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If you are a fan of the Royal Family of the UK, or at least have some knowledge about them, then you certainly have an opinion about their relationship with the former Diana, Princess of Wales.

But before her, there was another heiress apparent in British history, one who, according to the public, could do no wrong. And unlike the tragic Diana, she actually managed to live long enough to become Queen Consort. I am, of course, talking about the protagonist of this story, Queen Alexandra.

She was born on the 1st of December 1844 at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a relative of the then-King of Denmark, Christian VIII. Her mother, Louise of Hesse-Kassel, on the other hand, was the niece of the King, giving her a pretty good claim to the throne—something that would become important later.

Besides Alexandra, Christian and Louise also had an older son, Frederik, and four younger children: Dagmar, Vilhelm, Thyra, and Valdemar. In the future, their children would marry members of other royal families, giving Christian the nickname "the Father-in-Law of Europe."

But despite their royal ancestry, the family lived very modestly, and their residence had been given to them by the monarch personally. This was just fine for Christian and Louise, as they wanted to give their children a relatively normal upbringing.

In 1848, King Christian VIII died and was succeeded by his only child, King Frederik VII. His time on the throne began with the adoption of a new constitution that granted new rights to the Danes, as well as victory in a war against the German states. But much of his reign would be clouded by the question of his successor. Despite marrying three times, the King would have no children, meaning that the main royal line would die with him.

There were two people who could succeed him. The first was, of course, Christian, as his wife was the King's cousin. The other was Friedrich, Duke of Augustenburg. His claim was stronger than Christian's in certain respects because his branch of the family was senior.

What made the succession crisis particularly troubling for the nation's integrity was that the succession laws of Denmark conflicted with those of Schleswig and Holstein. Denmark used a semi-Salic law, meaning that inheritance could pass through the closest female member should there be no eligible male relatives. The two duchies, meanwhile, used full Salic Law, meaning that inheritance could only pass to the closest eligible male-line relative.

So, in theory, if Christian were to become King, Friedrich could claim the duchies instead. And the latter, despite being Danish, became a rallying figure for much of the German-speaking population in Schleswig-Holstein, who desired to break away from Denmark and join a united Germany.

In 1852, tensions temporarily eased when, at a conference in London, Christian was designated heir to the Danish throne. But despite his new status, his family's living conditions did not change, as Christian and Louise did not get along with the King's new morganatic wife. Because of this, Alexandra's family did not experience a significant change in income despite their increased relevance to the dynasty.

Still, as Alexandra grew older, she began to appear like an ideal princess. By the time she was 19, she had received an education fitting for someone of her status. She became accomplished in music and drawing and demonstrated devotion to her Lutheran faith. Not only that, but contemporary accounts described Alexandra as exceptionally beautiful, with a slender and graceful appearance. So it is no surprise that there were already possibilities for Alexandra to marry.

And she did indeed marry someone of great status: Prince Albert Edward of Wales, eldest son and heir of Queen Victoria. Nicknamed Bertie by his loved ones, he had been pressured by his parents to find someone to marry, for he had already shown signs of promiscuity as he entered adulthood. In fact, his father, Prince Albert, had travelled through one fateful cold night to confront his son about his recent escapade.

Not long afterwards, Albert suffered from typhoid fever, which ultimately caused his death.

This event caused a permanent rift between Bertie and his mother, who blamed him, at least in part, for the death of her beloved husband. But talks of a possible marriage continued, and, as it happened, Alexandra remained a strong possible match for the Prince of Wales. Thanks to the relatively new invention of photography, Bertie was able to examine the princess's appearance—and liked what he saw.

The two first met in September 1861, and almost a year later, Bertie proposed to her in Belgium. And so, in March 1863, Bertie and Alexandra married. For the occasion, an ode called "A Welcome to Alexandra" was composed by a certain Sir Arthur Sullivan, who in later years would become famous for his comic operas created in collaboration with dramatist W. S. Gilbert.

The 18-year-old princess immediately captured the public's attention with her youthful and regal appearance. Yet because the royal court—and especially the Queen—was still in mourning following the death of Prince Albert, the wedding was more subdued than the lavish festivities surrounding the Queen's own wedding 23 years earlier.

After the wedding, the newlyweds settled at Marlborough House in London, where they developed their own circle of intellectuals, aristocrats, and political figures, serving as an alternative to the rather grey and melancholic court that the Queen's grief had created.

In the same year that Alexandra married, her family's status also increased dramatically. A few weeks later, on the 30th of March, her younger brother Vilhelm became the new King of Greece following his selection for the Greek throne. He would take the name Geórgios I. Then, in November, King Frederik VII died and was succeeded by Alexandra's father as Christian IX. By the end of the year, Alexandra's sister Dagmar—with whom she was very close—had also become engaged to Nikolai, heir to the Russian Empire. After his sudden death, she would eventually marry his younger brother, the future Tsar Aleksandr III.

The next year started off quite well, for in January Alexandra gave birth to a son named Albert Victor, known within the family as Eddy. And so the succession to the British Crown was secure for another generation. However, the year also marked a terrible period for the Princess of Wales because her native country, Denmark, was invaded by a coalition of German states over the dispute concerning Schleswig and Holstein.

The Second Schleswig War caused a split within the royal family as well. Queen Victoria was sympathetic to the German cause, as was her daughter Princess Vicky, who had married into the Prussian Royal Family. Alexandra and Bertie, on the other hand, sided with the Danes, which angered the Queen. Denmark's defeat in the war greatly affected Alexandra's worldview, and she would remain staunchly anti-Prussian and later anti-German for much of the rest of her life.

Except for this troubling event, the rest of the 1860s were relatively quiet and peaceful for the Princess. She continued to give birth to more children: George in 1865, Louise in 1867, Victoria in 1868, and Maud in 1869.

But despite her frequent pregnancies, Alexandra maintained a public life and continued to socialise with various figures.

She also enjoyed various activities such as ice skating, horse riding, and hunting. The last of these caused resentment from Queen Victoria, as she believed such activities were not fitting for a lady, but Alexandra simply ignored her. The Princess also accompanied her husband on several foreign diplomatic tours across Europe, with destinations including Vienna, Athens, and Constantinople.

Speaking of Bertie, his relationship with Alexandra was quite interesting. You see, even after he became a married man, Bertie continued to have numerous mistresses, even later in life. And the thing is, Alexandra was aware of her husband's liaisons, but she largely chose to tolerate them.

Perhaps she was aware that, for a lustful man like Bertie, moderation was simply not something he possessed. Or perhaps, as Alexandra reportedly stated later in her life, "Despite all the others, he loved me the best." That is to say, despite his infidelities, she believed that she remained his favourite and his true companion.

Bertie himself apparently once made the rather crude comparison that his wife was like a "brood mare" while his mistresses were more like "hacks." This was apparently supposed to be a compliment to his wife, but it still sounds rather rude, in my opinion.

Still, it does show that, even though Bertie was an unfaithful spouse, it would be inaccurate to describe their marriage as simply an unhappy one.

As for Alexandra's relationship with Queen Victoria, it was initially marked by disagreements between the two women. For example, the fact that several of Alexandra's children were born prematurely led some people to believe that she deliberately misrepresented their expected delivery dates so as to make sure the Queen would not attend the births. Perhaps she wished for her children not to live under their grandmother's influence in the same way that her husband and his siblings had.

Another moment of sorrow came in 1871, when Alexandra gave birth to another son named Alexander John. Tragically, the infant died the very next day. The Princess of Wales wished to mourn his death privately, only for the Queen to announce an official period of mourning for the court. The press also reported on the infant's death in language that would be considered extraordinarily insensitive today, which certainly did not make it any easier for the Princess to cope with the loss of her youngest child.

However, as time went on and Alexandra began to take over more public duties from the ageing Queen, she received praise from her mother-in-law, who said that Alexandra was relieving her of "the strain and fatigue of functions."

Her reputation among the British public also remained overwhelmingly positive.

Soon, Alexandra became a fashion icon, with her dresses and hairstyles dazzling the public. She helped popularise choker necklaces and high-necked dresses, which were also useful for concealing a scar on her neck. Besides this, she remained remarkably slender despite numerous pregnancies.

This stood in contrast to Bertie, whose overindulgence in food and excessive smoking caused him to gain noticeable weight, changing the robust physique he had possessed as a young man.

Yet besides her radiant appearance, Alexandra also demonstrated a compassionate attitude towards those around her. She became associated with hospitals and charitable causes and showed particular interest in the sick and vulnerable.

As the 1880s came to a close and the 1890s dawned, Alexandra's attention increasingly turned towards the futures of her children as they entered adulthood. She was especially excited for her eldest, Prince Eddy, who was preparing to marry Princess Mary of Teck, Bertie's second cousin.

But in a tragic turn of events, Eddy died on the 14th of January 1892, when he was just 28 years old.

Alexandra was devastated by the death of her firstborn, writing in her diary: "Today I have buried my angel and with him my happiness". His room was preserved much as it had been after his death, reflecting the same Victorian culture of mourning that had surrounded the death of Prince Albert decades earlier.

As for Mary of Teck, she would go on to marry Eddy's younger brother George, who had now moved closer to the throne.

In the case of her daughters, Alexandra was very protective of them, sometimes wishing that they would remain by her side rather than marry other royals. This would ultimately be the fate of her middle daughter Victoria, known simply as Toria by her family. Despite several potential marriage prospects, she remained unmarried and stayed close to her mother for the remainder of Alexandra's life.

This was not the fate her eldest daughter, Princess Louise, desired. She wanted to marry and have a life of her own. However, like her aunt and namesake, the princess did not wish to marry a foreign royal and leave Britain.

So, in 1889, she married Alexander Duff, Earl Fife. The marriage was unusual by royal standards because Duff was a British aristocrat rather than a foreign prince. Nevertheless, the match was approved by Queen Victoria, and Duff was subsequently elevated to the rank of Duke of Fife.

As for Alexandra's youngest daughter, Maud, she married relatively late in life—at least by the standards of her time. In 1896, when Maud was 26, she married her cousin Prince Carl of Denmark, thus further strengthening the relations between the British and Danish royal families.

In January 1901, Queen Victoria passed away at the age of 81, leaving the path clear for Bertie to become the new monarch of Britain.

Surprisingly, rather than taking the regnal name Albert I, he chose Edward VII. He explained that he did not wish to diminish the unique association of the name Albert with his father.

His coronation was scheduled for the following year, but shortly before the ceremony the new King became dangerously ill with appendicitis and required surgery. The coronation consequently had to be postponed.

Eventually, on the 9th of August 1902, the coronation was held at Westminster Abbey. Thus, Edward VII was crowned King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, while Alexandra was crowned beside him as the first British Queen Consort in more than 60 years.

Despite what many people at the time may have expected—that Edward would become a failure as King—he actually proved many of his critics wrong. The new King-Emperor took his constitutional responsibilities seriously and developed an important diplomatic role, particularly in Britain's relations with the other European powers.

