What We're Reading: Cathy

Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams

Did you see the movie The Young Victoria with Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend? It's an excellent depiction of the way Victoria lived before she became queen and the early years of her marriage to Prince Albert. I highly recommend it. This book (Becoming Queen Victoria) is more in depth version of that story. The first part of the book is the story of Princess Charlotte who everyone thought would be the next Queen. She died in childbirth however. It is truly amazing that at this point, King George III's 13 children had given him 56 grandchildren but not a single legitimate heir. So the race was on to produce a new heir to the throne. The king's brother Edward, Duke of Kent won and produced Princess Victoria. She had a rather unhappy childhood, restricted by her very controlling mother and her advisor John Conroy. One month after her 18th birthday, Victoria became queen. Her life and the life of the nation were changed forever. Victoria's reign ended the self-indulgent Regency era and introduced an age of wholesome family values (to use a modern term) which may have saved the crown.