Royal cartes de visite

Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1876 Empress of India (1819–1901), and Albert, Prince Consort of Great Britain (1819–1861).

As a collector of photographs, I am drawn to faces: the hints of personality in an unflinching gaze or a sidelong glance. Periodically I find myself haring off in a new direction, and this latest detour is perhaps unsurprising: I’ve started collecting royal cartes de visite, with a focus on the family of Queen Victoria and her -in-laws. (Just in time for the royal engagement, in fact!)

There is something pleasing about Queen Victoria and her family: it is large enough, complex enough, and far-flung enough to be a challenge. (I am still working on some of the sons- and daughters-in-law – I only just reached the full complement of Victoria’s nine children.) In these images, one can see the distinctive Hanoverian and Coburger physiognomies, as divided up between the offspring of Victoria and Albert. In the following images there is even the hint of the modern royal look, in Princess Louis of Hesse’s infant daughter, Victoria, later Princess of Battenberg and then Marchioness of Milford Haven – and the grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

First, the Queen and the Prince Consort, in a carte de visite attributed to Mayall Studio of 224 Regent Street in London. It is interesting how often the Queen chooses to be portrayed in a position subordinate to her husband: here she appears as “kleines frauchen” [“little wife”], fan resting on her husband’s shoulder as he reads a dauntingly heavy book. At the same time, the tiny queen – under 5’ tall – looms over the Prince Consort. Her eyes are downcast, but she commands attention.

Victoria, Empress of Germany (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, Princess Royal of Great Britain, 1840–1901). As a widow, she was generally styled Empress Frederick.

The first child of Victoria and Albert, born nine months after their wedding in February 1840, was Victoria, the Princess Royal. In her brilliance she reminded family members of Prince Albert, but her adult life – as Princess Frederick William of Prussia, then Crown Princess of Prussia (and then Germany), and finally, briefly Empress of Germany – was a sad one: happy in her marriage, she was unhappy (and poorly received) in her new country, where the general attitude seems to have been that “die Engländerin” should go home to Mamma.[1]

Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India (Albert Edward, Duke of Cornwall from birth, and Prince of Wales from 1842, 1841–1910), at Abergeldie in September 1863. CDV by Thompson Studio.

The longed-for male heir, and the first Prince of Wales since his great-uncle King George IV, Albert Edward was born little more than a year after his elder sister, and as a youth he was sadly in Vicky’s shadow. Often brushed aside by his mother and her courtiers, the Prince of Wales – with an apprenticeship lasting more than forty years – emerged as a dazzling monarch in the decade he spent as king.

Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse (Princess Alice Maud Mary, 1843–1878), when Princess Louis of Hesse, holding her daughter Victoria, later Princess of Battenberg, ca. 1864. CDV by George Washington Wilson.

The Queen’s younger children were somewhat shielded from parental expectations, the daughters even more than the sons. Princess Alice, the third child, was a general family favorite: diplomatic and energetic, and, in marrying into a junior German dynasty, still available to the Queen after her marriage in 1862. Her early death, in 1878, had wide repercussions in the British royal family, in particular influencing Princess Alice’s fourth daughter Alix, the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (from 1866), Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha from 1893 (Prince Alfred Ernest Albert, 1844–1900). CDV by J. Russell & Son.

Prince Alfred, the fourth child and second son, was destined from childhood for the Royal Navy. With his elder brother as the heir to the British throne, Alfred was also meant to succeed his uncle as Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, as he did in 1893. His marriage to Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Alexander II, made Alfred his sister-in-law’s brother-in-law, as the Princess of Wales’s sister Dagmar was married to Marie’s brother the Tsarevitch.

The genealogical implications of these marriages – and those of their descendants – are daunting in their complexity! (For an 1897 family tree showing the growing British royal family, look here.)

Continued here.

Note

[1] With the exception of the Princess Royal’s marriage in 1858, all of Victoria and Albert’s children married after the Prince Consort’s death. The Queen’s attitude to her children’s marriages – always somewhat volatile – would increasingly be determined by how the late Prince Consort might have felt about the potential bride or groom.

About Scott C. Steward

Scott C. Steward was the founding editor at Vita Brevis; he served as NEHGS Editor-in-Chief 2013-2022. He is the author, co-author, or editor of genealogies of the Ayer, Le Roy, Lowell, Saltonstall, Thorndike, and Winthrop families. His articles have appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, NEXUS, New England Ancestors, American Ancestors, and The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, and he has written book reviews for the Register, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

9 thoughts on “Royal cartes de visite

  1. the text about “one can see the distinctive Hanoverian and Coburger physiognomies, as divided up between the offspring of Victoria and Albert” unfortunately read to my simple Yankee style as a mix of pompous ass and a thought of what in the world does this matter in the scheme of things. Unfortunately as I read further, it does mean a lot, the whole process surrounding the lives of these folks, and the pressures and culture norms, and “stuff” they had to endure… Here’s to giant sporrans and hopefully many other subterfuges that keep our lives our own.

  2. Great article. I always find it a little strange seeing portraits of Prince Albert. He looks exactly like my grandfather, born in Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1878.

  3. Love this family’s tentacles! I have a great book Victoria’s Daughters about her five girls and their somewhat sad ends. The family tree you provide a link to comes up as a “dangerous site.” Is there a better link.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.