Becoming Queen Victoria: The Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch [Paperback]

US

1. Some of Britain’s most successful monarchs have been female–including Victoria. Could being born into a position in which society suggests you are inferior actually be a helpful prelude to being a monarch?

2. By the time Princess Charlotte was born, the seven sons and six daughters of George III had between them fifty-six illegitimate children and no legitimate offspring. Her uncles tended to the spendthrift and debauched. Can you suggest why they turned out this way?

3. Charlotte had a miserable childhood, torn between two warring parents. Her story–and that of her aunts and her mother–suggests that life as a princess was restricted and suffocating. Even though history gives us more unhappy princesses than happy, our society celebrates “princess culture,” especially for little girls. Why are we ever more enthusiastic about princesses in the twenty-first century?

4. Do you think it is possible to have a happy royal marriage?

5. Charlotte’s death prompted the greatest outpouring of national grief in British history, equaled only by the death of Princess Diana in 1997. Why do so many of us grieve so deeply for people we don’t even know, and why for these two young women in particular?

6. When she was born, Victoria’s father said, “My brothers are not so strong as I am . . . The crown will come to me and my children.” Gaining royal power always entails the death of one’s parent or siblings. Do you think this must poison family relationships?

7. Victoria’s name was completely invented, and given to her to signify that she would never be queen. Was having a unique name a hindrance or a help? Does the same apply to the possessors of unique names in ordinary life?

8. The British royal family is historically German: George I was German, Victoria’s mother was German, and her husband as well. The family changed its name to Windló-