Victoria, Princess Royal

For other princesses named "Victoria", see Princess Victoria (disambiguation).

Victoria
Princess Royal
German Empress consort Queen consort of Prussia
Tenure	9 March 1888 – 15 June 1888
Born	(1840-11-21)21 November 1840 Buckingham Palace, London, England
Died	5 August 1901(1901-08-05) (aged 60) Schloss Friedrichshof, Kronberg im Taunus, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire
Burial	13 August 1901 Friedenskirche, Potsdam, Prussia, German Empire
Spouse	Frederick III, German Emperor
Issue	Wilhelm II, German Emperor Charlotte, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen Prince Henry of Prussia Prince Albert of Prussia Viktoria, Princess Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe Prince Joachim of Prussia Elisabeth, Queen of the Hellenes Sophia, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel
Names Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa
House	Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Father	Albert, Prince Consort
Mother	Queen Victoria

Victoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; 21 November 1840 – 5 August 1901), was German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III.

She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland and Prince Albert. She was created Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland in 1841. She was the mother of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Educated by her father in a highly politically liberal attitude, she was betrothed at the age of sixteen with the Prince Frederick of Prussia, and since them she supported him in his views that Prussia and the later German Empire would become in a constitutional monarchy on the British model. But criticized for this attitude and her English origins, Victoria suffered the ostracism of the Hohenzollerns and the Berlin court. This isolation increased after the arrival of Otto von Bismarck (oner of her most staunch political opponents) to power in 1862.

Victoria was Empress and Queen of Prussia for only for a few weeks, where she had opportunity to influence the policy of the German Empire: Frederick III died in 1888 just 99 days after his accession to Laryngeal cancer. He was succeeded by their son William II, who had a much more conservative views than his parents. After her husband's death, she became widely known as Empress Frederick (German: Kaiserin Friedrich). The Empress Dowager then settled in Kronberg im Taunus, where she built a castle, Friedrichshof, named in honor of her late husband. Increasingly isolated after the wedding of her younger daughters, Victoria died of breast cancer a few months after his mother in 1901.

The correspondence between Victoria and her parents has been preserved almost completely: 3,777 letters from Queen Victoria to her eldest daughter, and about 4,000 letters of the Empress to her mother are preserved and cataloged. These will give a detailed insight into the life of the Prussian court during 1858-1900.

Life

Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

Childhood and Education

Victoria with her father, Albert

Princess Victoria was born on 21 November 1840 at Buckingham Palace, London. Her mother and namesake was Queen Victoria, the only child of George III's fourth eldest son, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Her father was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha the second and younger son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

As a daughter of the sovereign, Victoria was automatically a British princess with the style Her Royal Highness, styled HRH The Princess Victoria. On 19 January 1841, the Queen created Victoria Princess Royal, giving her an honorary title sometimes conferred on the eldest daughter of the sovereign. Victoria was then styled HRH The Princess Royal. In addition she was heiress presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom before the birth of her younger brother Prince Albert (later Edward VII) on 9 November 1841. To her family, she was known simply as "Vicky" or "Pussy".

She was baptised in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on 10 February 1841 (on her parents' first wedding anniversary) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley. The Lily font was commissioned especially for the occasion of her christening. Her godparents were Queen Adelaide (her maternal grandfather's sister-in-law), King Leopold I of Belgium (maternal grandmother's brother), Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (paternal grandfather; for whom The Duke of Wellington, Tory Leader in the Lords, stood proxy), The Duke of Sussex (maternal grandfather's brother), The Duchess of Gloucester (maternal grandfather's sister) and The Duchess of Kent (maternal grandmother).

The royal couple decided to give her children an education as complete as possible. In fact, Queen Victoria, who succeeded her uncle, King William IV at the age of 18, believes that she was not sufficiently prepared for the government affairs. For his part, Prince Albert, born in the small Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, received, thanks to his uncle, Leopold I, King of the Belgians, a more careful education.

Shortly after the birth of Vicky, Prince Albert therefore wrote a memoir detailing the tasks and duties of all those involved in the royal children. A year and half later, another 48-page document, written by the Baron Stockmar, intimate of the royal couple, details the educational principles which must be used to the little princes. But the royal couple has only a very vague idea of the proper educational development of a child and Queen Victoria, for example, believes that the fact that her baby sucks bracelets is a deficient education sign. According to Hannah Pakula, biographer of the future German Empress, the first two governesses of the princess were therefore particularly well chosen. Experienced in dealing with children, Lady Lyttelton directs the Nursery through which pass all royal children after Vicky's second year. Diplomat, the young woman managed to softened the unrealistic demands of the royal couple. For her part, Sarah Anne Hildyard, the second governess of the children was a competent teacher who quickly develops a close relationship with her students.

