After the death of her husband, the Dowager Empress often visited her native Great Britain and maintained close ties with her mother and brother Albert Edward. Victoria maintained an active correspondence with her mother throughout her life in Germany. In total, she wrote about 4,000 letters to the queen.

In 1899, Victoria was diagnosed with breast cancer. By the fall of 1900, the cancer had spread to the spine. Victoria died on August 5, 1901, seven months after her mother's death. She was buried next to her husband and two sons who died in childhood in the royal mausoleum in Potsdam on August 13, 1901.

10. The Prince with Queen Victoria

Edward's reign began in January 1901 after the death of his mother. Before his accession to the throne, the Prince of Wales was better known by his first baptismal name. Albert(diminutive Bertie), and the mother (in memory of her late husband) wanted her son to reign under the name Albert Edward I. However, since there were no kings of Britain with the name Albert (and, more importantly, this name was considered German by many Englishmen), there were no precedents for the use of double names, the throne name of Victoria's successor became the middle name - Edward. The coronation of the new monarch was scheduled for June 26, 1902, but a few days before this date the king suffered from appendicitis, which required immediate surgery, so the coronation was postponed for the only time in the history of Great Britain, and it took place on August 9 of the same year.

11. Eduard is 7 years old

The Prince of Wales married on 10 March 1863 Alexandra, Princess of Denmark (1 December 1844 - 20 November 1925), sister of the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar). There were six children from this marriage.

As the Prince of Wales (when he was practically not allowed by his mother to participate in state affairs), he was known for his cheerful disposition, passion for running and hunting; a big fan of the fair sex (actress Sarah Bernhardt was among his favorites), which did not harm his reputation and was not hidden from Alexandra, who maintained even relations with these women. The great-granddaughter of his last mistress, Alice Keppel, also became the mistress (and then wife) of the Prince of Wales - this is Camilla Parker Bowles, current wife Prince Charles. It is officially believed that her grandmother was born from Alice's husband; there is no evidence that Edward recognized any children as his own, except legitimate ones.

Edward was an active figure in Freemasonry and participated in the meetings of many lodges in Britain and on the Continent; Like other British Freemasons of the time, he made no secret of his membership in lodges, and some of his speeches on Masonic topics were public.

He enjoyed great popularity as a prince and as a king both in England and abroad.

12. The Prince of Wales is 10 years old

Had a nickname Europe's uncle(English) theUncleofEurope), as he was the uncle of several European monarchs who reigned at the same time as him, including Nicholas II and William II.

The king made a great personal contribution to the creation of the Entente, visiting France (1903) and Russia (1908) on official visits. The Anglo-French agreement of 1904 and the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 were concluded. He was the first British monarch to visit Russia (he had previously postponed the visit in 1906 due to strained Anglo-Russian relations following the Dogger Bank incident). Although these steps in historical perspective turned out to be a consolidation of forces before the First World War, in the eyes of his contemporaries Edward VII was the "Peacemaker" ( the Peacemaker), as did the initiator of the Franco-Russian alliance, Alexander III. It was under him that relations with the German Empire began to rapidly deteriorate; Edward did not like Kaiser Wilhelm II. During the Edwardian era, the country experienced an outbreak of spy mania, alarmism and Germanophobia. The King played a significant role in the reform of the British navy and medical service after the Boer War.

The “Edwardian era” (in nostalgic connotations roughly corresponding to the “Silver Age”, “peacetime”, “time before 1913” in Russia) was marked by increased political activity of the population, the growth of socialism and feminism in Britain, and industrial and technological development.

15. Princess Alice is 4 years old

After Princess Victoria married, Princess Alice, as the eldest remaining daughter in the family, became her mother's support in family affairs.

In July 1862, Princess Alice married Prince Ludwig of Hesse (12 September – 13 March), who later became Duke of Hesse and Rhine. The family, into which 7 children were born, lived in the capital of the duchy, the city of Darmstadt.

16. Princess Alice - 10 years old

The Princess, and later Duchess Alice, was active in charitable activities. During the Austro-Prussian War, in which Hesse acted on the side of Austria, she organized a charitable society dedicated to helping the wounded and training medical personnel.

After the defeat in the war, the duchy was ruined, most of its inhabitants became impoverished. The ducal family also led an extremely modest lifestyle, very different from the general idea of ​​the royal one.

Princess Alice herself looked after the children, paid great attention to their upbringing and education, trying to instill in them that they should not boast about their origins, that people should be judged by their actions, and that in life they should always act truthfully...

The princess maintained contacts with many famous people of her time, including Brahms, Strauss, and Tennyson. She had musical and artistic talents, patronized the arts, while continuing her charitable activities.

However, the duchess's life was not destined to last long. The first misfortune befell her in 1873, when her son Friedrich died under tragic circumstances. In 1878, after returning from a trip to Europe, the children became ill with diphtheria. On November 16, the Duchess's youngest daughter, Maria, died. This was a huge blow for Alice, who was constantly with the sick children. It soon became clear that she herself was suffering from diphtheria. Her strength and health were undermined, and the disease won. The Duchess died on December 14, 1878, aged 35.

Subsequently, the residents of Darmstadt, using their own money, erected a monument to her with the inscription “Alice, the unforgettable Grand Duchess.”

17. Prince Alfred

Alfred (August 6, 1844 - July 31, 1900) Duke of Edinburgh, since 1893 the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Germany, admiral of the Royal Navy; from 1874 he was married to the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Emperor Alexander II

18. Alfred - 4 years

On the Queen's birthday, 24 May 1866, Prince Alfred received the titles Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster. In 1893, after the death of Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the vacant throne of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha passed to his nephew, Prince Alfred, since his older brother Edward abdicated the throne (to avoid a personal union between Saxe-Coburg and Great Britain).

An era is named after her, and he became the founder of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ruling dynasty of Great Britain, later renamed Windsor.

Their marriage was made in heaven, and their love story was the stuff of legends. They were praised and hated, they were worshiped and admired, webs of intrigue and slander were woven behind their backs. But nothing affected the love and life of the spouses. They loved, each in their own way, fiercely and strongly, they honored each other and could not imagine life apart. Few members of the crowned families could boast of such luck - royal marriages were often arranged according to convenience.

Albert and Victoria. The all-consuming love of the century

She is an emotional and fragile autocrat, he is a prince consort, brought up in strictness and adhering to puritanical views. They were different, like the earth and the sky. No one could have thought that one day young people would be able to fall in love with each other and stay together forever. Yes, their marriage was beneficial to individuals in high society, but no one could have imagined that they would become lovers. Too different, too freedom-loving, too proud and temperamental. Could they themselves imagine that, once they met, they would no longer be able to live without each other?

Defender and winner. Alexandrina Victoria

The girl received such a strong name at baptism. Alexandrina is the defender, Victoria is the winner. The girl's father was only the fourth son of King George III and was far from among the heirs laying claim to the throne. It so happened that the girl’s father and grandfather died, and later the king’s three eldest sons also passed away without having time to leave offspring, and young Victoria remained the only heir to the crown.

She ascended the throne at the age of 18 and even then had a strong and independent character. Her childhood could not be called joyful: her mother kept her in solitude and under constant supervision, and never spoiled her. The young princess often wore the same outfits until they became completely unusable, and even slept in the same room with her mother until she came of age.

Victoria was never close to her mother, who was also named Victoria. The eldest Victoria was a despotic person and dreamed of using her crowned daughter for her own selfish purposes, allowing her to influence the internal politics of the country. However, the duchess’s mercantile plans were not allowed to come true. Having become queen, Victoria immediately excommunicated the intriguer from herself, ordering her to live in separate chambers, without interfering anymore in her life.

Perhaps childhood future queen it would have been different if her father had been healthy. She would not have to lead a modest lifestyle, which is not typical for a girl of blue blood. However, the girl’s father caught a cold and died when she was less than a year old. The absence of a strong male hand in the family also affected the years of Victoria’s marriage. At the beginning of her marital relationship, the girl had no idea how to behave with her husband: where to get around sharp corners, where to insist on her own, and where to give in. She only acquired this worldly wisdom over the years.

The princess's kind mentor and friend in childhood was the nanny Louise, who in many ways replaced the girl's mother, and she also brought up many worthy qualities in the future queen. In adult life, the place of sweet Louise was taken by Prince Albert, who became the queen's intimate friend and adviser.

Meeting Prince Albert

A German subject, Albert, was born with Victoria in the same year, 1819, and was related to her by blood: he was her cousin. Literally two centuries ago, marriages between brothers and sisters were considered normal and therefore were not condemned by society. Albert was brought up in the spirit of characteristic German traditions, grew up as a strong and inquisitive boy, and had a great passion for the exact sciences and innovation. From childhood, the boy learned unshakable truths: family is the foundation, and husband and wife should not only love each other, but also be faithful. The principle of fidelity ran counter to the morals of that time, but the prince was unshakable and considered statesmen who cheated on their wives to be lost and empty people.

And the future prince consort was tall and pretty; any girl would be happy to become his wife. Just not picky Victoria at first.

They met at a ball in Windsor. This first meeting was an unfortunate mistake for both of them. The young prince and the equally young princess did not find anything in each other that was worth attention. Victoria considered the prince to be arrogant and a German snob, but Albert did not try to convince her of this, reacting condescendingly and coldly to the barbs of his future wife. It never occurred to them then that their marriage, so cherished by some close relatives, would take place within a few years and would bring them great happiness.

The second meeting turned their lives upside down. The girl was already 21 years old at that time, she was a queen and did not even think about marriage. And then he appeared - the man of her sweet dreams, her amiable and charming Albert. The prince changed a lot over the course of several years: he matured, got stronger, and became prettier. He was handsome before, but now he has become simply dazzlingly handsome. The ardent Victoria, who had previously had tender feelings for the heir to the Russian throne, fell in love with Albert irrevocably and completely. Realizing this, the bride herself proposed marriage to her chosen one, since the queen was forbidden to propose, only she herself could propose marriage. On February 10, 1840, the young people got married.

