Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ruled over the vast British Empire from 1837 to 1901, which at sixty three years is a longer reign than any other British monarch. When she died, her legacy was not only political or historical -it was also familial. Through the marriages of her nine children and forty grandchildren, her descendants now number in the thousands and make up the vast majority of current European monarchs. This is a compilation of her descendants who have gone on to reign as monarchs or consorts (the spouses of monarchs), just as she did.
∙ Victoria’s oldest child was a daughter who was also named Victoria. In 1858 she married Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, who briefly reigned as Emperor Friedrich III of Germany in 1888, making Victoria an Empress. Of their eight children, two became sovereigns. The oldest, the future Wilhelm II, became the last Kaiser of Germany on his father’s death in 1888. His granddaughter, Frederica, married her first cousin once removed King Paul of Greece in 1938.
Victoria’s daughter Sophie married Crown Prince Constantine of Greece and became Queen Consort in 1913. Of her five children, all three of her sons, George II, Alexander (whose daughter Alexandra married Peter II of Yugoslavia), and Paul, were successively kings of Greece. Paul and Frederica’s (the granddaughter of Paul’s uncle Wilhelm II) daughter Sofia married Juan Carlos I of Spain and they became monarchs in 1975. Today, Paul and Frederica’s son, Constantine II, who is married to the former Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, is a king without a throne, as Greece is no longer a monarchy.
∙ Queen Victoria’s second child and first son, Albert Edward, succeeded her in 1901 as Edward VII. Of his six children, two became monarchs. His second son (the first having predeceased his father) became George V in 1910. When George V died in 1936, he was succeeded by two of his sons -the oldest, Edward VIII, became the first British monarch to abdicate the throne and his younger brother and George V’s second son, Prince Albert, succeeded him as George VI. Elizabeth II succeeded her father, George VI, upon his death in 1953 and is the current British monarch.
Edward VII’s youngest daughter, Maud, married Prince Charles of Denmark and in 1905 he was elected to the throne of Norway, becoming King Haakon VII. They had only one son, who succeeded his father as Olav V in 1903. When he died in 1991, he was succeeded by his son, Harald V, who is the current Norwegian monarch.
∙ Queen Victoria’s third child, Princess Alice, did not become a queen, but she did give birth to one and was the grandmother to another. In 1894, her daughter, Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and became Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. In 1918, the Tsar, Tsarina, and their five children were murdered during the Russian Revolution and, as a result, they have no descendants alive today.
Alice’s daughter Victoria was the mother of a Queen Consort and grandmother of a Prince Consort. Her youngest daughter Louise married the future Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden in 1923 who was widowed after the death of his first wife, Margaret. Unfortunately, Louise had no surviving children. Princess Victoria’s oldest daughter, Alice, was the mother of Prince Philip of Greece who is married to Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
∙ Queen Victoria’s fourth child, Alfred, was the father of Marie, who married the future Ferdinand I of Romania and became queen in 1914. Of her six children, three became monarchs. Her two oldest children married two of her cousin Sophie of Greece’s children in 1921.
Her oldest son Carol married Helen of Greece in 1921 and gave up his rights to the throne after he divorced Helen and before his father’s death, so his son Michael became king upon Ferdinand’s death in 1927. However, three years later, Carol took the throne from his son and became Carol II. Upon Carol’s death in 1940, his son Michael became king once again. Michael is another king without a throne, as Romania no longer has a monarchy. Marie’s oldest daughter Elisabeth married George II of Greece, but the two had no descendants.
Marie’s second daughter, also named Marie, married King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in 1922. Following her husband’s assassination in 1934, her oldest son became Peter II, the last king of Yugoslavia. He was married to Princess Alexandra of Greece, daughter of Alexander I of Greece. Had Yugoslavia remained a monarchy, their son Alexander would have become king upon his death in 1970. However, because there is no longer a Yugoslavian or rather Serbian monarchy, Alexander prefers to continue to be addressed as Crown Prince.
∙Queen Victoria’s fifth and sixth children had no monarchs as descendants, but her seventh child, Arthur, did. In 1905, his daughter Margaret married the future Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden. However, she died before he became king and thus never became queen. Though he later married her cousin Victoria’s daughter Louise, it is Margaret’s descendant who currently sits on the Swedish throne. In 1973, her grandson (whose father had predeceased him) succeeded his grandfather as King Carl XVI Gustaf.
In 1935, Margaret’s daughter Ingrid married the Crown Prince of Denmark who became Frederik IX in 1947. Their oldest daughter, Margrethe succeeded her father as Margrethe II in 1972 and their youngest daughter, Anne-Marie, married Constantine II of Greece and became queen in 1964.
∙Prince Leopold, Victoria’s eighth child, had two children, one of whom with a monarch as a descendant. His granddaughter Sibylla married Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden in 1932. Unfortunately, he died before becoming king, so she never became queen. However, her son Carl XVI Gustaf is the current reigning monarch.
∙It is through Victoria’s ninth and last child, Beatrice, that the British royal family has a link to Spain. In 1906, her daughter Victoria Eugenie married Alfonso XIII of Spain. In 1975, following the death of Francisco Franco, Spain was restored to a monarchy and Alfonso and Victoria Eugenie’s grandson Juan Carlos, who is married to the former Sofia of Greece, daughter of King Paul and Queen Frederica, became King Juan Carlos I.
If you’re keeping track, that’s two children, seven grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and thirteen great-great-grandchildren who are sitting or who have set on royal thrones as monarchs or consorts. If you think that’s something, just wait until the next generation!
Grandmama of Europe: The Crowned Descendants of Queen Victoria by Theo Aronson. 1973. The Bobbs-Merrill Company. Queen Victoria’s Descendants by Marlene A. Eilers. 1987. Genealogical Publishing Co.
