Book description
Beatrice was the last child born to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Her father died when she was four and as Matthew Dennison relates
Victoria came to depend on her youngest daughter absolutely, but she
also demanded from her complete submission. It is an enthralling story,
not just of a mother/daughter relationship, but of a Queen and subject
relationship. Beatrice succumbed to her mother's obsessive love, so that
by the time she was in her late teens she was her constant companion and
running her mother's office, which meant that when Victoria died her
daughter became literary executor, a role she conducted with teutonic
thoroughness. She edited and bowdlerised her mother's Journals that
cover 70 years and where possible her voluminous correspondence.
Although Victoria tried to prevent Beatrice even so much as thinking of
love, her guard slipped when Beatrice was 29. She met Liko, Prince Henry
of Battenberg, and fell in love. Beatrice, however, did not end up
simply as a wife and mother. She loved music and composed a military
march which remains in the repertoire of British regimental bands, she
sang and she painted. Matthew Dennison draws on extensive new material
to restore Princess Beatrice to her rightful place as a key figure in
the Victorian dynasty.
