Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 497
Queen Victoria’s Children
Hello Everyone
Do you have lots of brothers and sisters?
Do you play well together or do you sometimes fight?
Maybe you wish you had more attention from your parents if you live in a big family?
Maybe you are an only child and wish you had brothers and sisters.
Queen Victoria had nine children. That is a big family! They were born between 1840 and 1857 which meant that the eldest children were nearly grown up when the youngest were being born. All the children lived past infanthood, which was quite unusual for those days.
The eldest was her favourite child Victoria, known in the family as Vicky. Because she was the eldest daughter, she received the title of Princess Royal. She left England when she married Fredrick, Crown Prince of Prussia, later to become, for a short time, German Emperor.
Her second child, born in 1841, was her son Edward, Prince of Wales. She often criticised him throughout his life and they had a strained relationship.
Queen Victoria was happily married to her husband Prince Albert but he died at the young age of 42 in 1861 of typhoid fever which was a disease caught from contaminated food or drink.
She was so devastated at his death that she wore black dresses for the rest of her life to show that she was always still mourning him.
She missed his advice and support too. She was left to bring up her children on her own.
Victoria and Albert always believed in showing their children how to behave by example rather than being very strict with them and punishing them. They always had plenty of space to play and many toys.
She withdrew from public life for the thirteen years following his death, living with her family and servants in her private homes. She dealt with official papers every day at her desk and spent much time writing her diary and a lot of letters.
She wrote to her daughter, Vicky, almost daily from the time she left England to get married. The letters tell us much about their thoughts, lives and political events from ‘behind the scenes’.
Their letters were headed Dearest Mama and Dearest Vicky…
There was great disquiet about Victoria’s absence from public view. This attitude was voiced in the press. Some politicians even started talking about abolishing (getting rid of) the royal family and turning the country from a kingdom into a republic.
Despite living a life away from London, Victoria would not let her eldest son, Edward, assist in political duties because she did not think he could behave in a proper way.
Although he did attend the state opening of Parliament with his wife when Victoria did not want to be there, and established the tradition of the monarch opening Parliament every year.
He also made goodwill visits at home and abroad in her stead. He started to take on the role of a goodwill ambassador rather than a political figure which is much more the role that monarchy has today.
He also spent a lot of time enjoying himself at society events which made his mother disapprove of him all the more.
Eventually, in 1874, Victoria came back to make appearances at public events with the encouragement of family and friends and the newly elected Prime Minister. His name was Benjamin Disraeli. Victoria liked him a lot and he was very good at persuading her to do things through flattering her.
She celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1887. Her fifty years on the throne was celebrated throughout the nation.
Through the marriages of her children and grandchildren and her own marriage to Prince Albert, Victoria was related to the royal houses of Germany, Russia, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Romania. ln later life, she was the great matriarch of the European royal households.
She had four sons. The eldest would inherit the throne because he was a boy. This tradition was changed in the twenty-first century; now the first born inherits the throne, not the first son.
The other three sons were given the title of Duke: Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Arthur Duke of Connaught and Leopold Duke of Albany.
Three of Victoria’s children, Alice, Leopold and Alfred died before she did. Vicky died six months after her mother and the last remaining child, Beatrice, died in 1944.
Victoria died a Queen and an Empress in 1901.
The British Empire at its peak covered one quarter of the world’s land surface. lt was coloured pink on maps of the world and there was a saying that the sun never set on the territories because they were so widespread across the globe.
ln modern times, all these countries have their independence although some are called protectorates. That means that if they have problems like being invaded or a volcano causes a lot of damage, they will get help.
The Empire is now called The Commonwealth of Nations with an elected leader; which is at the moment the monarch.
Because Victoria lived to such a great age, she knew the men who would become the next four kings. They were her son, grandson and two great grandsons.
More about them next week…
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: What did the King of Puns say as he looked out of the window one morning?
Bob: l don’t know. What did the King of Puns say as he looked out of the window one morning?
Bill: lt looks like it’s going to be another reigny day!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
At work
With her family
From left to right
Alfred, Edward, Victoria, Albert, Alice, Helena, Vicky
Yes, in those days little boys wore dresses
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Bob announced that he wanted to have at least one big adventure before the end of the school holidays.
He knew exactly what big adventure he wanted to go on; and it was going to be so big; it would require sandwiches.
He had borrowed a book from the library which gave him the idea.
He wanted to go searching for Bigfoot in the Rocky Bay Woods!
Bill said that Bigfoot lived in North America and also Russia, not the Rocky Bay Woods.
Emily said that she did not want to, under any circumstances, meet Bigfoot.
I told her not to worry. It was very unlikely that we would see any Bigfoots in the Rocky Bay Woods.
We all told Bob we would not find Bigfoot in the Rocky Bay Woods.
This week, we went on an adventure to find Bigfoot in the Rocky Bay Woods.
Bob said he had learnt all about Bigfoot in his library book, and Henry wanted to hear all about it so Bob told us what he had learnt as we walked along.
Bigfoots are found all over North America where there are forests and swamps.
They are creatures that look like a cross between a large man and an ape.
They are covered in a very dark, black-brown fur if they live in the north but are more of a reddish fur in the southern states. The ones in Floridian swamps were smaller than the ones in the northern woods. Here they are called skunk apes. There were lots of different names for them in fact.
