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John Van der Kiste

Charlotte and Feodora: A troubled mother-daughter relationship in imperial Germany Paperback – July 30, 2015

by John Van der Kiste (Author)

49 ratings

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In 1900, almost two years after Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen married Prince Henry XXX of Reuss, her mother Charlotte, eldest sister of the German Emperor William, told a friend that her daughter was beyond her comprehension, and vowed to exclude her from her home ‘for ever’. Charlotte had long had an uneasy relationship with her mother, now the Empress Frederick, a daughter of Queen Victoria, but her relationship with her only child astonished the family. Mother and daughter both suffered from porphyria, the disorder which appears to have exacerbated the personality differences between them. Charlotte, a frivolous-minded young woman known for her love of society life and gossip, and later her involvement in the anonymous letters scandal which plagued Berlin high society from 1892 onwards, had never really wanted children, while Feodora’s life was embittered by her failure to have a family. This short life of both women examines the troubled lives which led to estrangement and in Feodora’s case ended in tragedy.

Print length

138 pages
Language

English
Publication date

July 30, 2015
Dimensions

6 x 0.32 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1514877376
ISBN-13

978-1514877371
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 30, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 138 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1514877376
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1514877371
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.32 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,247,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,310 in Royalty Biographies

Customer Reviews:
49 ratings

About the author

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John Van der Kiste

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John Van der Kiste read Librarianship at Ealing Technical College, where he edited the student librarian journal Stamp Out. The author of over seventy books, including historical and royal biography, popular music, true crime, local history, plays and fiction, he has also contributed articles to and reviewed books and records for local and national publications, was a consultant to the BBC documentary 'The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar', and is a contributor to 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' and 'Guinness Rockopaedia'. He lives in Devon, and his spare time interests include reading, music and painting. His latest titles are 'James II and the First Modern Revolution' (Pen & Sword), '1970: a Year in Rock: The Year Rock Became Mainstream', 'Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter in the 1970s', and 'Free and Bad Company in the 1970s' (Sonicbond). Due in 2022-3 are titles on King William IV, Queen Victoria's daughters-in-law, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band in the 1970s. He has also edited an English translation of 'Ena and Bee' by Ana de Sagrera, previously published in Spain in 2006, due later in 2022.

Customer reviews

5 star		39%
4 star		22%
3 star		28%
2 star		7%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Kindle Customer

Updated and Expanded Version of the 2012 E-book Charlotte and Feodora

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

When my daughter began losing her eyesight, I began looking for royalty non-fiction ebooks. Ebook text to speech capabilities, in particular on the Kindle Fire, have improved greatly and make most books very accessible. I wrote authors, agents, copyright holders, estates, publishers and even posted on some websites requesting authors publish ebooks in the U.S. Van Der Kiste was my only positive response. Publishers responded that there was no market for most royal non-fiction in the United States. Van Der Kiste did not wait for a publisher. He went straight to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. He says in the revised forward that he was "astonished at how well it sold in that [Kindle] format..." I hope that the authors who rudely responded to my request or banned me from a website for daring suggest such a thing, see this success and embrace the change!

This is an updated version of the ebook published in 2012. It is longer, contains some information that has come out since then and in particular the photo gallery has been greatly expanded and photos are no longer thumbnail size. Van Der Kiste is an expert in the area and the book profits most as a companion to be read in conjunction with Van Der Kiste's other related books: Kaiser Wilhelm II: Germany's Last Emperor, The last German Empress: Empress Augusta Victoria, Consort of Emperor William II (2015), Alfred: Queen Victoria's second son (2015), Prince Henry of Prussia: 1862-1929 (2015), Prussian Princesses: The Sisters of Kaiser Wilhelm II (2015), Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz: The Tragic Love Story of Queen Victoria's Eldest Daughter and the German Emperor, Princess Victoria Melita: Grand Duchess Cyril of Russia 1876-1936. Compared to those books, Charlotte and Fedora is short (text to speech reads the entire book in a little under 6 hours). Still, both Princesses were minor royals with no roles in major events. Charlotte was the second grandchild of Queen Victoria, the younger sister of Kaiser Wilhelm but married to a minor prince. Her daughter Feodora was also married to a minor princeling but had no children. Charlotte and Feodora suffered from ill health which resulted in frequent hospitalizations and both were unpopular among their family. Neither women were discussed in the newspapers and even the eventual suicide of Princess Feordora was not considered newsworthy enough for an obituary.

8 people found this helpful

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Earl Lopez

Sad but fascinating read

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

Because I am a prolific reader of royal personages; particularly German and British, I found this book quite fascinating in facts and details about Princesses Charlotte and Feodora and their struggles with porphyria. An ultimately sad existence for both women. Relief in their woes only came with death.

