Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the
QueenA queen regnant is a qualifying reference to a female monarch possessing and exercising all of the monarchical powers of a ruler, in contrast to a "queen consort", who is the wife of a male reigning as monarch and who is without any official powers of state.In Ancient Egypt, Pacific cultures, and...
of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
from 1 May 1876, until her death. Her reign as the Queen lasted 63 years and 7 months, longer than that of any other
British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female monarch in history. The time of her reign is known as the Victorian period, an era of industrial, political, scientific and military progress within the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
.
Though Victoria ascended the throne at a time when the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
was already an established
constitutional monarchyA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
in which the king or queen held few political powers and exercised influence by the prime minister's advice, she still served as a very important symbolic figure of her time. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the foremost global power of the time.
Of mostly
GermanThe German people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue. Within Germany, Germans are defined by citizenship , distinguished from people of German ancestry...
descent, Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-SaalfeldPrincess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
, and granddaughter of
George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
and the niece of her predecessor
William IVWilliam IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death on 20 June 1837...
. She
arranged marriageArranged marriage is a marriage arranged by someone other than the couple getting wedded, curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world, including Europe. Today, arranged marriage is still practiced in South...
s for her nine children and forty-two grandchildren across the continent, tying
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". She was the last British monarch of the
House of HanoverThe House of Hanover is a Germanic royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. It succeeded the House of Stuart as monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 and held that office until the...
; her son
King Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
belonged to the
House of Saxe-Coburg and GothaThe House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is German noble family, a line of the Saxon House of Wettin that ruled the two duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It is also the royal house of several European monarchies, and branches currently reign in Belgium through the descendants of Leopold I, and in the...
.
Heiress to the throne
Victoria was born in
Kensington PalaceKensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century. Today it is the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke and...
in 1819. At the time of her birth, her grandfather,
George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
, was on the throne, but his three eldest sons, the Prince Regent (later
George IVGeorge IV was the king of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
), the
Duke of YorkThe Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
, and the Duke of Clarence (later
William IVWilliam IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death on 20 June 1837...
), had no surviving legitimate children. The princess was christened privately by
The Archbishop of CanterburyAlso see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
(
Charles Manners-SuttonCharles Manners-Sutton was a priest in the Church of England who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1805 to 1828.-Life:...
) on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at
Kensington PalaceKensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century. Today it is the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke and...
. Her godparents were Emperor
Alexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia , also known as Alexander the Blessed served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and Ruler of Poland from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania.He was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later...
, the future King
George IV of the United KingdomGeorge IV was the king of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
(her uncle),
Queen Charlotte of WürttembergThe Princess Charlotte, Princess Royal was a member of the British Royal Family, the eldest daughter of George III. She was later the Queen consort of Frederick of Württemberg...
(her aunt, whose sister
The Princess Augusta SophiaThe Princess Augusta Sophia was a member of the British Royal Family, second daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte...
stood in proxy) and Duchess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield (her maternal grandmother, for whom
Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and EdinburghThe Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh was a member of the British Royal Family, the eleventh child and fourth daughter of George III....
, the infant princess' aunt, stood proxy). The princess was named
Alexandrina, after Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and
Victoria after her mother.
The young Princess Victoria, as the only legitimate child of the fourth son of
George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
, the Duke of Kent, who died in 1820, became
heiress presumptiveAn heir presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honor, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the throne...
after the death of
George IVGeorge IV was the king of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
in 1830. The law at the time made no special provision for a child monarch. Therefore, a Regent needed to be appointed if Victoria were to succeed to the throne before coming of age at the age of eighteen. Parliament passed the Regency Act 1830, which provided that Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, would act as Regent during the Queen's minority, if she acceded to the throne while still a minor. Parliament did not create a council to limit the powers of the Regent. King William disliked the Duchess and, on at least one occasion, stated that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so a regency could be avoided.
Victoria later described her childhood as "rather melancholy."
http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/hanover_6.htm Victoria's mother was extremely protective of the princess, who was raised in near isolation under the so called "
Kensington SystemThe Kensington System was a strict and elaborate set of rules designed by Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and her attendant and supposed lover, Sir John Conroy, concerning the upbringing of the former's daughter, the future Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom...
", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by The Duchess and her
comptrollerA comptroller or controller is a person who supervises accounting and financial reporting within an organization. A controller is an accountant in a business who oversees accounting and the implementation and monitoring of internal controls...
and supposed lover, Sir John Conroy, to prevent the princess from ever meeting people they deemed undesirable and to render her weak and utterly dependent upon them.
She was not allowed to interact with other children. Her main companion was her
King Charles spanielThe King Charles Spaniel is a breed of small dog of the Spaniel type. The similar Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a different breed...
, Dash, and she was required to share a bedroom with her mother every night until she became queen. As a teenager, Victoria resisted their threats and rejected their attempts to make Conroy her personal secretary. Once queen, she immediately banned Conroy from her quarters (though she could not remove him from her mother's household) and consigned her mother to a distant corner of the palace, often refusing to see her.
The Duchess was scandalized by her brothers-in-law's numerous mistresses and bastard children, and the widespread public contempt for the royal family that resulted; she taught her daughter that she must avoid any hint of sexual impropriety, which has been proposed as having prompted the emergence of
Victorian moralityVictorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria in particular, and to the moral climate of Great Britain throughout the 19th century in general that were in stark contrast to the morality of the previous Georgian period...
.
Victoria's governess, Baroness Lehzen, was a formative influence for Victoria and continued to run Victoria's household after she ascended to the throne. Victoria's close relationship with Baroness Lehzen came to an end some time after the queen married Prince Albert, who found Lehzen incompetent for her authority in the household to the point of threatening the safety and health of their first child.
Accession
On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, and the regency was avoided. On 20 June 1837,
William IVWilliam IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death on 20 June 1837...
died from heart failure at the age of 71, and Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom. In her diary she wrote, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma …who told me
the Archbishop of CanterburyWilliam Howley was a clergyman in the Church of England. He served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848.-Early Life, education, and interests:...
and
Lord ConynghamGeneral Francis Nathaniel Conyngham, 2nd Marquess Conyngham KP, GCH, PC , styled Lord Francis Conyngham between 1816 and 1824 and Earl of Mount Charles between 1824 and 1832, was a British soldier, courtier and politician.-Background and education:Born in Dublin, Conyngham was the second son of...
were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen…" All the official documents (proclamation, oaths of allegiance, etc) prepared on the first day of her reign described her as Queen
Alexandrina Victoria but at her first Privy Council meeting she signed the register as Victoria; thus, although she was supposed to reign as Alexandrina Victoria, the first name was withdrawn at her own wish. Her
coronationThe Coronation of the British Monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...
took place on 28 June 1838, and she became the first monarch to take up residence at Buckingham Palace.
