Alternate Husbands for Victoria

I thought her cousin, Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge was her uncle William IV's first choice. At least it would have meant the continuation of the House of Hanover. He was British while Albert was never that popular being a German, and would his being the queens consort meant that he would be ineligible to command the army as he did all those years? Would that have been a positive or negative for the armed forces of Britain?
 
Victoria and her mother were both heartily against marrying her cousin George, Cambridge's eldest; it wasn't going to happen. Albert's brother Ernest is indeed the next most plausible candidate, but what I've read of them suggests they were rather different people - it's likely that Victoria wouldn't like Ernest. If she manages to make it to the throne without getting betrothed, it could be anyone - my guess is she marries later, and probably to some minor member of the British nobility that Melbourne steered towards her. Britain doesn't need a continental monarch for a Prince Consort, and had Victoria not found Albert so personally entrancing it almost certainly wouldn't have had one.
 
The Butterflies of Victoria...

... Are actually enormous. A dynastic marriage by Victoria would avoid her being crippled by grief at Albert's untimely death. Such matters as the Irish Question could have been dealt with, the Queen could have appointed a (better) Heir Apparent as Viceroy of India, there might have been no Kaiser Wilhelm and no Great War. That's just to mention a few possibilities.

Keep this going!
 
IMHO she is not going to be marrying into the British aristocracy, that was the point of a continental match. Its the same problem other British queens have had, kings as well. Marrying one family promotes it and its interests above all of its rivals who are going to feel hard done by.

There is also going to be pressure on her to marry soon as without an heir that leaves Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland as her heir, and many many people were desperately keen that he should not succeed to the throne.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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