Victoria, Princess Royal

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

Victoria
Princess Royal
Portrait by Norbert Schrödl, ca. 1900.
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 Sigismund of Prussia Viktoria, Princess Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe Prince Waldemar 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 her 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 of 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 not 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 people who were 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 private 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 in 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.

Princess of Prussia

Subject to criticism

With Vicky's move to Berlin begins a large correspondence between the princess and her parents. Each week, she sends a letter to his father that usually contains comments on German political events. The majority of these letters has been preserved and has become a valuable source for knowing the Prussian court.

But these letters also show the will of Queen Victoria to dictate every move of her daughter. The British sovereign demands that Vicky appeared equally loyal to her homeland as her new country. But the thing quickly becomes impossible and the most insignificant events put the princess in front of insoluble problems. For example, the death of a distant relative of the British and Prussian royal houses brings a month of mourning in London while in Berlin the mourning period lasts only one week. Vicky is therefore bound to respect the period of mourning in use among the Hohenzollerns but earned her the criticism of her mother, because she believes that, as a Princess Royal and daughter of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Vicky should follow with the custom in use at England.

Concerned about the consequences of the continual maternal on Vicky's psychological health, the Baron von Stockmar asked Prince Albert to intervene and asking the Queen to moderates her demands. However, the Baron fails to lessen the attacks that the princess suffered from the russophiles and anglophobes circles of the Berlin court. She was often hurt by the unkind comments from the Hohenzollern family.

Official duties

Aged only seventeen, Vicky must perform many tedious and official duties. Almost every evening, she must appear at formal dinners, theatrical performances or public receptions. If foreign relatives of the Hohenzollerns are located in Berlin or Potsdam, her protocolary duties widened. Sometimes she was forced to salute the guests of the royal family at 7:00 in the station and then she will be still present at receptions past midnight.

Upon the arrival of Vicky in Berlin, King Frederick William IV gave to Frederick and his wife an old wing of the Berlin Royal Palace. However, the building was in very bad conditions and it doesn't contain even a bathtub. In November 1858 the couple moved to the Kronprinzenpalais while as summer residence they received the Neues Palais.

A difficult first childbirth

A little over a year after his marriage, on 27 January 1859 Vicky gave birth to her first child, the future German Emperor William II; however this first delivery was extremely complicated. In fact, the maid responsible for alerting doctors about the onset of contractions delayed to give notice. Moreover, the gynecologists hesitate to examine the princess, only wearing a flannel nightgown. The baby was in breech and the delay in delivery could cause death of both the princess and her son.

Finally, doctors managed to save both mother and child. However, due to the difficult childbirth, the baby suffered damages at the brachial plexus and the nerves in his arm had been injured. Growing up, the prince's arm experiencing abnormal growth and, when William became an adult, his left arm measuring 15 cms shorter than the right. There is also speculation that the difficult labor caused fetal distress, which deprived the future emperor of oxygen for eight to ten minutes and would have brought other neurological problems.

The Doctors tried to calm both Victoria and Federico affirming them their baby could fully recover from his injuries. Still, the couple chose not to inform the British court on William's disease. However, over the weeks it became clear that the child's arm would not recover and, after four months of doubts, Vicky decided to give the sad news to his parents. Fortunately for the princess, the birth of her second child, Princess Charlotte on 24 July 1860, took place without difficulty.

Crown Princess of Prussia

A delicate situation

With the death of King Frederick William IV of Prussia on 2 January 1861 his brother, who already acted as regent since 1858, ascended the throne as William I. Frederick was then the new Crown Prince but his situation at court didn't change much: his father refused to increase his revenues and Vicky continued to contribute significantly to the family budget with her dowry and appanage. In a letter to the Baron von Stockmar, Prince Albert commented the situation:

To me it is obvious that a certain person is opposed to the financial independence of the princess ... [She] not only has not received a pfennig from Prussia, which is already calamitous, but has also had to use her dowry, which it should not be necessary. If they refuse the money to the poor Crown Prince for having a "rich wife", what they will get is impoverishing her.