Victoria unknowingly became a trendsetter by wearing White dress with a long train. It was after the queen that the tradition of getting married in a white wedding dress became widespread. Albert did not lag behind his crowned wife and later also became a trendsetter, but not in fashion, but in Christmas tree decorations, when he began decorating the Christmas tree for his children. Following Albert, this tradition was picked up by the British, and then by residents of other countries.

The royal family was considered exemplary. In the very first year of her carefree married life, Victoria gave birth to her husband’s daughter Victoria, and a year later she gave birth to the long-awaited heir, Albert-Edward. Ultimately, the queen gave birth to her husband four boys and five girls, whom Albert adored with every fiber of his soul. A more worthy pope could not be found in the kingdom. Even the queen, deprived of maternal affection in childhood, did not treat children with the love and sincerity that their father gave them. She simply couldn't do it.

The path to family happiness is thorny. And the happiness of the newlyweds would be incomplete if not for the test of power that fate had prepared for them.

The Queen and the Prince Consort. Almighty crown

Victoria was a powerful woman, but Albert was also accustomed to the idea that a man should be the head of the family. Flesh from flesh, wife from husband - this was the custom in ordinary families, but could not be applied in royal family. Even as the queen's husband, Albert was below her in status and was just a prince, not a king. Could he put himself above the monarch, to be the man at the head of the family? Could not.

And the first years life together the couple were overshadowed by the fact that the prince was homesick. He had nothing to do. He was a man bored with idleness who was not allowed into politics. Only later did the queen realize how much she had lost by not seeing in her husband a support and assistant in solving state affairs. Seeing that her husband could be an excellent manager, Victoria trusted her husband and ordered another desk to be installed in her office, at which Albert worked until the end of his days.

Unprecedented before, such an action by the queen was received ambiguously in society. Those close to the queen feared that instead of English foundations, German traditions would appear in the state, and the queen would only formally become the bearer of the crown of the monarchy, while the country would actually be ruled by a German upstart.

However, Albert was a far-sighted and wise politician. The crown was of little interest to him. He told his beloved right decisions on many issues, but tried not to interfere in the process of leading the country. In his free time, he took up the arrangement of Buckingham Palace: he equipped a good heating system, built new halls, and gave his wife a delightful ballroom of enormous size. The Prince Consort taught his soul mate a lot, relieved him of many fears, and became a caring husband and devoted life partner.

The Queen idolized the Prince throughout her life. Albert loved the queen, but not with the passionate love that Victoria herself felt. His love was cold and grew hotter over the years. Love-self-sacrifice, love-respect, love-friendship, love-admiration - this is how his contemporaries would characterize his feelings. Albert protected his beloved from sorrows and protected her from the bullets of stunned mercenaries. He was ready at any moment to sacrifice his life for the sake of the queen. He loved her so much that he came to terms with the second role he was in, and never reproached his beloved for her royal habits. In their entire lives, they quarreled only once, when they disagreed about the treatment of their sick daughter, but they quickly made up and never quarreled again. They had nothing to share. Only all-consuming love.

Queen for the prince, prince for the queen

21 happy year Their unearthly love lasted exactly as many years as the queen turned in the year of her marriage. It’s not known whether it’s an irony of fate or fate, but when the prince died, Victoria killed the woman in herself who was capable of feeling and loving. She remained faithful to him throughout her life and wore mourning until her death - another 40 painful years of life. And when she died, she left instructions to bury her next to her husband in the white wedding dress in which she married him, so that when she met him in another life she would certainly be beautiful.

Albert died at the end of 1861, contracting typhus. At first, no one attached any importance to his illness; the alarm was sounded when it was too late. After the death of her husband, the queen's life lost meaning. Victoria forbade the servants to touch or remove Albert's things and work supplies, not wanting to come to terms with his death. She closed herself off in her grief and mourning, abandoning state affairs for a long time and retiring from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle, where she met young Albert and within whose walls she buried him. The Queen hated Buckingham Palace, everything in which reminded her of happy life with Albert.

In Windsor, she mourned her irretrievably lost happiness, her beloved, and prayed to God to take her to him as soon as possible. But fate was unshakable. She still had to overcome her grief and cope with the unrest of the Republicans, erect the famous Albert Hall and many monuments in honor of her husband, marry her sons and give her daughters in marriage, become a wise ruler and “Grandmother of Europe.”

She endured everything. She didn't break. Constantly grieving for her husband who died early, she carefully fulfilled her state debt. After all, her very name meant victory. Victory over any adversity. And Victoria won for the sake of her beloved man. The unfortunate widow retired in January 1901, having celebrated the next anniversary of her husband’s death a month before. Thus ended the story of a happy and eternal love queen and prince.

Despite the fact that the “mad” George III had 12 children, not one of them managed to leave legitimate offspring. The heirs replaced each other on the throne with feverish speed, but there were so many of them that Victoria had practically no chance of taking the throne. In December 1820, Duchess of Clarence Adelaide gave birth to a daughter, baptized Elizabeth Georgina Adelaide - as the child of her elder brother, she had priority right of inheritance. But already in March of the following year the girl died from “volvulus.” So Victoria became a real contender for the throne.

When she was only 8 months old, her father, famous for his excellent health, died suddenly of pneumonia. And shortly before his death, a fortune teller predicted to Edward the imminent death of two members of the royal family, to which he, without thinking for a second that he himself might be among the “condemned”, hastened to publicly announce that royal title he and his descendants inherit. And suddenly, having caught a cold while hunting, he becomes seriously ill and very quickly passes into another world, leaving his wife and children with nothing but debts. Subsequently, the girl lived under the strictest control of her mother and her secretary John Conroy, who created a special education system for “Drina”, called “Kensington”. Drina slept in the same room with her mother and had no right to talk to anyone without her permission and without her presence. It was impossible to publicly express one’s emotions, deviate from the established regime, read books outside the approved list, eat sweets, or play. Deprived of a father and brothers and sisters, the princess was under constant surveillance and punished for the slightest offense.

Victoria's father was largely replaced by Uncle Leopold - she called him "solo padre". Already in early childhood, he mentally wooed her to his nephew Albert, expecting to play an important role at court.

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg with his wife Charlotte

On June 20, 1837, King William IV died and his niece Victoria ascended the throne, who was destined to become both the last representative of the unhappy Hanoverian dynasty and the ancestor of the House of Windsor that still rules in Britain. Victoria became Queen at the age of 18 years and 27 days. And the first thing she did in her “duty” as a monarch was to order her bed to be moved from her mother’s bedroom to a separate room. Victoria managed to defend her independence from Uncle Leopold - she gently but decisively made him understand that she no longer needed his advice.

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Queen Victoria

However, Leopold did not abandon his intention to marry his nephew and niece. Two years after the coronation, he arranged for Albert's second trip to London. He went to the British Isles with a strong desire to put an end to his uncle’s baseless fantasies. Victoria, who was tired of the state of an imaginary engagement, experienced a similar desire. However, their meeting had exactly the opposite effect. Albert matured from a teenager to a seductive young man. On the third day, the young queen proposed to him. (According to court protocol, the monarch cannot offer his hand - this is always done by the monarch himself.) The wedding took place on February 10, 1840. Albert became a prince consort - the queen's husband without the right to inherit the throne.

From the very first days of family life, problems with relatives began. The queen's mother wanted to move to Buckingham Palace with the newlyweds, and when Victoria refused, she told her son-in-law that own daughter drives her out of the house. The father-in-law, the Duke of Coburg, persistently hinted to his daughter-in-law that it would not be bad to pay his numerous creditors from the English treasury in a family-like manner - and then a firm refusal followed. Neither persuasion nor threats helped - Drina was adamant in her decisions.

Victoria became pregnant a month after the wedding and in November 1840 gave birth to a girl, named Victoria Adelaide Maria Louise, or Vicky at home. Three months after the birth of her first daughter, the queen became pregnant again. This time a boy was born - the future King Edward VII. The next child was a daughter, Alice, followed by Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold. The ninth and last child in the family was Princess Beatrice, born in 1857. All children, and especially the heir, were brought up with extreme severity and were subjected to flogging at an early age. Classes lasted from 8 am to 7 pm six days a week.

But in this post I am interested in another topic - hemophilia and the offspring of Queen Victoria. Hemophilia is a hereditary disease that results in a disorder of the blood clotting mechanism. The patient suffers from bleeding even with minor injuries and spontaneous hemorrhages in internal organs and joints, which leads to their inflammation and destruction. In fact, what people with hemophilia suffer most from is not external bleeding, but internal bleeding. Often, rupture of blood vessels leads to periodic internal bleeding that occurs “out of nowhere,” spontaneously. It is precisely such bleeding into joints, muscles and internal organs that, if not treated in a timely manner, can lead to disability and even death of patients. What was known about the nature of the disease in Victorian times? They were able to diagnose and describe it, but they were not able to help the patient because they did not understand the nature of his illness. The earliest recorded case dates back to the second century AD: a rabbi allowed a woman not to circumcise her son after his two older brothers bled to death during the operation. However, back in the 19th century, a family of Ukrainian Jews lost ten sons who suffered from hemophilia and died as a result of circumcision. In 1803, the American physician John Otto published a classic description of the disease - the hereditary nature of hemophilia was clear to him, and he traced the roots of a family affected by it almost a century ago. But the mechanism of transmission of hereditary characteristics remained a mystery. In the 19th century, attempts at treatment often only exacerbated the suffering of hemophiliacs. They were given leeches, cupping, veins were opened, joints were opened in order to turn internal hemorrhage into external. These measures often led to tragic results. Nevertheless, back in 1894, the famous doctor and indisputable authority Sir William Osler, whom Victoria knighted (his services to medicine are truly great), recommended bloodletting for the treatment of hemophilia. Physiologists guessed that the cause of the disease lay in the absence or shortage of some substance in the patient’s blood. Three years after Victoria's coronation, London doctor Samuel Armstrong Lance used a blood transfusion to treat a 12-year-old hemophiliac. This was an absolutely right step, but the trouble is that the medicine of that time had no concept of compatibility various groups blood, and Lance’s method was rehabilitated only in the 30s of the last century. And only in the 60s years dr. Kenneth Brinkhouse of the University of North Carolina discovered methods for isolating, concentrating and preserving factor VI, making it possible for hemophiliacs to inject themselves. Only men are susceptible to hemophilia, while women are its carriers. Moreover, when male children are born in such families, 50% of the boys will be healthy, and 50% will have blood disorders. At the birth of daughters, all girls will be healthy, but half of them will be carriers of this gene, passing the disease on to their children.

