Was the young Queen Victoria incredibly beautiful or nay?

[MorrisZapp]

Movies and TV suggest she was stunning as a young woman, but all the pictures of her that are widely familiar today are of a plain fizzog.

Was she hot or not?

Also in the past the royals were into inbreeding and that is not a good thing for looks (or anything really). Take a look at her and Alberts offspring.

Weren’t Albert and Victoria first cousins? There was also the haemophilia gene, which was passed on to the Tsarevich son of Tsar Nicholas II.

Yes, her mother and his father were siblings 🤢

Adorable as a tot, though.
Is there ANYTHING missing on this child? The hat, gloves, fur, shoes and coat are all dressed up to the nines!

Don't underestimate the inbreeding. Henry VIII and all six of his wives were cousins. They were all descended from Edward I.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Family_tree_of_the_Wives_of_Henry_VIII

Not really inbreeding is it with 50 different people between you?

That was the case with all the medieval and early modern aristocracy and royalty. It was why papal dispensations to allow marriages between people who were within forbidden levels of relationships were so lucrative for the church, and not just for the upper classes.

She looked like a potato and skived off doing her job using her grief as an excuse. She only came out of hiding when things became untenable and she absolutely had to show her miserable face due to the public becoming restless and talk of republicanism in the air.

Bit of a pudding face, I think.

Quite. After a few generations I’d hardly say it counts.

I looked up Victoria and Albert though and apart from being first cousins, they were apparently also third cousins once removed and various other more distant relations as well.

Victoria and Albert were first cousins but they and their children were in no way as inbred as the likes of the Habsburgs!

Chin chin.

Here she is as a young woman

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12702

Her life was fascinating, just had a wiki binge while settling DS. It seems she suffered from PND after all her kids were born, and a lot of her complaints in her letters are about problems similar to those you find in AIBU! Plus ca change…

She was as plain as a pikestaff. Portrait artists obviously tried to flatter her and yet she still looked like a Pixar turnip.

Thought it was hilarious/ridiculous that the stunning and luminous Jenna Coleman played her in the TV series.

That might have explained some of HVIII’s challenges around reproduction (and why there wasn’t the same issue with illegitimate offspring).

she wasn't ever allowed to be alone, even when walking down a stairs or going to bed. I think it was called the Kensington Method. Sounded absolutely stifling.

Henry V— hot or not? Charles II? George VI — fat or fit?

Or are we just criticising the appearance of female monarchs?

Oh jeez that's how I look (also in my thirties) fed up and knackered

Ffs are we fat shaming dead queens now?!

Is that really the one main thing you'd like to know about her?

Absolutely brilliant responses! I'm not fat shaming her, I'm thinking of the discrepancy between how she looked, and how she is portrayed now as a young woman.

The plotting makes no sense if the character in question is supremely beautiful, when in fact she was very ordinary.

Fascinated by the 'Kensington Method'.

I suspect it's much easier to sell a period drama when you've got a beautiful lead actress rather than a more physically realistic lead.

I watched ‘The young Victoria’ today with Emily Blunt as the lead and I spotted the real Princess Beatrice!

Good grief, the woman has been dead for 122 years, let her rest in peace!

Amazing spot! I watched it too, hence the thread.