Precocious and intelligent, from the age of eighteen months, Vicky quickly learned French and at the age of four she began to study German. From six, her curriculum includes leassons of arithmetic, geography and history, while her father tutored her in politics and philosophy. Her school days, interrupted by three hours of recreation, beginning at 8:20 to finish at 18:00. Unlike his brother, whose educational program is even more severe, Vicky turns out to be an excellent student, always hungry for knowledge. However, despite all this educational qualities Vicky shows an obstinate character.

Queen Victoria and her husband wanted to remove their children from court life as much as possible. So they acquired Osborne House in the Isle of Wight, who was remodeled in the style of a Neapolitan villa following the drawings of the Prince Consort. Near the main building, Albert had built for his children, a Swiss-inspired cottage with a small kitchen and a carpentry workshop. In this building, the royal children learn manual work and practical life. Prince Albert was very present in the education of their offspring. He closely follows the progress of his children, gives them himself some lessons and also spend a lot of time playing with them.

First meeting with the Hohenzollerns

In the German Confederation, Prince William of Prussia and his wife, Princess Augusta de Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, are among the personalities with whom Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are allies. The British sovereign also had regular epistolary contact with her cousin Augusta since 1846. But the revolution that broke out in Berlin in 1848 strengthens the links between the two royal couples by requiring the heir to the Prussian throne to find shelter for three months in the British court.

In 1851, William returned to London with his wife and two children (Frederick and Louise), on the occasion of The Great Exhibition. For the first time, Vicky met her future husband and, despite their age difference (she was eleven years old and he was nineteen), they get along very well. To promote the contact between the two teenagers, the British sovereign and her husband asked Vicky to guide Frederick through the exhibition and during the visit, the princess could talk in a perfect German with the princess only could say a few words in English. The meeting was therefore a success and, years later, Prince Frederick would emphasize the positive impression that Vicky had in him during this visit with her mixture of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity.

His encounter with little Vicky, however, not only positively impressed Frederick during the four weeks of his English stay. The young Prussian prince, in effect, shared his liberal ideas with the Prince Consort. Finally, Frederick was sincerely fascinated by the relationships between the members of the British royal family. In London, the court life wasn't rigid and conservative as in Berlin and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's relation with their children was in a very different way that William and Augusta with their children.

After Frederick returned to Germany, he began a close correspondence with Vicky. But behind this nascent friendship was the desire of the Queen Victoria and her husband to forge closer ties with Prussia. In a letter to his uncle, the King of the Belgians, the British sovereign transmits the desire that the meeting between his daughter and the heir of the Prussian throne lead to a closer relationship between the two young people.

Engagement with Frederick of Prussia

As Vicky, Frederick received a comprehensive education and in particular was formed by personalities like the writer Ernst Moritz Arndt and historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann. According to the tradition of the House of Hohenzollern, he also received a rigorous military training.

In 1855, Prince Frederick made another stay in Great Britain and visits Vicky and her family in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. The purpose of his trip was to see again the Princess Royal to ensure that she could be suitable consort for him. In Berlin, this journey in Britain was far from receiving a positive response. In fact, in the Prussian court many individuals wanted to see the heir to the throne marry with a Russian Grand Duchess. King Frederick William IV has also allowed his nephew reluctantly to marry a British princess and he even had to keep his approval in secret as his own wife showed an strong Anglophobia.

At the time of Frederick's second visit, Vicky was fifteen years old. A little larger than her mother, the Princess was 1.50 m and far away from the ideal of beauty of the time. The British sovereign was concerned that the heir to the Prussian throne didn't find his daughter not sufficiently attractive. Nevertheless, from the first dinner with the prince, it was clear to Queen Victoria and her husband the mutual sympathy of the two young people who began in 1851 was still vivid. In fact, after only three days with the royal family, Frederick asks Vicky's parents permission to marry their daughter. They are thrilled by the news, but do not give their approval on condition that the marriage should not take place before Vicky's seventeen birthday.

Victoria (third from right) with her fiancé (second from right) at the opera with other royals in July 1857.