In addition to their financial limitation, Frederick and Vicky accumulated more problems. As heir to the throne, he couldn't make travels outside Prussia without the King's permission. There was a rumor that this measure would limit Vicky's travels to the United Kingdom. Upon his accession to the throne, William I received a letter from Prince Albert in which he implicitly asked that the Prussian constitution would serve as an example for other German states. However, this letter increased the resentment of the sovereign against the British Prince Consort and against Frederick and Vicky, who shared the same liberal ideas.

Loss of her father and political crisis

On 14 December 1861, just 42 years, Prince Albert died of typhoid fever. With a very close relationship with her father, Vicky was devastated by the news and went with her husband to the United Kingdom to attend the funeral.

Shortly after this tragedy Frederick and Vicky, still in mourning, had to faced the first major crisis of William I's reign and they were not prepared to deal with it. The Prussian Parliament denied to the King the money needed for his plan of reorganization of the army. However, William I considered the reform as paramount and decided to dissolve the Parliament on 11 March 1862. In doing so, the monarch revives the Prussian constitutional conflict. In a tough confrontation between the crown and the Landtag, the King came to consider setting a deadline for leaving the throne.

In this perspective, Vicky tried to convince her husband to accept the abdication of his father. However, the prince didn't agree with his wife and supported his father that he would stand firm before the Landtag. For Frederick, the abdication of a sovereign after a conflict with the Parliament would create a dangerous precedent and weaken his successors. The Crown Prince also judged that his support to his father's abdication in his favor would be a serious dereliction of his duties as a son.

Finally, William I chose not to abdicate and appointed Count Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia on 22 September. Leader of the Conservative Party, the politician was willing to rule without parliamentary majority and even without authorized budget. The King was pleased with the situation, but his wife, the liberal Queen Augusta, and especially his son and daughter-in-law, harshly criticized the decision. However, Bismarck remained at the head of the Prussian government and subsequently of the German one until 1890 and was instrumental in the isolation of the Crown Prince and his wife.

Increasing isolation

With the outbreak of the Prussian constitutional conflict, the opposition between liberals and conservatives in Berlin reached its peak. Suspected of supporting parliamentarians against William I, the Crown Prince and his wife were subjected to harsh criticism. The trip that the couple made for the Mediterranean in October 1862 aboard of Queen Victoria's yacht served as a pretext for conservatives to accuse Frederick to abandon his father in a time of great political tension. They also emphasized the fact that the Crown Prince traveled at aboard a foreign vessel escorted by an English warship.

Following the announcement of the engagement between the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, daughter of the future King Christian IX and representative of a rival Prussian state, Vicky's position in the Berlin court was further weakened. For the German public opinion, the Crown princess was responsible for encouraging this union between Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Frederick caused an incident to openly criticize the policy of his father and Bismarck. During the official visit to Danzig, the Crown Prince publicly rejected an order issued by the Prime Minister on 1 June 1863 that allowed the Prussian authorities prohibit the publication of a newspaper whose content was considered inappropriate. Enraged with the speech of his son, William I accused him of disobedience and threatened to suspend him from his military duties and even to exclude him from the succession to the throne. To the conservative circles, who demanded exemplary punishment, wew joined the voices of Prince Charles, the King's younger brother and General Edwin von Manteuffel, who believed that Frederick should be tried in a court martial.

Naturally, Vicky was not immune to these criticisms from conservatives. In fact, many suspected that she was behind the words of speech in Danzig heir.

Severely criticized in Germany, the Crown princely couple saw their behavior praised in Great Britain. The Times wrote:

"It is hard to imagine a more challenging role than the Crown Prince and his wife, who are without a counselor, between a coward monarch, an impetuous cabinet and an indignant population."

The support of the British newspaper became a new source of problems for Frederick and Vicky. The article contained everyday details that suggest that Vicky revealed to the press certain confidential information. The authorities opened an investigation against her, and because of the pressure of these, Vicky's personal secretary, Baron Ernst von Stockmar, finally resigned his position.

The Prussian-Danish War

In the international arena, Prime Minister Bismarck trying to obtain the German unity around Prussia. His plans were to end the Austrian influence in the German Confederation and imposing Prussian hegemony in Germany. Faithful to his objectives, Bismarck bring Prussia to the called War of the Duchies against Denmark in 1864. However, the Prime Minister counted with the help of Austria in the conflict.

