The newborn Princess of Cambridge is 5Xgreat-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, descending directly through monarchs! So what is more appropriate than presenting her ancestry with a few details about her royal lineage, and my favorite images of the monarchs? Starting of course with Queen Victoria herself:
Queen Victoria was born almost 200 years ago, on May 24th 1819. She was not designated for the throne from birth, she was the daughter of the 4th son of the reigning king, George IV. But both the king and all his sons died, and Victoria became queen at the age of 18, in 1837.
Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and together they had 9 children. Prince Albert came up with the master plan of marrying their children into other European dynasties, and so they did, earning Queen Victoria the nickname “the grandmother of Europe”. The British, the Spanish, the Swedish, the Danish and of course the Norwegian monarchies are deeply linked with Queen Victoria. Also the abolished Greek, Russian, Austrian and Prussian(German) monarchies descended directly from her and her beloved Prince Albert! And I could also mention the monarchies of Portugal, Baden, Bavaria, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, they all descended from her. So far I have no (apparent) link with the monarchies of Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands, or Lichtenstein and Monaco of the current monarchies. I’m also not certain she had any direct links to the Italian or French monarchies, before they were abolished.
Queen Victoria reigned over a vast empire, covering 6 continents. This map shows the British Empire i 1886:
However, the empire changed, even during her reign, this is a gif (found on Wikimedia) showing the evolution of the empire:
Queen Victoria was also the worlds longest reigning female monarch, she celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (60 years of reign) and added another 3 years and 7 months to that, before she died in January 1901.
The world is a different place, because of her presence in it, like it or not! In my humble opinion, she must have been t-h-e most influential woman of all times, by the time of her death!
If you are curious about my Pretty Data project, and interested in the Victorian era (indeed named after Queen Victoria) please get in touch, as I’m still hoping to sign up more helpers with my project! Warning: you’d have to be pretty crazy about imagery, somewhat interested in history, and have a (more or less secret) crush on royalty!…lol
The files I’m sharing have been altered by me! As such, the files are free for your personal use and enjoyment. Go to the folder below to download high quality copies.
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The original, unaltered files I have used can be found here:
Queen Victoria by Franz Xaver Winterhalter – Wikipedia
British Empire in 1886 – Boston Public Library on Flickr
Evolution of the British Empire – Wikimedia Commons
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A great investigation work…Hugs
Aww, thank you Maria 🙂 I hope to be running a few of these historical anecdotes presenting key persons and events, although I am sure my research will also result in more typical crafty projects…;-) xoxoxo
Thank you so much. Love the old maps and the queens pic is lovely.I wonder how much that dress weighted? LOL
It sure looks heavy! But so, so gorgeous 🙂 xoxoxo