queenalexandraofdenmark

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"Alice had many talents of her own that she did not rate highly enough. She was beautiful dancer, a graceful skater, an accomplished horsewoman, the only one of the sisters with a real flair for clothes. Her first sight of a crinoline—worn by the Empress Eugénie at Windsor in April 1855—was a revelation; in a flash she recognised the magical effect of simplicity in an age of frills and flounces. She loved music and played the piano well, drew competently and had a gift for acting. Miss Hildyard, who stage- managed their plays and tableaux vivants, gave her the most difficult parts as a matter of course.

More than the others, Alice was deeply conscious of her position as a member of a ruling family—not that she wanted to demand homage but because she had to make herself face up to her responsibilities. This sometimes meant that she demanded too high a standard from herself, but it did not make her rigid, for she was addicted to ‘pranks and larks’ even at the expense of rank and dignity, and the household always turned a blind eye when she slipped into St George’s Chapel in ordinary clothes and sat at the back rubbing shoulders with her mother’s subjects. It was innocent enough fun and the natural result of having young parents and unconventional holidays, but it gave her a feeling of escape which was important to her. Lord Clarendon’s daughter Constance wrote that she was “just like a bird in a cage beating its wings against the bars and if she could get out wouldn’t she go it?” This is what Alice herself believed. It was only as she grew older that she began to realise that the barriers she imagined round her were not those of rank but consisted of more mundane things like lack of purpose and appreciation, intellectual barrenness and poverty. Sadly, she was to labour in a soil that was unreceptive of the seed she tried to sow."

— From the book "Queen Victoria's Children", by Daphne Bennett.

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Jeanne Antoinette Poisson marquise de Pompadour Belle Jardiniere. Carle van Loo (1705-1765)

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Portrait of a Seated Young Man, albumin silver print made c. 1858 by Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820 - 1884).

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Elisabeth of Austria by Franz Xaver Winterhalter / Romy Schneider as Elisabeth of Austria

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CLAIRE FOY as Anne Boleyn in WOLF HALL (2015) — Episode One 'Three Card Trick'

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I wish it was still socially acceptable to dress like this, it’s my dream💔

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Best Dressed + Elisabeth "Sisi" of Austria

2nd place (18,1% of 249 votes) Cristiana Capotondi in Sisi (2009)

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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge greets the crowds during an official visit to Cambridge with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on November 28, 2012 in Cambridge, England.

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𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈 𝐎'𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐑 as 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐘 𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄 as 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍

The Spanish Princess. Season 1, Episode 6.

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Alexandra, Princess of Wales with her first born child Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale in 1864.

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→ November 6, 1817 – Death of Princess Charlotte of Wales in childbirth

Princess Charlotte’s death after giving birth to a still-born son on November 5, 1817 elicited a national outpouring of grief that was unprecedented in Britain, and her funeral drew massive mourning crowds on a scale similar to those who thronged to Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. In stark contrast to her father, the Prince Regent, who was universally despised, the young princess was extremely popular, and her pregnancy was closely followed by an enthusiastic public. Charlotte, the only child of George, Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent and George IV) by his wife Caroline of Brunswick, had been married a mere seventeen months before to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha amid pomp and splendor. A dutiful young Regency wife, she became pregnant almost immediately, but suffered two miscarriages before carrying her third child to full term. Though her grandfather, George III, had 7 sons and 5 daughters, Charlotte was the only legitimate grandchild. Thus this pregnancy was a truly significant one.

Charlotte  began her pregnancy as a healthy and robust young woman, but after months of blood-letting and a strict diet, an accepted medical practice prescribed by her physician, Sir Richard Croft, she grew feeble. Her death after her tortuous two-day, 50-hour labor would precipitate a new age in medicine, ending arch-conservatism in obstetrics. At the time that Princess Charlotte gave birth there were two schools of medical thought in delivering a baby: intervention and non-intervention. During the previous century, anatomical knowledge about the birth process increased. Henrick Van Deventer showed that the female pelvis was unyielding during labor, and forceps were introduced. Intervention during labor was still crude, largely consisting of extracting the baby with forceps during a breech birth in order to save the mother’s life. A cesarean section, which might have saved the baby, would surely have resulted in Princess Charlotte’s death.

Princess Charlotte’s physician had married the daughter of a prominent physician who had trained him and who belonged to the non-intervention school of obstetrics. On the evening of November 3, the Princess’s water broke. Although Dr. Croft had accurately diagnosed a breech birth, he decided not to use forceps during the first stage of labor. He also did not administer pain killers. Prince Leopold was so concerned about his wife’s labor that he rarely left her side.

