Dearest Vicky, darling Fritz - John Van der Kiste

With the wedding of Vicky, Princess Royal of Great Britain, and Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia in January 1858, the prospects of a peaceful and harmonius Europe looked promising. The young couple was very much in love, yet several tragedies marred their marriage: the traumatic birth of their first son and heir, William; the death of Prince Albert, Vicky's father and the couple's political mentor, from typhoid; Frederick's estrangment from his father, and the Emperor's preference for Bismarck and the young Prince William; and the deaths of their third son from meningitis and then the fourth son from diptheria. When Frederick eventually succeeded to the throne in March 1888, he was already seriously ill with cancer and died three months later. His tragically early death was thus one of the turning points of modern European history. Had Frederick lived longer, Germany and Britain would have drawn closer together, amicable relations with France and Russia would have been restored, and there would almost certainly have been no Great War.