Family Ties through Queen Victoria
 

I first got interested in royalty about 27 years ago when I read "Jennie," the biography of Winston Churchill's mother. In that book I met Edward VII and his family. Shortly thereafter, I started figuring just which royals were related to each other. Needless to say, they are all related. I thought a thread about Queen Victoria's descendants would fit in nicely here.

I'm looking forward to questions, answers, and discussions on this topic. :)

Queen Victoria- The Grandmother of Europe.
Its amazing to see how this one woman contributed to so many countries and to so many families.
She has always fascinated me.

Victoria has fascinated me as well.

If you can...you should check out the book Victoria's Daughter's. The book discusses the relationship that Victoria has with her daughters. Of course, her sons also made great marriages (ie. Edward with Alexandra of Denmark) but from her daughters we get the Kaiser, and Princess Alice (Prince Phillip's grandmother).

I have that book somewhere in my piles of books :D
Its been a while since I've read it. I would love to explore Victoria's relationship with the last Kaiser (Victoria's grandson).

Victoria's descendants have married into all Royal Houses in Europe haven't they?

All might be pushing it - but most of them, I think. I'm unsure about the Netherlands, Belgium, Monaco & Liechtenstein, at least. If not Luxembourg as well, although I think there was something there...

Almost!

Current ruling houses
Denmark: Victoria - Arthur - Margaret - Ingrid - Margrethe II

Norway: Victoria - Edward VII - Maud - Olav V - Harald V

Spain: Victoria - Beatrice - Ena - Juan - Juan Carlos

Sweden: Victoria - Arthur - Margaret - Gustaf Adolf - Carl XVI Gustaf

United Kingdom: Victoria - Edward VII - George V - George VI - Elizabeth II

Some former ruling houses
Greece: Victoria - Victoria - Sophie - Paul I - Constantine II

Rumania: Victoria - Alfred - Marie - Carol II - Michael

Yugoslavia: Victoria - Alfred - Marie - Maria - Peter II - Alexander

Yes, you are correct. The Belgian royals do descend from Queen Victoria's uncle Leopold who was the first king (Leopold I). And of course, there are many former German duchies, principalities, etc. whose current royals descend from Victoria. An example is Prince Ernst of Hanover, Princess Caroline of Monaco's husband. His grandmother was Kaiser Wilhelm II's daughter and Kaiser Wilhelm II was Queen Victoria's grandson.

Yes, Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard is excellent as is a recent book about Victoria's five granddaughters who were consorts: Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia P. Gelardi

The Kaiser's only daughter Viktoria Luise wrote her memoirs in a book called The Kaiser's Daughter. It is very interesting reading history from her point of view. Viktoria Luise is the grandmother of former King Constantine of Greece and Queen Sofia of Spain (their mother Frederica was her daughter) and Prince Ernst of Hanover (his father was her son.)

This is a great list of books about Queen Victoria and her family. Many are out of print but I have been able to find some on eBay.

Books about Queen Victoria, her family and her descendants
http://users.uniserve.com/~canyon/royalty_books.htm

The books Born to Rule, Queen Victoria's Family, Queen Victoria's Descendants, Victoria's daughters have all been discussed in The Royal Library here at TRF, if anybody wants to check out what other people thought about them, or contribute to the threads ;)

Isn't there a Luxembourg branch (even though this branch isn't reigning) that is related to Queen Victoria through Sibilla Weiller?

Luxembourg

Victoria-Beatrice-Victoria (Ena)-(Infanta)Beatrix-Olimpia-Sibilla

I realize the next three aren't Queen Victoria Descedants but.....I had a wee bit of fun figuring all this out.

Belgium

Frans-Frederick- Leopold I - Leopold II - Albert I- Leopold III - Baudouin (brother) Albert

Frans Frederick - Victoria - Queen Victoria- Edward VII - George V- Geroge VI - Elizabeth II

Monaco

Ludwig-Amile-Karl-Marie-Mary-Louis-Charlotte-Rainier III-Albert II

Ludwig-Louis I -Louis II -Louis III-Louis VI (Married Alice, Queen Victoria daughter)

Ludwig-Louis I -Louis II -Alexander-Louis-Alice- Philip (Duke of Edinburgh)

there is another angle I worked out that connects Monaco through Queen Victoria's husband Albert but I forgot a step somewhere. It all relates back to Ludwig who was a Prince of Baden so I am sure you can connect them in many different ways.

