The Beginning of the Reign



On this day in eighteen hundred and nineteen

Was born a child who would come to be Queen

Not only of England but the entire British Empire ...

(It would be a sixty-three year reign till she expired)



Outlasting all of the other British monarchs ...

(Including George the Third, who sparked ...

The American Revolution, with his heavy hand

Causing the Colonies to expand the New Land)



During Victoria's reign ... there would be ...

Within the nineteenth century - a normalcy

For her stability and the infusion of her offspring

Into so many other dynasties ... settled things ...



For each of her nine children would enter marriage

During the evolution from days of horse and carriage

Interconnecting many countries all over the world  

Creating a certain stabilization as they unfurled ...



Her first son Edward, wed the Danish King's daughter

One of his wed the King of Norway - who caught her  

Her second son, Alfred, wed Tsar Alexander's girl

And one of theirs married Rumania's King, as well



Her third son, Arthur, wed Princess Louise of Prussia

Prince Leopold, wed Princess Helena (rushed her)

Uniting with the German principality of Waldteck ...

(One of several which gained a similar respect)



Princess Victoria married Germany's Emperor

Their son was Wilhelm II, who became Kaiser 

And their daughter married the King of Greece

Establishing ties to greatly extend the family trees



Princess Alice married the Duke of Hesse-Darnstadt

A daughter of theirs wed Nicholas II, the Czar marked

... For they were killed during the Russian Revolution 

(The end of that particular leg of Victorian evolution)



One of Alice's granddaughters wed Sweden's King

Lord Mountbatten was a grandson of that mating ...

Queen Elizabeth's consort, the Duke of Edinburgh

Is one of Alice's great grandsons and Charles's father



Princess Helena wed Prince Christion of Schleswig-Holstein

Yet another German principality (so many there were at that time)

Princess Beatrice married Prince Henry of Battenburg

Their girl wed Alfonso Thirteenth - the last Spanish    

king to be heard



Princess Louise married the Duke of Argyll ...

(The only one of the nine to mate Brit style)

And, of course - four of her direct descendants ascended the throne

Including her son, grandson, and two great grandsons honed ...



One of whom would stand aside after a year

Allowing his younger brother to be King clear

And his eldest daughter would then, of course, become Queen

Other than Victoria, the most remarkable one there's ever been ... 



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

7:25pm Monday, May 24th, 1999