Queen Victoria horrible year, nothing but sadness & horrors of one kind & another." Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Rheumatism in her legs had rendered her lame, and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts. Through early January, she felt "weak and unwell", and by mid-January she was "drowsy ... dazed, [and] confused". She died on Tuesday 22 January 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81. Her son and successor King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, Emperor Wilhelm II
Royal descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX were closely related due to their mutual descent from either Queen Victoria, King Christian IX or both. The most commonly cited example is the fact that Nicholas, his wife, Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Other countries who fought against Germany in addition to Russia and the United Kingdom were Romania, whose queen-consort, Marie, wife of King Ferdinand I, was a cousin of the Kaiser, and Greece, whose queen-consort, Sophia, wife of King Constantine I, was the Kaiser's own sister. Additionally, King George V was a first