She is petite and has a silver face, and in terms of appearance alone, she is definitely not a beauty.
But who would have thought that such a girl would ascend to the throne at the age of 18 and sit for more than 60 years.
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria of the Hanoverian Dynasty of the United Kingdom witnessed the most prosperous period of the British Empire, and science, art, and literature all bloomed during this period.
Such a long life, you may wish to explore the emotional story of Queen Victoria.
Victor Victoria
George IV's only legal heir, Princess Charlotte, died during childbirth, because he had a terrible relationship with his wife Caroline of Brunswick, and after seeing that there was no possibility of an heir, George IV's brothers who had been pursuing true love returned to marriage. William abandoned his commoner wife, Dorothea Jordan, and married Princess Adelaide, but suffered 3 miscarriages and gave birth to 2 daughters. Edward, Duke of Kent, married the widowed Princess Victoria and gave birth to a daughter, the future Queen Victoria.
Edward, Duke of Kent
Victoria was born as the fifth-in-line heir to the throne, and when her father died at 8 months, she began her journey to the throne. As she grew older, the first heirs died, and when William IV died, the throne fell into Victoria's hands.
The bet won the brother and sister of Jiangshan
The English name is too troublesome, Victoria's mother and daughter use this name, here we call Queen Victoria's mother Mary Louise Victoria or the Duchess of Kent. She was the seventh child of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saarfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reus-Ebersdorf.
Mary Louise Victoria
Mary Louise's younger brother was King Leopold I of Belgium, the son-in-law of George IV. But she herself married George IV's younger brother at the time of her second marriage, which means that the younger brother was her niece and son-in-law... Royal relations are really messy.
She married for the first time, the second prince of Reiningen, Emich Karl, and had a son and a daughter. After the death of her first husband, it coincided with the succession crisis of the British royal family. Edward, Duke of Kent, was desperate to find a suitable noblewoman to marry. Under Leopold's lead, Edward proposed to Mary Louise, the princess generously accepted, the couple gave birth to a daughter Victoria 1 year after marriage, but only 2 years after marriage, Edward, Duke of Kent, died of pneumonia.
Mary Louise with daughter Victoria
Britain's great fortune was not easy, and the widowed Duchess of Kent would have had the best option to return to Coburg to live with her brother. After all, her husband had died, the royal family had greatly reduced the amount of money, and her daughter was now only the third heir, and it was not so easy to ascend to the throne. But the Duchess of Kent was not a woman without pursuits, and she was reluctant to return to Coburg to wait to marry again or spend the rest of her life in peace. Her choice was to fight hard, with her daughter succeeding to the throne, to become the most honorable woman in the country.
Mary Louise took her daughter to live in the dilapidated Kensington Palace, and she used the strictest "Kensington system" to restrain Victoria's behavior. This set of rules and etiquette limited Victoria's behavior, and girls were even required to share a bedroom with their mother every night, studying with a private teacher on a strict schedule... The more depressed the more rebellious, the more restrained Victoria became a famous rebellious girl in adolescence.
After the death of George IV, William IV ascended the throne, but he still had no legitimate children to survive, and Victoria became the presumptive heir to the English throne. We have said that the order of succession of women is after that of a male heir, and if William or his brother gives birth to a male heir at this time, Victoria's position will not be guaranteed. However, the god of luck sided with Victoria, and in 1837, King William IV of England and King of Hanover died, and Victoria, who was only 18 years old, succeeded to the throne. However, because hanover tried the Salic Code, Victoria could not inherit the Throne of Hanover as a woman, so she had to cede the throne of Hanover to her uncle Ernst Augustus I, and Hanover no longer belonged to England.
The tense mother-daughter relationship
Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, treated her daughter in a strange way.
She should also love her daughter, but in her eyes, her daughter is more important as a tool to achieve her goals. So she restricted her daughter's behavior, did not allow her to make friends, and even prevented Victoria from meeting those "undesirable" in her mother's heart.
William IV
So who is the Duchess of Kent who thinks it is undesirable? The answer is that most of Victoria's paternal family, including King William IV. Speaking of which, did the officials have a question, is the Duchess of Kent brainbroken, why should she risk angering the king to prevent the king from getting close to her daughter? The reason is actually very simple, she hopes that Victoria will be weaker and more dependent on her own mother, rather than being closer to other people.
William IV had no legal heirs, and the heirs who came ahead of Victoria had died, and William was eager to have a good relationship with his future heirs. Although the king himself has no legal heir, but the 10 children who were born with Jordan are all there, and the king hopes that victoria will treat them well in a hundred years. But the Duchess of Kent did not see it this way, and she restricted Victoria's movements, showing great disregard for the illegitimate children of William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan, and not allowing her daughters to be close to them. Her arrogance and indifference led to a public attack by King William IV at a dinner party in 1836, in which he declared that he wished he would live long enough to enable his niece Victoria to ascend the throne without the need to appoint a regent and strongly condemned the ill influence of those around the duchess on the supposed heir to the throne.