Queen Victoria was a carrier of hemophilia. Of her children, one son (Leopold) himself suffered from this disease, and at least two daughters (Alice and Beatrice) were carriers of the disease, passing it on to their children. And with each generation the number of these victims increased. After all, in those days they were more concerned about strengthening dynastic ties, and did not pay attention to genetic ties. It was in this way that Victoria, who gave birth to 9 children, passed on her gene to representatives of the dynasties that ruled in Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and Spain. But her descendants were also related to the monarchs of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Romania. Who else is affected by this “Victorian curse” now and let’s try to figure it out...

Queen Victoria's eldest daughter Vicky- was introduced to her future husband, Crown Prince Frederick of Germany (the future Emperor Frederick III) at the age of 10, was engaged at 17, and at 20 already had two children (the eldest became Emperor Wilhelm II).

Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise

Frederick William of Prussia

Their children were Emperor Wilhelm II, Prince Henry of Prussia and Sophia, Queen of Greece. In this branch, boys were possible hemophiliacs. Daughter Sophia is healthy, but her son Alexander may have been subject to royal heredity.

Queen Victoria's eldest son was "lucky". Future king Edward VII, the great-grandfather of the now living Queen Elizabeth II, and his offspring did not inherit this disease. While still Prince of Wales, on March 10, 1863, he married Alexandra, Princess of Denmark, sister of the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmara). There were six children from this marriage: Albert Victor(1864 - 1892, Duke of Clarence), George(1865 - 1936, King George V of Great Britain), Louise(1867 - 1931, married to Alexander, Duke of Fife), Victoria(1868 - 1935, was not married), Maud(1869 - 1938, married to King Haakon VII of Norway), Alexander John(1871 - 1871). Since the offspring were healthy at the genetic level and quite numerous, here I will limit myself to the actual wedding photo of Edward and Alexandra English.

Wedding photo of Edward and Alexandra English

Queen Victoria's daughter - Louise Caroline Alberta(1848-1939) married John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll (1845-1914) in 1871. Later, his mother-in-law appointed him Governor General of Canada.

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Princess Louise

John loved Louise very much, and when in 1882 he was faced with the task of coming up with names for four provinces and territories in the west of the mainland, he named one of them in honor of his beloved wife. True, we had to take the third part of the compound name “Louise Caroline Alberta”, since the first two were already used in names American states Louisiana and Carolina. A magnificent lake is also named after her, where tourists from all over the world still come today.

It is unknown whether Louise was a carrier of the disease, since the couple had no children. The reasons for their absence were not made public.

Arthur William Patrick, Duke of Connaught and Stracharn (1850-1942) dedicated himself military career. He attended the Woolwich Military Academy and then served in the army. In 1882 the prince commanded a division in Egypt, in 1883-1885 in India, from 1886 to 1890 he was commander-in-chief of the Bombay army, and from 1900 commander-in-chief in Ireland. In 1900 the death of his elder brother, Duke Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, gave him rights to the throne of this duchy, but he renounced this right in favor of his nephew, Charles Edward, Duke of Albany (son of Leopold, discussed below) in order continue military service in England. On March 13, 1879, he married Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (1860–1917), daughter of Frederick Charles of Prussia, with whom he had three children:
Margarita(1882 - 1920), married to Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden, who 30 years after her death ascended the throne as Gustav VI. Margaret is the grandmother of the current reigning Queen Margaret II of Denmark and the former Queen Anne Maria of Greece.
Arthur(January 13, 1883 - September 12, 1938),
Patricia(March 17, 1886 - January 12, 1974).
Prince Arthur died during his father's lifetime, and after the death of the 91-year-old Duke of Connaught in 1942, the title was inherited by his grandson Alastair (1914-1943), who died the following year in Canada (died from hypothermia). Queen Victoria's third son did not suffer from hemophilia . His offspring too.

Arthur William Patrick

Elena Augusta Victoria(1846-1923). In the early 1860s, this girl caused distress to her mother, Queen Victoria. Princess Helena began a romantic relationship with Karl Ruhland, Prince Albert's German librarian. In 1863, the Queen refused Ruland a place after learning of the relationship. Three years later, on July 5, 1866, Helena married the impoverished German prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. The couple remained in Britain, close to the Queen, who liked having her daughters nearby and Elena with herself. younger sister, Princess Beatrice, became Queen Victoria's unofficial secretary. Six children were born into the Christian family of Schleswig-Holstein:
prince Christian Victor Albert Ernest Louis Anthony(1867 - 1900), the princess's favorite son, died during the Boer War.
prince Albert John Charles Frederick Arthur Geor g (1869 - 1931) - became the head of the Oldenburg dynasty in 1921, had illegitimate children.
princess Victoria Louise Sophia Augusta Amelia Elena(1870 - 1948) - was not married.
princess Francesca Josephine Louise Augusta Maria Cristina Elena(1872 - 1956) - in 1891 she married Prince Albert of Anhalt, whose marriage was dissolved in 1900. She had no children.
prince Frederick Christian August Leopold Edward(1876 - 1876) - died in infancy.
stillborn baby (1877 - 1877).
It turns out that Princess Helena's two sons died in infancy, two survived and were not hemophiliacs, and both daughters were childless. Honestly, in such conditions it is impossible to know for sure whether Elena was a carrier of the disease, but we will assume that her gene background was healthy...

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Princess Helena

Alfred(1844-1900), Duke of Edinburgh - was the fourth child and second son of Queen Victoria and Albert, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. On January 23, 1874, in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Prince Albert married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, only daughter Russian Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The marriage was unhappy, and London society considered the bride too arrogant. Alfred died of cancer while his mother was still alive, having outlived his only son (“Young Affie”), who suffered from syphilis, inflicted a gunshot wound on himself during the celebration of his parents’ silver wedding and died two weeks later.

In general, talking about the personality of each member of the family is the content of more than one post. Each had their own interesting and unique destiny. I will limit myself to photos of Alfred of Edinburgh and Maria, daughter of Alexander II with his heir. And I’ll just mention a little about their daughters - the granddaughters of Queen Victoria.

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Prince Alfred with his wife Maria Alexandrovna and son Alfred

Except Crown Prince Alfred (1874-1899), there were more children in the family:

Princess Mary(1875-1938) - married in 1893 to King Ferdinand I of Romania (1865-1927). She was not a carrier of the disease. Her offspring also did not suffer from the blood disease;

Princess Victoria Melita(1876 - 1936) - married in 1894, Ernest Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse. She left offspring. She divorced him in 1901, after which, in 1905, she married Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, with whom she also had children. She was a possible carrier of the disease (see below);

Princess Alexandra(1878 - 1942) - married in 1896 to Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She left offspring with no signs of hemophilia;

In 1879 - a stillborn son

Well Princess Beatrice Leopoldina Victoria(1884 - 1966) - her loved ones called her Bea. She married in 1909 Don Alfonso, Infante of Spain, 3rd Duke of Galliera. The couple had three sons: Alvaro Antonio Fernando (1910–1997), Alfonso Maria Cristino (1912–1936), and Ataulfo ​​Alejandro (1913–1974). In 1936, the middle son Alfonso died in the civil war; he had no children. The youngest son died, also leaving no offspring, and Beatrice had grandchildren only from her son Alvaro. The disease was also not observed in this branch of the family.

Now let's move on to those who were either unwitting carriers of the “curse” or suffered from it themselves. So...

Victoria and Albert's third child is a daughter Alice. She became a carrier of hemophilia, like her mother Queen Victoria.

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Alice Maud Mary

In July 1862, Princess Alice married Prince Ludwig of Hesse, who later became Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. This daughter Victoria's life was short. In 1878, after returning from a trip to Europe, her children fell ill with diphtheria. On November 16, the Duchess's youngest daughter, Maria, died. This was a huge blow for Alice, who was constantly with the sick children. It soon became clear that she herself was seriously ill. Her strength and health were undermined, and the disease won... The Duchess died on December 14, 1878 at the age of 35. Fortunately, she did not find out about the fate of all her other children and grandchildren. And their fate was truly tragic. Let's start with the fact that seven children were born into the family:

Victoria (1863-1950)
Elizabeth (1864-1918)
Irena (1866-1953)
Ernst-Ludwig (1868-1937)
Friedrich (1870-1873)
Alice (1872-1918)
Maria (1874-1878)

Maria, as I already said, she died of diphtheria. Daughter Victoria married Ludwig Battenberg (Mountbatten). She is the grandmother of Philip of Edinburgh, husband of the current reigning Queen Elizabeth II. Thus, the descendants of Victoria's daughter Alice and son Edward VII form a married couple in the person of the current reigning Queen of England Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Signs of hemophilia do not seem to appear in these branches...

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Wedding of Elizabeth and Prince Philip

Son Ernst-Ludwig(grandson of Queen Victoria) in 1894 in Coburg married the aforementioned Victoria-Melita of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (also Victoria’s granddaughter from her son Alfred, the spouses are cousins). In this marriage, on March 11, 1895, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born, named at baptism Elizabeth Maria Alice Victoria. The second child of the Grand Ducal couple, a boy, was born dead on May 25, 1900. Grand Duchess Victoria Melita's next pregnancy ends ahead of schedule. All this left its mark on the couple’s already cloudless family life. In 1901 they officially divorced. After the divorce, the daughter of Ernst Ludwig and Victoria-Melita, Elizabeth, lived alternately with each of her parents, 6 months with her father, then 6 months with her mother. While visiting her Russian relatives at the imperial hunting estate in Skierniewice (Poland), on November 16, 1903, the 8-year-old princess died suddenly from an acute outbreak of typhus. It is impossible to say what most affected the fertility of this couple - genetic background or close relationship...

