Victoria, Princess Royal
For other princesses named "Victoria", see Princess Victoria | Victoria as German Crown Princess and Crown Princess of Prussia |
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Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (
21 November 1840 –
5 August 1901) was the eldest daughter of
Queen Victoria and her
consort Albert. She was created
Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in
1841. She became
Empress consort in
Germany and Queen of
Prussia by marriage to
German Emperor Frederick III. After the death of her husband she became widely known as
Empress Frederick (or, in German: "Kaiserin Friedrich").
Princess Victoria was born on
21 November 1840 at
Buckingham Palace,
London. Her mother was the reigning
British monarch,
Queen Victoria, the only daughter of
King George III's fourth eldest son,
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent. Her father was
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was baptised in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on
10 February 1841 by
William Howley,
Archbishop of Canterbury and her godparents were the
Dowager Queen Adelaide, the
King of the Belgians, the
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the
Duke of Sussex, the
Duchess of Gloucester and the
Duchess of Kent.
As a daughter of the sovereign, Victoria was automatically a
British princess with the style
Her Royal Highness, styled
HRH The Princess Victoria (and in addition being heiress presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom before the birth of her younger brother Prince Albert, later
Edward VII on
9 November 1841). In
1841, the Queen created Victoria
Princess Royal, giving her an honorary title sometimes conferred on the eldest daughter of the sovereign. Victoria was then styled
HRH The Princess Royal. To her family she was known simply as
Vicky.
The education of Victoria was closely supervised by her parents. She was precocious and intelligent, unlike her brother Albert Edward. She was taught to read and write before the age of five by her governess Lady Lyttelton and to speak French by her French nursery maid. The Princess Royal learned French and German from various governesses and science, literature, Latin, and history by Sara Ann Hildyard. Prince Albert tutored her in politics and philosophy.
In
1851, Victoria met her future husband,
Prince Frederick William of Prussia (
18 October 1831-
15 June 1888), when he and his parents were invited to London by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to attend the opening of the Great Exhibition. At the time, Frederick, the son of
Prince William of Prussia and
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, was second in line to the Prussian throne. The couple was engaged in 1855 while Frederick was on a visit to
Balmoral.
The Prussian Court and Buckingham Palace publicly announced the engagement on
19 May 1857. The couple was married, at Queen Victoria's insistence, at the Chapel Royal,
St. James's Palace, on
25 January 1858. The marriage was both a love match and a dynastic alliance. The Queen and Prince Albert hoped that Victoria's marriage to the future king of Prussia would cement close ties between London and Berlin, and possibly lead to the emergence of a unified and liberal Germany.
Victoria and Frederick had eight children:
In January 1861, on the death of his childless uncle
Frederick William IV of Prussia and the accession of his father as King William I, Prince Frederick became
Crown Prince of Prussia, Victoria therefore became
Crown Princess. The new Crown Prince and Crown Princess, however, were politically isolated; their liberal and Anglophile views clashed with the authoritarian rule of the Prussian minister-president,
Otto von Bismarck.
During the three Wars of German Unification – the 1864 Prussian-Danish War, the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, and the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War – Victoria and Frederick strongly identified with the cause of Prussia and the
North German Confederation. Their sympathies created a rift among Queen Victoria's extended family, since Victoria's younger brother, the Prince of Wales, was married to
Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the elder daughter of
Christian IX of Denmark, who was also reigning duke of the
disputed territories of
Schleswig and
Holstein. At
Versailles on
18 January 1871, the victorious princes of the North German Confederation proclaimed a
German Empire with King William I of Prussia as the hereditary German Emperor (
Deutscher Kaiser) with the style
Imperial and Royal Majesty (Kaiserliche und Königliche Majestät); Fritz and Vicky became German Crown Prince and German Crown Princess with the style
Imperial and Royal Highness (Kaiserliche und Königliche Hoheit).
On the death of his father on
9 March 1888, the Crown Prince ascended the throne as the Emperor Frederick III (and as King Frederick III of Prussia) and Victoria adopted the title and style of
Her Imperial and Royal Majesty The German Empress. Frederick, however, was terminally ill with throat cancer and died after reigning 99 days. From then on she was known simply as
The Empress Frederick. The widowed Victoria lived in retirement at Friedrichshof, a country house she built near Kronberg. Politically, she remained a liberal and because of this, her already strained relationship with her son Emperor William II deteriorated. In Berlin, Victoria established schools for the higher education of girls and for nurses' training. She patronized the arts and learning, becoming one of the organizers of the 1872 Industrial Art Exhibition.
Throughout her married life and widowhood, Victoria kept in close touch with other members of the
British Royal Family, particularly her younger brother, the future Edward VII. She maintained a regular correspondence with her mother. According to the
Royal Encyclopaedia, some 3,777 letters from Queen Victoria to her eldest daughter have been catalogued, as well as more than 4,000 from daughter to mother.
Victoria died of cancer of the spine at Friedrichshof on the 5th August 1901, eight months after the death of her mother
Queen Victoria. She was interred next to her husband at the royal mausoleum of Friedenskirche at
Potsdam on 13 August.
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Her Royal Highness The Princess Victoria
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Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
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Her Royal Highness Princess Friedrich of Prussia
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Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Prussia
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Her Imperial and Royal Highness The German Crown Princess, Crown Princess of Prussia
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Her Imperial and Royal Majesty The German Empress, Queen of Prussia
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Her Imperial and Royal Majesty The Empress Frederick, Queen Dowager of Prussia
Kronberg, the former home of Empress Frederick:http://www.schlosshotel-kronberg.de/en/
