So, here is an wikipedia page version of my absolutist!Queen Victoria (I'm thinking about later on posting the boxes of her children and pages for her descendants)
continuing
The Empress Victoria (called in Albion “Victoria, the Princess Royal” to not confuse her with her mother) was Victoria of Albion’s first child and daughter, and while considered by many as her mother’s least “interesting” child, the German Empress was still a remarkable woman in her own right among the colorful array that were her siblings, being known for her involvement in Prussian (and later German) politics and in shaping her children’s ideologies and personality. Raised in the political Frankenstein that was her mother’s court, Victoria grew up a staunchly conservative individual[1] and during her time as Crown Princess became known for her close friendship with Otto von Bismarck[2]. A believer in “the natural amity between Germany and Albion”, during her entire adult life she lobbied for the alliance between the two empires, which would culminate in the Great Coalition during the First World War.
A prolific writer, although she is remembered mostly for the novels of her widowhood[3], the empress also published under a pseudonym dozens of essays and pamphlets on politics and social theory[4], through which she also developed a long-standing enmity with Karl Marx[5]. Interested in architecture and art, after her husband’s death less than a year into his reign she retired from public life, living in a palace she ordered built on Kronberg in Taunus[6] and mostly only interacting with her children, of which Wolfgang[7], Eric[8], Sigismund[9] and Victoria[10] were the most important
1] Believing that only a strong hereditary monarch could maintain any form of government from devolving into some sort of mob-rule or be completely useless due to party-based instability, she was, however, a fervent suffragette, and basically used her tuberculosis to shame the government into giving women the vote in 1905, with it being passed literally the day of her death
[2] Whom she declared “that man knows what I am saying, if only he’d stop allying with the anti-Semites…”
[3] A total of 38, most of them steamy romances using her husband and herself as the basis for the bodies, they were all the rage in Europe during the turn of the century and retain a niche following to this day. She used the pseudonyms “Erika Lonergan” or “Michela Jürstein”
[4] Under the pseudonym “Albert Heinlein”, she published 1 manifesto and over 150 essays and pamphlets on her political opinions her social theory around monarchy and its importance to society at large
[5] As their beliefs were almost the complete antithesis of each other, and through the 1860s all the way to his death the two had a highly publicized and infamously violent enmity through words (they never met), either through letters or through critiques and jabs at each other’s beliefs
[6] Schloss Friedrichshof ended up becoming the traditional residence of German Empress dowagers or mothers
[7] Her undisputed favorite (even though he was born with a withered left arm), Victoria groomed him in politics together with Bismarck and was responsible for naming him that way (she loved Mozart, and strong-armed her husband into not naming him Wilhelm)
[8] Who was made the “Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg” by his grandfather in 1876 after winning it on a poker match
[9] Who disliked his parents, skedaddled to Albion at age 14 after a fight with his parents and entered the Navy under a false name, he was discovered only a decade later when he became a commodore at age 22, two years later he was made King of the Bahamas by his grandmother
[10] Called “the most vivacious princess of Europe”, who declared at age 11 she “wanted to be a boy so she could enter the army”, walked more in breeches than in a dress, and when she was 21 eloped with the son of Bismarck’s greatest rival and forced her father to make him a prince
Empress Elizabeth, Victoria’s third child and the first of her brood to marry outside of the traditional protestant matches, as she was married in 1860 to the recently widowed[1] Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria, it was, while not one without its hiccups[2], a close and dedicated union, and the two of them were each other’s lovers, closest friends and confidants, and she served as his councilor and second-in-command.