Victoria-Melita with her daughter Elizaveta

Meanwhile, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig remarried on February 2, 1905, to Princess Eleanor Ernestina Maria of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, who constituted his marital happiness.

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Eleonore Ernestine Marie Prinzessin zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

From this marriage, two sons were born in the family - the eldest, heir to the throne, Prince Georg Donatus (1906-1937) and the youngest prince, Ludwig (1908-1968). As a result of the November Revolution of 1918, Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated the throne. On the same day, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig signed his abdication. His dynasty lost the status of a ruling house, but the property of the Grand Ducal family partially remained in their ownership. The Grand Duke and his family did not leave Germany.

Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig died on October 9, 1937 at Wolfgarten Castle near Darmstadt. The state funeral took place on November 16, 1937. On the same day, his widow, son Georg Donatus with Cecilia and children - 6-year-old Ludwig and 4-year-old Alexander died in a plane crash near Ostend. Crown Princess Cecilia was 8 months pregnant at this point. The body of a dead newborn baby was found among the wreckage of the plane. They were hurrying to the wedding of Prince George Donatus's younger brother, Prince Ludwig and Margaret Geddes. Due to the unexpected death of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, they had to stay in Darmstadt, and then urgently fly to London immediately after the funeral. Despite the tragedy in Ostend, the wedding took place the next day, November 17, 1937. This marriage was childless. The youngest daughter of Prince Georg Donatus, Princess Johanna, who was only one year old in the fateful November 1937, remained at home in Darmstadt, which saved her from death in a plane crash. After the death of her parents, she was adopted by her childless uncle Prince Ludwig and his wife Margarita. However, a year and a half later, on June 14, 1939, Princess Johanna died of meningitis in the Alice Hospital, named after her great-grandmother, Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse. She was not even 3 years old. It only remains to add that Ernst Ludwig himself, the last Duke of Hesse and the Rhine, did not suffer from hemophilia, but there is no exact data on whether any of his offspring were carriers of the disease.

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Ernst-Ludwig

The next son of Alice of Hesse is Frederick- was born a hemophiliac and died in childhood from internal bleeding. The boy was not even four years old when he fell from the first floor window. He did not break a single bone or receive any serious injuries, but that same evening he died, like Uncle Leopold, from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Alice's daughter - Elizabeth- in June 1884 she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, uncle of Nicholas II. In Russia, she received Orthodox baptism and began to be called Elizaveta Feodorovna; her family affectionately called her “Ella.” The tragic fate of this grand ducal couple is widely known, and I will not dwell on it here, only recalling that the granddaughter of Queen Victoria was shot by the Bolsheviks in July 1918. But there are assumptions that, knowing about genetic heredity, the couple of Elizabeth and Sergei Romanov did not have their own children. Taking an active part in raising the children of Sergei’s younger brother, Pavel Alexandrovich (“Piz”), Maria and Dmitry.

Elizaveta Feodorovna and Sergei Alexandrovich

It was at the wedding of “Ella” and Sergei Alexandrovich that 16-year-old Nikolai saw for the first time the bride’s 12-year-old sister, Alexandra, or Alix, as her family called her. The young people liked each other, but Nicholas's parents, as well as Queen Victoria, initially opposed their marriage. Nicholas II's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, was the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and her maiden name was Dagmara. And even though she elder sister Alexandra was married to the British monarch, Queen Victoria's eldest son Edward VII, a relationship the Russian empress did not want. By the way, Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra of England are surprisingly similar to each other, and this similarity remained until the end of their lives. Take a look for yourself:

Left - Maria Feodorovna

Their children, the future King George V and the future Emperor Nicholas II, adopted the trait of their parents: they were so similar as if they were not cousins, but identical twins. The similarity amused both themselves and all their relatives: Nikolai and Georg wore mustaches and beards of the same style and were often photographed together.

In the end, the decision to marry was made. And in April 1894, in Coburg, where on the occasion of the wedding of Alix’s brother Ernest and his cousin Victoria Melita (let me remind you, she was the daughter of Queen Victoria’s second son, Duke Alfred of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Emperor Alexander II), crowned persons from all over Europe, an explanation occurred between the heir to the Russian throne and the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. There, in Coburg, the engagement was announced.

Unfortunately, Alix also turned out to be a carrier of the disease. Queen Victoria's granddaughter brought this gene to Russia, becoming the wife of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II. While only girls were born to the reigning spouses in Russia, no special problems arose. The rest is known: hemophilia overtook the only son of the Emperor, Tsarevich Alexei. It was with the birth of the heir that the suffering of the whole family began, about which so much is already known to everyone. Both he and his family usually learn that a child has hemophilia when he learns to walk, which means he falls and gets bumps. For a hemophiliac, each such fall can end tragically. All this happened to Alexei. The archives preserve dramatic descriptions of the suffering of the prince, whom the uncle did not let go of until he was 7 years old, but he still could not avoid hemorrhages in the joints.

Alexandra Feodorovna and Tsarevich Alexei

Secular medicine could not help the child and the mother suffering with him. Nicholas II and his family were forced to take precautions, surrounding themselves with a narrow circle of people dedicated to the secret of the disease and isolating themselves from outside world a high iron grille encircling the palace park in Tsarskoe Selo. However, this could not protect the prince from bruises and abrasions, and the parents simply fell into despair, realizing that they were constantly living on the brink of disaster. Realizing that doctors were powerless to fight hemophilia, the empress began to look for other ways to save the heir to the throne. This is how Elder Grigory Rasputin appeared in the life of the royal family, who had an inexplicable ability to alleviate Alexei’s suffering. But the need to hide the secret of the Romanov house led to the isolation of the royal family, its forced seclusion. The atmosphere created as a result of imperial court, largely stimulated the crisis of power that led to Russia’s involvement in the First World War, subsequent revolutions and the collapse of Russian statehood. The ending was tragic - the whole family was shot by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution.

But if we assume for a moment that there was no revolution and the dynasty remained in power? Was the family of Nicholas II doomed then? Probably yes. It would be very difficult to save the heir to the throne - Alexei had a very severe form of the disease. And what about the daughters? Even then, no one approached them, having heard about the bitter legacy of this family - a disease that at that time doomed a person to a slow and sometimes quick death. In 1913, when Nicholas decided to marry his eldest daughter Olga to the Romanian Crown Prince Carol, his mother resolutely opposed the idea precisely on this basis. I’m afraid that a similar fate would have awaited other Grand Duchesses, because at that time they could not yet find out which of the girls was the carrier of the gene. The risk was very great...

Grand Duchesses

Well, another daughter of Alice of Hesse, who became a carrier of a family blood disease - Irene(Irena Louise Maria Anna). So, I present to you Princess Irene of Hesse and Rhine (1866-1953), the sister of Elizabeth (Ella) of the Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (née Alice of Hesse) and her husband (her cousin), Prince Henry of Prussia, son of Frederick III and Victoria of Great Britain, younger brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Very similar in appearance to the last royal Romanovs, by the way.

From this marriage three sons were born: Waldemar (1889-1945), Sigismund (1896-1978) and Heinrich (1900-1904).

The whole family of Irene of Prussia

But to the grief of the spouses, Irena passed on hemophilia to her children. Her youngest son Henry(on his mother’s lap) died at the age of four as a result of a bruise.

Eldest son, prince Valdemar(Waldemar Wilhelm Ludwig Friedrich Victor Heinrich), lived with his illness for quite a long time - 56 years.

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Prince Valdemar

In 1919 he married Princess Calista Agnes of Lippe (1895 - 1982). The couple had no children. Waldemar died in a clinic in Bavaria due to a lack of blood transfusions. At the very end of the Great Patriotic War he and his wife fled their homes due to Russian advances arriving in Tutzing, where Waldemar could obtain blood for a transfusion. But the next day, May 1, 1945, the US military captured the area where the clinic was located and confiscated all medical supplies for the treatment of concentration camp victims. The day after the confiscation, Prince Waldemar died.

Middle son, prince Sigismund, at the whim of his genes, he did not suffer from hemophilia and lived to a ripe old age. He was married to Charlotte Agnes of Saxe-Altenburg, and had 2 children: Barbara (1920-1994, married to Christian Ludwig of Mecklenburg (1912-1996)) and Alfred (1924-1984). In the photo below is Irene’s family, but without their youngest son Heinrich.

Victoria's eighth child, son Leopold, suffered from this serious illness. The clergy interpreted the boy’s illness as punishment for violating the biblical covenant: during the birth of Leopold, a new product was used for the first time - chloroform anesthesia, but the Lord says to Eve, who knew sin: “I I will multiply your sorrow in your pregnancy; in sickness you will bear children" (Gen. 3:16). . Leopold was also not good-looking and became the unloved child in the family. He did not see his mother for months and early on he felt like an outcast. Victoria was so ashamed of her youngest son that, when going on vacation with the whole family to the Balmoral country estate, she left him in London in the care of nannies. Leopold's oldest friend was the wife of his brother Alfred, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Alexander II, who also felt lonely in a foreign country. But, as often happens in such cases, the young sufferer compensated for his physical defects with a brilliant intellect. Victoria began to pay tribute to Leopold's intelligence when he was still six years old. Leopold then graduated from Oxford, became one of the queen's private secretaries and, unlike the heir to the throne, had access to secret state papers. In 1880, he visited the USA and Canada and made such a favorable impression there that the Canadians asked the Queen to appoint him Governor-General, but Victoria could not do without the help and advice of her youngest son and refused. While engaged in government affairs, Leopold continued his education - he received a doctorate in civil law.

