Queen Victoria & Prince Albert--Photos and Information

[Grace]

What a fun topic, Lieven!

The young Victoria:
"The Queen's size is below the middle, but her figure is finely proportioned and a little embonpoint.  Her bust, like most English women's, is very good; hands and feet are small and very pretty.  Her face, though not beautiful, has a look of spirituality, so bright and yet so tranquil that one feels involuntarily impressed with an idea that a good and pure spirit dwells within...Her eyes are blue, large and full; her mouth, which is her worst feature, is generally a little open; her teeth small and short, and she shows her gums when she laughs, which is rather disfiguring".

Also spoken of was her "high colour" or "rosy" complexion and some referred to her having a red face or red nose.  

Of note too, was her voice.  The actress Ellen Terry spoke of it as "like a silver stream flowing over golden stones".  Bernard Shaw also was enchanted by her "beautiful voice", "first rate delivery" and marvellous clarity.

Haven't found anything yet about her hair colour, though.    

[Prince_Lieven]

Thanks Grace!  

'Embonpoint' is a term I've come across a few times - does anyone know what it means?  :-?

[Grantj]

I know this isn't on topic, but I thought it quite a funny.  I've got a book of quotes including one about Queen Victoria taken from an Alan Bennett work entitled "Forty years on" (which I have never heard of!).  It goes something like this:

Lady D:  Is there anything in the newspaper this morning, Withers?

Withers: They have named another battleship after Queen Victoria, ma'am.

Lady D: Another? She must be beginning to think there is some resemblance.

Well, it appealed to my sence of humour anyway!

Grant

[Agneschen]

'Embonpoint' is a term I've come across a few times - does anyone know what it means?  :-?

"Embonpoint" means "stoutness" in French.

[Agneschen]

Here is how Queen Louise-Marie of the Belgians described QV to her mother Marie-Amélie after first meeting her :
"Victoria is of diminutive size ... but plump and graceful. I do not think her pretty. She has got large blue eyes, beautiful hair a shade darker than mine [Louise's hair was blond so I guess Victoria's must have been light brown] & bloom rather than a lovely skin. But her mouth is ugly and the lower part of her face short and square. She looks a lot like the Duke of Kent [her father] and the English royal family. I guess she must look like Charlotte [King Léopold's first wife] but less pretty".
Louise later added : "The more I see Victoria the prettier I find her. She is nice & pleasing and her face is charmingly sweet".

[royal_netherlands]

The first one wenn she was twelve years old and the second one at the time of her coronation.

RN

[Prince_Lieven]

Thanks RN and Agneschen! RN, I've never seen that picture of her aged 12, she certainly looks quite blond in it. Oh, and Grant, that appeals to my sense of humour too!  

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

I always thought of Victoria as being dark haired too! It seems that her hair darkened as she got older, though, because she said of Prince Albert when she first met him:

'his hair is about the same colour as mine'.

Unless I'm mistaken, Albert had dark hair, did he not?

I had blonde hair as a child and my hair is now very dark brown.  Perhaps that's what happened to Victoria because in all paintings of her as an adult her hair is depicted as being brown.

It's very annoying not having colour photos of royals during that era!

Rachel
xx

[Kimberly]

I remember reading years ago, that Leopold of the Belgians was rather concerned about her small stature and also the way in which she gobbled her food.

[Caleb]

There was a comment about Queen Victoria from the Empress Dowager of China. "I have heard much about Queen Victoria & read a part of her life which someone has translated into Chinese...still I do not think her life is as half as interesting as mine. Now look at me, I have 300 million people all dependent on my judgement."

[ilyala]

i cannot remember the quote and since the book is huge i can't find it but in stanley weintraub's book (read it recently, that's why i'm quoting so much from it... but it's very good!) it says that when turned a teenager, her mother was worried that her hair was turning darker (apparently fair-haired ladies were preferred). so, indeed, it must have been that she was initially light-haired and turned dark-haired... i know people who are like that too

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

This has been bugging me for ages.

Queen Victoria was christened Alexandrina Victoria, and she was nicknamed 'Drina' as a child.

So, why did she choose to take Victoria as her name when she became Queen rather than Alexandrina? Was there a specific reason why she couldn't, or did she just prefer Victoria?

Queen Alexandrina sounds rather nice, I think!

Rachel
xx

[Prince_Christopher]

She didn't like it!

[Caleb]

In my own opinion Alexandrina probably reminded Victoria of her depressing & lonely childhood, as well as her uncles, who were always involved in some scandal or another.

[Yseult]

I just can speculate...

Alexandrina was choosen to honoured the godparent of the Kents baby...the tsar Alexander I of All the Russias. The king George IV was really unfair to his brother Edward and his siter in law Victoria the day they christened their newlyborn daughter...Edward suggested a lot of names connected with the english royalty, as Charlotte, Georgiana and Elizabeth, but the king declared that she would be named Alexandrina for the godparent. And, then, he suggested -perhaps ordered...- the second name would be the same of the mother.

But Drina never liked the russians...I imagine that, while she grew up, she heard a lot of coments about the ill-fated Juliane of Saxe-Coburg, sister of her mother. So, when she refused the first name and adopted the second name, she was rejecting the russians and, by the way, honouring her mother. At this time, Drina was not so lovely and gentle with her mother...but maybe it was a little confort to the dowager duchess of Kent.