Product Description

'I delight in this work', wrote the young Victoria shortly after she became Queen. She was an engaging creature, high-spirited and eager to be 'amused'. But her early years were difficult ones. Fatherless from the age of eight months, she was brought up at Kensington Palace in an atmosphere thick with family feuds, backbiting and jealousy - the focus of conflicting ambitions. Though her uncle William IV was anxious to bring her into Court circles, her German mother and the calculating John Conroy were equally determined that she should remain under their control. The 'little Queen', who succeeded to the throne a month after her eighteenth birthday, was greeted by a unanimous chorus of praise and admiration. Guided by her 'excellent Lord Melbourne', she threw off the restraints imposed by Mamma and the Kensington System and plunged joyfully into the exciting business of reigning. Nevertheless, she resisted Peel's attempt to dismiss some of her household in the infamous Bedchamber Crisis, and was compelled to accept a reduced Civil List for Albert of GBP30,000, rather than the GBP50,000 she had requested. Her marriage, 'the happiest day of my life', at the age of twenty, to her cousin, marked the end of childhood and the beginning of the glorious legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94003 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

About the Author
Alison Plowden worked at the BBC as a script editor in Features and Drama until 1969, before leaving to work as a full-time writer. She has had numerous books published, specialising in the Tudor and Stuart periods, her most recent being Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen (Sutton, 2003). She lives in Oxfordshire.

Customer Reviews

Easy introduction to Queen Victoria
This easy-to-read book seems well researched and offers a clear picture of Victoria's childhood and growing-up to her succession and marriage to cousin Albert. In particular it describes the deteriorating relationship with her mother, due to the influence of John Conroy. One can't help admiring Victoria's refusal to be browbeaten by the pair. Victoria's realistic assessment of Albert as a suitor is also amusing. What spoilt this book for me was the appalling translation of "Riesenhalle" as "Hall of Giants" instead of Great Hall, and the numerous spelling mistakes which made me wonder if the spell-check programme when they were setting the text had been turned off. Also, the genealogy table of the Tudors at the end of the book seemed out of place - that explaining the succession of the House of Hanover and its connection with Saxe-Coburg-Gotha would have been much more appropriate.