Queen Victoria: The real story of her 'domestic bliss' - BBC News BBC News Queen Victoria: The real story of her 'domestic bliss' 1 January 2013 Read more about sharing. Close share panel To the outside world Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their family seemed the embodiment of domestic bliss, but the reality was very different, writes historian Jane Ridley. The marriage between the two first cousins - the young Queen and the clever, handsome German prince - was a love match. Over 17 years, nine children were born: four boys and five girls. Paintings and photographs projected an image of a virtuous, devoted young couple surrounded by obedient, fair-haired children. Though sexually infatuated, the young couple were locked into a power struggle. Albert took over more and more of Victoria's work as queen as her pregnancies forced her to step aside. Victoria was conflicted: she admired her "angel" for his talents and ability but she deeply resented being robbed of her powers as queen. There were terrible rows and Albert was terrified by Victoria's temper tantrums. Always at the back of his mind was the fear she might have inherited the madness of George III .

While she stormed around the palace, he was reduced to putting notes under her door. Though she was a prolific mother, Victoria loathed being pregnant. Repeated pregnancies she considered "more like a rabbit or a guinea pig than anything else and not very nice". Find out more Queen Victoria's Children is broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday 1, Wednesday 2, and Thursday 3 January at 21:00 GMT Breastfeeding she especially disliked, finding it a disgusting practice. And she was not a doting mother - she thought it her duty to be "severe". She didn't do affection. Relations with her eldest son Bertie, later Edward VII, were especially fraught. From the start he was a disappointment for Victoria. Like all the royal princes, he was educated at home with a tutor. Bertie did badly at lessons and his parents considered him a halfwit. Victoria remarked: "Handsome I cannot think him, with that painfully small and narrow head, those immense features and total want of chin." When Bertie was 19, he spent time training with the army in Ireland and a prostitute named Nellie Clifden was smuggled into his bed.

When the story reached Albert, he was devastated and wrote Bertie a long, emotional letter lamenting his "fall". He visited his son at Cambridge and the two went for a long walk together in the rain. Albert returned to Windsor a sick man and three weeks later he was dead. Albert probably died of typhoid. Another theory is that he suffered from Crohn's disease , but for years afterwards Victoria blamed Bertie for his death. She could not bear to have him near her. "I never can or shall look at him without a shudder," she wrote. Head of a vast empire Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819 Her reign saw huge industrial expansion and the growth of a worldwide empire In 1877 she became empress of India. Her empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and large parts of Africa Life during Queen Victoria's reign For the next 40 years - the rest of her life - Victoria wore black mourning and only appeared in public rarely and reluctantly. To her people, the tiny "widow of Windsor" seemed a pathetic, grief-stricken figure. The truth was very different. Though Victoria was invisible, her need to control her children was almost pathological.

She set up a network of spies and informers who reported back to her on her children's doings. When Bertie married the Danish princess Alexandra, Victoria instructed the doctor to report back on every detail of her health, including her menstrual cycle. Court balls were scheduled so that they did not coincide with Alexandra's periods. Victoria's eldest daughter Vicky married Fritz, the heir to the throne of Prussia, when she was 17. She was the mother of Kaiser William II. Even in faraway Germany, Vicky could not escape her mother's interfering. Victoria wrote almost daily and her micromanaging made her daughter ill with worry. When Vicky announced she was pregnant, Victoria replied: "The horrid news... has upset us dreadfully". Vicky and her younger sister Alice, also married to a German prince, colluded to defy their mother. Secretly, they breastfed their babies. When Victoria discovered, she was furious and called them cows. Image caption Prince Albert's practice of putting up Christmas trees at Windsor became well known in the 1840s Being a daughter of Queen Victoria was like playing an endless game of musical chairs - there was always one who was out of favour. There was always a favourite, too.

Victoria's changes of mind were bewildering and her rages could be terrifying. She was not only her children's mother but also their sovereign and she never let them forget it. She kept her youngest child Beatrice (known as Baby) at home; she was terrified of her mother. Victoria wanted Beatrice to remain unmarried. When Beatrice announced that she was engaged to a handsome German prince, Victoria refused to speak to her for six months and agreed only on condition that the couple lived with her. The rebel was Louise. Flirtatious, attractive and feisty, she refused to marry a German prince. Instead, she chose Lord Lorne, the son of the Duke of Argyll. This turned out to be a mistake - the marriage was childless and unhappy and Lorne was rumoured to be gay. Victoria controlled her sons just as tightly. Leopold, who inherited haemophilia, suffered especially. Victoria described him as "a very common-looking child". Bertie never broke off relations with his mother - and when he eventually succeeded her as king at the age of 59, he did a very good job She tried to make him live the life of an invalid, wrapping him in cotton wool.

As a boy, he was bullied by the Highland servant who looked after him, but Victoria refused to listen to Leopold's complaints. She wouldn't let him leave home but he finally won the long battle to study at Oxford. He died aged 30. Victoria wanted her sons to grow up like Prince Albert. The only one who resembled his father was Prince Arthur, the third of the boys, later Duke of Connaught. He was her favourite - he did what he was told and had a successful military career. The son with whom Victoria quarrelled most was the eldest, Bertie. She once remarked that the trouble with Bertie was that he was too like her. She was right. Like his mother, Bertie was greedy and highly sexed, with an explosive temper. But he possessed one supreme gift - personal charm. As Prince of Wales, Bertie lurched from one scandal to another. In spite of his repeated requests, Victoria never allowed him access to government documents. But the story had an unexpected ending. Bertie never broke off relations with his mother. When he eventually succeeded her as king at the age of 59, he did a very good job.

