She and her older cousin, Czarina Alexandra of Russia lived similar sad lives. Both suffered serious illnesses/injuries as kids, both lost parents as children, both had issues with their surviving parent, both had issues with their mothers in law, both had hemophilliac sons. I just realized the multiple similarities they shared. Both were also arguably 2 of Queen Victoria's favorite grandchildren.
@@jamellfoster6029: The big difference between them among all these mostly sad similarities would be that one was loved by her husband (Alexandra) and the other was despised and psychically maltreated and cheated on…
@@davidmcleod1028 She was able to see happiness at the end of her life. She was present for the baptism of her great grandson, who is now King Felipe VI of Spain. The present king was born in 1968.
The narration was excellent. Even I lived the era through the distinct oratory skills of James. Thanks for taking us through the historical biography of Queen Victoria Eugena.
Queen Maria Cristina, the mother-in-law did not like her since the beginning because, it is said, she was a Princess of Battenberg, considering the origin of the Battenbergs, and the hemophilia condition, which was known by royal courts. However, Queen Victoria Eugenia was loved by spaniards at the end. She is godmother of the current King of Spain.
Alfonso romanced Ena throughout their long-distance courtship. He was enchanted by her loveliness and white-blonde hair, and was “over the moon” excited about marrying her. While he knew of the possibility of hemophilia, he simply thought that Ena was too beautiful to be a carrier of the disease. As mentioned in the documentary, it was ostensibly the discovery of their firstborn’s hemophilia that triggered King Alfonso’s resentment and infidelity. Ena was devastated, first by her son’s diagnosis, and then by her husband’s rejection and humiliating infidelity. The king had at least five known illegitimate children. Queen Ena remained faithful to Spain and to her distant and serially cheating husband year after year, tragedy after tragedy: attempted assassination via bomb detonation on her wedding day; hemophilia striking Infante Alfonso and Infante Gonzalo, who both died as young adults due to the disease; acquired deafness of Infante Jaime; stillbirth of Infante Fernando; WWI; outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and loss of the throne, then being unwelcome in Britain when displaced. Ena consistently fulfilled her responsibilities, modelling the “decision to love” to which every Christian is called. Along with Princess Alice (mother of Prince Philip), Ena is a very much overlooked historical figure and descendant of Queen Victoria. These two extraordinary women would make excellent subjects for feature-length films.
I agree! I did a mini biography of princess Alice in the website for writers, medium. She’s a very interesting woman, rejecting the trappings and privilege of royalty for a meaningful life.😊
She was not hated at all. Maybe only by her husband. You don´t mention that Queen Victoria Eugenia returned to Spain in 1968 to be the godmother of Felipe (the actual king of Spain). She returned after many years of exile and the population greeted her in the streets. I was a kid but remember the crowds and the cheerings and her own crying for a warm welcome that she was not expecting. It was very touching. Among many things she is the founder of the spanish Red Cross and did lots of good to Spain. Her returning success and her conversations with General Franco was a key factor that made Franco decide that Spain would be a monarchy again.
Queen Victoria having married her first cousin eventually through her numerous children and grandchildren, populated most of the Royal Houses of Europe with genetically ill, physically compromised and mentally deficit royal descendants, which ultimately caused the downfall of many monarchies. Recognizing that the gene pool was limited and that cousin and other closely related family members marriages couldn't continue without further adding physical degeneracy to future children, it became acceptable for royalty to marry commoners to reinvigorate their future family issues.
To some extent, that is an exaggeration. It was much more true of the Habsburgs before Maria Theresa. Maria Theresa was the daughter of Karl VI and his wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. They were not close relatives as many prior Habsburgs had been.
@@DanielLiebert-i1p Unfortunately yes. They inherited a jaw deformity from the House of Piast, who first ruled Poland. Philip II and his descendants were too closely intermarried, with the exceptions of Philip II’s third wife, Elisabeth of Valois, and of Elisabeth of Bourbon, who was Philip IV’s first wife.
Sarah Ferguson, has a great admiration for Queen Victoria. An admiration and love of history she shared with QE2. Daughters Beatrice and Eugenia are named after QV daughter and grand daughter .I often wondered why she chose old traditional names. I learned this information in a documentary .
11:25 "bated breath" not "baited." Bated is from Latin as in similar words as in the phrase "to hold in abatement." Baited breath suggests she'd been eating stale fish.
