In 1817, a great calamity befell the British Royal Family. The
heir to the throne, Princess Charlotte, was dead after giving
birth to a stillborn child. The daughter of the infamous Prinny,
soon to be George IV, Charlotte was the hope of the nation. She
was married to a handsome prince, Leopold of Saxe Coburg
Saalfeld (later King Leopold I of Belgium), and she was
extremely well-liked. This kind of popularity was a major
accomplishment for the Royal Family, and, unfortunately, the
same could not be said for Prinny's eleven other brothers and
sisters. More importantly none of these siblings, including
seven brothers, had had legitimate issue to succeed to the
throne after the death of Charlotte.

The race was on. George's middle-aged brothers scrambled to
make legitimate alliances, and thence, to produce - mostly so
that Parliament would pay their overwhelming debts. Two years
later, the race was just barely won by Edward, Duke of Kent,
who, married to Victoria of Saxe Coburg Saalfeld (the sister of
Leopold), finally give the nation the much desired heir -- little
Alexandrina Victoria, in 1819.

Drina, as she was known, grew up in a fatherless household,
(Edward died before she was two.) where she was smothered
and bullied by her mother, the duchess, but brought up lovingly
by Baroness Lenhzen, her nanny/governess.

In 1820, George III (The Madness of King George) finally died
after a long and tumultuous reign. His son, George succeeded
him. Very little marks George's tenure. He was far more
interesting when he was the Prince Regent. He is best known
for his mistresses, his social life, and his tremendously
disastrous marriage (which produced Charlotte) rather than for
his governance. The nation actually drew a sigh of relief when
George died in 1830.

George was succeeded by his brother, William. William IV was
an ignorant, tactless, but good natured man, who had spent
most of his life in the navy and had the tattoos and vocabulary
to prove it. He also had a mistress, Mrs. Dorothy Jordan (the
Mrs. was honorary), and with her, ten little Fitzclarences. In the
race to produce an heir, Mrs. Jordan was summarily jettisoned,
and William was able to convince Adelaide of Saxe Meiningin,
to marry him. Considering the thirty year age difference, the
illegitimate children falling out of the bushes, and William's
recorded unattractiveness, Adelaide must have been someone
more imbued with a sense of royal duty than, even, Queen
Mary. Be that as it may, Adelaide tried desperately to have
living children - all those Fitzclarences seemed to be a living
reproach to her. She never succeeded.

Adelaide was a good aunt to Drina. She thought her a nice little
girl, and would have loved to see more of her. The Duchess of
Kent, however, would have none of this. She was determined to
keep sweet little Drina away from the dissolute Hanoverians . . .
.

William, whose reign began with great promise (any reign after
George's could start with nothing but), ended ignominiously,
and without fanfare. He died in 1837, with the country, again,
relieved. It was now over and the sons and daughters of King
George III, would no longer be the primary worry of the nation.

Little Drina, now Victoria, became Queen, and celebrated this
milestone by taking her bed out of her mother's room, and
announcing that from now on she would sleep alone. She did,
when awakened and told of the death of her Uncle, say , "I will
be good", but most historians don't think she was speaking
about eating her vegetables or getting to bed on time. Rather,
they believe she was speaking about the basic fact that she was
determined to be a good ruler. A marked contrast, then, to her
Uncles and Grandfather.

And so she was. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, the
longest reign by a British Monarch. She was also probably one
of the most beloved of them, a true symbol of the nation. She
had only just reached her majority when she became queen,
and was, naturally, seeking advice outisde the confines of her
smothering "handlers". That advice came in the form of
Victoria's first romantic attachment, Lord Melbourne. Lord M.,
the unhappy husband of Lady Caroline Lamb, was Victoria's
first prime minister. Almost from the beginning, dear Lord M.
took the job of molding the young Queen, and it was, for him, a
labor of love. Many compare it to the role that Winston
Churchill played for the young Queen Elizabeth II. Lord M.,
however, was more attached, and stepped back regretfully when
dear Albert came on the scene. She married her beloved Albert
(also of Saxe Coburg Saalfeld, and who was her first cousin).
Unlike her predecessors, Victoria had no problem
producing the heir and many spares. She and Albert had nine
children and more than forty-four grandchildren.