He modernised the monarchy, which was one reason why the British monarchy survived World War I when so many others did not. Perhaps Queen Victoria was not such a bad mother after all. Jane Ridley's Bertie: A Life of Edward VII is published by Chatto & Windus. Queen Victoria's Children is broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday 1, Wednesday 2, and Thursday 3 January at 21:00 GMT You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook PBS : Empires : Queen Victoria : Her Majesty : Her Children Royal Society Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (1840-1901) She married Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in 1858. Friedrich became the emperor of Germany, but died after only three months. Their eldest son became Wilhelm II of Germany (also known as Kaiser Bill of World War I). This obviously caused friction within the Royal Family -- it is claimed that Queen Victoria's favorite grandson was Wilhelm. Princess Victoria had eight children in total. Her daughter Sophie went on to marry a Greek Prince and later became Queen of Greece. Princess Victoria died August 5th, 1901, only eight months after the death of Queen Victoria.

Prince Albert Edward Wettin (1841-1910) Prince Albert became King Edward VII in 1901. He took the family name of his father, Prince Albert, and hence on his coronation the monarchy moved from the House of Hanover to the House of Wettin. In 1917 his son, George V, in an outburst of anti-German feelings engendered by the First World War, changed the name of his house and family from Wettin to Windsor. Victoria and Albert imposed a strict regime upon Edward; this had the opposite effort than the one Victoria and Albert had hoped for, and he rebelled constantly with indulgence in food, drink, women, gambling and sport. He married at the age of 22 to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. She turned a blind eye to his extramarital activities, which continued well into his sixties, despite the fact he was implicated in several divorce cases. He had six children in total -- Albert, George, Louise, Victoria, Maude and John. Maude went onto marry into the Norwegian royal family and became the Queen Consort of Norway.

Princess Alice Maude Mary (1843-1878) When she was 17, Queen Victoria decided it was time for Princess Alice to marry. She personally chose Prince Ludwig and Hesse as an ideal choice for her third daughter. Ludwig went on to become the Grand Duke Louis XIV. Within six months of arranging the introduction, they were married. Unfortunately, the marriage began in the shadow of Prince Albert's death (he had died shortly after arranging the introduction between Alice and Ludwig). Alice went onto to have seven children -- Victoria, Elizabeth, Ernst-Ludwig, Irene, Friedrich Wilheim (Frittie), Alix and Marie. Again, tragedy was to strike with the accidental death of her son Frittie. Alice saw her toddler run to the window. To her horror, she found out too late that the window was not locked. The toddler fell 20 feet and landed on his head. Frittie was dead within a few hours. This lost weighed deeply on Alice and she went through a great depression. She mourned the loss until her own death, and always talked about being reunited with Frittie in heaven. Her daughter Alix married Nicholas II the last Russian tzar.

Prince Alfred Ernest Albert (1844-1900) Prince Alfred married the Grand Duchess Marie, daughter of Tzar Alexander II of Russia. He became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. His eldest daughter Marie married the crown Prince of Romania, who later became King Ferdinand I. Alfred was probably the most widely travelled of all his brothers and sisters. In fact, he was the first member of the Royal family to visit Australia. Unfortunately, during his in 1868, there was an attempt on his life in Sydney. An Irishman made the attempted assassination, and when it emerged that the would be assassin was a Catholic, it only helped harden bigotry towards the Irish Catholics. Alfred's mother was to outlive him by a year -- his death in 1900 was due to cancer of the throat. Princess Helena Augusta Victoria (1846-1923) Princess Helena was also known as "Lenchen." She was born a "blue baby," possibly because her mother was at the height of anxiety over the loss of her first trusted Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. In 1866, she married Prince Frederick Christain of Schleswig-Holstein.

Her name lives on in today's royal family -- one of Princess Eugenia's middle names is Helena. Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848-1939) Although it's not unusual for British royals to marry outsiders today, this was not the case in 1871, when Princess Louise married John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, a commoner who would later become the Duke of Argyll. Princess Louise was determined when she got to marriageable age not to follow the route her sister had; Princess Victoria had married a German Prince, and her royal duties stopped her from pursuing her artistic aspirations. As it turned out, Princess Louise's engagement to John was supported not only by her mother, but also by Disraeli. Unexpectedly, the match also pleased the British public, which had feared yet another German marriage, which in the general population feelings had already occurred too often. Her husband became prominent in public life as an MP, and later on became governor-general of Canada. It was during this time that Lake Louise near Laffan in the Rocky Mountains was named after her. The couple never had children, but despite this lack in their lives, Louise and John led an active and happy life together.

This was undoubtedly one of the great-unsung royal love matches. When her husband died in 1914, Louise went into mourning -- not quite as severe as her mother's had been for Albert, but severe enough. She became something of a recluse until her own death in 1939 at the age of 91. Prince Arthur William Patrick (1850-1942) Prince Arthur married Princess Louise Margarete of Prussia. It was said that Arthur was the Queen's favorite son. He felt destined for the army from a very early age, and he spent a great many years in the armed forces. He rose in rank and became promoted in 1902 to the rank of Field Marshal. Due to his family ties, as well as interest, he became very involved in German affairs, and this may have been the reasoning behind his transfer in 1911 to Canada, which distanced him from the military aspects of a deteriorating German situation. In Canada, he became the Governor General. He had two daughters and a son.

