Exam 1 Answers

1. Which currently reigning European monarchs are NOT descended from Queen Victoria?
While many of today's monarchs are descended from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, a few of them are not. These include Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; King Albert II of Belgium and his nephew Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg; Prince Albert II of Monaco; and Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein.

Of this group, Albert of Belgium and Henri of Luxembourg are the most closely related to Queen Victoria. They are descended from Victoria's maternal uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium, who incidentally was first married to Victoria's first cousin, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales.

Since this was the very first question, we have given full credit to anyone who gets both of the majesties (Beatrix of the Netherlands and Albert of Belgium) as some respondents may have interpreted "monarch" to mean "king" or "queen." We also gave full credit (because we are nice) to those who correctly identified at least three of the five.


2. Which currently reigning European monarchs are descended from Queen Victoria AND are married to a descendant of Queen Victoria?
Queen Elizabeth II, a great-great-grandchild of QV through QV's eldest son King Edward VII, is married to another great-great-grandchild, Philip Duke of Edinburgh, who was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark. He is descended through his mother from QV's second daughter, Princess Alice the Grand Duchess of Hesse.

King Juan Carlos of Spain, a great-great-grandchild descended from QV's youngest daughter Princess Beatrice of Battenberg, is married to Princess Sofia of Greece, who is descended from QV's oldest daughter Victoria The Princess Royal and Empress of Germany.

Interestingly, the Duke of Edinburgh is also cousins with Juan Carlos through a common Battenberg ancestor and he is cousins with Queen Sofia through their shared royal Greek roots. To be sure, Prince Philip is very royally connected AND, at 89, he is now the oldest living great-great grandchild of Victoria.


3. How many grandchildren did Queen Victoria have?
Aha! This was another question for which we allowed multiple correct responses because it depends on how you interpreted the question. From our perspective, we believe the most correct answer is 40, which includes all children BORN to QV's children. However, some people chose to omit two who were stillborn which makes the number 38 while others included these two and also added two who were miscarried, making the number 42. Whichever number you prefer, the fact remains that she had quite a large number of grandchildren despite the fact that one of her daughters, Princess Louise, was childless. Although Victoria confessed that she was hardly excited by the birth of yet another one, she was quite fond of her grandchildren and they of her--and, she certainly enjoyed meddling in their lives and offering them LOTS of advice.


4. Which of Queen Victoria's granddaughters became queens or empresses?
The Princess Royal's daughter Princess Sophia of Prussia married the future King Constantine I of Greece and went with him dutifully into exile, not once but twice.

King Edward VII's daughter Princess Maud married her maternal first cousin Prince Carl of Denmark and was rather distressed when he was selected for the newly re-created throne of Norway as King Haakon VII.

Princess Alice's namesake daughter Princess Alix of Hesse married the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and became known as Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. They and their five children were murdered by the Bolsheviks. The entire family has been recognized as martyred saints by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Prince Alfred the Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's oldest daughter Princess Marie married Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania when she was 17. She and her first cousin, the future King George V might have wished to marry each other, but Marie's Imperial Russian mother did not want an English husband for her daughter.

Princess Beatrice's only daughter Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg married King Alfonso XIII of Spain after her cousin Princess Victoria Patricia of Connaught turned him down. The marriage caused a stir in both countries--in Spain because she was merely a serene highness and in England because she had to convert to Catholicism. Her uncle, King Edward VIII made her a royal highness and allowed her to convert.


5. How many generations of her descendants were living at the time of Queen Victoria's death?
Okay, we'll admit that some of you got tripped on a technicality in responding that there were four generations living. The absolute correct answer is three; the fourth generation would have been Victoria herself who, of course, was no longer living once she was dead. So, depending on whether you were counting generations the moment before or the moment after her death, three or four would be correct. In short, by the time of her death, she was a great-granny many times over. She became a grandmother at age 39 and a great-grandmother at age 60. Had she lived just four years longer, she would have been a great-great-grandmother with the birth of Prince Philip's oldest sister Princess Margarita of Greece.