn't all that robust, and she had to go and live in a climate that didn't suit her health, plus she was constantly homesick (and having been through that myself, I know how debilitating it can be, although I do realise it isn't as bad as facing wars and revolutions and getting murdered).

I'd have liked to see her stretch a point and include Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden in her list; she's also a granddaughter of Victoria who was married to a crown prince in the expectation of becoming a Queen Consort one day, and her experiences while she was alive would have been interesting, and might also have helped give some more detail to the Queen Maud sections.
 
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Leslie2006 said:
There's only two I can think of about her: the first one is her autobiography, and that one I've only been able to find on amazon. com. The other is more of a photo history of Marie's life. The author is Diana Mandache and it's available through Majesty Magazine.
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Hannah Pakula wrote a well knowm bio of Marie of Romania, and an older bio of Marie is the one by Theo Aronson.
 
"The Four Graces - Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters" by Ilana D Miller (2011)

"The Four Graces - Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters"

by Ilana D Miller
published 2011

Amazon.com: The Four Graces: Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters (9780977196166): Ilana D. Miller: Books

from the review:
"We have a winner. A real winner.
Thanks to Ilana Miller's The Four Graces (Eurohistory.com: $43.00), Victoria's story has come to the fore in a meticulously, well-researched book. Suffice to say, this is a superb book, and one of the best royal books I have read in a long time. Miller breathes life into a princess, less known than her sisters, but far more important in many ways.

The Four Graces refers to Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine, the eldest child of Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, and Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, and her three younger sisters, Irene, Ella and Alix. The three younger sisters made spectacular dynastic marriages: Irene married her first cousin, Prince Henry of Prussia; Ella wed Grand Duke Serge of Russia, who was assassinated in 1905; and Alix made the grandest marriage of all, when she married Nicholas II of Russia.

Ilana Miller, an Adjunct Professor of History at Pepperdine University spent an enormous amount of time working on this book. She read the appropriate histories and biographies. She was able to do research in Darmstadt, and she was given access to unpublished material, including Princess Victoria's and Grand Duke Dimitri's unpublished memoirs. Copies of the former are at Southampton University and Darmstadt and Dimitri's diaries are at Harvard. Ilana also met with Victoria's granddaughter, Lady Mountbatten, who was able to provide first hand information about Victoria.

Ilana Miller is to be commended and complimented for The Four Graces, which is sure to become a well-thumbed reference work for future biographers and historians.

The book is illustrated with eighty photos.

The Four Graces is one of the best royal books that I have read in a long time. This book is a true winner. It is a must read, a definite need for your royal collections."
.
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