As a Spaniard, I will say that the only people that hated queen Victoria Eugenia (as she was called in Spain) were her husband and mother in law, the sour-faced Maria Cristina. Victoria Eugenia was a good looking and elegant lady that had the misfortune of marrying Alfonso, a known womanizer and lover of porn (he had a private viewing room in the Royal Palace and wrote and produced several of those films, a no-no in the Catholic Spain of the time). Going into exile was liberating for the queen as it allowed her to live separatedly from the king, who died only 10 years later.
As you advertise yourself as a Spaniard, I have one question the answer to which you might know, namely, why would a Catholic Spanish royal family circumcise their baby sons? Circumcision does not belong to Catholicism in the least.
@@Rose-jz6ix: Very strange if true. Only the Jews and the Muslims get circumcised and it points out to their national/ethnical membership (all male members of the chosen people of God had to be circumcised acc. to the God’s demand in the Old Testament). Then the New Testament abolished this custom for the Christians. Nowadays it’s done for the hygienic reasons in other ethnicities, if at all… I suppose it was done also for the hygienic/health reason in those nations living in hot climates in desert lands - limited access to water, but otherwise?
@@user-rz7cm2we3x You seem unfamiliar with Victorian era culture. At the time, circumcision was thought to improve health, so it was a fashionable thing to do among the rich people in western cultures at the time. Also, it was thought to make it difficult to self-pleasure, and also to reduce cheating, so the prudish Victorian era culture favored it for those reasons as well.
@@MyFiddlePlayer: Interesting, since the main reason of circumcision was God’s command in the Old Testament to His chosen people. That was a sign of belonging to the nation. And only semites got circumcised. The main and more practical reason was probably a hygienic one.
Beatrice was so close to Queen Victoria that she picked out the necklace and rings Victoria wore in her casket. Victoria put it in her will that only Beatrice could do this.
Homephilia, was well known by most royal houses. Even Queen mother of Nicholas, Tsar of Russia. His mother knew her nieces mother. Victoria carried the gene. The Spainish King knew it too but he was blinded by his own choices. Not her fault she was a carrier.
Ahh my favorite narrator 😊 InRe: what a remarkable woman who stood tall in the face of challenging personal times and in tragedy. Alphonso was lucky to have her.
People seem to think that because a royal person has such status that they will live a happy life. In reality they were married for political affiliations rather than love. The dreaded hemophilia that affected the royal family was so tragic on so many levels and for people to find any kind of happiness was rare. Descendants of Queen Victoria were all very strong woman , who carved out lives of distinction through all the tragedy that they experienced in their lifetimes.
😂😂😂. Hemophilia runs in my family. I inherited a female variant of the disease, like a few other women in the family (some bled to death from easily survivable injuries).
Thanks for the great video! 👍 I noticed that the "thumbnail" description of the video didn't quite match the content. Take a look and tell me if I'm reading it wrong. Thanks again!
IF THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH...by any normal standards it was usually already excessive but still managed to get worse. These women were often super heroes, though there were exceptions. Women who were only interested in their own fulfillment and had no willingness to compromise, also dot the historic landscape.
She hated Spain but Spain was a unique opportunity for her as she was ill and no other opportunity for her. She received money and jewels from Spain all her life
Hypocritical husband. Accusing her of an affair. She was raised to be a strong woman by her grandmother. Not strong enough to overcome her mother in law, sadly. Her children were beautiful, but those photos of her and the king together seem to show two very hurt people...
Queen "Ena" was considerably more popular among her husband's subjects--and ex-subjects--than King Alfonso himself. Perhaps her greatest contribution to Spain's history was when, shortly before her death, she convinced Franco to finally make a choice of successor, leading the Caudillo to choose Juan Carlos as his political heir.
@@alfonsoherguetagomez1821 She didn't recommend anybody...the problem was that Franco had refused to name any successor despite his declining physical condition.
I thought Queen Ena was buried in Switzerland. There's a RU-vid clip somewhere of the Swiss funeral cortege. It was the ex King Juan Carlos who brought the remains home for interment in the royal vaults of El Escorial.