After 50 hours, Princess Charlotte delivered a stillborn 9-pound son. His head had been in a sideways position and was too large for her pelvis. After the delivery Charlotte seemed to do well at first, and she was even given some port wine to drink after two days without food (she mentioned later that the alcohol made her tipsy), but after several hours she became restless, had difficulty breathing, and her pulse became rapid and feeble. She developed malaise and weakness, followed by somnolence then agitation, with progressive worsening and death. Five and half hours after her delivery she died from post partum haemorrhage and shock. Three months after this event, Sir Richard Croft committed suicide, unable to live with the resulting criticism and the knowledge that he had been responsible for the two deaths. 

Two generations gone—gone in a moment! I have felt for myself, but I have also felt for the prince regent. My Charlotte is gone from the country—it has lost her. She was a good, she was an admirable woman. None could know my Charlotte as I did know her. It was my study, my duty, to know her character, but it was also my delight. – Prince Leopold to Sir Thomas Lawrence after the death of his wife.

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Nightwear worn by Empress Elisabeth of Austria, auctioned at Hermann Historica

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"In the winter of 1878-9, the Empress, Queen Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary, came to visit us. She was on her way to England and Ireland, where, as a well-known and accomplished horsewoman, she intended to hunt and ride.

The first meeting with the woman who two years later was to become my mother-in-law made a great impression on me.

I was considered still too young to attend the receptions, but after the gala banquet my little sister and I were allowed to kiss our aunt’s hand. The Empress embraced me without uttering a word! She was wearing a black velvet dress with a long train, which showed off her splendid figure to full advantage. In her lovely brown hair, which surmounted her head like a crown, diamonds were glistening.

“She is very beautiful,” said we children to one another, “but she does not put our mother into the shade."

Crown Princess Stephanie "I was to be empress"

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The Romanov Family’s Alphabet v.2 - S is for School.

Out of the five Imperial Children, the eldest Grand Duchess Olga was the one who achieved the most in the schoolroom. Olga was the cleverest of all, and was quite a bookworm. She easily grasped mathematical and scientific concepts. Olga wasn’t the only one who loved reading; her younger sister Tatiana loved reading as well. Olga was attached to poetry and literature books (her favorite was Les Misérables), while Tatiana preferred fashion magazines. Olga also enjoyed reading about politics in newspapers.

All of the children were very bright, but occasionally, they become lazy. The younger three children weren’t as scholarly as the oldest two. The Tsar’s Colonel Mordinov remembered Tsarevich Alexei: “Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was an awfully lazy, but very capable boy (I think, he was lazy precisely because he was capable), he easily grasped everything, he was thoughtful and keen beyond his years.”

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Albert, Prince Consort and Princess Alice, 1859

“Her adoration for her father became the one leading star through all her life; it influenced her every thought and action, and to the end of her short stay on earth she strove to act up to what he would have thought right. He was her highest ideal of all that was perfect, beautiful, and good, and even on her deathbed deathbed his loved name was the last she ever uttered.”

- Princess Helena, 1884

“How do I miss not being able to talk to beloved Papa of all I see, hear, feel, and think! His absence makes such a gap in my existence.”

- Alice to Queen Victoria, 11th September 1862

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Prince Frederick Charles (‘Fischy‘) of Hesse and Princess Margaret (‘Mossy’) of Prussia, 1892

“Our distress and perplexity is great. Poor Fischy seems to have fallen deeply in love with Mossy and has proposed to her, and seems in a dreadful way. […] it is very cruel to Fischy to keep him dangling, and very bad for Mossy to be so anxious and troubled and worried.”

- The Dowager Empress Frederick to Sophie, Crown Princess of Greece, 1892

“I must now tell you of the event which took place yesterday evening at Philipsruhe and which I was unable to telegraph as we were obliged to inform William and ask for his personal consent before announcing it to anyone. Mossy is engaged to young Frederick Charles (Fischy) of Hesse. He asked a month ago, but she could not make up her mind. Now she has accepted him and I think she is very happy and contented and it is a great relief to her to have decided. 

He loves her devotedly and is really a very nice boy, so steady and quiet though rather timid and delicate looking. He is intelligent and cultivated with a taste for learning and art and writes charming poetry. I am so sorry that you do not know him. He is not rich and does not posses a place of his own, but he is quite comfortably off and I hope will be independent. You can imagine how upset and agitated I am, though very thankful to think my own precious darling will be happy - though I shall now be left quite alone. I dare not think of giving her up; it will be so very hard.”

- The Dowager Empress to Queen Victoria, 20th June 1892

“This is a surprise! You never gave me the slightest hint of such a thing being likely though I knew you liked him. I hope and believe it is what you wish, but I think Mossy ought not to have left you so soon at any rate. I agree with the Mohammedans that duty towards one’s parents goes before every other, but that is not taught as a part of religion in Europe. As Fischy as no place of his own, could they not chiefly live with you? You ought to make conditions and I am sure the Landgravin who is so devoted to you would do all she could to help. For you to be quite alone will never do.”

- Queen Victoria to the Dowager Empress, 22nd June

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Queen Olga of the Hellenes, nee Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia wearing a traditional Greek costume.