The Royal Mob

by Theresa Sherman

The Royal Mob is the story of the four beautiful Princesses of the House of Hesse, granddaughters of Queen Victoria, who come of age during the zenith of European Royalty. Each makes a brilliant marriage that will bring her both happiness and heartbreak. The eldest, Princess Victoria, marries the handsome Prince Louis of Battenberg, the former lover of Lillie Langtry. The next, the exquisite Elisabeth, is swept off to the unbelievable splendor of the Romanov court by Grand Duke Serge, while Irène dazzles Prince Henry of Prussia and takes her place at the court in Berlin. Alix, the youngest, marries the man she has loved since childhood, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and becomes the fabled Empress Alexandra.From such exotic locals as Russia, Bulgaria and Ottoman Jerusalem, to the drawing rooms of Sandringham, The Royal Mob is told as an intimate memoir of the eldest sister, Princess Victoria of Hesse, who was the favorite granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Starting in the court of the Queen Empress and ending at the marriage of Victoria’s grandson, Prince Philip, to the future Queen Elizabeth of England, The Royal Mob is the lavish and exciting story of the last royal courts of Europe.

Genres: History, Royalty, Biography

631 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2008

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE ROYAL MOB by Theresa Sherman

Queen Victoria described her numerous relations (children, grandchildren, in laws, etc) as the "Royal Mob" whenever they gathered together. As she and her beloved husband the Prince Consort, Prince Albert had nine children themselves, the nickname "Grandmama to Europe" is not inaccurate .

"The Royal Mob" by Theresa Sherman is a work if fiction, but her historical accuracy is spot on.

The central character in the book is Princess Victoria of Hesse, first daughter of V&A's daughter the Princess Alice and her husband Ludwig of Hesse. The family's history is told through Princess Victoria aka Princess Louis of Battenberg after her marriage.

The book opens as an elderly Victoria receives the invitation to the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to her own grandson, now styled as Lt. Phillip Mountbatten. "If Louis could see this?" she says to herself and her reminiscences begin.

I am a history lover as well as a Royalty fanatic, so this book had me right away. Ms. Sherman introduces us to all of QV's progeny and I got to know QV herself.

Court intrigue, matchmaking, politics, war, revolution and hemophilia touched all the members of this remarkable family.

Well written and clever, I think it's MUST read for Royal buffs & history lovers both!!

[Gina Basham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice read

I enjoyed this after having read an historical account of the last four Empress of Europe. If I had not just finished that I would not have been able to keep track of the characters. I often referred back to the genealogy tables from the previous book. It helps immensely to utilize nicknames. I would recommend. But have a historical genealogy table handy. Gbash

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title refers to what Queen Victoria used to call the collective royals of Europe, usually gathering for the weddings and funerals of royals across Europe, apart from visiting one another across the continent and in British isles for summers and more. She was called Grandmama of Europe, related as she was to almost all of them, in fact by the timeline this book begins, she was in fact grandmother to scores of them across Europe, some in line to thrones and going on to acquire them in due course, some being invited to take over monarchies of nations momentarily without a monarch, and so on.

As one reads this, one begins to realise this is centred on Victoria, Princess of Hesse and Rhine, not only because she was a granddaughter namesake of the Empress, and grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and consort of Queen Elizabeth II, but much more.

Princess Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg, a cousin of hers who was employed in British Navy, encouraged by her uncle Alfie (the second son of Queen Victoria), who was then Duke of Edinburgh, and she lived her life mostly in Britain, albeit visiting their homes in Germany and various relatives across the continent through years until it was impossible due to WWII. Reading about her life is reading about the history of those years, and persona involved, providing some information, some insights, and more.

But most important, to those that don't quite know the intricate web of the clans of royals of Europe, is that this family of royals of Hesse and Battenberg, related closely to one another before the weddings further bound them closer, was in their generation as much central to the royalty of Europe, as was Queen Victoria being the grandmother of about half and closely related to others too.

Victoria's younger sister Elizabeth married a Grand Duke of Russia, son of Tsar Alexander II, although their cousin Willy who went on to be Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to marry her and did propose, and refused to meet the Russian royals or attend weddings in Russia when spurned by her for sake of cousin Serge whom she did marry; they were already related via his mother and further via his sister in law - Empress Marie the wife of Tsar Alexander I was Victoria's paternal great aunt and sister of her grandfather, while Empress Marie the wife of Tsar Alexander II was sister of Alexandra the then Princess of Wales and later Queen Alexandra of Britain.