Their younger daughter, Princess Patricia, is well known to Canadians as Lady Patricia Ramasey, and gave her name to a famous Canadian army regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. The Prince was a freemason. He became Grand Master in 1901 when his brother, who had held that post previously, became King. He served as Grand Master until his death in 1942. Prince Leopold George Duncan (1853-1884) Prince Leopold married Princess Helena Frederica of Waldeck. He was a hemophiliac, and died two years after his marriage. His son became Duke of Saxe-Coburg. He is considered by many to have been the most intelligent and probably most interesting of Victoria's sons. He had an immense thirst for life, which despite his illnesses (he also was an epileptic), studied at Oxford and became friends with Lewis Carroll, John Ruskin and Oscar Wilde. He acted as an unofficial secretary of the Queen, so it is interesting to conject what his influence was on her. His brief experience of happiness during his marriage was cut short by his death.

Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria (1857-1944) Princess Beatrice was only four years old when her father, Prince Albert, died. Almost immediately, Victoria turned to her youngest child as her sole confidant. Victoria's aim was to keep Beatrice at her side at all times, and managed to snuff out an affair that could have happen between Beatrice and Louise Napoleon when Beatrice was 16 years old. She would have to wait a further 11 years before she found her love match in Prince Henry of Battenberg. They meet at a family wedding and quickly fell in love, but Victoria was violently opposed to the engagement, and it took eight months of arguments for Victoria to finally to relent and allow her daughter to marry. The only condition was that they should always live with her in Britain. Henry, who was from a poor German royal family, was only too happy to agree to this. Over the next few years, their only activity was producing children. Unfortunately, Beatrice was to pass on the hemophiliac gene to her sons, and her daughter, Victoria, who became a carrier, too, introduced the gene into the Spanish royal family.

Prince Henry persuaded the Queen to let him leave the country with an expedition to Ashanti in Ghana; he was never to return, as he contracted fatal malaria while in Africa. Beatrice continued a quiet life living in Osborne Palace on the Isle of Wight, and maintained her role as the Queen's confidant. This was something her elder brother, Edward, could never forgive her for, for he felt as the future King, it should have been him who his mother turned to. Consequently, on her death Edward made it difficult for Beatrice to stay at Osborne Palace, and she had to live on a cottage on the estate. She ended her days in bad health, a constant sufferer of rheumatism, and died in 1944 aged 87 years old. Loading Page...

Queen Victoria - Biography - IMDb Queen Victoria Biography Showing all 46 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (2) | Trivia (31) | Personal Quotes (6) Overview (5) 5' (1.52 m) Mini Bio (1) Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 to the Duke and Duchess of Kent. Victoria as she was called was the granddaughter of King George III. When she was less than a year old her father died leaving her mother broke and at the mercy of her brother Leopold, the King of Belgium. Victoria lead a sheltered life in Kensington Palace while growing up. She was not allowed to see anybody besides her mother, half-sister and brother, and the comptroller of the household and reputed lover of the Duchess of Kent, Sir John Conroy. When she was 17 she met for the first time her cousins Albert and Ernest (sons of her mother's brother Ernest) The meeting went well but nothing happened. Several months later Victoria's Uncle King William IV died and she became Queen at the age of 18.

Three years later she and Albert met again and this time they fell in love. They got married on Feburary 10, 1840 and In November of that year they welcomed their first child named Victoria. In 1841 they had Albert Edward, who would be Prince of Wales and then Edward VII. Followed by Alice (b. 1843),Alfred (b. 1844), Helena (b. 1846), Louise (b. 1848) Arthur (b. 1850) and Leopold (b. 1853) and Beatrice (b. 1857.) In 1860, though something happened that brought Victoria's world to a stand-still. Her beloved husband died on December 14 after a short illness with Thyphoid. This did not hinder any plans though. Their oldest daughter had been married to the Prussian Prince Fritz for several years by then, but their daughter Alice and son Bertie were almost to be married at the time of their father's death. A few months later Alice married Prince Louis of Hess and several months after that Bertie married Prince Alexandra of Denmark.

For the rest of her life Victoria missed Albert and insisted in a funereal like atmosphere in her household. The only thing that could lift her spirits where her 40 grandchildren. On that fateful December 14 of 1878 Victoria lost her daughter, Alice, and mourned her. After several months though she recovered enough to concoct an idea. She would have her son in law Louis marry her daughter Beatrice so that her several grandchildren could be near her. This did not happen though. On January 22, 1901 Victoria died in Osbourn House in the arms of her grandson Kaiser William II. Her children and grandchildren stretched all over the globe, reigning as sovereigns or consorts. From the UK, Germany, Romania, Russia, Greece, and Spain her children and grandchildren would change the face of the world. - IMDb Mini Biography By: anonymous Spouse (1) ( 10 February 1840 - 14 December 1861) (his death) (9 children) Trade Mark (2) Her phrase "We are not amused" Black Clothing Trivia (31) Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India.

Was the longest reigning monarch in British history (64 years), until she was surpassed by her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II on September 9, 2015. Mother of King Edward VII , Victoria, Princess Royal, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Mother-in-law of Queen Alexandra . Great-great-grandmother of: Prince Philip , Edward Windsor , King Michael , George Earl of Harewood , King Peter II of Yugoslavia , Queen Elizabeth II , Princess Margaret , King Harald V , Juan Carlos de Borbón , Margrethe II , King Constantine II , Sofía de Grecia , Princess Irene of Greece , Prinsesse Benedikte , Duke of Gloucester , and Queen Anne-Marie . Kept a painting of Prince Albert in his coffin by her bedside. Until the age of three, she spoke German only, and, according to contemporary accounts, never fully mastered English.

