In Triumph’s Wake: Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory

by: Julia P. Gelardi

Published by: St. Martin's Press

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Gelardi, the author of Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria, has again created a readable and interesting account of six women. She starts with Queen Isabella and her daughter, Catherine of Aragon in the 1400s; and then continues with Empress Maria Theresa and Queen Marie Antoinette in the 1700s; and finally ends with Queen Victoria and her daughter Vicky, the Empress Frederick in the 1800s.

These three powerful and effective mothers had daughters to whom they pinned their hopes for influence; in the case of Isabella and Catherine and Victoria and Vicky, intelligent and strong mothers who saw that their daughters were well educated. Being a foreigner married to an heir to the throne did not work well for any of the daughters. Teenaged Marie Antoinette rebelled against her mother’s advice and gambled and ignored her husband’s pleas and the situation in France. Vicky tried to democratize the government in Germany but with a husband (who died after only 99 days in office), and the opposition of Bismarck and her son, she failed miserably.

The politics, both secular and religious; the relationships between husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, and siblings and children, all are here and incredibly fascinating. My favorite section was the last. It is astonishing to imagine that Kaiser Wilhelm II, the son of Vicky and her beloved Prince Frederick of Prussia, was in power when the conflagration we know as World War I began, contributing to it with his megalomania, hatred of his parents, and love of militarism.

Gelardi is an independent historian and writer living in Minnesota.

Armchair Interviews says: This will prove a fascinating, educational and entertaining read.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JuliaPGelardi.com