And then the youngest of the sisters, Alexandra, although Queen Victoria wanted her to marry her grandson George, instead fell in love with and married Nicholas of Russia, son of Tsar Alexander II, and went on to be the Empress of Russia, which as we all know all too well ended extremely tragically for that family, Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra and their four daughters and the son who was the youngest and afflicted severely with the curse of the whole clan, haemophilia. Meanwhile Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, eventually was allowed by her mother to marry Louis's brother as she wished, instead of the widower of Queen Victoria's daughter Alice who was mother of Victoria.

As if this is not enough, the third sister Irene married Henry, Prince of Prussia, brother of Willy the Kaiser Wilhelm II and son of their aunt the Empress Augusta Viktoria who was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Further, Alice the daughter of Victoria and Louis Battenberg (later changed to Mountbatten) went on to marry a prince of Greece, related to Denmark and Russia once again since the throne of Greece had been offered and taken by the Prince of Denmark, the brother of Queen Alexandra of Britain. Another prince of Greece, brother in law to Alice the daughter of Victoria and Louis Battenberg, was married to Sophie, the daughter of Empress Augusta Victoria who was aunt of Victoria and her sisters - of all grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

There is more, of course, of the web of relationships so very involved. Having constantly referred to the short introduction table given in the first few pages throughout reading the book helps a little. More importantly, one realises quite early during reading that it was all personal to the clan, the quarrels of the nations, the wars, the revolutions, the murders of various relatives, and more. WWII saw the clan not only split forever in reality if not in heart, due to loyalties to their respective nations, but grieving personally at the various disasters, and unable later to meet or attend or invite the relatives across the continent due to the splintering caused by this war. British royalty and not just the Battenberg family were forced to give up their German names and take up English names, and that perhaps was the least, considering just how many relatives they mourned murders of, and later were unable to meet.

At the wedding of the now Queen Elizabeth and her bridegroom Prince Philip who was then newly created Duke of Edinburgh, for example, his sisters the granddaughters of Victoria and Louis Mountbatten were not invited, since they had married into Germany. This royals marrying other royals who were German and usually already relatives was not new, and in fact was facilitated, often encouraged by Queen Victoria for her own grandchildren; but times changed irrevocably post WWII.

One wishes there were a more detailed graph of the various relationships and people, but perhaps a book won't be enough, it would require a net or web that only computer graphics could do justice to - perhaps it could be on internet.

[Lynnda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite insightful

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I will start by saying that I've researched the Hesse family - Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, and her siblings and their families - to a huge extent, so I knew the cast of characters very well coming in. That said, I still had a hard time keeping track of all them and can't imagine how anyone possibly could except with a family tree spread out before you.

However, the reason I've researched Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven? She's my favorite royal. She was fascinating. Granddaughter of a queen, sister to an empress, mother to a queen, grandmother-in-law to a queen, and the niece or cousin of nine kings or queens - yet she believed royalty was an anachronism. She was widely regarded by her illustrious relatives as extraordinarily intelligent and was very widely traveled, and although she witnessed the tragic deaths of countless relatives - including her two sisters who married into the Russian imperial family - she was also known to be pragmatic and no-nonsense. What a woman.

However, this book let me down. I'd been looking forward to reading it since I first found out about its existence, but none of the libraries I've had access to (and most of them were large and prestigious!) have had the book. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and bought the Kindle version.

What a let-down. The book is well-written, true (although with some errors - for example, Alice's third daughter was named Cecile or Cecilie, not Cecilia. Really?) but read like an extended Wikipedia entry. It listed where she lived, who she was related to. I got a full view of her personality, but I can get that from a Wikipedia or encyclopedia article, too. There was shockingly little novelization/dialogue - something I expect from a historical fiction book, no matter how true-to-life it remains - and overall my only drive to finish was to see if the book would get better at a full representation of this woman I find so intriguing.

Overall: 6/10. It could've been so much better.

[Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theresa Sherman's The Royal Mob is a book with a clever premise but lacks finesse in its delivery. The book is a biography, masquerading as a fictional first person account of Princess Victoria of Hesse, the lesser know older sister of the ill-fated future Tsaritsa Alexandra and Grand Duchess Elizabeth (Ella). The book written in narrative style recounts a huge family whose main business is ruling countries and regions. Sherman does a good job showing the casual side of the complex family relationships and how they sought to preserve wealth and power unto themselves, which after the disasters of revolutions and world wars was severely diminished. Princess Victoria didn't fully buy into that divine right perspective of her social class, yet, it would appear she too accepted it for what it was since the survival of her family depended upon it. The biggest failing of the book in my view was that the first person narrative coming from Princess Victoria, was entirely too contemporary sounding at times, making it hard to believe it was supposed to be coming from a person born in the 1860s. While there is a huge family in this book, I found it easier to remember who is who than I would have thought possible. I could though, perhaps because I've read a lot of history about many of these people so I already have background in knowing who they were. For the reader newly initiated in the story of the family, it may be somewhat overwhelming. This was an interesting book -- well worth the read if one can get beyond the modern writing style and the extensive family tree that constantly shifts.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It *was* interesting, but at the same time so incredible dull! I've also seen in another review that this book was published without any editing, and it shows. Maybe I'm just a purist, but I found the extra commas, the misspellings, etc... distracting.

(Honestly, is it so hard to look up the spelling of 'brooch' {an ornament fastened to clothing with a hinged pin and catch} as opposed to 'broach' {raise (a sensitive or difficult subject) for discussion}).

There are many, many other grammatical oddities and I can't list them all here. I did like some of the book, however: the account of Victoria's reaction to learning of the horror at Ekaterinberg sent chills down my spine.

All in all, it was just an okay book.

[Helen Azar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Very well researched and well written, the author weaves historical facts into the story with elegant ease, which makes it not only fun to read but also informative. There was even a point when I had to double check to make sure this was really a work of fiction and not a real memoir by Victoria Battenberg. You really get to know her in this one, and realize that she was not just one of the more obscure of Queen Victoria's granddaughters, but an interesting character in her own right, who was a witness to the crucial historical events of the late 19th and early 20th century.

[Elaine Dowling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. It has an air of authenticity to it, and yet, it isn't. It purports to be the memoirs of Princess Victoria of Hesse. From that perspective it tells a compelling story about the people -- not the events. This is written as a woman's reflections on herself and her extended family. It made for very interesting reading. I am now quite interested in finding out accurate it really was. It did, however, make me much more familiar with the connections between Queen Victoria's grandchildren.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book about royalty.

Ok book about royalty.

This book includes a reference how it was published without editorial review, and unfortunately, you can tell.
Work of fiction but known historical facts, and words not used in that time period are included and don't add up. It's possible that I'm too picky. I did actually enjoy reading this from Victoria's view.

[Elaine Dowling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this thinking it was a biography and not realizing it was an historical novel. Although it is fairly clumsily written, it is surprisingly good. It manages to convey the very real sense that the subject really was writing and thinking of herself and her family -- her Sister the Empress of Russia, for instance. It manages to make accessible the tangled net of Victoria's grandchildren and how they spread out through Europe while still remaining cousins.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book about the lives of Queen Victoria's granddaughters--four Hesse princesses. The author, Theresa Sherman, did an excellent job of telling the story through the eyes and thoughts of Princess Victoria. With Princess "Vicki" as the voice, it transported me to her life as a German princess during WWI and WWII with all the ensuing tragedies that occurred to their families during this time period.

[Joyce · Rating 1 out of 5]

looking for escapism....

OK, seriously?? People *liked* this?? Poorly written, repetitive and repetitive. I felt like drinking a shot every time the author wrote about cigarettes, horrible Russian in-laws, or that flippin' pink pearl.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in European History, this is the book for you. I've always been interested in books on the British Monarchy and this book was great. This was the first book that I've read about Queen Victoria and her relatives, the Royal Mob. I'm hooked!!

[Elizabeth C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because it captivated me from the first page. As a history lover, I was immediately drawn in. What I especially liked was the human, storytelling aspect that fleshed out the bare facts.

[Maxwell Hoffmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insider look at history

Fascinating autobiography that includes four sisters, all of whom grew into prominent positions in late 19th & early 20th Century history. Includes childhood of last Tsarina of Russia.

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It actually made me cry. In a good way. Not at all a tear jerker. Just beautifully done.

[Cece · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched, told from the point of view of the oldest sister Victoria, slightly romanticized, but a good overview of how interwoven The royal families of Europe became. Enjoyable to read.

[Kevin Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author knows her stuff!!!!

[Jeanne O Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

Gives you a feel for one aspect of the Victorian/Edwardian era. Well done in that I could forget that this is a novel. It truly reads like a memoir. Most enjoyable.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fictional account of Queen Victoria's extended family. Excellent