Under
Salic lawSalic law was an important body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...
, however, no woman could be heir to the throne of
HanoverThe Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era...
, a realm which had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714. Hanover passed to her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who became
King Ernest Augustus IErnest Augustus I was king of Hanover from 1837, and from 1799 Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in the Peerage of Great Britain. He was the fifth son and eighth child of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.Ernest had a short military career, during which...
. (He was the fifth son and eighth child of George III.) As the young queen was as yet unmarried and childless, Ernest Augustus also remained the
heir presumptiveAn heir presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honor, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the throne...
to the throne of the United Kingdom until Victoria's first child was born in 1840.
]]
At the time of her accession, the government was controlled by the
Whig PartyThe Whigs are often described as one of the two original political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
, which had been in power, except for brief intervals, since 1830. The Whig Prime Minister,
Lord MelbourneWilliam Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister , and was a mentor of Queen Victoria...
, at once became a powerful influence in the life of the politically inexperienced Queen, who relied on him for advice—some even referred to Victoria as "Mrs. Melbourne". However, the Melbourne ministry would not stay in power for long; it was growing unpopular and, moreover, faced considerable difficulty in governing the British colonies, especially during the
Rebellions of 1837The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government.-Rebellions:...
. In 1839, Lord Melbourne resigned after the
RadicalsThe Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century, who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.-Background:...
and the Tories (both of whom Victoria detested at that time) joined together to block a Bill before the House of Commons that would have suspended the Constitution of
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
.
Victoria's principal advisor was her uncle King
Leopold I of BelgiumLeopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
(her mother's brother, and the widower of Victoria's cousin,
Princess CharlottePrincess Charlotte Augusta of Wales was the only child of King George IV of the United Kingdom , and Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Charlotte married Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld on 2 May 1816 at Carlton House, London...
).
The Queen then commissioned
Sir Robert PeelSir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
, a Tory, to form a new ministry, but was faced with a débâcle known as the
Bedchamber CrisisThe Bedchamber crisis is the unofficial name for the 'crisis' that took place under Queen Victoria during a change of Her Majesty's government...
. At the time, it was customary for appointments to the
Royal HouseholdThe Royal Household in all the early medieval monarchies of Western Europe formed the basis for the general government of the country. In the modern period in Europe, royal households have become increasingly separate from government, where they still exist....
to be based on the
patronagePatronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
system (that is, for the Prime Minister to appoint members of the Royal Household on the basis of their party loyalties). Many of the Queen's Ladies of the Bedchamber were wives of Whigs, but Peel expected to replace them with wives of Tories. Victoria strongly objected to the removal of these ladies, whom she regarded as close friends rather than as members of a ceremonial institution. Peel felt that he could not govern under the restrictions imposed by the Queen, and consequently resigned his commission, allowing Melbourne to return to office.
Marriage
Princess Victoria first met her future husband, her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, when she was just seventeen in 1836. Some authors have written that she initially found Albert to be rather dull.. However she instead enjoyed his company from the beginning. After the visit she wrote, "[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful." She also wrote to her maternal uncle
Leopold I of BelgiumLeopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
to thank him "for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert ... He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy." Prince Albert's father was one of her mother's brothers, Ernest, who approved the match. However at seventeen, the Princess Victoria, though interested in Albert, was not yet ready to marry.
Victoria came to the throne aged just eighteen on 20 June 1837. Though queen, as an unmarried young woman Victoria was nonetheless required to live with her mother, with whom she was quite angry over the
Kensington systemThe Kensington System was a strict and elaborate set of rules designed by Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and her attendant and supposed lover, Sir John Conroy, concerning the upbringing of the former's daughter, the future Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom...
. Victoria gave her mother a remote apartment in
Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
and usually refused to meet her. Lord Melbourne advised Victoria to marry in order to be free of her mother. Her letters of the time show interest in Albert's education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, although she resisted attempts to rush her into marriage.
Though initially quite popular, Victoria's reputation suffered somewhat in an 1839 court intrigue when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting,
Lady Flora HastingsLady Flora Elizabeth Rawdon-Hastings was a British aristocrat and lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent...
, developed an abdominal tumour that resulted in her death in July 1839. Hastings at first refused to submit to a physical examination by a doctor, and her abdominal growth was widely rumored to be an out-of-wedlock
pregnancyPregnancy is the carrying of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, inside the uterus of a female. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets. Human pregnancy is the most studied of all mammalian pregnancies. Obstetrics is the surgical field...
by Sir John Conroy, the probable lover of Victoria's mother. Victoria hated Conroy for his role in constructing the
Kensington SystemThe Kensington System was a strict and elaborate set of rules designed by Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and her attendant and supposed lover, Sir John Conroy, concerning the upbringing of the former's daughter, the future Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom...
that had rendered her childhood so unhappy, and believed the rumours. Hastings eventually submitted to an examination and was found to have a terminal tumour. When she died several months later, Conroy and Hastings' brother organized a press campaign accusing the Queen of spreading false and disgraceful insults about Lady Hastings.
Victoria's continued to praise Albert following his second visit in October 1839 after she had become Queen, when she wrote of him: "…dear Albert… He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see." Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to Albert just 5 days after he had arrived at Windsor on 15 October 1839.
The Queen and Prince Albert were married on 10 February 1840, in the
Chapel RoyalA Chapel Royal is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household of the monarch in right of either Canada or the United Kingdom, formally known as the royal Free Chapel of the Household...
of
St. James's PalaceSt. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it is considered the most senior royal palace in the UK and gives its name to the Royal Court St. James's Palace is...
, London. Albert became not only the Queen's companion, but an important political advisor, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in the first half of her life following Melbourne's death. Victoria's mother was evicted from the palace, and Victoria rarely visited her.
During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year-old
Edward OxfordEdward Oxford was tried for high treason for attempting to assassinate Queen Victoria in 1840....
attempted to assassinate the Queen while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for
high treasonHigh treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country. Participating in a war against one's country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps the...
, but was acquitted on the grounds of insanity. The first of the royal couple's nine children, named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840.
Further attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria occurred between May and July 1842. First, on 29 May at
St. James's ParkSt. James's Park is a 23 hectare park in Westminster, central London, the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St. James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St. James the Less....
