Queen Victoria's Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages That Shaped Europe
Deborah Cadbury
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Queen Victoria's Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages That Shaped Europe
Deborah Cadbury
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
There was one aspect of ordinary life, petty or otherwise, that deeply concerned Victoria herself: the marital fate of her children and grandchildren. The House of Hanover’s marriages could affect international politics, as Deborah Cadbury shows in Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking, and gave the queen’s aspirations a broader scope than 'merely' her empire.
Readers will need a scorecard to keep up with them all, but rest assured, there will be mistresses, euphemisms for sexually transmitted infections (poor Eddie’s 'gout') and general disobedience.
...it was partly due to Victoria’s manipulative energy that seven of her 42 grandchildren eventually became crowned rulers. Much of the pathos of Deborah Cadbury’s absorbing book stems from our knowledge of what happened next.
Prince Albert’s great plan was to intermarry his children with European royal houses to spread the liberalism of England and prevent wars. That was not to be.
British historian and documentarian Cadbury energetically reveals the extent of Queen Victoria’s meddling in the marriage arrangements of her grandchildren in order to create the family’s ideal British-German alliance.