Victoria also resented her mother. She hated the Duchess's private secretary John Conroy the most. The private secretary was clearly an ambitious ambitionist who manipulated the duchess with emotion and even tried to reach for Victoria. He dreamed of William IV dying sooner, because if William IV had died before Victoria was 18 years old, the Duchess would have been regent and he himself would have become the secret ruler of the empire.
William Lamb, Viscount of Melbourne
To be honest, I don't think Conroy is really a smart guy, and his mind is well known, ignoring Victoria while flattering the Duchess. Maybe in his heart, Victoria is just a child, what can he say? But few of the royal children were simple, victoria was a very intelligent and thoughtful woman, and when he tried to force Victoria to appoint herself as her private secretary after she succeeded to the throne, the future queen was already deeply disgusted with the clown. There was also a rumor that John Conroy was actually the Duchess's lover, so when Victoria succeeded to the throne, she chose william Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister of the Whig Party, as her private secretary, and then fired Conroy and did not allow the Duchess to enter Buckingham Palace, but chose a country house for her to live in alone.
The sweetest is not first love
Many years later, when her granddaughter Alex was about to marry Crown Prince Nicholas II of Russia, the dying Queen Victoria was very disapproving. She thought that the place belonged to the wild land, and the level of civilization was not high. In addition, the situation in Russia is not peaceful, she strongly opposes her beloved granddaughter marrying over, but love breaks through the family's obstacles. Later, it turned out that the old grandmother's judgment was correct, and Alex, who changed her name to Alexandra, died on the land with her husband and children, becoming a martyr of the Romanov dynasty.
Looks like Victoria doesn't want to see russians? No, victoria had a relationship with Nicholas II's grandfather, Alexander II, when she was young.
In 1839, the 21-year-old Alexander II passed through London while traveling through Europe to meet the 20-year-old Queen Victoria for the first time.
Alexander II
At this time, Victoria had just escaped her mother's supervision, and she was like a bird escaping from the cage, trying everything. Because of her mother's strict supervision, she did not have much chance to meet a man with a foreign name. She was intrigued by Alexander II when she first met him handsome in military uniform. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: "At about 6:40 I met the Crown Prince, he saluted in front of my window, we ate in St. George's Hall, the Crown Prince carried me into the hall, I really fell in love with the Crown Prince, he was such a gracious and friendly young man, we danced together, laughed together, shared happy times together, I had never been so happy before, I went to bed at 2:30 but didn't fall asleep until 5 o'clock. ”
Is it like a stupid girl who is carried away by love?
Alexander II was an old driver, and he began to hang out with the girls at the age of 15, because he fell in love with his mother's maid and wanted the girl to marry, and was sent out by his father, Nicholas I. He was knowledgeable and polite, and soon won the hearts of Queen Victoria, who even told her adviser's wife that she had fallen deeply in love with the lovely and affectionate Russian Crown Prince.
However, the British parliament was very dissatisfied and demanded that the two men immediately draw a line. Ya'er's father did not agree, and he demanded that Alexander II return to Russia immediately.
Under the dual pressure of national interests and political considerations, the couple broke up. The Russian crown prince soon found his "true love" Mary in the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and he confessed his true heart and, under pressure, married the girl whose "concubine is unknown" (rumored to be an illegitimate daughter).
Victoria, on the other hand, chose to marry Prince Albert shortly afterwards.
The arranged husband of the king
Albert was the younger son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha, Germany. Ernst I's sister was Queen Victoria's mother, while his younger brother was King Leopold I of Belgium, who married Princess Charlotte. The eldest son, Ernst II, inherited the principality, while the second son, Prince Albert, made eye-to-eye with Queen Victoria of England during the blind date and became the queen's husband.
Prince Albert
Prince Albert's family was not happy. His father, Entes I, had an affair during the marriage, and his mother, Princess Louise, divorced her husband when Albert Jr. was 7 years old. Although the marriage was divorced, the divorce agreement stated that Princess Louise could never marry someone else again. A few years later, when her secret marriage to Alexander von Hanstein was discovered, the poor woman lost her children's visitation rights forever. She was sent to switzerland to live and then died of cancer at the age of 31.
Entes I
Little Albert is not at all like his father and brother, he is more like a mother, gentle and idyllic. He was intelligent and had achievements in language, culture, philosophy, and music. If I had to use one word to describe Albert, he was the kind of prince who came out of a fairy tale.
