Long before Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was setting fashion trends, there was Queen Victoria, who is widely considered to be the one who made white wedding dresses popular.
In the decades prior to her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840, brides reportedly stayed away from white and instead wore dresses that were pretty much any other color, according to InStyle. The colors were representative of different things. Green, for instance, symbolized fertility.
But the queen wanted something different, and instead of going with a colored dress, she opted for a white silk-satin gown trimmed with lace, according to Newswise.
Vogue notes the young queen also ordered her guests not to wear white, and even had her dress pattern destroyed so her dress couldn’t be copied. On top of that, Queen Victoria had her bridesmaids dress in white, a trend followed by the Duchess of Cambridge, who had her bridesmaids, including sister Pippa Middleton, wear white as well.
Universal History Archive via Getty Images The marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 10 February 10, 1840. The queen wore a white dress, which was seen as unconventional at the time.
One reason white was unconventional in Queen Victoria’s time is that it was generally seen as the color for mourning, according to The Washington Post. Members of the royal court also thought the queen’s white dress was too restrained for a royal, as it wasn’t overly embellished, Time reports.
It should be noted that Queen Victoria wasn’t the first royal to walk down the aisle in white. As Time points out, Mary, Queen of Scots, chose a white gown for her nuptials in 1558, but it’s Queen Victoria who’s credited with making white wedding dresses the norm.
A few years after Victoria’s wedding, a popular ladies publication called white “the most fitting hue” for a bride, writing that it represented “an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one.” Brides-to-be in Europe, and eventually America, were convinced, and white wedding dresses continue to be considered traditional.
In ITV's Victoria we see Jenna Coleman as a monarch who isn't too keen on getting pregnant again
When we meet Queen Victoria in series two, she has safely popped out her first kid and is protesting about being confined to the nursery – but it won’t be very long until the monarch is pregnant again.
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Daisy Goodwin’s ITV drama is true to life. Despite her huge family, it seems the Queen was not all that keen on pregnancy or babies, and she did not take easily to motherhood. Babies were the unwelcome result of her active sex life with Albert, the “shadow side” of marriage – and a major distraction from the more important business of being queen.
How many children did Queen Victoria have?
Victoria and Albert’s firstborn Princess Victoria (Vicky) was followed less than a year later by Prince Albert Edward (Bertie), and then by little Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice.
That makes a grand total of nine, born between 1840 and 1857.
Unusually for the Victorian period, all of them survived into adulthood, although their youngest son Leopold suffered from haemophilia and died at the age of 30.
Did Queen Victoria resent her babies?
Modern writers have speculated that the queen may have suffered from postnatal depression after many of her pregnancies. She certainly struggled to bond with her children as newborns, and kept her distance from the babies in their early years.
Little Vicky was born nine months after the royal wedding. Queen Victoria saw her baby only twice a day, and certainly did not breastfeed. Within another year she had given birth to her male heir, Bertie, who would go on to become King Edward VII. After that she slowed down a little, but she still managed to have nine within 17 years.
Despite her many pregnancies, Victoria seems not to have liked babies very much. “Abstractedly, I have no tender for them till they have become a little human” she once wrote. “An ugly baby is a very nasty object – and the prettiest is frightful when undressed.” Later she wrote to her eldest daughter that she was “no admirer of babies generally” and had been repulsed by her sons Bertie and Leopold (“frightful”).
Aside from her feelings on babies, and the dangerous nature of giving birth in 19th century Britain, Victoria had other reasons to resent becoming pregnant.
Each pregnancy took her away from her duties as queen. While Albert was happy to step in and take over, Victoria did not like to be sidelined and this led to a power struggle within the marriage. As a female monarch she did not want pregnancy and motherhood to dominate her reign.
What were Victoria and Albert like as mother and father?
While Albert went for a hands-on approach as a father and took responsibility for the kids’ upbringing, Victoria preferred to keep her distance and instead focus on her duties as a monarch – especially in the early years.
