You can’t beat a good period drama. Well you can
but if you’re a ratings hungry television company then you know that some
elaborate moustaches, big dresses and aristocratic sneering will guarantee you
solid viewing figures and, if you’re really lucky, a Christmas special.
Victoria is currently ticking all of these boxes for ITV filling the void left
by Downton Abbey with slightly more historical accuracy but equally
questionable doses of “look peasants, the toffs do care about your plight”. I’d
love to say that’s the end of the Neo-Marxist rambling for this post but I’d be
lying.
Queen Victoria is famous for living for a long
time, ruling an extensive empire and not being amused. She is also famous for
having nine children which, considering the struggles of her relations to
produce surviving heirs, was no mean feat. Take into account that she didn’t
particularly like children, hated being pregnant and saw breastfeeding as
disgusting and this becomes even more of an achievement. All nine of Victoria’s
children lived long enough to marry and have their own children leading to a
staggering forty-two grandchildren. What is more significant than the sheer
amount of progeny is that, through the marriages arranged for Victoria’s
offspring, a number of these grandchildren found themselves in positions of
considerable power across Europe.
A quiet family gathering at Queen Victoria's.
To put it simply Victoria was “The Grandmother
of Europe” but the rivalry between her descendants led to a far more fractious
Europe than the one her children were married into. Rather than assessing
Victoria’s role as grandmother in terms of this sobriquet I’ll be looking more
to examine the Europe her grandchildren had helped to create by 1918 and how
much of that stems from their grandmother’s influence. For any fans of the ITV
series Victoria apologies for spoilers and not so many apologies for slagging
off the various monarchies mentioned below.
Great Britain: George V of England
In some senses Victoria’s descendants in her own
country did the least amount of damage to the fabric of Europe. By the end of
the First World War Britain’s monarchy was still intact and its empire, through
the Treaty of Versailles, was about to expand even further. Due to Victoria’s
unexpectedly long reign her eldest son, Albert Edward, waited a long time to
ascend to the throne and subsequently only ruled as Edward VII for nine years.
His son, George V, came to the throne in 1910.
As his father’s second son he had only entered the line of succession in a
meaningful sense in 1892 and had spent the time prior to this serving in the
Royal Navy making him potentially the only British monarch to sport a Japanese
dragon tattoo. George somewhat reluctantly declared war on Germany (more on
them later) following their invasion of Belgium in August 1914. As the war
progressed and anti-German sentiment grew more fervent George looked to appease
his subjects by changing the family name from Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor and
even went as far as to alter the Battenberg family name to Mountbatten. As when
failing schools rename themselves along the lines of The Toad Hall Academy for
the Children of Gentlefolk this seemed to do the trick.
George V's dragon tattoo - apparently the Queen's got a tribute piece on her back.
George’s main challenges during this time came
on the domestic front where the growth of the British Labour Party and the
women’s suffrage movement challenged the political status quo. Following the
execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916 the cause of Irish
nationalism once again came to the surface of British politics. The King was
reported to be appalled by the actions of the ‘Black and Tans’ during the Irish
Civil War and supported the eventual signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922
albeit as a means to an ends regarding the conclusion of the conflict. It is
unlikely that George V set out to relinquish control of Ireland but, compared
to his cousins, he reached the start of the 1930s with his reign and the
majority of his empire intact and an improving standing amongst his subjects –
in short – all that was required for the period of relative stability in Europe
at the time.
Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II of Germany was the eldest of the
imaginatively named Princess Victoria’s children and he ascended to the
relatively recently unified German throne in 1888 – a year in which he was the
third Kaiser following the deaths of his grandfather Wilhelm and father
Frederick in quick succession. An autocrat with an obsession for the military
he was quick to impose a new direction in German politics by dismissing Otto
von Bismarck from his position of Chancellor in order to establish a more
aggressive, expansive foreign policy.
Expansive foreign policy required an equally expansive moustache.
Wilhelm craved the acceptance and respect of his
British relatives but with the exception of his grandmother, Victoria, did
little to win them over. He envied the country’s naval strength and spent
heavily to build the German fleet especially following the development of the
Dreadnought battleship in 1906. Wilhelm’s overwhelming desire to prove himself
combined with his expansionist imperial aims meant this arms race came with the
sense of an inevitable war and this was further exacerbated by the
assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914.