, John Francis fired a pistol at the Queen while she was in a carriage, but was immediately seized by Police Constable William Trounce. Francis was convicted of high treason. The death sentence was commuted to
transportation for lifeTransportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
. Then, on 3 July, just days after Francis's sentence was commuted, another boy, John William Bean, attempted to shoot the Queen. Prince Albert felt that the attempts were encouraged by Oxford's acquittal in 1840. Although his gun was loaded only with paper and tobacco, his crime was still punishable by death. Feeling that such a penalty would be too harsh, Prince Albert encouraged Parliament to pass the
Treason Act 1842The Treason Act 1842 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was passed early in the reign of Queen Victoria...
. Under the new law, an assault with a dangerous weapon in the monarch's presence with the intent of alarming her was made punishable by seven years' imprisonment and
floggingFlagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat-o-nine-tails and the sjambok...
. Bean was thus sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment; however, neither he, nor any person who violated the act in the future, was flogged.
During the same summer as these two assassination attempts, Victoria made her first journey by train, travelling from
Slough railway stationSlough railway station, in Slough, Berkshire, England, is served by local services operated by First Great Western from London Paddington to Reading...
(near
Windsor CastleWindsor Castle, in Windsor in the English country of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation...
) to Bishop's Bridge, near
PaddingtonPaddington is an area of the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
(in London), on 13 June 1842 in the special royal carriage provided by the
Great Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later...
. Accompanying her were her husband and the engineer of the Great Western line,
Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British engineer. He is best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels...
. The Queen and the Prince Consort both complained the train was going too fast at , fearing the train would derail.
Early Victorian politics and further assassination attempts
Peel's ministry soon faced a crisis involving the repeal of the
Corn LawsThe Corn Laws were import tariffs designed to support domestic British corn prices against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The tariffs were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
. Many Tories—by then known also as
ConservativesThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
—were opposed to the repeal, but some Tories (the "Peelites") and most Whigs supported it. Peel resigned in 1846, after the repeal narrowly passed, and was replaced by
Lord John RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
. Russell's ministry, though Whig, was not favoured by the Queen. Particularly offensive to Victoria was the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the Prime Minister, or the Queen.
In 1849, Victoria lodged a complaint with Lord John Russell, claiming that Palmerston had sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without her knowledge. She repeated her remonstrance in 1850, but to no avail. It was only in 1851 that Lord Palmerston was removed from office; he had on that occasion announced the British government's approval for President
Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte'sNapoleon III , Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, was the first President of the French Republic and the last monarch of France. He was also Napoleon I's nephew. Made president by popular vote in 1848, Napoleon III ascended to the throne on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon...
coupA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
in France without prior consultation of the Prime Minister.
The period during which Russell was Prime Minister also proved personally distressing to Queen Victoria. In 1849, an unemployed and disgruntled Irishman named William Hamilton attempted to alarm the Queen by firing a powder-filled pistol as her carriage passed along
Constitution Hill, LondonConstitution Hill is a road in the City of Westminster in London. It connects the western end of The Mall with Hyde Park Corner, and is bordered by Buckingham Palace Gardens and Green Park. The term "Hill" is something of an anomaly; there is barely detectable slope but most observers would...
. Hamilton was charged under the 1842 act; he pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years of
penal transportationTransportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
.
In 1850, the Queen did sustain injury when she was assaulted by a possibly insane ex-Army officer,
Robert PateRobert Francis Pate, Jr was a former British Army officer, best remembered for his assault on Queen Victoria on June 27, 1850.-Military career:In 1841, Pate purchased a Cornetcy in the 10th Light Dragoons...
. As Victoria was riding in a carriage, Pate struck her with his cane, crushing her bonnet and bruising her. Pate was later tried; he failed to prove his insanity, and received the same sentence as Hamilton.
Ireland
The young Queen Victoria fell in love with
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, choosing to holiday in
KillarneyKillarney is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is located north of the MacGillicuddy Reeks, on the northeastern shore of the Lough Lein/Leane which are part of Killarney National Park. The town and its surrounding region is home to St...
in
KerryCounty Kerry is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster. Kerry is the fifth largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 14th largest in terms of population...
. Her love of the island was matched by initial Irish warmth towards the young Queen. In 1845, Ireland was hit by a potato blight that over four years cost the lives of over a million Irish people and saw the emigration of another million. In response to what came to be called the
Great FamineGreat Famine can refer to multiple historical famines that are referred to as the "Great Famine":*Great Famine of 1315–1317 - Northern European famine of the 14th century*Great India Famine 1344-1345...
(
An Gorta Mór, Irish for "The Great Famine"), the Queen personally donated £2,000 sterling to the starving Irish people. However, when Sultan
Abdülmecid IAbdülmecid I, Abdul Mejid I, Abd-ul-Mejid I or Abd Al-Majid I Ghazi was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on July 2 1839. His reign was notable for the rise of nationalist movements within the empire's territories...
of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
declared that he would send £10,000 to aid the Irish, Queen Victoria requested that the Sultan send only £1,000, because she had sent only £2,000. The Sultan sent the £1,000 but also secretly sent 3 ships full of food. The English courts tried to block the ships, but the food arrived at Drogheda harbour and was left there by Ottoman sailors.
Additionally, the policies of her minister Lord John Russell were often blamed for exacerbating the severity of the famine, which adversely affected the Queen's popularity in Ireland. Victoria was a strong supporter of the Irish; she supported the
Maynooth GrantThe Maynooth Grant was a major British political controversy of the 1840s.In 1845, British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel sought to conciliate the Irish and put a stop to political unrest there....
and made a point, on visiting Ireland, of visiting the seminary.
Victoria's first official visit to Ireland, in 1849, was specifically arranged by
Lord ClarendonGeorge William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon KG, GCB, PC , was an English diplomat and statesman.Born in London on January 12 1800, George Villiers was the eldest son of the Hon...
, the
Lord Lieutenant of IrelandThe Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , also known as the Judiciar in the early mediaeval period and as the Lord Deputy as late as the 17th century, was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great...
—the head of the British administration—to try to both draw attention from the famine and alert British politicians through the Queen's presence to the seriousness of the crisis in Ireland. Despite the negative impact of the famine on the Queen's popularity she remained popular enough for nationalists at party meetings to finish by singing "
God Save the Queen"God Save the Queen", or "God Save the King", is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms. It is the national anthem of the United Kingdom and her territories and dependencies, Norfolk Island, one of the two national anthems of the Cayman Islands and New Zealand and the royal anthem of...
". Her personal donation of money was not backed up by any ground movement to deal with the famine, and she became known in Ireland as "The Famine Queen", and was much vilified then, as now.In 1853 she visited the
Great Industrial ExhibitionThe Great Industrial Exhibition in 1853 was held in Dublin, Ireland. In its day, it was the largest international event to be held in Ireland. The Irish Industrial Exhibition Building housed the entire fair...
which was the biggest international event held to date in Ireland. Over one million attended and Victoria knighted the architect of the exhibition, John Benson.