The Netherlands

Georg-Emma-Wihelmina-Juliana-Beatrix

Georg-Helen (married Victoria's son Leopold)-Carl-Sibylla-Carl Gustav (Sweden)

I love this Lady for many years.

Intermarrieges of Queen's descendants http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_ray...rmarriages.htm
Few statistics http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_ray...Statistics.htm
Descendants by Leo van de Pas http://worldroots.com/brigitte/royal/royal8d.htm
and descendants to the 7th generation - http://geneweb.inria.fr/roglo?lang=e...t=L&bd=0&color=

Here is a link that I just found.
I haven't really explored the site yet, but from what I've seen of it it looks like the author of the site has done a lot of work. It also shows who the eldest living descendants are for each generation.

Belgium

Aren't the current Belgian & Luxembourg royals descended from Victoria through Queen Ingrid?

Belgians & Badens, Saxe-Coburgs & Swedes, and others
 

No, Queen Ingrid was the daughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf and Princess Margaret of Connaught.
Princess Astrid (later Queen of the Belgians) and her sister Martha (later Queen of Norway) were the daughters of Prince Carl of Sweden (a son of King Oscar II and Princess Sophie of Nassau) and Princess Ingeborg of Denmark (daughter of Frederik VIII and Louise of Sweden).

K Oscar II of Sweden - Gustaf V - Gustaf VI Adolf - Ingrid
K Oscar II of Sweden - Carl - Martha & Astrid

Grand Dukes Ludwig I and Ludwig II of Baden were unmarried. The Monaco-Baden connection comes via the British aristocracy: Princess Marie (daughter of Grand Duke Karl of Baden) married in 1843 William Douglas-Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton and 8th Duke of Brandon. Their daughter, Lady Mary (1850-1922) married in 1869 Albert I, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (1848-1922). The marriage lasted a year, but produced a son who became Prince Louis II, Prince Rainier's grandfather.

There is a Saxe-Coburg connection with Baden (Princess Alexandrine of Baden married Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who was Prince Albert's elder brother) but I can't see a link between S-C&G and Monaco. Alexandrine was the daughter of Grand Duke Leopold and Sophie of Sweden; Leopold was the son of Karl Friedrich, the first Grand Duke of Baden, by his second marriage, while Grand Duke Karl was the grandson of Karl Friedrich by his first marriage, so the connection is tenuous:

GD Karl Friedrich of Baden (1st m) - Karl - GD Karl - Marie - Mary - Louis of Monaco
GD Karl Friedrich of Baden (2nd m) - GD Leopold - Alexandrine (married to Ernest Saxe-Coburg) [no children].

Thanks Warren,
Of course they are related one generation further back through Victorias' beloved Uncle Leopold.

Saxe-Coburgs
 

Further back than that Wymanda!
Prince Leopold, 1st King of the Belgians and Prince Albert's father Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha were brothers, so the common ancestors in this line of descent are their parents: Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1750-1806) and Countess Auguste of Reuss-Lobenstein und Ebersdorf (1757-1831).
Descendents other than those of Queen Victoria include the monarchs and de juré monarchs of Belgium, Bulgaria, France (Bonaparte), Italy and Luxembourg.

It's very interesting, that even our Swedish royal house are descendants of Queen Victoria through King Carl XVI Gustaf's Brittish grandmother Margareth of Connaught. Even though I knew, that Margareth was Brittish, it wasn't until last year, that I realised, that she was Victoria's granddaughter. Margareth was also the one to bring Victoria's blood to Denmark and Greece. Margareth's daughter Ingrid got married to King Frederik IX of Denmark, and through her daughter Margarete, that blood stayed in the Danish royal family, and through her daughter Anne-Marie, it also came to the Greek royal family. Whoops! I just saw, that Victoria's blood already WAS in the Greek royal family before Anne-Marie of Denmark. But let's say then, that the Greek ex-princes and ex-princesses are descendants to Victoria in two different ways. And Anne-Marie had to be mentioned in this thread too.