| Princess Victoria | |||||
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 Portrait byW. & D. Downey,c. 1890 | |||||
| Born | Princess Victoria of Wales (1868-07-06)6 July 1868 Marlborough House, London, England | ||||
| Died | 3 December 1935(1935-12-03) (aged 67) Coppins,Iver,Buckinghamshire, England | ||||
| Burial | 7 December 1935 | ||||
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| House | Windsor (from 1917) Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (until 1917) | ||||
| Father | Edward VII | ||||
| Mother | Alexandra of Denmark | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
Princess Victoria (Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary; 6 July 1868 – 3 December 1935) was the fourth child and second daughter of KingEdward VII andQueen Alexandra and the younger sister of KingGeorge V.
Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary was born on 6 July 1868 atMarlborough House, London. She was the fourth child ofAlbert Edward, Prince of Wales, and his wifeAlexandra, Princess of Wales. Victoria's father was the eldest son ofQueen Victoria andPrince Albert. Her mother was the eldest daughter of KingChristian IX andQueen Louise of Denmark. Among those close to her, the princess was known as Toria.[1] From birth, as the granddaughter of the British monarch, she had the titleHer Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Wales.[2][3][4]
Princess Victoria wasbaptized at Marlborough House on 6 August 1868 byArchibald Campbell Tait,Bishop of London.[a]
In 1885, Victoria was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her auntPrincess Beatrice toPrince Henry of Battenberg.[5] She was also a bridesmaid at thewedding of her brotherGeorge, Duke of York andVictoria Mary of Teck, the future King and Queen of the United Kingdom.[6]
Princess Victoria was educated at home with her sisters. The princess grew up at Marlborough House andSandringham under the supervision of tutors. She occasionally spent the summer in Denmark, her mother's homeland. In her youth, she was described as "a lively, mischievous girl ... smart, tall and elegant; she had a wonderful sense of humour and was a good friend to everyone; she had big expressive blue eyes; there was no pretense or hint of a high position in her." Victoria loved horse riding, cycling, reading, listening to music and dancing. The princess's particular passion was photography. She compiled several albums of family photographs. Victoria's works have been displayed at several different exhibitions. She was very fond of animals. Her favorites were dogs named Sam, Mas and Punchy. For six years Victoria had a tamed pigeon, which she took with her on walks and travels in a small basket.[2]
Victoria maintained friendly relations with her cousins in Russia and Greece.[2] The future EmperorNicholas II of Russia, who was her first cousin (her mother's sister's son), and exactly the same age, was in love with her in his youth. The Tsarevich liked Victoria for her seriousness, thoroughness, and "unfeminine mind." In 1889, describing the princess, Nicholas told his close friend and brother-in-law,Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich: "She is a truly wonderful creature, and the more and deeper you delve into her soul, the clearer you see all her virtues and qualities. I must confess that it is very difficult to figure it out at first, i.e. to learn her view of things and people, but this difficulty is a special charm for me, which I am unable to explain."[7] The princess also caught the eyes of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, and later,Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich was fascinated by her.[7]
Another candidate to seek Victoria's hand in marriage was her cousin, Crown Prince Christian of Denmark, who later becameChristian X. The princess rejected him, much to the disappointment of her parents. Yet another contender for marriage was the Portuguese kingCarlos I. He demanded that Victoria accept the Catholic faith, which did not sit well with her parents. The5th Earl of Rosebery also attempted to win her attention, in vain. Victoria never married, and her mother was said to be supportive of this decision.[2]
Victoria was particularly close to her parents, and if she appeared in public, it was usually in their company, as was usual in those days for an unmarried adult woman. The princess accompanied her parents during official events and ceremonies, and helped them in private life. Her first cousin, theGrand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, remarked in later life that she "felt so very sorry" for Victoria, as she seemed within her family to be "a glorified maid to her mother," attributing her staying unmarried to a disinclination to oppose her mother. "I'd something of a rebel in me. Toria had not."[8]
Close as she was to her parents, the person to whom Victoria was closest was her older brotherGeorge, who in 1910 became king and emperor. Throughout their lives, which ended within a month of each other, the king-emperor and his sister maintained a warm relationship. They had similar characters and a mutual sense of humour. When Victoria died in 1935, the king said: "How I will miss our daily phone calls. Nobody had such a sister as I had."[9] The king died a month after the death of his sister. She was not close to his wife, Queen Mary, née Princess Mary of Teck, whom she described as "terribly boring".[10] This was attributed to their different characters, education and interests.[2]