By the 1870s and 1880s the monarchy's appeal in Ireland had diminished substantially, partly because Victoria refused to visit Ireland in protest at the
Dublin CorporationDublin Corporation , known by generations of Dubliners simply as The Corpo, is the former name given to the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin between 1661 and 1 January 2002...
's decision not to congratulate her son, the
Prince of WalesEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
on both his marriage to
Princess Alexandra of DenmarkAlexandra of Denmark was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India from 1901 to 1910 as the consort of Edward VII....
and on the birth of the royal couple's oldest son,
Prince Albert VictorPrince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale was a member of the British Royal Family. He was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales , and the grandson of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria...
.
Victoria refused repeated pressure from a number of prime ministers, lords lieutenant and even members of the Royal Family, to establish a royal residence in Ireland. Lord Midleton, the former head of the Irish unionist party, writing in his memoirs of 1930
Ireland: Dupe or Heroine?, described this decision as having proved disastrous to the monarchy and British rule in Ireland.
The Queen paid her last visit to Ireland in 1900, when she came to appeal to Irishmen to join the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
and fight in the
Second Boer WarThe Second Boer War , commonly referred to as The Boer War and also known as the South African War , the Anglo-Boer War and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog , or the Engelse oorlog was fought...
. Nationalist opposition to her visit was spearheaded by
Arthur GriffithArthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:Arthur Griffith was born at 61 Upper...
, who established an organisation called
Cumann na nGaedhaelCumann na nGaedhael , sometimes spelt Cumann na nGaedheal, was an Irish language name given to two Irish political parties, the second of which became the modern Fine Gael party...
to unite the opposition. Five years later Griffith used the contacts established in his campaign against the queen's visit to form a new political movement,
Sinn FéinSinn Féin is a political party in Ireland. The current party, led by Gerry Adams, was formed following a split in January 1970 and traces its origins back to the original Sinn Féin party formed in 1905. It is a major party of Irish republicanism and its political ideology is left wing...
.
India
After the Mughal Emperor was deposed by the
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, and after the company itself was dissolved, the title "Empress of India" was taken by Victoria from 1 May 1876, and proclaimed at the
Delhi DurbarThe Delhi Durbar, meaning, "Court of Delhi", was a mass assembly at Coronation Park, Delhi, India to commemorate the coronation of a King and Queen of the United Kingdom. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was held three times in 1877, 1903, and 1911 at the height of the British Empire...
of 1877. The title was created nineteen years after the formal incorporation into the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
of Britain's possessions and protectorates on the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
.
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
Benjamin DisraeliBenjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. He served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister. A teenage convert to Anglicanism, he was nonetheless the country's first and thus...
is usually credited with creating the title for her. Victoria began learning
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
and
PunjabiPunjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....
in 1867.
Widowhood
The Prince Consort died of
typhoid feverTyphoid fever, also known as enteric fever, Salmonella typhi or commonly just typhoid, is an illness. Common worldwide, it is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person. The bacteria then perforate through the intestinal wall and are phagocytosed...
on 14 December 1861 due to the primitive sanitary conditions at Windsor Castle. His death devastated Victoria, who was still affected by the death of her mother in March of that year. She entered a state of
mourningMourning is, in the simplest sense, synonymous with grief over the death of someone. The word is also used to describe a cultural complex of behaviours in which the bereaved participate or are expected to participate...
and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances and rarely set foot in London in the following years. Her seclusion earned her the name "Widow of Windsor." She blamed her son
EdwardEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
, the Prince of Wales, for his father's death, since news of the Prince's poor conduct had come to his father in November, leading Prince Albert to travel to Cambridge to confront his son.
Victoria's self-imposed isolation from the public greatly diminished the popularity of the monarchy, and even encouraged the growth of the republican movement. Although she did undertake her official government duties, she chose to remain secluded in her royal residences—
Balmoral CastleBalmoral Castle is a large estate house situated in the area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, known as Royal Deeside. The estate was purchased by Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert, and remains a favourite summer royal residence....
in Scotland,
Osborne HouseOsborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat....
on the
Isle of WightThe Isle of Wight is an English island and a county, located 3-5 miles from the south coast of the mainland, in the English Channel. It is separated from mainland England by the Solent and is situated south of the county of Hampshire...
and
Windsor CastleWindsor Castle, in Windsor in the English country of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation...
.
As time went by Victoria began to rely increasingly on a manservant from Scotland,
John BrownJohn Brown was a Scottish personal servant and favourite of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom for many years...
. A romantic connection and even a secret marriage have been alleged, but both charges are generally discredited. However, when Victoria's remains were laid in the coffin, two sets of mementos were placed with her, at her request. By her side was placed one of Albert's dressing gowns while in her left hand was placed a piece of Brown's hair, along with a picture of him. It was learned in 2008 that Victoria's body wore the wedding ring of John Brown's mother, placed on her hand after her death. Rumours of an affair and marriage earned Victoria the nickname "Mrs Brown". The story of their relationship was the subject of the 1997 movie
Mrs. BrownMrs. Brown is a 1997 British drama film starring Dame Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher and Gerard Butler...
.
Golden Jubilee and an assassination attempt
In 1887, the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
celebrated Victoria's
Golden JubileeA Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In the Commonwealth Realms :In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Realms, a Golden Jubilee celebration is held in the 50th year of a monarch's reign.- For Queen Elizabeth II :...
. Victoria marked the fiftieth anniversary of her accession on 20 June with a banquet to which 50
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an kings and princes were invited. Although she could not have been aware of it, there was a plan—ostensibly by Irish anarchists—to blow up
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
while the Queen attended a service of thanksgiving. This
assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
attempt, when it was discovered, became known as the Jubilee Plot. On the next day, she participated in a procession that, in the words of
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
, "stretched to the limit of sight in both directions". By this time, Victoria was once again an extremely popular monarch.
Diamond Jubilee
On 25 September 1896, Victoria surpassed
George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
as the longest-reigning monarch in English, Scottish, and British history. The Queen requested all special public celebrations of the event to be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her
Diamond JubileeA Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event A Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person (e.g. wedding anniversary, length of time a monarch has reigned as...
. The
Colonial SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet official in charge of managing the various British colonies. The position was first created in 1768 to deal with the increasingly troublesome North American colonies...
,
Joseph ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain was an influential British businessman, politician, and statesman.In his early years Chamberlain was a radically minded Liberal Party member, a campaigner for educational reform, and President of the Board of Trade. He later became a Liberal Unionist in alliance with the...