She was an outstanding woman and Queen.They packed what they could before exile as you say before exile.But left a lot behind.I have inherited part of the correspondence of them two when they weren't married yet. He was disgusting.He went around with all the women in the world,was an enthusiast of early porn find.And had two children of a well known actress of the epoque that have been given the Borbón ñame quite recently.How she survived that marriage I don't know.She was happy later on in her life in Lausanne and a permanent guest in Monaco because she got on very well with Rainier and Princess Grace.Beautiful Ena❤🎉.
Queen Ena was not hated by the Spanish. She wasn’t seen as a wicked person. It was said that her natural English reserve was misinterpreted as coldness by the royal Spanish court but she did a number of things to help ordinary Spanish people, such as promoting the work of the Red Cross in a Spain. She was warmly welcomed back to Spain with great acclaim by many ordinary Spaniards in 1968, after 36 years of exile, which moved her greatly.
I am sad for her however. Did you not known that in her family she was addressed as Ena pronounced as Ina? And one question that puzzles me is this : How could a man like King Alphonso who was a selfish immoral person could pass himself off as a loving man when he courted The non royal princess of Battenberg?
@@carolbaughan8768 No - it's passed on through the X chromosome. So although a daughter needs two affected X chromosomes to have haemophilia (ie from a carrier mother AND a haemophiliac father - approx. half their daughters would be affected - the other half would be carriers.), this is quite rare. A son only needs his one X chromosome to be affected for him to be a haemophiliac, so this is achieved with a carrier mother - about half of her sons will be haemophiliac, whether the father is a haemophiliac or not. And a normal mother with a haemophiliac father will have all carrier daughters and normal sons. :)
Its crazy how depressed everyone looks, especially the Queen. Being Royalty looks like a huge burden to me. Good thing I don't have one drop of royal blood.😊
Victoria Eugenia Ena , era más querida por los españoles que su marido, los Borbones no son de ninguna estirpe española y no son queridos en España en general.
FWIW, the Queen Consort of Spain's family nickname was 'Ena'. It might be easier to call her that instead of constantly repeating her full name of Victoria Eugenie.
Sissi was way too young & ill prepared to become Queen. Plus not everyone has the temperament for it. She probably did the best she could. Queen Ina understood her role inside and out. Loyalty & duty to King & the people of her adopted country. So very sad about her husband 😒. I’m glad she ,for once , told him off in no uncertain terms. He must have stood there in shock 😄
14:20 mention of the First World War but you illustrate it with clips of scenes from the Second World War. 15:15 Spain was neutral in both wars so which Spanish families lost their fathers in World War 1?
How did hemophilia leave Queen Victoria's family? Queen Ena's story is in historical time very recent, eventually hemophilia just did not occur? Thank goodness it did vanish, what a horror for the victims and their families. Aside: were the Spanish crown jewels taken from Spain?
It died out due to the descendants having either no children or children who died before being old enough to have children. I watched a very interesting video about it not long ago - cant remember if it was here on youtube.
I enjoyed this video very much many interesting pictures just one nagging irritation when talking about WW1 be a good idea use the right war imagery not WW2 there is enough film on the Great War otherwise I enjoyed it thanks.
I think the title the "hated " is to attract attention. I am sure there were. elements in the Spanish Court and country . Who indeed hated her but on the whole she was a popular choice. In 1924 it was widely believed that the King had rashly encouraged ill advised military actions in Morocco that resulted in a terrible defeat. A group of democratic politicians approached the queen and proposed that her husband be deposed and that she should become regent for her healthy son. She refused. The crisis led to the King siding with a military dictator and the end of the parliamentary system . This dictatorship was relatively mild and comparatively successful . However the dictator stayed too long and Spain entered the Great Depression in 1931 without a democratic government.. In municipal elections. the pro-royal parties lost . The king took the decision to leave( probably thinking he would be back comparatively soon ) . So there was no referendum on the monarchy. In 1968 General Franco allowed the queen to return to Spain . In order to be at her great grandson's ( Felipe )post birth ceremonies. Franco had framed Spain as a monarchy in 1948. But he was conflicted over Juan the liberal heir presumptive. He held conversations with Victoria. During which she consented that the throne would skip a generation and go to Juan Carlos . He succeed General Franco as virtual dictator of Spain and then restored democracy to the country. His son is Felipe VI is the current king of Spain. The warmth of the crowds that welcomed Victoria on her visit . Cemented the idea in Franco's mind that a monarchical restoration would gain popular support . Which it did in a referendum after the dictator's death.
