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A captivating exploration of the role in which Queen Victoria exerted the most international power and influence: as a matchmaking grandmother.
As her reign approached its sixth decade, Queen Victoria’s grandchildren numbered over thirty, and to maintain and increase British royal power, she was determined to maneuver them into a series of dynastic marriages with the royal houses of Europe.
Yet for all their apparent obedience, her grandchildren often had plans of their own, fueled by strong wills and romantic hearts. Victoria’s matchmaking plans were further complicated by the tumultuous international upheavals of the time: revolution and war were in the air, and kings and queens, princes and princesses were vulnerable targets.
Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking travels through the glittering, decadent palaces of Europe from London to Saint Petersburg, weaving in scandals, political machinations and family tensions to enthralling effect. It is at once an intimate portrait of a royal family and an examination of the conflict caused by the marriages the Queen arranged. At the heart of it all is Victoria herself: doting grandmother one moment, determined Queen Empress the next.
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Reader Reviews
Praise
Wonderfully compelling and
packed with new material - a gripping story beautifully told.—Jane Ridley
In this enjoyable story for fans of royal
machinations, Cadbury ably shows not just the successes, but also the damage
inflicted by Victoria's single-mindedness. An instructive European history that
effectively shows 'the influence of [Victoria's] matchmaking on the remarkable
rise of the royal dynasty'.—Kirkus Reviews
[An] absorbing book... The
fall of the Romanovs occupies the superb last pages of Cadbury's book... Dynastic
mergers, we may deduce from Deborah Cadbury's account, offer no defence against
the whims of history. This catastrophe-laced slice of royal history offers a
ripping read.—Miranda Seymour, The Observer
Engrossing...Cadbury
engagingly presents [Queen Victoria] as a mesmerising Mrs Bennet, summoning her
children and then her grandchildren to Balmoral. ..The stories of [Queen
Victoria's] descendants are mesmerising and often stranger than fiction...From
the pen of a writer of skill and style, this surprising narrative leaves you
wanting more.—Paula Byrne, The Times
Cadbury's account of Victoria's
attempts to bend her unruly grandchildren to her matrimonial will is the stuff
of melodrama...covered with verve and insight by Deborah Cadbury in her new
history.—Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times
Deborah Cadbury is an
adroit story teller. Her lively colourfully written book...begins in the 1880s
and ends in the toppling thrones of the First World War, a panoramic family
saga, its players by turns pragmatic and romantic, wilful, dutiful, misguided
and, occasionally tragic—Matthew Dennison, The Daily Telegraph
"A rich history of Queen Victoria's canny use of political power."—Bookpage
"Ms. Cadbury stresses the human element of her story, not least the wayward personalities and unforeseen family rivalries that thwarted Victoria's designs as a monarch and matriarch... Many vivid pen portraits."—William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal
"Fantastic...In lively and page-turning prose, author Deborah "Chocolate Wars" Cadbury confirms her place as a leading historian of Britain as she pulls Queen Victoria out of caricature and into our hearts."—Randy Dotinga, Christian Science Monitor
"Queen Victoria's Matchmaking is a look at royalty when it still had a somewhat mystical aura-these people who were both the state and their own particular selves-and a fascinating angle on a time of ferment, when the wheels were finally, permanently coming off this way of running nations...Forget The Crown-what I really want is a Netflix show based on all these royal grandchildren."