She later learned Italian because of her love for opera. Delivered by Marianna Theodore Charlotte Heidenreich von Siebold, the first women in Germany to earn a medical degree, and believed to be the world's first female gynecologist. Three months later, she delivered Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Victoria's future husband. Third great-grandmother of Prince Charles , Princess Anne , Prince Andrew , Edward Wessex , Viscount Linley , Sarah Armstrong-Jones , Prins Gustav af Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg , Prinsesse Alexandra af Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg , Alexander Crownprince of Yugoslavia , Kronprins Haakon , Prinsesse Märtha Louise , Kronprins Frederik , Prins Joachim , Cristina de Borbón , Elena de Borbón , King Felipe of Spain , Crown Prince Pavlos , Prince Nikolaos , Theodora Greece . Because she carried the gene for hemophilia, speculation ran rampant for decades that Victoria was not fathered by Edward Augustus, The Duke of Kent. However, researchers on her medical background believe that the disease was more likely to have resulted from genetic mutation, a by-product of royal intermarriages.

Asked Prince Albert to marry her (because she was Queen, he couldn't ask her to marry him) Her mother was Prince Albert 's aunt, and his father was her uncle. The Duke and Duchess of Kent wanted to name their daughter Georgiana Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria. However, the baby's godfather, the Prince Regent, refused to allow his (George) or his late daughter's (Charlotte Augusta) name to be bestowed upon the possible future monarch. He announced she would be named Alexandrina after her other godfather, Tsar Alexander I. Was so overcome with grief by the death of her son Prince Leopold in 1884, she was unable to walk and was in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, she was ruler of a quarter of the human race. After Albert's death, she wore only black for the rest of her life.

Fourth great-grandmother of Prince William , Prince Harry Windsor , Zara Tindall , Peter Phillips, Princess Beatrice , Prins Christian , Princess Eugenie , Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y Borbón , Victoria Federica de Marichalar y Borbón , Juan Urdangarín Borbón , Pablo Urdangarín Borbón , Miguel Urdangarín Borbón , Prins Nikolai , and Prins Felix . On September 22, 1896 - having reigned for 59 years and 97 days - she surpassed her grandfather King George III as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. On September 9, 2015, her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II surpassed her as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. When she first visited Benjamin Disraeli at Hughenden Manor, she ordered the legs of her dining chair to be cut so that her feet would touch the floor when she dined. This chair can still be found in the Manor today. She, Prince George , and Princess Augusta of Cambridge were the grandchildren of King George III.

Prince George's and Princess Augusta's niece, Queen Mary , married Victoria's grandson, King George V . Buried at Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park, London. [February 1901] The first British monarch to be filmed, during her autumn holiday in Balmoral in 1896. Also appearing were the infant Prince Edward (later Duke of Windsor ), Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia. Dedicated the Royal Albert Hall to the memory of Prince Albert . Kaiser Wilhelm II - Biography - IMDb Kaiser Wilhelm II Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (13) Overview (4) Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert Hohenzollern von Preußen Nicknames Willie Mini Bio (1) Kaiser William II was born on January 27, 1859 to a Prince and Princess of Prussia. His mother was the daughter of Queen Victoria . He grew up like any Prussian Prince, except for an arm that was deformed from birth. He admired his grandparents who became Kaiser and Empress when he was small.

He also admired his English Grandmother Queen Victoria as well as Otto von Bismarck . During his formative years he had to deal with having brothers and sisters. His brother Henry even got married to their cousin Irene (their Aunt Alice's daughter). Because of the attention his parents gave to his arm he grew to detest them. When William was in his late teens he fell in love with his cousin (the daughter of his Aunt Alice) but she did not love him and got married to Grand Duke Serge of Russia. A few years later he got married to a granddaughter of his grandmother's half-sister. They had several children. In 1888 when his father died he raided his desk to find anything that may have incriminated his father in something, but all that was found was papers about how bad he had been in his life. He was with his grandmother Queen Victoria when she died in 1901. Later that year he lost his mother as well. He did the same thing to his mother that he did with his father with the same results. Vickie had given all her papers to the British ambassador to Berlin a few days before she died.

After his mother died he continued to rule Germany in a back handed manner, and did not like the fact that his Uncle Edward was more powerful than he was. He did not like the fact that he was part of starting World War One because it pitted him against cousins, aunts, and uncles all over Europe and the Americas. His response to his cousin changing their last name to Windsor was that he would like to see the Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. After the war he had to give up his throne and he went to the Netherlands, where after the death of his first wife he married a second. He stayed married to his second wife till he died at the age of 82 in 1941. - IMDb Mini Biography By: CR amended by garryq Spouse (2) ( 27 February 1881 - 11 April 1921) (her death) (7 children) Trivia (13) The Kaiser's left arm was deformed at birth due to damage from a midwife: some have theorized that this caused him to overcompensate later in life and become the militaristic king that he would show in WW1.

The impact of Wilhelm's abdication sent youngest son, Prince Joachim, into a deep depression. Unable to accept his new status as a commoner, he shot himself on July 18, 1920. Cousin of Tsarina Alexandra , Queen Victoria Eugenia , Princess Alice , Prince Albert Victor , Dronning Maud , and King George V . Initally supported Adolf Hitler , hoping Hitler would restore him to the throne until he learned of the Nazis' campaign against the Jews. After "The Night of the Broken Glass", Wilhelm was quoted as saying that for the first time in his life, he was ashamed to be German. Hitler ignored his request that there be no Nazi regalia at his funeral. The first grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . He was at Victoria's beside when she died. Wilhelm's grandson, Karl Franz Josef, married Hermine's daughter, Henriette, in 1940. They divorced in 1946. He and Tsar Nicholas II would send telegrams to each other in English signed "Willie" and "Nicky".