Cunning and extremely intelligent, Elizabeth spent her tenure as empress first pestering and manipulating into, and later actually helping, her husband deal with the instabilities of the Austrian Empire, being one of the leaders of the proposal for the creation of a “United Hapsburg Empire”[3] and responsible for convincing the Austrian government to separate Venetia-Lombardy[4] after the War of 1866[5], besides helping with the creation of the Bosnian Kingdom[6] and gaining the throne of Cyprus[7] to one of her sons[8]. Although many times using of her husband’s semi-autocratic powers to get her way, Elizabeth was, in fact, a liberal, and supported the idea of an “executive-monarchy” in which the monarch retains the position of head of government and has powers similar to that of a president. Elizabeth was also something of a icon in the empire’s high society, and made kiwis a fashionable pet for the aristocratic woman[9]
A carrier of hemophilia, four of Elizabeth’s sons[10] and two of her daughters[11] would suffer or carry the disease
1] His first wife (and maternal first cousin), Duchess Elizabeth of Bavaria, died giving birth to their only son, Crown Prince Rudolph (1858-1889), from what is theorized to have been eclampsia
[2] The hemophilia was a source of grief, and she was constantly at odds with his mother
[3] A federalized empire made of “member-states” united under the common banner of imperial authority, it was a complicated and arduous process for it to be developed, and the territories of Galicia and the Dobruja still ended up seceding from it (even if both remained under Hapsburg rule in a way)
[4] Renamed after Lombardy was retaken in the Third Italian War, it was given to her eldest surviving son, Joseph (more commonly known as “Giuseppe” in his kingdom)
[5] One of the most humiliating moments in imperial history, but a necessary one in the long run, the War of 1866 (also known as the Austro-Prussian War) represented the end of Austria’s membership of the German Confederation and any larger German entity, and the only reason why Italy didn’t get it was due to sheer dumb luck
[6] Originally a “Condominium” under Austrian/Hapsburg rule, when the Balkan War started in 1908 they finally annexed it, but, understanding that it would be better if the empire didn’t add another multiethnic region to its territory, Elizabeth served as the head of the faction in the government who saw that an independent Bosnia was easier to administrate in general, which resulted in the Kingdom of Bosnia being created in 1909, ruled by one of the sons of Queen Valkyrie of Serbia, who was living in exile in Vienna since her husband’s assassination in 1903
[7] In the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War of 1878, Albion ended up acquiring Cyprus as a new territory but didn’t really desire to rule it outside of the useful naval bases it had, and so in 1880 it was decided that the island would become a kingdom within the empire
[8] Originally Empress Victoria was looking to make one of her male-line grandchildren the rulers of Cyprus, but Elizabeth sweet-talked her mother into giving the throne to the then 12-year-old Alexander, who would move to the island shortly after his enthronement to be groomed into the position
[9] Elizabeth gained a small nest of kiwis during the Imperial Tour’s stop at New Zealand, and ended up popularizing them as pets after bringing them with her to Austria (her mother and sisters did the same in Albion)
[10] Franz, Alexander, Fritz and Wadislaw, the first died young after bumping his head on a door, the second lived his entire life wearing a padded jacket, the third had mental health problems and killed himself at age 15 and the fourth wore a padded jacket to protect himself and died while sleeping with his lover at age 27 (he also went a wee-bit mad and though drinking human blood would cure him, although he had the decency of using people on the death row)
[11] Maria Antonia had a son who lived just long enough to have children, and Valkyrie had two sons, both who had the disease, living the same life as their uncle Alexander always fearful of dying from bumping into anything
Princess Alice, who while completely uninterested in politics became famous (and infamous) for her quite unique for her personal life instead.
Married firstly to the Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine[1], it was during her years in Germany that she developed a deep interest in nursing, in special after hearing tales of intrepid nurses on the Crimea, and during it was during this marriage that she devoted her time to either her family or in managing hospitals[2] or actively nursing the sick. After an outbreak of diphtheria in 1878 which put most of her family to bed, Alice nearly died of a mix of exhaustion and the disease after nursing them for over a month without much rest. She would live on Hesse until 1886, having ruled as regent for her son for four years after her husband died of tuberculosis.
After ending her regency, Alice decided to return to Albion[3], and in 1888 decided to seek a career instead of continuing to be supported by the Civil List or the Crown Estates and enrolled in secret on the London School of Medicine for Women[4], being the first member of the royal family to have an occupation outside of the military or traditional royal duties and graduating with a degree of Master of Surgery[5].