Moreover, he was a prince tailor-made for the Queen, and when Victoria became the presumed heir to the throne, Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her brother Leopold had already planned Albert's marriage to Queen Victoria. Albert never struggled with his future destiny, while Queen Victoria was unwilling.
Infant Albert with his mother
The two first met in 1836, when the 17-year-old girl met her cousin, Prince Albert, with blond hair and blue eyes. In fact, Prince Albert gave Victoria a good impression, but the stubborn and very assertive princess resisted not Albert, but an arranged marriage. She never hated Albert, but hated this arranged life. More than once, she said to the Viscount of Melbourne: "At this time, my emotions are very disgusted with marriage. Speaking of her relationship with Albert, she wrote to her uncle: "There is no marriage contract between us. ”
Then there was that vigorous first love. I think Queen Victoria also understands that she and Crown Prince Alexander have no future at all, so this relationship is very simple and strong. Shortly after breaking up with the Crown Prince, her mother arranged for her to go on a blind date with Albert, much to the dismay of Her Royal Highness.
The golden wind and jade dew met
So, is Prince Albert really completely clueless about the marriage? Maybe there is, but this gentle and introverted boy never expressed everything.
Victoria and Albert
Albert, as the second prince, was doomed to inherit the throne. From an early age, he was regarded as Victoria's most suitable marriage partner. Albert's grandmother, grandpa, grandma, father, and uncle Leopold would all talk about him with Victoria. Even his nanny often told him that "The Little Mayflower of England" (Victoria was born in May) would be his wife.
From an early age Albert was a boy who loved literature and art, he had no interest in politics, no ambition, and was approachable like a prince. He was simple and kind, intelligent and cultured, and he was humble in the face of the Queen. When others talked about his marriage to the queen, he was also very calm, and there was no inevitable ambition.
On the evening of October 10, 1839, Albert arrived in Windsor accompanied by his brother Ernest. The next day, the two had the opportunity to meet the Queen, and Queen Victoria looked at the handsome young man in front of her in amazement, and her pair of blue eyes full of affection simply fascinated her.
The man in front of him was tall and handsome, with a fair and handsome face and an overly gentle blue eye. The queen suddenly realized that the boy of a few years earlier had grown up, and that he was so gentle that she had already swallowed back to her mouth, and gleefully accepted Albert's invitation to ride horses, dance, and talk together. A few days passed, and Victoria said to her private secretary, the Viscount Melbourne: "I have changed my mind about marriage so much that I have decided to marry Albert. ”
Queen Victoria proposed to Albert, and the two were successfully married a few months later.
Wang Fu is not good
Albert had thought that life after marriage might be a little sad, because the queen was a stubborn and somewhat grumpy woman. But I didn't expect that the two were very compatible, and the queen was like an ordinary little girl who had just opened her heart, always sweetly calling her husband's name. Although she was sometimes very aggressive, she was sometimes very gentle and small, which made Albert breathe a sigh of relief.
Albert and Victoria
Albert soon faced another problem: Queens were not common in Britain, so the royal family did not think about how to give a royal husband a position.
The king came from a small German principality, and the arrogant English regarded him as a more inferior party of blood. The xenophobic British aristocrats always whispered about his German ancestry, "At first glance he is a German, and his appearance is not British at all!" ”
Albert was slow to hold a formal position, and he was quite sensitive and shy, and he only wanted to hide in his shell for the malice of the outside. He preferred to hide in the library and absorb knowledge eagerly, rather than participate in one dance party after another, salon after salon. In the minds of the British people, Albert was an eccentric German, and everyone liked it. Of course, Albert himself did not have much praise for Britain, wet and cold weather, perennial gray skies, vulgar and rude royal families...
As a wife, Victoria was very fond of Albert; as queen, she did not intend to involve her husband in the affairs of the state. A husband trapped in the palace, a wife with a decisive and courageous temperament, the two often quarrel over trivial matters in life. As big as the problem of children's education, as small as trivial matters, both of them will quarrel. Usually the queen is furious, and the king is reluctant to back down. If the queen was too rude, Albert would silently avoid studying his knowledge. And Victoria will quickly chase after her husband to apologize after losing her temper, and the cycle will start again.
The watery Albert king gradually changed the fiery and hot-tempered Queen Victoria, the two gave birth to 9 children, and in Victoria's heart, she agreed that her husband was a true gentleman, so when educating her children, the queen hoped that they would take their father Albert as a model and the only standard.
Family portrait of the elderly Victoria
Albert was too reclusive, and his introverted personality hurt him. At the age of 40, Wang Fu suffered from severe stomach cramps, often in unbearable pain. He was also a loving father, and he broke his heart every day for several rebellious children. Especially Crown Prince Edward, the son who exhausted the old father's heart.
