Ancestors of Victoria and Albert

Victoria and Albert had one pair of grandparents in common, Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf, who were parents both of Albert's father Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Victoria's mother (and Ernest I's sister), Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Duke Francis & Countess Augusta → Duke Ernest I → Prince Albert
Duke Francis & Countess Augusta → Princess Victoria → Queen Victoria

Another of Victoria's (but not Albert's) grandfathers was King George III, father of Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, and his brothers, King George IV and King William IV.

Marriage of Victoria and Albert

Queen Victoria (who had ascended to the throne on 20 June 1837 and been crowned on 28 June 1838) was married to Prince Albert on 10 February 1840 by William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in Westminster (London).^[1] (Albert died fourteen-and-a-half years before Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on 1 May 1876.)

Children of Victoria and Albert

Queen Victoria, at times, had contentious relations with her children. She had trouble relating to her children when they were young, some of this possibly owing to her isolated childhood.^[4] She also, occasionally, resented that they interfered with time that she would prefer to spend with Albert.^[5] According to one modern author, both Victoria and Albert weren't above playing favourites with their children, and unfortunately did little to hide their favouritism.^[5] Both Vicky and Alfred were the favorites of Albert, and Arthur enjoyed the favouritism of both his parents.^[5]

According to one modern author, Victoria was initially jealous of the time that Albert had spent with Vicky, but in her widowhood, Victoria made Vicky something of her confidante,^[6] and for her part, Vicky had accrued hundreds of letters from her mother, to the point that shortly before her death, she had them smuggled out of Germany by her brother's secretary, Sir Frederick Ponsonby.^[7]

Of her sons, Victoria had the most trouble with her eldest, Albert Edward, and her youngest, Leopold.^[6] Among her daughters, Victoria clashed often with Louise.^[6] She also had an awkward relationship with her second-eldest daughter, Alice, whom the queen, despite praising her thoughtfulness, also criticised as being too melancholy and self-absorbed.^[6] In her widowhood, Victoria expected Beatrice, who was only 4 when her father died, to remain at home with her, and only permitted her to marry on the condition that she and her husband would remain in England.^[8]

Victoria, Princess Royal

The eldest child of Victoria and Albert was Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, called "Vicky" (1840–1901). On 25 January 1858, she married Prince Frederick William of Prussia (1831–1888; Crown Prince from 1861, German Emperor March–June 1888). They had 8 children and 23 grandchildren.

Not only was the Princess Royal the first child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, she also gave them their first grandchild (the future Emperor Wilhelm II, 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) and was the grandmother to both the first of their 87 great-grandchildren to be born, Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen (12 May 1879 – 26 August 1945), daughter of Princess Charlotte, and to the last of their 29 great-granddaughters to die, Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (4 May 1913 – 2 October 2007), daughter of Princess Sophie.

Queen Victoria → Princess Victoria → German Emperor William II → Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia → Princess Frederica of Hanover (Queen of the Hellenes) → King Constantine II

Queen Victoria → Princess Victoria → Princess Sophie of Prussia → King Paul → King Constantine II

Queen Victoria → Princess Victoria → Princess Sophie of Prussia → Helen, Queen of Romania → King Michael I

Edward VII

Prince Albert Edward (1841–1910), then the Prince of Wales, married Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844–1925), later Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, on 10 March 1863. They had 3 sons (one of whom died within a day), 3 daughters, 7 grandsons (one stillborn) and 3 granddaughters. The Prince of Wales became King Edward VII and Emperor of India at the death of his mother Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901.

Edward and Alexandra's son, King George V, (reigned 1910–1936) was the father of Kings Edward VIII (reigned 1936) and George VI (1936–1952), and thereby the paternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II (reigned 1952–2022) and her sister Princess Margaret (1930–2002). Elizabeth and Margaret were therefore great-granddaughters of Edward VII and great-great-granddaughters of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria → King Edward VII → King George V → King George VI → Queen Elizabeth II → King Charles III

Edward and Alexandra's daughter Princess Maud of Wales became Queen of Norway when her husband, Prince Carl of Denmark, became King Haakon VII (1905–1957) upon the dissolution of Norway's union with Sweden in 1905. Their son, and Edward's grandson, became King Olav V (1957–1991); and Olav's children, King Harald V (since 1991), Princess Ragnhild and Princess Astrid, are thus great-grandchildren of Edward VII and great-great-grandchildren of Victoria and Albert.

