Sacrificial Facts About Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s “Baby”
As the baby of Queen Victoria’s massive brood, Princess Beatrice should have had it easy. But nothing could have been further from the truth.
From a childhood spent under her domineering mother’s thumb to Beatrice’s devastating rebellion, the princess’s life was certainly no fairy tale—and, when all was said and done, she got the opposite of a happy ending.
1. Her Birth Was An Instant Scandal
Beatrice came into the world in 1857 as the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert. She caused an immediate uproar. Victoria, never fond of childrearing and especially hating childbirth, had decided to use chloroform to relieve her labor pains when delivering Beatrice, a practice that many stuffy Victorians thought went against nature and God’s laws.
Thus, before she even took her first breath, Beatrice was a scandal in the making. But her life didn’t go the way you might expect.
2. Her Parents Spoiled Her
It’s not a cliché to say that Beatrice was special—it’s just the truth. While both Victoria and Albert had been more stern than doting on their other children, they went gaga over their baby Beatrice.
Victoria, who normally despised babies and thought they were ugly, called her "a pretty, plump and flourishing child.”
Meanwhile, Prince Albert, who was usually only interested in his children when he could have scientific debates with them, was delighted to find the girl intelligent.
Yet as Beatrice soon found out, their love was a double-edged sword.
3. The Queen Used Her
As Beatrice grew up, all her other siblings were already adults, and she didn’t share her parents’ affections with anyone. This had a disturbing outcome. Before long, the aging Victoria and Albert relied on their youngest daughter to an alarming degree, especially as their eldest son and heir, the future King Edward VII, disappointed them by being a bad boy about London.
By the age of four, Beatrice was offering moral support as well as entertainment to the monarchs. And then they put a burden on her that no child could possibly bear.
4. She Was The Chosen One
In 1861, Beatrice’s maternal grandmother the Duchess of Kent passed, leaving Queen Victoria bereft and grieving for her mother. And while Victoria distanced herself from practically all her other children to mourn, Beatrice alone could comfort her. She pleased Victoria when she reminded her that the Duchess “is in heaven, Beatrice hopes she will return.”
All this might seem cute…until you remember that a four-year-old shouldn’t be your grief therapist. And then it got much, much worse.
_-_Princess_Beatrice_(1857-1944)_-_RCIN_404472_-_Royal_Collection.jpg){kind=link}