Once accepted this condition, the engagement of Victoria and Frederick was publicly announced on 17 May 1856. Immediately the project raises criticism in Great Britain. The English public complains about the Kingdom of Prussia's neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. In an article, The Times even qualifies the Hohenzollern as a "miserable dynasty" that pursues an inconsistent and unreliable foreign policy, with the maintenance of the throne depends solely on Russia. The newspaper also criticized the failure of King frederick William IV to respect the political guarantees given to the population during the revolution of 1848. In the German Confederation, the reactions to the announcement of the engagement were less unanimous: several members of the Hohenzollern family and conservatives oppose to it, while liberal circles welcome the proposed union with the British crown.

Preparation for the role of Prussian princess

The Prince Consort, who was part of the Vormärz has longed supported the "Coburg plan", i.e. the idea that a liberal Prussia could serve as an example for other German states and would be able to achieve around it the Unification of Germany. During the involuntary stay of Prince William of Prussia in London in 1848, the Prince Consort has tried to convince his Hohenzollern cousin of the need to transform Prussia into a constitutional monarchy following the British model. But the future German Emperor was'nt persuaded and, instead, kept a very conservative views.

Eager to make her daughter the instrument of the liberalization of Germany, Prince Albert takes advantage of the two years of engagement between Vicky and Frederick to give the Princess Royal the most comprehensive training possible. Thus he taught himself history and modern European politics and actually write to the Princess many essays on events that occurred in Prussia. However, the Prince Consort overestimates the ability of liberal reform movement in Germany at a time when only a small middle class and some intellectual circlesshared his views in the German Confederation. So this was a particularly difficult role that Prince Albert gave to his daughter, especially facing a critical and conservative Hohenzollern court.

Domestic Issues and Marriage

See also: Wedding dress of Victoria, Princess Royal

To pay the dowry of the Princess Royal, the British Parliament attributes to the girl a sum of 40,000 pounds and also gives to her an appanage of 8,000 punds per year. In the meanwhile, in Berlin King Frederick William IV gave an annual sum of 9,000 thalers to his nephew Frederick. The income of the heir to the Prussian throne thus proves insufficient to cover a budget consistent with his position and that of his future wife. Throughout much of their marriage, Vicky must stand on her own resources.

The Berlinese court of the royal couple was chosen by Queen Elizabeth of Prussia and Frederick's mother, Princess Augusta. However, both women called to couple of people who was in court service for a long time and therefore much older than Vicky and Frederick. Prince Albert therefore asked to the Hohenzollerns that his daughter at least could kept two ladies-in-waiting from his age and of British origin. His request was not denied but, as a compromise, Vicky gets two young ladies-in-waiting of German origin: Countesses Walburga von Hohenthal and Marie zu Lynar. However, Prince Albert succeeded in imposing Ernst Alfred Christian von Stockmar, the son of his friend Baron von Stockmar, as secretary of his daughter.

Convinced that the marriage of a British princess with the heir to the Prussian throne would be regarded as an honor by the Hohenzollern, Prince Albert insists that his daughter could retain his title of Princess Royal after his wedding. However, the very anti-British and pro-Russian Berlin court, the decision of the prince only triggened further irritation against Vicky.

However, the question of the place of the marriage ceremony raises the most criticism. For the Hohenzollerns, it seems natural that the nuptials of the heir of the throne of Prussia was held in Berlin. However, Queen Victoria insists that her eldest daughter must marry her country and she ultimately imposed herself in this matter. The wedding of Vicky and Frederick therefore took place at the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace in London, on 25 January 1858.

Crown Princess of Prussia

Victoria in 1867, portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

In January 1861, on the death of his childless uncle King Frederick William IV of Prussia and the accession of his father as King William I, Prince Frederick became Crown Prince of Prussia, Victoria therefore became Crown Princess. The new Crown Prince and Crown Princess, however, were politically isolated; their liberal and Anglophile views clashing with the authoritarian rule of the Prussian minister-president, Otto von Bismarck. Despite their efforts to educate their son, Wilhelm, in British attitudes of democracy, he favoured his German tutors in aspiring to autocratic rule and thus became alienated from his parents, suspecting them of putting Britain's interests first. The couple had the use of the Crown Prince's Palace located in the heart of Berlin.