Kaiser Wilhelm II’s unnatural love for his mother ‘led to a hatred of Britain’ | The Independent Kaiser Wilhelm II’s unnatural love for his mother ‘led to a hatred of Britain’ Queen Victoria’s grandson had no time for nation from an early age Saturday 16 November 2013 00:39 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Wilhelm II with his mother the Empress Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain Henry Guttmann/Getty Images An unnatural love for his royal mother was at the heart of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s hatred of Britain in the years before the First World War, according to experts who have uncovered new evidence of an incestuous obsession. The dysfunctional relationship came after a tormented childhood, the historian behind the research claims. Wilhelm, the son of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter (also called Victoria but known as Vicky) and Prince Friedrich of Prussia, was born disabled. Queen Victoria sent one of her doctors to help deliver her grandson in 1859, but it went badly wrong, with Wilhelm suffering a permanently paralysed arm as a result of nerve damage during birth.

His childhood was spent enduring futile treatments ranging from having a freshly slaughtered hare wrapped around his arm, to electrotherapy treatment and metal restraints to keep his posture upright. “It read like a gothic horror story, it really did, and it got worse, the further I got into it,” said British historian John Röhl, emeritus professor of history at Sussex University. The German royal became fixated on his mother in an attempt to win her love, Professor Röhl argues. He has discovered letters, held in the private archive of Vicky’s great grandson Prince Rainer of Hesse, showing the Kaiser’s erotic longing for his mother. “Wilhelm gets a kind of crush on his mum. And he starts writing to her about this dream he keeps having,” he said.

In one letter, Wilhelm writes: “I have been dreaming about your dear soft, warm hands, I am awaiting with impatience the time when I can sit near you and kiss them but pray keep your promise you gave me always to give me alone the soft inside of your hand to kiss, but of course you keep this as a secret for yourself.” In another letter, he tells her: “I have again dreamt about you, this time I was alone with you in your library when you stretched forth your arms and pulled me down. Then you took off your gloves and laid your hand gently on my lips for me to kiss it...I wish you would do the same when I am in Berlin alone with you in the evening.” The contents of the correspondence will be revealed in a new documentary Queen Victoria and the Crippled Kaiser, on Channel 4 tomorrow evening at 8pm. Dr Brett Kahr, a psychologist and trustee of the Freud Museum, said: “Wilhelm is devoting his sexual energies to his mother and in particular to part of his mother’s body, her very very beautiful hands.

So I think he’s using his mother as a way of testing out these burgeoning erotic feelings in a way that almost borders on the incestuous.” His mother did not respond in kind. Instead she chose to correct her son’s grammar, and Wilhelm became bitter towards her – and her country. His hatred worsened in 1888 when a British doctor unsuccessfully attempted to treat his father, the Kaiser Friedrich, for throat cancer – prompting the outburst: “An English doctor crippled my arm and an English doctor is killing my father!” While Kaiser Wilhelm II attended Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901, barely a decade later Britain and Germany were at war. But by 1918, the Kaiser had fallen from grace, living in exile in the Netherlands, where he died in 1941. More about: The true story of Princess Vicky and her son Wilhelm | Daily Mail Online comments When Queen Victoria died in 1901 in the arms – or rather, the one good arm – of her eldest grandchild, Kaiser Bill, it was a touching scene that few would have cared to remember a few years later when Britain and Germany were embroiled in a war that devastated Europe.

The power-hungry Kaiser, who had rushed to join the family at Victoria’s deathbed, liked to boast he was her favourite grandchild (wishful thinking on his part), even as he aspired to wrest naval supremacy from Britain by building a fleet of battleships in the North Sea. But although he retained some residue of childhood fondness for his grandmother, he hated his English mother, Victoria’s eldest daughter Princess Victoria, known to her family as Vicky. It was the turbulent relationship between Princess Vicky - Queen Victoria's daughter - and her son Wilhelm that gave the future Kaiser a bitter hatred of England, claims an intriguing new documentary Now this highly dysfunctional relationship – which engendered a boundless hatred in the Kaiser for his mother’s country – is the subject of a Channel 4 documentary Queen Victoria And The Crippled Kaiser. Vicky was only 17 when she married Prussia’s dashing Crown Prince Friedrich, known as Fritz, in 1858, a passionate love match that also fulfilled the dynastic dreams of her German father Prince Albert. After becoming pregnant only three months later, she underwent a traumatic breech delivery.

A Caesarean – with extremely high maternal mortality at the time – was out of the question and the future Kaiser Wilhelm II had to be wrenched forcefully into the world. Three days later, a nursemaid noticed that his damaged left arm hung limply at his side. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share He was suffering from Erb’s palsy, a now rare form of nerve damage caused by difficult births, which paralysed his arm and stunted its growth. For Princess Vicky – whose purpose in life was to produce an heir who would strengthen the bond between Britain and Germany – her son’s deformity was shaming. ‘It’s like a narcissistic slight on herself,’ explains British historian Professor John Röhl, the Kaiser’s biographer. Determined that the damage to Wilhelm’s arm could be repaired, Vicky embarked upon a series of bizarre, almost medieval attempts to cure him. ‘It read like a Gothic horror story, and it got worse the further I got into it,’ says Professor Röhl.

