Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Queen Victoria: The Grandmother of Europe

Episode Date: August 9, 2020

Traditionally, the royal families of Europe would arrange marriages amongst their children to establish alliances and bonds between their houses. While this really isn’t done that much anymore, it also wasn’t that long ago that it was done. One monarch, in particular, Queen Victoria, was really good and marrying off her children. So good in fact that almost every royal house in Europe can trace their ancestry back to her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Traditionally, the royal families of Europe would arrange marriages amongst their children to establish alliances and bonds between their houses. While this really isn't done that much anymore, it also wasn't that long ago that it was done. One monarch in particular, Queen Victoria, was really good at marrying off her children, so good, in fact, that almost every royal house in Europe can trace their ancestry back to her. Learn more about how Queen Victoria became known as the Grandmother of Europe on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode of Everything Everywhere Daily is sponsored by listeners like you. Creating a daily show like this isn't easy. Researching, writing, and recording a daily show takes quite a bit of time, and you have to do it every single day. Over on patreon.com, there is a small but growing community of listeners who support the show with their donations. In addition to showing your support for the show, you can also get some extra benefits as well. Depending on your level of sponsorship, you can be listed as an associate or executive producer of the show. There's monthly original wallpapers for your desktop and

smartphone, as well as merchandise like stickers, t-shirts, and hoodies. Depending on your sponsorship level, you can also submit ideas directly to me, because this is a daily show and I need a lot of show ideas. Next month, patrons will also be able to get monthly e-books of the episode transcripts as part of their support. As new projects, products, and events roll out over the next several months, patrons will have first dibs on everything. If you would like to be a sponsor, go to patreon.com slash everything everywhere, or click on the link in the show notes. Queen Victoria's reign of 63 years and seven months was the second longest in British history after the current Queen Elizabeth II. She and her husband, Prince Albert, of Sax, Coburg, and Gotha, had nine children.

The fact that she had nine children is surprising, given that after her first child, also named Victoria, she mentioned how much she didn't like being pregnant and claim that newborn babies were ugly. Nonetheless, her children and grandchildren went on to populate royal houses all over Europe. In fact, of the ten hereditary monarchies in Europe today, five of the monarchies are direct descendants of Queen Victoria, and monarchs from another five disbanded monarchies were also descended. So let's look at just how Queen Victoria earned the title of Grandmother of Europe. The first obvious place to look would be the United Kingdom. Obviously, every monarch since Queen Victoria, has been a direct descendant.

The current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is the great-great-granddaughter of Victoria. All of the monarchs in between were descended as a direct-decentent. well, George the 6th, Edward V, and Edward V, and Edward the 7th. Not only is Elizabeth the second a descendant, but so is her husband, Prince Philip, who is Victoria's great-great-grandson. That makes Elizabeth and Philip third cousins. If that sounds odd, realize that most people have absolutely no clue who their third cousins are and wouldn't know them if they met them. The next closest royal relatives would be the royal family of Norway. The current king of Norway, Harold V, is likewise a great-great-grandson

of Victoria. His father, King Olav V, was also related to Victoria by his mother, Maud of Wales, who was the daughter of Edward V. This makes King Harold a second cousin to Queen Elizabeth. It should be noted that King Harold is the first non-British citizen in line for the British throne. He is currently 80th on the list of British secession. Over in Denmark, Queen Margaritha II is also a great-great-granddaughter of Victoria. Her relation comes via her mother and grandmother, who were in the Swedish royal family, and victorious son Arthur, who is her great-grandfather. Speaking of Sweden, Marguerite's first cousin is King Carl XVIth Gustav.

Carl is also a great-great-grandson of Victoria via his father and grandmother. It should be noted that Carl's father was not the king of Sweden as he passed away at a young age. Over in Spain, the current king Felipe the 6th is the great-great-grandson of Victoria, and his father, the recently advocated King Carlos I was the great-great-grandson, and is also a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth. King Felipe is also related to Victoria on both his father and mother's side. So far, that makes 11 monarchs from existing royal houses who have been descended from Queen Victoria. Five British, two Norwegian, two Spanish, one Swedish, and one Danish.

However, there were several royal houses whose countries got rid of their monarchies, and many of them had linkages to Queen Victoria as well. In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm I second was the grandson of Victoria via her eldest daughter of Victoria. In fact, the German royal house was quite close to the British royal house at the start of World War I, as both kings were first cousins with each other. It was one of the reasons why people thought such a great war between the two countries wouldn't happen. The German monarchy was disbanded after World War I. Over in Greece, King Paul, who reigned from 1947 to 1964, was Victoria's great-grandson, and his son, Constantine II, was the last king of Greece.

This branch is how Prince Philip is related to Victoria. The Greek royal house was disbanded in 1973. In Romania, the monarchy was abolished after World War II in 1947. The last Romanian king, Michael I, was a great-great-grandson, and was related to Victoria via his father, King Carol II. King Michael passed away in 2017 at the age of 96. Yugoslavia also had a royal family, and, you guessed it, it was also descended from Queen Victoria.

The last Yugoslav monarch was King Peter II, which was first cousins with Michael I of Romania, which was another great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. Special note should be made of the Russian royal family. The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, was not a descendant of Victoria, but his wife was. Had the entire family not been murdered by the Soviets, Prince Alexi would have been another monarch descended from Victoria.

So at this point in history, we have 17 people who have reigned as a monarch in a European country, with five current royal houses which should continue the line of monarchs who are descended from Victoria. Now you have to ask yourself what royal families aren't descended from Victoria. And the answer is five. Lichtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Monaco. Belgium and Luxembourg both have royal families which are closely related to Victoria. They are both descended from King Leopold I of Belgium, who is the uncle of Victoria and her husband, Albert.

With all this interbreeding going on, you might be wondering how much of the first of Belgium. far back we have to go to tie all these families together? How can we tie the Netherlands and Monaco into this giant European royal family tree? The answer is only a few generations further back from Victoria. King George II of England is the ancestor of the royal houses of Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Monaco. The current royal family that isn't descended from George II is Liechtenstein. However, if you go back even further, the Royal House of Lichtenstein is connected to the British via the Bavarian Royal House, which recently married into it.

If you remember back to my episode on the British Line of Secession, the heirs to House Lichtenstein will be the Jacobite heirs to the British throne in one generation. Intermarriage amongst royal houses seems to be a thing of the past. Most modern royals tend to marry who they want, and they tend to be very rich, very famous, or very attractive. Even the less, even if there is never another marriage between European royal houses, Queen Victoria will still be the grandmother of Europe. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Mackle. Special thanks to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Please remember to leave a review over on Apple Podcasts.

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