Perhaps he might have become more than that, except everyone argued she was destined to marry her cousin, Prince Albert. One of those ministers, Lord Melbourne, became Victoria's private secretary.

In 1837, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria - sheltered, small in stature, and female - became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and from the moment William IV died, the young Queen startled everyone: abandoning her hated first name in favor of Victoria insisting, for the first time in her life, on sleeping in a room apart from her mother resolute about meeting with her ministers alone.

'To me, ma'am, you are every inch a Queen' Perfect for fans of epics such as War and Peace, Poldark or Granchester and for any reader of Kate Williams' The Storms of War or Hannah Rothschild'sThe Improbability of Love But money didn't always buy them happiness.' -DAISY GOODWIN IN THE DAILY MAIL'- Provided by publisher.For any fan of the long-standing TV series Downton Abbey comes a new story, Victoria - to be screened on ITV, with scripts written by Daisy Goodwin. 'For daughters of the new American billionaires of the 19th century, it was the ultimate deal: marriage to a cash-strapped British Aristocrat in return for a title and social status. Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora's story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals.

Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts', suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England.

Books by daisy goodwin