From the forward, I half expected this biography of Queen Victoria to be as heavily biased toward a feminist portrayal as Victoria’s youngest daughter’s “cleansing” of Victoria’s diaries had attempted to portray Queen Victoria as a traditional female. Instead, this is a complex, nuanced book based largely on contemporary accounts including those few of Victoria’s own diaries that still existed outside of the censored ones.

I have a distinct bias when reading history in that I’m fascinated by the people and their impact much more than accounts of grand events or listings of dates. Julia Baird offers just this approach to history, noting not only the personalities of the times, but how personal exchanges changed the course of history.

An early example is when a socially motivated, active advocate for her people and for the single state fell in love with Albert, her to be Prince Consort, and transformed her nature into a more traditional female role even to the point of convincing herself she lacked the very abilities she’d fought her mother and John Conroy to claim. This is only one of the complexities found within these pages, which reveal a woman thrust into a position of power but surrounded by people confident she lacked the intelligence to do it justice.

Victoria could be manipulated, especially in her years with Prince Consort Albert, but she was more active in manipulating events to her preference than many were aware. Had she been more successful, there might have been a revolt, but at the same time, her public persona of gentle mother along with her diminished appearance, made her subjects love her.

She’s a woman out of time and served as an inspiration to her female subjects who felt constrained by the beliefs about their abilities that were founded on a concept of male superiority. As part of her contradictions, though, she saw herself as an anomaly and thought efforts to gain rights for women foolhardy. She actively opposed measures to that effect when interacting with Parliament.

Victoria is only one of the personalities that came to life in this portrayal. Albert appears in his full strengths and weaknesses. From a feminist perspective, he is a villain for all he did to advance his interests by crushing Victoria’s sense of her own competence. At the same time, he didn’t act maliciously but rather out of a belief in what was right, something he infused his marriage with, setting Victoria in the awkward position of being both submissive as a wife and superior as his queen.

The same is true for the various prime ministers Victoria dealt with over the course of her long reign. Some were able to learn the mix of deference, flattery, and sheer kindness that would win over Victoria’s support while others suffered because they appeared to condescend, something that set her back up and made sure she would never agree with that prime minister no matter what.

Other members of government both underestimated her and suffered from working behind her back, even though this being a constitutional monarchy she shouldn’t have had as much direct influence as she did.

Victoria was around for so long that she held to many outdated positions in her later years, but at the same time, her reign saw the end of slavery, improved working conditions, increased voting rights, and a recognition of the needs of the people beyond those in the nobility. This proved a welcome change after the previous kings had shown an extravagant court while people starved in the streets. Victoria actively went among her people and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of their will and needs.

She did suffer from poor advisors at times, though. The accounts she got of the wars carried out both with and without her support during her reign is a prime example. She saw them as honorable attempts to secure an imperial Britain, but failed to see how poorly they’d been carried out. The reports sent to her spoke only of the glory with none of the consequences, things she learned about when visiting wounded soldiers or supporting Florence Nightingale’s efforts to improve the conditions of soldiers at war, especially after the disastrous efforts in Turkey. While the British Army succeeded in its aims, the costs in human lives, as much from disease spreading in poor conditions as actual conflicts, was overwhelming.

I’m getting lost in the detail, so I’ll stop here, but this gives some sense of the fascinating and evocative presentation of events and the deeply complex nature of Queen Victoria, who struggled her whole life with the contradictions between her role as ruler and her traditional position as a woman. Had it been as simple as being thrust into a role unsuited to her nature, she would have abdicated in favor of her popular son and heir. Instead, she did not trust his ability to rule and would not leave her people in less suitable hands until she had no other choice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this dive into the heart of the Victorian Era, and from my extensive notes, I found much to discover that may prove useful later. Even before finishing, I had already recommended this biography to several people, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a complex and multi-layered account of the Victorian Era full of fascinating historical details that, rather than following a strict chronology, preferred to note consequences in context rather than time.

P.S. I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.