Seasonal Barbies

Some holiday themed Barbies I found...enjoy!

19th Century
Holiday Ball
Holiday Caroler
Victorian Elegance
Victorian Holiday
Victorian Holiday Barbie and Kelly

The Nutcracker
Flower Ballerina
Marzipan
Peppermint Candy Cane
Snowflake
Sugar Plum Fairy

Empress Elisabeth of Austria

She was known for her beauty, style and horsemanship...but was also dubbed the lonely or reluctant empress. Born on Christmas Eve, 1837, Elizabeth showed her love of freedom and distaste of the iron rule of royal court life at a young age. Like her father, Duke Maximilian, she was a free spirit and enjoyed writing poetry and the simple life her family lead at their home Possenhofen. However, fate intervened when she, her mother, and older sister went to visit her aunt and her son, the Emperor Franz Joseph. The original plan was to marry her sister to the Emperor, but he fell for Elisabeth instead, and the two were married in 1854. Though the Emperor loved his wife, her hatred of the confinements of both marriage, her duties as Empress, and the domination of her mother in law strained the marriage, and she spent as much time as she could away from Austria. Her only son, (and the heir) Crown Prince Rudolph, committed suicide with his mistress in 1889, and on September 10, 1898, the Empress was stabbed to death by an aspiring anarchist in Geneva, Switzerland. Here's some books I found on this beautiful, but tragic, royal woman:

Sisi enjoyed a carefree lifestyle in the hills of Bavaria until she was chosen by Franz Josef to be his wife. At the age of sixteen she became Elizabeth Empress of Austria and moved into the imperial palaces of Vienna, where a hostile court disdained her for her low birth, and strict protocol ruled her every act. She had no other purpose than to adorn the emperor's arm on ceremonial occasions and to make babies who were taken from her at birth to be raised by her domineering mother-in-law. Of too sensitive a spirit, and dazzlingly beautiful, she was often ill and anorexic and had to flee the court to distant places in order to heal. She struggled to adjust to her new life in an alien environment until she found a cause into which she could pour her heart and soul: Hungary. Like Sisi herself, Hungary struggled to find its place in the world, where it would not be subsumed by a soulless empire. Having found her salvation, she also found a man she could love in the great patriot, Count Andrassy.

Married at seventeen. Betrayed by her mother-in-law. Forced to live behind castle walls. The historic tale of the most famous Empress in Europe comes alive. Torn from her homeland and the man she loved, the deeply saddened Elisabeth is pushed into a brutal world by her husband’s neglect and his affair. She makes adjustments in her life as a woman and as an Empress in order to survive. The allure of sensual pleasures will constantly test the young Empress. As the years pass, sorrow leaves its mark upon the aging Elisabeth. She becomes a legend, wounded by passion and love affairs.

Empress Elizabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, is the Princess Diana of nineteenth-century Europe. Famously beautiful, as captured in a portrait with diamond stars in her hair, she is unfulfilled in her marriage to the older Emperor Franz Joseph. Sisi has spent years evading the stifling formality of royal life on her private train or yacht or, whenever she can, on the back of a horse.

Captain Bay Middleton is dashing, young, and the finest horseman in England. He is also impoverished, with no hope of buying the horse needed to win the Grand National—until he meets Charlotte Baird. A clever, plainspoken heiress whose money gives her a choice among suitors, Charlotte falls in love with Bay, the first man to really notice her, for his vulnerability as well as his glamour. When Sisi joins the legendary hunt organized by Earl Spencer in England, Bay is asked to guide her on the treacherous course. Their shared passion for riding leads to an infatuation that jeopardizes the growing bond between Bay and Charlotte, and threatens all of their futures.

The Fortune Hunter, a brilliant new novel by Daisy Goodwin, is a lush, irresistible story of the public lives and private longings of grand historical figures.