For Alexandra, her new position did not fundamentally change her roles and objectives. But if she had been popular as the consort of the heir, that popularity continued into her queenship.

As Queen, she remained heavily involved in charitable activities and nursing causes. She was particularly associated with military nursing, and the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was named in her honour.

When it came to spending, Alexandra gave generously to charitable causes. She was also known for reusing possessions rather than constantly replacing them, although her generosity itself could occasionally concern members of the royal household.

Additionally, she and her husband continued to maintain relationships with their numerous royal relatives. Edward was related either by blood or marriage to much of European royalty, from the Iberian Peninsula to Scandinavia and the Balkans. He was careful to maintain positive relations with continental European nations and became closely associated with Britain's diplomatic rapprochement with France.

And in 1905, Alexandra's son-in-law Carl was elected King of Norway, taking the name Haakon VII.

Alexandra, for her part, continued to visit her home country, where she maintained close contact with her relatives, including her widowed sister, Empress Dowager Dagmar, and her nephew Tsar Nikolai II.

Yet for the Queen there was one notable exception to these warm dynastic relationships: the German Empire, which was led by her nephew by marriage, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

She distrusted Wilhelm and regarded German ambitions with considerable suspicion. She was especially opposed to the agreement under which Britain transferred the North Sea island of Heligoland to Germany while settling colonial disputes with Germany in Africa, including Britain's position in Zanzibar. Despite objections, the agreement went ahead, and Germany subsequently developed Heligoland into an important naval base.

During Edward's reign, relations between the UK and Germany continued to deteriorate as the two nations entered into a naval arms race centred on the construction of increasingly powerful battleships. At the same time, Britain entered into the Entente Cordiale with France—a development that would have seemed extraordinary only a few decades earlier.

But Edward would not have to worry about European tensions for much longer. By the spring of 1910, his health was rapidly deteriorating. Alexandra was abroad when she heard the news and rushed back to be at her husband's side.

During his final illness, he was also visited by Alice Keppel, his long-time mistress, who was permitted to see him with Alexandra's knowledge—a remarkable gesture given the circumstances.

Then, on the 6th of May 1910, at the age of 68, King Edward VII died. One of his final moments reportedly involved learning that his horse had won a race, news that greatly pleased the dying King.

Alexandra was deeply devastated by the loss. Despite the numerous affairs her husband had conducted over the years, he remained very dear to her. His funeral was attended by Alexandra; his son, now King George V; numerous relatives and monarchs from across Europe; and even his beloved dog, Caesar.

Much like her mother-in-law before her, Queen Dowager Alexandra entered a prolonged period of mourning after the death of her husband. Despite this, she remained active during the first years of her widowhood.

One particularly notable example was Alexandra Rose Day. Established around the 50th anniversary of her arrival in Britain, the charitable initiative involved selling artificial roses, with the proceeds going towards hospitals and other charitable causes.

Then, in 1914, the First World War began, and within a few weeks Britain entered the conflict against Germany.

This created an uncomfortable situation for the Royal Family. Because of their German ancestry and titles, anti-German sentiment placed the dynasty in a politically sensitive position.

Thus, in 1917, King George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor, the name still used by the Royal House today. German titles held by members of the extended British royal family were also abandoned or replaced.

Furthermore, the banners of enemy members of the Order of the Garter were removed from St George's Chapel. Alexandra supported Britain's war effort and remained deeply hostile towards Germany, although her feelings towards individual German relatives could be more complicated, especially towards Hessians, whom she said they were "simply soldiers or vassals under that brutal German Emperor's orders".

More tragic news came from Russia in 1917, when her nephew Tsar Nikolai II was forced to abdicate in the wake of the Russian Revolution.

A year later, he, his wife, and their children were executed by the Bolsheviks. His mother—Alexandra's beloved sister Dagmar—survived the Revolution and eventually escaped Russia.

The destruction of the Russian monarchy must have been especially painful for Alexandra. The European dynastic world in which she had grown up was rapidly disappearing.

By the early 1920s, Alexandra's health had begun to deteriorate. Her eyesight worsened, her already severe deafness increasingly isolated her, and her general health declined.

On the 20th of November 1925, Queen Alexandra died at Sandringham House, only a few days before what would have been her 81st birthday. he was eventually laid to rest beside her husband in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, where their tomb commemorates the royal couple together.

And only five months after Alexandra's death, her great-granddaughter was born: the future Queen Elizabeth II.

She was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, with the name Alexandra honouring her recently deceased great-grandmother.

Thus ends the tale of Alexandra of Denmark, one of the original darlings of the British monarchy.

Throughout her long public life—first as Princess of Wales, then as Queen Consort, and finally as Queen Dowager—Alexandra remained extraordinarily popular with the British public. And it is not difficult to understand why. Alexandra consistently demonstrated an eagerness to improve the lives of people in her adopted country while maintaining an approachable and glamorous public image.

Her story and Edward's inevitably invite comparisons with that of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana, like Alexandra, achieved enormous public popularity, and both women had to deal with their husbands' infidelities. But their lives developed in dramatically different ways. Diana's marriage ended in divorce and her life was tragically cut short, whereas Alexandra remained married to Edward and lived into old age, eventually becoming Queen beside him.

And as a final piece of historical irony, remember Alice Keppel, Edward VII's long-time mistress?

Her great-granddaughter is none other than Charles's second wife, Queen Camilla.

I guess you could say that some royal connections are so persistent that they manage to reappear several generations later.

If you are a fan of the Royal Family of the UK, or at least have some knowledge about them, then you certainly have an opinion about their relationship with the former Diana, Princess of Wales.

But before her, there was another heiress apparent in British history, one who, according to the public, could do no wrong. And unlike the tragic Diana, she actually managed to live long enough to become Queen Consort. I am, of course, talking about the protagonist of this story, Queen Alexandra.

She was born on the 1st of December 1844 at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a relative of the then-King of Denmark, Christian VIII. Her mother, Louise of Hesse-Kassel, on the other hand, was the niece of the King, giving her a pretty good claim to the throne—something that would become important later.

Besides Alexandra, Christian and Louise also had an older son, Frederik, and four younger children: Dagmar, Vilhelm, Thyra, and Valdemar. In the future, their children would marry members of other royal families, giving Christian the nickname "the Father-in-Law of Europe."

But despite their royal ancestry, the family lived very modestly, and their residence had been given to them by the monarch personally. This was just fine for Christian and Louise, as they wanted to give their children a relatively normal upbringing.

In 1848, King Christian VIII died and was succeeded by his only child, King Frederik VII. His time on the throne began with the adoption of a new constitution that granted new rights to the Danes, as well as victory in a war against the German states. But much of his reign would be clouded by the question of his successor. Despite marrying three times, the King would have no children, meaning that the main royal line would die with him.

There were two people who could succeed him. The first was, of course, Christian, as his wife was the King's cousin. The other was Friedrich, Duke of Augustenburg. His claim was stronger than Christian's in certain respects because his branch of the family was senior.

What made the succession crisis particularly troubling for the nation's integrity was that the succession laws of Denmark conflicted with those of Schleswig and Holstein. Denmark used a semi-Salic law, meaning that inheritance could pass through the closest female member should there be no eligible male relatives. The two duchies, meanwhile, used full Salic Law, meaning that inheritance could only pass to the closest eligible male-line relative.

So, in theory, if Christian were to become King, Friedrich could claim the duchies instead. And the latter, despite being Danish, became a rallying figure for much of the German-speaking population in Schleswig-Holstein, who desired to break away from Denmark and join a united Germany.

In 1852, tensions temporarily eased when, at a conference in London, Christian was designated heir to the Danish throne. But despite his new status, his family's living conditions did not change, as Christian and Louise did not get along with the King's new morganatic wife. Because of this, Alexandra's family did not experience a significant change in income despite their increased relevance to the dynasty.

Still, as Alexandra grew older, she began to appear like an ideal princess. By the time she was 19, she had received an education fitting for someone of her status. She became accomplished in music and drawing and demonstrated devotion to her Lutheran faith. Not only that, but contemporary accounts described Alexandra as exceptionally beautiful, with a slender and graceful appearance. So it is no surprise that there were already possibilities for Alexandra to marry.

And she did indeed marry someone of great status: Prince Albert Edward of Wales, eldest son and heir of Queen Victoria. Nicknamed Bertie by his loved ones, he had been pressured by his parents to find someone to marry, for he had already shown signs of promiscuity as he entered adulthood. In fact, his father, Prince Albert, had travelled through one fateful cold night to confront his son about his recent escapade.

Not long afterwards, Albert suffered from typhoid fever, which ultimately caused his death.

This event caused a permanent rift between Bertie and his mother, who blamed him, at least in part, for the death of her beloved husband. But talks of a possible marriage continued, and, as it happened, Alexandra remained a strong possible match for the Prince of Wales. Thanks to the relatively new invention of photography, Bertie was able to examine the princess's appearance—and liked what he saw.

The two first met in September 1861, and almost a year later, Bertie proposed to her in Belgium. And so, in March 1863, Bertie and Alexandra married. For the occasion, an ode called "A Welcome to Alexandra" was composed by a certain Sir Arthur Sullivan, who in later years would become famous for his comic operas created in collaboration with dramatist W. S. Gilbert.

The 18-year-old princess immediately captured the public's attention with her youthful and regal appearance. Yet because the royal court—and especially the Queen—was still in mourning following the death of Prince Albert, the wedding was more subdued than the lavish festivities surrounding the Queen's own wedding 23 years earlier.

After the wedding, the newlyweds settled at Marlborough House in London, where they developed their own circle of intellectuals, aristocrats, and political figures, serving as an alternative to the rather grey and melancholic court that the Queen's grief had created.

In the same year that Alexandra married, her family's status also increased dramatically. A few weeks later, on the 30th of March, her younger brother Vilhelm became the new King of Greece following his selection for the Greek throne. He would take the name Geórgios I. Then, in November, King Frederik VII died and was succeeded by Alexandra's father as Christian IX. By the end of the year, Alexandra's sister Dagmar—with whom she was very close—had also become engaged to Nikolai, heir to the Russian Empire. After his sudden death, she would eventually marry his younger brother, the future Tsar Aleksandr III.

The next year started off quite well, for in January Alexandra gave birth to a son named Albert Victor, known within the family as Eddy. And so the succession to the British Crown was secure for another generation. However, the year also marked a terrible period for the Princess of Wales because her native country, Denmark, was invaded by a coalition of German states over the dispute concerning Schleswig and Holstein.

The Second Schleswig War caused a split within the royal family as well. Queen Victoria was sympathetic to the German cause, as was her daughter Princess Vicky, who had married into the Prussian Royal Family. Alexandra and Bertie, on the other hand, sided with the Danes, which angered the Queen. Denmark's defeat in the war greatly affected Alexandra's worldview, and she would remain staunchly anti-Prussian and later anti-German for much of the rest of her life.

