Queen Victoria's Children

by John van der Kiste

Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort, had nine children who, despite their very different characters, remained a close-knit family. Inevitably, as they married into European royal families their loyalties were divided and their lives dominated by political controversy. This is not only the story of their lives in terms of world impact, but also of personal achievements in their own right, individual contributions to public life in Britain and overseas, and as the children of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Royalty, Audiobook, Historical, Biography Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 1987

About the author

John Van der Kiste, British author, was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, on September 15, 1954, son of Wing Commander Guy Van der Kiste (1912–99). He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, where he briefly formed a rock band Cobweb with fellow pupil Miles Tredinnick, later vocalist with new wave band London and subsequently playwright and scriptwriter, and read Librarianship at Ealing Technical College, where he edited the librarians’ student magazine.
He has worked for several years in public and academic libraries, but is best known as a writer. His first book, Frederick III, appeared in 1981, and since then he has published over twenty historical biographies, as well as books on local history, true crime, rock music, a novel and a play. He is also a contributor to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Guinness Rockopaedia, and has produced articles on historical, musical and art subjects in national and local journals, including Illustrated London News, Royalty Digest, European Royal History Journal, Best of British, BBC History Magazine, Record Collector, Antique Collector, This England, The Independent, and Gibbons Stamp Monthly. He has reviewed books and records for the press, written CD booklet notes, and between 1991 and 1996 edited the 70s rock fanzine Keep on Rockin.
In 2002 he was a consultant for the BBC TV documentary 'The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar', first screened in January 2003.
He married professional musician and teacher Kim Graham (née Geldard) in 2003 and lives in Devon.

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

ROYALTY READS PROJECT
AND I AM LOVING THIS FOCUS FOR 2023

I could have sworn I had read this book. But GR said no and of course GR is infallible lol

Good night Victoria you have any problems with control or possessiveness? I mean I’m just asking just wondered. I’m really on the fence re: my feelings and opinions on Queen Victoria. I do think there would have been massive differences in both England and its commonwealths had Albert lived as long as she had or at least closer to the same years. She reminds me a tad of Mary I just obsessed with their husbands who were refused boosts in title, her controlling aspects as well as her feelings of mock desperation only one immediate difference was Victoria gave birth to 5000 children and Mary I would have been over the moon with just one. Actually Mary becoming a mother is a tad frightening.

[Carolyn Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Queen Victoria's Children covers familiar ground concerning Queen Victoria and her family with a particular emphasis on the rapport amongst the nine siblings and their differing relationships with their mother who clearly favoured some of her children over others. The author notes in the introduction that Queen Victoria's two eldest children, Empress Frederick of Germany (Princess Victoria, nicknamed Vicky) and Edward VII (nicknamed Bertie) have received the most attention from biographers and that events in the lives of Queen Victoria's children during her reign are better known than the later lives of the younger children. Nevertheless, the book devoted a great deal of attention to the two eldest children with all the chapters except the last one covering events within the reign of Queen Victoria. I was curious to read more about Alfred and Arthur's overseas tours and Helena's philanthropy and support for the development of nursing as a profession. Despite revisions in a second edition, the book is rather dated and draws from the most well known sources that will be familiar to readers who have read many books about Queen Victoria. The audiobook is well read by Jennifer Dixon.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting.
I'm not well versed enough on the history 9f this period to judge the accuracy of the history offered in this text.
This is a quick, interesting, and light historical book.

