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Vicky, Alice, Helena, and Beatrice were historically unique sisters, born to a sovereign who ruled over a quarter of the earth's people and who gave her name to an era: Queen Victoria. Two of these princesses would themselves produce children of immense consequence. All five would curiously come to share many of the social restrictions and familial machinations borne by nineteenth-century women of less-exulted class. Principally researched at the houses and palaces of its five subjects in London, Scotland, Berlin, Darmstadt, and Ottawa-and entertainingly written by an experienced biographer whose last book concerned Victoria's final days-Victoria's Daughters closely examines a generation of royal women who were dominated by their mother, married off as much for political advantage as for love, and finally passed over entirely with the accession of their brother Bertie to the throne. Jerrold M. Packard provides valuable insights into their complex, oft-tragic lives as daughters of their time.… (more)
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Voctoria felt her daughters, at least one at any given time, were there to serve as her servant, and wishes to find love of their own were secondary to her needs ( nice parenting). While this book focuses on the daughters, the author infers that the sons were given the shaft attention wise, odd as te eldest was going to replace Victoria upon her death.
Two of the daughters ended up in present day Germany, two imported minor royals but remained in England,,and the last married a minor Scots royal. The girls themselves were not particular trailblazers, barring Louise who tried her hand at art ( sculpting), her work can still be seen in Kensington Gardens.
The daughters legacy lies more in their children. Five of Victorias forty grandchildren ended up becoming queens or tsarinas. You can read about that generation in Julia Gelardis book Born to Rule, which makes a nice follow up to this one.
Voctoria felt her daughters, at least one at any given time, were there to serve as her servant, and wishes to find love of their own were secondary to her needs ( nice parenting). While this book focuses on the daughters, the author infers that the sons were given the shaft attention wise, odd as te eldest was going to replace Victoria upon her death.
Two of the daughters ended up in present day Germany, two imported minor royals but remained in England,,and the last married a minor Scots royal. The girls themselves were not particular trailblazers, barring Louise who tried her hand at art ( sculpting), her work can still be seen in Kensington Gardens.
The daughters legacy lies more in their children. Five of Victorias forty grandchildren ended up becoming queens or tsarinas. You can read about that generation in Julia Gelardis book Born to Rule, which makes a nice follow up to this one.
Which is not to say they did not try. Vicky pushed for a more liberal, united Germany all her life, to the detriment of her reputation in Prussia and her relationship with her eldest son, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II. (Reading this book made me want to punch Bismark in the face like a billion times.) Alice founded hospitals and tended to the sick with her own hands; her influence lent credence to the emerging nursing style. Lenchen became a drug addict. Louise was the first British royal to be publicly educated (she forced her mother to let her take art classes) and became a beloved society dame who did a good deal of charity work. Beatrice was the Queen of England's right hand for decades.
But reading this book, I was not so much impressed by their accomplishments as by their tragedies. Child after child dead of hemophilia, disease, or killed in wars. Loveless marriages. Used as political pawns and figure-heads, with all the appearance of power and none of it. Vicky and Alice apparently had no friends (certainly they were allowed none in childhood); the younger daughters managed to make only a few. No control over where they lived. Bound by endless, astoundingly strict protocol. Vicky watched her husband die an agonized death that took years, then suffered through death by breast cancer under doctors who refused to give her pain killers. Assasination attempts (even on their wedding days). And hideous, horrifying clothing. No one needs that many ruffles!
The story of Queen Victoria's family is a fascinating one, filled with odd tidbits. (Such as, Louise's father-in-law wanted to be buried with his first wife. His third wife was so annoyed with this that she threatened to cut her late husband's heart out so she could bury part of him with her, too.) And I did enjoy this book: it's pretty well organized, the style is readable but not gossipy, and the research is definitely there. The problem is, Packard's biases shine through immediately. He hates women of intelligence or power--as controlling as Victoria was, sure there was *something* positive about her? And surely Alfred didn't do *all* the ruling for her? Their eldest, Vicky, is continually described in the most horrid terms possible: her intelligence is described as "flamboyant" and "egocentric;" even as a child Packard has nothing but harsh words for her. He blames her for the cluster-fuck that was the Prussian royal family--even though she was a TEENAGER when she entered it, her parents-in-law were monstrous, and Prussia was under control of the manipulative chancellor, who worked for decades to turn the country and her family against Vicky. (This is not supposition--it's a matter of historical record that the most powerful man in Prussia did everything in his power to cause her pain.) The only women Packard has kind words for are the ones who selflessly devoted themselves to other people in the least political fashion possible. And even those women, he makes careful note of their weight and how they looked like sausages.
The history of Victoria's daughters is a fascinating one, but this is not the book to read it in. Look for something a bit less overwhelmingly sexist.
This is a nonfiction book about Queen Victoria and her daughters. Of course, there is info about her and her entire family, but the focus is on her five daughters: Vicky, Alice, Helena (known as Lenchen), Louise, and Beatrice. They all had very different personalities. Of course, Victoria
3.5 stars for enjoyability – that is, it was good – but I gave it that little extra because of the sheer amount of information included. I do feel like this is a really good source to find information about Queen Victoria’s daughters. There were a few parts where I lost interest, mostly with German/Prussian politics, but I can see why it was included with Vicky married to a future Kaiser, so it absolutely affected her life.
Being Canadian myself, I was interested in Louise and Lorne’s years in Canada; also of interest were where a couple of the province and city names came from. I did find it started to get confusing when the focus started being on Victoria’s grandchildren. Partly because of the common, repeated names, but also just because there got to be so many! Luckily, the author did find ways to refresh my memory. I found it interesting at the end as the generations passed on to the next monarch(s) – something we usually don’t think about – those sisters became further and further away from the crown every time it passed on.
He did do a good job of keeping the vast numbers of family members straight, and of maintaining a timeline over a lot of different courts and countries.