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Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

In 1881, Victoria granted Leopold the title of Duke of Albany and began looking for a bride. In the end, Helena Waldeck-Pyrmont, sister of Queen Emma Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, became the chosen one. From this marriage, a daughter, Alice, was born in February 1883. A year later, the couple separated for a while: court doctors recommended that Leopold spend an unusually harsh winter in Cannes, but Helena was pregnant and could not accompany him.

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Sick Leopold, Victoria's son, in a wheelchair

In March, Leopold fell on the stairs of the Cannes hotel and died a few hours later from a cerebral hemorrhage - hemophilia played a role. He was thirty-one years old. And what about his children?

Alice Mary Augusta Victoria Polina- born Princess Alice of Albany (1883 - 1981). On 10 February 1904, at St George's Chapel in Windsor, she married Duke Alexander of Teck, brother of the future Queen Mary. After her wedding, Princess Alice received the title Her Royal Highness The Princess of Teck. The Princess and Duke Alexandra Teck had three children. But the girl turned out to be a carrier of the hemophilia gene - she inherited it from her father. In turn, her eldest son, Ruprecht of Athlone, apparently inherited the disease from her, which led to his premature death after car accident. And the second son, Maurice, who died in early childhood, was most likely a hemophiliac. Alice Tekskaya herself lived a very long life. She was the last surviving granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

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Alice Tekskaya

Leopold's second child Charles, was born after sudden death my father. In 1900, Charles inherited the title of Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from his uncle Alfred and moved to Germany. He subsequently played an important role in the rise of Hitler.

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Leopold Charles Edward George Albert of the United Kingdom, Duke of Albany

As president of the German Red Cross, the Duke became involved in the politics of Adolf Hitler, in particular, he knew about the T-4 euthanasia program, under which about one hundred thousand people were killed. In 1935, he joined the Nazi Party, then the SA, receiving the rank of Gruppenführer of this organization, and also became Obergruppenführer of the NSKK. He was the Honorary Leader of the SA group "Thuringia". From 1937 to 1945 he was a member of the Reichstag. After the end of World War II, the American military government of Bavaria placed him under house arrest, and later in prison, on charges of connections with the Nazis. In 1946, he was convicted by a court, but due to health reasons he was released from prison. The former Duke spent his last years in seclusion. The eldest of Queen Victoria's two remaining grandchildren died in 1954.

Well, and the last daughter of Queen Victoria - Beatrice Maria Victoria Theodora(1857-1944). She was strongly attached to her mother, and got married quite late - at 28 years old. Everything was explained simply: as her older sisters got married and left their mother, Victoria became more and more attached to her youngest daughter, not wanting to even consider the possibility of her marriage. However, there were many contenders for her hand, including the heir to the French throne, the son of Napoleon III, Napoleon Eugene, and the Grand Duke of Hesse, Ludwig IV, the husband of Beatrice's sister Princess Alice, who was widowed in 1878. Beatrice liked Napoleon Eugene, and there was already talk about the possibility of their marriage, but in 1879 the prince died in the Anglo-Zulu War. It was then that the beloved uncle of the queen herself, the omnipresent Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, took a keen part in arranging Beatrice’s marriage. The chosen one was Prince Heinrich of Battenberg. And yet, consent to the marriage of his favorite was received only on the condition that the young people would live with Victoria, and Beatrice would continue to serve as her mother’s unofficial secretary. When the queen began to go deaf, Beatrice read state papers aloud to her. She remained with her mother until Victoria's death on January 22, 1901, and devoted the next 30 years of her life to fulfilling Victoria's last wishes - editing her mother's diaries. Beatrice died on October 26, 1944 at the age of 87, having outlived all her brothers and sisters, several of her own children and nephews.

Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore

Like her older sister Alice, Beatrice was a carrier of the gene. The couple had three sons and a daughter. The disease was transmitted to two sons, and the daughter became a carrier of the disease.

Beatrice's eldest son - Alexander Mountbatten ( 1886-1960) married Irene Denison (1890-1956) in 1917, the couple had one daughter, Lady Iris Mountbatten (1920-1982). Alexander and his family passed this fate.

Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke

Second son - Lord Leopold Mountbatten(1889 -1922) bled to death on the operating table during knee surgery. He was not married and had no children.

Lord Leopold Mountbatten

Prince Moritz Battenberg(1891-1914) suffered from hemophilia. He died from wounds received in the battles of the First World War, at the Battle of Ypres. He also had no family.

Moritz Battenberg

Beatrice's daughter Victoria Evgenia Yulia Ena(1887-1969) - became a carrier of a defective gene. She was married to the Spanish king Alfonso XIII, who at that time was barely 20 years old. This marriage turned out to be unhappy. And without that difficult relationship further deteriorated by the health of their children. Queen Victoria Eugenie and King Alfonso XIII had a total of seven children: five sons (two of them hemophiliacs) and two daughters, none of whom became carriers of the gene.

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Victoria Eugenie

Their eldest son Alfonso was born a hemophiliac. The next one, Jaime, was born deaf and mute. Then came the girl Beatrice. The third child, Fernando (1910-1910), died at birth. Then again the girl - Maria Christina. Then the son - Juan. Well, the seventh child, the fifth son of Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia - Gonzalo - again turned out to be a hemophiliac. The royal parents tried their best to protect their children from any injuries. They dressed their boys in cotton-lined suits; the trees in the park where children usually played were wrapped in felt, but nothing could save them from bruises and abrasions...

The Spaniards are especially sensitive to issues of blood - they are the ones who coin the expression “blue blood”. Soon rumors even spread that one young soldier was being killed every day in the royal palace in order to keep the sick princes alive with fresh blood. The people grumbled. It was the illness of the two senior princes, which made them unable to accept the crown, that became the reason for revolutionary propaganda against the monarchy and its " sick royal blood", which ultimately led to the overthrow of royal power in Spain in 1931. In the family itself, on this basis, there was a break between the spouses. The king was even going to enter into a new marriage in order to have healthy offspring. In the meantime, in the same 1931 , after the republican rebellion, Alfonso XIII left the country. Victoria Eugenia and Alfonso began to live separately - she in Great Britain and Switzerland, he in Italy. Alfonso abdicated the throne only in January 1941, a month and a half before his death. New family he never started. His sons, following the example of their father, blamed their mother for all their ailments, sought oblivion in a whirlwind of entertainment, constantly changing racing cars and women.

Don Alfonso(1907-1938) married a Cuban woman without his father’s blessing, but divorced four years later. The second marriage, with a Cuban woman, lasted only six months. In September 1938, in Miami, Alfonso was riding in a car with a nightclub singer. A lady was driving. The car crashed into a telegraph pole. Alfonso was not seriously injured, but died from loss of blood. He had no children left - this branch died out during the life of Alfonso III.

Second brother, deaf and dumb Jaime(1908-1975), also married twice and fathered two sons, neither of whom suffered from hemophilia. He had two grandchildren (though one died at age 12), two great-grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, all of whom were spared hemophilia. Back in 1933, Jaime renounced his rights to the Spanish throne. After the death of his father, he inherited from him the title of Duke of Anjou and became one of the legitimate contenders for the French throne. And after Jaime’s death in 1975, the title and right of inheritance passed to his eldest son Alfonso, who, although he did not suffer from a genetic disease, died in 1989 while skiing in Colorado. His eldest son, Don Francisco, died at the age of 12, so the title of Duke of Anjou and Bourbon is now borne by his younger brother, Luis Alfonso.

As I already said, two daughters - Beatrice(1909-2002, married to Alessandro Torlonia) and Maria Christina(1911-1996, married to Enrico Marone-Cinzano) were healthy.

Fifth son of Alfonso XIII, Gonzalo(1914-1934), died in 1934 in Austria, also as a result of an accident. He was traveling in a car driven by his older sister Beatrice. As a result of the accident, Don Gonzalo received non-life-threatening injuries, but, being a hemophiliac, he died from bleeding. Thus, Victoria-Evgenia’s second son died as a result of a minor (for healthy person) car accidents from internal bleeding before reaching the age of thirty.

And only the fourth son of Alfonso and Victoria-Eugenia - Juan(1913-1993) - born healthy. It was he who became the father of the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I. We will not dwell on the ruling family of Spain in this post - this is the topic of more than one message. I’ll just post a photo of a happy and large family...

Philip VI - the new king of Spain

"The king is on the throne until death." Juan Carlos I, now the former monarch of Spain, overturned this rule. He voluntarily resigned. On June 19, 2014, his son Felipe was sworn in.

He was considered the most eligible bachelor in Europe. Now Felipe became the new king of Spain - Philip VI. His Royal Highness Don Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbon y Grecia. And also the Prince of Asturias, Girona and Viana, Duke of Mont Blanc, Count of Cervere, Senor Balaguer - this is now his title.

The resignation of his father, 76-year-old Juan Carlos I, came as a complete surprise to everyone. An expert on the life of the aristocracy, Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert, believes that the example of Pope Benedict XVI played an important role here. After all, the popes remained primates Roman Catholic Church to death, and Benedict abdicated the papacy. In Spain, on the occasion of the king's resignation, they even had to pass a special law.

King with a master's degree

King Philip VI is 46 years old - a relatively young age for the throne. But Philip is brilliantly prepared. From the age of 9 - ever since he received the title of Prince of Asturias - his father carefully planned the training and education of his heir.

Philip VI is the first Spanish monarch to graduate from university. He studied law at the University of Madrid, then international relationships at Georgetown University in the USA. And since in Spain the king is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Philip managed to serve in the army, air force and navy.

Athlete, intellectual, exemplary family man

The monarch admits that he loves driving cars and motorcycles fast, skiing, sailing and dancing. He even took part in the Olympic regatta at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. The almost two-meter giant has retained his enviable physical shape to this day. Moreover, “Philippe has a wonderful sense of humor, he is not only an athlete, but also very smart,” assures journalist and expert on the life of the aristocracy Michael Begasse.