Except for this troubling event, the rest of the 1860s were relatively quiet and peaceful for the Princess. She continued to give birth to more children: George in 1865, Louise in 1867, Victoria in 1868, and Maud in 1869.

But despite her frequent pregnancies, Alexandra maintained a public life and continued to socialise with various figures.

She also enjoyed various activities such as ice skating, horse riding, and hunting. The last of these caused resentment from Queen Victoria, as she believed such activities were not fitting for a lady, but Alexandra simply ignored her. The Princess also accompanied her husband on several foreign diplomatic tours across Europe, with destinations including Vienna, Athens, and Constantinople.

Speaking of Bertie, his relationship with Alexandra was quite interesting. You see, even after he became a married man, Bertie continued to have numerous mistresses, even later in life. And the thing is, Alexandra was aware of her husband's liaisons, but she largely chose to tolerate them.

Perhaps she was aware that, for a lustful man like Bertie, moderation was simply not something he possessed. Or perhaps, as Alexandra reportedly stated later in her life, "Despite all the others, he loved me the best." That is to say, despite his infidelities, she believed that she remained his favourite and his true companion.

Bertie himself apparently once made the rather crude comparison that his wife was like a "brood mare" while his mistresses were more like "hacks." This was apparently supposed to be a compliment to his wife, but it still sounds rather rude, in my opinion.

Still, it does show that, even though Bertie was an unfaithful spouse, it would be inaccurate to describe their marriage as simply an unhappy one.

As for Alexandra's relationship with Queen Victoria, it was initially marked by disagreements between the two women. For example, the fact that several of Alexandra's children were born prematurely led some people to believe that she deliberately misrepresented their expected delivery dates so as to make sure the Queen would not attend the births. Perhaps she wished for her children not to live under their grandmother's influence in the same way that her husband and his siblings had.

Another moment of sorrow came in 1871, when Alexandra gave birth to another son named Alexander John. Tragically, the infant died the very next day. The Princess of Wales wished to mourn his death privately, only for the Queen to announce an official period of mourning for the court. The press also reported on the infant's death in language that would be considered extraordinarily insensitive today, which certainly did not make it any easier for the Princess to cope with the loss of her youngest child.

However, as time went on and Alexandra began to take over more public duties from the ageing Queen, she received praise from her mother-in-law, who said that Alexandra was relieving her of "the strain and fatigue of functions."

Her reputation among the British public also remained overwhelmingly positive.

Soon, Alexandra became a fashion icon, with her dresses and hairstyles dazzling the public. She helped popularise choker necklaces and high-necked dresses, which were also useful for concealing a scar on her neck. Besides this, she remained remarkably slender despite numerous pregnancies.

This stood in contrast to Bertie, whose overindulgence in food and excessive smoking caused him to gain noticeable weight, changing the robust physique he had possessed as a young man.

Yet besides her radiant appearance, Alexandra also demonstrated a compassionate attitude towards those around her. She became associated with hospitals and charitable causes and showed particular interest in the sick and vulnerable.

As the 1880s came to a close and the 1890s dawned, Alexandra's attention increasingly turned towards the futures of her children as they entered adulthood. She was especially excited for her eldest, Prince Eddy, who was preparing to marry Princess Mary of Teck, Bertie's second cousin.

But in a tragic turn of events, Eddy died on the 14th of January 1892, when he was just 28 years old.

Alexandra was devastated by the death of her firstborn, writing in her diary: "Today I have buried my angel and with him my happiness". His room was preserved much as it had been after his death, reflecting the same Victorian culture of mourning that had surrounded the death of Prince Albert decades earlier.

As for Mary of Teck, she would go on to marry Eddy's younger brother George, who had now moved closer to the throne.

In the case of her daughters, Alexandra was very protective of them, sometimes wishing that they would remain by her side rather than marry other royals. This would ultimately be the fate of her middle daughter Victoria, known simply as Toria by her family. Despite several potential marriage prospects, she remained unmarried and stayed close to her mother for the remainder of Alexandra's life.

This was not the fate her eldest daughter, Princess Louise, desired. She wanted to marry and have a life of her own. However, like her aunt and namesake, the princess did not wish to marry a foreign royal and leave Britain.

So, in 1889, she married Alexander Duff, Earl Fife. The marriage was unusual by royal standards because Duff was a British aristocrat rather than a foreign prince. Nevertheless, the match was approved by Queen Victoria, and Duff was subsequently elevated to the rank of Duke of Fife.

As for Alexandra's youngest daughter, Maud, she married relatively late in life—at least by the standards of her time. In 1896, when Maud was 26, she married her cousin Prince Carl of Denmark, thus further strengthening the relations between the British and Danish royal families.

In January 1901, Queen Victoria passed away at the age of 81, leaving the path clear for Bertie to become the new monarch of Britain.

Surprisingly, rather than taking the regnal name Albert I, he chose Edward VII. He explained that he did not wish to diminish the unique association of the name Albert with his father.

His coronation was scheduled for the following year, but shortly before the ceremony the new King became dangerously ill with appendicitis and required surgery. The coronation consequently had to be postponed.

Eventually, on the 9th of August 1902, the coronation was held at Westminster Abbey. Thus, Edward VII was crowned King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, while Alexandra was crowned beside him as the first British Queen Consort in more than 60 years.

Despite what many people at the time may have expected—that Edward would become a failure as King—he actually proved many of his critics wrong. The new King-Emperor took his constitutional responsibilities seriously and developed an important diplomatic role, particularly in Britain's relations with the other European powers.

For Alexandra, her new position did not fundamentally change her roles and objectives. But if she had been popular as the consort of the heir, that popularity continued into her queenship.

As Queen, she remained heavily involved in charitable activities and nursing causes. She was particularly associated with military nursing, and the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was named in her honour.

When it came to spending, Alexandra gave generously to charitable causes. She was also known for reusing possessions rather than constantly replacing them, although her generosity itself could occasionally concern members of the royal household.

Additionally, she and her husband continued to maintain relationships with their numerous royal relatives. Edward was related either by blood or marriage to much of European royalty, from the Iberian Peninsula to Scandinavia and the Balkans. He was careful to maintain positive relations with continental European nations and became closely associated with Britain's diplomatic rapprochement with France.

And in 1905, Alexandra's son-in-law Carl was elected King of Norway, taking the name Haakon VII.

Alexandra, for her part, continued to visit her home country, where she maintained close contact with her relatives, including her widowed sister, Empress Dowager Dagmar, and her nephew Tsar Nikolai II.

Yet for the Queen there was one notable exception to these warm dynastic relationships: the German Empire, which was led by her nephew by marriage, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

She distrusted Wilhelm and regarded German ambitions with considerable suspicion. She was especially opposed to the agreement under which Britain transferred the North Sea island of Heligoland to Germany while settling colonial disputes with Germany in Africa, including Britain's position in Zanzibar. Despite objections, the agreement went ahead, and Germany subsequently developed Heligoland into an important naval base.

During Edward's reign, relations between the UK and Germany continued to deteriorate as the two nations entered into a naval arms race centred on the construction of increasingly powerful battleships. At the same time, Britain entered into the Entente Cordiale with France—a development that would have seemed extraordinary only a few decades earlier.

But Edward would not have to worry about European tensions for much longer. By the spring of 1910, his health was rapidly deteriorating. Alexandra was abroad when she heard the news and rushed back to be at her husband's side.

During his final illness, he was also visited by Alice Keppel, his long-time mistress, who was permitted to see him with Alexandra's knowledge—a remarkable gesture given the circumstances.

Then, on the 6th of May 1910, at the age of 68, King Edward VII died. One of his final moments reportedly involved learning that his horse had won a race, news that greatly pleased the dying King.

Alexandra was deeply devastated by the loss. Despite the numerous affairs her husband had conducted over the years, he remained very dear to her. His funeral was attended by Alexandra; his son, now King George V; numerous relatives and monarchs from across Europe; and even his beloved dog, Caesar.

Much like her mother-in-law before her, Queen Dowager Alexandra entered a prolonged period of mourning after the death of her husband. Despite this, she remained active during the first years of her widowhood.

One particularly notable example was Alexandra Rose Day. Established around the 50th anniversary of her arrival in Britain, the charitable initiative involved selling artificial roses, with the proceeds going towards hospitals and other charitable causes.

Then, in 1914, the First World War began, and within a few weeks Britain entered the conflict against Germany.

This created an uncomfortable situation for the Royal Family. Because of their German ancestry and titles, anti-German sentiment placed the dynasty in a politically sensitive position.

Thus, in 1917, King George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor, the name still used by the Royal House today. German titles held by members of the extended British royal family were also abandoned or replaced.

Furthermore, the banners of enemy members of the Order of the Garter were removed from St George's Chapel. Alexandra supported Britain's war effort and remained deeply hostile towards Germany, although her feelings towards individual German relatives could be more complicated, especially towards Hessians, whom she said they were "simply soldiers or vassals under that brutal German Emperor's orders".

More tragic news came from Russia in 1917, when her nephew Tsar Nikolai II was forced to abdicate in the wake of the Russian Revolution.

A year later, he, his wife, and their children were executed by the Bolsheviks. His mother—Alexandra's beloved sister Dagmar—survived the Revolution and eventually escaped Russia.

The destruction of the Russian monarchy must have been especially painful for Alexandra. The European dynastic world in which she had grown up was rapidly disappearing.

By the early 1920s, Alexandra's health had begun to deteriorate. Her eyesight worsened, her already severe deafness increasingly isolated her, and her general health declined.

On the 20th of November 1925, Queen Alexandra died at Sandringham House, only a few days before what would have been her 81st birthday. he was eventually laid to rest beside her husband in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, where their tomb commemorates the royal couple together.

And only five months after Alexandra's death, her great-granddaughter was born: the future Queen Elizabeth II.

She was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, with the name Alexandra honouring her recently deceased great-grandmother.

Thus ends the tale of Alexandra of Denmark, one of the original darlings of the British monarchy.

Throughout her long public life—first as Princess of Wales, then as Queen Consort, and finally as Queen Dowager—Alexandra remained extraordinarily popular with the British public. And it is not difficult to understand why. Alexandra consistently demonstrated an eagerness to improve the lives of people in her adopted country while maintaining an approachable and glamorous public image.

Her story and Edward's inevitably invite comparisons with that of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana, like Alexandra, achieved enormous public popularity, and both women had to deal with their husbands' infidelities. But their lives developed in dramatically different ways. Diana's marriage ended in divorce and her life was tragically cut short, whereas Alexandra remained married to Edward and lived into old age, eventually becoming Queen beside him.

And as a final piece of historical irony, remember Alice Keppel, Edward VII's long-time mistress?

Her great-granddaughter is none other than Charles's second wife, Queen Camilla.

I guess you could say that some royal connections are so persistent that they manage to reappear several generations later.

Based Prince.

