Correspondence between Feodora and Victoria @museum.de

Beneath the painting of Princess Feodora, we’d like to tell you about her warm affection for her younger half-sister, Queen Victoria.

In 1828, Princess Feodora married Prince Ernst the First of Hohenlohe-Langenburg at Kensington Palace and subsequently moved to Langenburg Castle. Victoria was nine years old at the time.

Following her wedding, Feodora wrote the following to her little half-sister:

"My sweet Vicky, I think a great deal of dear Mamma and you all in Kensington and am often very sad that I am so far from you ... I live in a very large old castle at the top of a mountain, from which there is a fine view..."

In 1831, three years later, she gives her sister a glimpse of her daily routine:

"I beg your most humble pardon for not having written to you since the beginning of August, which is not very long, and tell you that if I were to write to you every month, you would soon find my letters very uninteresting, and you would say, Sister writes most tiresome, stupid letters; but if I wait some time, I can tell you much more that amuses you than if I can only say, I got up in the morning at eight; breakfasted at nine; painted, wrote, etc. till twelve; dined at one; rode, walked or drove till five; took my tea; then made music in the evening; supped at eight; went to bed at ten. Now you find that is nothing very interesting for other people, if it is every day the same."

Princess Feodora died in Baden-Baden in 1872, following a long illness. She was only 65. Queen Victoria was deeply affected. In her journal, she wrote:

"My own darling, only sister, my dear excellent, noble Feodora is no more! [...] She is at rest & in peace since 2 this morning. What a fearful loss. God's will be done, but the loss to me is too dreadful! I stand so alone now, no near & dear one nearer my own age, or older, to whom I could look up to, left! All, all gone! She was my last near relative on an equality with me, the last link with my childhood & youth.“

Princess Feodora was laid to rest in Baden-Baden. Queen Victoria outlived her half-sister by 29 years, dying in 1901 at the age of 82.