This is a little early but what the hell. I so enjoyed writing the first review I got impatient for Wednesday. I hope you, dear readers, do too. Next week will be a book about medieval monasteries, so stay tuned.
Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams
I’ve read a few books about Queen Victoria. This is the second one I have read that focuses mainly on her path to queendom, the first being Her Little Majesty by Carolly Erickson, and it was convoluted indeed. The path for royals can be very serpentine and confusing on how many down in line a person is to the throne and why this person and not that one, especially to someone who wasn’t raised in a country with royalty. There was always a big deal made about Victoria when she was born because she was so far down in line that it seemed unlikely that she would ever reach the throne and Kate Williams offered an explanation to how she became queen in a way I finally understood. Her ascendency was a surprise and that she was able to shape an entire generation, change her country forever and have an era named after her even more so. Nobody thought this strangely small girl child with the bulging eyes and perpetually open mouth would amount to much of anything but she confounded them all.
The one thing I really enjoyed in this telling of Victoria’s journey was being introduced to Princess Charlotte. This engaging and lovely young woman was the intended recipient of the English throne. She was seen as a new hope after the dissolute children of George the IV finally threw off the mortal coil. He had many children but none of them seemed inclined to marry, at least, for the sons, not women who could be queens as they had a penchant for prostitutes and courtesans, and the daughters tended toward spinsterhood. This seemed to be a seriously messed up family and how Charlotte and Victoria were able to reach adulthood with any sanity is a surprise in itself. Princess Charlotte seemed to step right out of a Jane Austen novel, a kindred spirit to Marianne Dashwood. Her premature death in childbed after marrying for love was sad indeed. How different England might be to this day had this intelligent. liberal but impetuous woman lived long enough to take the crown. This is the first book I’ve read that talked in depth about her, now I want to learn more. I love when a book does that.
As for Victoria (I did not know that she was the first person in history to have this name. At the time, it was like naming your child Apple, a made up foolish name.), she had a mind of her own from the time she could walk. Her father died when she was still an infant and she had a domineering/interfering mother who saw her daughter as a way to rule England through her daughter as regent and gain vast wealth (very much like the sad pathetic mother of Lindsey Lohan, who sees her child as a way to live a life that she could never achieve on her own, the ultimate stage mother.) She set about browbeating her along with her ever present secretary, Sir John Conroy, who may or may not of been her lover. Victoria's childhood was sad and lonely but it also forged an iron in her that a more idyllic one would not of. Everything changed when she was just a slip of a girl at eighteen and became queen. Her uncle, William the IV, so hated Victoria's mother that he forced himself to live until she was of age to take the throne without a regency, thereby thwarthing all of her mother's and Sir Conroy's machinations.
The one thing I did not care for in this otherwise very good and interesting book was the downplaying of Victoria and Albert’s love affair. She made it seem that he could barely tolerate her and that she was a shrewish harpy to him. That just does not seem to be backed up by most sources, as they were one of the great royal love stories. That Victoria was difficult is beyond a doubt but I don’t see her being as bad as portrayed. The caveat to that statement is that I am not a Queen Victoria expert so could be completely wrong about this. Other than that this was an enjoyable read at 464 pgs with an array of pictures of our cast of characters.
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