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The birth and childhood of Victoria, the Empress Frederick

Shortly before the early hours of November 21, 1840, Queen Victoria woke up feeling  in utter discomfort. Heavily pregnant with her first child, she was expecting to give birth, but within another fortnight. She recorded: “Just before the early hours of the morning of the 21st I felt again very uncomfortable & with difficulty aroused Albert . . . Tried to get to sleep again, but by 4, I got very bad & both the Doctors arrived. My beloved Albert was so dear and kind. . . Locock said the Baby was on the way & everything was all right. We both expressed joy that the event was at hand & I did not feel at all nervous.”

  She roused her husband, Prince Albert, who ordered Sir James Clark to summon the obstetrician Dr. Locock. The young queen attempted to go back to sleep, but by 4am, she was in terrible pain. At 2pm, Queen Victoria gave birth to her first child. When the court physician told her that she bore a girl, she replied, "Never mind, next time it will be a prince!" The death of her cousin, Princess Charlotte, while delivering a child in 1817 loomed heavily as the queen lay in child birth. Despite the disappointment of the babe being a girl and not a boy, all went well for the queen and her first-born.

Vicky with her father Prince Albert and his greyhound Eos. Portrait by John Lucas, 1841.

Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal in 1842.

A Winterhalter portrait of Victoria, Princess Royal, c1842.

Victoria, Princess Royal, 1855.

Queen Victoria had earlier expressed her disgust of having a number of persons present to attend and witness a royal birth. Hence, when the princess was born, there was only Dr. Locock, Mrs. Lilly the nurse-midwide, and Prince Albert in the room where she gave birth.  Waiting in the antechamber were Sir James Clark, The Queen’s physician and two assisting doctors, just in case Dr. Locock needed some help. In another room were the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, the Foreign Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury, waiting for the wail of a newborn.

 From her birth until that of her younger brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in November 1841, Victoria, by now affectionately called “Vicky” or “Pussy,” was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Queen Victoria would give birth to seven more children, all would live to adulthood. Through the 1840s and 1850s, the royal nursery would be populated by a series of childbirths: in 1843, Princess Alice was born, followed by Prince Alfred in 1844. More royal babies came with the birth of Princess Helena (1846), Princess Louise (1848), Prince Arthur (1850), Princes Leopold (1853), and Princess Beatrice (1857).

 Of the Princess Royal’s birth, Lord Clarendon told Lord Granville that despite The Queen and Prince Albert’s disappointment  “at not having a son,” “what the country cares abbout is to have a life more, whether male or female, interposed between the succession and the King of Hanover.”

 On 19 January 1841, Queen Victoria proclaimed her  Princess Royal, a title sometimes conferred on the eldest daughter of the sovereign. She was christened at Buckingham Palace on February 10 and was baptised Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. Her sponsors were Albert’s brother, Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (represented by the Duke of Wellington), Leopold I, King of the Belgians, Queen Adelaide, the Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester, and the Duchess of Sussex.

 Sarah, Baroness Lyttelton, who was appointed governess to the royal children in 1843, observed a six-month old Vicky as one “fine, fat, firm royal-looking baby… grave, calm, and penetrating in her look.” She would, however, later remark that the infant was “over-watched and over-doctored; always treated with what is most expensive, cheaper and common food and ways being often wholesomer.”

 When Lady Lyttelton took over the royal nursery,   she found that while the young princess was precocious and naughty, she nevertheless possessed “wonderful powers of head and heart,”  displaying quick and retentive mind, a characteristic that she must have taken from her father and shared with her youngest brother Leopold.  

The teaching of her father, Prince Albert, produced great effect upon her mind, for she had from her earliest years been his constant companion. He delighted in her quick intelligence and lively mind. She often accompanied him in his walks, when he taught her how to know every herb and plant by its English, German, and Latin name. Precocious and intelligent, Victoria began to learn French when she was 18 months old.  Under the tutelage of Mlle. Aimee  Charrier and, later, Sarah Ann Hildyard, the princess mastered French and German. She began to study German at four and learned Greek and Latin eventually. At six years old, she was taught arithmetic, geography and history, and her father tutored her in politics and philosophy. She also studied science and literature and later devoured Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, George Eliot, Dickens, the Bronte sisters and Shakespeare. As she grew older, she had decidedly changed into what Lady Lyttelton  called a “fine character.”

 Prince Albert, writing to Baron Stockmar, that  Pussy had become "quite a personage. She speaks English and French with great fluency and choice of phrase." Her "quick, clever, self-willed and high-spirited character" has allowed her to easily outdistance her siblings. As Frederick Ponsonby later wrote, “ Acute observers dubbed her overstimulated and even precocious, but the rapidity of thought was not a passing phase—it remained with her to the end." Her school days, interrupted by three hours of recreation, began at 8:20 and finished at 18:00. She was a total opposite to her brother, whose educational program was even more severe, Victoria was an excellent student who was always hungry for knowledge despite her obstinate character. 

 By the time she was 13, her father taught her about political and diplomatic matters to which were added studies on political economy. She profited much by her father's instruction that the Prince Consort on one occasion said to his future son-in-law, "You will find that your wife was the heart of a child with a man's head."

You can learn more about the life of Victoria, Princess Royal in the book Vicky, Dear: The Life of Victoria, Princess Royal, and Empress Frederick (Royal Splendour, 2023). This insightful short biography unveils the complexities of Victoria's relationships, her unwavering devotion to her family, and her enduring impact on European history. The author paints a captivating portrait of a woman who defied convention, shattered barriers, and left an indelible mark on the world. From the opulent halls of royalty to the corridors of power, embark on an epic journey as you discover the captivating story of Victoria, Princess Royal and Empress Frederick, and experience a remarkable era through her eyes. Available in Amazon and Kindle. Click here to order your copy. 

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