The year is 1853, and Princess Elisabeth “Sisi” of Bavaria has been very clear: She will wait for the head-over-heels love the poets speak of, or she will have no love at all. Just because her older sister, Helene, is eagerly heeding their mother’s advice and preparing to marry Emperor Franz of Austria does not mean Sisi must also subject herself to such a dutiful existence. Sisi knows there is more to life than luncheons and corsets—if only someone would let her experience it all firsthand.
Meanwhile, in Austria, the emperor is recovering from an assassination attempt that left him wounded and scared. In a bid to keep the peace, Franz has recommitted himself to his imperial duties—and promised to romance the pliant Helene of Bavaria at his upcoming birthday celebration. How better to unite the empire than with the announcement of a new empress?
But when Sisi and Franz meet unexpectedly in the palace gardens, away from the prying eyes and relentless critique of the court, their connection cannot be denied. And as their illicit conversations turn into something more, they must soon choose between the expectations of their families and standing up for what they truly believe in...

The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich, and ready to marry.

Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth, “Sisi,” Duchess of Bavaria, travels to the Habsburg Court with her older sister, who is betrothed to the young emperor. But shortly after her arrival at court, Sisi finds herself in an unexpected dilemma: she has inadvertently fallen for and won the heart of her sister’s groom. Franz Joseph reneges on his earlier proposal and declares his intention to marry Sisi instead.

Thrust onto the throne of Europe’s most treacherous imperial court, Sisi upsets political and familial loyalties in her quest to win, and keep, the love of her emperor, her people, and of the world.

With Pataki’s rich period detail and cast of complex, bewitching characters, The Accidental Empress offers “another absolutely compelling story” (Mary Higgins Clark) with this glimpse into one of history’s most intriguing royal families, shedding new light on the glittering Hapsburg Empire and its most mesmerizing, most beloved “Fairy Queen.”

Married to Emperor Franz Joseph, Elisabeth—fondly known as Sisi—captures the hearts of her people as their “fairy queen,” but beneath that dazzling persona lives a far more complex figure. In mid-nineteenth-century Vienna, the halls of the Hofburg Palace buzz not only with imperial waltzes and champagne but with temptations, rivals, and cutthroat intrigue. Feeling stifled by strict protocols and a turbulent marriage, Sisi finds solace at her estate outside Budapest, where she rides her beloved horses and enjoys visits from a man with whom she’s unwittingly become enamored. But tragic news brings the empressout of her fragile seclusion, forcing her to return to her capital and a world of gossip, envy, and sorrow where a dangerous fate lurks in the shadows.

Through love affairs and loss, dedication and defiance, Sisi struggles against conflicting desires: to keep her family together, or to flee amid the collapse of her suffocating marriage and the gathering tumult of the First World War. In an age of crumbling monarchies, the empress fights to assert her right to the throne beside her husband, to win the love of her people and the world, and to save an empire. But in the end, can she save herself?

Featuring larger-than-life historic figures such as Bavaria’s “Mad King Ludwig” and the tragic Crown Prince Rudolf, and set against many of Europe’s grandest sites—from Germany’s storied Neuschwanstein Castle to England’s lush shires—Sisi brings to life an extraordinary woman and the romantic, volatile era over which she presided.

Non-fiction:

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known to her family as 'Sisi', belongs to a famous love story of European royalty. In 1853 the Emperor Franz Josef, the most eligible bachelor in Europe, fell in love with her at first sight when she was 15. They were married the next year. On the surface, it was a fairy-tale marriage, all the more poignant, with hindsight, because her tragic death augured the twilight years of the Habsburg Empire.
First published in 1988, Brigitte Hamann's definitive biography tells Elisabeth's story from her birth into Bavarian nobility to her assassination at the hands of an Italian anarchist. In her lifetime she was idolised solely for her grace and beauty; but Hamann shows us a stronger character, bitter at her marriage, seeking independence, and struggling against the powerful influence of her mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie.

