Queen Victoria's Childhood & Siblings

I actually love the irony of how the Kensington Method/System was supposed to break Victoria when it, in fact, made her stronger. The only thing that ever really broke Victoria was losing her beloved Albert.

How dare Victoria and Conroy make a little girl question her intelligence. A child should be able to trust their parent. They shouldn't be belittled and bullied.

Never knew Edward was a good stepfather to Victoria's other children. That's sweet. 🥺 Merry Christmas, Lindsay 😊

Am I the only one that finds Victoria's sister really interesting? At twelve she was dragged away from her home and seperated from her brother. Her stepdad was kind to her, but he died soon after. She became a victim to the Kensington system that revolved her golden-child sister. Atleast it had a happy ending with her marrying a nice man.

Conroy really shot himself in the head with the Kensington system. He was the only male figure in Victoria's life, he could have easily slid into the father role for Victoria without much trouble as she wasn't even 1 year old to remember her father. And then there's Feodora. She was much older, left when Victoria was still a child, and she had so much influence on her decades later, Victoria's children wrote to her so she can basically tell Victoria "I think this is dumb, you shouldn't be like this" and Victoria *listened*.

I am pretty sure William lived long enough for Victoria to make it to eighteen out of spite towards her mother.

I’m glad we’re finally getting to learn about Victoria’s older half siblings. It’s known Victoria was close to her sister. She was even a bridesmaid in Feodora’s wedding.

i love that you're highlighting siblings of important monarchs!! could we get a video on henrietta of england??

6:29 Carl actually stopped being a sovereign prince in 1806, when the principality was abolished. He was however, still the owner of many lands throughout Germany, topped by the beautiful Amorbach Abbey which the Leiningens still own today 10:24 Ernest Augustus may have actually been projecting. His own son became blind in one eye due to an illness in 1828 and lost sight in his other eye due to an accident in 1833. By starting rumours about the precarity of Victoria’s health, he may have been trying to distract from the potential incapacity of his own son (who actually turned out fine, marrying and having three children) 10:15 I think it’s supposed to be second husband here. Frederica was actually married thrice, and had children by all of her marriages. However, there nothing suspicious about the death of her first husband, Prince Louis Charles of Prussia in 1796, because he died of diphtheria. It’s her second husband Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels that attracted notoriety, because Frederica was in the process of divorcing him so she could marry Ernest Augustus when he suddenly died in April 1814, removing the need and necessitating the Prince Regent’s begrudging consent to the match as he had no ground to oppose it.

Victoria looked like a little baby doll as a child

Up until a few years ago I didn't even know that Queen Victoria had any siblings.

Like Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria proved that being a princess isn't all that's cracked up to be. Even a palace can be a prison.

An interesting fact is that the last surviving relative of Queen Victoria's generation was Arthur von Eppinghoven, son born out of wedlock by her loved uncle Leopold of Belgium and Arcadie Claret: He was born in 1852 and died in 1940 (at 88 years old) during the nazist occupation of Belgium, after a life of strong links with the Belgian royal family.

I always thought she was an only child! I'm very happy to hear she had such a delightful relationship with her sister

The monarchy in the early 1800s before Victoria was pretty ridiculous. This added to Victoria's popularity, because she wasn't as bad as the ones that came before her. Most biographies of Victoria never mention these half siblings, making her out to be a lonely child locked up in a palace.

Not Jeff here. I always wondered what the reign of Queen Charlotte would have been like. By all accounts she was intelligent, generous, and open hearted. Also she was a bit hoydenish when young and not afraid to be unconventional. She and Leopold were deeply in love. Perhaps her reign would have been an era of social changes without the excesses of the Regency and the social rigidity of the later Victorian.

William IV cleared tf out of Duchess victoria with that line 😂 even I was having my timbers quite shivered 🥶

A video on royal governesses and tutors would be interesting

Thank you for this wonderful episode. I feel great compassion for poor Victoria who had to grow up under the cruel Kensington System and Conroy's bullying. However, what a magnificent and courageous queen she turned out to be. Human like us all who always tried and endeavoured 'to be good'.

I like reading about Victoria's relationships with her half-siblings. My grandpa also had 2 older half-siblings (who were 18 & 17 years his senior) from their mother's first marriage; however, my grandpa's relationship to his half-siblings were extremely distant for reasons I don't know. He did grow up knowing of their existence, but the relationships fluctuated year-by-year. My mom didn't know of them until she was already an adult. There were small reconciliations made, but there was still no strong relationship. My great-aunt was a guest at my parents wedding and my baptism, but she died shortly after; and my great-uncle died before I was born. My grandpa doesn't even have any pictures of them (that I know of), and all but 1 of his nephews have passed away; he also has no interest in reconnecting with that branch, and neither does my mom, even though I've matched with 2 of my half-2nd cousins on Ancestry. It's sad that my family was so disconnected, but there's really nothing that can be done now.