Following the failure of the Schlieffen Plan,
which was entirely based on Belgium being completely relaxed about the German
army marching through to France, Wilhelm relied heavily on two main generals:
Paul von Hindenburg and Erich von Ludendorff. The Kaiser became increasingly
removed from the political and military decision making process and, far more
worryingly, from reality as Germany was effectively transformed into a military
dictatorship under Hindenburg and Ludendorff. With his position becoming
untenable as German public opinion moved against him Wilhelm was forced to
abdicate but only once he had been assured that the army would still fight. In
reality the armistice was signed two days later by which time Wilhelm had fled
to the Netherlands where he lived out his days in exile.
In many senses Wilhelm’s fall in 1918 very much
established the template for the Europe that emerged following the First World
War. His militaristic approach had certainly contributed to the outbreak of the
conflict and his ineptitude as a leader had been exposed to the extent he
provided a scapegoat for Germany’s failings for both left and right wing
dissenters during his final months as Kaiser. Moreover, the power vacuum he
left following his abdication destabilised the Weimar regime burdening it with
many of the issues that paved the way for the rise of Nazism which, whilst in
keeping with the political tone for the continent in the interwar years, could
not have been Wilhelm’s aim upon his ascension to the throne. There’s no harm
in blaming him anyway.
Russia: Alexandra Feodorovna
Despite the questionable rule of her cousin
outlined above Alix of Hesse, daughter of Princess Alice, probably wished she’d
stayed in Germany. The course of true love, however, never runs smooth and
despite the anti-German parents-in-law she married Tsar Nicholas II within a
few weeks of his ascension to the throne in November 1894. Renamed as Alexandra
Feodorovna following her conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church she was
crowned Tsarina in 1896.
Many of Alexandra’s problems were outlined in my
previous post about Rasputin but she was disliked by the Russian public long
before her devotion to the questionable holy man. Many Russians were loath to
accept her German heritage and, quite accurately, saw her as having undue influence
over her husband. Alexandra responded by becoming something of a recluse in the
years leading to the First World War devoting her time to her children and a
very small circle of close relatives. She was particularly devoted to her
youngest child, the Tsarevitch Alexei, whom she had passed on her grandmother’s
haemophilia genes to in an example of what not to get the heir to the Russian
Empire for a Christening gift.
Alexandra assumed control of Russia during the
First World War and almost seemed to use this as an opportunity to take revenge
on members of the Duma who had questioned her capabilities from either a
xenophobic or political perspective. Alongside Rasputin she dismissed several
capable advisors and ministers which only fanned the flames of anti-German
sentiment in the country as well as leading to questions of her fidelity – just
ask Boney M. The disastrous combination of her leadership on the home front and
her husband Nicholas’ inept control of the Russian forces meant the February
Revolution of 1917 which abolished the monarchy was hardly surprising to
onlookers. The Provisional Government under Prince Lvov allowed the Romanovs to
remain in Russia albeit under house arrest.
The Bolshevik government who came to power in
October 1917 would not be so forgiving. Moved to more modest accommodation in
1918 under the watchful eye of Alexander Avadayev, who referred to Alexandra as
“the German bitch”, the deposed Tsarina rarely left her chair let alone the
house. When Avadeyev was replaced with Yakov Yurovsky in July 1918 the Romanovs
were placed under even tighter security and forced to hand over their jewellery
and valuables. Later that month, under orders from Lenin, Alexandra and her
family were killed by firing squad and their bodies thrown into a disused
mineshaft. It’s fair to say that Alexandra probably had the worst end out of
all of Victoria’s grandchildren and one that could not have been expected in
her grandmother’s time but also an end which displayed the rapidly changing
nature of Europe after the First World War.
Elsewhere (Greece, Norway, Romania and Spain):
Sophia, Maud, Marie and Victoria Eugenie
Of the other four of Victoria’s grandchildren to
become queens only Maud as Queen of Norway died with her royal title intact.
Sophia, the sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, married Crown Prince Constantine of
Greece in 1889 causing concern that Athens’ military allegiance would switch
from the French to the Germans on account of her heritage. Whilst this worry
did not come to fruition Sophia endured a turbulent period of Greek history in
the build up to the First World War including war with the Ottoman Empire, her
husband’s numerous affairs and increasing anti-monarchist sentiment among her
own people culminating in the assassination of her father-in-law King George I.