During the three Wars of German Unification – the 1864 Prussian-Danish War, the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, and the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War – Victoria and Frederick strongly identified with the cause of Prussia and the North German Confederation. Their sympathies created a rift among Queen Victoria's extended family, since Victoria's younger brother, the Prince of Wales, was married to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the elder daughter of Christian IX of Denmark, who was also reigning duke of the disputed territories of Schleswig and Holstein. At Versailles on 18 January 1871, the victorious princes of the North German Confederation proclaimed a German Empire with King William I of Prussia as the hereditary German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) with the style Imperial and Royal Majesty (Kaiserliche und Königliche Majestät); Frederick and Victoria became German Crown Prince and German Crown Princess with the style Imperial and Royal Highness (Kaiserliche und Königliche Hoheit).

German Empress and Empress Frederick

On the death of his father on 9 March 1888, the Crown Prince ascended the throne as the Emperor Frederick III (and as King Frederick III of Prussia) and Victoria adopted the title and style of Her Imperial and Royal Majesty the German Empress, Queen of Prussia. Frederick, however, was terminally ill with throat cancer and died after reigning 99 days. From then on she was known simply as Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Frederick.

She was often known as Die Engländerin (the Englishwoman) due to her origins in the United Kingdom, even though her ancestry was almost entirely German. Indeed, she continued to speak English in her German household. Like her mother, she dressed in mourning clothing for the rest of her life.

The widowed Victoria lived in retirement at Castle Friedrichshof, a castle she had built in memory of her late husband in the hills near Kronberg not far from Frankfurt am Main. Politically, she remained a liberal in contrast with her son Emperor Wilhelm II. Their relationship had earlier been difficult but improved once she was no longer in the limelight. In Berlin, Victoria established schools for the higher education of girls and for nurses' training. As a talented and gifted artist in her own right, she was a patron of the arts and learning, becoming one of the organizers of the 1872 Industrial Art Exhibition.

Throughout her married life and widowhood, Victoria kept in close touch with other members of the British Royal Family, particularly her younger brother, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

She maintained a regular correspondence with her mother. According to the Royal Encyclopaedia, some 3,777 letters from Queen Victoria to her eldest daughter have been catalogued, as well as more than 4,000 from daughter to mother. Many of her letters detailed her concern over Germany's future under her son. She was concerned that the letters should not fall into the hands of her son Wilhelm II and that he should not know what had happened to them. At her request the letters were brought back to England in a cloak-and-dagger operation by Frederick Ponsonby, her godson, the private secretary of Edward VII, who was making his (Edward's) final visit to his terminally ill sister in Kronberg for a week up to 1 March 1901. These letters were later edited by Ponsonby and put into context by his background commentary to form the book that was published in 1928.

Death

Victoria was diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer in 1899 during a visit to her mother at Balmoral. By the autumn of 1900, the cancer spread to her spine and after much suffering, she died at Castle Friedrichshof on 5 August 1901, less than seven months after the death of her mother.

She was buried in the royal mausoleum of the Friedenskirche at Potsdam on 13 August 1901. Her tomb has a recumbent marble effigy of herself on top. Next to her lies her beloved husband. Two of her eight children, Sigismund (died age 2) and Waldemar (died age 11), are buried in the same mausoleum.

Portrayal in film, television and literature

She has been portrayed in a number of film and television productions since her death. Perhaps the most notable was in 1975 when Felicity Kendal played Vicky in Edward the Seventh, including the scenes during her final months when the character was 60 years old but Kendal was only in her 29th year.

Other portrayals include Gemma Jones (Fall of Eagles, 1974) and Ruth Hellberg (Bismarck, 1940), as well as Catherine Punch (Bismarck, 1990). While she is portrayed as a naive English princess in the Bismarck films, the German film Vicky - die vergessene Kaiserin ("The Forgotten Empress"), tries to show her in a different light. In July 2014 the first novel about Victoria, Princess Royal, was published in Germany, Ihr Name ist Victoria, by de.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Styles of Empress Frederick as consort
Reference style	Her Imperial and Royal Majesty
Spoken style	Your Imperial and Royal Majesty

Titles and styles

• 21 November 1840 - 10 November 1841: Her Royal Highness The Princess Victoria
• 10 November 1841 - 25 January 1858: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
• 25 January 1858 - 2 January 1861: Her Royal Highness Princess Frederick of Prussia
• 2 January 1861 - 18 January 1871: Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Prussia
• 18 January 1871 - 9 March 1888: Her Imperial and Royal Highness The German Crown Princess, Crown Princess of Prussia
• 9 March 1888 - 15 June 1888: Her Imperial and Royal Majesty The German Empress, The Queen of Prussia
• 15 June 1888 - 5 August 1901: Her Imperial Majesty The Empress Frederick

Honours

• Dame of the Order of Louise
• Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, First Class
• Spain : 788th Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa -
• Order of the Black Eagle

Arms

With her style of Princess Royal, Victoria was granted use of the royal arms, as then used: with an escutcheon of the shield of Saxony, the whole differenced by a label argent of three points, the outer points bearing crosses gules, the central a rose gules.

