Princess Alice of the United Kingdom papers to and from her government ministers, while the Queen secluded herself from all public life. Alice was aided in this task by her younger sister Princess Louise. Although Princess Helena, Louise's elder sister, would normally have been selected to assist, her inability to go long without crying was held against her. Alice's matrimonial plans were begun in 1860 by her mother. Queen Victoria had expressed her wish that her children should marry for love, but this did not mean that her choice of suitors would necessarily be extended to anybody outside the royal houses of Europe. Raising a British
Beatrice of Portugal However, the majority of the Portuguese historians have argued that during the 1383–1385 period Portugal had no monarch, and in Portugal Beatrice is not counted as a queen regnant. The Portuguese rebellion was not the only challenge to her accession, she also faced competing claims of her own husband. Many Portuguese nobles of the pro-Castillian faction also recognized her husband, King John I of Castile, as their "jure uxoris" monarch, rendering him vassalage and obedience, as, for example, did Lopo Gomes de Lira in Minho. As can be read in his 21 July 1385 testament written at Celorico da Beira,