LITMIR.BIZ

      VICTORIA’S DELIGHTED FATHER PRONOUNCED his new baby daughter ‘as plump as a partridge’ and was ridiculously proud and protective of her.

      ‘Don’t drop her! Don’t drop her! You might spoil a queen!’ he had told the Bishop of Salisbury when he visited soon after and took the baby awkwardly in his arms. Mindful of his daughter’s royal prospects, the Duke announced that he wished her to be named Elizabeth after the great Tudor monarch, but at her christening the Prince Regent instead chose the name Alexandrina, after the baby’s godparent Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who had recently been Britain’s ally in the war against Napoleon. Then, after some prevarication, and with everyone gathered expectantly around the font, he allowed a second name, Victoire, after her mother. Fondly nicknamed Mai-blühme, or May Blossom, by her German mother and grandmother throughout her early childhood, the princess who would become Queen in 1837 was generally known as Drina.

      The first happy months of Drina’s life were, however, brought to a sudden end when, in January 1820 while staying by the sea at Sidmouth in Devon, her father caught a chill and died of pneumonia. His last words were to beg God to protect his wife and child.

      Although she would never have more than the most distant recall of her father, Victoria later remarked, ‘I was always taught to consider myself a soldier’s child.’ She nursed a somewhat rosy view of her father’s long and not altogether distinguished military career, which was to give her a lifelong admiration for the army. But she missed his presence and throughout her life, as if to compensate, she would latch on to a succession of strong father figures.

      Six days after the Duke’s death, his father King George III also died. In less than a week little baby Drina was propelled a great deal closer to the throne.