Victoria's coat of arms as Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

Lesser Coat of Arms of Empress Victoria

Royal Monogram as Princess Royal of Great Britain

Imperial Monogram as Empress of Germany

Issue

See also: Grandchildren of Victoria and Albert

Victoria and Frederick had eight children:

Image	Name	Birth	Death	Notes
	Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia	27 January 1859	4 June 1941	married (1), 27 February 1881, Princess Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein; died 1921; had issue (2), 9 November 1922, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, no issue
	Charlotte, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen	24 July 1860	1 October 1919	married, 18 February 1878, Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen; had issue
	Prince Henry of Prussia	14 August 1862	20 April 1929	married, 24 May 1888, his first cousin Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue
	Prince Albert of Prussia	15 September 1864	18 June 1866	died of meningitis at 21 months. First grandchild of Queen Victoria to die.
	Viktoria, Princess Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe	12 April 1866	13 November 1929	married (1), 19 November 1890, Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe; he died 1916; no issue (2), 19 November 1927, Alexander Zoubkov; no issue
	Prince Joachim of Prussia	10 February 1868	27 March 1879	died of diphtheria at age 11
	Elisabeth, Queen of the Hellenes	14 June 1870	13 January 1932	married, 27 October 1889, Constantine I, King of the Hellenes; had issue
	Sophia, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel	22 April 1872	22 January 1954	married, 25 January 1893, Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, later Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel; had issue

Ancestry

Family of Victoria, Princess Royal

16. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 8. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 17. Duchess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 4. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 18. Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf 9. Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf 19. Countess Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg 2. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 20. Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 10. Emil, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 21. Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen 5. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 22. Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 11. Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 23. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 1. Victoria, Princess Royal 24. Frederick, Prince of Wales 12. George III of the United Kingdom 25. Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha 6. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn 26. Charles Louis Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg-Mirow 13. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 27. Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen 3. Victoria of the United Kingdom 28. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (= #16) 14. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (= #8) 29. Duchess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (= #17) 7. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 30. Henry XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf (= #18) 15. Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf (= #9) 31. Countess Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg (= #19)

See also

• Schlosshotel Kronberg, the former home of Empress Frederick.
• Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium, a Gymnasium in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, bears the name of Victoria, Princess Royal.

Further reading

• Thomas Weiberg: … wie immer Deine Dona. Verlobung und Hochzeit des letzten deutschen Kaiserpaares. Isensee-Verlag, Oldenburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89995-406-7.
• Sir Frederick Ponsonby (Ed.), Briefe der Kaiserin Friedrich. Eingeleitet von Wilhelm II., Verlag für Kulturpolitik, Berlin 1929 [Letters of Empress Friedrich. Introduction by Wilhelm II.]. New Edition H. Knaur Verlag, München, ISBN 5-19-977337-2.
• Karin Feuerstein-Praßer: Die deutschen Kaiserinnen. 1871–1918. Piper Verlag, München 2005. ISBN 3-492-23641-3.
• Franz Herre: Kaiserin Friedrich – Victoria, eine Engländerin in Deutschland. Hohenheim Verlag, Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-89850-142-6
• Patricia Kolander: Frederick III – Germany’s Liberal Emperor. Greenwood Press, Westport 1995. ISBN 0-313-29483-6.
• Pakula, Hannah (1995). An Uncommon Woman: The Empress Frederick, Daughter of Queen Victoria, Wife of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Mother of Kaiser Wilhelm. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84216-5.
• Wilfried Rogasch (Hrsg.): Victoria & Albert, Vicky & The Kaiser: ein Kapitel deutsch-englischer Familiengeschichte [Cat. of the Exhibition in the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin] Hatje Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 1997. ISBN 3-86102-091-2.
• Andrew Sinclair: Victoria – Kaiserin für 99 Tage. Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1987, ISBN 3-404-61086-5.
• Van Der Kiste, John (2001). Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz: Queen Victoria's Eldest Daughter and the German Emperor. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-750-93052-7.
• Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Arndt Mersmann (ed.): Queen Victoria - Ein biographisches Lesebuch aus ihren Briefen und Tagebüchern, Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 2001. ISBN 3-423-12846-1