What Happened To Queen Victoria's 9 Children?
Queen Victoria had given birth to nine little miracles of life by the time her beloved cousin/husband Albert died in 1861. That's a lot of birthdays to remember. That's a lot of royal indoor soccer games to attend. That is, in general, just a lot.
Remarkably, every single one of the couple's progeny managed to make it to adulthood. It's what happened after that wasn't always great news.
Victori-on and on and on
Beginning at the beginning, there was Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, the eldest of Victoria's children and only member of the brood whose name sounds like it's being used to smuggle Von Trapp children out of Austria. According to PBS, Victoria Adelaide married Emperor Frederick III of Germany, and their son grew up to be Kaiser Wilhelm II, which must have made things awkward at holiday gatherings once World War I rolled around. The younger Victoria died of breast cancer in August of 1901 at age 60, only outliving her mother by a few months.
Up next was Albert Jr, who went on to become King Edward VII after the Queen's death. He's Queen Elizabeth II's great grandfather. He made it nine years on the throne before passing away at 68 after maintaining an ambitious pack-a-day habit for most of his life.
And then there's Maud
Princess Alice Maud Mary died at 35 year old. She married Ludvig IV, Grand Duke of Hess, and their daughter was married to the last czar of Russia in what fans of the cartoon Anastasia might remember as some pretty bleak exposition.
Prince Alfred married into the Russian royal family, was named Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and croaked in 1900 at age 55. Princess Helena kept incredibly busy, working as the queen's unofficial secretary, helping to found the Red Cross, and maybe just getting a teensy bit addicted to laudanum before passing away at 77.
Princess Louise married a regular schmo who would go on to become Governor General of Canada, and as a result, had a very pretty lake named after her. She was also a vocal advocate for women's rights and arts education. She made it all the way to 91 before dying of being severely 91.
Prince Arthur also served as Governor General of Canada and grew a not unremarkable mustache, then died in 1942, also 91. Prince Leopold inherited hemophilia from his mother and died after a bump on the head a few weeks shy of his 31st birthday. And as for Princess Beatrice, the youngest of the royal siblings? She was married to Prince Henry of Battenburg until his untimely death by malaria, at which point Bea devoted the rest of her life to editing her mother's journals. She also outlived all of her siblings, which must have felt like winning a very passive aggressive Hunger Games, and died in 1944 at 87 years old.