When talking about a day in the life of Princess Victoria, there’s good news, and there’s bad news.
The good news: Victoria kept a journal from the time she was thirteen, straight through to the end of her life. This provide an invaluable first hand account of how she spent her time.
The bad news: Over the years, those journals have been rigidly and repeatedly censored. Pages have been destroyed, even burned. Others have been edited down to “preserve” either Victoria’s reputation, or the reputation of other members of the royal family.
But what survives is still a portrait of a lively and intelligent young woman. Here’s a pretty typical entry. The year is 1836, and Victoria’s just turned 17:
Tuesday 31st May.
I awoke at 9 & got up at ½ past 9. At ½ past 10 we all breakfasted. At ½ past 11 we drove out with dear Lehzen, & she & I, walked home at ½ past 12. At ½ past 12 came Mr. Westall till ½ past 1. Saw Dr. Clark. Wrote a letter to dear Uncle Leopold, & my journal. – Received yesterday a letter from dear Feodore & from her Husband. Wrote. Drew. At ½ past 4 we went to pay a visit to the Dss of Gloucester with Lehzen & Charles, & walked home at 6. At 7 we dined with Uncle, my dear Cousins, Charles & Ly Flora. At a ¼ to 8 we went with all there & Lehzen to the Opera…
So, who are all these people?
Mr. Westall was Victoria’s drawing tutor. Victoria was an accomplished artist and loved sketching and drawing almost as much as she loved music. Dr. Clark was her personal physician. In 1936 Victoria was still recovering from a bout of typhoid fever that came very close to killing her.
Uncle Leopold is King of the Belgians, and Victoria looked on him as a friend and advisor, especially after her illness. Feodore is Victoria’s half-sister, and Charles (mentioned later) is her half-brother. Feodore and Victoria remained very close throughout their lives although they seldom saw each other once Feodore married.
Victoria’s relationship with her half-brother Charles was more problematic. Perpetually broke, with a debt-ridden German principality to support, Charles joined forces with her mother, and her mother’s advisor, Sir John Conroy, to try to browbeat and control Victoria, mainly so she’d be a source of income for him when she came to the throne. Let us say these plans did not work out as hoped.
Lehzen is Baroness Louise Lehzen, Victoria’s governess and her best friend until she meets…her cousin. Yes, those Cousins mentioned so casually in this entry are Prince Ernest, and his brother, Prince Albert. THE Albert, who will become Victoria’s consort, father of her nine children and the love of her life. This is the first time they are meeting. Instant sparks? Not really. Albert is an early-to-bed kind of guy and Victoria, honestly, is a bit of a party girl right now. While Albert admires her, Victoria is much more interested in dancing, staying out late, and flirting than she is in considering marriage.
As we know, however, things will change.
But that’s another story.
The Heir – A Young Queen Victoria Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: August 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Destined for a life beyond her wildest dreams, born fifth in succession to the throne, and determined to get to the bottom of a most foul puzzle. The future queen becomes a rebellious sleuth when she vows to solve the mystery of a dead man scandalously discovered on the grounds of Kensington Palace—by her.
The young Victoria remembers nothing but Kensington Palace. Arriving as a baby, she has been brought up inside its musty, mold-ridden walls. Others may see the value of Kensington’s priceless artifacts and objets d’art, but the palace is a jail cell for young Victoria. Raised with an incredibly strict regimen to follow, watched at all times by her mother, the controlling, German-born Victoire, and Victoire’s prized advisor, the power-hungry Sir John Conroy, the bright 15-year-old is allowed no freedom at any time—except that which she steals or wheedles for, always in the company of Conroy’s resentful daughter, Jane.
But one fateful afternoon, Victoria slips away from her mother to ride out on her beloved gelding, Prince. With reluctant Jane in tow, the princess gallops out from the palace green. But what would normally be an uneventful trot around very familiar terrain presents the mutinous princess with a most bewildering sight—a dead man, and on the grounds of the palace, no less.
Determined to get to the bottom of the inscrutable puzzle, young Victoria is met with shocking disrespect and any number of obstacles. Sir John lies to her, her uncles and aunts join with her mother to stonewall her questions and curtail her movements. But Victoria will not be deterred. With Jane Conroy as a tentative and untrustworthy ally, Victoria’s first “case” is underway . . .
About the author
Darcie Wilde is an award-winning, bestselling, genre-jumping author of historical mysteries. When not writing, she can be found hiking, baking, stitching, obsessing over baseball and old movies, and, of course, reading, at home in Michigan where she lives with her husband and son.