Queen Victoria was the reigning monarch of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901. She had nine children, and arranged their marriages for them. She also meddled in the affairs of her grandchildren, arranging marriages for those as well. She denied marriages between two people who really wanted to enter into a marriage based on her political whims or feelings that she knew best what would create a successful marriage. Many of those that she arranged marriages for were expressly unhappy, not that it mattered to her. Many of these children and grandchildren would go on to become rulers of other European countries, causing rifts and creating drama that directly contributed to both World War I and World War II. Many of these children and grandchildren met with unfavorable conditions, such as the Romanov family, being executed.

I have always had mixed feelings about Queen Victoria. I can appreciate her contributions to the historical record, as well as the aesthetic of the Victorian Era. I have always believed that she was meddlesome, and this book certainly helped solidify my belief in that. If you are at all interested in arranged marriages between royals, this is a great book. It is well written and researched and provides a lot of insight and information into how and why marriages were arranged, even as recently at the 1900s.