, proposed that the Diamond Jubilee be made a festival of the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
.
The Prime Ministers of all the self-governing dominions and colonies were invited. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee procession included troops from every British colony and dominion, together with soldiers sent by Indian princes and chiefs as a mark of respect to Victoria, the Empress of India. The Diamond Jubilee celebration was an occasion marked by great outpourings of affection for the septuagenarian Queen. A service of thanksgiving was held outside St. Paul's Cathedral. Queen Victoria sat in her carriage throughout the service; she wore her usual black mourning dress trimmed with white lace. Many trees were planted to celebrate the Jubilee, including 60 oak trees at
Henley-on-ThamesHenley-on-Thames is a town on the north side of the River Thames in south Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...
in the shape of a
Victoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration which is, or has been, awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories. It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations and medals...
. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War, and its
modern Commonwealth variantsThe Victoria Cross is the highest award for gallantry awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces.It may also may also refer to national variants of the award:*Victoria Cross for Australia, instituted in 1991...
remain to this day the highest British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Commonwealth award for bravery.
Death and succession
Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at
Osborne HouseOsborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat....
on the
Isle of WightThe Isle of Wight is an English island and a county, located 3-5 miles from the south coast of the mainland, in the English Channel. It is separated from mainland England by the Solent and is situated south of the county of Hampshire...
. She died there from declining health on Tuesday 22 January 1901 at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81. At her deathbed she was attended by her son, the future King, and her eldest grandson,
German Emperor William IIWilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia , ruling both the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918....
. As she had wished, her own sons lifted her into the coffin. She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil, and the coffin was draped with the Royal Standard that had been flying at Osborne House; it was later gifted by Victoria's grandson, George V, to
Victoria CollegeVictoria University is a federated school of the University of Toronto, consisting of Victoria College and Emmanuel College. Victoria University is somewhat separated from the rest of the university geographically, bordering Queen's Park, and being located on the eastern portion of the campus along...
at the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated north of the city's Financial District on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. The university was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the...
. Her funeral was held on Saturday 2 February, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at
Windsor Great ParkWindsor Great Park is a large deer park of 5,000 acres, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. The park was, for many centuries, the private hunting ground of Windsor Castle and dates primarily from the mid-13th century...
. Since Victoria disliked black funerals, London was instead festooned in purple and white. When she was laid to rest at the mausoleum, it began to snow.
Flags in the United States were lowered to half-staff in her honour by order of President
William McKinleyWilliam McKinley Jr. was the 25th President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to the office....
, a tribute never before offered to a foreign monarch at the time and one which was repaid by Britain when McKinley was assassinated later that year. Victoria had reigned for a total of 63 years, seven months and two days—the longest of any British monarch—and surpassed her grandfather, George III, as the longest-lived monarch three days before her death.
Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the
House of HanoverThe House of Hanover is a Germanic royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. It succeeded the House of Stuart as monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 and held that office until the...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
. As her husband belonged to the House of
Saxe-Coburg and GothaSaxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha served as the name of the two German duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha in Germany, in the present-day states of Bavaria and Thuringia, which were in personal union between 1826 and 1918....
, her son and heir
Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
was the first British monarch of this new house. Later, in 1917, her grandson
King George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
changed the house name from
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the (currently serving)
House of WindsorThe House of Windsor is the current Royal House of the United Kingdom and each of the other Commonwealth realms. It is a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , which adopted the name Windsor by a royal proclamation of George V in 1917...
.
Victoria outlived 3 of her 9 children, and came within seven months of outliving a fourth (her eldest daughter,
VickyThe Princess Victoria, Princess Royal was the eldest child and daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was created Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in 1841. She became German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor...
, who died of spinal cancer in August 1901 aged 60). She outlived 11 of her 42 grandchildren (3 stillborn, 6 as children, and 2 as adults).
Within Britain
Queen Victoria's reign marked the gradual establishment of a modern constitutional monarchy. A series of legal reforms saw the House of Commons' power increase, at the expense of the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
and the monarchy, with the monarch's role becoming gradually more symbolic. Since Victoria's reign the monarch has had only, in
Walter BagehotWalter Bagehot was a British businessman, essayist, and journalist who wrote extensively about literature, government, and economic affairs.-Early Years:...
's words, "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to warn".
As Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic than political, it placed a strong emphasis on morality and family values, in contrast to the sexual, financial and personal scandals that had been associated with previous members of the House of Hanover and which had discredited the monarchy. Victoria's reign created for Britain the concept of the "family monarchy" with which the burgeoning
middle classThe middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the...
es could identify.
The sudden appearance of
haemophiliaHaemophilia is a group of hereditary genetic disorders that impair the body's ability to control blood clotting or coagulation, which is used to stop bleeding when a blood vessel is broken...
in Victoria's descendants has led to suggestions that her true father was not the Duke of Kent but a haemophiliac. Victoria was the first known carrier of
haemophilia in the royal lineHaemophilia figured prominently in the history of European royalty in the 19th and 20th centuries. Queen Victoria, through two of her five daughters , passed the mutation to various royal houses across the continent, including the royal families of Spain, Germany and Russia...
. Since no haemophiliacs were among her known ancestors, hers was either an instance of spontaneous mutation, which occurs at a rate of about one in 25000 to one in 100000 per generation, or was actually illegitimate, her father an unidentified haemophiliac male rather than the Duke of Kent. Spontaneous mutations account for about 33% of all haemophilia A and 20% of all haemophilia B cases. Geneticists consider it more likely that the mutation arose because Victoria's father was old (haemophilia arises more frequently in the children of older fathers). There is no documentary evidence of a haemophiliac man in connection with Victoria's mother, and as male carriers always suffer the disease, even if such a man had existed he would have been seriously ill.
Evidence indicates Victoria passed the gene on to two of her five daughters: Princess Alice and Princess Beatrice. Her son,
Prince LeopoldThe Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany was a member of the British Royal Family, a son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Leopold was later created the Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow...
, was affected by the disease. The most famous haemophilia victims among her descendants were her great-grandson, Alexei, Tsarevich of Russia, and Alfonso, Prince of Asturias and
Infante Gonzalo of SpainInfante Gonzalo of Spain was the fourth surviving son and youngest child of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his wife Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg....
, the eldest and youngest sons of
King Alfonso XIII of Spainalign=right|Alfonso XIII , King of Spain, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886-1931...
and Queen Victoria Eugenie (Victoria's granddaughter).