On a snowy January morning in 1889, a worried servant hacked open a locked door at the remote hunting lodge deep in the Vienna Woods. Inside, he found two bodies sprawled on an ornate bed, blood oozing from their mouths. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary appeared to have shot his seventeen-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera as she slept, sat with the corpse for hours and, when dawn broke, turned the pistol on himself.
A century has transformed this bloody scene into romantic tragedy: star-crossed lovers who preferred death together than to be parted by a cold, unfeeling Viennese Court. But Mayerling is also the story of family secrets: incestuous relationships and mental instability; blackmail, venereal disease, and political treason; and a disillusioned, morphine-addicted Crown Prince and a naïve schoolgirl caught up in a dangerous and deadly waltz inside a decaying empire. What happened in that locked room remains one of history’s most evocative mysteries: What led Rudolf and mistress to this desperate act? Was it really a suicide pact? Or did something far more disturbing take place at that remote hunting lodge and result in murder?
Drawing interviews with members of the Habsburg family and archival sources in Vienna, Greg King and Penny Wilson reconstruct this historical mystery, laying out evidence and information long ignored that conclusively refutes the romantic myth and the conspiracy stories.

In 1898 Luigi Lucheni fatally stabbed Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, on Lake Geneva as she prepared to board a steamer from the Mont Blanc pier. Her life had been one of both profound sadness and inspiring perseverance; and in its course she set the style for the royal rebels who would follow her, particularly the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

While still a child, Elisabeth was married to the Hapsburg prince Franz Josef, heir to the Austrian Empire. She gave him three children; one of whom, Crown Prince Rudolf, would later commit suicide at Mayerling. Finding the atmosphere of the Austro-Hungarian court stifling, the increasingly erratic empress traveled incessantly. Abandoning her husband to the attentions of the Viennese comic actress Katharina Schratt, Elisabeth went on errands of mercy to the docks and slums of London and Liverpool, Barcelona and Naples, Smyrna and Marseilles. She was the despair of local police, who could not protect her, even though she wore disguises. She supported independence movements in Ireland, where she hunted superbly alongside her close companion, the English cavalryman "Bay" Middleton; and also in Hungary, an integral part of her husband's deteriorating empire.

When Lucheni assassinated the empress, he killed the most alluring royal figure of the Victorian age. But fame was her real executioner. Her celebrity had led to her death. Elisabeth had been driven into loneliness until she had lost all sense of reality, pursuing a desperate liberty that a confined marriage would never allow her.

This is the English translation of the 1929 German language biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, by Austrian journalist and writer Karl Tschuppik.

Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898) was the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, and thus Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Queen consort of Croatia and Bohemia.
Born into Bavarian royalty, Elisabeth (“Sisi”) enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Franz Joseph at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was ill-prepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Princess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth’s daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy.
The birth of a male heir, Rudolf, improved her standing at court considerably, but her health suffered under the strain, and she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.
The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder-suicide tragedy at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, demanding to be sewn into her leather corsets and spending two or three hours a day on her coiffure.
While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni who selected her because he had missed his chance to assassinate Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and wanted to kill the next member of royalty that he saw.
Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress-consort of Austria, at 44 years.

He was the handsome heir apparent to one of the oldest thrones in Europe. She was his fifteen-year-old cousin from Bavaria. For both, it was love at first sight! Tom Tierney captures all the drama and spectacle of the reign of Elizabeth and Franz Joseph of Austria in this spectacular paper doll collection. Figures of the Emperor and Empress are accompanied by a wardrobe of dazzling military uniforms, ball gowns, a riding costume, and coronation apparel. A fact-filled introduction provides background information on the subjects, and extensive notes describe the outfits worn by each figure. (Seems to be out of print, so if you happen to find one, congrats!)

Royal Blood podcast, episode 25

Royal Blood podcast, episode 72

Empress Elisabeth "Sissi" of Austria

As always, feel free to share any thoughts below, and enjoy any of those books you decide to get!