[Rachel Boothe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have struggled with how many stars to give this book and I decided on three. Due to its brevity, I was not expecting it go in depth so I am not critical of it for that. I did enjoy it because I learned a couple of things I did not know, even though I have read several books on Queen Victoria and her family. If you are looking for a short book to give you a general synopsis of Queen Victoria's children, their relationships with each other and with Queen Victoria, this is the book. However, I found it frustrating at times. First, in regards to Queen Victoria's relationship with her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, Van der Kiste says that "inevitably Queen Victoria was beginning to find Lord Melbourne's company dull, and his flippancy mildly offensive." I have never read anything but that she was virtually enamored of him or viewed him as a father figure (or a little of both). The author did not cite any evidence of this via a statement from a letter from Victoria or anything in her journal. He does lists lots of references in the back of the book, but does not indicate which of these would support his comment about Lord Melbourne. Also, I recently read "An Uncommon Woman" about Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Vicky, as well as "Letters to Vicky" and much was made of Vicky not being a great beauty , or even pretty. However, Van der Kiste states that when Prince Frederick (Fritz) came to visit Vicky in order to propose to her, "He was struck by the way in which a lively, attractive little girl was maturing into such a beautiful young woman". However, he does not cite any evidence that this is what Fritz felt. Again it may be in the references in the back of this book, but again, I am used to books giving a statement within the text from a letter or a journal or a conversation to support a statement. I am not sure that is how Fritz felt because in " An Uncommon Woman", Fritz writes his parents that Vicky is "sweet, natural, friendly, and unaffected...possessing great feeling and intelligence." Never once did he describe her as beautiful. Now, whether or not Vicky was beautiful is completely unimportant, but that statement is not visibly supported in anyway.
Then as the author is listing Princess Beatrice's troubles, he writes this sentence: "Her second son Leopold succumbed in 1922 to haemophilia, the scourge of her daughter Queen Ena's married life." I know the issues with Queen Ena's situation, and what is meant by this sentence, but that is a run-on sentence. The portion of the sentence after the comma is written grammatically as if it applies to the part before the comma. (I'm being picky, but by this point I was irritated). Those three things were a bit puzzling to me, but the one that boggles my mind the most was when the author states that when Fritz's father, King William I, threatened to abdicate that Fritz's hesitation to accept "would have made no difference if he had accepted" because "Bismarck, swiftly appointed minister-president of Prussia, soon made his philosophy clear" which was that of autocracy. Then he turns around and says the opposite later in the book. He says "If Emperor Frederick had lived, the German empire would have been on the best possible terms with England." Later on he states that it was a tragedy that Emperor Frederick III "died before his time" and "in a happier world...the English declaration of war on Germany in 1914...would have been inconceivable." The author can't seem to make up his mind whether Germany and the world would have been better off if Emperor Frederick III could have reigned much longer. Also, this author, more than once, calls the Russian Orthodox Church the Greek Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the book, even though I found it trying and contradictory at times.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, particularly if you're not aware of much about the lesser-known of Victoria's children. It was not overly detailed, but for the length I wasn't expecting it to be. What ruined it a little were some glaring errors (maybe just my edition?) Saying that the Russian Imperial family were Greek Orthodox (instead of Russian Orthodox) was probably the most baffling mistake, and repeated several times. Overall though, a quick and interesting read.

[Katie Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful look into the dynamics between Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their nine children. It isn't too long or bogged down by unnecessary details or tangents which meant that it flew by.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this on my want to read list for quite a while, I found that my local library had the audio book while searching though Hoopla for something new to read/listen to. I knew some about the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but only peripherally through biographies on them or the biographies of their children who ruled various countries in their own right. I had no idea just how unhappy some of them were with their lives and marriages or the differences and in fighting between the siblings who had to put the needs of various countries before family and sibling bonds.

[Susan Snodgrass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have tons of books on the British monarchy, more than a few with Queen Victoria and her family as subject. This one is very well written, very informative without being dull and long winded. It gives you the information you want without being boring. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, light & informative.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent rendering of the lives of Victoria's children. This needs a deck plan of all the children and grandchildren (provided in the back of the book) but needed elsewhere.

[Kay Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, but frequently confusing. Instead of following the individual lives of each of the nine children of Queen Victoria, the author sticks to a chronological discussion of all the siblings, skipping frequently from one to another. This wasn't helped by the fact that each sibling was known by one of their several given names, often by a nickname, and later in their lives by a title (or in the case of the five princesses, their husbands' titles). And of course by the end of the book, everyone (or so it seemed) in the royal families of Europe was related to one another, and a lot of them were named Victoria or Louise.

The book is also plagued by bad copy editing, the occasional error (Beatrice referred to as the eldest daughter when she was in fact the youngest, and as someone else has pointed out, the Tsar's family should probably be referred to as Russian Orthodox, not Greek), and an amazing number of misplaced modifiers and unclear pronouns.

Those complaints aside, I did read the book with interest. The nine siblings had interesting lives, most of them making considerable contributions, each in his or her own way. The youngest, Beatrice, lived until 1944. Worth a read for anyone interested in the life of Victoria and her connections throughout the ruling families of nineteenth century Europe.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I discovered this book, I was very excited. I've read a number of biographies about Albert and/or Victoria, and indeed a few about some of their individual kids (the Empress Frederick, Princess Louise in particular), but here was something that covered all nine. No easy feat, covering such a large group of individuals in one book.

Van der Kiste does a great job covering the lives of the nine children. It helps to have at least a basic knowledge of all of the players involved, to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed by all of the names and titles, so I didn't have a problem on that front. He kept things interesting, and really made it flow smoothly, covering their lives and blending them together.

My only real quibble was that the book could have used a bit more editing to weed out the mix-ups that were sprinkled throughout the book. I get that mistakes happen, particularly with such a large number of people involved in a topic like this, but an editor with knowledge of the subject and a fresh pair of eyes should have caught them.

Still, a really great book. Now I'll probably go digging for more individual biographies.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book through my Audible trial.

This is a very comprehensive overview of the nine children of Victoria and Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Van der Kiste did a superb job of integrating nine distinct narratives into a single book. Each child was given equal coverage and their relationships were explored in enough detail that a picture of each of their lives emerged. I also really like how the relationships between the children were the focus rather than relating them all to Victoria.

