Queen Victoria's Children by Daphne Bennett sheds new light on the royal family as a whole. It contradicts the old view of Prince Albert as an uncaring and unconcerned parent. This book also provides a chapter per child to enlighten the reader on how the children grew up within the royal household and how each individually dealt with the death of their beloved father. The only problem with this book is that it is too short and doesn't provide much information about the children after they had left the brood and were married. A factual book based on the royal family's letters makes a good read for anyone interested in the royal family and the Victorian Era.

This was a pleasant surprise, as I didn't realize Harrison wrote non-sci-fi fiction until I found this book in a nearby library. I enjoyed this every bit as much as his "Rat" books, and was similar in that it had a main char. who always seemed to be running into trouble. Good stuff, read it!

Jean Plaidy, world-renowned historical novelist, in this, the second book of her Plantagenet saga, chronicles the dysfunctional family of King Henry II of England and his Queen, Eleanor of Acquitaine, and their four sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. In many ways, it is reminiscent of the film, "A Lion in Winter".

This twelfth century family was a family at war with itself. The father, King Henry II, had mistresses, a situation that put him at odds with his headstrong, opinionated, and proud wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had nothing good to say about him once she discovered his perfidy and unfaithfulness and realized that it had taken place right under her very nose. As part of her revenge, she created a rift between the King and their sons. She had trained her eaglets to pluck out the eyes of the eagle. She aggravated Henry so much that finally held her in captivity.

His oldest son and namesake, Henry, whom he had crowned King, so that there would be an orderly transition upon his death, would not wait for his father to die so that he could take the reigns of power. He wanted the reigns and trappings of a king immediately and literally waged war upon his father. This would one day cost them both dearly, as Henry would not live to reap the fruit of his coronation.

Richard, Eleanor's favorite and beloved son, loathed his father and there was no love lost between them. Yet, he is the son who was probably most king-like in his bearing. To add insult to injury, his father took Richard's betrothed, Alice, the young daughter of the King of France, as his mistress when she was no more than a child. This was really no skin off Richard's back, even though it was insulting, as Richard really hankered after Alice's brother, Philip, the future king of France with whom Richard had a "special" relationship.

Geoffrey would join his brother Henry and take up arms against his father. John, the youngest, would play upon his father's sensibilities and make Henry think that John was someone other than what he truly was, a cruel, craven, and dissolute youth. So much so did John fool him, that Henry eventually declared that John was to be his successor to the throne, incurring Richard's lifelong enmity.

It would be Eleanor who would have the last laugh, however, as she would survive her captivity and, even though she was about twelve years Henry's senior, she would also survive Henry. Eleanor would go on to see her favorite son, Richard the Lionhearted, crowned King of England.

This is an engrossing and enjoyable work of historical fiction.

There are better books on this subject, including Queen Victoria's Daughters, by E.F. Benson (which I read with great appreciation on 25 July 1945). Victoria had only five daughters and one, Louise (1848-1939) had no children. The others: Vicky (1840-1901); Alice (1843-1878); Helena (1846-1923); and Beatrice (1857-1944). Between them they had 24 children--8, 8, 4 and 4, respectively. One could say they did not really have happy lives, on balance. This is an easy-to-read book tho maybe not of great significance.

This is another fine, well-written, historical novel by Jean Plaidy, also known to her legion of devoted fans as Victoria Holt. This, the eleventh book in her Georgian saga, focuses on the House of Hanover's need to secure their dynasty.

With King George III under lock and key, suffering from what seemed to be a form of insanity, and the Prince Regent in ill health, all looked to the Regent's daughter, Charlotte, who was pregnant and due to give birth. Unfortunately, the unthinkable happened and both Charlotte and her baby died during childbirth, leaving the kingdom in a quandary. For though King George III had many children, they were all well into middle age and none had any legitimate children to secure the continuation of the Hanoverian dynasty.

This turn of events galvanized the unmarried sons of King George III to marry suitable wives, so as to have legitimate children and secure the line of succession for the House of Hanover. William, the third son and Duke of Clarence, as well as Edward, the fourth son and Duke of Kent, did so. William married Adelaide of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen, while Edward married Victoria Mary Louisa of Saxe-Saalfeld-Coburg. Meanwhile, Ernest, the sinister fifth son and Duke of Cumberland, was already married and hoping to be the one to provide the necessary children.

When King George III died and the ailing Prince Regent became King George IV, William and Edward were in a dead heat trying to have heirs. While William and Adelaide were unsuccessful, Edward and Victoria managed to have a daughter, who was to be known as Victoria. Shortly after, Ernest and his wife Augusta had a boy, whom they named George.

It looked as if Princess Victoria were in the wings, waiting to become Queen; that is, if nothing happened to prevent her from reaching maturity. Plots, intrigues, and danger lurked around every corner. This is the story of how the little princess of the fourth son of King George III would find herself positioned to one day become sovereign of England.

This autobiography is not to be compared with Rosalind Miles "I, Elizabeth" or any of the novels by Margartet Georges ("The Memoirs of Cleopatra" "Mary Queen of Scots" and "Henry VIII") or Robert K. Massie's "Peter the Great"(non fiction). I was under the impresion that I was going to read a well organized story like the ones I mentioned. I was wrong. Suddenly she talks about her looks, then about some relatives that does not like pictures, then she talks about some relatives, about her husband etc. etc.etc. Why can't the book start with something like "I was born in ...." and then keep a chronological sequence of events, and introduce all the characters in that order? Very poor literature.

Harrod-Eagles is the best Hist.-Fict. novelist I have ever read. Her Morland Dynasty is the best. Her Kirov Saga is a must and the Bill Slider Mysteries I still have to explore.