And the new king is an exemplary family man. His wife, a former presenter of one of the Spanish television channels, Letizia Ortiz, did not belong to the aristocracy. At one time, the wedding caused a lot of criticism. But after the birth of two daughters - Leonora and Sofia - the Spaniards came to terms with the king's wife.

So, let's summarize...

Suffered from hemophilia:

One of Victoria's sons, Prince Leopold (died at the age of 31), and at least three of her daughters - Princesses Victoria (Prussia), Alice (Hesse) and Beatrice (Badenburg) - were carriers of the disease;

Among Queen Victoria's grandchildren, five suffered from hemophilia: Princes Waldemar and Sigismund (of Prussia), Leopold and Maurice of Battenberg, and Frederick William of Hesse. And four granddaughters of Queen Victoria became carriers of the disease: Irene and Alix of Hesse, Alice of Albany and Victoria of Batenburg;

In the next generation (great-grandchildren) of Queen Victoria's offspring there were already six people with hemophilia: Alexander of Greece, Henry and Waldemar of Prussia, Alexei of Russia, and Maurice and Rupert of Asturias. Nothing to say, sad statistics....

The most interesting thing is that, despite the fact that it is absolutely clear that Leopold and the girls received their defective gene from their mother, Queen Victoria, it is absolutely not clear from whom the future queen received it? But Victoria’s pedigree has been traced back to the seventeenth generation, and specifically for hemophilia. This painstaking work was done in 1911, after the queen’s death, by members of the British Eugenics Society William Bullock and Paul Fields. The fruit of their labors is preserved in the form of two scrolls in the library of the Royal Society of Medicine. It was never published for a simple reason: researchers could not find, no matter how hard they tried, among the ancestors of Queen Victoria, which included representatives of the most noble European dynasties and royal houses, not a single hemophiliac. One of two things: either the vicious gene mutated when the future queen was still an embryo in her mother’s womb, or she is not the natural daughter of Duke Edward of Kent. The chance of mutation is one in 25 thousand. The likelihood of adultery, given the morals of that time, on the contrary, is very high. Unlike the Victorian era, the Regency era that preceded it professed hedonism, easy morals and easy moral standards. The Royal Archives contains a note from Duke William of Clarence to his elder brother, the Prince Regent. " Last night, - writes the future Wilhelm IV, - you...l two whores. I hope I didn't catch anything».

Let’s not forget the fact that the marriage of the Duchess of Leiningen and Edward of Kent was concluded not out of love, but out of convenience - Edward hoped to improve his financial affairs with marriage. The Duke of Kent was already in his sixties in the year of his wedding, he had a fair belly and a bald head, and the widow was only 32. Before the wedding, they met only once, when Edward came to the bride in Amorbach. For the sake of matrimonial plans, the Duke was forced to part with Madame Saint Laurent, with whom he lived in perfect harmony for 27 years. It was as if they had no children - albeit illegitimate, but recognized by the father, as William IV recognized his illegitimate children. And this leads to suspicion: was Edward infertile?

Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent

« I hope I have the strength to fulfill my duty", wrote Edward of Kent to a friend on the eve of his wedding with the Duchess of Leiningen. But the situation regarding the issue of the heir was acute. After the wedding, the couple lived for two months in London, at Kensington Palace, but the Duchess could not get pregnant. In September the couple returned to Amorbach. There the Duchess finally conceived. But Edward decided that his child should be born on English soil. Parliament gave him only six thousand pounds out of the promised 25. The Duke had to borrow money for the return journey. Unable to hire a coachman, he himself sat on the box of a carriage filled to capacity - it could accommodate his wife, his stepdaughter, a nurse, a maid, two lap dogs and a cage of canaries. The second carriage carried the servants, the doctor and the midwife Madame Siebold. A certain English traveler could not believe her eyes when she saw somewhere on a European country road this “shabby caravan” with the prince in the coachman’s seat. The future Queen Victoria was born a completely healthy and probably full-term baby. This means that she was most likely conceived in England in August 1818. This period in the life of the Duke and Duchess of Kent is described in some detail in the Court News. So, for example, from August 6 to 12 they stayed at Clermont House with the Duchess’s brother Leopold (the same beloved uncle of the future queen). It was on the 12th that the pregnancy of the Duchess Augusta of Cambridge was announced - her child could have become the heir to the throne if the marriage of Edward and Victoria had been childless. It is interesting that on the same day the couple returned to their place in Kensington Palace, Leopold went with congratulations to the house of Duke Adolphus of Cambridge, and in the evening he came to the Kents for dinner. It is difficult to imagine that after six days spent together they had a topic of conversation other than a possible heir. By that time, the inconsolable young widower Leopold had not yet given up on his ambitions. Having almost turned, by the will of fate and thanks to his own persistence and avant-garde appearance, from a run-of-the-mill German prince into the father of the heir to the British crown, he now harbored hopes for his sister’s marriage, which he facilitated in every possible way. A wise uncle with a crowned nephew or niece is also a good role and a good chance to get one of the European thrones (this plan was completely justified). What if his sister told him about the Duke's infertility? Would Leopold have accepted the collapse of his rosy hopes?

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg

However, the duchess herself was an experienced lady and not known for special piety. Of course, the likelihood that her extramarital partner was a hemophiliac is small. But it is still much higher than the probability of a gene mutation.

The Duchess of Leiningen with her daughter Victoria, the future queen

The secular memoirist Charles Greville, the author of many subtle observations, who by birth and duty (he was a clerk of the Privy Council) entered Buckingham Palace under three monarchs, had no doubt that the duchess had a lover and that this lover was the already mentioned sir John Conroy. He was a friend of the late Edward of Kent, and after Duchess Victoria was widowed, he became administrator of all her property and, therefore, a special confidant. The Duchess was entirely under the influence of this extraordinary man, who had every reason to have bright hopes for the role of “gray eminence” at the court of Queen Victoria.

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John Conroy

Young Victoria’s hatred of the manager of her mother’s estate is also well known. The girl called him in her diaries nothing more than “ monster" And " the devil in the flesh" The Duke of Wellington, whose commentary is recorded by Greville, explained this by saying that Victoria had caught her mother and Conroy in an inappropriate situation. And John himself behaved with the heiress, frankly speaking, quite impudently. He sought to isolate young Victoria, doing his best to protect her from acquaintances that threatened his status. In particular, he desperately tried to disrupt the visit of Victoria's cousins ​​Albert and Ernst to London - being 17 years old, she invited them at the insistence of Uncle Leopold. It was this meeting that Conroy feared so much. And shortly before the coronation, when Victoria fell ill with typhus, John did not leave his sickbed, trying in vain to get her signature on the document appointing him, Conroy, as Victoria’s personal secretary...

Well, this version, in addition to the official one, that a gene failure occurred in one of the parents or even in Victoria herself, has a right to exist. Who knows - perhaps Victoria’s ostentatious piety, which left an indelible imprint on the entire era of her 62-year reign, was the result, if not of accurate knowledge, then of suspicions of the illegitimacy of her origin?..

But, if we assume that Victoria - bastard, then all her direct heirs (and after Victoria the crown did not pass to lateral branches), including the current queen, have no right to occupy the British throne. Neither Prince Charles nor his children William and Henry have rights to it. Who should have inherited the throne after William IV and who should be the king of Great Britain today?

If Victoria were denied succession, the Crown British Empire would go to her uncle, Duke of Cumberland Ernest Augustus. Today, a direct descendant of the Duke of Cumberland, also Ernst August of Hanover, is married to Princess Caroline of Monaco, eldest daughter Prince Rainier III.

Ernst August of Hanoverwith wife Caroline of Monaco and daughter

True, Ernst is by no means famous for his “royal restraint”, preferring to constantly shock the public. He is widely known for his reckless behavior - in 2000, Ernst August was photographed relieving himself at the Turkish pavilion at the World Fair in Hanover, then he broke the nose of a journalist with a television camera, and in 2003 he was deprived of his driver's license for speeding on a motorway in France. It is not surprising that photographs of the family often appear on the front pages of all European newspapers under the “Scandal” heading. And recently, a court in the German city of Hildesheim sentenced the husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, to pay a fine of 200 thousand euros for a fight with a hotel owner in Kenya. With all this, he is not yet an exemplary family man - everyone knows his relationship with the 41-year-old Moroccan Miriam, with whom he visits luxury restaurants and with whom he vacations at resorts. Photos of the “couple” can often be seen on the pages of newspapers and magazines.

From Ernst August the right of inheritance will pass to his eldest son, again Ernst August. His Royal Highness Ernst August Andreas Philipp Constantin Maximilian Rolf Stefan Ludwig Rudolf, Prince of Hanover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg was born on 19 July 1983 in Hildersheim. There is very little official information about Prince Ernst August, however it is known that he is not married.

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Ernst August, Prince of Hanover

However, on British throne The Windsors have firmly established themselves, and they are not going to give up their place to anyone. In addition, there is clearly no shortage of heirs in the family...

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I will end my post with the words of Bulgakov’s character:

"Blood issues are the most difficult issues in the world."

Materials used: article by Vladimir ABARINOV “The Victorian Curse”, Wikipedia, Academician, so what did the Internet give out when asked...

It was five o'clock in the morning when nineteen-year-old Princess Victoria was awakened by her mother, the Duchess of Kent (the girl was forbidden to sleep separately from her, as well as to talk to strangers in her absence).

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the First Chamberlain of England would like to see you immediately. They are waiting in the large hall.

As soon as the princess entered, the first chamberlain knelt down. Victoria understood: the king was dead. Now she was to become Queen of England.

The calendar showed June 20, 1837. The first thing Victoria did was order her bed to be removed from her mother's room. The Great Queen began her reign.

The question of her marriage arose with particular urgency. Of course, she would like to solve this state and not a simple issue herself. Although her mother and uncle Leopold, King of Belgium, already had a groom in mind - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Mother and uncle belonged to the Saxe-Coburg dynasty and wanted to strengthen the union of the two countries with a dynastic marriage.