Queen Victoria experienced unpopularity during the first years of her widowhood, but afterwards became extremely well-liked during the 1880s and 1890s. In 2002, the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
conducted a poll regarding the
100 Greatest Britons100 Greatest Britons was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was the result of a vote conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considers the greatest British people have been in history....
; Victoria attained the eighteenth place.
The design of the Queen's head on the first postage stamp was based upon the 1837 Wyon City medal engraved by a famous coin engraver
William WyonWilliam Wyon, RA , was official chief engraver at the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death. He was influenced by the master of relief sculpture, John Flaxman. Wyon was a highly visible proponent of the Neoclassicist vogue, and was elected to the Royal Academy in 1838.Wyon was born in Birmingham,...
. The design of Queen Victoria's head is based on a sitting when she was a princess aged 15. Victoria also started the tradition of a bride wearing a white dress at her wedding. Before Victoria's wedding a bride would wear her best dress of no particular colour.
Around the world
Internationally Victoria was a major figure, not just in image or in terms of Britain's influence through the empire, but also because of family links throughout Europe's royal families, earning her the affectionate nickname "the grandmother of Europe". For example, three of the main monarchs with countries involved in the
First World WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
on the opposing side were either grandchildren of Victoria's or married to a grandchild of hers. Eight of Victoria's nine children married members of European royal families, and the other,
Princess LouiseThe Princess Louise was a member of the British Royal Family, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.Louise's early life was spent moving between the various...
, married
Marquess of LorneJohn George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll KG, KT, GCMG, GCVO, PC , usually better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known before 1900, was a British nobleman and was Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883...
, a future Governor-General of Canada.
Victoria and Albert had
42 grandchildrenA list of the grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, all of whom were therefore either siblings or first cousins. Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren altogether, of whom two were stillborn, and two more died shortly after birth...
and their current descendants number into the hundreds. As of 2009, the European monarchs and former monarchs
descended from VictoriaThe royal descendants of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and King Christian IX of Denmark currently occupy the thrones of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of the First World War their grandchildren occupied the thrones of Denmark, Greece, Norway,...
are:
Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
(as well as
her husbandThe Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Philip was originally a royal prince of Greece and Denmark, and thus a member of the Danish-German House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, but renounced these titles shortly before his marriage and adopted the...
),
King Harald V of NorwayHarald V is the king of Norway. He succeeded to the throne of Norway upon the death of his father Olav V on 17 January 1991...
,
King Carl XVI Gustaf of SwedenCarl XVI Gustaf has been King of Sweden since 15 September 1973. He is the only son of the late Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
,
Queen Margrethe II of DenmarkMargrethe II is the Queen of Denmark...
,
King Juan Carlos I of SpainJuan Carlos I of Spain is the reigning king of Spain. He is the son of the late Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and the late Princess María Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies...
(as well as
his wifeQueen Sofía of Spain , is the Queen consort of Spain as the wife of King Juan Carlos I.- Early life and family :...
), and the deposed kings
Constantine II of GreeceConstantine II, King of the Hellenes was King of Greece from 1964 until deposed in 1973...
(as well as
his wifeQueen Anne-Marie of Greece is the wife of King Constantine II of Greece, who was deposed in referendums in 1973 and in 1974...
) and Michael of Romania. The
pretenderA pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else. The English word pretend comes from the French word prétendre, meaning "to put forward, to profess or claim"...
s to the thrones of
SerbiaAlexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia also known as Alexander Karađorđević , born 17 July 1945) is the claimant to the throne of Serbia. At the time of his birth, his father was the King of Yugoslavia, making him Yugoslavia's last crown prince...
, Russia,
Prussia and GermanyGeorg Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, is the current head of the Imperial House of Hohenzollern, the former ruling house of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia....
, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,
HanoverErnst August, Prince of Hanover is the eldest son of Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover and his first wife, Princess Ortrud of...
, Hesse,
BadenMaximilian, Margrave of Baden , born 3 July 1933 in Schloss Salem, Salem, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is the son of Prince Berthold, Margrave of Baden and Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark...
and
France (Legitimist)Prince Louis Alphonse of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, Duke of Bourbon, Duke of Touraine is a claimant to the French throne, and considered to be the head of the French Royal House by legitimists who consider the renunciation of Philip V of Spain as invalid...
are also descendants.
Several places in the world have been
named after Victoria, including two Australian States (
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north, South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, across the Bass Strait. Victoria is the most densely populated state, with over 70% of...
and
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
), the capitals of British Columbia (
VictoriaVictoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a major tourism destination seeing more than 3.65 million visitors a year who inject more than one billion dollars into the local economy. Victoria is a cruise ship port where...
), and Saskatchewan (
ReginaRegina is the capital of Saskatchewan, Canada. The city is the second largest in the province , and is a cultural and commercial metropole for both southern Saskatchewan and adjacent areas in the neighbouring American states of North Dakota and Montana...
), the
capital of the SeychellesVictoria is the capital city of the Republic of Seychelles and is situated on the north-eastern side of Mahé island, which the main island of the archipelago. The city was first established as the seat of the British colonial government. As of 2009, the population is 25,000, out of the...
,
Africa's largest lakeLake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after the United Kingdom's Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the lake....
, and
Victoria FallsThe Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls are some of the largest in the world.-Introduction:...
.
Victoria or Città Vittoria is the capital of Gozo, an island of the Maltese archipelago in the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
. The town has a total population of 6,414 (November 2005), and by population is the largest locality in
GozoGozo is an island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Southern European country of Malta; after the island of Malta itself, it is the second-largest island in the archipelago...
. Victoria is the name given in 1887 by the British government on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, at the request of the Bishop of
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
, Mons. Sir Pietro Pace. However Gozitans still often refer to it by its old name, Rabat. The area around Victoria, situated on a hill near the centre of the island, has been settled since Neolithic times.
Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on 24 May in honour of both Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian Sovereign's birthday. While Victoria Day is often thought of as a purely Canadian event, it is also celebrated in some parts of Scotland, particularly in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
and
DundeeDundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and, fully named as Dundee City, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It lies on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea....
, where it is also a public holiday.
Queen Victoria remains the most commemorated British monarch in history, with statues to her erected throughout the former territories of the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
. These range from the prominent, such as the
Victoria MemorialThe Victoria Memorial is a sculpture in London, placed at the centre of Queen's Gardens in front of Buckingham Palace.It was completed in 1911, the sculptor being Sir Thomas Brock. The surround was constructed by the architect Sir Aston Webb, from 2,300 tons of white marble...
outside Buckingham Palace—which was erected as part of the remodelling of the façade of the Palace a decade after her death—to the obscure: in the town of
Cape CoastCape Coast, or Cabo Corso, is the capital of the Central Region of Ghana and is also the capital city of the Fante people, or Mfantsefo. It is situated 165 km west of Accra on the Gulf of Guinea. It has a population of 82,291 . From the 16th century the city has changed hands between the...