Bigfoots are very tall – maybe 7 to 9 feet tall and very well-built and powerful. Their legs are shorter in comparison to their body than a human’s and their arms are very long. A Bigfoot face looks similar to that of a gorilla.
They walk in a very smooth gliding way, especially when they are running. But they are very strong and can leave a trail of twisted tree trunks and branches that are very thick; too thick for any known animal to break in such a way.
They are mainly nocturnal which means they are awake at night and have glowing, red-orange eyes. This is called bio-luminescence.
They sometimes smell like raw sewage.
They eat raw meat.
This would be deer and elk and other prey like wild pigs, snakes, frogs, birds and also plants and fruit picked up along the way.
They communicate with each other through the dark forests using eerie howls and knocking loudly on trees with branches they pick up.
They do not appear to have habitations or tools that they use, although things like nests have been found and also piles of sticks that are twisted and knotted together. They are only seen walking about in the woods or across roads and seem to have a nomadic existence following herds of deer.
No bodies of Bigfoot have ever been found. Could they bury their dead in places nobody can find? Some mysterious old bones that were found once that might have been from a Bigfoot. Somebody said once that they saw a body after a forest fire.
They do not like to get involved with humans. Lots of animals like deer or birds will get spooked and run away if they see a human, and others may attack them – like bears or tigers.
But Bigfoots really try to avoid humans!
They may watch at a distance from behind a tree and will only approach houses when there are no humans around.
Sometimes they look into windows and give humans a scare!
They have been known to throw rocks at people, sometimes when they were camping in a tent, but usually from thick undergrowth or in the darkness where they could not easily be seen – and occasionally they have been seen up trees or climbing sheer rock faces from a distance.
There are lots of eyewitness accounts in certain areas of North America where the terrain is the right kind for Bigfoots to live in. The Native Americans have talked about them for generations.
There are films taken by various people that appear to capture a Bigfoot; but always from a distance. Modern day technology has produced infrared cameras which can see body shapes in the dark and these cameras have caught images that appear to be Bigfoot too.
Bigfoots seem to have an uncanny ability to disappear into nowhere – just like a ghost.
The only evidence Bigfoots ever seem to leave around are the occasional footprints in the mud or soft earth. These prints show that the animal that made them has an enormous stride.
The foot prints are enormous and this phenomenon has given the creature its name of Bigfoot. The other name people use is Sasquatch – or quatch for short. This is a Native American word that comes from a region in Canada.
The prints found have five toes like a human foot but no instep which is unlike a human foot. The soles of Bigfoot feet are very flat.
The prints go deep into the earth showing that they were made by a very heavy animal. They are found in the middle of nowhere where no hoaxer would think anyone would find them.
Some people have taken plaster casts of these footprints and Bob insisted we take some plaster with us on our adventure – just in case.
In the end, we did not find any Bigfoots at all, or their prints, but we did find some badger and fox tracks and took plaster casts of those instead.
When you pour plaster on prints, you have to build up a little wall using compacted earth around the foot prints to keep the plaster from running all over the place.
We made some nice prints in the end for the children to take home as a souvenirs of our big summer adventure.
We had taken some doughnuts with us to set a Bigfoot trap.
Then we ate the doughnuts.
Well, they smelled so good we couldn’t resist them in the end.
Bob is still convinced that Bigfoot exists, even if there isn’t one in the Rocky Bay Woods.
He said that sometimes you just can’t find something, because you haven’t looked hard enough.
What do you think?
*********************
TO ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG
PLEASE CONTACT:
christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk
*********************
Quick Quiz
Can you sort out these names?
They are the names of Victoria’s children.
- civotari
- raddew
- cliae
- flaerd
- leehan
- isolue
- rhatur
- peolold
- catibeer
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A WEEKEND AWAY CAPSULE WARDROBE FOR A 12” DOLL
Here is a selection of clothes that will mix and match and last from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon.
Bags to match these outfits can be found on next week’s blog post.
BROWN TOP (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and brown dk yarn cast on 16 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 14 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
With right sides together using over-sew stitching
- Sew up shoulder seams
- Sew up side seams
WHITE SKIRT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 27 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 16 rows of stocking stitch
Change to 3¾mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of 1×1 rib
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
With right sides together using over-sew stitching sew up back seam
WHITE DRESS (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 27 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 26 rows of stocking stitch
Change to 3¾mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of 1×1 rib
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
With right sides together using over-sew stitching sew up back seam
Crochet 14 chains into two lengths of white yarn to make two straps and sew into place
BROWN TROUSERS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and brown dk yarn cast on 18 stitches
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Knit 36 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off 2 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch
Change to 3¾mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of 1×1 rib
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
With right sides together using over-sew stitching sew up front and back seams then sew the inside legs
Put a drawstring around the waist if it is a bit too loose
WHITE CAPE (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 40 stitches
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Knit 1 row
Knit 3, purl 34, knit 3
Repeat the last 2 rows 20 times
Change to 3¾mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
Thread a length of white yarn 40cm long through the channel at the top to make a draw-string tie to go around the neck
WHITE CAP (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 20 stitches
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave a length of yarn for sewing up when you cut off your yarn and leave your stitches on this yarn
TO MAKE UP
With right sides together using over-sew stitching sew up back seam
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- Victoria
- Edward
- Alice
- Alfred
- Helena
- Louise
- Arthur
- Leopold
- Beatrice
Leopold Duke of Albany 1853-84