The current image of the German Empire among many Germans is a negative one. These days, whenever there is a discussion about the Empire, its colonial endeavours, militaristic policies, weak rule of law, and overtly nationalist atmosphere are often brought up, with some historians even arguing that certain aspects of the Empire helped inspire the ideas that would later contribute to the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s and 1940s.

But before its inception, there was a sliver of hope that Germany could have taken a different trajectory. And that hope lay, at least partly, in the hands of an English-born princess. Alas, she ultimately failed to bring about the change she envisioned. To understand how, let us look at the story of that princess.

Born Victoria Adelaide on the 21st of November 1840 at Buckingham Palace, the young princess was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a result, upon her birth, she briefly became heir presumptive to the throne of the British Empire. However, the princess's prospects of becoming queen in her own right were dashed the following year, when the Queen gave birth to her son and eventual successor, Albert Edward.

Instead, Victoria became known by another title: Princess Royal. This was the title traditionally given to the eldest daughter of the reigning British monarch, and it was a title she would retain for the rest of her life.

As a young child, Vicky, as she was known by her family, was given a very extensive education. It included foreign languages, mathematics, geography, history, art, philosophy, and much more. Since Vicky had a thirst for knowledge, she learned considerably faster than the average child.

She had a strict upbringing for the most part. She received around ten hours of education a day and was overseen by governesses, with her mother rarely taking an active part in her education. Her father, Albert, on the other hand, was deeply involved in raising his children. Because of this, Vicky would idolise her father for the rest of her life.

In 1851, during the Great Exhibition, the Royal Family received as visitors Wilhelm, the Crown Prince of Prussia, his wife Augusta, and their two children, Friedrich and Luise. During the visit, the young Prince Friedrich, also known as Fritz, became acquainted with Vicky. Despite the considerable age gap—Fritz was 19 and Vicky was only 11 (gross)—they formed a good impression of one another.

When he returned to Berlin, Fritz began corresponding with the Princess Royal. Their developing relationship led Queen Victoria to imagine a possible marriage alliance between Britain and Prussia. Since she and the Prussian Crown Prince were already on good terms, such an alliance could strengthen the bond between the two royal families.

In 1855, Fritz visited Britain for a second time, but this time it was to request Vicky's hand in marriage. The Queen and Prince Consort were worried that their daughter might not be considered attractive enough for the Prussian prince. She was only around 1.5 metres tall (about 4'11") and was not considered particularly beautiful by some of her contemporaries. Nevertheless, there was clearly a great deal of affection between her and Fritz.

On the 17th of May 1856, it was announced that Vicky and Fritz were engaged. However, it was decided that the wedding would only take place once Vicky had reached the age of 17.

The reaction to the engagement was not as welcoming as that of the British royals. Elements of the Prussian court felt that the match was unsuitable for one of their own princes. The British, for their part, criticised the choice of groom, since Prussia was viewed by much of the public as a reactionary state, while the kingdom's neutrality during the Crimean War had also caused resentment.

For the Prince Consort, however, the engagement represented a source of hope. Albert supported the match, but for somewhat different reasons from Victoria. He supported the unification of the German states into a single nation and believed that Prussia would eventually be the state to unite Germany. However, he wanted Prussia to embrace liberal ideas, since he regarded liberalism as one of the main driving forces behind German unification.

With this in mind, he hoped to make his daughter an asset who could encourage the liberalisation of the country. He therefore gave her something of a crash course in international politics and political theory. This education lasted for two years, until Vicky became old enough to marry.

Her wedding took place on the 25th of January 1858 at St James's Palace in London.

The wedding did not come without obstacles. There were disagreements over the dowry and over the location of the wedding. Fritz's parents wanted the ceremony to take place in Berlin, but Victoria succeeded in having it held in London.

Once Vicky moved to Berlin, life proved far more difficult than she had imagined. The liberal current that Albert had hoped would support his daughter was not nearly as strong as he had believed. The Prussian court was instead deeply conservative and militaristic. It was also broadly sympathetic towards Russia and, because of the geopolitics of the time, suspicious of Britain.

Vicky found court etiquette rigid and cold compared with life in Britain. Many Prussian nobles disliked her because they feared that she would influence Frederick towards liberal reforms. Relations with her father-in-law, the future King Wilhelm I, were respectful but often tense, while her aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth Ludovika, was well known for her Anglophobia. In fact, Elisabeth had apparently been unaware of the engagement until it was publicly announced.

But if life at the Prussian court was a challenge, her mother's correspondence became an additional burden. As would later be the case with her other children and even some of her grandchildren, Queen Victoria could be extremely controlling and constantly wrote to her relatives about what they should do, while expecting them to keep her updated about practically everything. For Vicky, there was little escape from this situation.

In January 1859, Vicky gave birth to her first child. She and Fritz were excited to become parents and hoped that their firstborn would be a son, thereby securing the succession. However, the delivery was far more complicated than expected.

The baby was in a breech position, making the birth extremely difficult. During the delivery, considerable force was used to extract him. Although both Vicky and her son survived the ordeal, the birth caused permanent damage to the future Prince Wilhelm's left arm, which remained underdeveloped throughout his life and became a major source of insecurity for him.

Fortunately for Vicky, her subsequent deliveries were less traumatic, beginning with the birth of Princess Charlotte in July 1860.

Then, the following year, two major events occurred in her life.

First, on the 2nd of January 1861, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV died. His brother Wilhelm, who had already acted as regent, became King Wilhelm I of Prussia. Fritz was therefore now first in line to the throne, yet this did not improve his relationship with his father. In fact, the arch-conservative king was distrustful of his son because of his liberal and Anglophile views and attempted to keep Fritz's and Vicky's political influence at court to a minimum.

The second major event in Vicky's life occurred in December of that year, when her father, Prince Albert, died of typhoid fever. Like her mother, the Crown Princess was devastated by the loss of her father, who had been both an idol and mentor to her. Yet it could perhaps be considered fortunate that he did not live to see his designs for Germany go awry.

In late 1862, the princely couple faced a major political crisis. The Prussian Parliament had refused to allow the king to increase the military budget for the reorganisation of the army. The dispute produced a political deadlock and eventually developed into a constitutional crisis.

Wilhelm began contemplating abdication, as he was uncertain about how to proceed. For Vicky, this appeared to be excellent news, since it could make her Queen of Prussia much sooner than expected. She urged her husband to accept his father's decision. Fritz, however, was hesitant. He believed that allowing a king to abdicate because of a political dispute would establish a dangerous precedent for future generations, and so he refused to ascend the throne under such circumstances.

He may not have known it, but this was perhaps his and Vicky's greatest opportunity to begin an age of reform.

Wilhelm ultimately did not abdicate. Instead, he appointed a new Minister-President—essentially the Prussian prime minister—to deal with the legislature. That man was Otto von Bismarck, a conservative politician known for being calculating, determined, and enormously ambitious for his country.

Bismarck's willingness to govern without relying upon a liberal parliamentary majority, and even without an approved budget, quickly earned him the king's trust. However, he also aroused the suspicion of Queen Augusta, the Crown Prince, and Vicky because of their opposing political views. Yet, thanks to Wilhelm's confidence in him, Bismarck would remain at the helm of the Prussian, and later German, government for almost 30 years.

During this period, Vicky and Fritz continued to find themselves isolated from the rest of the family and from political life. For the next two years, the couple faced constant scrutiny from conservative circles, which accused them of betraying Prussian interests.

Then, in 1864, war broke out between Denmark and the German powers.

The roots of the conflict lay in the disputed territories of Schleswig and Holstein. Although connected to the Danish monarchy, the duchies contained substantial German-speaking populations, and their political status had long been disputed between Danish and German nationalists. There had already been a war over the issue beginning in 1848, which had ended without the German nationalists achieving their objectives. This time, however, Prussia and Austria were determined to prevail.

The Second Schleswig War, as it became known, was a difficult moment for Vicky. This was largely because of her familial connections: her younger brother Bertie was married to Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark.

Nevertheless, Vicky gained considerable sympathy for her dedication to nursing and assisting wounded soldiers. Taking inspiration from Florence Nightingale, who had become famous for her work during the Crimean War, Crown Princess Vicky involved herself in efforts to care for those wounded in battle.

Fritz, meanwhile, was involved in the military campaign. The German forces ultimately defeated Denmark, and the war ended with Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg being surrendered to Prussia and Austria.

However, Bismarck was not satisfied with a single victory. He was determined to see Germany unified under Prussian leadership, and that meant Austria had to be removed from German affairs.

And Bismarck had a plan—because Bismarck always had a plan.

He worked to ensure that Russia and France would not intervene decisively in the coming conflict with Austria and established an alliance with the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, which hoped to acquire Venetia from Austria.

Finally, after Prussian forces entered Austrian-administered Holstein, Bismarck made his move. On the 10th of June 1866, Prussia proposed reforming the German Confederation in a manner that would effectively exclude Austria. Four days later, the Federal Convention voted to mobilise against Prussia, which Prussia regarded as the dissolution of the Confederation and the beginning of hostilities.

The Austro-Prussian War, also known as the Brothers' War, began with Prussia rapidly overrunning several German states that supported Austria, including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Saxony.

The climax of the war came at the Battle of Königgrätz on the 3rd of July. Fritz was one of the senior Prussian commanders and played an important role in the decisive victory.

Several weeks later, peace negotiations brought the conflict to an end. Austria was excluded from German political affairs, several states that had supported it—including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Nassau—were annexed by Prussia, and the northern German states were subsequently organised into a new political entity: the North German Confederation.

The first major step towards German unification had been taken, but for some, the results were far from satisfactory.

Vicky was unhappy with the political system established for the Confederation, as it did not give the elected Reichstag as much authority over the executive as liberals desired. The new office of Federal Chancellor—held, of course, by Bismarck—was appointed by the Prussian king in his capacity as Federal President rather than being responsible to Parliament.

For the Crown Princess, therefore, the unification project had been stripped of much of its original liberal character and "Prussianised", for lack of a better word.

But it was not as though she had much say in the matter. She and Fritz remained politically marginalised at court.

This became evident once again in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. This time, I will spare you the details of exactly how the conflict started. All you need to know is that tensions between France and Prussia had been increasing for years, and after a series of diplomatic crises, war finally broke out.

Like before, Fritz and Vicky became involved in the war effort. Fritz commanded German troops and gained considerable prestige through his military service. Vicky, meanwhile, devoted herself to humanitarian and medical work connected to wounded soldiers, continuing an interest she had developed during the previous wars.

The war ended in a decisive German victory. France was forced to cede Alsace and part of Lorraine to the newly created German Empire.

Then, on the 18th of January 1871, representatives of the German states gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, where the creation of the German Empire was proclaimed. There, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was acclaimed German Emperor—Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Fritz and Bismarck were also present, witnessing one of the most consequential moments in nineteenth-century European history.

Yet for Vicky, her personal life only became more difficult.