,
GhanaThe Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa which borders Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, a bust of the Queen presides, rather forlornly, over a small park where goats graze around her. Many institutions, thoroughfares, parks, and structures bear her name.
There is a statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria Square in
AdelaideAdelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million. It is a coastal city situated on the eastern shores of Gulf St. Vincent, on the Adelaide Plains, north of the Fleurieu...
, capital city of the Australian state of
South AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
; in Queen's Square in
BrisbaneBrisbane is the state capital of the Australian state of Queensland and is the largest city in that state. With an estimated population of approximately 2 million, it is also the third most populous city in Australia....
, capital city of the Australian state of Queensland; and in the Domain Gardens in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
, the capital of the Australian State of Victoria. In Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, there is one statue (re-sited from the forecourt of the Irish Parliament building in Dublin) dominating the southern entrance to the Queen Victoria Building that was named in her honour in 1898. Another Sydney statue of Queen Victoria stands in the forecourt of the Federal Court of Australia building on Macquarie Street, looking across the road to a statue of her husband, inscribed "Albert the Good". In
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,650,000 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
, capital city of Western Australian a marble statue stands in King's Park overlooking the city surrounded by canon used at the Battle of Waterloo. A bronze statue of Queen Victoria stands in the main street of the city of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. At Bangalore, India, the statue of the Queen stands at the beginning of MG Road, one of the city's major roads. Statues erected to Victoria are common in Canada, where her reign was coterminous with the confederation of the country and the creation of several new provinces. A bas-relief image of Victoria is on the wall of the entrance to the
Canadian ParliamentParliament Hill is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings the parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada, and contains a number of architectural elements of national symbolic...
, and her statue is in the Parliamentary library as well as on the grounds.
In
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
, a statue of Queen Victoria is located on the east side of
Victoria ParkVictoria Park is a public park in Hong Kong, named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. It is located in Causeway Bay, on the north of Hong Kong Island, between Causeway Bay and Tin Hau MTR stations...
in
Causeway BayCauseway Bay is a heavily built-up area of Hong Kong, located on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, and covering parts of Wan Chai and Eastern districts. The Chinese name is also romanized as Tung Lo Wan as in Tung Lo Wan Road...
,
Hong Kong IslandHong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km², as of 2008...
. The statue once sat in
Statue SquareStatue Square is a public pedestrian square in Central, Hong Kong.-History:The square was built at the end of the 19th century. The idea of a square of statues dedicated to royalty was conceived by Sir Catchick Paul Chater.. It derives its name from the fact that it originally contained the...
in
CentralCentral , the central business district of Hong Kong, was commonly known as part of Victoria City. It is an area on the north shore of Hong Kong Island. It is located across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui, the southernmost point of Kowloon Peninsula...
but was removed and sent to Tokyo to be destroyed at the time of Japanese occupation of the territory, during World War ll. With Japan's defeat and subsequent retreat in 1945, The United Kingdom recovered Hong Kong, and the statue was retrieved and placed in the park. There is also a Queen Victoria Statue in the heart of
VallettaValletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta and the city proper has a population of 6,315....
,
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
's capital.
In Pietermaritzburg, capital of the South African provice of KwaZulu Natal, formerly the British colony of Natal before formation of the Union of South Africa, there is a statue of Victoria in front of the provincial legislature building, the former parliament building of the colony of Natal.
Queen Victoria invited Martha Ann Ricks, on behalf of
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
n Ambassador
Edward Wilmont BlydenEdward Wilmot Blyden was a Sierra Leone Creole and Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Because Blyden was an intellectual force in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, historians regard him as both a Sierra Leone Creole and an Americo-Liberian- Early...
, to Windsor Castle on 16 July 1892. Martha Ricks, a former slave from Tennessee, had saved her pennies for more than fifty years, to afford the voyage from
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
to England to personally thank the Queen for sending the British navy to patrol the coast of West Africa to prevent slavers from exporting Africans for the slave trade. Martha Ricks shook hands with the Queen and presented her with a Coffee Tree quilt, which Queen Victoria later sent to the
1893 World's Columbian ExpositionThe World's Columbian Exposition — also known as The Chicago World's Fair — was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of...
for display. A mystery remains as to where the Coffee Tree quilt is today. The royal Victoria Teaching Hospital In The Gambia is also named after the Queen.
Titles and styles
- 24 May 1819 – 20 June 1837: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra Victoria of Kent
- 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901: Her Majesty The Queen
- 1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901: Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress
As the male-line granddaughter of a King of Hanover, Victoria also bore the titles of
Princess of Hanover and
Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg. In addition, she held the titles of
Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and
Duchess in Saxony etc. as the wife of Prince Albert.
Coat of arms
Victoria's coat of arms was not uniform throughout the United Kingdom:
Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland). This same coat of arms has been used by every subsequent British monarch.
Royal Cypher
Victoria's
Royal CypherA Royal Cypher, or Royal and Imperial Cypher, is the sovereign's monogram or the initials of their name and title, usually surmounted by a crown. It is displayed on some government buildings, impressed upon royal and state documents, and is used by government...
was the first to be used on a postbox. The letters are
VR interlaced, standing for "Victoria Regina". Although Victoria eventually used the cypher
VRI ("Victoria Regina Imperatrix") when she became Empress, this never appeared on postboxes. Victoria's cypher was the only one to appear on postboxes without a crown above it.
Children of Victoria and Albert
| Name | |Death | The Princess Victoria,The Princess Victoria, Princess Royal was the eldest child and daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was created Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in 1841. She became German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor...
Princess Royal
| 1840.121221 November 1840 |
1901.0805>5 August 1901 |
Married 1858, Frederick III, German EmperorFrederick III was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days in 1888 during the Year of the Three Emperors...
and King of Prussia (1831–1888); 4 sons, 4 daughters (including Emperor William II and Queen SophiaPrincess Sophie of Prussia , was a Queen consort of Greece.-Princess of Prussia:...
of Greece) |
|---|
King Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
|
1841.11099 November 1841 |
1910.05066 May 1910 |
Married 1863, Princess Alexandra of DenmarkAlexandra of Denmark was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India from 1901 to 1910 as the consort of Edward VII....
(1844–1925); 3 sons, 3 daughters (including King George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
and Maud of WalesMaud of Wales was Queen of Norway as spouse of King Haakon VII. She was a member of the British Royal Family as the youngest daughter of King Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark and granddaughter of Queen Victoria...