It started when Wilhelm was six months old with so-called ‘animal baths’ – which seemed barbaric even then – when his damaged arm was inserted twice-weekly into a freshly slaughtered hare in the hope that its warm blood would transfer some vitality to the withered limb. Queen Victoria with her grandson Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (later Kaiser Wilhelm II) during the 1860's ‘Such a nasty, horrid idea,’ Vicky wrote to her mother, who was both shocked and amused by this old wives’ superstition. As he began walking, his good arm would be tied behind his back in an effort to force him into using his paralysed left arm, a frustrating double handicap that caused Vicky to note that, ‘He gets so fretful and cross and violent and passionate that it makes me quite nervous sometimes.’ For most of his childhood, Wilhelm was subjected to electrotherapy treatments, often daily. His head generally lolled to the right, giving rise to the most barbaric treatment of all: for two years he was regularly strapped into an appliance like a horse’s bridle with a metal rod to straighten his back, and a screw to pull his head upright.

Vicky sketched the machine to show her mother, but begged her to ensure that if the little boy visited Windsor, ‘No one should see him with this machine on... not the servants or brothers and sisters and that it should not be talked about as it would be very painful to us.’ As an adult Wilhelm too would contrive to hide his disability and in photographs always held gloves, a gun or a sword to disguise his withered arm. At 16, he was sent away with his tutor to a middle-class grammar school in Kassel, Germany. From there, in 1875, he wrote extraordinary letters to his mother – childish, but mildly erotic fantasies about kissing her hand. ‘Wilhelm gets a sort of crush on his mother,’ explains Professor Röhl. ‘And he starts writing to her about this dream he keeps having. Wilhelm II (1859-1941), third German emperor and ninth king of Prussia “I dreamt last night that I was walking with you... You put your dear arm around my waist, pulled your glove off your dear left hand, and showed me your dear beautiful hand which I instantly covered with kisses.

I wish you would do the same when I am in Berlin alone with you in the evening.” This is the last desperate attempt for her to understand him,’ says Röhl. ‘He is really opening his heart to her and saying, “Take me as I am.”’ Never again would Wilhelm reach out to his mother. When Vicky responded with 20-page letters about politics, music and art, he didn’t bother to reply – and from then on their relationship never recovered. By the time his father died of cancer in 1888 at their palace in Potsdam, Wilhelm was set in his anglophobia and loathing for his mother and her liberal English ideas. An English doctor had crippled his arm, he declared, and an English doctor had killed his father after misdiagnosing his cancer as benign: ‘One cannot have enough hatred for England.’ The new Kaiser Wilhelm II, traumatised by his upbringing, was highly strung and aggressive, quick to take offence and prone to outbursts of ranting. ‘He was like an over-sensitive seismograph, over-reacting to anything he perceived as a slight to himself and his country,’ explains Professor Röhl.

After Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, followed by Vicky’s death from cancer a few months later, Wilhelm’s ties with Britain were severed abruptly. Kaiser Bill was obsessed by rivalry with his English cousins... and Europe was on a trajectory to war. Queen Victoria And The Crippled Kaiser, tomorrow, 8pm, Channel 4. Remembering Vicky, the Queen Britain never had Remembering Vicky, the Queen Britain never had Elizabeth Norton looks back to another highly-anticipated royal birth - that of Queen Victoria's eldest child. Print HTML Part of the excitement over the royal birth was that, for the first time, boy or girl, the child would become a future monarch. Primogeniture – the succession of sons before daughters – has long been established, with Henry VIII and George III both succeeding ahead of their elder sisters. The Succession to the Crown Act, which received royal assent on 25 April 2013, changes this. When it is brought into force it will ensure that princesses born after 28 October 2011 will succeed before their younger brothers.

As it turns out, haste was unnecessary and the baby born yesterday afternoon was a boy, but for his own daughters or granddaughters, the change will be significant. Just under 172 years ago, there was a birth as highly anticipated as the current royal baby. Queen Victoria’s eldest child was born three weeks early on 21 November 1840, after a twelve hour labour, at which her husband, Prince Albert, was present. The baby, a girl named Victoria, was known as Vicky to her family. The baby’s delicate health caused friction between her parents, who disagreed over her care. After one furious row, Albert pushed a note under Victoria’s door, declaring that "Doctor Clark has mismanaged the child and poisoned her with calomel and you have starved her. I shall have nothing more to do with it, take the child away and do as you like and if she dies you will have it on your conscience." He won the battle and Vicky became the favourite of his nine children. Albert undertook her early education himself, ensuring that she was fluent in English, French and German by the age of three.

She far outstripped her brother, Bertie (the future Edward VII), who supplanted her as heir to the throne with his birth on 9 November 1841. It was never suggested that primogeniture should be abandoned in order to allow Vicky to succeed. In fact, Victoria was disappointed after the birth, declaring "never mind, the next will be a Prince". If she had known the character of her eldest son, whom she disliked, would she have changed her mind? Vicky was certainly popular and considered to be "England’s daughter" by the people. British monarchs notoriously often despised their heirs and Queen Victoria was no exception. She unfairly blamed Bertie for Albert’s death in December 1861 and thought him stupid and incapable of governing. Victoria and Vicky had a complicated relationship thanks to Albert’s favouritism, with the queen jealous of having to share her husband’s affections. Victoria did admit that her eldest daughter was "so clever (I may say wonderfully so), and so sensible" – an indication that she might have found her a more fitting heir.