Helpful

UES Reader

Interesting but you may have already seen this elsewhere

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2015

Verified Purchase

John Van der Kiste is one of my favourite authors and I buy almost everything he writes. He writes beautifully, and there are rarely silly mistakes like the kind that invade most royal histories (I suspect those in his books are editor's mistakes). This book was a bit of a disappointment as I had already seen all the material in European Royal History Journal and online. It is very short and there is not a great deal of source material about this rather barmy mother and her very pathetic daughter. I found it interesting but superficial. Perhaps the latter was inevitable given the paucity of source material. Quite a few photographs and only a few are old standards that appear in EVERY book about a descendant of Queen Victoria.

One person found this helpful

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SusyQ

About 90% already available from a better source

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

Extremely disappointed - I thought this might have new information. Instead, we get a few new-to-me quotes from letters between Queen Victoria and the Empress Frederick (good) but for the rest, the descriptions of the relationship between Charlotte and Feodora appear to have been cribbed from author John Rohl's "Purple Secret." I recommend reading *that* book - don't bother with this. I'm shocked that this author let this be published, some of his paragraphs are straight copies from the other work.

2 people found this helpful

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Victorian Readerl

Charlotte and Feodora

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

His book badly needed a good editor. The writing is muddy and hard to follow. The writer needed to assign unambiguous names to the main characters and use them consistently. There are numerous places where the pronouns cannot be interpreted. Otherwise, this is sad saga of lives jacking focus and purpose.

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

It was a pretty decent read. Nothing that I haven’t read before while researching the Royals. It was a very detailed account of a lost Princess from History.

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Susan Norman

Very interesting read.

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

A typically well-researched book, as all John Van Der Kiste books are. He uses his typical gift of entertaining narrative to weave the story of Feodora and her mother, Charlotte, into an entertaining and informative piece of history.

Helpful

PSH

Overlook the spelling errors and find out more about women that little has been written about.

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

The author really needed to have someone proof read his completed biography. Tons of spelling mistakes throughout the book. I did enjoy the book, however, because so little is written about these two women.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

R Helen

Avoid!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

I had such high expectations for this book as there is so little out there in English about the German Imperial Family. But unfortunately I have been very disappointed. This is probably one of the worst written books I have ever read. It is confusing, oftentimes because pronouns are not clarified. But the text is a jumble of rambling information with lots of quotes, only vaguely given attribution. And it bothered me tremendously that he refers to both Empress Frederick and Empress Augusta as Empress. The only way to tell who he is talking about is from context. The concept is interesting but there is no analysis of the relationship between Charlotte and Feodora (and Charlotte and her mother either, for that matter) except to say that it wasn't good. From the book, it is unclear what the real problem was. The rest of the book is just a series of rumors regarding the three main characters. Many events are mentioned but not detailed and so contradictory explanations arise in the text. There is just so much missing from this book. Having also read "The Prussian Princesses" by the same author and having been disappointed there, as well, it seems that it would be best to avoid Van der Kiste's work altogether. However, his subject matter is so fascinating. I would avoid this book. Hopefully, something better will be written soon.

3 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

An unforgettable if tragic read...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

I read this absorbing piece within a day! Wow...

It covers A LOT concisely! The psychoanalysis of the familial dysfunction shared by each branch of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's descendants, is tragic, epically told and masterfully deconstructed.

What really struck me, was the historian's explanation of the possible link between the suspected (but undiagnosed) familial condition porphyria and the formation of several family member's "neurotic personality disorders."

It certainly does not excuse the narcissistic and emotionally abusive Charlotte, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen's cold blooded mistreatment of her daughter, Princess Feodora of Reuss, and general anti-social behaviour within the Prussian court, and towards wider extended family members.

But it does convey the sympathy, that these two princesses were privileged, but deeply troubled and long suffering women, plagued by debilitating illnesses which understandably, triggered deep anxiety within each and poor decision making by both.

This makes for a fascinating and haunting read. I look forward to discovering more of this talented author's work!

One person found this helpful

QPR MAN

IF ONLY....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

The book made excellent reading, and completed by a number of superb photographs. One can only wonder if the relationship between the two protagonists would have been better if Charlotte's mother, Empress Frederick, had recognised the similarities between her own symptoms and her daughter's, acknowledged them, and been much more sympathetic and understanding towards her. Charlotte herself was very obviously not the attracted to the shackles of marital bliss and resulting motherhood, but she might perhaps have not been as cold towards Feodora as she was. Of course, nineteenth/ early twentieth century aristocracy, the ladies in particular, were rarely instructed, sometimes more than reluctant to learn about or discuss their personal health problems, even with their spouses. Never mind their children. Such a very sad ending, with Feodora's suicide just after the end of World War 2.

One person found this helpful

P P KELLAWAY

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

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