The Queen's first child was the Princess Royal, Victoria
(1840-1901). She was an incredibly brilliant child, the apple of
her father's eye, who far outshone her brothers and sisters. She
was given a liberal education under the benign care of her
father and excelled in all her lessons. A difficult act for the rest
of the children to follow. She married Prince Frederick of
Prussia in 1858 and had eight children of her own - the most
significant of which was William II), the infamous Kaiser
Wilhelm who led his country and the world into the Great War
of 1914. Vicky, as she was known, eventually became Empress,
herself, in 1888 - for three months. After Fritz's death, Vicky
was continually badgered by Willy, who had a love-hate
relationship with his mother. She eventually died the same year
as her mother, from cancer of the spine.

The second child was the wished for heir, Albert Edward
(1841-1910). Bertie, later Edward VII, was not as brilliant as
his sister. Although bright enough, he was a continual
disappointment to his father. His mother worried constantly
that he was a throw-back to his Hanoverian Uncles. It seemed a
self-fulfilling prophecy, and Bertie lived, if not a dissolute life, a
highly social one, full of mistresses, parties, and very little
statecraft. (This last was not entirely his fault since Victoria
would never consent to let him see state papers, nor would she
give him any useful job.) He married the beautiful Princess
Alexandra of Denmark, and they had five children, two boys and
three girls. The first son, Prince Albert Edward, known as Eddy,
died as a young man - to the relief of the nation. Not only was
Eddy slow (his tutors said he seemed to barely know the
meaning of the word "read"), but he was involved in several
homosexual scandals that were immediately hushed up. He
was, poor man, even suspected as the serial murderer, Jack the
Ripper. Frankly, he was much too stupid to have committed
these crimes.

The second son was George - a nice, healthy young man, who
took over the succession when his brother died, and also his
brother's fiancee - Princess Mary of Teck, later Queen Mary.

The next child in the Wettin family, (this was actually Albert's
family name) was a girl - Alice (1843-1878). A bright child, she
would have shone in any family who didn't have the brilliant
Vicky as a sibling. She was married to the heir to the Grand
Duchy of Hesse, Louis, and had five children that grew to
adulthood. The princesses of Hesse, Victoria, Elizabeth and
Irene, were renowned for their beauty and called "the Three
Graces". A much younger fourth sister was also an incredible
beauty - the future doomed Empress Alexandra of Russia. The
oldest sister, Victoria, is significant as the mother of Lord
Mountbatten and grandmother of the present Duke of
Edinburgh. Alice, a tireless social reformer and follower of
Florence Nightingale, had the sad distinction of the being the
first of Queen Victoria's children to die at the age of 35.

Following Alice, came Alfred ("Affie") (1844-1900), later Duke of
Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg Gotha. Affie married the only
daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, the Grand Duchess
Marie, the richest princess in the world. They had four
daughters and one son. One of their daughters, Marie ("Missy"),
eventually became Queen of Romania. She thought herself the
most beautiful queen in Europe, and she was probably right.
She also wrote perhaps the most entertaining and best written
set of royal memoirs. Her sister, Victoria Melita ("Ducky"),
became the Grand Duchess Kyril of Russia, and it is her
great-grandson that is one of the foremost contenders to the
Romanov throne.

Helena was born in 1846 and died in 1923. She had four
children, none of which produced any legitimate issue. She was
married to the much older and very bald Prince Christian of
Schleswig-Holstein. Her life was spent alternating with her
younger sister, as companion to her mother, the Queen.

Louise followed in 1848. She had the distinction of marrying a
commoner - John Campbell, the Duke of Argyll. The marriage,
unfortunately, was not a success. It is implied in many sources
that the Duke was homosexual, and there was no issue to the
marriage. Louise was probably the prettiest of Queen Victoria's
daughters and wasn't above making mischief in the family. She
died in 1939.

Queen Victoria's favorite son, Arthur was born in 1850 and died
in 1942. He was married to Princess Louise of Prussia
producing two daughters and a son. His daughters, like the
Hesses and the Edinburghs, were quite beautiful. Princess
Margaret ("Daisy") went on to become Crown Princess of
Sweden, while Princess Patricia ("Pat") married a commoner,
Sir Alexander Ramsay and enjoyed a long and happy marriage.

