According to a story in Newsweek, even Queen Victoria had postpartum depression. “For more than a decade she struggled with pain and postnatal depression, describing infants as ugly and froglike. She frequently told her husband he did not understand the sacrifice involved, and the exhaustion.
What did Queen Victoria suffer from?
Victoria died of a cerebral haemorrhage, which is a type of stroke. However, the Queen had been growing weaker for several years before her death. Her eyesight had become clouded by cataracts, and she was a wheelchair user due to her rheumatism.
What was Queen Victoria like as a mother?
Repeated pregnancies she considered “more like a rabbit or a guinea pig than anything else and not very nice“. Breastfeeding she especially disliked, finding it a disgusting practice. And she was not a doting mother – she thought it her duty to be “severe”. She didn’t do affection.
How long was Queen Victoria depressed?
Widowhood of Victoria. After Albert’s death Victoria descended into deep depression—“those paroxysms of despair and yearning and longing and of daily, nightly longing to die…for the first three years never left me.” Even after climbing out of depression, she remained in mourning and in partial retirement.
Did Queen Victoria not like her children?
She and Albert could be harshly critical of their children
She later wrote of her physical distaste for newborns, noting, “Abstractedly, I have no tender for them till they have become a little human; an ugly baby is a very nasty object – and the prettiest is frightful when undressed.”
How tall was Queen Victoria really?
She was unusually short.
Although she ruled a massive part of the free world, Victoria was diminutive in stature. Historians estimate that she was no more than five feet tall.
Did Queen Victoria breastfeed her own children?
The monarch breastfed all four of her children
The Queen was quite a trailblazer when it came to parenting, however, opting to breastfeed all four of her children herself. Royal mothers relied on wet nurses to nurse their babies so that they could resume their royal duties.
Which queen had the most pregnancies?
Anne never enjoyed good health, and the almost constant pregnancies that ended in miscarriages did not help. She became pregnant 17 times, but only one child lived, William, who became the Duke of Gloucester.
When was Queen Victoria overweight?
The ‘dangers’ of a hearty appetite
She soon abandoned her corset and was described as “very large, ruddy and fat”. By the 1880s, when she was in her sixties, Victoria’s body mass index was over 32, which would qualify her as obese by today’s standards.
Who was the prettiest of Queen Victoria’s children?
Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, Duchess of Argyll
The sixth child of Queen Victoria, Princess Louise was considered the most beautiful of the royal children and also the most unconventional.
Who was Queen Victoria’s Favourite child?
Prince Arthur
She became something of a recluse until her own death in 1939 at the age of 91. Prince Arthur married Princess Louise Margarete of Prussia. It was said that Arthur was the Queen’s favorite son.
Did Queen Victoria have a temper?
Victoria was prone to temper tantrums. Her mood swings were such that some historians claim she may have inherited the ‘madness’ of her grandfather, George III. Nevertheless, despite the arguments, Albert always managed to get back into Victoria’s good books.
Did Queen Victoria have blue eyes?
Jenna Coleman, the actor who portrays Victoria in the ITV drama, has brown eyes, but the queen’s eyes, famously, were blue.
How many times did Queen Victoria get shot at?
From Edward Oxford to Roderick Maclean, during her reign Queen Victoria survived eight assassination attempts.
Why did royals use wet nurses?
Life in the Royal Nursery
The reason was, that wetnurses were not to be distracted from their primary duty of providing care—and milk—to the infant prince or princess. Consequently, they probably hired wetnurses to provide that comfort and care for their own babies in their absence.
Did the Queen have a wet nurse for her children?
The Queen paved the way for the Duchess of Cambridge to breastfeed her children, according to a royal expert. Royal mothers did not traditionally breastfeed their own babies, according to historian Amy Licence, instead letting this job go to a wet nurse.
Why was Queen Victoria against breastfeeding?
In the 19th century, Queen Victoria was among those who ignored advice to breastfeed, and instead employed a wet nurse. Indeed, she was fiercely opposed to maternal breastfeeding – believing it to be an unsuitable practice for aristocratic women – and was horrified when two of her daughters decided to breastfeed.
Did the Queen put to sleep to deliver a baby?
It is stated in various internet sources that the Queen was in labour for around 30 hours, using the pain relief “Twilight sleep” (actually sedation with scopolamine and morphine).
Who fathered the most babies?
The man who is thought to have fathered the most children of all time is Moroccan Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (1645 to 1727) with a total of more than 1,000, according to Guinness World Records.
How old was the youngest queen to give birth?
The youngest queen regnant to give birth is Mary II, who gave birth to a stillborn child in 1678, prior to her accession, when she was just 16. The youngest mother to give birth to a monarch was Lady Margaret Beaufort, wife of Edmund Tudor, who was 13 years and almost 8 months when she gave birth to Henry VII in 1457.
What size waist did Queen Victoria have?
She was barely five feet tall.
In her later years, she also grew to an impressive girth. Some accounts claim she had a 50-inch waist by the end of her life, a conclusion supported by the impressive size of a nightgown and pair of bloomers (underwear) belonging to Victoria that were auctioned off in 2009.