Queen Victoria's least favorite child was generally considered to be her eldest son, Bertie (Edward VII), whom she blamed for Prince Albert's death and found a constant disappointment due to his perceived stupidity, playboy lifestyle, and temper, often remarking he was "too like her". However, she also had a difficult relationship with her youngest son, Prince Leopold, initially disliking his appearance and health issues, though her feelings shifted to protectiveness after his haemophilia diagnosis.
Soon after his birth it became apparent that Queen Victoria disliked her eighth child, Prince Leopold. She often made drawings of her children and would portray them to look angelic. However, when it came to Leopold, she would always portray the young Prince as if he was disfigured or grotesque.
But the plan went disastrously wrong. One year after her wedding, Vicky endured a difficult birth which almost ended her life and left her baby – the future Kaiser Wilhelm II – with a permanently paralyzed arm.
Queen Victoria blamed her son, Bertie (later Edward VII), for Prince Albert's death because Albert traveled to confront Bertie about a scandalous affair with an actress (Nellie Clifden) in Ireland, a trip believed to have worsened Albert's health and contributed to his subsequent death from typhoid fever. In her immense grief, Victoria saw Bertie's irresponsible behavior as the direct cause, feeling it broke his father's heart and led to his demise.
She was considered the most beautiful of Queen Victoria's children and had an impressive talent for art. In March 1871, Louise married John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne.
Henry VIII’s relationship with his daughter Elizabeth
Why did Queen Victoria not breastfeed?
In the 19th century, Queen Victoria was among those who ignored advice to breastfeed, and instead employed a wet nurse. Indeed, she was fiercely opposed to maternal breastfeeding – believing it to be an unsuitable practice for aristocratic women – and was horrified when two of her daughters decided to breastfeed.
“Queen Victoria Syndrome” refers to a monarch staying on the throne despite being unpopular. The phrase has its roots in the long reign of Queen Victoria — Queen Elizabeth's great-great-grandmother — who ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901.
Why did Queen Victoria have numbers on her knickers?
The Queen's cipher was discreetly embroidered into each garment. The numbering system (in this case '35') was to help the household staff to identify and sort the linen after laundering, and possibly because such garments were ordered in quantities and then worn in rotation.
In the early days of photography, it took several minutes to take a photo because cameras relied on slow chemical reactions. If subjects moved at all, the image turned out blurry. A smile was more difficult to hold for a long period of time, so people grimaced or looked serious.
Andrew was famously the late Queen's favorite child—and that was true right up until "the very end” of her life, royal author Christopher Andersen says.
The favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alix was a noted beauty but also a carrier of the haemophilia gene. At the wedding of her elder sister Ella and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, she met her future husband, Nicholas II.
Who was Queen Victoria's least favorite prime minister?
In 1880, she tried, unsuccessfully, to stop William Gladstone - whom she disliked as much as she admired Disraeli and whose policies she distrusted - from becoming Prime Minister.
For this reason, the figure of the wet nurse guaranteed the good nutrition of the royal newborns, while allowing the queens to have frequent pregnancies, as they did not have to breastfeed their children.
Victoria's temper was described as uncontrollable and her rages are quite well documented, Albert was sometimes forced to hide in his study with the door locked. People thought she might have inherited madness because she would flip on a pin drop.
Leopold (1853–1884), Victoria's eighth child, was the first member of the family to manifest haemophilia; he died at age 30 from bleeding after a minor fall, only two years after marrying Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1861–1922).
It was what Victoria had dreaded, but the couple knew nothing of artificial contraception, which in any case was illegal, and the queen was a passionate Hanoverian. A Regency Bill empowered him to act in event of the incapacity or death of the queen.
The relationship of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria is one of the great love stories in the history of the British monarchy. Deeply devoted to one another, the couple had nine children during their 21-year marriage. After Albert's death, Victoria wore black for the rest of her life.
