The Royal Mob by Theresa Sherman

Confession: I generally hate historical fiction that is based on real people. I could (and plan to) write a long diatribe detailing why I find the 1997 animated Anastasia film to be horrific. I'm the type of person who will watch the History Channel and finally change the channel after I've screamed at it enough, correcting it. I refuse to watch The Other Boleyn Girl and I've always hated Titanic. Some people think I'm too anal, but I don't care. I just happen to find it wrong to take real people and events and alter them beyond recognition. A couple of facts here and there, fine (see Coal Miner's Daughter), but making Rasputin into a zombie with a talking bat, not so much. So now that we have that out of that way, let me tell you how much I loved The Royal Mob!

It's the life story of one of Queen Victoria's many granddaughters, Princess Victoria of Hesse. A fascinating woman, she was the aunt of the aforementioned subject of the Anastasia film and grandmother of Britain's Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II. This book is historical fiction in the sense that it's from Victoria's point of view, as though she is remembering all of the events that occur, but with a few changes The Royal Mob could practically serve as nonfiction, thanks to all of Sherman's thorough research. As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, naturally Princess Victoria was related to just about every royal personage of the time and this book is filled with anecdotes about all of them you may know and others you've probably never heard of, but will never forget. A fascinating personality, Victoria was a chain smoking chatterbox who increasingly came to believe that the concept of royalty was outdated.

Though her famous relatives (or as Grandmama Queen Victoria called them, "the royal mob", hence the title) do play a large part in this book, it is the love story between Victoria and her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg, that makes up the main part of the story. Victoria and Louis' marriage is a love match, which may be unusual for royalty in general, but proves to be the norm for her immediate family. Their marriage is looked down upon by many in Victoria's family who object to the fact that Louis is the product of a morganatic (unequal) marriage. Thanks to the bombastic Kaiser Wilhelm II and Russian Tsar Alexander III, I haven't seen such grumblings about pure blood since Voldemort returned! One who most certainly does not object to the marriage, however, is Queen Victoria, who likes the Battenberg family and declares that if they're good enough for her no one else should have a problem with them. The two face a great deal of adversity together and events such as Louis being forced to retire from the British Royal Navy after a lifetime of service are made all the more poignant because Sherman has made these people human and not just dry people on a history book page. It's heartbreaking because you know how important the Royal Navy is to Louis and you know how hard he worked.

One of my concerns before reading The Royal Mob was whether or not it would translate well to those who don't know a great deal about the people involved. On her mother's side alone, Victoria had Grandmama Victoria, eight sets of aunts and uncles and over thirty cousins, many of whom play a role in this book. How, I wondered, would Sherman be able to keep these people, their titles, and their nicknames straight? Amazingly, she does.Unlike most authors who would alternate names (i.e. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Wilhelm, Willy), Sherman picks one name and sticks with it. This makes absolute sense because, since this is Victoria's story, it's only natural that she would refer to her family members by their nicknames -and in a family with an abundance of Victorias, Alberts, Alexanders, and Maries, there are a lot of nicknames. Plus, she takes the time to reiterate who's who and how they're connected, which can sometimes be confusing even to people who've spent a lot of time reading about these people before.

It is impossible not to fall in love with the cast of characters as you find yourself in the middle of world changing events that weren't just catastrophic for the world, but were very personal for the royal mob. But instead of being treated like boring figures from history class, The Royal Mob makes these people human. They have personalities and quirks and tease each other and gossip like mad. When you read about the allegations facing some members of the family being spies for the Kaiser, you'll find yourself going "that's ridiculous -no one would tell Willy anything, they couldn't stand him". The massacre of the Russian Imperial family is all the more poignant when you see how it could have been prevented, how they could have been saved, and how even though the Tsar wasn't a good ruler, he was still a nice man, whose family didn't deserve what happened to them.

Though ancient history to some people, some events are more recent than you would think. Victoria's son was assassinated in 1979. Prince Charles called him his honorary grandfather and one of Prince William's middle names is actually in honor of this man, Earl Mountbatten. The book actually ends at Prince Charles' christening as Victoria thinks back upon the adversity her husband's family faced, including having to changing their name, and smiling about the fact that her young great-grandson, with his Battenberg heritage, was destined to become King of England.

The Royal Mob functions extremely well as not just historical fiction, but as the story of a large, extended family and how they were forced to evolve due to events beyond their control. Read it, love it, learn from it. It's fantastic.

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