This is the loveliest love story I have ever read. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is the master of the historical novel. Her Dynasty books are a MUST READ. I, Victoria, is a wonderfully rich account of what we wished Queen Victoria's life with Prince Albert was like. My favourite author without a doubt

I'd rate this less than zero, if the rating system allowed me to. This is completely lousy book and a huge waste of money! Many facts are wrong, which is a disgrace for someone of Ms. Zeepvat's experience. Her writing is flat and uninspiring and almost anything of interest is obtained from other books about the subject. Personally I'm sick of all these royal books that are basically re-packaged versions of previous books.

This is the first book, of the many I have read on Queen Victoria and/or her children, that focuses on Prince Leopold. Even reading the edited letters between Victoria and her daughter Vicky had very little mention of this child. The book was informative and I learned a great deal regarding her true obsessive and sometimes vicious behavior to Leopold, as a child and as a grown man. I highly recommend it.

In the many books about Queen Victoria's family that I have read, Leopold seems to be known only for his haemophilia. He seems to have been the most popular member within the royal family, although not with his mother, who seemed to see him as a convenient drone. She was notorious for trying to keep her children on a leash long into adulthood. Leopold appears to have overcome these obstacles. In his short life, he accomplished a great deal, he was the first of the royal family to attend Oxford, he was on the boards of a great many charities, he managed to travel, and he worked as an unofficial secretary to his mother.

This is a well written and researched book. The author provides information on other more obscure members of Queen Victoria's family, such as her half sister Feodora and her family. The family tree of the female side of Victoria's family is the most extensive and interesting I have seen, although it does not solve the question of where the haemophilia in the family came from.

This was fairly interesting and well written, but for a good, thorough biography of Princess Vicky, "An Uncommon Woman" is a far better choice. On the other hand, if you are looking for a fairly brief overview of her life and loves, this book will spare you the extreme detail found in "Uncommon Woman."

It was a rarity indeed that a royal marriage would be a happy one; that was never the idea of alliances such as the one between Victoria, Princess Royal, and Crown Prince Frederich of Prussia--but a happy marriage is exactly what they had. A partnership between a good man and an exceptionally intelligent, perceptive, loving woman. Vicky was maligned in her adopted country, gossiped about, belittled, and ultimately emotionally abused by her two eldest children, but she remained a remarkable woman nonetheless. This is a fascinating book about a devoted couple.

This book was sloppily produced. Typographical errors permeate. There are distracting mistakes in some of the captions, too, such as that for a picture of a gray bearded, corpulent Prince of Wales supposedly taken in 1863 when he would have been a man in his early twenties (p. 205). The author -- and his subject -- deserve much better. The publisher deserves a spanking.

This book is a "must have" for anyone interested in royalty or history in general. It's a lovely book in a scaled down coffee table format.

This book is really partly a discussion on how Victoria passed on a gene for Haemophilia and its immense influence on later European politics, but also hugely influential, and not included in the title, were the overweening ambitions of Leopold in the scheme of European Royalty.

Following his marriage to The heir to the English throne, Princess Charlotte, in 1817 I had thought he had faded out of existence, he was hardly a major player, so to speak, in the scheme of things then. I had forgotten his connection with Queen Victoria's mother, and it was again Leopold's influence which made Prince Albert, Victoria's husband - and then he really got workin on Europe for his relatives - even Brazil and Mexico got Leopold dynastic ambitions during their brief flirtations with the monarchy.

The first chapter is really an introduction of Leopold but it is mainly in this first part that the genetics of Queen Victoria are examined. Where did the gene for Haemophilia arise and why, after generations of pophyria in the royal family (traced back for hundreds of years) was there a sudden stop to this,and rise to a completely new genetic disease. I don't know that the authors really made their point. I thought the discussion was interesting but the conclusions were a bit tenuous. In the end there was no possible candidate for the male haemophiliac who could have been Victoria's father. It is all very well discussion all the possibilities of how a gene might transfer from generation to generation but it would have been more convincing if they could have really put up some candidates - or at least one viable candidate anyway.

The influence of the gene on later generations of European royalty was quite profound and I thought that was presented well by the book. I really enjoyed the chapter by chapter presentation of the gene's movements through other royal families in Europe as well as its still possible presence in the lesser branches of the Spanish Royal family. Each royal family or incident is presented as a single chapter and the ramifications are simply discussed. Certainly the guiding hand of Leopold on each succeeding generation is still very comprehensive.

I wish the authors had used more, or better Family trees though. There were an awful lot of names and relationships to follow and not all were even represented in a family tree at all. Also finding the family trees to refer back to them was pretty awkward at times as they were scattered through the book.

I don't know that this is really an academic book for those that are interested in royal watching. It doesn't present itself as well as it might. The conclusions are often very vague - if there are conclusions at all. However as a start point for a slightly different look at the influence of Victoria, and Leopold on European royalty it is definitely worth dipping in to. I probably would have given it 3 and a half stars rather than 3 given the choice, but it isn't a brilliant book - just interesting.

It's too bad so many reviewers and editors chose to focus on the small part of this book which questions Queen Victoria's legitimacy, because that's not really what this book is about. It's far more about how the interbreeding of British and other European royalty had profound consequences for world history. The bulk of the book traces the competitive sexual politics prior to Victoria's birth, and the way inbreeding among royalty contributed to the spread of the hemophilia gene, causing major world upheaval (in particular, to the fall of the Russian tsar). Much has been written of the privileges of 19th century royalty, but this book brings into sharper focus the way these royals' private behavior had public consequences. An interesting treatise on an aspect of history that is often overlooked: that many European wars were family conflicts extended to a grand scale.

I found this book very interesting. Before I read this I did not know about the hemophilia. This book gets you thinking that maybe Queen Victoria was not the granddaughter of George III. Very compelling