The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter

by Matthew Dennison

Overview

An engrossing biography of Queen Victoria's youngest daughter that focuses on her relationship with her willful mother—a powerful and insightful look at two women of significant importance and influence in world history

Beatrice was the last child born to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her father died when she was four and Victoria came to depend on her youngest daughter absolutely, and also demanded from her complete submission. Beatrice succumbed to her mother's obsessive love, so that by the time she was in her late teens she was her constant companion. Although Victoria tried to prevent Beatrice from even so much as thinking of love, her guard slipped when Beatrice met Prince Henry of Battenberg. Sadly, Beatrice inherited the hemophilia gene from her mother, which she passed on to two of her four sons and which her daughter Victoria Eugenia, in marrying Alfonso XIII of Spain, in turn passed on to the Spanish royal family. This new examination will restore her to her proper prominence—as Queen Victoria's second consort.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312564971
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/27/2009
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Matthew Dennison is the author of nine critically acclaimed works of non-fiction, including Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West, a Book of the Year in The Times, Spectator, Independent and Observer, and the much-praised Eternal Boy, a life of Kenneth Grahame, and his biography of Her late Majesty The Queen, published by Head of Zeus.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Author's Note xi

Family Trees xiii

1 'It is a fine Child' 1

2 'The most amusing baby we have had' 10

3 'Paroxysms of despair' 21

4 'The bright spot in this dead home' 30

5 'Beatrice is quite well' 39

6 'A nervous way of speaking and laughing' 49

7 'Auntie Beatrice sends you many loves' 61

8 'Youngest daughters have a duty to widowed mothers' 69

9 'The flower of the flock' 80

10 'A Good, handy, thoughtful servant' 92

11 'She is my constant companion' 102

12 'Dear Beatrice suffered much from rheumatism' 109

13 'If only she could marry now' 116

14 The Handsomest Family in Europe 124

15 'Many daughters have acted virtuously, but thou excelleth them all' 134

16 'Tge fatal day approaches' 144

17 'There now burnt a bewitching fiery passion' 157

18 'Capital fun' 170

19 'A simple life, with no great incidents' 178

20 'Blighted happiness' 187

21 'I have taken up my life again' 197

22 'I . . . can hardly realize what life will be like without her' 208

23 'I have my dear Mother's written instructions' 215

24 'Osborne . . . is like the grave of somebody's happiness' 224

25 'Please God the young couple may be very happy' 232

26 'Days of overwhelming anxiety' 241

27 'The older one gets the more one lives in the past' 250

28 'She struggled so hard to "carry on"' 258

Notes 266

Bibliography 284

Index 290

Editorial Reviews

Fascinating.” —Vogue

“[Dennison's] compassion for his subjects is obvious.” —Publishers Weekly

“Dennison emerges as a natural storyteller . . . a hugely satisfying biography. . . . Beautifully written, its detail meticulous . . . a confident and disarmingly impressive debut.” —The Daily Telegraph (UK)

“A colourful peephole into Victorian times, as well as the peculiar ways of royalty.” —The Herald (UK)

“Dennison tells a sorry, complex story with tact and sympathy.” —The Times (UK)

“An engaglingly sympathetic, balanced and intelligent biography.” —The Spectator (UK)

“An engrossing biography . . . Beautifully written.” —Tatler (UK)

“Matthew Dennison has researched assiduously in the Royal Archives at Windsor. He writes well.” —Independent on Sunday (UK)

“This is an old fashioned biography about an old-fashioned subject. At a time when non-fiction writers are desperately thinking up fancy new ways to tell stories, there's something rather comforting about a narrative that has no embarrassment in starting at the beginning.” —The Guardian (UK)

“It is an enthralling story, not just of a mother-daughter relationship but that of a monarch and her favourite subject.” —Majesty Magazine (book of the month) (UK)

“Dennison's biography is an engrossing tale of a mother and daughter who were also a queen and her subject.” —The Good Book Guide (UK)

From the Publisher

Dull account of the dull life of Beatrice, the final child of Queen Victoria and her beloved Albert. In his book-length debut, British journalist Dennison strives mightily to find some glitter, maybe even some smut, on this ordinary rock in the English royal garden, whom Victoria designated almost from infancy to be her devoted confidante. About all he can discover is that Beatrice (1857-1944), apparently an attractive and bright child, played well the role that history and heredity gave her. The author early and often festoons his skimpy narrative tree with strings of cliches: Golden days are threatened by clouds of sorrow; a stout heart serves her well; a silk dress shimmers; shadows of the past haunt everyone. The queen comes off as profoundly insecure and grasping, Beatrice as doting and largely devoid of personality. Tutored and educated at home, the princess enjoyed writing and eventually published several books, including a couple of translations from German texts. Victoria, who steered some interested men away from Beatrice, eventually allowed her to marry-but only if she would continue to serve as Royal Lapdog. Prince Henry of Battenberg, nicknamed Liko, agreed to those terms, then became so bored that he spent months alone on his yacht before heading off on a military adventure in Africa, where he contracted an illness that cost him his life. Once the queen died, Beatrice's stock fell, and she lived many of her final 40 years in an apartment in Kensington Palace where she expurgated Victoria's journals, then burned the originals, an egregious act that Dennison finds ways to defend. The author's first clause-"It should not have happened"-refers to Beatrice's unexpected birth; thewords also apply to this soporific biography.

Kirkus Reviews