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2019, Oil on Italian Linen, 120 x 100cm

Sullen, withdrawn and interfering. And that was just the special treatment she reserved for her family. 

Preserving the dynasty was the family business for Queen Victoria, to which end she manipulated the marriages of her children to half the heads of Europe. A dysfunctional family at best, nonetheless her grandchildren in turn went on to rule Norway, Denmark, Russia, Germany, Greece, Spain, Romania and the UK. 

And boy did they not get along. The First World War was essentially a spat between cousins. It could have been settled over croquet. Instead 17 million died. This conflict directly laid the seeds for the Second World War and a further 75 million deaths. Which in turn set the scene for the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and all the various conflicts in the Middle East. 

Imagine what might have happened if she let her children marry people they actually liked.