The Official History Chicks Podcast Book Club discussion

Queen Victoria was such an intriguing and sometimes complicated lady. We had a fellow book club member bring up the relationship that Victoria shared with her mother in the early stages of her life and mentioned that despite her mother being manipulating, Victoria still had the strength to stand up to her when she became queen. This courage was buried deep within Victoria despite all of trouble she had as a child. Although, her relationship with her mother at the beginning was troublesome, it was good to see that they shared a healthier mother/daughter relationship at the end of her life.

As we all know looking back through Victoria’s life, she always was fully devoted to one individual; Lord Melbourne, Albert, John Brown, Abdul. Each one she gave her full attention and depended on them fully despite being a strong, independent woman that ran a great nation. Personally, I see the dependent personality that Victoria’s mother had on Conroy come to light in each of Victoria’s relationships with few men that she had near her throughout her entire life.

Did Victoria have a dependent personality? If so, do you think it was something she inherited or was it fostered by her seclusion and dependence as a child on her mother and John Conroy?

That is a great question, and I had not thought of the influence or possibly inherited trait from her mother. I can see that with Albert, they were expected to be together and marry, and they did so with much depth. Would Victoria had given the same devotion and depth to her husband no matter who he had been?
If not Albert, how would she have coped with relationship with a different personality, i wonder...

Mary wrote: "That is a great question, and I had not thought of the influence or possibly inherited trait from her mother. I can see that with Albert, they were expected to be together and marry, and they did s..."

Great questions, I think that Victoria needed to have someone by her side with an equally strong personality due to the pressures and circumstances of their marriage. I guess we just never know what draws us to specific people that become our spouses but something was obviously there for their marriage to last as long as it did and her grief to last the remainder of her life.

To some degree yes I do think that Victoria had a dependent personality. Despite being queen she was still a female growing up at a time where few women held power, she was taught to defer to men by her mother. Although she was strong enough to push back on this expectation; I think she still felt the need I think to have a strong male personality by her side.