“Royal Web: The Story of Princess Victoria and Frederick of Prussia”, by Ladislas Farago & Andrew Sinclair

350 pages, McGraw-Hill, ISBN-13: 978-0070199415

If ever there was a “royal web” then it was spun by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, whose children and grandchildren would occupy damn near every throne in Europe in an attempt to institute “The Coburg Plan”, whereby Britain’s (relative) liberal institutions would be copied by the great nations of Europe, spreading peace and prosperity to all from the top down. Royal Web: The Story of Princess Victoria and Frederick of Prussia by Ladislas Farago (his last book before dying) and Andrew Sinclair chronicles just one small part of this plan when their eldest daughter, Victoria the Princess Royal, married Frederick of Hohenzollern of the Royal House of Prussia and, later, the Imperial House of Germany. Victoria (Vicky) was probably the most intelligent and politically astute of all of Victoria’s and Albert’s children; knowing that she would never be a monarch in he own right, her parents recognized that an advantageous marriage would allow her to become queen, or even empress of another power, and influence events from the throne beside the Throne, as it were. Albert had visions of a united Germany modeled on the United Kingdom, and from the time Vicky was still an infant he set his sights on Vicky marrying into the Prussian Royal Family. With this goal in mind, he set out to educate Vicky in a way that he never did his oldest son, Bertie (later King Edward VII). While Vicky was still a teen, she married Fritz, the son and heir of King William I of Prussia, and spent much of her life as the Crown Princess. The marriage of Fritz and Vicky was a love match-one of the few among royalty in the 19^th Century, for both had a liberal vision for the future of Germany…unfortunately, Emperor William I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck did not share this view; in fact, they did everything possible to suppress the liberals, and Vicky was even accused of being an English spy. This was also a turbulent time for the Prussians as the war-hungry Bismarck goaded Prussians into war with the Danes, Austrians, French and even fellow German states. By the time Fritz became emperor, it was too late to make any major changes.

At first, I thought this was going to be a basic biography on Fritz and Vicky, but in truth it was rather short on personal history and dealt a great deal with Big Picture stuff (little is mentioned about their children except for William, who became Kaiser William II). It also gets bogged down in battles, wars, espionage and political intrigue, and while the authors try to simplify the history of Germany during this time (which consisted of 38 independent German states), it would have been helpful to include a map of Europe and Germany. Overall, Royal Web was a thumbnail introduction to its subject. One thing that the authors had at their disposal was the many volumes of letters between Victoria and Vicky (they wrote almost daily), part of which was saved when Vicky’s letters were smuggled out of Germany after her husband’s death. The relationship between the Wilhelm and his parents is also fascinating and disturbing, and while Vicky and Fritz were born into the wealth and privilege of royalty, their lives were filled with tragedies and disappointments. Things didn’t quite play out as expected. So while I wouldn’t discount Royal Web, if you’re looking for a straight biography of these two, there are many better books to be found. Emperor Frederick III, the liberal and pragmatic father of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the infamous and incompetent leader of the German Empire during the First World War, would have changed history if not for his short and tragic 99-day reign cut short by throat cancer. His wife, the very intelligent British Victoria Princess Royal, eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, was hated in Germany mainly due to plotting by Bismarck…but has slowly been rehabilitated and recognized as a brilliant force in building the German Social Democratic tradition. This simple biography gives a good account of the travails and politics of late 19^th Century Germany, its formation, and what could have been had this great couple been allowed to guide Germany into something resembling a Constitutional Monarchy along British lines. Shame.