Victoria Day bits and bobs - May 23, 2005
Queen Victoria’s first visit to Paris took place in August 1855.
She and Prince Albert received a rapturous welcome as guests of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie.
In the background of this watercolour by Eugène Guérard is the temporary arch constructed in Queen Victoria’s honour by the artists of the Paris Opéra.
Queen Victoria stayed at the former royal residence of St Cloud (outside Paris) throughout her visit to Napoleon III in August 1855. She used the suite of rooms normally occupied by the Empress, and found them ‘quite lovely’.
This watercolour of the dressing room, with Queen Victoria seated at the dressing table, was commissioned from Fortuné de Fournier as a memento of the visit.
St Cloud was destroyed in the course of the Franco-Prussian War, less than twenty years after the Queen’s visit.
Queen Victoria made a number of pencil and watercolour sketches in the course of her visit to France in 1855. In this watercolour the Queen records the view from her dressing room, down an avenue in the park.
Watercolour of Queen Victoria being presented at the Paris Court.
The following is an excerpt from Queen Victoria’s diary expressing her personal view of her arrival in Paris.
“I do not intend to attempt any description for I have no time for any thing of the sort, - besides - I have no doubt you will read the papers… I will therefore only give in a few words my impressions. I am delighted, enchanted - amused and interested, and think I never saw any thing more beautiful and gay than Paris - or more splendid than all the Palaces.
Our reception is most gratifying - for it is enthusiastic and really kind in the highest degree, - and Maréchal Magnan … says that such a reception as I have received every day here - is much greater & much more enthusiastic even than Napoléon on his return from his Victories had received.!!
Our Entrance into Paris - was a Scene which was quite Feenhaft [fairylike], and which could hardly be seen any where else; it was quite overpowering - splendidly decorated - illuminated - immensely Crowded - and 60,000 Troops out - from the Gar de Strasbourg to St. Cloud, of which 20,000 Gardes Nationales who had come great distances to see me…”
Queen Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert.
The widow Queen Victoria and several of her daughters who also reigned as the wives of European aristocracy.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had nine children. The marriage of the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert into other royal families, and the likelihood that her children bore a mutant gene for hemophilia, affected European history.
Children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert:
1. Victoria Adelaide Mary, Princess Royal, born November 21, 1840
married Frederick III of Germany
* Kaiser Wilhelm II, German Emperor
* Duchess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen
* Prince Henry of Prussia
* Sigismund
* Princess Victoria
* Waldemar
* Sophie of Prussia, Queen of Greece
* Princess Margarete of Hesse
2. Albert Edward, King of England as Edward VII, born November 9, 1841
married Princess Alexandra of Denmark
* Duke Albert Victor Christian
* King George V
* Louise Victoria Alexandra, Princess Royal
* Victoria Alexandra Olga
* Princess Maude Charlotte Mary
* John Alexander
3. Alice Maud Mary, born April 25, 1843
married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse
* Princess Victoria Alberta of Hesse
* Elizabeth, Grand Duchess
* Princess Irene of Hesse
* Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
* Frederick
* Alexandra, Tsarina of Russia
* Mary
4. Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, born August 6, 1844
married Marie Alexandrovna, Grand Duchess, Russia
* Prince Alfred
* Marie of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen of Romania
* Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Grand Duchess
* Princess Alexandra
* Princess Beatrice
5. Helena Augusta Victoria, born May 25, 1846
married Prince Kristian of Schleswig-Holstein
* Christian Victor
* Duke Albert of Schleswig-Holstein
* Princess Helena Victoria
* Princess Maria Louise
* Frederick Harold
6. Louise Caroline Alberta, born March 18, 1848
married John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, Marquis of Lorne
7. Arthur William Patrick, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, born May 1, 1850
married Duchess Louise Margaret of Prussia
* Margaret of Sweden, Crown Princess
* Duke Arthur of Connaught
* Patricia, Lady Ramsay
8. Leopold George Duncan, Duke of Albany, born April 7, 1853
married Princess Helena Frederica of Waldeck
* Princess Alice of Athlone
* Duke Charles Edward
9. Beatrice Mary Victoria, born April 14, 1857
married Prince Henry of Battenberg
* Marquess Alexander of Carisbrooke
* Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain
* Leopold
* Prince Maurice
Link from: womenshistory.about.com