18th Century Blog Posts

Here's some posts early radio blog/podcast/show Harmonia has done for the 18th century. Enjoy!
1700
1711
1715 Music Publications
1715
1719
1759
1776
1789

Classical Holiday Music

Here's a few I'd like to share...enjoy and may you and your have a happy and safe holiday season!

Harmonia Episodes:
The Ghosts of Harmonia Past
Traditions Series: Christmas
The Noel: Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque
Holidays with Anonymous 4, Stile Antico, and Montserrat Figueras
Holiday CD Sampler
Seasonal Settings And Angelic Appearances
Music For the Holiday Season
Christmas Carols, Chant And Legend
A blog post on Saint Nicholas.


Classical Holiday Stations:
AccuRadio.com: Classical Christmas (orchestral and vocal solo)
AccuRadio.com: Classical Christmas Choral
AccuRadio.com: Classical Christmas Instrumental
AccuRadio,com: Classical Christmas Vocal (choral and solo)
AOL: Classical Holiday
Got Radio: Heavenly Holidays
Slacker: Classical Holiday

Like what you hear? Here's some choices from Amazon's 99 Most Essential collection:
Christmas Masterpieces
Christmas Piano
New Year's Classics

Some slightly different takes:
99 Must Have Christmas Classics
99 Must Have Christmas Meditation Classics
100 Best Carols

Film Review: The Affair of the Necklace

Set during the latter part of Marie Antoinette's reign as queen, this film is about a young noblewoman, played by Hilary Swank, who's parents were murdered when she was a child on the order of the king and, as a result, her family name and title were stolen from her. She never forgets, nor forgives this, so many years later as an adult, she tries to set things right by talking to the queen. She is turned away however, so she comes up with a grand scheme: to steal a grand necklace using the help of her lover. The plan? Through forged letters that are supposed to be from the queen, she convinces the powerful Cardinal de Rohan (Jonathan Pryce), who is currently not in favor with her, that she is one of Marie's closest confidantes and if he happens to buy this necklace for the queen, he will definitely be back in favor with her. He does, and this happens to be one of the sparks that helps lead to the revolution that engulfs the country. Will the scheming couple prosper? Or will they be caught and have their very lives on the line? Believe it or not, this is a true story! Another plus? Christopher Walken as Count Cagliostro. Great costumes, a good plot, and for the most part, good acting make me give The Affair of the Necklace 4 out of 5 stars.

Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl

This debut novel takes place in London, 1836 and introduces us to Elizabeth "Liza" Hastings, a well to do teenage girl who after the death of her parents receives the opportunity of a lifetime: to be a lady in waiting to Princess Victoria. However, life in Kensington Palace is nothing like Liza thought it would be...there's barely any servants, the palace is in shambles, and she ends up getting caught up in a household drama. Then, with the help of Inside Boy (who lives inside a large trunk inside one of the palaces many rooms), a newspaper printer named William Fulton, and even the princess herself, Liza tries to uncover a hidden a dirty secret dealing with the loathsome Sir John Conroy and a disgraced former lady in waiting to Victoria. Though this is a young adult novel, it's a well written one, and I enjoyed another look into Victoria's life as a princess. I give Prisoners in the Palace 3 out of 5 stars.

Dr. Johnson's London by Liza Picard

In this interesting non-fiction read, Picard not only shows us around London from 1740-70, she also tells us what life was like for people during that time: from clothing and the gin craze, to marriage and education, and everything in between. There's four sections: The Place, The Poor, The Middling Sort, and The Rich which covers the city and each level of its inhabitants, while the appendix fills us in on Cost of Living, Currency and Prices. Definitely not a book to miss if you're like me and like a bit of background on the novels you're reading, or if you are like Picard and "enjoy the practicalities of ordinary life," or both. A book that is a great addition to any 18th century bookshelf. I give Dr. Johnson's London 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Josephine Bonaparte