Albert’s enthusiasm (and a lack of family planning) seems to have been the driving force behind creating this massive brood. But both Victoria and Albert wanted to create a model happy family to set a moral example across Europe, and they wanted their children to be intelligent and educated.
Albert devised a plan to create the perfect princes and princesses. In practice, this translated into a very strict, intense education with lots of harsh punishment and pressure. Life was all about Latin, Shakespeare, French, piano, German, maths, geography, science, obedience and discipline.
Eldest son Bertie did not take to this regime at all, and instead of the intelligent, erudite little replica of Prince Albert that everyone had hoped for, he was labelled a dunce and diagnosed with a feeble brain by a quack doctor who measured the size of his head. His parents despaired. He was obstinate, stubborn and threw tantrums; as a young man he was reported to have been found with the actress Nellie Clifton in his bed. And when Albert died at the age of 42 after visiting Bertie to give him a good telling off, Victoria blamed her eldest son. She never forgave him.
While she was distant from her offspring when they were babies, she seems to have become more involved in their lives as they became adults. With Albert’s untimely death, she was now a single mother to nine children – the oldest an adult, the youngest just four years old.
For the rest of her time on the throne, Victoria was a central presence in the lives of her children and grandchildren, as they married into royal families across Europe.
Did Victoria hate her children?
A picture emerges of a mother who was often disappointed in her children, and who was at times controlling and frustrated. She monitored the menstrual cycle of her son’s wife, she tried to keep sickly son Leopold wrapped in cotton wool, she was furious when her youngest daughter decided to get married instead of devoting her life to looking after mum.
But despite all this, it is clear that she did love her children very much.
When Vicky married, mother and daughter wrote each other great piles of letters (8,000 survive), sharing their advice and confessions and observations. And while she had a tempestuous relationship with Bertie, she maintained good relations with most of her children (and grandchildren) for much of her life. In lesser-known correspondence she wrote of her love for her children, and she shared her fear of losing them to an early death.
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Perhaps we only remember her as unloving because she wrote so honestly in her diaries and private letters, or because her correspondence was edited by men to leave all the icky feminine womanly stuff out.
Were Victoria and Albert really first cousins? A brief guide to the real-life heritage of the royal couple, as played in the period drama by Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes
Viewers watching the burgeoning romance between Jenna Coleman’s young Queen Victoria and Tom Hughes’s Prince Albert in ITV’s Victoria may be wondering how close to the historical facts certain details really are.
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Were they really so closely related? Was it really that much of a struggle to get them together? And how much was Lord Melbourne involved in their relationship? Read on to find out…
Were the Queen and her future husband really cousins?
The real Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, photographed in 1860
The short answer is yes. Victoria was the daughter of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, AKA the Duchess of Kent (played in the series by Catherine Flemming), and Albert was the son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Duchess and Ernest* were brother and sister, making young Victoria Ernest’s niece, Albert the Duchess’s nephew and Albert and Victoria first cousins.
*not to be confused with his son, Albert’s brother, also called Ernest
These days, marrying cousins is sometimes frowned upon but in the UK it is perfectly legal and the British royal family have been doing it for hundreds of years in order to ensure strong alliances and allegiances.
Did Victoria and Albert actually hate each other?
In this week’s episode of the ITV drama the relationship between the cousins is strained at first, with neither overly keen to get married in accordance with their parents’ wishes and Victoria expressing distaste at Albert’s personality.
However, in real life it doesn’t seem like this was the case. Certainly, Victoria appeared to think Albert was made for her from the beginning, having met him in 1836 a year before she ascended to the throne (unlike in the TV series where it’s implied the pair haven’t seen each other since they were much younger).
Writing in her diary after their first meeting, she noted some of their physical similarities and was clear about her attraction to him.
“He is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful.”
Victoria later wrote to her uncle Leopold, who arranged the match, thanking him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy. He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see.”
In fairness, it’s probably not as dramatic a love story if everyone just calmly gets on from the beginning. Spoiler alert, but it looks like these two might end up together…
Did Albert have a problem with Lord Melbourne?