Between 22 and 24 March 1905, Princess Victoria, along with her mother, her younger sisterMaud (future Queen Maud of Norway) and her cousin / brother-in-lawCarl (future Haakon VII, King of Norway), made an official visit to Portugal on the royal yachtHMYVictoria and Albert following a visit by the Portuguese monarch to the United Kingdom a year prior. On the first day of her arrival, Victoria stayed on the royal yacht due to poor health.[11] Queen Alexandra with her daughter Princess Maud and Prince Carl met withQueen Amelia andQueen Dowager Maria Pia. The next day, accompanied by her sister, Victoria paid a visit to the king, queen and their sons.[12] On 24 March the British guests left for their homeland.[13]
Afterher father's death in 1910, Victoria remained in the shadow of her mother. Queen Alexandra suffered from constant depression and was practically deaf. Victoria accompanied her mother during her visits to various institutions and on holidays. Once, when the dowager queen was unable to attend the charity eventAlexandra Rose Day, she sent her daughtersLouise and Victoria together, and the latter later recorded in her diary that "it was terrible to be there without dear Mama." With continuing public hostility toward Germany duringWorld War I, King George V decided to renounce all German titles and honours. He asked all members of the royal family to do the same. The king renamed the ruling dynasty fromSaxe-Coburg and Gotha toWindsor, after his favourite castle. Princess Victoria followed suit and adopted the surname Windsor.[2][14]
After thedeath of Queen Alexandra in 1925, Victoria moved toCoppins, in the village ofIver,Buckinghamshire, where she lived until her death. In her final years, Victoria enjoyed listening to music, gardening, and taking an active part in addressing local issues and problems. Victoria became a patron to the young cellistBeatrice Harrison and her sisters May and Margaret, who also studied music, and she paid for Harrison's valuableGuarneri cello.[15][16] Victoria received the Harrison sisters regularly at her home and at Sandringham, and attended concerts at theWigmore Hall with them.[16][17] She also commissionedHis Master's Voice to make her some private recordings in August 1928: the recordings, capturing Victoria at the piano accompanying Beatrice Harrison on the cello and May Harrison on the violin, would many years later be commercially released, though Victoria's musicianship would generate mixed reviews.[16][18][19][20]
Other friends of Victoria included members of theMusgrave family, the widowed5th Earl of Rosebery, and Violet Vivian, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Alexandra.Lady Musgrave was Victoria's lifelong friend and lady-in-waiting. The princess assisted Violet Vivian in the design of theCestyll Garden near the village ofCemaes on the northwest coast of Anglesey.
Victoria died in the early hours of 3 December 1935 at the age of 67 at her home. She had been in poor health over the previous month, culminating in a severe stomach haemorrhage on 1 December.[21] The State Opening of Parliament, planned for 3 December, was cancelled in response to her death, and instead the already-written King's Speech was read to Parliamentarians by the Lord Chancellor without ceremony.[22]
Her funeral took place on 7 December 1935 atSt George's Chapel,Windsor Castle, where she was initially buried. The mourners at the funeral included Victoria's brother George V. George himself was in poor health, and his doctor pushed for the funeral service to be shortened; he was unsuccessful, and George's final deterioration and death soon after would later be blamed on the physical strain of the long event.[23] Victoria's remains were later moved and reburied at theRoyal Burial Ground, Frogmore,Windsor Great Park, on 8 January 1936.[2][4] Her will was sealed in London in 1936. Her estate was valued at £237,455 (or £11.7 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).[24]
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Upon her younger sister's marriage in 1896, Princess Victoria was awarded a personal coat of arms, being theRoyal Arms of the United Kingdom, bearing an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony and differenced with a label argent of five points, the first, third and fifth bearing roses gules, and the second and fourth crosses gules.[27][self-published source] The inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant in 1917.
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| Princess Victoria'scoat of arms until 1901 |
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Among the many appetising miniatures, perhaps the best is the performance of the Cello Concerto's slow movement by Beatrice Harrison with piano accompaniment from Princess Victoria – HRH's contribution not blemish-free, but very touching.
Truth to tell, the royal playing is almost comically inept and Princess Victoria is brought back from a wrong turning in Salut d'amour in an amusingly adroit fashion by her string-playing colleagues.
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