As the eldest child of the British monarch, she was briefly heir presumptive until the birth of her younger brother, the future Edward VII. Educated by her father in a politically liberal environment, Victoria was married at the age of 17 to Prince Frederick of Prussia , with whom she went on to have eight children.
Victoria shared with Frederick her liberal views and hopes that Prussia and the later German Empire should become a constitutional monarchy , based on the British model. Criticised for this attitude and for her English origins, Victoria suffered ostracism by the Hohenzollerns and the Berlin court.
This isolation increased after the rise to power of Otto von Bismarck , one of her most staunch political opponents, in Victoria was empress for only a few months, during which she had opportunity to influence the policy of the German Empire. Frederick III died in β 99 days after his accession β from laryngeal cancer and was succeeded by their son Wilhelm II , who had much more conservative views than his parents.
The empress dowager then settled in Kronberg im Taunus , where she built Friedrichshof , a castle, named in honour of her late husband. Increasingly isolated after the weddings of her younger daughters, she died of breast cancer in August , less than 7 months after the death of her mother, Queen Victoria , in January The correspondence between Victoria and her parents has been preserved almost completely: 3, letters from Queen Victoria to her eldest daughter and about 4, letters from the empress to her mother are preserved and catalogued.
She was the first child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. When she was born, the doctor exclaimed sadly: "Oh Madame, it's a girl! She was baptised in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on 10 February on her parents' first wedding anniversary by the Archbishop of Canterbury , William Howley.