We only get a glimpse of this in tonight’s episode, but one of the hurdles Albert faces in his pursuit of Victoria comes in the form of Rufus Sewell’s Lord Melbourne, who the series presents as something of a rival for Victoria’s affections.
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In real life, as we’ve noted elsewhere, Lord Melbourne and Victoria’s friendship was more like that of a father and daughter, so this “love triangle” is more of an invention. However, it is true that Victoria’s marriage meant that she became less reliant on Melbourne’s advice, turning more and more to Albert’s counsel and eventually drifting away from her former minister, so there is a nugget of historical fact in this plotline.
Another British royal wedding is upon us. On May 19, Britain’s Prince Harry will marry Meghan Markle, an American actress. For many watchers on both sides of the Atlantic—at least those who care—one of the highlights of the event will be the reveal of Markle’s dress. Royal wedding gowns can be a spectacle in themselves, as they aspire to match the fairytale grandeur of their circumstances. Extravagance isn’t demanded; the dress Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon wore to marry the Duke of York in 1923 was known for its simplicity, even if it was still elaborately embroidered. But a lavish gown is often the choice. These dresses can also set a course for the wedding fashion that follows. The ivory dress Queen Victoria wore for her 1840 union to Prince Albert is credited with helping to make white the standard for wedding looks in the West.
The designer Markle chose to create her look hasn’t yet been revealed. The speculation at the moment is that Britain’s Stella McCartney won the job, though previous odds favored Ralph & Russo—Britain’s only officially-recognized couture label and the one Markle chose for her engagement photos. Whichever designer has the honor, the dress is sure to be another noteworthy entry in royal fashion history. Here’s a look back at a few of our favorites of the past. Queen Victoria, 1840 Photography wasn’t well-developed enough to capture the 1840 ceremony, but Victoria’s silk-and-lace gown has thankfully been preserved.
AP Photo An illustration of Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert in 1840.
AP Photo/Matt Dunham The ivory silk wedding dress worn by Queen Victoria in her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 was displayed as part of the exhibition “Victoria Revealed.”
Queen Mother, 1923 Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later known as Queen Mother, in a very 1920s, loose-fitting gown.
Topical Press Agency/Getty Images Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon leaves her residence on her way to marry King George VI in 1923.
Duchess of Windsor, 1937 Wallis Simpson, an American socialite, married the Duke of Windsor in 1937. Their romance was a scandal. Until a few months before, the duke had been King Edward VIII. When he proposed to Simpson, already divorced once and in the process of being divorced a second time, it caused a constitutional crisis that prompted him to abdicate the throne. They were married in a small ceremony in France, and Simpson opted for a relatively modest look.
AP Photo/BIPPA Wallis Simpson at their wedding in 1937.
Queen Elizabeth II, 1947 Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, wore a gown with a 15-foot train made of transparent ivory silk. It was edged with satin flowers and encrusted with pearls and crystals.
AP Photo Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, after their wedding in 1947.
AP Photo Newly-weds Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh.
Princess Margaret, 1960 The first televised British royal wedding took place between Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones. More than 20 million viewers watched, seeing the princess’s bright white silk organza gown. Its designer, Norman Hartnell, deliberately kept the embellishments to a minimum.
AP Photo Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones on their wedding day in 1960.
AP Photo The bride and groom as they leave Westminster Abbey.
Princess Diana, 1981 Some dresses distinctly reflect their fashion era. The one Lady Diana Spencer wore to marry Prince Charles was a paragon of 1980s style.
AP Photo Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer during their wedding ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
AP Photo The bride and groom kiss.
Princess Kate, 2011 The wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William was a huge event, and the Alexander McQueen dress she wore lived up to the occasion. The New York Times has called it “the wedding dress of the decade.” We’ll see if it retains the title, or at least has some company, once Meghan Markle’s dress is revealed.
Reuters/Kirsty Wigglesworth Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, marries Prince William in 2011.
