WI: Prince Albert died just after Princess Victoria was born?

I was kinda going by her actions vis the Bedchamber crisis and similar. I don't really see her as a shrinking violet even at this young age.
I see it as her reacting to parliamentary request to remarry rather than initiating changing the succession.

But she learned from her mistakes and never made the same one twice (that I recall) and she grew up with the succession a near-crisis, only averted by her own birth. Parliament isn't going to request she remarry - the PM will remind her of her duty. Big difference in approach. She's mindful of her duties and position, especially this early in her reign (she was certainly fast to remind Albert). She'll do her duty, remarry and have more children.

She won't marry another ruler. That means uniting the countries or a complicated, long-distance relationship, which she won't like. She'll marry another Albert - that is to say, another Prince far enough down the ladder to make his Kingship unlikely.
 
As a Belgian of course I am contractually obliged to say that if and/or who Victoria marries again depends on the long term plans of her 'dear uncle' Leopold, who at this time is Leopold I, King of Belgium and generally revered as 'The Old Oracle of Europe'. Leo not only already arranged for her to marry Albert, but 20 years beforehand had arranged for his widowed sister to marry Vic's father and therefore for Victoria coming into being in the first place. I am pretty sure old Leo would waste no time figuring out the combination of Victoria +X that is most advantageous for England, Saxony, Belgium, Europe in general and not the least himself. Then he would find some way to make the two genuinely like each other, like he did with cousin Albert.
 
But she learned from her mistakes and never made the same one twice (that I recall) and she grew up with the succession a near-crisis, only averted by her own birth. Parliament isn't going to request she remarry - the PM will remind her of her duty. Big difference in approach. She's mindful of her duties and position, especially this early in her reign (she was certainly fast to remind Albert). She'll do her duty, remarry and have more children.

She won't marry another ruler. That means uniting the countries or a complicated, long-distance relationship, which she won't like. She'll marry another Albert - that is to say, another Prince far enough down the ladder to make his Kingship unlikely.
Which is fair enough.
I don't disagree that the optimal arrangement to produce a "Queen Adelaide" wouldn't be the most likely result if Albert dies per the OP.

As a Belgian of course I am contractually obliged to say that if and/or who Victoria marries again depends on the long term plans of her 'dear uncle' Leopold, who at this time is Leopold I, King of Belgium and generally revered as 'The Old Oracle of Europe'. Leo not only already arranged for her to marry Albert, but 20 years beforehand had arranged for his widowed sister to marry Vic's father and therefore for Victoria coming into being in the first place. I am pretty sure old Leo would waste no time figuring out the combination of Victoria +X that is most advantageous for England, Saxony, Belgium, Europe in general and not the least himself. Then he would find some way to make the two genuinely like each other, like he did with cousin Albert.
Any ideas who that could be?
 
Any ideas who that could be?

Not the faintest. Although seeing how Leopold lost all interest in his sister after she got widowed and instead concentrated his attention on young Victoria as the Crown Princess, he might just as well put all his efforts in grooming Victoria's children Vikky Jr. And possibly Albert Jr. And leave Victoria the elder to marry, or simply to live with however she wants... Provided her new squeeze does not exert too much control over her and her country.


(Sorry, that leaves out 90% of all of Europe's kings and crown princes, but the possibility of a personal union between England and any other state, would make such a match implausible even without old Leo's meddling anyway)
 
For a second husband what about Victoria wedding the exiled duke of Brunswick? She found him attractive OTL (the same way she found Napoléon III attractive if my source is to be believed). His brother has succeeded in his stead so there's no worry that he's going to use her to try and claim Brunswick back. Plus, he's a Guelf and he's already in line for the British throne in any case, but he's also a Protestant.

The only issue might come up when/if his brother (who proposed first to Sophie and then Marie of Württemberg without success) dies without issue. But chances are that if Karl and Victoria have two sons one gets Britain and one gets Brunswick
 
Ernest didn't marry Alexandrine of Baden until 1942 and was widely believed to have made her sterile due to an STD he had passed over to her - Would it have been possible that given maneuvering his youngest nephew into place to marry Victoria hadn't succeeded in the long-run (though had produced an heir, though female) he would attempt to manoeuvere his elder nephew into place instead?

Victoria marries Ernest, they attempt to start a family but produce no children (though rumour persists that he has managed to father children with other women) and Vicky become the heir in due course. Although Ernest becomes Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1844, he dies in 1893 after ignoring his wife for the past forty years and the Duchy passes through the line of Ernest's uncle, Francis, to Carlos I of Portugal and subsequently his son, Manuel II. With Ernest and Victoria being estranged and Ernest's extra-marital affairs being an open secret among the nobility and Parliament, Victoria turns her attention elsewhere due to her enjoyment of sex - and conducts a long-standing affair with her personal attendant, John Brown. This too is an open secret amongst the family - and she may have even produced issue via Brown. There is some discussion that the male issue could be passed off as Ernest's own - but the rather more known secret that Ernest and Victoria hadn't been sexually active together for several years would have precluded this. Instead, the resultant issue is adopted by a close female retainer and late afforded a Dukedom by Victoria herself, though the child would never be informed of their true heritage.
 
Victoria has already jettisoned Ernest for Albert. And through Albert she would have learned of Ernest's disease and the speculation of his possible infertility. No point in marrying your late husband's older, worse-looking, worse-educated brother who will produce da scandal among your ladies. (No more Flora Hastings! Even though this one might really be pregnant.) And it might be seen internationally as a snub not to marry elsewhere the second time. (Stop jumping up and down, Blue, I'm trying to type!)


With Ernest and Victoria being estranged and Ernest's extra-marital affairs being an open secret among the nobility and Parliament, Victoria turns her attention elsewhere due to her enjoyment of sex - and conducts a long-standing affair with her personal attendant, John Brown. This too is an open secret amongst the family - and she may have even produced issue via Brown. There is some discussion that the male issue could be passed off as Ernest's own

The rumored affair with Brown will not occur while whomever she weds is alive; any pregnancy (especially, if as you posit, "everybody knows" she's not having her husband will cast doubt on the paternity of all her children). Also, since by the time Victoria is ready to serious consider suitors, Ernest will have wed his Alexandrine of Baden in May 1842. She will consider another Prince, but not her brother in law.
 
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Would Victoria, only having been married to Albert for about two years, be less heartbroken? Or would she mourn him as she did in her later years, never remarry and when she died in 1901, Victoria the Princess Royal would be crowned Queen?

If she went into such a deep depression at the start of her reign, would her popularity drop to bigger lows than they had before? Would this place the monarchy in jeopardy?
The Civil War in America will become interesting if i say so.
 
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