Leopold (1853-1884) was the Queen's last son. It was here that
the infamous strain of hemophilia appeared. There are many
theories as to how and where the gene originated, none of them
conclusive. The Queen, for one, insisted that no one in her
family was responsible. Others suggested that it may have
come from somewhere in the Prince's family. Many today,
however, hypothecate that somehow the gene mutated in the
Queen and was then passed on to her son Leopold, and to the
progeny of three of her daughters. Alice of Hesse passed it on to
at least two of her daughters - Alexandra, of course, and Irene,
who had three boys, two of whom had the disease. Beatrice, the
youngest of the queen's children, also passed it on to two of her
three sons. Vicky was said to be a carrier, but neither of her
living sons had the disease. Leopold, living a very quiet life,
was, perhaps, the most intellectual of the Queen's sons, the
most cultured and artistic, and more important, a favorite to
all. Leopold married Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont, and had two
children, Alice, who was the last grandchild to die in 1981, and
Charles Edward, who eventually succeeded to the Duchy of
Saxe-Coburg Gotha - inherited from his Uncle Affie and his
grandfather, Albert. Leopold died at the age of 31 after falling
down the stairs.

Lastly, (and the Queen must have breathed a sigh of relief - she
absolutely hated being pregnant and giving birth - she thought
it so animalistic), there was Beatrice (1857-1947). This last
child was petted and spoiled and expected to stay home with
mama as her lifelong companion. Victoria saw no need for
Beatrice to marry, and every need for her to share her eternal
mourning of dear Albert, who died in 1861. (If you understand
that Victoria kept herself in mourning for forty years, and that
her grandson patterned himself after her, rather than his father,
you may understand the demeanor of today's Windsors better.)
Beatrice, however, defied her mother. When she and Prince
Henry of Battenburg met, it was easy to understand. Henry
("Liko") was one of the handsomest princes in Europe - by any
standard. It always seems that when a prince or princess is
called handsome or beautiful, one can expect them to be
passably or even mildly good-looking. However, in the case of
the Battenburg Princes, no such dissembling was necessary.
They were called the most handsome princes in Europe - and
there were four of them (count 'em). One married one of the
beautiful Hessian Princesses, Victoria, and was the grandfather
of Prince Philip, and Henry was given permission to marry
Beatrice, after promising to live with the Queen at Windsor.

The Queen was thrilled with this last son-in-law. He was so
good-looking, and the Queen loved good-looking men. In some
ways, he took the place of her beloved John Brown, who had
died in 1883. She was, therefore, as devastated as her daughter
when he died in 1896. (Henry had finally managed to get away
from Windsor, going on an expedition to the Gold Coast - he
caught malaria and died . . . and was sent home in a barrel of
rum.)

Here, perhaps, a few words about the somewhat infamous
Brown would be in order. After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria
went into deep Victorian mourning. Looking into mourning of
the time, you can only imagine how deep that was. In the
Queen's case, some feared for her sanity. Then, in 1864, she
brought the gillie, John Brown, down from Balmoral, to be her
personal attendant (a gillie is a male attendant on a Highland
Chieftain - today it's mostly an attendant on sportsman).
Initially, he was summoned because dear Albert liked him,
however, later, he began to play an extremely positive role in
slowly pulling the Queen out of seclusion. During Brown's
tenure, there were many rumors of romance and marraige. One
need only look at the Queen's character more than cursorily to
know that this was nonsense. Nevertheless, the aristocracy of
the time, bored with no glittering court to attend (except
Bertie's Marlborough House Set), maliciously ate up the gossip.
It was true that Brown was powerful in the Queen's household
and that he spoke to the Queen and members of her family any
way he wished. It was also true that Victoria considered him a
close personal friend, as she did her dresser, Annie Macdonald.
At his death, she asked Tennyson to immortalize him in verse,
and had to be tactfully restrained from publishing her own
personal memories of John Brown.

After the longest reign in British history, Queen Victoria died in
January of 1901, several months shy of her eighty-second
birthday. Her contributions to both the public life of Britain and
the private lives of the royal families of Europe were immense.

To the Empire, she brought a dignity, style, and most
important, a validation of the monarchy that had not been
witnessed since, perhaps, Elizabeth I. She wisely used her
powerless position to unite the purposes of much of the
political strife that went on during the 19th century - her style
of working with her prime ministers, especially Disraeli and
Melbourne, and took the Royal Family and put it on the level of
the Middle Class. They had the distince impression that she
was like them, and her family was, too. One has only to look at
the lithographs of the 1840's and '50s to see this "typical"
middle class family, imparting and symbolizing middle class
values for Britain, although, of course, nothing could be further
than the truth.

Today it is her great-great granddaughter that rules the United
Kingdom, and Elizabeth's consort, Philip, is Victoria's
great-great grandson. Whether or not the "normalcy" of
Victoria's reign, which was brilliantly illuminated by the late
Princess Diana, will ever return to the monarchy, perhaps in
the person of Prince William, is debatable, but many in
England are hopeful.