If she had been Princess of Wales, Vicky would not have enjoyed the personal happiness that she found in her life when, at fifteen, she fell in love with Frederick ‘Fritz’, Crown Prince of Prussia. As heir to the throne, Vicky would never have been permitted to wed Fritz, with her marriage, in January 1858, requiring her to live in Germany. In 1888 she became Empress of Germany, although her husband, who was already ill with throat cancer, survived his accession by only 99 days. It was the thought that Vicky would become an empress and outrank her which prompted Victoria to seek her own Imperial title – that of Empress of India. Victoria was not an easy mother to have. After Albert’s death she always wore black and relied heavily on her youngest daughter, Beatrice, refusing to allow her to marry until she had promised to continue to live with her. Vicky’s relationship with her mother improved with separation. In particular, the queen urged her daughter to avoid the frequent pregnancies that she had endured in her marriage.

In spite of this, Vicky bore eight children, with her eldest, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, born on 27 January 1859. Whether mother and daughter would have been quite so close if Vicky had remained in England is questionable. Queen Victoria II would have had a brief reign. She was already suffering from breast cancer when her mother died on 22 January 1901, after a reign of more than 63 years. For Vicky, the queen Britain never had, the ending of primogeniture would not have been welcome. Unable to marry the man she loved, she would have spent her life forced into uncomfortably close proximity to her mother. Vicky died on 5 August 1901 "alive and alert" until the end, less than seven months after her mother. With increasing longevity, future monarchs will be elderly when they succeed to the throne. The ending of primogeniture would have meant a lifetime of waiting for Vicky. Will it be the same for this new royal prince or will he be permitted to make his own way in the world – something that would have been unthinkable to a mother as controlling as Queen Victoria?

Queen Victoria's Children and Grandchildren Queen Victoria's Children and Grandchildren Queen Victoria's Children and Grandchildren Family Tree of Britain's Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Queen Victoria and Her Son, the Prince of Wales, 1848. Hulton Archive/Getty Images By Jone Johnson Lewis Updated July 02, 2016. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who married on February 10, 1840 , had nine children. The marriage of the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert into other royal families, and the likelihood that her children bore a mutant gene for hemophilia, affected European history.

Children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: Victoria Adelaide Mary, Princess Royal (November 21, 1840 - August 5, 1901) Kaiser Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1888 - 1918), married Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein and Hermine Reuss of Greiz Duchess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen (1860 - 1919), married Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meinengen Prince Henry of Prussia (1862 - 1929), married Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine Prince Sigismund of Prussia (1864 - 1866) Princess Victoria of Prussia (1866 - 1929), married Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe and Alexander Zoubkoff Prince Waldemar of Prussia (1868 - 1879) Sophie of Prussia, Queen of Greece (1870 - 1932), married Constantine I of Greece Princess Margarete of Hesse (1872 - 1954), married Prince Frederick Charles of

 Hesse-Kassel continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know Albert Edward, King of England as Edward VII (November 9, 1841 - May 6, 1910) King George V (1910 - 1936), married Mary of Teck (1867 - 1953) Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, Princess Royal (1867 - 1931), married Alexander Duff, Duke of Fife Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga (1868 - 1935) Princess Maud Charlotte Mary (1869 - 1938), married Haakon VII of Norway Prince Alexander John of Wales (John) (1871 - 1871) Alice Maud Mary (April 25, 1843 - December 14, 1878) Princess Victoria Alberta of Hesse (1863 - 1950), married Prince Louis of Battenberg Elizabeth, Grand Duchess of Russia (1864 - 1918), married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia Princess Irene of H

esse (1866 - 1953), married Prince Heinrich of Prussia Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (1868 - 1937), married Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his cousin, a daughter of Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edenburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a son of Victoria and Albert), Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich Frederick (Prince Friedrich) (1870 - 1873) Alexandra, Tsarina of Russia (Alix of Hesse) (1872 - 1918), married Nicholas II of Russia Mary (Princess Marie) (1874 - 1878) Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (August 6, 1844 - 1900) married Marie Alexandrovna, Grand Duchess, Russia (1853 - 1920) Prince Alfred (1874 - 1899) Marie of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen of Romania (1875 - 1

938), married Ferdinand of Romania Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Grand Duchess (1876 - 1936), married Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (her cousin, a son of Princess Alice Maud Mary of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Victoria and Albert) Princess Alexandra (1878 - 1942), married Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Princess Beatrice (1884 - 1966), married Infante Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Duke of Galliera Helena Augusta Victoria (May 25, 1846 - June 9, 1923) Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein (1867 - 1900) Prince Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (1869 - 1931), never married but fathered a daughter Princess Helena Victoria (1870 - 1948) Princess Maria Louise (1872 - 1956), married Prince Aribert of Anhall Frederick Harold< (1876 - 1876) Louise Caroline Alberta (March 

18, 1848 - December 3, 1939) married John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, Marquis of Lorne (1845 - 1914) married Duchess Louise Margaret of Prussia (1860 - 1917) Princess Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden (1882 - 1920), married Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden Prince Arthur of Connaught and Strathearn (1883 - 1938), married Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife (herself a daughter of Princess Louise, granddaughter of Edward VII and great-granddaughter of Victoria and Albert) Princess Patricia of Connaught, Lady Patricia Ramsay (1885 - 1974), married Sir Alexander Ramsay Leopold George Duncan, Duke of Albany (April 7, 1853 - March 28, 1884) married Princess Helena Frederica of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1861 - 1922) Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (1883 - 1981), married Alexander

 Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (she was the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria) Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1884 - 1954), married Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Hostein 10 Quotes from Queen Victoria on the Miseries of Royal Motherhood | Mental Floss 10 Quotes from Queen Victoria on the Miseries of Royal Motherhood Wikimedia Commons Like us on Facebook Queen Victoria (1819-1901) might be considered the queen of working mothers.