Victoria understood that they wanted to sacrifice her for the sake of the interests of the crown. The Crown of England will undoubtedly be the best decoration for the Coburgs.

Victoria recalled that two years ago she met Prince Albert, who was her cousin. Then she found him very attractive. Victoria liked his blond hair, beautiful eyes, alluring lips.

His main charm is in his facial expression, which is both gentle and nobly restrained,” Victoria noted after the meeting. She was not frightened by his seriousness, his entire German - from head to toe - stern appearance.

She liked the prince even now, but now, two years later, after mature reflection, the queen decided to assure everyone that it was too early for her to get married.

“I’m still too young,” she said.

In fact, she did not want to give consent to a marriage planned without her participation. When she became queen, she wanted to make her own decisions. Every single one of them.

Uncle Leopold tried to change the situation. He took care of a new meeting of young people. In October 1839, Albert came to stay with his cousin.

Already on the first day of her cousin’s arrival, Victoria wrote in her diary: “Meeting him stirred up my feelings. How handsome he is! His lips are mesmerizing, he has such a charming mustache and sideburns.”

Two days later, the young queen wrote to her uncle, King Leopold: “Albert’s beauty is impressive, he is so kind, so simple: in short, he is seductive.”

The appearance of the prince cousin turned out to be so seductive that Victoria announced to her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, that she had decided to marry Albert.

Perhaps I should tell him about this?

Certainly.

But how to do that? - the lord was confused. - Usually men ask a woman for her hand in marriage, and not vice versa.

“And will he still accept my proposal?” Victoria thought. And then she reassured herself: “Of course, yes! Princes and princesses are brought up in such a way that they know in advance: marriage of their own choice is impossible for them, marriage is in the interests of state - that’s it.” their lot."

Albert, of course, guessed what Victoria liked, and, somewhat changing his usual restraint, during the royal hunt he was, if not cheerful, then at least looked animated.

After the hunt, the queen asked her cousin to come see her. She was waiting for him in her office. For the first time they were alone. Victoria looked at him favorably and smiled, but Albert pretended not to understand anything, forcing her to speak first. Victoria was not angry at his reticence - a reticence that another might have interpreted as a desire to avoid conversation. But she did not for a minute admit the possibility that Albert would refuse to marry the Queen of England. Although she was somewhat embarrassed that she would have to ask him to marry her herself, still, as an empress, she was pleased that the prince did not speak first. As an empress, she should have regarded this as a liberty. This is how Victoria herself assessed the whole situation in a letter to her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester.

Having mastered her excitement, Victoria spoke:

Of course, you can guess why I invited you. I will be happy if you agree to what I want, that is, you become my husband.

Albert stood up and, bending his knee, kissed her hand.

“I’m not worthy of you,” he whispered. Then, still primly, he said: “I will be happy to spend my life next to you.”

These words filled Victoria with joy!

“I love him more than I thought,” she writes in her diary, “and I will do everything in my power to ease his sacrifice.”

To some extent, it really was a sacrifice. The husband of the Queen of England did not even have the right to bear the title of Prince Consort in the early years of their marriage. The country's constitution completely ignored his existence; his wife-queen could only call him field marshal. But Victoria fell more and more in love with her fiancé, she wanted to see him as king.

Albert's situation will be very difficult, she told the Prime Minister. “If he must follow my uncles in the matter of succession to the throne, then at least he should have the title of king.” What power do I have if I can't even give him the title that should belong to him?

Lord Melbourne objected displeasedly:

Only the decision of parliament can make him king. And for God's sake, don't bring it up now. Those who make kings can also overthrow them.

Victoria did not dare to insist. In the evening she wrote in her diary: “I can’t even make Albert the guardian of our children. If after my death my son becomes an adult, he will become the guardian younger brothers and sisters, not their father. And if the children have not reached adulthood by that time, a regent will be appointed."

At the same time, Victoria herself, albeit unknowingly, made her future husband a hostage of her responsibilities. His entourage, retinue, home - everything was chosen by Victoria. Albert tried to resist. “Think about my situation,” he wrote to Victoria, “I am leaving my homeland, all my dear memories, my true friends for the sake of a country where everything is unfamiliar and alien to me: people, language, customs, way of life, my position. Except you, I will have no one to trust. And I am not even allowed to keep with me two or three people who should deal with my personal affairs and whom I trust..."

Far from being moved by his complaints, Victoria replied: “I was very angry at your disappointment about my desire to choose a house for us and I am very pleased that you finally agreed to trust my choice!”

Albert made another request: to live in Windsor, and not in London. “My dear friend,” replied the bride, “you do not understand this matter at all. You have forgotten, my love, that I am a queen. Nothing should interfere or slow down the resolution of public affairs. Parliament is in session, and almost every day urgent matters require my presence "I can't leave London. Even two or three days away is too long."

The passion that he kindled in Victoria's heart surprised Albert and even puzzled him somewhat. For him, love had to be a reasonable and worthy feeling. Will he be able to share the queen's fiery feelings?

The wedding ceremony, as expected, was magnificent, in compliance with all the traditions and rules of centuries-old British etiquette. It took place on February 10, 1840. Immediately after the ceremony, the newlyweds set off for Windsor in a carriage - an old and faithful Berlina.

The drive was nothing at all, about a dozen miles.

Victoria loved to visit the castle, built on the banks of the Thames back in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. More than once the castle served as the residence of kings. His stones witnessed many events that took place at court: secret conspiracies, murders, intrigues and love affairs. Henry I, the youngest son of William the Conqueror, lived here, and both James I and Edward III, who started the Hundred Years' War, lived here. During the time of Charles II, in the 17th century, the castle was thoroughly rebuilt and became known as a palace. Luxurious apartments and expensive paintings appeared. The large banquet hall was decorated with portraits of British kings different eras. The chapel where knights of the Order of the Garter were consecrated has been transformed. All this was done primarily to please the king’s mistresses - Nell Guin, an orange seller and actress who struck the heart of Charles II, and then Louise de Keroual, an intriguer and cocotte with almond-shaped eyes. When the king lost interest in her, she staged a suicide attempt and received what she wanted - the title of Duchess of Portsmouth, and her son became known as the Earl of Albemarle.

Victoria especially liked the magnificent park and its terrace, which offered a beautiful view of the Thames. Here she, a girl, dreamed so well.

Finding herself in her room at Windsor Palace, Victoria, without waiting for tomorrow morning, wrote in her diary: “Me and Albert - alone.”

Albert, who was despondent in female society and simply tormented by ladies in love, was not a passionate lover - he performed his duty with a solemn air, without any ardor... But his young wife adored him so much that she was still happy.

In the morning, as soon as she woke up, she wrote to Uncle Leopold: “I hasten to inform you that I am the happiest of women, the happiest of all women in the world. I really think that it is impossible to be happier than me and even just as happy.” And she added: “My husband is an angel, and I adore him. His kindness and love for me are so touching. All I have to do is see his bright face and look into his beloved eyes - and my heart overflows with love...”

There are also such entries in her diary: “I read and sign papers, and Albert gets them wet...” Immediately after the wedding, a second one was placed in Victoria’s office. desk- for Albert. But from the very beginning he decided not to touch government affairs. His duty, he believed, was to immerse his own self in the personality of his wife, the queen. Little by little, he became her indispensable adviser, a walking encyclopedia and, when needed, a caring nanny. So, on the eve of the birth of their first child, Albert “with maternal tenderness” looked after Victoria, which touched her. At the same time, the famous lace shirt was sewn, which will serve to this day as the baptismal shirt of all princes and princesses of England.

In a word, they lived together, in harmony. Only once did a conflict arise over a child - their firstborn, a girl. The baby was painful. The couple argued about which treatment was best. The mother was the first to flare up. She ran out of the room in tears. Albert sat down at the table and wrote her a message, warning that the death of the child would be on her conscience if she persisted in her recommendations. After this, they had eight more children, but disputes about their treatment and upbringing did not recur.

Under the influence of her husband, the queen changed her views on many things. For example, she began to use the railway built in the north of the country. Thanks to this, Balmoral Castle in Scotland became more accessible, where the queen and her family spent their happiest time - playing skittles, hide and seek, and taking excursions.

“The heavier and stronger the chains of marriage, the better,” Albert wrote to his brother. “Spouses should be chained to each other, inseparable and live only for each other. I would like you to come and admire us - ideal married couple united by love and harmony. Of course, Victoria is ready to make some sacrifices for me..."

What did he mean? What are these sacrifices? It turns out that he wanted to make their lives more diverse. Invite famous people and at least slightly enliven this “landscape in gray tones,” as he called court life. Of course, there was no talk of turning Windsor or Buckingham Palace into a literary or musical salon, but Albert managed to get consent to allow whist and other card and board games to be played at court at least occasionally. He even tried to play a little music: piano pieces for four hands were especially successful. Sometimes he played works by Bach on the organ or sang songs to the music of Mendelssohn.

Albert became an indispensable assistant in the queen's affairs. She now called him “my precious, my incomparable Albert.” Rising before sunrise, he set to work: writing letters, drafting responses to requests from ministers. And when Victoria joined him, all she had to do was sign the papers he had prepared. She noticed that Albert was becoming more and more interested in politics and government affairs every day and was well versed in everything. “I,” she admitted, “are losing interest in business. We women are not created for rule, if we were honest with ourselves, we would refuse men’s activities... Every day I am more and more convinced that Women should not take over the leadership of the kingdom."

And indeed, Albert almost became a king. As the writer Andre Maurois says: "Some politicians found that he had too much power. And his ideas regarding royal power were considered by many to be incompatible with the English constitution... He led England towards an absolute monarchy."

At the beginning of December 1861, “dear angel,” as Victoria called Albert, became seriously ill. The queen, who could not even imagine that her idol could fall ill, did not attach any importance to his illness. Only on December 14, at five o’clock in the evening, did she realize that he was dying. Already losing consciousness, he kept whispering:

Liebes Frauchen... my dear wife...