Besides the scandal of her career, Alice was soon thereafter also involved in another when she remarried in 30 July 1830 to Lord Victor Cavendish[6], who was half her age, in a small ceremony on a civil parish in Woolwich, with her daughter[7] and his brother serving as the testimonies and the only attendees besides her son, her maid and his valet. A scandal for a multitude of reasons, during the first decade or so of the relationship the two ended up as the butt of jokes and caricatures[8] through the empire, and only gained some sense of respectability after the birth of their first son, which would be the first of five children[9].
A hemophilia carrier, of her many children, five of her daughters[10] were carries and two of her sons[11] had the disease
1] Originally the two were deeply in love with each other, but their relationship degenerated over the years to the point of barely being a friendship, and only recovered relatively when he was wasting away
[2] Field hospitals during the War of 1866, which consequentially basically ruined her relationship with her older sister Victoria
[3] Living in a rather low-profile house Piccadilly on a middle-class neighborhood, most people didn’t even know she was a princess until she moved in 1908, being known until then as “the widow Mrs. Lewis, who lives with her son Freddie and married a man half her age”
[4] Founded in 1874, it was the first medical school in Albion to train women as doctor (its entirely OTL, BTW)
[5] Although her mother was initially adamantly against it, Empress Victoria ended up mellowing down after a screaming match or two, and even was present during the graduation ceremony
[6] Who would end up becoming the 9th Duke of Devonshire in 1908, the two met while in a party hosted by his grandfather, the 8th Duke, in 1890, and the rest is history
[7] A colorful character by herself, having married her aunt’s brother-in-law (although she was rather close in age to Prince Louis, having been born in 1862 and he in 1854), she entered politics in 1895 after having herself naturalized as Albish and served as a MP from 1895 until her retirement in the 50s. Made Duchess of Halifax in 1945, she became known for being the Parliamentary Secretary for the Board of Trade from 1910 to 1916 and for passing the Bill of Parliamentary Garbs, which has meant that for the past century members of both Houses can only wear the type of clothing worn during the late 19th century, an unique quirk that has remained in place for the sake of tradition
[8] Who liked to show her as being an elderly seductress obsessed on conquering young men and him as a dumb fool who preferred sleeping with older women
[9] Of whom the most memorable have most certainly been Maud of Malta and Lady Isobel, the former was the first woman to reach the position of Admiral of the Fleet in the Imperial Navy (and was made “Princess of Malta” for it) while the latter is considered one of the world’s greatest chemists
[10] The Princesses Irene, Alix and Ludwiga of Hesse and by Rhine, Lady Isobel and Queen Blanche of Albania, all of whom had sons or female-line grandsons with the disease
[11] The Duke of Orkney and the Marquess of Aberdaugleddau and Gelliswick (sometimes called Marquess of Milford Haven and Gelliswick), both of whom would not live to the age of 50 but not live uneventful lives, as Frederick (who accompanied his mother) somehow entered the navy and managed not to die while serving on it, being made duke after his marriage to Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont at age 25 (she was considered a spinster), and served during the First Great War during the Siege of Jamaica, while Charles entered politics as an MP for Flinsbury, being made a marquess while in a coma after hitting his head in a doorframe (which would result in his death at age 48
King George I of Bengal, originally title the “Duke of York” before he was made one of the first kings of the empire in 1880, during his time as a duke he developed a reputation as a roughish playboy, being infamously fond of luxury and a wee bit hedonism[1], which was said to have only developed after his enthronement, as the Victoria Palace[2] became famous for its lavish court with balls and parties periodically, and the “harem” that George was said to have[3] was the victim of constant caricatures on the press, in special after he drastically expanded it[4].
A liberal man, who during his reign gave Bengal a parliament[5], helped the economy[6] and supported local artists, intellectuals and craftsmen[7]. Although never converting to Hinduism, he is recorded as having become and Indo-Anglican[8] by the time of his death, and asked to follow more Hindu burial traditions when he died[9].
