The Last Princess

An evocative telling of the life of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's last-born child, and of a sometimes fraught royal mother-daughter relationship.

Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, later Princess Henry of Battenberg, was the last-born – in 1866 – of Victoria and Albert's children, and she would outlive all of her siblings to die as recently as 1944. Her childhood coincided with her mother's extended period of mourning for her prematurely deceased husband, a circumstance which may have contributed to Victoria's determination to keep her youngest daughter as close to her as possible. She would eventually marry Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885, but only after overcoming her mother's opposition to their union.

Beatrice remained Queen Victoria's favourite among her five daughters, and became her mother's constant companion and later her literary executor, spending the years that followed Victoria's death in 1901 editing her mother's journals and voluminous correspondence. Matthew Dennison's elegantly written biography restores Beatrice to her rightful place as a key figure in the history of the Victorian age, and paints a touching and revealing portrait of the life and family of Britain's second-longest-reigning monarch.

About the Author

Matthew Dennison is the author of three critically acclaimed works of non-fiction: ‘The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria''s Youngest Daughter’, written with the full assistance of the Royal Archives and published in nine UK editions to date, ‘Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia’, and ‘The Twelve Caesars’. Described in The Independent as ''one of those rare marvels, a historical biographer whose work has reached the bestseller lists'', he is also a regular contributor to Country Life, Telegraph Magazine, The Times and Majesty.