Born Rose Tascher on the island of Martinique on June 23, 1763, the future Empress of France was a widow with two children when she met an aspiring and ambitious general named Napoleon who married her in 1796 and changed her name to Josephine. She was also six years older than him. According to legend, as a girl she was told in a prophecy that she would "cross the great water" and become queen. Whether or not her marriage was this coming true is debatable. Though the two loved each other, his family did not, and tensions between them and the couple, Napoleon's many military campaigns, and Josephine's inability to bear an heir all contributed to their divorce in 1809. On May 29, 1814, Josephine died after catching a chill while out for a walk a few weeks earlier. A fascinating life to be sure. Here's a rundown of the novels on her I have on her:

The bestselling author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette and The Last Wife of Henry VIII returns with an enchanting novel about one of the most seductive women in history: Josephine Bonaparte, first wife of Napoleon. Born on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Josephine had an exotic Creole appeal that would ultimately propel her to reign over an empire as wife of the most powerful man in the world. But her life is a story of ambition and danger, of luck and a ferocious will to survive. Married young to an arrogant French aristocrat who died during the Terror, Josephine also narrowly missed losing her head to the guillotine. But her extraordinary charm, sensuality, and natural cunning helped her become mistress to some of the most powerful politicians in post-Revolutionary France. Soon she had married the much younger General Bonaparte, whose armies garnered France an empire that ran from Europe to Africa and the New World and who crowned himself and his wife Emperor and Empress of France. He dominated on the battlefield and she presided over the worlds of fashion and glamor. But Josephine's heart belonged to another man--the mysterious, compelling stranger who had won her as a girl in Martinique.

In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true. By way of fictionalized diary entries, we traverse her early years as she marries her one true love, bears his children, and is left betrayed, widowed, and penniless. It is Josephine's extraordinary charm, cunning, and will to survive that catapults her to the heart of society, where she meets Napoleon, whose destiny will prove to be irrevocably intertwined with hers.

Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland's highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.

Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon's impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon's campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals -- both sexual and psychological -- that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.

The Last Great Dance on Earth is the triumphant final volume of Sandra Gulland's beloved trilogy based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte. When the novel opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four tumultuous years. Napoleon is Josephine's great love, and she his. But their passionate union is troubled from within, as Josephine is unable to produce an heir, and from without, as England makes war against France and Napoleon's Corsican clan makes war against his wife. Through Josephine's heartfelt diary entries, we witness the personal betrayals and political intrigues that will finally drive them apart, culminating in Josephine's greatest tragedy: her divorce from Napoleon and his exile to Elba. The Last Great Dance on Earth is historical fiction on a grand scale and the stirring conclusion to an unforgettable love story.

This one is on her daughter:

Paris, 1798. Hortense de Beauharnais is engrossed in her studies at a boarding school for aristocratic girls, most of whom have suffered tragic losses during the tumultuous days of the French Revolution. She loves to play and compose music, read and paint, and daydream about Christophe, her brother's dashing fellow officer. But Hortense is not an ordinary girl. Her beautiful, charming mother, Josephine, has married Napoleon Bonaparte, soon to become the most powerful man in France, but viewed by Hortense at the outset as a coarse, unworthy successor to her elegant father, who was guillotined during the Terror.

Where will Hortense's future lie? it may not be in her power to decide.

Inspired by Hortense's real-life autobiography with charming glimpses of life long ago, this is the story of a girl destined by fate to play a role she didn't choose.

1779, France. On the island paradise of Martinique, two beautiful, well-bred cousins have reached marriageable age. Sixteen-year-old Rose must sail to France to marry Alexandre, the dashing Vicomte de Beauharnais. Golden-haired Aimee will finish her education at a French convent in hopes of making a worthy match.