1] To the point of being considered “special clientele” by high class brothels in Albion and France, one of which made him a special chair just so he would have an easier time “coupling” with the workers
[2] OTL Government House in Kolkata, was the residence of the Governor-General of India from 1858 to 1931
[3] Although would like to say it was simple caricatures of the king, he did in fact had over 15 mistresses during his time in Bengal, of which only 2 weren’t of Indian origins, and had for most of it more than a single one at a time. With them he had nine children besides his legitimate ones
[4] Already a large palace when he took it, by the time of George’s death it was a lavish complex in par with the one of the great princes and kings of the subcontinent, it cost a large penny and his grandson was the one to finish paying the bill
[5] Established in 1895, the Bengali Parliament is based on the Westminster System, originally with a House of Lords made of 224 members and a House of Commons made of 670 of them (nowadays it’s over thrice that size), of all those peers, most where local Bengalis of Anglo-Indians (and many who were already local nobility and were simply made part of the peerage), of them there were 15 dukes, 24 marquesses, 97 earl, 13 viscounts and the rest an amalgamation of barons and lords
[6] George believed the best way to enrich Bengal was to industrialize, and by the time of his death Calcutta was in route to being a “London of the East”, as an Albish journalist once said, although the pollution of the Ganges would take nearly 2 decades to be solved because of it
[7] As he was known for having fallen in love with the culture
[8] He quite certainly was reaching the point of believing that all Hindu gods were aspects of God
[9] He asked that his body be cremated in a pyre floating down the Ganges
Empress Margaret of Brazil, the second among her siblings to marry a catholic, having married Dom Afonso of Brazil after years of a letter-based courtship[1], she is also infamous among them for being the only one of her sisters to never visit Albion after her marriage, and only leaving Brazil once after it[2].
Remarkably shy and known for her deep love of tea[3] and literature[4], Margaret became famous in Brazil for her expansion of the tea industry[5] and support of local writers and artists[6] during her time as Princess Imperial, which have been for decades only overshadowed by her dedication and championing of industrialization[7] and abolitionism, going so far as to free all slaves owned by the Crown during her husband’s second regency[8].
Originally content with pushing for reforms but not actively antagonizing the landowning elites of the empire, her life and opinions would be drastically changed by 1889, when a failed coup against her father-in-law[9] started a 16-year-long civil war that would mark her time as empress[10], radicalize the imperial couple[11] and completely upend Brazilian society[12].
After the war ended with an imperial victory, her life would never be the same, and she would become known for taking a variety of causes, from land distribution[13], to women’s rights[14], to helping the poor[15] to natural preservation[16], and later created a government-run orphanage system to deal with the large amount of orphans of the First Great War[17], which she would run intermittently throughout her widowhood[18]
Margaret was the last of her siblings to pass way, dying at age 105 from breast cancer after years suffering from Alzheimer[19], and was buried in the Imperial Pantheon of the Braganzas, in Petrópolis[20]
1] The two of them met during the Royal Family’s stop in Brazil during the Imperial Tour, and struck a friendship during the near month they stayed there, exchanging letters for the next decade before being officially betrothed
[2] Margaret made a short visit to Argentina in the 1930s, reportedly to spit on the grave of her husband’s murder
[3] Margaret loved growing, brewing and drinking tea, and even had a small farm of it near the Petrópolis Imperial Palace
[4] She loved reading, and even dabbled on writing in her later years when she wrote her memories in 1940s
[5] Although coffee remains the most consumed infusion in the country, tea is also a common beverage, in special the cold variations or the mate in the south
[6] A liker of Brazilian Realism, Margaret helped create the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) in 1877 and was an admirer of Machado de Assis, whom her husband granted an earldom in 1897 by her insistence
[7] Believing that the way for a nation to grow was the industrial development seen in Albion, Margaret strongly defended that Brazil develop beyond exporting cash crops, and went as far as to actively establish factories and even bail out the Viscount of Maua, which was Brazil’s greatest industrial but nearly went bankrupt in the 1870s
