Here we have Queen Victoria smiling. That was kind of rare for her. In this photo, she looks like a completely different person from every other photo I've seen. So much more real.
Victoria did not care for her eldest child, Edward VII.
She thought he had killed his father (his father, Prince Albert, died of an illness which Victoria blamed on the stress of Bertie taking up with an actress) and felt he was stupid, ugly, and immoral.
He thought she was living way too long, and kind of wanted her to "get on with it" and die so he could be king and have his lady friends over at Buckingham Palace.
"I don't mind praying to the eternal Father, but I must be the only man in the country afflicted with an eternal mother."
-Edward VII on Queen Victoria
You should all know a bit about Queen Victoria. She was Queen for 64 years and had nine children with her cousin. One of those children was Leopold. Leopold had hemophilia and died fairly young. For a royal, he wasn't that ugly. His mother disagreed:
"Leopold...is the ugliest." [8] "I think he is uglier than he ever was." [9] "I hope, dear, he [Vicky's young son] won't be like [Leopold] the ugliest and least pleasing of the whole family." [10] "He [Leopold] walks shockingly--and is dreadfully awkward--holds himself as badly as ever and his manners are despairing, as well as his speech--which is quite dreadful. It is so provoking as he learns so well and reads quite fluently; but his French is more like Chinese than anything else; poor child, he is really very unfortunate."[11] "I never cared for you near as much as you seem to about the baby; I care much more for the younger ones (poor Leopold perhaps excepted)..." [12]
Queen Victoria wasn't exactly mother of the year... Not any year....
Leopold was named for Victoria's uncle Leopold, who was King of Belgium. That Leopold has a son named Leopold who was an unsavory fellow. This Leopold died at thirty. He left behind a pregnant wife and young daughter.
No comments:
Post a Comment