By this stage, the Kaiser had grown increasingly distrustful of his son and daughter-in-law because of their Anglophile and liberal views. Under Bismarck's political dominance, they remained largely excluded from meaningful influence over the government.

Vicky's relationship with the new Empress Augusta was not much better. Despite both women being sympathetic to liberal ideas, they frequently clashed over personal differences. In fact, Queen Victoria occasionally found herself intervening when their disputes became particularly unpleasant.

The same could be said of Vicky's relationship with her sister-in-law, Princess Luise, who was by then married to the Grand Duke of Baden. Luise and the Crown Princess were not particularly close. Vicky also complained that Luise encouraged Wilhelm to see himself as a victim of his parents, contributing to the strong bond that developed between aunt and nephew.

Speaking of Wilhelm, it would be useful to discuss Vicky's children.

I have already mentioned him and his sister Charlotte, but they were not the couple's only children. Vicky gave birth to six more: Heinrich (b. 1862), Sigismund (b. 1864), Viktoria (b. 1866), Waldemar (b. 1868), Sophie (b. 1870), and Margarethe (b. 1872).

As I previously hinted, Vicky's relationship with her firstborn was not exactly a warm one.

The Crown Princess attempted to give Wilhelm the sort of intellectual education that her own father had given her, but this was not enough to overcome the environment in which he was raised. Since Wilhelm was second in line to the Hohenzollern throne, he was expected to receive an education befitting the dynasty.

As a result, Wilhelm's and Heinrich's upbringing was dominated by a strict military education, while several of the figures surrounding the young princes were far more sympathetic to traditional Prussian militarism and conservatism than Vicky was.

Thus, by 1877, when Wilhelm was approaching adulthood, he had become increasingly distant from his mother's liberal values.

As for Vicky's two younger sons, Sigismund and Waldemar, they sadly did not survive into adulthood. Sigismund died in 1866 at the age of two, during the Austro-Prussian War. He was the first of Queen Victoria's many grandchildren to die, and Vicky was devastated by his loss.

Waldemar also died young, in 1879, when he was only 11 years old.

His death occurred only a few months after Vicky's beloved sister, Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, had died during a diphtheria outbreak. Waldemar himself died from the same disease. Vicky was once again devastated.

These tragedies made Vicky increasingly emotionally dependent upon her surviving children, particularly her younger daughters Viktoria, Sophie, and Margarethe. Since they were female and therefore excluded from the Prussian succession, Vicky had considerably greater freedom in directing their upbringing.

Her eldest daughter, Charlotte, meanwhile, had a difficult relationship with her parents. Born with delicate health, Charlotte developed a temperamental and capricious personality that frequently brought her into conflict with members of her family. Nevertheless, in 1878, she married Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen.

In 1881, Vicky saw her eldest son marry Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Although she hoped that Augusta Victoria—or Dona, as she was known within the family—might help heal the growing rift between herself and Wilhelm, Vicky soon realised that her new daughter-in-law was firmly supportive of her husband.

Around this period, Viktoria developed feelings for Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who became Prince of Bulgaria. Vicky supported the possibility of a match, but Bismarck did not. He feared that such a marriage could create diplomatic tensions with the Russian Empire, and he strongly opposed the union.

Years later, the moment Vicky had waited decades for finally arrived.

On the 9th of March 1888, the 90-year-old Kaiser Wilhelm I died after months of declining health. At long last, Fritz became Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia as Friedrich III.

But it quickly became clear that he did not have much time left.

His health had already been deteriorating. Since 1887, Fritz had been suffering from cancer of the larynx. He had travelled abroad in the hope of receiving successful treatment, but his condition continued to worsen. By November 1887, he had lost his ability to speak.

Thus, when he became Kaiser, everyone knew that his reign would probably be short.

Certain conservative and military figures were deeply hostile to the imperial couple. One source of conflict was Vicky's and Fritz's opposition to the growing antisemitic movement in Germany. Vicky considered antisemitism irrational and deeply objectionable.

This occurred against the background of the growth of Völkisch nationalism and organised political antisemitism, which increasingly defined German identity in racial and ethnic terms and portrayed Jews and other minorities as outsiders.

Vicky and Fritz did not shy away from expressing their disdain for such ideas. In 1880, they publicly attended a synagogue service in Berlin in a deliberate gesture against antisemitism. While their political views certainly did not endear them to many conservative Germans, Queen Victoria was proud of her daughter's position and of Fritz's willingness to support her.

Yet whatever hopes German liberals had placed in Friedrich III came to an abrupt end.

On the 15th of June 1888, Kaiser Friedrich III died at the age of 56. He had been emperor for only 99 days.

His son now became Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

The relationship between the new Kaiser and his mother rapidly deteriorated. Wilhelm ordered searches for his parents' political papers and correspondence, fearing that sensitive documents might fall into foreign hands or reveal politically embarrassing information. Over the following years, many members of the household who had been friendly towards Vicky were removed or marginalised.

The now-widowed Vicky increasingly withdrew from the Berlin court. She eventually settled near the Hessian town of Kronberg im Taunus, where she built a new residence for herself. She named it Schloss Friedrichshof in honour of her late husband.

In 1889, her daughter Sophie married Crown Prince Constantine of Greece. The following year, Viktoria married Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, although their marriage would prove unhappy. Then, in 1893, her youngest daughter, Margarethe, married her second cousin, Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse-Kassel. Years later, he was chosen to become King of Finland, although his kingship never actually materialised because of Germany's defeat in the First World War.

Although Vicky was pleased to see her daughters married, she became increasingly isolated. Nevertheless, she remained active in Germany's cultural and intellectual life and maintained connections with various intellectuals, artists, and liberal figures of the period.

In 1898, Vicky was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her condition gradually deteriorated, and during the final stages of her illness she was increasingly confined to Friedrichshof.

Finally, on the 5th of August 1901, Victoria, Princess Royal and German Empress Dowager, died at Friedrichshof at the age of 60. She had outlived her mother by approximately six months.

Before her death, Vicky arranged for much of her private correspondence to be sent back to Britain, partly to prevent sensitive letters from falling into her son's hands.

And with that, we reach the end of the tale of Germany's ill-fated liberal empress.

Her life could almost be seen as the embodiment of the saying: "Disappointment is the gap between expectations and reality."

Vicky had arrived in Prussia believing—or at least hoping—that her influence, alongside that of her husband, could help transform her adopted homeland into a constitutional and liberal German state. She had been raised by Prince Albert to see German unification and political liberalisation as complementary goals. Instead, she watched as unification was achieved through military victories and the political manoeuvring of Otto von Bismarck, while the monarchy retained enormous political and military power.

Her tragedy was not simply that she failed.

It was that, for most of her adult life, she was waiting for the opportunity to succeed.

She spent three decades as Crown Princess, watching Bismarck and Wilhelm I construct an empire very different from the one envisioned by her father. When Fritz finally inherited the throne and Vicky finally became Empress, the opportunity they had spent their lives waiting for had arrived far too late. Friedrich III was already dying.

Ninety-nine days later, that opportunity disappeared with him.

Through the machinations of an extraordinarily ambitious statesman, the fierce opposition of a dynasty deeply rooted in Prussian conservatism, and the cruel accident of her husband's fatal illness, Vicky's hopes of reshaping Germany ultimately turned to bitter dust.

The current image of the German Empire among many Germans is a negative one. These days, whenever there is a discussion about the Empire, its colonial endeavours, militaristic policies, weak rule of law, and overtly nationalist atmosphere are often brought up, with some historians even arguing that certain aspects of the Empire helped inspire the ideas that would later contribute to the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s and 1940s.

But before its inception, there was a sliver of hope that Germany could have taken a different trajectory. And that hope lay, at least partly, in the hands of an English-born princess. Alas, she ultimately failed to bring about the change she envisioned. To understand how, let us look at the story of that princess.

Born Victoria Adelaide on the 21st of November 1840 at Buckingham Palace, the young princess was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a result, upon her birth, she briefly became heir presumptive to the throne of the British Empire. However, the princess's prospects of becoming queen in her own right were dashed the following year, when the Queen gave birth to her son and eventual successor, Albert Edward.

Instead, Victoria became known by another title: Princess Royal. This was the title traditionally given to the eldest daughter of the reigning British monarch, and it was a title she would retain for the rest of her life.

As a young child, Vicky, as she was known by her family, was given a very extensive education. It included foreign languages, mathematics, geography, history, art, philosophy, and much more. Since Vicky had a thirst for knowledge, she learned considerably faster than the average child.

She had a strict upbringing for the most part. She received around ten hours of education a day and was overseen by governesses, with her mother rarely taking an active part in her education. Her father, Albert, on the other hand, was deeply involved in raising his children. Because of this, Vicky would idolise her father for the rest of her life.

In 1851, during the Great Exhibition, the Royal Family received as visitors Wilhelm, the Crown Prince of Prussia, his wife Augusta, and their two children, Friedrich and Luise. During the visit, the young Prince Friedrich, also known as Fritz, became acquainted with Vicky. Despite the considerable age gap—Fritz was 19 and Vicky was only 11 (gross)—they formed a good impression of one another.

When he returned to Berlin, Fritz began corresponding with the Princess Royal. Their developing relationship led Queen Victoria to imagine a possible marriage alliance between Britain and Prussia. Since she and the Prussian Crown Prince were already on good terms, such an alliance could strengthen the bond between the two royal families.

In 1855, Fritz visited Britain for a second time, but this time it was to request Vicky's hand in marriage. The Queen and Prince Consort were worried that their daughter might not be considered attractive enough for the Prussian prince. She was only around 1.5 metres tall (about 4'11") and was not considered particularly beautiful by some of her contemporaries. Nevertheless, there was clearly a great deal of affection between her and Fritz.

On the 17th of May 1856, it was announced that Vicky and Fritz were engaged. However, it was decided that the wedding would only take place once Vicky had reached the age of 17.

The reaction to the engagement was not as welcoming as that of the British royals. Elements of the Prussian court felt that the match was unsuitable for one of their own princes. The British, for their part, criticised the choice of groom, since Prussia was viewed by much of the public as a reactionary state, while the kingdom's neutrality during the Crimean War had also caused resentment.

For the Prince Consort, however, the engagement represented a source of hope. Albert supported the match, but for somewhat different reasons from Victoria. He supported the unification of the German states into a single nation and believed that Prussia would eventually be the state to unite Germany. However, he wanted Prussia to embrace liberal ideas, since he regarded liberalism as one of the main driving forces behind German unification.

With this in mind, he hoped to make his daughter an asset who could encourage the liberalisation of the country. He therefore gave her something of a crash course in international politics and political theory. This education lasted for two years, until Vicky became old enough to marry.

Her wedding took place on the 25th of January 1858 at St James's Palace in London.

The wedding did not come without obstacles. There were disagreements over the dowry and over the location of the wedding. Fritz's parents wanted the ceremony to take place in Berlin, but Victoria succeeded in having it held in London.