Once in Paris, Rose’s illusions are shattered by her new husband, who casts her off when his mistress bears him a son. Yet revolution is tearing through the land, changing fortunes—and fates—in an instant, leaving Rose free to reinvent herself. Soon she is pursued by a young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, who prefers to call her by another name: Josephine.

Presumed dead after her ship is attacked by pirates, Aimee survives and is taken to the Sultan of Turkey’s harem. Among hundreds at his beck and call, Aimee’s loveliness and intelligence make her a favorite not only of the Sultan, but of his gentle, reserved nephew. Like Josephine, the newly crowned Empress of France, Aimee will ascend to a position of unimagined power. But for both cousins, passion and ambition carry their own burden. 

From the war-torn streets of Paris to the bejeweled golden bars of a Turkish palace, Brandy Purdy weaves some of history’s most compelling figures into a vivid, captivating account of two remarkable women and their extraordinary destinies.

 Royal Blood podcast, episode 159

Royal Blood podcast, episode 171

Josephine Bonaparte

And here's some non-fiction I've found should you read those and wish to know the real story behind the woman:

• Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story by Theo Aronson
• Josephine: Napoleon's Incomparable Empress by Eleanor P. Delorme
• Josephine: A Life of the Empress by Carolly Erickson
• The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine by Andrea Stuart

Paper dolls fans and history buffs will treasure this collection featuring one of the world's most famous and fascinating couples. Figures of Napoleon and his empress, Josephine, are accompanied by lavish costumes for their wedding, coronation, and other important occasions. 2 costumed dolls; 14 additional costumes.

Any other books you know of? Thoughts on the empress? Do post your comments below, and happy reading!

TV Review: The Crimson Petal and the White

This four part BBC miniseries was based on the best selling novel by Michael Faber and follows the story of Sugar, a 19 year old prostitute in 1870s London who wants a better life and has a secret ambition to be a writer. When she meets a desperate young perfume magnate named William Rackham, her world changes, and we meet his delicate, mentaly unwell wife, their young daughter who is kept hidden from her, and his older brother who is torn between his piety and lust for a widow. I found it to be very close to the novel, and while the ending left me a bit off center, I enjoyed it. The acting wasn't too bad, neither are the costumes, and parts of it are also a little touching. I give the Crimson Petal and the White 3 out of 5 stars.

Queen Victoria

Yes, it's the queen who have her name to an era (like her predecessor Elizabeth I), and the longest reigning monarch in British history: Victoria who was born May 24, 1819. Though she was the next in line to the throne after her uncle William (who became William IV), Victoria had a very restricted childhood and was not allowed to be alone. She also was raised with very little money...hardly what you would consider "the royal life." However, the little girl who claimed "I will be good" when discovering her destiny prevailed, and became just that, as well as not only an icon of her country but of the century and an empire that stretched around the world by the time she died on January 22, 1901. Here's a rundown of books on her:

Non-Fiction

A “vivid” (Kirkus Reviews) and multilayered biography of Queen Victoria chronicling the life of the longest-reigning British monarch who ruled for sixty-four years, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who after losing her beloved husband went on to fulfill her duties as mother, grandmother, and queen of England.

It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century—and one of history’ s most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family based on support, trust, and fidelity, qualities neither had seen much of as children. The love affair that emerges is far more captivating, complex, and relevant than that depicted in any previous account.

The epic relationship began poorly. The cousins first met as teenagers for a few brief, awkward, chaperoned weeks in 1836. At seventeen, charming rather than beautiful, Victoria already “showed signs of wanting her own way.” Albert, the boy who had been groomed for her since birth, was chubby, self-absorbed, and showed no interest in girls, let alone this princess. So when they met again in 1839 as queen and presumed prince-consort-to-be, neither had particularly high hopes. But the queen was delighted to discover a grown man, refined, accomplished, and whiskered. “Albert is beautiful!” Victoria wrote, and she proposed just three days later.