The misdemeanorous crown prince was embroiled in a scandal with Nellie Cliften while his father was ill, and the scandal quickly spread across the country. His worried father, Albert, fidgeted in Windsor Castle, fearing possible blackmail, scandals, and even pregnancy without marriage. Victoria, as Queen, could not easily leave, so her father Albert personally went to Cambridge to visit his son and discuss with him how to deal with the series of events.
Wang Fu, who was already very ill, contracted typhoid fever during this trip and soon came to the end of his life. After her husband's death, Queen Victoria never took off her mourning clothes again for the rest of her life, and was unwilling to reconcile with her son Edward, who indirectly killed her husband.
The Queen's Remarriage Mystery
After the death of Her Husband Albert, the Queen was present in mourning at any occasion. But there was some gossip circulating in Britain, and scholars found documents proving Queen Victoria's remarriage in the Royal Archives of Windsor Castle. And the certificate bears the names of Victoria and John Brown.
Of course, it's a piece of gossip because it ends with Queen Mary, the grandmother of the current Queen Elizabeth, seeing the document, she torches it. That is to say, this is just a paragraph, and there is no substantial evidence to support the existence of this relationship.
But some liberals and even left-wing forces have been adding fuel to the rumors that the queen has an underground lover for various reasons, and this story has been made up countless times and seems very true.
John Brown with the Queen
John Brown was originally a subordinate of King Albert and maintained a very good relationship with the Queen herself. After the death of Her husband Albert, the Queen closed herself off, unable to emerge from her grief after more than three years. In order to help Victoria out of her depressed life, John Brown was urgently transferred back from the field by the ministers and became the Queen's close attendant at Osborne Castle on the Isle of Wight.
The Queen gradually deepened her friendship with John Brown in her confession, and John Brown dressed the Handmaiden King very thoughtfully and always for the Queen's safety. The Queen sometimes calls him "glamorous Johnny", which is obviously a point that the opposition clings to. Politicians who disagreed with the Queen's political views, or who opposed the constitutional monarchy, spread the word that Queen Victoria was "Mrs. Brown" and that several princesses in private referred to Brown as "Mama's lover."
John Brown with his dog
But Sir Henry Ponsonby, who had been the royal secretary, said: "Brown must have been the Queen's favourite, but only a servant." What started out as a joke was led astray and became slander."
The gossip spread around, and it wasn't until 1872, when Brown was involved in foiling a plot to assassinate the Queen, that public opinion shifted and he was praised as a loyal hero. In this way, Brown was able to continue to serve at Victoria's side until his death from illness 11 years later.
When John Brown died, the Queen's handwritten letter read: "Brown was her best and most faithful servant and her most trusted friend, and his death devastated her."
After Brown's death, he was replaced by Abdul Karim from India, so queen Victoria's twilight love story with an Indian maid replaced the previous version, which shows how much water can be squeezed out of these stories.
Abdul Karim with the Queen
The queen is also a human being, so why do you have to set her up a person who is loyal to her feelings? Victoria lived to be 82 years old, and Albert died at the age of 42, given that the age difference between the two cousins was only 3 months, which means that Victoria lived alone for the next 40 years. If she had some ultra-friendly relationship with other men, it was completely understandable.
After all, other male kings were widowed for a few months. Victoria's uncle Leopold I was given the name of his beloved Charlotte because he had married an actor who resembled his ex-wife, Princess Charlotte (Princess Charlotte died in childbirth), but this did not delay him from marrying Louise, the eldest daughter of King Louis Philippe of France, as his second wife (the actress he had previously married was never recognized because she was not intermarried).
The children of Queen Victoria
The world still treats female rulers too harshly, first of all, from the perspective of men, hoping that they will be loyal and that it is best to keep them for the rest of their lives after their husbands die. Therefore, a strong male ruler will be considered strong and attractive; if a female ruler is more charming, she will be crowned with the name of a sexual court, and the specific characters can refer to Wu Zetian and Catherine II. Victoria was also unable to escape from this circle, and some people praised her and Albert's husband as a "fairy couple", and the two raised their eyebrows, living a harmonious and happy life. So after Albert's death, she could not get out of the pain of bereavement for the rest of her life. Others believe that Victoria and the maids have strange and twisted feelings, not only signing a remarriage with John Brown privately, but also having a relationship with the Indian maid after Brown's death.
I can't tell which is right or wrong now, but I just think it's ridiculous. A queen who has been in charge of the Empire of the Rising Sun for more than 60 years, most people, including me, are not at all interested in her governing methods and policies, and are only relishing her secret and inhuman emotional life.