Once Vicky moved to Berlin, life proved far more difficult than she had imagined. The liberal current that Albert had hoped would support his daughter was not nearly as strong as he had believed. The Prussian court was instead deeply conservative and militaristic. It was also broadly sympathetic towards Russia and, because of the geopolitics of the time, suspicious of Britain.

Vicky found court etiquette rigid and cold compared with life in Britain. Many Prussian nobles disliked her because they feared that she would influence Frederick towards liberal reforms. Relations with her father-in-law, the future King Wilhelm I, were respectful but often tense, while her aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth Ludovika, was well known for her Anglophobia. In fact, Elisabeth had apparently been unaware of the engagement until it was publicly announced.

But if life at the Prussian court was a challenge, her mother's correspondence became an additional burden. As would later be the case with her other children and even some of her grandchildren, Queen Victoria could be extremely controlling and constantly wrote to her relatives about what they should do, while expecting them to keep her updated about practically everything. For Vicky, there was little escape from this situation.

In January 1859, Vicky gave birth to her first child. She and Fritz were excited to become parents and hoped that their firstborn would be a son, thereby securing the succession. However, the delivery was far more complicated than expected.

The baby was in a breech position, making the birth extremely difficult. During the delivery, considerable force was used to extract him. Although both Vicky and her son survived the ordeal, the birth caused permanent damage to the future Prince Wilhelm's left arm, which remained underdeveloped throughout his life and became a major source of insecurity for him.

Fortunately for Vicky, her subsequent deliveries were less traumatic, beginning with the birth of Princess Charlotte in July 1860.

Then, the following year, two major events occurred in her life.

First, on the 2nd of January 1861, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV died. His brother Wilhelm, who had already acted as regent, became King Wilhelm I of Prussia. Fritz was therefore now first in line to the throne, yet this did not improve his relationship with his father. In fact, the arch-conservative king was distrustful of his son because of his liberal and Anglophile views and attempted to keep Fritz's and Vicky's political influence at court to a minimum.

The second major event in Vicky's life occurred in December of that year, when her father, Prince Albert, died of typhoid fever. Like her mother, the Crown Princess was devastated by the loss of her father, who had been both an idol and mentor to her. Yet it could perhaps be considered fortunate that he did not live to see his designs for Germany go awry.

In late 1862, the princely couple faced a major political crisis. The Prussian Parliament had refused to allow the king to increase the military budget for the reorganisation of the army. The dispute produced a political deadlock and eventually developed into a constitutional crisis.

Wilhelm began contemplating abdication, as he was uncertain about how to proceed. For Vicky, this appeared to be excellent news, since it could make her Queen of Prussia much sooner than expected. She urged her husband to accept his father's decision. Fritz, however, was hesitant. He believed that allowing a king to abdicate because of a political dispute would establish a dangerous precedent for future generations, and so he refused to ascend the throne under such circumstances.

He may not have known it, but this was perhaps his and Vicky's greatest opportunity to begin an age of reform.

Wilhelm ultimately did not abdicate. Instead, he appointed a new Minister-President—essentially the Prussian prime minister—to deal with the legislature. That man was Otto von Bismarck, a conservative politician known for being calculating, determined, and enormously ambitious for his country.

Bismarck's willingness to govern without relying upon a liberal parliamentary majority, and even without an approved budget, quickly earned him the king's trust. However, he also aroused the suspicion of Queen Augusta, the Crown Prince, and Vicky because of their opposing political views. Yet, thanks to Wilhelm's confidence in him, Bismarck would remain at the helm of the Prussian, and later German, government for almost 30 years.

During this period, Vicky and Fritz continued to find themselves isolated from the rest of the family and from political life. For the next two years, the couple faced constant scrutiny from conservative circles, which accused them of betraying Prussian interests.

Then, in 1864, war broke out between Denmark and the German powers.

The roots of the conflict lay in the disputed territories of Schleswig and Holstein. Although connected to the Danish monarchy, the duchies contained substantial German-speaking populations, and their political status had long been disputed between Danish and German nationalists. There had already been a war over the issue beginning in 1848, which had ended without the German nationalists achieving their objectives. This time, however, Prussia and Austria were determined to prevail.

The Second Schleswig War, as it became known, was a difficult moment for Vicky. This was largely because of her familial connections: her younger brother Bertie was married to Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark.

Nevertheless, Vicky gained considerable sympathy for her dedication to nursing and assisting wounded soldiers. Taking inspiration from Florence Nightingale, who had become famous for her work during the Crimean War, Crown Princess Vicky involved herself in efforts to care for those wounded in battle.

Fritz, meanwhile, was involved in the military campaign. The German forces ultimately defeated Denmark, and the war ended with Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg being surrendered to Prussia and Austria.

However, Bismarck was not satisfied with a single victory. He was determined to see Germany unified under Prussian leadership, and that meant Austria had to be removed from German affairs.

And Bismarck had a plan—because Bismarck always had a plan.

He worked to ensure that Russia and France would not intervene decisively in the coming conflict with Austria and established an alliance with the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, which hoped to acquire Venetia from Austria.

Finally, after Prussian forces entered Austrian-administered Holstein, Bismarck made his move. On the 10th of June 1866, Prussia proposed reforming the German Confederation in a manner that would effectively exclude Austria. Four days later, the Federal Convention voted to mobilise against Prussia, which Prussia regarded as the dissolution of the Confederation and the beginning of hostilities.

The Austro-Prussian War, also known as the Brothers' War, began with Prussia rapidly overrunning several German states that supported Austria, including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Saxony.

The climax of the war came at the Battle of Königgrätz on the 3rd of July. Fritz was one of the senior Prussian commanders and played an important role in the decisive victory.

Several weeks later, peace negotiations brought the conflict to an end. Austria was excluded from German political affairs, several states that had supported it—including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Nassau—were annexed by Prussia, and the northern German states were subsequently organised into a new political entity: the North German Confederation.

The first major step towards German unification had been taken, but for some, the results were far from satisfactory.

Vicky was unhappy with the political system established for the Confederation, as it did not give the elected Reichstag as much authority over the executive as liberals desired. The new office of Federal Chancellor—held, of course, by Bismarck—was appointed by the Prussian king in his capacity as Federal President rather than being responsible to Parliament.

For the Crown Princess, therefore, the unification project had been stripped of much of its original liberal character and "Prussianised", for lack of a better word.

But it was not as though she had much say in the matter. She and Fritz remained politically marginalised at court.

This became evident once again in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. This time, I will spare you the details of exactly how the conflict started. All you need to know is that tensions between France and Prussia had been increasing for years, and after a series of diplomatic crises, war finally broke out.

Like before, Fritz and Vicky became involved in the war effort. Fritz commanded German troops and gained considerable prestige through his military service. Vicky, meanwhile, devoted herself to humanitarian and medical work connected to wounded soldiers, continuing an interest she had developed during the previous wars.

The war ended in a decisive German victory. France was forced to cede Alsace and part of Lorraine to the newly created German Empire.

Then, on the 18th of January 1871, representatives of the German states gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, where the creation of the German Empire was proclaimed. There, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was acclaimed German Emperor—Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Fritz and Bismarck were also present, witnessing one of the most consequential moments in nineteenth-century European history.

Yet for Vicky, her personal life only became more difficult.

By this stage, the Kaiser had grown increasingly distrustful of his son and daughter-in-law because of their Anglophile and liberal views. Under Bismarck's political dominance, they remained largely excluded from meaningful influence over the government.

Vicky's relationship with the new Empress Augusta was not much better. Despite both women being sympathetic to liberal ideas, they frequently clashed over personal differences. In fact, Queen Victoria occasionally found herself intervening when their disputes became particularly unpleasant.

The same could be said of Vicky's relationship with her sister-in-law, Princess Luise, who was by then married to the Grand Duke of Baden. Luise and the Crown Princess were not particularly close. Vicky also complained that Luise encouraged Wilhelm to see himself as a victim of his parents, contributing to the strong bond that developed between aunt and nephew.

Speaking of Wilhelm, it would be useful to discuss Vicky's children.

I have already mentioned him and his sister Charlotte, but they were not the couple's only children. Vicky gave birth to six more: Heinrich (b. 1862), Sigismund (b. 1864), Viktoria (b. 1866), Waldemar (b. 1868), Sophie (b. 1870), and Margarethe (b. 1872).

As I previously hinted, Vicky's relationship with her firstborn was not exactly a warm one.

The Crown Princess attempted to give Wilhelm the sort of intellectual education that her own father had given her, but this was not enough to overcome the environment in which he was raised. Since Wilhelm was second in line to the Hohenzollern throne, he was expected to receive an education befitting the dynasty.

As a result, Wilhelm's and Heinrich's upbringing was dominated by a strict military education, while several of the figures surrounding the young princes were far more sympathetic to traditional Prussian militarism and conservatism than Vicky was.

Thus, by 1877, when Wilhelm was approaching adulthood, he had become increasingly distant from his mother's liberal values.

As for Vicky's two younger sons, Sigismund and Waldemar, they sadly did not survive into adulthood. Sigismund died in 1866 at the age of two, during the Austro-Prussian War. He was the first of Queen Victoria's many grandchildren to die, and Vicky was devastated by his loss.

Waldemar also died young, in 1879, when he was only 11 years old.

His death occurred only a few months after Vicky's beloved sister, Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, had died during a diphtheria outbreak. Waldemar himself died from the same disease. Vicky was once again devastated.

These tragedies made Vicky increasingly emotionally dependent upon her surviving children, particularly her younger daughters Viktoria, Sophie, and Margarethe. Since they were female and therefore excluded from the Prussian succession, Vicky had considerably greater freedom in directing their upbringing.

Her eldest daughter, Charlotte, meanwhile, had a difficult relationship with her parents. Born with delicate health, Charlotte developed a temperamental and capricious personality that frequently brought her into conflict with members of her family. Nevertheless, in 1878, she married Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen.

In 1881, Vicky saw her eldest son marry Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Although she hoped that Augusta Victoria—or Dona, as she was known within the family—might help heal the growing rift between herself and Wilhelm, Vicky soon realised that her new daughter-in-law was firmly supportive of her husband.

Around this period, Viktoria developed feelings for Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who became Prince of Bulgaria. Vicky supported the possibility of a match, but Bismarck did not. He feared that such a marriage could create diplomatic tensions with the Russian Empire, and he strongly opposed the union.

Years later, the moment Vicky had waited decades for finally arrived.

On the 9th of March 1888, the 90-year-old Kaiser Wilhelm I died after months of declining health. At long last, Fritz became Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia as Friedrich III.

But it quickly became clear that he did not have much time left.

His health had already been deteriorating. Since 1887, Fritz had been suffering from cancer of the larynx. He had travelled abroad in the hope of receiving successful treatment, but his condition continued to worsen. By November 1887, he had lost his ability to speak.

Thus, when he became Kaiser, everyone knew that his reign would probably be short.