I also liked how Van der Kiste touched upon the difficulties of the siblings as they were brought into opposition in the conflicts that arose throughout Europe and how they navigated their relationships.

This is a comprehensive overview of nine members of the royal family and provides a lot of detail about them and their relationships.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Ableism, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Grief

Moderate: Classism, Pregnancy, and Infertility

Minor: Colonisation

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is such a wealth of information in this book that I hate to give it 2 stars, but it was so difficult to read. It felt like one run on thought, with very little sepration from thought to thought. (The example that sticks in my head is one sentence talking about someone in England, immediately followed by a sentence about the Romanoffs demise. No transition, no linking of thoughts, etc.)

A third of the way into the book I had to stop reading, and Google each of Queen Victoria's children & their spouses, so I could keep everyone straight. (Constantly switching between the use of their full names, nicknames or titles did not help). After making myself a cheat sheet I enjoyed the book so much more. This book is probably meant for someone who has a bit of knowledge of the family and not a complete novice such as myself.

I have complete respect for the amount of research & work that went into this book, I just wish it was broken down a bit better.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice overview of all Queen Victoria's children. Focused on the children and chronological, van der Kiste only ackowledges others when they directly interact with his protagonists, so it might not be a good starting place to learn about the Victorian court.

If you already know the main players and are looking for new tidbits about the lesser known, this is a good choice. Van der Kiste gives as much focus to Victoria's younger children as he does the oldest, especially Leopold. He does get less detailed after Victoria's death, rushing the last section a bit.

[Liselotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of this book is really interesting, I really wanted a book all about Victoria's children, not just her and in essence, yes, this is true to this book, but it kind of felt like a "fun fact!" book. It wasn't really cohesive, it jumped from person to person and from event to event. It kind of felt like the author wrote the whole book and while editing wanted to add a lot of facts to it to spice it up.

I liked it, but it wasn't very good and I just wanted more from it. A shame!

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by Queen Victoria after reading Daisy Goodwin's book. This book follows her nine children from birth to death, marriages, births and the like. It was a comprehensive look at the family, although the family names became confusing with their titles and relocating to other countries. The end of the book gives a comprehensive listing of each child, names, dates of marriages of the child and his/her children.

[Dana Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much.

I felt they were all great parents. They loved their family very much. They taught them well. The children all went on to have productive lives. Queen Victoria chose to be a mother to her family even after they were married to the partners she chose for them. Very amazing!

[Phyllis Relyea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queen Victoria and the rest of her story

O course, the TV adaptation of Daisy Goodwin has whetted my appetite to know more about this remarkable woman. I was curious as to her nine children , Prince Albert's death, and life in Queen Victoria's thereafter. This book answered all those questions and more! Highly recommended!

[Joy Gauger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of Queen Victoria and her children

This is an excellent compilation of history of Queen Victoria and her family. Well written covering Britain Royal families. Excellent references. Should you be interested in the English totals take the time to read this volume.

[Bookwoman67 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice overview. Queen Victoria comes across as a bit neurotic, which admittedly she probably was. Also, once you get past the nine children all the extended family is definitely hard to keep straight, but it was a good introduction to their lives, too many of which were a bit sad due to the constraints of royal birth.

[Irene Grynyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rating of the book is quite tricky.
If I knew more information about Victoria's kids, I would it give it 3 stars. In addition, to some obvious mistakes, confusion between kids when they marry or generally style of writing, it could be better than it is written.

But it was my first book about royal children, thus it deserves 4 starts.

[Leslie Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

It is a well developed story with great detail about each of Victoria's nine children. How interesting to see the development of what has become the England we a!l know now.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this in audiobook format, and I admit that with a rather lacking knowledge of history, it was occasionally difficult to remember who was who and keep track of all the names. But their stories are fascinating, and I really enjoyed this insight into England’s royal family.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting biography about queen victorias children and about how their dynastic marriages affected the majority of Europe's royalty land how that impacted on the first world war and indirectly to the second world war.

[Vicki Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christian names, royal titles and nicknames make it difficult at times to know exactly of whom they are speaking. Sometimes you need to go back a few pages to refresh your memory. It is, however, one of the best accounts I've read.

[Lori Lunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough history of the Queen’s children. If you like reading history books, this is a good one. Well written and not just facts and dates. More of a story form of telling. It filled in the gaps of what I knew about Victoria and her family.

[Tracey Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this at the start, but at about 60% it became confusing. Too many titles and names were used interchangeably and with 9 kids to follow plus spouses and friends, well.....I lost my patience.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very concise history, yet well written in a way that made sure nothing in these 200 pages was boring

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book about all of Victoria's children, including long forgotten characters like Princess Louise and Prince Leopold. A great read with lots of tragic interludes.