Despite the familiar relations of the Prince of Wales with Copenhagen, the British government refused to intervene in the war between the German Confederation and Denmark. Still, this had a certain importance in the royal family, which was deeply divided by the conflict. In addition, in Berlin many suspected that Vicky was unhappy of the Prussian military successes against the country of her sister-in-law Alexandra.

Despite criticism and distrust, Vicky supported German troops. Following the example of Florence Nightingale, who had helped to improve medical care of British soldiers in the Crimean War, the Crown Princess became involved in the aid of wounded soldiers. During the birthday celebrations of William I, Vicky created, along with her husband, a social fund for the families of soldiers killed or seriously injured.

During the war, Frederick joined the Prussian army and was part of the fighting under the command of Field Marshal Friedrich von Wrangel, distinguished himself for his courage valor in the Battle of Dybbøl (7–18 April 1864) that marked the Danish defeat against the Austro-Prussian coalition. Pleased with the German victory, Vicky expected the military success of her husband could encourage people to understand that she was the wife of the heir to the throne. In a letter to Frederick, she complained of the constant criticism and being considered too British in Prussia and too Prussian in Great Britain.

With the final victory over Denmark and the Treaty of Vienna (signed on 30 October 1864), it was decided that the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg would be administered by a joint Prussian-Austrian government. However, this new division became a source of conflict between Vienna and Berlin.

The Austro-Prussian War

After the War of the Duchies, Germany experienced a short period of peace. The Gastein Convention, signed by the two winners on 14 August 1865, placed the former Danish provinces under Prussian-Austrian control and both countries occupied a part of the Duchies. However, differences of opinion concerning the administration of the provinces quickly triggered a conflict between the former allies. On 9 June 1866, Prussia occupied Holstein, which was administered by Austria. In the meanwhile, Vienna asked the Diet of Frankfurt a general mobilization of the German states against Prussia, what happened on 14 June.

Considering the mobilization illegal, Prussia proclaimed the dissolution of the German Confederation and invaded Saxony, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel. During the Battle of Königgrätz (3 July 1866), in which Crown Prince Frederick was instrumental, Austria suffered a heavy defeat and ended up capitulating. Finally, with the Peace of Prague (23 August 1866), Vienna withdrew from the German union. Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, the Duchy of Nassau and the city of Frankfurt were annexed by Prussia.

Shortly after the Prussian victory at Königgrätz, Bismarck asked the Parliament more money for the army, which raised a new controversy between the liberal parliamentarians. Frederick welcomed the creation of the North German Confederation, which joined Prussia and some Germanic principalities, because he saw that it was the first step toward German unification. However, the Confederation was far from adopting the liberal ideas of the Crown Prince. Despite being democratically elected, the Reichstag didn't have the same powers as a Parliament. In addition, local sovereigns, who were more interested in maintaining their prerogatives, and the new German constitution gave many powers to the now Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Less enthusiastic than her husband, Vicky saw the North German Confederation as an extension of the Prussian political system she hated. Nevertheless, she remained hopeful that this situation was temporary and could be a united and liberal Germany could be created.

Family Life

During the Austro-Prussian War, Vicky and Frederick received a hard blow. Sigismund, the fourth child of the couple died of meningitis at 21 months on 18 June 1866, just a few days before the Battle of Königgrätz. This tragedy weakened the Crown Princess, who found no comfort from her mother or her in-laws. Queen Augusta demanded that her daughter-in-law quickly resumed her official duties instead of feeling sorry for herself. Queen Victoria, who was still mourning the loss of Prince Albert, didn't understand the feelings of her daughter and considered that the loss of a child was much less severe than that of a husband.

Victoria in 1867, portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

With peace restored in Germany, the Crown Prince was constantly sent abroad to represent the Berlin court. On these trips, Vicky rarely accompanied her husband because, due to their financial difficulties, they trying to limit costs to the maximum. On the other hand, the Crown Princess was also concerned to leave her children for much time. Despite the death of Sigismund, the royal family continued to grow with the arrival of four new children between 1866 and 1872. While the older children of the couple (William, Charlotte and Henry) were left in the care of governesses, the smaller ones (Sigismund, Viktoria, Waldemar, Sophia and Margaret) were raised personally by Vicky, which was a point of conflict with both her mother and mother-in-law.