[8] This put her and her similarly-minded husband at odds with the large slave-owning aristocracy of the South and Southwest, although even with her staunch abolitionism Margaret believed that the empire would need to give monetary compensation to the slave owners like Britain had done, calling it “a necessary evil”
[9] Led by the Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca (believed nowadays to have been a useful scapegoat), the Coup of 15 November 1889 had the objective of establishing a republic in Brazil by deposing the emperor and his cabinet, it was supported by large republican factions in the military and aristocracy, and had an unspoken support of the Church, who had been at odds with Dom Pedro II for years
[10] The Brazilian Civil War (which also involved the Anglo-La Platan War when La Plata tried to intervene after Albion also intervened on the conflict), it was a make-it-or-break-it in the empire’s history and killed around 50.000 people across Brazil, seeing battles in the Southwest, Northwest and even in the Amazon, on one side were the Republicans, supported by the republican and slave-owning factions of the aristocracy (after slavery was abolished in 1888) and having around 50% of the original military, and the Imperials, supported by the poor, middle-class and freed slaves, together with backing from Albion. It lasted until 1905 and was more than once a near-victory for the republicans, who controlled major centers of power and population for years
[11] Originally the two were fine with reaching a compromise with the republicans, by the end, the only thing they didn’t do was say that “no quarter is to be given” in relation to them, and were rather vindictive in the punishment of the rebels
[12] The war, most of all, broke the pre-existing social norms in the empire, as its aftermath saw the ruin of most of the old landowning aristocracy of the Southwest and South, which majorly supported the republicans and saw their lands either taken or were fined so heavily they had to use them as payment, the end of the agrarian economy of Brazil, as the monarchy pursued as heavy development of state-run industry during and after the war, and the enfranchisement of the poor and most of the black and mulatto population, who had made most of the early supporters of the imperials and basically sustained the imperial army through the conflict
[13] Which would happen through the 1910s and 20s by granting of lands in the Middle-West to freed slaves and immigrants, most of the old great farms taken from the old aristocracy became (and many times remain) state-run affairs
[14] Which culminated with women gaining the right to vote in 1910 and Empress Victoria being passed over her brothers to the throne
[15] She gave many donations to poor relief, and is credited as one of the inspirations for the “Bolsa Familia”
[16] While her mother defended animal protection, Margaret was more focused on nature, and at the same time that she proposed the industrialization of Brazil she also defended that the nature within its border be protected and that it have an equilibrium in cities, defending the city-planning that is now standard in Brazil of mixing the urban sprawl with large green pockets (the most famous example being the network of parks around the shores of the rivers of São Paulo City)
[17] The conflict and the Swiss Flu are estimated to have orphaned over half a million of children in Brazil alone
[18] Mostly from her residence in the Petrópolis Imperial Palace, more commonly know as the “Dowager’s House”
[19] Starting to show symptoms in the 1940s while writing her memories, by 1951 the empress was constantly accompanied by a nurse and a maid, and had become so senile she could rarely remember even her own name and barely spoke, ad her family seems to have been relieved of not having to see her suffer anymore from it
[20] The Imperial Pantheon, which was founded in 1910 to bury the Empress Theresa Christina, is the traditional burial grounds of the Brazilian Imperial Family located on far east of Petrópolis, unlike most cemeteries (and the Royal Pantheon in Portugal, which is a mausoleum), it is more akin to an open field, as the graves are dug near trees, and has the unique quirk that all dead are buried in shrouds without embalming; Margaret herself was buried beside her husband under a willow the two had planted there in 1898 (it originally was a personal retreat of theirs)
Princess Ophelia, more commonly known as “Empress Eudoxia Antonova” outside of Albion and the one among her siblings to marry into Russian Orthodoxy. During her youth the most active and “unruly” amongst the children of Empress Victoria, known for having a feisty personality and love of the thrill of life[1] and being considered quite the antithesis of what a “respectable woman” of the time would be, Ophelia became rather infamous across Europe in 1865, when during Grand Duke Alexander of Russia’s visit to Albion[2] she eloped with the royal[3] and the two were hastily married soon after[4].
