Queen Victoria’s five daughters were born into a world of privilege and deference, cocooned by their high rank and wealth. But their lives were fractured by the early death of their father, Prince Albert, and then dominated by the selfish demands of their controlling mother. Victoria’s daughters were important public figures in their own time but are largely forgotten today. This book explores their personal stories, tinged with drama, tragedy, and scandal. Illustrated throughout with portraits from the author’s collection, the book uses some of Victoria’s own words from her letters and her journal to help tell their stories. Victoria had qualities that made her a great queen, but she was not at her best as a mother. It was a tragedy for her daughters that their father died so young; at the age of forty-two. After his death Victoria became a stern and distant figure, and her daughters were always in awe of her even when they were grown up. They were never allowed to forget Victoria was their sovereign as well as their mother and her wishes should be obeyed. This is the fourth book in a series on The Colourful Personal Life of Queen Victoria. The first three books focus on the different phases of Victoria’s life. This book takes on the story through the lives of her five daughters. It tells of the bitter frustration of the eldest daughter as her life’s ambition crumbles to ashes; the heroic death of the second in a deadly epidemic of disease; the battle of the third with ill health and drug dependency; the rumoured illegitimate baby of the fourth; and the determination of the youngest not to bend to her mother’s will but to marry the man she loved.