I’m confused. Wasn’t the elder son the hemophiliac, and the second son was not? Around 19 minutes it says that the younger son was hemophiliac. Also he named the second son Jaime at one point and Gonzalo 18:48 at another.
@@davidhull1481 The oldest and youngest children-Alfonso and Gonzalo-had hemophilia; they both would have lived longer, except for the fact that they were both fatally injured in auto accidents. The second son, Jaime, did not have the disease, but went deaf. A third son, Juan, was unaffected and became the father of Juan Carlos and grandfather of King Felipe. A fourth son, Fernando, was stillborn.
This is what our youth need to hear so they are not "left" unaware lambs of silent financier gamblers ramblers and a long way from home entering the house of the housing market highs and lows of asset health of management wealth transfers to God knows where....
Dear Mr narrator, why are you saying dates like an American? When you're clearly not American. It's the 10th *OF* May. Nor is it 'fall' it's called autumn.
Who is the composer of the f nd whattsthename of the background music? I heard it when I was a very young child on a record, The clock that went backwards but never knew the composer and how to find it.
The one famous piece that I recognized was the "Minuet" by Luigi Boccherini - Boccherini was an Italian composer born in Lucca, Tuscany who spent most of his creative life first in Berlin working for the Prussian king but later went to Spain and worked as a composer for the king there. When he lost his job because the next king was not interested in music he lived and died in extreme poverty. That "theme" you found familiar was used throughout a 1950's film "The Third Man" I think -an espionage movie set in 1950's Vienna.Quite a lot of Boccherini's music was used in the Russell Crow movie "Master and Commander" specifically his "Night music in streets of Madrid." Boccherini's music belongs to the classical era -small c classical similar in style to Mozart and Haydn and his output was nearly 99% instrumental.
@@mariabarco7226 But Alfonso knew there was a chance Ena could pass on hemophilia, and married her anyway; then he blamed her when their firstborn was discovered to have the disease. Contrast this couple with the Czar and Czarina of Russia, whose son had an even more serious form of the disease, but who nonetheless remained loving and committed to one another. Although there a chance that hemophilia could turn up again in the Spanish royal family, the possibility becomes more remote with each passing generation and avoidance of consanguinous marriages.
@@jmj5388 / I ask not sure that they new much about haemophilia at the time! Later on it was known. That’s why European royal families stopped marrying between themselves! And how do you know so much about the inside life of the Russian royal family? I am not excusing anybody, just giving a possible explanation
Interesting documentary on a Scottish princes who became the Queen of Spain, why call her an English princess ??? You are a Scottish narrator, who seems to know very little or is ashamed of your culture and nations history
Why was she a Scottish princess? Her mother was a princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and her father was Prince Henry of Battenburg. Her title was Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenburg. I'm interested to know where Scotland comes into play? ):
@@carynwakelin2494 You are correct .but since she was born and to an extent brought up in Scotland,then these adjectives also apply to her.My real argument here is however,yes, she is a Princess of GB,but the narrator contantly refers to her and her back ground as English and not British,So if we must apply one of the GB nationalities to her, then it is more correct to refer to her as Scottish.The House of Hanover,from which she descends is German-scottish through Sophia of Hanover.The term English Royal Family, kIng of England are frequently used to refer to British ,monarchs,which is wrong, and really does no favours to the royal family in Scotland
@@stefanosstavros6519 Ah I see what you are getting at. Technically she is a Princess of the United Kingdom. There is no such thing as an English Princess, so you are saying that, if they are going to pick one of the countries of the UK, then Scotland would have more sense as she was born there. I understand your reasoning now. Thank you.
Ultimately Eugenie is named after the empress Eugenie of France -wife of Napoleon the Third -who as an exile in England became a very close friend of queen Victoria.Empress Eugenie, her husband Napoleon III and their son the prince Imperial, killed in the Zulu War, are buried in Farnborough in a Catholic abbey there.
Prince Andrew and his wife chose Annabel for their firstborn. Royal names had to be approved by the crown and Queen Elizabeth deemed the name unsuitable and insufficiently ‘royal’. Forced to think again, Sarah referred back to her studies around the court of QueenVictoria to chose names for her children, Beatrice and Eugenie.