A sharer of Alexander’s beliefs on government[5] but quite fond of ethnic minorities[6], during her time as empress consort Ophelia focused most of her efforts in either raising her children[7] or nurturing the damaged image of the Romanov Dynasty[8], and while dowager she had to work twice as hard so her children didn’t do any damage[9], by any means necessary[10]. Her main enforcer was the Baron Lenin[11].
Losing many of her siblings on the 1910s and 20s and many relatives in the First Great War, Empress Eudoxia died a melancholic woman, whose grandson ruled only part of a Russia who was only in the start of a long era of conflict, and whose dreams of an united Russian Empire were crushed by a conflict too large even for it
1] Normally spending her days either escaping tutors, on a shooting range, playing pranks or riding across the royal estates
[2] Who was doing the traditional “tour” of a young male aristocrat
[3] Having become acquaintances during his time there, the two actually hated each other for around the first year of their relationship, but still couldn’t stay out of each-other’s clothes, hate-powered sex devolved into toleration and culminated in a actually loving relationship
[4] When his brother died in late 1865, it was expected that Alexander, now Tsarevich, would marry Dagmar of Denmark (as the late Nicholas had wished his brother to marry his bride), but, against those plans, Princess Ophelia ended up getting pregnant from their escapades, and they were married in quite a hurry, with the future Nicholas II being born in May 1866, 4 months after their ceremony
[5] Ophelia once said to her husband “your father’s greatest decision was the end serfdom, but even then that fool managed to screw up”, although she also understood that an autocrat should know to delegate, which caused a great number of discussions among her family due to her son’s literal-mindedness
[6] In her late years, she characterized it in a quite interesting way “humanity is like a banquet, and peoples are the dishes. Now tell me, would you like if all banquets only had a single one?”
[7] A protective helicopter parent, Ophelia disliked having her children out of her sight and after Alexander II’s assassination ordered that they be at all places with at least a guard and learn how to defend themselves, which proved to be quite the genius when Nicholas II killed a man trying to assassinate him in 1897
[8] The russification and genocides, besides the lackluster works of Alexander II in relation to the poor and other social classes, really took a tool in the prestige of the Imperial Family, and at the same time that she mellowed her husband’s views (Alexander took over a decade in the throne to stop thinking some sense of ethnic homogeneity was needed in Russia) Ophelia worked to present the Imperial Family as symbol of unity for the gigantic empire (she also supported the mass-migration of Old Believers to Alyeska, later ruled by one of her sons (who himself became an Old Believer), but no-one likes to mention it)
[9] Nicholas II’s literal-mindedness in government and his family problems (having his three sons be all hemophiliacs) almost ruined the family, as did some of her other children’s scandals
[10] Ophelia was famously fond of gardening, and the gardens of her palace at Tsarskoye Selo remain charming even a hundred years after she created them
[11] Originally only known for being a university professor and journalist who created the theory for social-monarchism, documents released in the 1990s revealed his position as the head of the empress’ secret police
A misanthropic, anxious and chronically depressed woman who also had selective mutism[2], Georgiana’s life has been historically characterized by her marriage, which was promised in 1871 after Albion helped prop-up France d’Outre-mer[3] but took an entire decade to come into fruition[4], during which time she served as lady-in-waiting to Empress Eugénie at the imperial court in Dakar[5]; after finally marrying at age 33 when her husband finally took a break on his wars[6] life didn’t get any easier, as Georgiana became responsible for controlling the court and serving as the host of all foreign and domestic dignitaries[7]. Only after entering widowhood that her life became more easier, retiring to her beloved Millefleur[8] where she would live for the remainder of her days[9].