As Gill reveals, Victoria and Albert entered their marriage longing for intimate companionship, yet each was determined to be the ruler. This dynamic would continue through the years—each spouse, headstrong and impassioned, eager to lead the marriage on his or her own terms. For two decades, Victoria and Albert engaged in a very public contest for dominance. Against all odds, the marriage succeeded, but it was always a work in progress. And in the end, it was Albert’s early death that set the Queen free to create the myth of her marriage as a peaceful idyll and her husband as Galahad, pure and perfect.

As Gill shows, the marriage of Victoria and Albert was great not because it was perfect but because it was passionate and complicated. Wonderfully nuanced, surprising, often acerbic—and informed by revealing excerpts from the pair’s journals and letters—We Two is a revolutionary portrait of a queen and her prince, a fascinating modern perspective on a couple who have become a legend.

Bestselling author and historian Lucy Worsley tracks a new course through Queen Victoria's life, examining how she transformed from dancing princess to the Widow of Windsor and became one of Britain's greatest monarchs along the way. Taking twenty-four significant days from Victoria's life, from her birth, her wedding, her coronation to her husband's death, and many more in between, allows us to see Victoria up close and personal, examining how she lived hour to hour.Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria's birth, this major new biography will celebrate Queen Victoria as a woman of her time, who lived an extraordinary life.

Fiction

When King William dies, his teenage niece Victoria becomes queen. In spite of her youth and lack of experience, the eighteen-year-old surprises her detractors by taking the reins with poise and grace, vowing to always put the welfare of her realm first. Yet from the moment she meets her cousin, the handsome, fair-haired Albert, she becomes obsessed by love. Homesick for Germany, Albert wishes the petite, birdlike creature would choose someone else. But when Victoria asks him to share her life, he has no choice but to say yes.    
Evelyn Anthony’s novel captures Victoria’s passion for Albert, along with the contradictions in her personality and monstrous ego that almost destroyed her marriage. Although she bore Albert nine children, Victoria lacked maternal instinct. In many ways she mirrored the callous indifference of the era: Child labor and grueling fourteen-hour workdays were commonplace in Victorian England. Spanning the first twenty-one years of her reign, Victoria and Albert is a love story and a revealing portrait of a marriage.

Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world.
Despite her age, however, the young queen is no puppet. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name.
“I do not like the name Alexandrina,” she proclaims. “From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria.”
Next, people say she must choose a husband. Everyone keeps telling her she’s destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously.
On June 19th, 1837, she was a teenager. On June 20th, 1837, she was a queen. Daisy Goodwin’s impeccably researched and vividly imagined new book brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before.

Queen Victoria most certainly left a legacy—under her rule as the longest reigning female monarch in history, the British Empire was greatly expanded and significant industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military changes occurred within the United Kingdom. To be a young woman in a time when few other females held positions of power was to lead in a remarkable age—and because Queen Victoria kept personal journals, this historical novel from award-winning author Carolyn Meyer shares authentic emotional insight along with accurate information, weaving a true story of intrigue and romance.

The young Princess Victoria, strictly confined within the boundaries of Kensington Palace, is being moulded for her awesome future as Queen of England. Surrounded by her dolls and closely guarded by her domineering mother and faithful governess, she slowly becomes aware of the bitter conflicts that surround her. The jealous and scheming Duke of Cumberland is a constant threat to her rightful accession...her mother's sinister friend, Sir John Conroy, makes her uneasy...and the bickering between her mother and the king seems neverending. Growing up is proving difficult for the princess. She longs for her eighteenth birthday when at last she will be free to rule the nation as she pleases and to re-acquaint herself with the gallant Prince Albert.