, Queen of Norway) |
| The Princess Alice |
1843.042325 April 1843 |
1878.121414 December 1878 |
Married 1862, Louis IV, Grand Duke of HesseLouis IV , was the fourth Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, reigning from 13 June 1877 until his death...
and by Rhine (1837-1892); 2 sons, 5 daughters (including Russian Empress Alexandra) |
The Prince AlfredAlfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha reigning between 1893 and 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
,
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh;
Admiral of the Fleet |
1844.08066 August 1844 |
1900.073131 July 1900 |
Married 1874, Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia (1853–1920); 1 son, 4 daughters (including Marie of EdinburghMarie of Edinburgh was Queen of Romania as spouse of King Ferdinand of Romania.-Early life:...
, Queen of Romania) |
The Princess HelenaThe Princess Helena was a member of the British Royal Family, the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.Helena was educated by private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar...
|
1846.052525 May 1846 |
1923.06099 June 1923 |
Married 1866, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein For the son of Prince Christian, see Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein, or see Prince Christian.Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein was a minor German prince who became a member of the British Royal Family through his marriage to Princess Helena of the United Kingdom ,...
-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1831–1917); 3 sons, 2 daughters |
The Princess LouiseThe Princess Louise was a member of the British Royal Family, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.Louise's early life was spent moving between the various...
|
1848.031818 March 1848 |
1939.12033 December 1939 |
Married 1871, John Douglas Sutherland CampbellJohn George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll KG, KT, GCMG, GCVO, PC , usually better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known before 1900, was a British nobleman and was Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883...
, Marquess of Lorne, later 9th Duke of Argyll (1845-1914); no issue |
The Prince ArthurPrince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who, between 1911 and 1916, served as the Governor General of Canada...
,
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; Field Marshal |
1850.05011 May 1850 |
1942.011616 January 1942 |
Married 1879, Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (1860–1917); 1 son, 2 daughters |
The Prince LeopoldThe Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany was a member of the British Royal Family, a son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Leopold was later created the Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow...
,
Duke of Albany |
1853.04077 April 1853 |
1884.032828 March 1884 |
Married 1882, Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1861–1922); 1 son, 1 daughter |
The Princess BeatriceThe Princess Beatrice was a member of the British Royal Family. She was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
|
1857.041414 April 1857 |
1944.1026 26 October 1944 |
Married 1885, Prince Henry of BattenbergColonel Prince Henry of Battenberg was a descendant of the Grand Ducal House of Hesse, later becoming a member of the British Royal Family, through his marriage to Princess Beatrice.-Early life:...
, Admiral of the Fleet (1858–1896); 3 sons, 1 daughter (Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain) |
Ancestry
See also
- Cultural depictions of Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria of the United Kingdom has been portrayed or referenced many times.-Literature:In 1937 Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Cromer ruled that no British sovereign may be portrayed on the British stage until 100 years after his or her accession...
- List of coupled cousins
- Royal descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX
The royal descendants of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and King Christian IX of Denmark currently occupy the thrones of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of the First World War their grandchildren occupied the thrones of Denmark, Greece, Norway,...
- Small diamond crown of Queen Victoria
The Small Diamond Crown of Queen Victoria was a miniature crown created at the request of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in 1870. It was perhaps the crown most associated with Queen Victoria. Such was the association that it, and not either the traditional St...
- Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some and 145 galleries...
- Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria after whom it is...
- Victorian fashion
Victorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in prominence throughout the Victorian era and the reign of Victoria, a period which would last from June 1837 to January 1901. Covering nearly two thirds of the 19th century, the 63 year reign...
- Victorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria in particular, and to the moral climate of Great Britain throughout the 19th century in general that were in stark contrast to the morality of the previous Georgian period...
- Abdul Karim
Hafiz Abdul Karim, CIE, CVO , better known as "the Munshi" , was an Indian servant of Queen Victoria who gained her affection in the final fifteen years of her reign....
, Queen Victoria's MunshiMunshi was the Urdu name of a writer or secretary, used in British India of the native language teachers or secretaries employed by Europeans....
Further reading
- Auchincloss, Louis. Persons of Consequence: Queen Victoria and Her Circle. Random House, 1979. ISBN 0-394-50427-5
- Carter, Miranda. Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to the First World War. London, Penguin. 2009. ISBN 9780670915569
- Cecil, Algernon. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers. Eyre and Spottiswode, 1953.
- Benson, Arthur Christopher & Esher (Viscount). The Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection From Her Majesty's Correspondence Between The Years 1837 and 1861. John Murray, 1908
- Eilers, Marlene A. Queen Victoria’s Descendants. 2d enlarged & updated ed. Falköping, Sweden: Rosvall Royall Books, 1997. ISBN 0-8063-1202-5
- "Queen Victoria". Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., a privately held company. The articles in the Britannica are aimed at educated adult readers, and written by a staff of about 100 full-time editors and more than...
. 11th ed. Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press is a printer and publisher granted a Royal Letters Patent by Henry VIII in 1534. It is the world's oldest continually operating book publisher...
, 1911.
- Farnborough, T. E. May (1st Baron). Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third. 11th ed. Longmans, Green, 1896.
- Hibbert, Christopher. Queen Victoria: A Personal History. Harper Collins Publishing, 2000.
- Hicks, Kyra E. "Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria". Brown Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1-933285-59-7
- Kirwn, Anna "The royal diaries; Victoria. May blossom of Britannia" Scholastic Inc. New York, 2001
- Longford, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, CBE, better known as Elizabeth Longford was a British author.-Life:...
Victoria R.I. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998. ISBN 0-297-84142-4.
- Marshall, Dorothy. The Life and Times of Queen Victoria. George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd, 1972.
- Packard, Jerrold, M. Victoria's Daughters. St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 0 312 24496 7
- Potts, D. M. & W. T. W. Potts. Queen Victoria’s Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family. Alan Sutton, 1995. ISBN 0-7509-1199-9
- St. Aubyn, Giles. Queen Victoria: A Portrait. Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991. ISBN 1 85619 086 2
- Strachey, Lytton
Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
. Queen Victoria. Londres, Chatto et Windus Publishers, 1921. ISBN 2-228-88610-6
- Waller, Maureen, "Sovereign Ladies: Sex, Sacrifice, and Power. The Six Reigning Queens of England". St. Martin's Press, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-312-33801-5
- Weiberg, Thomas: ... wie immer Deine Dona. Verlobung und Hochzeit des letzten deutschen Kaiserpaares. Isensee-Verlag, Oldenburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89995-406-7.
External links
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