Queen Victoria's Descendants

by Marlene A. Eilers

Through her marriage into the German royal house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and through the marriages of her nine children and her many grandchildren, Queen Victoria guided and manipulated the destiny of European royalty. Today the British Royal Family is connected by blood and marriage to the royal houses of Spain, Germany, Greece, Russia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Sweden, and Denmark. This is the first book to treat the subject of Victoria and her descendants. The first section is the story of Victoria and her children, and it follows them and their children and grandchildren through the royal courts of Europe and brings their stories, as far as possible, up to the present time. The second part of the book--the genealogy--shows the descents from each of Victoria's children, listing births, marriages, deaths, annulments, divorces, honors, titles, and connections up to the present time.

Genres: Royalty, Nonfiction, History

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Carolyn Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful resource for learning more about Queen Victoria's more obscure descendants. Anyone curious to know more about what happened to Kaiser Wilhelm's children and grandchildren after WWI or how the Scandinavian royal houses and interconnected will find this book valuable. I was interested to see that a few of Queen Victoria's descendants settled in Canada including Prince Karl of Leiningen and Lady Iris Mountbatten in Toronto and Princess Frederike of Hanover in Vancouver. The illustrations are beautiful.

I read the 1987 edition so the genealogy does not include Queen Victoria descendants born since then and the laws of succession have changed for most European monarchies to allow absolute primogeniture in the decade following the publication of the book. There is also some outdated speculation about the fate of the last Imperial family of Russia. Still a valuable read!

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has two parts: the first tells the stories of Queen Victoria's (many, many) descendents, with a lot of great pictures - from the XIXth century but also of the descendents living today. The second part is the best (perhaps the only?) genealogical study on Queen Victoria's descendents - it has everything. Full names, dates of everything (births, deaths, marriages, abdications, etc) and an amazing amount of notes on practically every person.

There's also a Companion Volume (usually sold seperately) with the more recent births, deaths, marriages and divorces, but obviously both are getting outdated all the time. Still, you can't find this amount of accurate information put together anywhere else.

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

If all you want is names and dates, then Burke’s Guide to the Royal Family is a better, more detailed source. But if you want more juice, the slightly gossipy chapters of this book (one chapter per family group) are informative and well-illustrated, and filled with odd tidbits . . . such as the fact that Queen Margarethe of Denmark is an artist who has designed her country’s Christmas seals and also illustrated an edition of The Lord of the Rings.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book claims to be comprehensive yet does not mention the Kents or the Gloucesters. I could not get over that. I liked that it brought us to the nonroyal people in the families and talked about a lot of unknown descendants of Queen Victoria. Yet, it didn't mention some of her well known ones. I cannot fathom why. It was well researched and everything else was fine except for that omission

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most comprehensive account of Queen Victoria's family available. It is a remarkable book that took years of research and diligence. It is a masterpiece! I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in Queen Victoria or any of her descendants.