Victoria, Empress, consort of Frederick III, German Emperor, 1840-1901

Victoria, Princess Royal; born Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, 21 November 1840, Buckingham Palace, London, England, United Kingdom; Died 5 August 1901 (aged 60), Schloss Friedrichshof, Kronberg im Taunus, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire; She was the first child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Her godparents were Queen Adelaide (her great-aunt), the King of the Belgians (her great-uncle), the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (paternal grandfather, for whom the Duke of Wellington stood proxy), the Duke of Sussex (her great-uncle), the Duchess of Gloucester (her great-aunt) and the Duchess of Kent (her grandmother); To her family, she was known simply as "Vicky"; Frederick asked Victoria's parents permission to marry their daughter. They were thrilled by the news, but gave their approval on condition that the marriage should not take place before Vicky's seventeenth birthday; the engagement of Victoria and Frederick was publicly announced on 17 May 1856. The immediate reaction in Great Britain was disapproval. The English public complained about the Kingdom of Prussia's neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853-1856; To pay the dowry of the Princess Royal, the British Parliament allotted the sum of 40,000 pounds and also gave her an allowance of 8,000 pounds per year. Meanwhile, in Berlin, King Frederick William IV provided an annual allowance of 9,000 thalers to his nephew Frederick; The wedding of Victoria and Frederick took place at the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace in London on 25 January 1858; Victoria's move to Berlin began a large correspondence between the princess and her parents. Each week, she sent a letter to her father that usually contained comments on German political events. The majority of these letters have been preserved and have become a valuable source for knowing the Prussian court; On 18 January 1871 (the anniversary of the accession of the Hohenzollern dynasty to the royalty in 1701), the princes of the North German Confederation and those of South Germany (Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt) proclaimed William I as hereditary German emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Then they symbolically united their states within a new German Empire. Frederick and Victoria became German crown prince and crown princess, and Otto von Bismarck was appointed imperial chancellor; The empress dowager died in Friedrichshof on 5 August 1901, less than seven months after the death of her mother; Children: Wilhelm II, German Emperor; Charlotte, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen; Prince Henry; Prince Sigismund; Viktoria, Princess Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe; Prince Waldemar; Sophia, Queen of the Hellenes; Margaret, Landgravine of Hesse