A different husband for the young Queen Victoria

I know that she fell in love with Albert after meeting him the one time but was there a chance that she could have met and fallen for someone else before that fateful meeting?
 
My favourite one would be Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, became a Doctor of Civil Law of the University of Oxford. Born a few months after Victoria in 17 October 1819, he will out live her by three years, dying on 30 May 1904.
In OTL Friedrich Wilhelm and his wife Augusta celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary by distributing 25 Pfennig from the public treasury to every citizen of the grand duchy.

In the late 1830s, William IV of the United Kingdom wished to marry his niece Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent (and future Queen of the United Kingdom). to one of the son's of King William II of the Netherlands.
Nothing came of this however, as Victoria remarked to her uncle Leopold I of Belgium, "The Netherlander boys are very plain and have a mixture of Kalmuck (Mongol) and Dutch in their faces, moreover they look heavy, dull, and frightened and are not at all prepossessing. So much for the Oranges, dear Uncle".
But if she had wanted to marry one of his sons there is:
- William Alexander Frederick Constantine Nicolas Michael (1818–1848)
- William Frederick Henry "the Navigator" (1820–1879)

There is Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1814-1885) older brother of Christian IX of Denmark, who became known as the "the father-in-law of Europe" so with Chirstian IX and Victoria I's children, we could end up with a member from the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, on every throne/

If Napoleon Bonaparte, is able to peacefully keep the French Empire inplace then there could be:
- His son, Napoleon II.
- His nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon III)
- His stepgrandson Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais, the eldest son of Eugène de Beauharnais.

And for shits and giggles, there are two funny ASBs:
= Abdülmecid I of Ottoman Empire
= Tokugawa Iesada, 13th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.
 
How would Frederick William have affected British society and probably more importantly Victoria? He seems to have been a nice enough guy so maybe he wouldn't be inclined to change his wife as drastically as Albert did. Actually would their marriage have caused a union between Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Britain or would it have gone on to someone else?

A Bonapartist match would have required either of those boys to convert though. But de Beauharnais would have made for some interesting politics between the French and British. And we'd likely have had a Eugene or Eugenie in the British Royal family (much earlier) for some time and possibly a Josephine as well. With Napoleon III would we see a (possibly) short lived Franco-British Union for however long it takes Victoria to have the necessary children to pass the crowns separately to?

But why would she marry Ernest and what might their marriage have been like?

I can only imagine the reactions of the world to an Ottoman or Japanese match. But I bet we'd all like to have been a fly on the walls of all the courts in such a world.

Anyone can still throw other royals in if they feel like it. I'm just interested in seeing how a different husband would have affected Victoria and the World.
 
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I think Francis V, Duke of Modena, a Jacobite candidate can marry Queen Victoria, that will unite the Jacobite and Hanoverian claims...and the House will change to the House of Vaudemont/Habsburg-Lorraine

The two would make a lovely couple...
 
Two other spouses who were considered were: Georg V of Hannover and Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. Both were male-line grandsons of George III and therefore first cousins of Victoria.

Cambridge was a traditionalist military man who was held responsible for failures in the Boer Wars. After being beaten to the touch by Prince Albert, he declared that "arranged marriages are doomed to failure" and married a commoner. I think Victoria was rather disparaging about his looks, which is only natural when the alternative is Prince friggin' Albert. The man was pure sex!

Marrying Georg V of Hannover would have eventually reunited Hannover and the UK, which would have put a spoke in the wheel of Prussian-led German Unification. He was completely blind from 1833 onwards and, due to the influence of his father, took an autocratic view of Kingship, so that would make British politics a bit more fraught.
 
Queen Victoria marries HRH Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Waldemar of Prussia (1817-1849). He was the son of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783-1851).
In this scenario the Prince, who in OTL was referred to as Prince Waldemar, lives numerous years past 1849.
Upon his marriage to Queen Victoria, he is known as Prince Frederick William.
 
If she marries someone else, does it make any difference to European politics? Does she still have the mutation that causes haemophilia in the Tsar's family, helping to bring down the Romanovs?
 
If she marries someone else, does it make any difference to European politics? Does she still have the mutation that causes haemophilia in the Tsar's family, helping to bring down the Romanovs?

I'm sorry! I completely forgot about this thread but my classes began heating up around April and now college is over for the semester so I'm free to answer. :eek:

Maybe, it depends on how many children Victoria has with her husband since OTL she had so many that she became known as the Grandmother of Europe. And Albert himself planned on marrying his children to the various German statelets in order to build an alliance between Germany and Britain. So a new husband will have different aspirations and a different end game when it comes to politics. Say Victoria marries a Bonaparte this could lead to Britain and France becoming closer and possibly forming an alliance much earlier threatening Germany and maybe Russia. This marriage would probably have their children marrying amongst the Catholic nations. If she marries as Queen then she might be able to circumvent the Catholic ban. So Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese and maybe Italian matches would be on the cards at least depending on the political atmosphere around the time they begin searching for grooms for their daughters and brides for their sons. Here Britain might be more Southern oriented politically rather than Northern. And depending on her husband in this scenario she might be made Empress of the French after marriage and the death of the current Emperor. Which in itself might lead to a continuing personal union or the breaking of said union with the eldest son inheriting Britain and the second getting France. Which would keep the two nations closely tied to one another for the foreseeable future.

Or maybe she marries Mecklenburg-Strelitz this could lead to the OTL German marriages(maybe not depending on existent rivalries) with maybe a few more Scandinavian ones than OTL leading to closer ties between Germany and Britain which causes France some distress in the short term and allows for Victoria's granddaughters to marry Russian. With Mecklenburg-Strelitz as the father we might see Brandenburg, Schlesweig-Hosltein, Pommerania, Hannover, Oldenburg and Saxony being the main options for their sons and daughters marriages. Possibly Denmark and Sweden being looked at for matches as well.

So yeah a different marriage changes things quite a bit. Or at least it can if properly executed. She likely does still have the hemophilia mutation since the POD is her marriage not her birth.
 
Even here Victoria is not going to marry against the advice of her Government - until 1841 she is very much in tune with Lord Melbourne (who was her first Prime Minister).
Melbourne and the Commons are going to have two main concerns over the Queen's marriage -
1) She does not marry a reigning monarch or the heir to a reigning sovereign.
2) Not a Roman Catholic

They had just got rid of Hannover as Victoria couldn't inherit as a woman - they are not going to wish to acquire yet another German province through the Queen's marriage.
On religion they are going to want to avoid reopening arguments about Roman Catholic Emancipation and such a marriage would cause significant problems.

Whatever the choice - the future spouse is going to have the same problems Albert had - foreign, impoverished and from a tiny insignificant province.
 
Ahh, Lord Melbourne...why hello dear we meet again.

And Victoria herself is going to be very picky over her potential husbands. If Melbourne and the Commons are willing the Roman Catholic one can be waved away by said RC converting but that also requires the young man in question to be willing. Of course Melbourne might still not approve of said young man.

Even worse than inheriting tiny Hannover would be inheriting France, Prussia, or even some other Catholic country. It would really put a crimp in all of their plans. But the most likely candidate is probably going to have to be some pennyless Prince from a tiny plot of land in Germany then.

Ahh, this is also around the time that Irish emancipation and homerule began picking up speed isn't it? If so then that would definitely affect their choice in husband. It would also tie in with the Roman Catholic Emancipation.
 
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