Queens By Chance

Queen Victoria was the great great grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II . Two women in two centuries of rule have shaped Great Britain's ethos in the world. Half a century apart in their reign, here are some interesting commonalities:

Firstly they both were "Queens by Chance". Queen Victoria’s father, Prince Edward, was fourth in line to the throne after his older brothers, but none of them had children, leaving his daughter to inherit the throne. Queen Elizabeth’s uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated , putting the crown on her father’s head, and thus making her the next in line. The two, were absolutely formidable forces of conviction and power, small statures in height but very tall and empowering personalities.

A striking similarity was in their common pain point, their first borns who had the most excruciating wait for succession gave their mothers a lot of grief, with too much time and no purpose both Edward VII and Charles III spiralled with women, infidelity, scandals and getting attention for everything the monarchy had condemned.

Another similarity between both has been their luck with love, both enjoyed happy marriage’s with devoted husbands who were also good fathers. However Queen Elizabeth was widowed for a year versus Queen Victoria who lived as a widow for 40 years. This aspect defined their personal style and colour choices in a very profound manner. Queen Victoria downed herself in sorrow and made black her colour, thereby making it synonymous with loss in the 1900’s. Ironically, the last century has seen black becoming the most popular colour of choice worn both in joy and pain.On the contrary, Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed a beautiful happy love life filled with every colour in the rainbow which reflected in her wardrobe making her a trendsetter for bright and pop colours.

Finally let’s discuss the role of Kohinoor diamond in their lives. The diamond comes with a mythical tale that in its existence of a 1000 years its bad luck for the Kings, only lucky for Queens and God. Queen Victoria is infamously remembered in India for Lahore Treaty where Duleep Singh surrendered into gifting the diamond to her. Her glorious 63yrs reign was overtaken by Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years who was also the heiress to the Kohinoor Diamond. Further establishing the myth and evoking the story telling of how “Diamonds are a girls best friends”. King Charles III is her successor now.. God save the King!