In Berlin, the position of Vicky was still difficult and their relationships with Queen Augusta, who also had liberal ideas, remained tense. Any gesture of the Crown Princess was a pretext for the worst criticism from her mother-in-law, for example, when she chose to use a landau instead of the traditional barouche with two horses. The opposition between the two women came to the point that Queen Victoria was forced to intercede for her daughter to William I.

The Franco-Prussian War

On 19 July 1870 broke the Franco-Prussian War, which saw the fall of the Second French Empire. As in previous conflicts against Denmark and Austria, Frederick participated actively in the fight against the French. At the head of the 3rd German army, he had a decisive role in the Battles of Wissembourg (4 August 1870) and Wörth (6 August 1870), and also had a notorious partictiation in the Battle of Sedan (1 September 1870) during the siege of Paris. Jealous for the military success of the heir to the throne, Bismarck tried to undermine his prestige. The Chancellor took the late arrival of 3rd German army to Paris to accuse the Crown Prince to protect France under pressures from his mother and his wife. During an official dinner, Bismarck accused the Queen and the Crown Princess of being ardently francophile, an incident that soon was knew by the newspapers.

Vicky's commitment in favor of the wounded soldiers had no impact in the German press. In Hamburg the Crown Princess had built a military hospital, running it all costs, in addition to visiting the war-wounded soldiers in Wiesbaden, Biberach, Bingen, Bingerbrück, Rüdesheim and Mainz. However, by doing this, Vicky was accused of performing tasks normally attributed to the Queen, prompting the wrath of her in-laws. Finally, William I ordered her to stop that "theater of charity" and returned to Berlin to represent the royal family.

Crown Princess of Germany

The proclamation of the German Empire

On 18 January 1871 (the anniversary of the accession of Hohenzollern to the royal dignity in 1701), the princes of the North German Confederation and those of South Germany (Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt) proclaimed William I as the hereditary German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) with the style Imperial and Royal Majesty (Kaiserliche und Königliche Majestät) in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Then they symbolically unite their states within a new German Empire. Frederick and Vicky became became German Crown Prince and German Crown Princess with the style Imperial and Royal Highness (Kaiserliche und Königliche Hoheit) while Otto von Bismarck was appointed Imperial Chancellor.

Subsequently, the Catholic states of South Germany that were previously bound to Prussia by a Zollverein (Customs Union), were officially incorporated the Unified Germany by the Treaties of Versailles (26 February 1871) and Frankfurt (10 May 1871).

An enlightened princess

Despite being named Field marshal thanks to his military performance in the wars of the 1860s, Frederick didn't received the command of any troops after the Franco-Prussian war. In fact, the Emperor didn'tt trust in his own son and tried to keep him away from state affairs because of his "too English" ideas. The Crown Prince was appointed "Curator of the Royal Museums", a task that raises some enthusiasm at his wife. Following the advice of her father, Vicky had continued her intellectual formation after arriving in Germany: she reads Goethe, Lessing, Heine and Stuart Mill and frequented the intellectual circles with her husband. The writer Gustav Freytag was a close friend of the Crown princely couple and Gustav zu Putlitz was appointed Frederick's Chamberlain for some time. Despite the indignation of her mother, Vicky was also interested in the Theory of Evolution of Darwin and the ideas of British geologist Lyell. Eager to understand the principles of socialism, she read the work of Karl Marx read to and encouraged her husband to frequent the salon of Countess Marie von Schleinitz, a place known for being a meeting point of Bismarck's opponents.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, Vicky and Frederick rejected the Antisemitism. In a letter to her mother, the Crown Princess harshly criticized the eassay Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music) by Richard Wagner, whom she considered ridiculous and unfair. As for Frederick, he doesn't hesitate to made public appearances in synagogues when began manifestations of hatred against the Jews in Germany, especially in early 1880s. In both the Kronprinzenpalais and Neues Palais in Potsdam, the Crown princely couple received many commoners, including some Jewish personalities, which inevitably led to the disapproval of the Emperor and the court. Among their guests were the physicians Hermann von Helmholtz and Rudolf Virchow, the philosopher Eduard Zeller and the historian Hans Delbrück.