During the war itself Greece, having declared
neutrality, were under pressure to formally side with the Triple Entente which
was only heightened when a band of Greek reservists turned their guns on
Entente troops in Athens in 1916. The capital city was subsequently bombarded
by the French navy and, following the February 1917 Revolution in Russia, with
no remaining allies amongst the Entente King Constantine and Sophia were forced
to abdicate in favour of their son Alexander. When Alexander died of infection
after being bitten by his pet monkey in 1920 (yes, this is actually what
happened) Constantine was briefly returned to the throne only to abdicate again
following the disasters of the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-22. Sophia’s son George
II ruled for just over a year before being deposed and the Greek monarchy was
temporarily abolished. Sophia died in exile in Germany in 1932. Her remains
were repatriated in 1935 following the restoration of her son George II. Well
done if you managed to keep up with all that.
Although Maud died as Queen of Norway in 1938
she initially married Prince Carl of Denmark. In 1905, however, the Norwegian
parliament dissolved their link with Sweden and offered Carl the Norwegian
throne. Taking on the tile of King Haakon VII the couple settled in Norway
although Maud never really regarded anywhere but Britain as home. She lived a
relatively quiet life compared to her relatives and, having taken ill on a visit to Britain in 1938,
died at Sandringham. I suppose it beats being forced to abdicate or thrown down
a mineshaft.
Marie turned down a proposal from her cousin,
George V of England, and instead opted to marry Prince Ferdinand the heir
apparent to the Romanian throne in a considerably less incestuous match. Marie
was by no means a shrinking violet and, following their ascension to the
Romanian throne in 1914, convinced her husband to join the Triple Entente in
opposing Germany in the First World War. Bucharest was occupied by the Central
Powers in 1916 and Marie, along with her daughters, served as military nurses
whilst the capital was unavailable to them. In 1919 she successfully petitioned
the Paris Peace Conference to recognise the newly expanded Romanian nation and
remained a popular international and domestic figure until the death of her
husband in 1926.
Queen Marie of Romania. Probably not in her nursing uniform.
Marie refused to serve in the regency council of
her grandson Michael which proved to be a sensible decision. Her son Carol, who
had previously waived his rights to the succession, deposed his son in 1930 and
set about trying to destroy his mother’s reputation. Marie died in exile in
1938 but her reputation continued to be tarnished after the Second World War
where the newly established communist regime in Romania painted her as a
drunken nymphomaniac. She did die of cirrhosis of the liver but whether or not
the orgies she apparently organised took place is fairly questionable.
Victoria Eugenie married King Alfonso XIII of
Spain in 1906 and was nearly assassinated shortly after the wedding ceremony
when an anarchist bomb hit the royal procession. Things did not improve for her
when it became obvious that she had passed on her grandmother’s haemophilia to
her first son and, although she had a further six children with Alfonso XIII,
her marriage was not a happy one. Victoria Eugenie dedicated her life to
working to improve hospitals and schools in Spain which helped to improve her
public image although this could not stem the rising tide of republicanism.
When, in 1931, municipal elections returned vast numbers of Republican
representatives her husband abdicated and moved the family to live in France.
She separated from Alfonso and moved around Europe until her death in 1968.
Although the royal succession was interrupted her great-grandson, Felipe VI, is
the current King of Spain. Unless you count Ashley Giles of course.
Having been bamboozled by his arm ball the Spanish people had little choice but to accept 'Gilo' as their rightful leader.
The Grandmother of Europe?
It seems churlish to suggest that Victoria was
not the “Grandmother of Europe” seeing as seven of her grandchildren went on to
be kings and queens in their own right and the influence these seven held
spread far beyond Britain across the continent. At the same time only two of
these grandchildren died in these positions which can be seen as the result of
a number of contributing factors. One of these is the changing continent in
which they held these positions and the impact of the First World War on the
respectability of monarchy as a concept in general as many of those who had
enlisted to fight ‘for king and country’ began to question their own motives.
In some cases, such as with George V of England and Marie of Romania, Victoria’s
grandchildren looked to adapt by assisting the war effort in person or
re-evaluating the role of their families in state affairs. In others, however,
an archaic commitment to autocracy only acted to damage their reputations
further and it is in these cases where some were forced to abdicate and others
found themselves permanently derided or even killed with the very institutions
they represented consigned to Leon Trotsky’s dustbin of history. What
underpinned these misguided attempts to rule and govern was a rivalry and
mistrust of each other which, whilst fairly harmless in the period of relative
European peace in Victoria’s time, proved to be destructive for both the
monarchies themselves and, more importantly, the people they reigned over.
Victoria’s grand-children played a key role in the forging of modern Europe but
only in the sense that, with a very few exceptions, their poor decisions and
the decisions of their spouses opened the door for the rise of dictatorship
which would, in turn, lead to the outbreak of another, far more devastating
global conflict.
