Over the course of her 63-year reign, she strategically planned marriages to place her descendants in royal families all over Europe.  

Kate Middleton and Prince William's wedding was grand with 1,900 guests, who were mostly high-profile people. Footballer David Beckham was there with his wife and fashion designer Victoria Beckham. The Queen of Spain, the Prince of Spain, the Princess of Sweden, the former King of Greece and the former Kind of Romania all came too. But why? They were invited because they are all related to Prince William's great-great-great-grandmother - Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert wanted a strong relationship with Germany because they saw them as a force of good for the people and the monarchy. It first started with their eldest daughter Vicky, who was married off to the Prussia state in Germany, the largest and most powerful of the German states. Later, they married off their other children (Alice, Beatrice, Helena, Leopold, and Arthur) to German royalty. Their eldest son, Prince Albert Edward married a Danish princess, whose brother was the King of Greece. Queen Victoria's son, Alfred married the daughter of the Russian Tsar.

Germany unified in 1871 but it wasn't peaceful. In Russia, the Romanov family was being hunted down and the Tsar was assassinated in 1881. Queen Victoria's matchmaking didn't go as planned but she continued anyway. She had 42 grandchildren and 7 ended up on royal thrones.

The eldest, Wilhelm II, who was next in line to be the Emperor of Germany, married a German princess in 1881. Queen Victoria hoped this would lead Britain with a powerful alliance with Germany. George was in line to be the King of Great Britain and married a British royal family member. Tsarian Alexandra married Tsar Nicholas II, who was related to both George and Wilhelm II. (Nicholas and George were both identical twins). Then four more grandaughter's married other European royalty, in Spain, Greece, Norway, and Romania- fulfilling Queen Victoria's wishes.

After Queen Victoria's death in 1901, her family ties around Europe that should have brought peace brought the most destructive war Europe has ever seen - WW1. Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany fought along with Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire and fought against King George V Britain, Tsar Nicholas II Russia, and France. Norway and Spain were neutral throughout WWI.

This war ended monarchy in Europe, Wilhelm, Queen Sophie of Greece and Queen Maria of Romania were forced to abandon their thrones. During the Russian Revolution, Alexandria and Nicholas II were assassinated by Communists. The British family survived but they had to rethink their political strategy. King George V and his wife knew the monarchy had to change to be more people-friendly and they did. This is the monarchy we have today with Queen Elizabeth II and royal weddings have changed ever since. Phew!