Although a caring mother, Georgiana was rather hands-off in raising her children, who grew up mostly surrounded by local tutors and servants[10]. She would not live to see their empire crumble[11]
1] Incapable of walking without a special brace sustaining her left side, Georgiana would live with a constant literal pain on the leg and in her later years be forced to use a wheelchair to move due to her muscles and bones not managing to do the work in giving a foundation to the brace
[2] Georgiana disliked staying around other people and had as her closest friend her dogs and flowers, who would be largely the only things she would utter words to, and was known to be always in some state of melancholy or sadness
[3] Technically still the Second French Empire, France d’Outre-mer was a state born of the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, when in its aftermath Napoleon III was deposed in Metropolitan France but managed to hold the allegiance of some colonies in West Africa and the Pacific, while also being supported by Albion (who was basically the empire’s lifeline before Napoleon IV’s conquests)
[4] Firstly her husband was fourteen when they were betrothed and after reaching his majority he stalled the marriage constantly, as he didn’t actually want to marry her (some joked he was hoping she would die of some tropical disease if he waited long enough. She managed to beat Malaria )
[5] An agitated and lively court, she was miserable in there
[6] During his reign Napoleon IV fought over 10 wars against either France (who only recognized his empire in 1884) or West African native kingdoms (whom he subjugated in what has been called “The Second Continental System”), besides even having an expedition to establish control over French Polynesia. His dream of conquering Algeria, though, was never realized
[7] She was so overwhelmed by it that a courtesan once wrote “the empress is the living embodiment of pitifulness”
[8] Built by her orders between 1890 and 1896 on the outskirts of Dakar, the Millefleur Palace (named after the gigantic garden complex around it) has been called “The Versailles of Africa”, being the most opulent and exuberant building made during the empire’s lifetime
[9] With a workforce made mostly of semi-nude manservants
[10] And absorbed some local customs and even language, with Princess Eugénie, for example, speaking her nanny’s Wolof better than French and Princess Esmé talking in a creole mix so thick her husband didn’t understand her words during their marriage, while Napoleon V was almost averse to European-style clothing, and preferred a variety of tunics
[11] Already mostly a federation of various native kingdoms under the rule of the Emperor from Dakar, the empire ended up crumbling after the death of Napoleon V in 1929 as the southern kingdoms broke away while the crownlands were held onto by his children together with the northern vassals, establishing the Second Mali Empire in 1948
King Victor I of Bombay, originally the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn before gaining the throne in 1880, he was one of the three children of Empress Victoria to look for a career on the military, entering the Army at age 16 and serving on it for 12 years before retiring upon his enthronement, having been deployed for most of that time on India, where he became the head of the Bombay Army[1].
A serious and pragmatic person[2] who when not with family spent most of his time either working or on some sort of public event[3], Victor’s rule over Bombay was one marked by being based on him as the center of the machine of bureaucracy, and it was only in 1928 that he gave the kingdom a parliament[4] as he believed he didn’t need one to do his job well[5].
An Indo-Anglican like his older brother and his wife[6] but much less interested in the arts than him[7], Victor dedicated himself on supporting education, which was made compulsory to all children between the ages of 8 and 14 in 1903.
1] Ever since the Imperial Tour Victor had become infatuated with the subcontinent, and during his time as a soldier he spent almost a decade in India, serving as the commander of the Bombay Army from 1878 to 1880 before it was disbanded into the Royal Army of Bombay in 1880
[2] Disliking small-talk and having piano and dactylography as his main hobbies, Victor’s nickname in the press and even with his servants was “the Cold One” due to his tendency to almost never show any emotion (the only recorded time he smiled was in the birth of his first child, a nurse fainted after looking at him)
[3] His wife was enraged once when he started doing paperwork at their son’s 15th anniversary
[4] Based off Westminster, initially with 180 lords and 240 commons, most of them Indians or Anglo-Indians
[5] It was a mix of age knocking at the door and his son’s more liberal leanings that convinced Victor to do it, together with start delegating more after years of having the smallest personal staff possible
[6] The Princess Louise of Prussia, who married Victor exactly a year before his enthronement, she openly stated to praying both to God and a myriad of Hindu deities and asked to be cremated after her death, Victor was of a similar leaning to her, and their urns are together within the Royal Catacombs of Bombay
[7] Victor called his brother’s support of artists and craftsmen (together with his buildings) an “overt spending” and that the money could be “used on something other than frivolities” in a letter to his sister Beatrice, in 1905
King Cedric I of Portugal[1], the last of his siblings to marry a catholic.