Certain conservative and military figures were deeply hostile to the imperial couple. One source of conflict was Vicky's and Fritz's opposition to the growing antisemitic movement in Germany. Vicky considered antisemitism irrational and deeply objectionable.

This occurred against the background of the growth of Völkisch nationalism and organised political antisemitism, which increasingly defined German identity in racial and ethnic terms and portrayed Jews and other minorities as outsiders.

Vicky and Fritz did not shy away from expressing their disdain for such ideas. In 1880, they publicly attended a synagogue service in Berlin in a deliberate gesture against antisemitism. While their political views certainly did not endear them to many conservative Germans, Queen Victoria was proud of her daughter's position and of Fritz's willingness to support her.

Yet whatever hopes German liberals had placed in Friedrich III came to an abrupt end.

On the 15th of June 1888, Kaiser Friedrich III died at the age of 56. He had been emperor for only 99 days.

His son now became Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

The relationship between the new Kaiser and his mother rapidly deteriorated. Wilhelm ordered searches for his parents' political papers and correspondence, fearing that sensitive documents might fall into foreign hands or reveal politically embarrassing information. Over the following years, many members of the household who had been friendly towards Vicky were removed or marginalised.

The now-widowed Vicky increasingly withdrew from the Berlin court. She eventually settled near the Hessian town of Kronberg im Taunus, where she built a new residence for herself. She named it Schloss Friedrichshof in honour of her late husband.

In 1889, her daughter Sophie married Crown Prince Constantine of Greece. The following year, Viktoria married Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, although their marriage would prove unhappy. Then, in 1893, her youngest daughter, Margarethe, married her second cousin, Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse-Kassel. Years later, he was chosen to become King of Finland, although his kingship never actually materialised because of Germany's defeat in the First World War.

Although Vicky was pleased to see her daughters married, she became increasingly isolated. Nevertheless, she remained active in Germany's cultural and intellectual life and maintained connections with various intellectuals, artists, and liberal figures of the period.

In 1898, Vicky was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her condition gradually deteriorated, and during the final stages of her illness she was increasingly confined to Friedrichshof.

Finally, on the 5th of August 1901, Victoria, Princess Royal and German Empress Dowager, died at Friedrichshof at the age of 60. She had outlived her mother by approximately six months.

Before her death, Vicky arranged for much of her private correspondence to be sent back to Britain, partly to prevent sensitive letters from falling into her son's hands.

And with that, we reach the end of the tale of Germany's ill-fated liberal empress.

Her life could almost be seen as the embodiment of the saying: "Disappointment is the gap between expectations and reality."

Vicky had arrived in Prussia believing—or at least hoping—that her influence, alongside that of her husband, could help transform her adopted homeland into a constitutional and liberal German state. She had been raised by Prince Albert to see German unification and political liberalisation as complementary goals. Instead, she watched as unification was achieved through military victories and the political manoeuvring of Otto von Bismarck, while the monarchy retained enormous political and military power.

Her tragedy was not simply that she failed.

It was that, for most of her adult life, she was waiting for the opportunity to succeed.

She spent three decades as Crown Princess, watching Bismarck and Wilhelm I construct an empire very different from the one envisioned by her father. When Fritz finally inherited the throne and Vicky finally became Empress, the opportunity they had spent their lives waiting for had arrived far too late. Friedrich III was already dying.

Ninety-nine days later, that opportunity disappeared with him.

Through the machinations of an extraordinarily ambitious statesman, the fierce opposition of a dynasty deeply rooted in Prussian conservatism, and the cruel accident of her husband's fatal illness, Vicky's hopes of reshaping Germany ultimately turned to bitter dust.

The current image of the German Empire among many Germans is a negative one. These days, whenever there is a discussion about the Empire, its colonial endeavours, militaristic policies, weak rule of law, and overtly nationalist atmosphere are often brought up, with some historians even arguing that certain aspects of the Empire helped inspire the ideas that would later contribute to the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s and 1940s.

But before its inception, there was a sliver of hope that Germany could have taken a different trajectory. And that hope lay, at least partly, in the hands of an English-born princess. Alas, she ultimately failed to bring about the change she envisioned. To understand how, let us look at the story of that princess.

Born Victoria Adelaide on the 21st of November 1840 at Buckingham Palace, the young princess was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a result, upon her birth, she briefly became heir presumptive to the throne of the British Empire. However, the princess's prospects of becoming queen in her own right were dashed the following year, when the Queen gave birth to her son and eventual successor, Albert Edward.

Instead, Victoria became known by another title: Princess Royal. This was the title traditionally given to the eldest daughter of the reigning British monarch, and it was a title she would retain for the rest of her life.

As a young child, Vicky, as she was known by her family, was given a very extensive education. It included foreign languages, mathematics, geography, history, art, philosophy, and much more. Since Vicky had a thirst for knowledge, she learned considerably faster than the average child.

She had a strict upbringing for the most part. She received around ten hours of education a day and was overseen by governesses, with her mother rarely taking an active part in her education. Her father, Albert, on the other hand, was deeply involved in raising his children. Because of this, Vicky would idolise her father for the rest of her life.

In 1851, during the Great Exhibition, the Royal Family received as visitors Wilhelm, the Crown Prince of Prussia, his wife Augusta, and their two children, Friedrich and Luise. During the visit, the young Prince Friedrich, also known as Fritz, became acquainted with Vicky. Despite the considerable age gap—Fritz was 19 and Vicky was only 11 (gross)—they formed a good impression of one another.

When he returned to Berlin, Fritz began corresponding with the Princess Royal. Their developing relationship led Queen Victoria to imagine a possible marriage alliance between Britain and Prussia. Since she and the Prussian Crown Prince were already on good terms, such an alliance could strengthen the bond between the two royal families.

In 1855, Fritz visited Britain for a second time, but this time it was to request Vicky's hand in marriage. The Queen and Prince Consort were worried that their daughter might not be considered attractive enough for the Prussian prince. She was only around 1.5 metres tall (about 4'11") and was not considered particularly beautiful by some of her contemporaries. Nevertheless, there was clearly a great deal of affection between her and Fritz.

On the 17th of May 1856, it was announced that Vicky and Fritz were engaged. However, it was decided that the wedding would only take place once Vicky had reached the age of 17.

The reaction to the engagement was not as welcoming as that of the British royals. Elements of the Prussian court felt that the match was unsuitable for one of their own princes. The British, for their part, criticised the choice of groom, since Prussia was viewed by much of the public as a reactionary state, while the kingdom's neutrality during the Crimean War had also caused resentment.

For the Prince Consort, however, the engagement represented a source of hope. Albert supported the match, but for somewhat different reasons from Victoria. He supported the unification of the German states into a single nation and believed that Prussia would eventually be the state to unite Germany. However, he wanted Prussia to embrace liberal ideas, since he regarded liberalism as one of the main driving forces behind German unification.

With this in mind, he hoped to make his daughter an asset who could encourage the liberalisation of the country. He therefore gave her something of a crash course in international politics and political theory. This education lasted for two years, until Vicky became old enough to marry.

Her wedding took place on the 25th of January 1858 at St James's Palace in London.

The wedding did not come without obstacles. There were disagreements over the dowry and over the location of the wedding. Fritz's parents wanted the ceremony to take place in Berlin, but Victoria succeeded in having it held in London.

Once Vicky moved to Berlin, life proved far more difficult than she had imagined. The liberal current that Albert had hoped would support his daughter was not nearly as strong as he had believed. The Prussian court was instead deeply conservative and militaristic. It was also broadly sympathetic towards Russia and, because of the geopolitics of the time, suspicious of Britain.

Vicky found court etiquette rigid and cold compared with life in Britain. Many Prussian nobles disliked her because they feared that she would influence Frederick towards liberal reforms. Relations with her father-in-law, the future King Wilhelm I, were respectful but often tense, while her aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth Ludovika, was well known for her Anglophobia. In fact, Elisabeth had apparently been unaware of the engagement until it was publicly announced.

But if life at the Prussian court was a challenge, her mother's correspondence became an additional burden. As would later be the case with her other children and even some of her grandchildren, Queen Victoria could be extremely controlling and constantly wrote to her relatives about what they should do, while expecting them to keep her updated about practically everything. For Vicky, there was little escape from this situation.

In January 1859, Vicky gave birth to her first child. She and Fritz were excited to become parents and hoped that their firstborn would be a son, thereby securing the succession. However, the delivery was far more complicated than expected.

The baby was in a breech position, making the birth extremely difficult. During the delivery, considerable force was used to extract him. Although both Vicky and her son survived the ordeal, the birth caused permanent damage to the future Prince Wilhelm's left arm, which remained underdeveloped throughout his life and became a major source of insecurity for him.

Fortunately for Vicky, her subsequent deliveries were less traumatic, beginning with the birth of Princess Charlotte in July 1860.

Then, the following year, two major events occurred in her life.

First, on the 2nd of January 1861, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV died. His brother Wilhelm, who had already acted as regent, became King Wilhelm I of Prussia. Fritz was therefore now first in line to the throne, yet this did not improve his relationship with his father. In fact, the arch-conservative king was distrustful of his son because of his liberal and Anglophile views and attempted to keep Fritz's and Vicky's political influence at court to a minimum.

The second major event in Vicky's life occurred in December of that year, when her father, Prince Albert, died of typhoid fever. Like her mother, the Crown Princess was devastated by the loss of her father, who had been both an idol and mentor to her. Yet it could perhaps be considered fortunate that he did not live to see his designs for Germany go awry.

In late 1862, the princely couple faced a major political crisis. The Prussian Parliament had refused to allow the king to increase the military budget for the reorganisation of the army. The dispute produced a political deadlock and eventually developed into a constitutional crisis.

Wilhelm began contemplating abdication, as he was uncertain about how to proceed. For Vicky, this appeared to be excellent news, since it could make her Queen of Prussia much sooner than expected. She urged her husband to accept his father's decision. Fritz, however, was hesitant. He believed that allowing a king to abdicate because of a political dispute would establish a dangerous precedent for future generations, and so he refused to ascend the throne under such circumstances.

He may not have known it, but this was perhaps his and Vicky's greatest opportunity to begin an age of reform.

Wilhelm ultimately did not abdicate. Instead, he appointed a new Minister-President—essentially the Prussian prime minister—to deal with the legislature. That man was Otto von Bismarck, a conservative politician known for being calculating, determined, and enormously ambitious for his country.

Bismarck's willingness to govern without relying upon a liberal parliamentary majority, and even without an approved budget, quickly earned him the king's trust. However, he also aroused the suspicion of Queen Augusta, the Crown Prince, and Vicky because of their opposing political views. Yet, thanks to Wilhelm's confidence in him, Bismarck would remain at the helm of the Prussian, and later German, government for almost 30 years.

During this period, Vicky and Fritz continued to find themselves isolated from the rest of the family and from political life. For the next two years, the couple faced constant scrutiny from conservative circles, which accused them of betraying Prussian interests.