Queen Victoria → King Edward VII → Princess Maud of Wales (Queen of Norway) → King Olav V → King Harald V

Princess Alice

Princess Alice (1843–1878) married Prince Louis of Hesse (1837–1892), later Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, on 1 July 1862. They had 2 sons (one of which, "Frittie", Prince Friedrich of Hesse, was a haemophiliac and died from bleeding out after a fall out of his mother's bedroom window), 5 daughters (one of whom died of diphtheria) and 15 grandchildren (two of whom died at a young age). Prince Ludwig succeeded to the Grand Duchy of Hesse as Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, and Princess Alice as the Grand Duchess of Hesse, on 13 July 1877.

Alice and Louis's daughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, married Prince Louis of Battenberg, and was the mother of Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885–1969), who became Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, when she married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark on 6 October 1903. Princess Alice was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the prince consort of the United Kingdom who was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Victoria was also the mother of Queen Louise of Sweden.

Queen Victoria → Princess Alice → Princess Victoria of Hesse → Princess Alice of Battenberg → Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Alice and Louis's second daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, married, in 1884, the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Tsar Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna, and younger brother of the then reigning Tsar Alexander III. They had no children, but were the foster parents to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, children to Sergei's youngest brother Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia. Following Sergei's assassination in February 1905, she eventually became a nun and was killed by the Bolsheviks on 18 July 1918. She was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981 and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Prince Ernest Louis became Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, upon his father's death in March 1892. He married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1876-1936), in April 1894, and had one daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse who died of typhoid fever, aged 8. The couple were divorced on 21 December 1901. The Grand Duke married for a second time to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1871–1937), and had two sons: Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse who married Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and had issue, and Prince Louis of Hesse and by Rhine.

Princess Alix of Hesse, the youngest surviving child of the Grand Ducal pair, became the last Empress of All the Russias through her marriage to Nicholas II of Russia in 1894. They had five children: four daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, and one son, the Tsarevich Alexei, who was a haemophiliac. The Russian Imperial Family was executed on 17 July 1918 by Bolsheviks. The entire family was canonized by the Russian Orthodox church in 2000.

Queen Victoria → Princess Alice → Princess Alix of Hesse (Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia)

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Alfred (1844–1900) married the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (1853–1920), the only surviving daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Empress Marie Alexandrovna, on 23 January 1874 at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia. They had 2 sons (one stillborn), 4 daughters, 10 grandsons (8 of whom survived their first week of life) and 9 granddaughters. In June 1893, Prince Alfred achieved the Royal Navy rank of Admiral of the Fleet, shortly before succeeding his uncle, Ernest II, as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in August 1893.

Prince Alfred's daughter (and Queen Victoria's granddaughter) Princess Marie of Edinburgh became Queen of Romania in 1914 after marrying the future King Ferdinand in 1893.

• King Ferdinand and Queen Marie's son King Carol II of Romania (Victoria's great-grandson) was the father of King Michael of Romania (the great-great-grandson of Victoria);
• their daughter (and Victoria's great-granddaughter) Princess Elisabeth was married from 1921 to 1935 to King George II of Greece (reigned 1922–1924 & 1935–1947); and
• their daughter (and Victoria's great-granddaughter) Princess Maria was married to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (reigned 1921–1934) and the mother of King Peter II (reigned 1934–1945, another great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria)

Queen Victoria → Prince Alfred → Princess Marie of Edinburgh (Queen of Romania) → King Carol II → King Michael I
Queen Victoria → Prince Alfred → Princess Marie of Edinburgh (Queen of Romania) → Princess Elisabeth of Romania (Queen of the Hellenes)
Queen Victoria → Prince Alfred → Princess Marie of Edinburgh (Queen of Romania) → Princess Marie of Romania (Queen of Yugoslavia) → King Peter II

Princess Helena

Princess Helena (1846–1923) married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1831–1917) in Windsor Castle's private chapel on 5 July 1866. Two sons and two daughters survived childhood; two other sons died within ten days of their birth. Princess Helena and Prince Christian had no legitimate grandchildren and one natural granddaughter who died without having issue of her own. Like other British royal holders of German titles (such as Admiral Louis Battenberg), Princess Helena, Prince Christian, and their two daughters gave up their titles to Schleswig-Holstein in 1917 when the British and German Empires were at war.