Art lover, Vicky appreciated and practice painting, receiving classes from Anton von Werner and Heinrich von Angeli. She also supported education and was a member of the association founded by Wilhelm Adolf Lette in 1866, whose objective was to improve women's education. Since 1877, Vicky founded schools for girls (the "Victoriaschule für Mädchen") directed by British teachers, in addition to nursing schools (the "Victoriahaus zur Krankenpflege") based on the English model.

Mother of a large family

Since his birth, the eldest son of Vicky went through various treatments to cure his atrophied arm. Strange methods, such as the so-called "animal baths" in which the arm was immersed in the entrails of recently dead rabbits, were performed with some regularity. In addition, William also underwent electroshock sessions in an attempt to revive the nerves passing through the left arm to the neck and also to prevent his head tilting to one side.

For Vicky, her son's disability was a disgrace. Her letters and her diary shows her grief for her son's arm and her guilt for having given birth to a disabled child. During a visit to her parents in 1860 the Crown princess wrote about her eldest son:

"He is really smart for his age...if only he didn't had that unfortunate arm, I would be so proud of him."

According to Sigmund Freud, being unable to accept the illness of her child, Vicky ended taking distance from her first-born, a fact that caused a great impact on the behavior of the future William II. However, other authors such as the historian Wolfgang Mommsen, insist that the Crown Princess was very affectionate with her children. According to him, Vicky wanted her children to be like the idealized figure of her own father and tried, as best she could, to follow the educational precepts of Prince Albert. In 1863, Vicky and Frederick bought a cottage in Bornstedt so that their children could grow up in an environment similar to Osborne House. However, Vicky's influence on the offspring had an important limitation: like all the Hohenzollerns, her sons received a military training from a very young age and the Crown Princess feared that such education would undermine their values.

Willing to give their children the best education possible, Vicky and her husband entrusted this task to the bright but strict Calvinist philologist Georg Ernst Hinzpeter. Reputedly a liberal, Hinzpeter however was a staunch conservative who underwent William and Henry to a rigorous and puritanical upbringing, without praise or incentives. To complete their education, the princes were sent to a school in Kassel, despite the opposition of the King and court. Finally, William was enrolled at the University of Bonn, while his younger brother, who didn't show the same intellectual interests, was sent to the Navy with 16 years. Finally, the education received didn't allow the children to had the open and liberal personalities that their parents wanted.

While her two eldest sons were approaching adulthood, Vicky suffered another blow with the death of her 11-years-old son Waldemar on 27 March 1879 of diphtheria. Without having recovered from the death of Sigismund, the Crown Princess was devastated with the loss of another child, especially since he died of the same disease as her sister Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine and her niece, Princess Marie just a few months ago. Vicky, however, tried to keep her suffering in secret because, except for her husband, no other family member was willing to comfort her.

If the sons were sources of great concern, Vicky's daughters didn't usually cause problems. The only exception was Charlotte, the eldest of the princesses. A girl with sn slow growth and a difficult education, she was regularly prone to fits of rage during her childhood. Growing up, her health became delicate and, and in addition to her capricious personality, she also revealed an irritable character. Today, several historians (like John C. G. Röhl, Martin Warren and David Hunt) defend the thesis that Charlotte suffered from porphyria, as her maternal ancestor King George III of the United Kingdom. That could explain the gastrointestinal problems, migraines and nervous crises that tormented the princess. The same historians believe that the headaches and skin rashes that Vicky treated with doses of morphine were also a consequence of porphyria, albeit in a weaker form than that suffered by Charlotte.

Matrimonial projects: sources of conflict

As her children became adults, Vicky began to seek suitors for them. In 1878, Charlotte married her second cousin Bernhard, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, a fact that delighted the Berlin court. Three years later, Vicky began negotiations to marry William with Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, provoking outrage in conservative German circles. Chancellor Bismarck criticized the project as the princess belonged to the family who was dethroned by Prussia with the annexation of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein in 1864. As for the Hohenzollern, they consider that Augusta Victoria was unworthy to marry the heir to the German Empire because her family lacks from enough rank. After several months of negotiations, Vicky got what she wanted, but soon became disappointed when she saw that her daughter-in-law didn't had the liberal personality that she expected.

