Princess Beatrice

Buckingham Palace - the official home of the British monarch in London   In this edition we travel back in time to hear about the life of Princess Beatrice, the youngest of Queen Victoria's nine children. Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch and she gave her name to an age. She was born in London in 1819 and became queen when she was only 18 years old. She died in 1901, and Princess Beatrice is famous for spending almost 30 years of her life editing her mother's journals. Matthew Dennison is the author of the first biography of Princess Beatrice and he tells us about her fascinating life - from being her mother's favourite and then breaking free to marry Prince Henry of Battenberg, to her work on her mother's private papers. Vocabulary to be swayed by something to be influenced by, or persuaded by, something cheeky to be rude in a funny way your constant companion someone who is always with you like a shutter coming down this expression means that life had changed for the worse from this moment to shrug off to break free from to step into the fray to take up the challenge Extras: Programme script (pdf - 22k) Download this programme (mp3 - 1.5 MB)  Information about Queen Victoria Read more about Queen Victoria *  Original BBC page here Script Amber: Hello, I'm Amber, and you’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com. In London Life today, we travel back in time to hear about the life of Princess  Beatrice, the youngest of Queen Victoria’s nine children.  Princess Beatrice was born in 1857 at Buckingham Palace in London. She was  Queen Victoria’s fifth daughter, and as we’ll hear, she ended up devoting her  life to her mother. Matthew Dennison has written the first biography of Princess Beatrice. He  talks about the reasons why the young princess became her mother’s constant  companion, and why she went on to edit her mother’s diaries after she died.  From the beginning, Queen Victoria adored Beatrice who was a good-looking  child. Matthew says Queen Victoria was ‘always swayed by good looks’ – to  be swayed by something, means to be influenced or persuaded by it. As you  listen, try to catch one or two of the six adjectives Matthew uses to describe the  young Beatrice!  Matthew Dennison ‘She was a pretty child – bright, pert, bouncy, naughty, cheeky child! Queen Victoria was  always swayed by good looks.’ Amber: So young Beatrice was ‘pretty, bright, pert, bouncy, naughty and cheeky’! ‘Pert’  means lively, as well as small, well-shaped and pretty! She was ‘bouncy’ and she  often misbehaved – she was ‘naughty’. To be ‘cheeky’ means to be rude and  amusing, or funny. But everything changed for this delightful little girl when she was just four years  old. In 1861, her father, the Prince Consort, died, and the heart-broken Queen  turned to Beatrice for comfort. Queen Victoria kept Beatrice close to her all the  time – the princess was her ‘constant companion’. Matthew says when the Prince Consort died, it was like ‘a shutter coming down’ –  this means that everything was very different from now on - it was like ‘a shutter  coming down’. As you listen, try to catch the expression Matthew uses to explain that Princess  Beatrice was never able to get free of her mother’s overwhelming need to have  her close. Matthew Dennison ‘Yes, the death of the Prince Consort is really like a shutter coming down and the tone of  family life, court life, royal life, from 1861 onwards is what will ultimately shape Beatrice,  and which she’ll never really shrug off.’  Amber: Matthew says that Princess Beatrice was never able ‘to shrug off’ her mother’s  need to keep her close, and that Beatrice was changed, or ‘shaped’ by her  mother’s behaviour. And when Beatrice grew up, Queen Victoria did not want her to get married. But  Beatrice did fall in love with, and marry, Prince Henry of Battenberg. Yet when  he died in 1896 of a fever, Beatrice spent the next 30 years of her life editing her  mother’s journals. This is what Princess Beatrice is famous for, and most people  think she probably made a lot of changes which Queen Victoria might not have  wanted. But Matthew disagrees. He says the Queen made Beatrice her ‘literary  executor’ – she wanted Beatrice to look after her property after she died – because  she knew Beatrice would act according to her wishes, and she knew Beatrice  would ‘step into the fray’, she would ‘take up the challenge’ of editing her  mother’s papers after her death.  Matthew Dennison ‘My feeling is that she acted in accordance with her mother’s wishes and that because Queen  Victoria had appointed Beatrice, unofficially, her literary executor, she made no plans to have  her journals and private correspondence burnt - which she easily might have done, if she  hadn’t known that Beatrice would step into the fray and eradicate things that perhaps posterity  wasn’t supposed to know.’  Amber: So Queen Victoria trusted Beatrice to remove, or ‘eradicate’, anything she didn’t  want ‘posterity’, people in the future, to know! So, over all, it was an astonishing mother-daughter relationship! Beatrice does not  accuse her mother of being controlling, and she doesn’t create a ‘cycle’ – she  doesn’t go on to treat her children the way she was treated by her mother.  Matthew Dennison ‘The Queen behaves towards her with astonishing emotional selfishness and yet Beatrice  returns her love whole-heartedly – with no element of recrimination – and the relationship  that Beatrice has with her mother doesn’t become a cycle. Beatrice herself doesn’t inflict that  on her own children.’  Amber: Now here again is some of the language from today’s programme:  swayed by good looks cheeky  a constant companion like a shutter coming down  to shrug off  to step into the fray  a cycle  More news stories and language explanations next time at bbclearningenglish.com