QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE EUROPEAN EMPIRES

By the author of around 100 books including historical and royal biography comes an account of Queen Victoria's personal and political relationships with the empires, kings and queens, emperors, empresses and their families of France, Germany, Austria and Russia. Victoria had close familial ties with the royal houses of Germany long before the King of Prussia became German Emperor in 1871, as well as strong personal bonds with the exiled French Emperor and Empress and their son the Prince Imperial, after the fall of the French Empire in 1870. In addition, the volume explores Victoria's often strained relations with her grandson William II, and her tumultuous interactions with the Russian emperors. We are transported back to a glamorous and powerful time when there were four Imperial Heads of State in Europe, Queen (and Empress) Victoria, the German Emperor William, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, and Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Beautifully written by John Van der Kiste who weaves together the many strands to provide a fascinating picture of European royalty from the 1830s to the early 1900s. Many contemporary portraits, 176pp, paperback.