The Crown Princess, however, was not so lucky with the marriage plans for her daughter Viktoria. In 1881 she fell in love with Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria and her mother tried to obtain permission from the Emperor for the engagement. Despite being a sovereign, the Bulgarian prince was the fruit of a morganatic marriage, which placed him in a position of inferiority in front of the proud House of Hohenzollern. In addition, Alexander's policy in his Principality of Bulgaria greatly disliked Russia, traditional ally of Prussia. Bismarck feared that marriage between a German princess and an enemy of Tsar Alexander II of Russia would represent a blow to the League of the Three Emperors, i.e. the Austro-German-Russian alliance. The Chancellor, in the meanwhile, gained the disapproval of William I to the union, much to the dismay of Vicky and Frederick.

This new conflict between father and son originated that the Emperor replaced the Crown Prince by Prince William in the official ceremonies and major events. On several occasions, was the grandson of William I who represented the Berlin court abroad.

German Empress

Agony of William I and Frederick's disease

In 1887 the health of the 90-years-old Guillermo I declined rapidly, indicating that the succession was close. However, the Crown Prince was also ill. Increasingly sickly, the physicians told him he had laryngeal cancer. To confirm his suspicions, Frederick was examined by British physician Morell Mackenzie, who after a biopsy didn't found any sign of illness.

With the agreement of his physicians, Frederick went with his wife to Great Britain for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in June 1887. On that trip, the Crown princely couple secretly brought to Windsor Castle three boxes full of personal documents that they wanted to keep away from the eyes of Bismarck and the Hohenzollerns. Always eager to harm the heir to the throne, the Imperial Chancellor continued his intrigues against Vicky. With the help of chamberlain Hugo von Radolinski and painter Götz de Seckendorff, he tried to prepare a final report against the Crown Princess.

Because the health of the Crown Prince didn't improve, Mackenzie advised him to go to Italy to undergo treatment. Frederick and Vicky went to San Remo in September 1887, causing outrage in Berlin because, despite the continued deterioration in the Emperor's health, the couple didn't return to the capital. In early November, Frederick lost completely lost the use of speech and German doctors were summoned by Vicky to San Remo for further examinations. Finally, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor and the only possible treatment was ablation of the larynx, but the Crown Prince refused. Vicky supported her husband in his decision, which caused a serious argument with her son William, who shortly before arrived in Italy and accused his mother of being happy with Frederick's disease.

In Berlin, the agony of William I lasted several months until, on 9 March 1888, the first German Emperor finally died. Still in San Remo and completely mute, his son succeeded him as King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany under the name of Frederick III.

The Empress of 99 days

Inmediately after he became Emperor, Frederick III appointed his wife Lady of the Order of the Black Eagle, the highest order of chivalry in the Kingdom of Prussia. However, after her return to Berlin, the new Empress realized that she and her husband in fact are really "shadows ready to be replaced by William".

Gravely ill, Frederick III limited his political actions to some symbolic measures, such as declaring an amnesty to all political prisoners and the dismissal of the reactionary Interior Minister Robert von Puttkamer. He also decorate with the Order of the Black Eagle to various people who supported and advised him when he was still Crown Prince, like the Justice Minister Heinrich von Friedberg, and the President of the Frankfurt Parliament Eduard von Simson.

Vicky tried to use her new status as Empress to promote marriage of his daughter Viktoria to Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria (abandoned since 1886). However, given the difficulties caused by the project, she advised her daughter to desist of the wedding.

Death of Frederick III and its consequences

Frederick III died about 11:00 on 15 June 1888. Once the Emperor's death was announced, his son and successor William II ordened the occupation of the imperial residence by soldiers. The chambers of Frederick and Vicky were carefully checked to find incriminating documents. However, the search was unsuccessful because all the couple's correspondence had been taken to Windsor Castle the previous year. Several years later, William II stated that the purpose of this research was to find documents state. Currently, however, many historians (as Hannah Pakula and Franz Herre) suggest that what the new Emperor wanted was to recover documents that could threaten his reputation.

