Tuesday 10 September 2013

What Would Queen Victoria Have Said?

I found this little interesting snippet in the book "1919-1938 These Tremendous Years".

 
Victoria (Viktoria) of Prussia (born 1866) was the daughter of the German Emperor Frederick III and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest of Queen Victoria's daughters.  In 1890 Viktoria married Prince Adolph of Schaumburg-Lippe - they did not have any children and he died in 1916. 

However, In 1936 she met and married Alexander Zoubkoff a dish-washer and 34 years younger than her.  You can imagine the scandal this produced!  Within two years she had to sell off all her belongings to pay their debts and was living in a boarding house in Bonn.  He was never at home and had been in trouble with the police.  Victoria began divorce proceedings, but died of pneumonia before they were finalised.

 
Zoubkoff was not permitted to live in Germany (where he had been in trouble with the police) or several other European countries and had various occupations - circus horse-back rider, waiter, luggage porter before his death in London in January 1936.

 
Don't think Queen Victoria would have been amused!

Love, Liz

12 comments:

Deborah said...

Great post, so interesting :)

Bee happy x

Vintage Jane said...

She would not have been amused at all ... What a colourful character! M x

Curtise said...

What a very strange story. One suspects poor Victoria of Prussia didn't have the happiest of lives... xxxx

Old Magnolia Tree said...

Great story. Men what would you do with them hey??
Rosie xx

Robyn of Oz said...

And people say that the royals have no colour!
Thanks for sharing a brilliant story.
Cheers

Anonymous said...

Wow! Interesting, and sad. You can see the family resemblance to the current queen, don't you think?

Anne said...

Fascinating post, Liz. :o)

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

He must have been quite the charmer!

Connie said...

Fascinating. My son spent the summer home from college working as a dishwasher. Do you suppose he'll find himself a royal bride?

Olga Rani said...

What an interesting story! Even royals can crazily fall in love!

Patricia said...

Fascinating Liz. Its surprising how and where we pick up these little snippets of history.
Patricia x

sky-blu-pink said...

What an amazing story!