Then, in 1864, war broke out between Denmark and the German powers.

The roots of the conflict lay in the disputed territories of Schleswig and Holstein. Although connected to the Danish monarchy, the duchies contained substantial German-speaking populations, and their political status had long been disputed between Danish and German nationalists. There had already been a war over the issue beginning in 1848, which had ended without the German nationalists achieving their objectives. This time, however, Prussia and Austria were determined to prevail.

The Second Schleswig War, as it became known, was a difficult moment for Vicky. This was largely because of her familial connections: her younger brother Bertie was married to Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark.

Nevertheless, Vicky gained considerable sympathy for her dedication to nursing and assisting wounded soldiers. Taking inspiration from Florence Nightingale, who had become famous for her work during the Crimean War, Crown Princess Vicky involved herself in efforts to care for those wounded in battle.

Fritz, meanwhile, was involved in the military campaign. The German forces ultimately defeated Denmark, and the war ended with Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg being surrendered to Prussia and Austria.

However, Bismarck was not satisfied with a single victory. He was determined to see Germany unified under Prussian leadership, and that meant Austria had to be removed from German affairs.

And Bismarck had a plan—because Bismarck always had a plan.

He worked to ensure that Russia and France would not intervene decisively in the coming conflict with Austria and established an alliance with the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, which hoped to acquire Venetia from Austria.

Finally, after Prussian forces entered Austrian-administered Holstein, Bismarck made his move. On the 10th of June 1866, Prussia proposed reforming the German Confederation in a manner that would effectively exclude Austria. Four days later, the Federal Convention voted to mobilise against Prussia, which Prussia regarded as the dissolution of the Confederation and the beginning of hostilities.

The Austro-Prussian War, also known as the Brothers' War, began with Prussia rapidly overrunning several German states that supported Austria, including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Saxony.

The climax of the war came at the Battle of Königgrätz on the 3rd of July. Fritz was one of the senior Prussian commanders and played an important role in the decisive victory.

Several weeks later, peace negotiations brought the conflict to an end. Austria was excluded from German political affairs, several states that had supported it—including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, and Nassau—were annexed by Prussia, and the northern German states were subsequently organised into a new political entity: the North German Confederation.

The first major step towards German unification had been taken, but for some, the results were far from satisfactory.

Vicky was unhappy with the political system established for the Confederation, as it did not give the elected Reichstag as much authority over the executive as liberals desired. The new office of Federal Chancellor—held, of course, by Bismarck—was appointed by the Prussian king in his capacity as Federal President rather than being responsible to Parliament.

For the Crown Princess, therefore, the unification project had been stripped of much of its original liberal character and "Prussianised", for lack of a better word.

But it was not as though she had much say in the matter. She and Fritz remained politically marginalised at court.

This became evident once again in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. This time, I will spare you the details of exactly how the conflict started. All you need to know is that tensions between France and Prussia had been increasing for years, and after a series of diplomatic crises, war finally broke out.

Like before, Fritz and Vicky became involved in the war effort. Fritz commanded German troops and gained considerable prestige through his military service. Vicky, meanwhile, devoted herself to humanitarian and medical work connected to wounded soldiers, continuing an interest she had developed during the previous wars.

The war ended in a decisive German victory. France was forced to cede Alsace and part of Lorraine to the newly created German Empire.

Then, on the 18th of January 1871, representatives of the German states gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, where the creation of the German Empire was proclaimed. There, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was acclaimed German Emperor—Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Fritz and Bismarck were also present, witnessing one of the most consequential moments in nineteenth-century European history.

Yet for Vicky, her personal life only became more difficult.

By this stage, the Kaiser had grown increasingly distrustful of his son and daughter-in-law because of their Anglophile and liberal views. Under Bismarck's political dominance, they remained largely excluded from meaningful influence over the government.

Vicky's relationship with the new Empress Augusta was not much better. Despite both women being sympathetic to liberal ideas, they frequently clashed over personal differences. In fact, Queen Victoria occasionally found herself intervening when their disputes became particularly unpleasant.

The same could be said of Vicky's relationship with her sister-in-law, Princess Luise, who was by then married to the Grand Duke of Baden. Luise and the Crown Princess were not particularly close. Vicky also complained that Luise encouraged Wilhelm to see himself as a victim of his parents, contributing to the strong bond that developed between aunt and nephew.

Speaking of Wilhelm, it would be useful to discuss Vicky's children.

I have already mentioned him and his sister Charlotte, but they were not the couple's only children. Vicky gave birth to six more: Heinrich (b. 1862), Sigismund (b. 1864), Viktoria (b. 1866), Waldemar (b. 1868), Sophie (b. 1870), and Margarethe (b. 1872).

As I previously hinted, Vicky's relationship with her firstborn was not exactly a warm one.

The Crown Princess attempted to give Wilhelm the sort of intellectual education that her own father had given her, but this was not enough to overcome the environment in which he was raised. Since Wilhelm was second in line to the Hohenzollern throne, he was expected to receive an education befitting the dynasty.

As a result, Wilhelm's and Heinrich's upbringing was dominated by a strict military education, while several of the figures surrounding the young princes were far more sympathetic to traditional Prussian militarism and conservatism than Vicky was.

Thus, by 1877, when Wilhelm was approaching adulthood, he had become increasingly distant from his mother's liberal values.

As for Vicky's two younger sons, Sigismund and Waldemar, they sadly did not survive into adulthood. Sigismund died in 1866 at the age of two, during the Austro-Prussian War. He was the first of Queen Victoria's many grandchildren to die, and Vicky was devastated by his loss.

Waldemar also died young, in 1879, when he was only 11 years old.

His death occurred only a few months after Vicky's beloved sister, Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, had died during a diphtheria outbreak. Waldemar himself died from the same disease. Vicky was once again devastated.

These tragedies made Vicky increasingly emotionally dependent upon her surviving children, particularly her younger daughters Viktoria, Sophie, and Margarethe. Since they were female and therefore excluded from the Prussian succession, Vicky had considerably greater freedom in directing their upbringing.

Her eldest daughter, Charlotte, meanwhile, had a difficult relationship with her parents. Born with delicate health, Charlotte developed a temperamental and capricious personality that frequently brought her into conflict with members of her family. Nevertheless, in 1878, she married Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen.

In 1881, Vicky saw her eldest son marry Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Although she hoped that Augusta Victoria—or Dona, as she was known within the family—might help heal the growing rift between herself and Wilhelm, Vicky soon realised that her new daughter-in-law was firmly supportive of her husband.

Around this period, Viktoria developed feelings for Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who became Prince of Bulgaria. Vicky supported the possibility of a match, but Bismarck did not. He feared that such a marriage could create diplomatic tensions with the Russian Empire, and he strongly opposed the union.

Years later, the moment Vicky had waited decades for finally arrived.

On the 9th of March 1888, the 90-year-old Kaiser Wilhelm I died after months of declining health. At long last, Fritz became Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia as Friedrich III.

But it quickly became clear that he did not have much time left.

His health had already been deteriorating. Since 1887, Fritz had been suffering from cancer of the larynx. He had travelled abroad in the hope of receiving successful treatment, but his condition continued to worsen. By November 1887, he had lost his ability to speak.

Thus, when he became Kaiser, everyone knew that his reign would probably be short.

Certain conservative and military figures were deeply hostile to the imperial couple. One source of conflict was Vicky's and Fritz's opposition to the growing antisemitic movement in Germany. Vicky considered antisemitism irrational and deeply objectionable.

This occurred against the background of the growth of Völkisch nationalism and organised political antisemitism, which increasingly defined German identity in racial and ethnic terms and portrayed Jews and other minorities as outsiders.

Vicky and Fritz did not shy away from expressing their disdain for such ideas. In 1880, they publicly attended a synagogue service in Berlin in a deliberate gesture against antisemitism. While their political views certainly did not endear them to many conservative Germans, Queen Victoria was proud of her daughter's position and of Fritz's willingness to support her.

Yet whatever hopes German liberals had placed in Friedrich III came to an abrupt end.

On the 15th of June 1888, Kaiser Friedrich III died at the age of 56. He had been emperor for only 99 days.

His son now became Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

The relationship between the new Kaiser and his mother rapidly deteriorated. Wilhelm ordered searches for his parents' political papers and correspondence, fearing that sensitive documents might fall into foreign hands or reveal politically embarrassing information. Over the following years, many members of the household who had been friendly towards Vicky were removed or marginalised.

The now-widowed Vicky increasingly withdrew from the Berlin court. She eventually settled near the Hessian town of Kronberg im Taunus, where she built a new residence for herself. She named it Schloss Friedrichshof in honour of her late husband.

In 1889, her daughter Sophie married Crown Prince Constantine of Greece. The following year, Viktoria married Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, although their marriage would prove unhappy. Then, in 1893, her youngest daughter, Margarethe, married her second cousin, Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse-Kassel. Years later, he was chosen to become King of Finland, although his kingship never actually materialised because of Germany's defeat in the First World War.

Although Vicky was pleased to see her daughters married, she became increasingly isolated. Nevertheless, she remained active in Germany's cultural and intellectual life and maintained connections with various intellectuals, artists, and liberal figures of the period.

In 1898, Vicky was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her condition gradually deteriorated, and during the final stages of her illness she was increasingly confined to Friedrichshof.

Finally, on the 5th of August 1901, Victoria, Princess Royal and German Empress Dowager, died at Friedrichshof at the age of 60. She had outlived her mother by approximately six months.

Before her death, Vicky arranged for much of her private correspondence to be sent back to Britain, partly to prevent sensitive letters from falling into her son's hands.

And with that, we reach the end of the tale of Germany's ill-fated liberal empress.

Her life could almost be seen as the embodiment of the saying: "Disappointment is the gap between expectations and reality."

Vicky had arrived in Prussia believing—or at least hoping—that her influence, alongside that of her husband, could help transform her adopted homeland into a constitutional and liberal German state. She had been raised by Prince Albert to see German unification and political liberalisation as complementary goals. Instead, she watched as unification was achieved through military victories and the political manoeuvring of Otto von Bismarck, while the monarchy retained enormous political and military power.

Her tragedy was not simply that she failed.

It was that, for most of her adult life, she was waiting for the opportunity to succeed.

She spent three decades as Crown Princess, watching Bismarck and Wilhelm I construct an empire very different from the one envisioned by her father. When Fritz finally inherited the throne and Vicky finally became Empress, the opportunity they had spent their lives waiting for had arrived far too late. Friedrich III was already dying.

Ninety-nine days later, that opportunity disappeared with him.

Through the machinations of an extraordinarily ambitious statesman, the fierce opposition of a dynasty deeply rooted in Prussian conservatism, and the cruel accident of her husband's fatal illness, Vicky's hopes of reshaping Germany ultimately turned to bitter dust.

In imagine: Ferdinand in forma de Maresal al Romaniei

They note how the defunct royal families of the Balkan states can trace their ancestry back to their medieval predecessors