The funeral of Frederick III came shortly after in Potsdam, without major public events. Vicky, now Empress Dowager, didn't appeared at the ceremony in the Friedenskirche of Sanssouci, but attended a Mass in memory of her husband in the Royal Estate of Bornsted. From the death of her husband, Vicky was known simply as Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Frederick.

In the following weeks, William II made a real purge in all institutions and the close people to Frederick III and Vicky. The home of the lawyer Franz von Roggenbach was searched and the widow of Ernst von Stockmar, former private secretary of Vicky, was questioned by the police. Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken, Frederick III's counselor for years, was tried for high treason for publishing excerpts from the diary of the late Emperor. Finally, Heinrich von Friedberg was dismissed as Justice Minister.

Empress Dowager

Looking for a new home

Once widowed, Vicky had to leave the Neues Palais in Potsdam because the new Emperor William II wanted to settled his residence there. Unable to settle in Sanssouci, she acquired a property in Kronberg im Taunus, in the old Electorate of Hesse-Kassel. There, Vicky built a castle that was named Friedrichshof in honor to her husband. Having inherited several millions of marks after the death of the wealthy Duchess of Galliera, the Empress Dowager was able to finance the construction and expansion of her residence. With the completion of the works in 1894, she spent most of the year in the property with her younger daughters, and only leaves when she travel abroad. Contrary to the desires of the Emperor, who preferred that she leave Germany permanently, Vicky formed her own court and maintained close with the liberal circles.

An Empress increasingly lonely

In October 1889, Princess Sophia, Vicky's penultimate daughter, married the future King Constantine I of Greece, leaving the maternal residence. The following year, Princess Viktoria, after the sadly ending of her hopes to wedded with the ruler of Bulgaria, at the end married Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, the future regent of the Principality of Lippe. Finally, in 1893, Princess Margaret married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, who in 1918 was elected to the throne of the ephemeral Kingdom of Finland. Although satisfied with these wedding, the Empress Dowager felt increasingly isolated following the departure of her daughters.

In fact, Vicky was completely secluded from public life by William II. With the death of her mother-in-law, the Empress Dowager Augusta in 1890, Vicky had hopes to succeeded her in front of the German Red Cross and the Vaterländischer Frauenverein (Association of Patriotic Women). However, it was her daughter-in-law, Empress Augusta Victoria which assumed the presidency of these entities, which caused a deep bitterness in Vicky.

The Empress Dowager didn't hesitate to harshly criticize the policies and behavior of her son. When the Emperor wrote in the guestbook of the city of Munich the words "Suprema lex regis voluntas" (The will of the King is the supreme Law"), she indignantly wrote to her mother:

The Tsar, an infallible Pope, a Bourbon or our poor Charles I might have pronounced that phrase, but a monarch of the 19th century ... My God, I think (...) Fritz's son and the grandson of my dear father has taken that direction and just understands the principles with which it is still possible to rule.

Last years

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.

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 Sigismund 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 Waldemar of Prussia	10 February 1868	27 March 1879	died of diphtheria at age 11
	Sophia, Queen of the Hellenes	14 June 1870	13 January 1932	married, 27 October 1889, Constantine I, King of the Hellenes; had issue
	Margaret, 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.

Bibliography

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• 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.
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• 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..
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• 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.
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• John C. G. Röhl: Kaiser, Hof und Staat - Wilhelm II. und die deutsche Politik, Munich, 1988
• Catherine Clay: Le roi, l'empereur et le tsar - Les trois cousins qui ont entraîné le monde dans la guerre, Librairie Académique Perrin (French translation), 2008 ISBN 2-262-02855-9.
• Ernst Engelberg: Bismarck - Urpreuße und Reichsgründer, Berlin, Siedler ed, 1985 ISBN 3-88680-121-7.
• Jean Bérenger: Histoire de l'Empire des Habsbourg 1273-1918, Fayard 1990 ISBN 2-213-02297-6
• Wolfgang Mommsen: War der Kaiser an allem schuld - Wilhelm II. und die preußisch-deutschen Machteliten, Berlin, Ullstein ed, 2005 ISBN 3-548-36765-8