She had nine children and ruled the largest empire on earth. But Victoria—Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Empress of India—detested babies, childbirth, and all that muck. She wrote volumes of letters, both official and personal. Occasionally her true feeling leaked through her official letters, but in her private ones, notably those written to her firstborn daughter Victoria The Princess Royal (Vicky), they positively soaked the page. Below are some choice words Her Majesty had for the business of babies. 1.

On children as (basically) parasites From a letter to her Uncle, the Belgian King, after the birth of her first child, Vicky: "My dearest Uncle,—… I think, dearest Uncle, you cannot really wish me to be the ‘Mamma d'une nombreuse famille,’ for I think you will see with me the great inconvenience a large family would be to us all, and particularly to the country, independent of the hardship and inconvenience to myself; men never think, at least seldom think, what a hard task it is for us women to go through this very often." Bless your heart Uncle, I just spent the last nine months overseeing the annexation of New Zealand while my body was invaded by a parasite that made me physically ill and eventually split me open like the spear of a Zulu warrior. Please don’t wish me an abundance of this blessing. 2.

On children and their daddies From the same letter: “Our young lady flourishes exceedingly…I think you would be amused to see Albert dancing her in his arms; he makes a capital nurse (which I do not, and she is much too heavy for me to carry), and she already seems so happy to go to him." Or: Little Vicky and her daddy love each other. Which is good, because Mom is not touching that fat, drooling little rutabaga. 3. On babies as disappointments "We found our dear little Victoria so grown and so improved, and speaking so plain, and become so independent; I think really few children are as forward as she is. She is quite a dear little companion. The Baby is sadly backward, but also growing, and very strong." In other words: Vicky is becoming more human, more tolerable! The newborn future King of England however, who at this time must execute the royal duties of crying, sucking his fist, and pooping, is already a great disappointment. 4.

On rumors of her daughter being pregnant "It is most odious but they have spread a report that you & I are both in what I call an unhappy condition!...All who love you hope you will be spared this trial for a year yet.” Victoria further laments how miserable it will be for her daughter to combat homesickness and other trials of being newly married “while ailing and in a state of constant malaise." Rumors abounded that both the newly married Vicky and her 39 year old mother were pregnant. They were unfounded, but in Vicky’s case, not for long. In 1859 Vicky gave birth to Wilhelm, who would eventually become Kaiser Wilhelm, the German Emperor fighting WWI against his English first cousin King George V. Grandmamma would never have stood for that foolishness. 5. On her youngest son, Leopold "…I am no admirer of babies generally – there are exceptions – for instance (your sisters) Alice, and Beatrice were very pretty from the very first – yourself also-rather so - Arthur too...Bertie and Leopold –too frightful.

Little girls are always prettier and nicer.” Leopold was Victoria’s youngest son, and she devotes a truly depressing amount of her personal writing to how much he bothered her. Starting right with his ugly little face at birth. 6. On Baby Doctors ... and Men Her daughter wrote Victoria that she was preparing her life for the birth of her first baby with finality “the same as a person does that is going to have her head cut off.” Her mother was very sympathetic. “Oh! If those selfish men – who are the causes of all one’s misery, only knew what their poor slaves go through! What suffering – what humiliation to the delicate feelings of a poor woman…especially with those nasty doctors. “ Men are such bungholes. 7. On her daughter wanting to be positive about her pregnancies The princess decided to put a positive spin on her inevitable pregnancies. Her mom thought she was just adorable for doing that. An adorable cow. “What you say of the pride of giving life to an immortal soul is very fine, dear, but I own I cannot enter into that; I think much more of our being like a cow or a dog at such moments; when our poor nature becomes so very animal and unecstatic," Victoria wrote her daughter.

8. On which animal infants resemble “I like them better than I did, if they are nice and pretty…Abstractedly, I have no tender for them till they have become a little human; an ugly baby is a very nasty object – and the prettiest is frightful when undressed. Until about 4 months; in short as long as they have their big body and little limbs and that terrible froglike action.” 9. On the miseries of motherhood Victoria urged Vicky to not tell her sister, Alice, how soul-shattering the whole baby thing was. She would find out soon enough. "Let me caution, dear child, again, to say as little as you can on these subjects [pregnancy] before Alice (who has already heard much more than you ever did) for she has the greatest horror of having children, and would rather have none -- just as I was when a girl and when I first married -- so I am very anxious she should know as little about the inevitable miseries as possible; so don't forget, dear." 10. On babies ruining lives From this letter, it appeared that Victoria thought marriage = babies = death of hope and joy.

“When I think of a merry, happy, and free young girl -- and look at the ailing aching state a young wife is generally doomed to -- which you can't deny is the penalty of marriage." In fairness, these were only a portion of the things the Queen said about children; there are many more lines declaring her love and interest in her nine offspring. But those cheerful feelings were not constant, even in a woman who represents the very soul of self-control and propriety. To some of us, it’s a relief to know we’re in such distinguished company. See Also...

Question: Which of Queen Victoria's children was the mother of The Kaiser
Answer: Victoria