On the morning of 20th June, 1837, an eighteen-year-old girl is called from her bed to be told that she is Queen of England. The Victorian age has begun. The young queen's first few years are beset with court scandal and malicious gossip: there is the unsavoury Flora Hastings affair, a source of extreme embarrassment to the queen; the eternal conflict between Victoria and her mother; and, the young queen's hatred of Sir John Conroy, her mother's close friend. Then there is the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne - 'Lord M' - worldly cynic and constant companion to the queen, himself a veteran of many a latter-day scandal. He proves to be her guiding light - until the dashing Prince Albert appears and she falls hopelessly in love.

From the time they were in their cradles, Victoria and Albert were destined for each other. However, the passive Albert is well aware that marriage to a quick-tempered, demonstrative young woman like Victoria could result in unnecessary scenes and stormy court feuds. And he is right. The young Queen, as well has having to endure her constant pregnancies, is in perpetual revolt against any encroachment on her position - and Albert is doing just that. Despite attempts on her life and crises like the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, her family - Albert and their nine children - is her prime concern. The Victorian age is truly under way - but the real power behind the throne was the queen's husband.

Albert is dead and the queen is preparing to spend the rest of her life in mourning. Yet the last years of her reign are to be momentous years. Palmerston, then Gladstone and Disraeli, govern her empire through the high noon of its heyday. The court at Windsor, Balmoral, Osborne or Buckingham Palace is perpetually shocked by the Prince of Wales, forever in pursuit of horses, women and scandal, the heady harbinger of Edwardian years to come.

At birth, Princess Victoria was fourth in line for the throne of England, the often-overlooked daughter of a prince who died shortly after her birth. She and her mother lived in genteel poverty for most of her childhood, exiled from court because of her mother’s dislike of her uncles, George IV and William IV. A strong, willful child, Victoria was determined not to be stifled by her powerful uncles or her unpopular, controlling mother. Then one morning, at the age of eighteen, Princess Victoria awoke to the news of her uncle William’s death. The almost-forgotten princess was now Queen of England. Even better, she was finally free of her mother’s iron hand and her uncles’ manipulations. Her first act as queen was to demand that she be given a room—and a bed—of her own.
Victoria’s marriage to her German cousin, Prince Albert, was a blissfully happy one that produced nine children. Albert was her constant companion and one of her most trusted advisors. Victoria’s grief after Prince Albert’s untimely death was so shattering that for the rest of her life—nearly forty years—she dressed only in black. She survived several assassination attempts, and during her reign England’s empire expanded around the globe until it touched every continent in the world.
Derided as a mere “girl queen” at her coronation, by the end of her sixty-four-year reign, Victoria embodied the glory of the British Empire. In this novel, written as a “memoir” by Victoria herself, she emerges as truthful, sentimental, and essentially human—both a lovable woman and a great queen.

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Miss V. Conroy is good at keeping secrets. She likes to sit as quiet as a mouse, neat and discreet. But when her father sends her to Kensington Palace to become the companion to Princess Victoria, Miss V soon finds that she can no longer remain in the shadows. Her father is Sir John Conroy, confidant and financial advisor to Victoria’s mother, and he has devised a strict set of rules for the young princess that he calls the Kensington System. It governs Princess Victoria's behavior and keeps her locked away from the world. Sir John says it's for the princess's safety, but Victoria herself is convinced that it's to keep her lonely and unhappy. Torn between loyalty to her father and her growing friendship with the willful and passionate princess, Miss V has a decision to make: continue in silence or speak out. In an engaging, immersive tale, Lucy Worsley spins one of England’s best-known periods into a fresh and surprising story that will delight both young readers of historical fiction and fans of the television show featuring Victoria.

And here's some Victoria and Albert Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney.

Royal Blood podcast, episode 84

Queen Victoria 

Queen Victoria's Childhood and Siblings

Was Queen Victoria illegitimate?

Victoria and Albert, A Royal Love Story

Small list, but all are good and highly suggested reading. If you're as interested in Her Majesty as I am, I'd start here and then read anymore you come across...and I know there's many more out there, most likely in the non-fiction department, but either way, you can't go wrong. So happy reading, and Rule Brittania!