A lover of the sea since childhood and entering the navy at age 14[2], Cedric’s youth was one marked by sailing through the Mediterranean and being considered as a contender for various thrones, first as a husband to the Queen of the Hellenes[3], then as the heir of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha[4] and lastly as his wife’s husband[5], whom he married in 1885 with great fanfare.
Although originally a king in name only[6], focusing his time in developing the Portuguese Navy[7] or in easing up relations between Portugal and Albion[8] or with Portugal’s vassals[9], Cedric’s involvement in governance would change drastically in 1908, when his wife and eldest son where assassinated[10] and he was forced to take control, dealing with not only the fallout of the assassination but also having to fight a republican uprising[11] and stabilize the country while his grandson grew up[12].
Ruling as an undisputed absolute monarch[13], Cedric abdicated in 1923 after his grandson reached majority, and died a year later of tuberculosis, leaving behind a large collection of glass and ceramic wares
1] Made king together with his wife, Carlota, as Portuguese law says that the consort of a female monarch is also a king by law (he was also the only Cedric to ever rule Portugal)
[2] Cedric would serve on it for 20 years, and reach the position of Rear-Admiral before retiring when his wife became regent of Portugal during her father’s last years
[3] Irene of the Hellenes, who was born in 1846 and was considered as one of the most eligible bachelorettes on Europe (her father, Otto, died in 1863 under suspicious circumstances). In the end she married the Prince William of Denmark in 1865, with him taking the name George upon his conversion to Greek Orthodoxy. Cedric and Irene actually met in the 1870s, and became friends for a lifetime
[4] His paternal uncle, Ernst II, was childless until age 66, when in 1884 he had a son with his second wife, Grand Duchess Maria of Russia (his first wife, the dutiful Alexandrine of Baden, died in a carriage accident in 1883. Like with her, he constantly flaunted mistress in front of Maria, who many joked had murdered him)
[5] Like Irene, Carlota was considered one of the most sought-after brides in Europe, seeing as she and her sister were literally the only candidates to the Portuguese Throne due to two branches being ineligible to it
[6] As was the tradition for king consorts of Portugal
[7] Cedric was given command of the Navy in 1888, and worked tirelessly to bring it to par with the Royal Navy
[8] Being responsible for proposing the compromise between them (basically Albion agreed to give Portugal the right to use the region to connect Angola and Mozambique while Portugal agreed to recognize Albion’s de facto control over the territory)
[9] In special the Kingdom of Kongo, who was promised to have its independence guaranteed by Portugal and even had a royal marriage thrown in the mix, with Cedric’s youngest daughter marrying King Manuel III in 1914
[10] The infamous Lisbon Regicide, it occurred in February 1st, 1908, when two assailants, Manuel Buíça and Alfredo Luís da Costa, attacked the royal carriage while the entire royal family was returning from their country retreat, managing to kill both the Queen and the Prince Royal and injure all other members of the family, on its aftermath Cedric took over as regent, and had the assassins, who had died in the crossfire, be cremated as a post-mortem punishment
[11] Basically a coup mixed with barricades in Portugal’s major cities, caused in part by the republican factions of the Portuguese government feeling emboldened by the assassination
[12] King Pedro VI was the son of Luís, Prince Royal, with his mistress, and later morganatic wife, Joana dos Santos Marrocos, having been made legitimate when his grandmother forced the two of them to marry in 1905 a month after his birth
[13] After the uprising Cedric used his leverage in the Navy to take full dictatorial powers, his grandson would be the one responsible for returning Portugal to some sense of democracy