After Albert's death, Victoria felt completely alone in this world. “I firmly decided,” she wrote to her uncle, “I irrevocably decided that all his wishes, projects, thoughts would be a guide to action for me. And no human laws would turn me away from this path...”

Victoria was in inconsolable grief. She shut herself up within four walls and refused to take part in public ceremonies. Some were dissatisfied with her behavior: the queen must fulfill her duty no matter what. When she returned to business, she was again determined to rule with a firm hand. She wrote in her diary that she would not allow anyone to dictate what she should do.

Life went on as if Albert were alive. Every evening a servant put pajamas on his bed, every morning brought hot water for his master, put fresh flowers in vases, wound the clock, prepared a clean handkerchief... It was rumored that the queen had become a spiritualist, that she “contacted” with Albert during spiritualistic seances. Be that as it may, the mausoleum where Albert is buried still stands in Windsor Park. By order of the inconsolable wife, several more monuments were built in memory of the deceased. This is the Albert Memorial and concert hall - the Albert Hall, not far from the Victoria and Albert Museum, founded on the initiative of Albert.

Forty years after Albert's death, Victoria was reunited with her "sweet angel." This happened on January 22, 1901. The long one is over victorian era. The Great Queen was buried next to her husband, her closest friend and adviser.

Young Victoria.Photo by Lian Daniel.

According to the wife of one Russian ambassador, royal house England in the first third of the 19th century was reminiscent of a lunatic asylum under the leadership of a king - a promiscuous drunkard. True, things were no better for their predecessors. Representatives of the Hanoverian dynasty were distinguished by unworthy behavior, some of them were simply mentally abnormal. And if things had continued like this, perhaps today the institution of the British Monarchy would have to be mentioned exclusively in the past tense.

Despite the fact that the “mad” George III had 12 children, not one of them managed to leave legitimate offspring. The heirs replaced each other on the throne with feverish speed. At some point, however, it seemed that the third of the royal sons, Edward, Duke of Kent, had every chance of eventually getting the crown, but Fate wanted his daughter, Victoria, to head the British Empire, and the head of this was She is neither more nor less - 64 years old.

Queen Victoria.Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Victoria was born at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819. Her parents made a long and difficult journey from Bavaria specifically so that the child would be born in London.

Edward sincerely rejoiced at the appearance of a strong and healthy first-born, but for the mother of the future monarch, this girl was a special child. Despite the fact that Victoria of Saxe-Coburg already had two children - Charles and Theodora, from her first marriage with Emich Karl of Leiningen, she perfectly understood that only this newborn could seriously enter into a dynastic battle for the British crown.

Queen Victoria.John Partridge.

It took a long time to choose the name for the baby. At first, her parents decided to name her Georgina Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria. However, the Prince Regent, being the godfather of the baby, for some secret reasons known only to him, refused to give her his name - George, proposing to leave only the last two, and as a result the girl was named Alexandrina Victoria. The first name was given in honor of the Russian godfather of Emperor Alexander I, while the second, which became the main one, was given in honor of the mother. Much later, when Victoria had already become queen, her subjects did not really like the fact that their ruler was called in the German manner.

Prince Albert.John Partridge.

In the meantime, this child has become a truly royal gift to the country and, moreover, a kind of atonement for the previous sins of the Hanoverian dynasty. True, Victoria’s childhood could not be called either frivolous or cloudless. When she was only 8 months old, her father, famous for his excellent health, died suddenly of pneumonia. And shortly before his death, a fortune teller predicted to Edward the imminent death of two members of the royal family, to which he, without thinking for a second that he himself might be among the “condemned”, hastened to publicly announce that he would inherit the royal title and his descendants. And suddenly, having caught a cold while hunting, he becomes seriously ill and very quickly passes into another world, leaving his wife and children with nothing but debts.

On June 20, 1837, King William IV died and his niece Victoria ascended the throne, who was destined to become both the last representative of the unhappy Hanoverian dynasty and the ancestor of the House of Windsor that still rules in Britain. There was no woman on the English throne for more than a hundred years.

Marriage of Victoria and Albert.Georg Hayter.

In January 1840, the queen made a speech in parliament, during which she was terribly worried. She announced her upcoming marriage. Her chosen one was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. He was Victoria’s cousin on her mother’s side, they were even delivered by the same midwife at birth, but the young people had a chance to see each other for the first time only when Victoria turned 16 years old. Then a warm relationship immediately developed between them. And after another 3 years, when Victoria had already become queen, she no longer hid the fact that she was passionately in love.

Queen Victoria.Thomas Sully

The newlyweds spent their honeymoon at Windsor Castle. The queen considered these delightful days to be the best in her long life, although this month was shortened by her to two weeks. “It’s absolutely impossible for me not to be in London. Two or three days is already a long absence. You have forgotten, my love, that I am a monarch.” And soon after the wedding, a desk was placed in the queen’s study for the prince.

The young queen did not have beauty in the conventional sense. But her face was intelligent, her large, light, slightly bulging eyes looked focused and inquisitive. All her life she struggled in every possible way, almost unsuccessfully, with being overweight, although in her youth she had a rather graceful figure. Judging by the photographs, she had completely mastered the art of looking presentable, although she wrote to herself, not without humor: “We, however, are rather short for a queen.”

Her husband Albert, on the contrary, was very attractive, slender and elegant. And besides, he was known as a “walking encyclopedia.” He had the most varied interests: he was especially fond of technology, loved painting, architecture, and was an excellent fencer. If Victoria's musical tastes were unpretentious and she preferred operetta to everything, then Albert knew the classics well.

However, the difference in tastes in no way prevented the relationship of the spouses from becoming the standard of almost an exemplary family. No betrayals, no scandals, not even the slightest rumors discrediting marital virtue.

Prince Albert, Franz Xavier Winterhalter

They said, however, that Albert’s feelings for his wife were not as ardent as hers. But this did not affect the strength of their union. They were an example of an ideal marriage. Everyone could only follow them - not only bad examples are contagious!

Queen Victoria with Prince Arthur.Franz Xavier Winterhalter

In the meantime, as an exemplary wife, the queen, without hesitating at all, at the end of the same “wedding” year of 1840, gave her husband her first child - a girl, who, according to tradition, was named Victoria Adelaide in honor of her mother.

Are you happy with me? - she asked Albert, barely coming to her senses.

Yes, dear,” he replied, “but won’t England be disappointed to learn that the birth was a girl and not a boy?”

I promise you that next time there will be a son.

The royal word turned out to be firm. A year later, the couple had a son, who was to become King Edward VII and the founder of the Saxe-Coburg dynasty, which during the First World War, so as not to irritate its compatriots with its German sound, was renamed the Windsor dynasty.

Windsor Castle in Modern Times.Edwin Henry Landseer

Queen Victoria.Franz Xavier Winterhalter is Prince Albert's favorite portrait.

In 1856, the Queen addressed the Prime Minister with a message, the purpose of which was to constitutionally recognize and secure the rights of Prince Albert. Not without delays, only a year later, by decision of parliament, Prince Albert received a special “royal patent”, which henceforth called him prince consort, that is, prince consort.

In her desire to increase both the status and authority of Albert, the queen acted not only as a devoted and loving woman. If at first she, with her characteristic irony, wrote: “I read and sign the papers, and Albert blots them,” then over time his influence on Victoria, and therefore on state affairs, steadily increased, becoming undeniable. It was Albert, with his penchant for technology, who managed to overcome the queen’s prejudice towards all sorts of new products. Victoria, for example, was afraid to use the railway built in the north of the country, but convinced by her husband of the unconditional prospects and necessity of railway travel, she quite consciously became an ardent supporter of the country's transition to industrial rails, giving impetus to its rapid industrial development. In 1851, again on Albert’s initiative, the First World Exhibition was held in London, for the opening of which the famous Crystal Palace was built.

Although there were many people at court who did not like the Prince Consort and considered him a bore, a curmudgeon, a petty pedant, and generally a person with a difficult character, no one ever questioned the almost incredible perfection of the royal marital union. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine what a tragedy Albert’s death at the age of 42 turned out to be for Victoria. Having lost him, she lost everything at once: as a woman - love and a rare husband, as a queen - a friend, adviser and assistant. Those who studied the queen's multi-volume correspondence and diaries were unable to find a single discrepancy in their views.

Königin Victoria von England.Alexander Melville-

Victoria wrote several books of memoirs about him and their life. On her initiative, a grandiose cultural center, an embankment, a bridge, and an expensive monument were built - all in his memory. The Queen said that she now views her entire life as a time to implement her husband’s plans: “His views on everything in this world will now be my law.”

Prince Albert.Alexander de Meville-

In December 1900, the Queen, and with her, loving and respecting her, all of England celebrated the next anniversary of the death of Prince Albert. Every year since her widowhood, a corresponding entry has appeared on this day in the queen's diary. That time, 38 years after his death, she again wrote about the “terrible catastrophe” that shattered her life, but it was felt that Victoria had already clearly seen the end of her own.

Prince Albert
Franz Xavier Winterhalter

She didn't feel well. Her condition, the time of year, and the disgusting weather were not conducive to a sea trip, but despite this, the queen still made a trip to the Isle of Wight - the couple’s favorite refuge. Here, many years ago, small children, who had not yet brought grief, ran around them, and here Albert tended to his favorite flower beds. Here, in complete solitude, Victoria described in detail the ceremony of her own funeral, ordering her to dress in a white dress. Having not taken off black for forty years, the widow decided to go to meet her husband in white. The Queen really wanted to die not in Windsor Castle, but where the shadows of the past hovered. However, that's what she did. Her heart stopped on January 22, 1901. She was then 82 years old.

The Family of Queen Victoria.Franz Xavier Winterhalter.

P.s. I thought for a long time, but never decided which section to put it in... “art” or “interesting”, there are paintings and history... if you have ideas - write, but for now - in “Interesting”