Queen Victoria: Biography from Answers.com

Victoria (1819-1901) was queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901 and empress of India from 1876 to 1901. She presided over the expansion of England into an empire of 4 million square miles and 124 million people.

A woman who gave her name to an age, Victoria was a richly contradictory character. Intensely virtuous, at the age of 11 upon learning she was next in succession to the British crown, she reacted by promising "I will be good, " a promise which she faithfully kept. With innate good manners and a great love of truth, she was also immensely selfish, keeping aged ministers and ladies-in-waiting out in all weathers and up to all hours, and ruining the life and character of her eldest son (later Edward VII) by refusing to allow him any responsibility. Her prudery was famous, yet her letters reveal her completely unafraid to face unpleasant facts, even about her nearest and dearest. Tremendously personal and partisan in her handling of her ministers, she never succeeded in understanding the English party system; she considered that her own view of what would best benefit her country gave her the right to oppose any policy and person, and she frankly preferred coalitions, while accepting that the Crown must be above party. Living all her adult life subject to the guidance of wise men, she remained both innocent and devious, arbitrary and simple, courageous and timid, "unconstitutional in action while constitutional by temperament." In fact she was so completely an expression of the dominant views and characteristics of her time that she truly embodied and interpreted her people throughout her reign. As queen, she saw slavery abolished in the colonies, the Reform Bill passed, the Poor Law reformed, the Corn Laws repealed; she saw her country undertake successful wars in the Crimea, Egypt, the Sudan, and South Africa, acquire the Suez Canal, and establish constitutions in Australia and Canada.

Alexandrina Victoria was born in Kensington Palace, London, on May 24, 1819. She was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent (1767-1820; fourth son of George III), by Mary Louis Victoria (1786-1861; fourth daughter of Francis Frederick Anthony, reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and widow of Edward, Prince of Leiningen). Victoria was baptized on June 24, 1819, Alexander I of Russia being one of her sponsors, and her uncle, the prince regent (later George IV), the other. She grew up under her mother's care and that of Louisa Lehzen, her German governess, and spoke only German until she was 3. From 1832 Victoria's mother took her on extended tours through England. On May 24, 1837, she came of age, and on June 20, on the death of her uncle William IV, she succeeded to the throne, receiving the news of her accession in a cotton dressing gown at 6 A.M. Her chief advisers at first were the prime minister, Lord Melbourne, a Whig (Liberal), and Baron Stockmar, a German sent to London by her uncle King Leopold of the Belgians as adviser to his 18-year-old niece.

Her Appearance

Queen Victoria had large blue eyes, a cupid-bow mouth, smooth light-brown hair that darkened with age, and a receding chin. She was under 5 feet and as a girl was slender, then plump. By the time she was 26 she was stout and remained so, except after periods of illness, until the end. She had a silvery voice, enunciated excellently, without a trace of the German accent of her eldest son, and had a radiant, though rare, smile. Those she disliked, William Gladstone for example, found her somber and terrifying; her ladies, servants, and grandchildren thought she looked "so dear" and idolized her.

First Years of Reign

Victoria's hand was kissed on her accession by members of her council, which included the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston, with all of whom she was to be closely associated. She opened her first Parliament on Nov. 20, 1837, and read her own speech; Parliament voted her an annuity of £385, 000, plus the revenues of the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, another £126, 000. Victoria proceeded to pay her father's debts. On June 28, 1838, her coronation took place. Next year her initial popularity waned, resulting from her dependence on Lord Melbourne and from her unjust treatment of Lady Flora Hastings, one of her ladies-in-waiting. When Lord Melbourne resigned, Victoria sent for the opposition leader, Sir Robert Peel; but when she refused to change her ladies, as was then the custom on a change of government, Peel refused to take office and Victoria recalled Melbourne.

In October her two first cousins, Ernest and Albert Edward (1819-1861) of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, came to London. Albert had written in his diary at 11, "I intend to train myself to be a good and useful man." Victoria fell in love with him instantly and proposed to him; they were married on Feb. 10, 1840. It was an ideally happy marriage and restored the prestige of the Crown, which had sadly deteriorated during the reigns of Victoria's three inept predecessors. Prince Albert was granted £30, 000 annual income by Parliament, was named regent in the event of the Queen's death in childbirth, and in 1857 was made Prince Consort by Victoria. Albert described his functions to the Duke of Wellington in April 1850 as: "the husband of the Queen, the tutor of the Royal children, the private secretary of the sovereign and her permanent Minister."

In June 1842 Victoria made her first railway journey from Slough, the station nearest Windsor Castle, to Paddington, and in that same year she first went to Scotland, traveling by sea. In 1843 Victoria and Albert visited King Louis Philippe. She was the first English monarch to land in France since Henry VIII visited Francis I in 1520. King Louis Philippe's return visit was the first voluntary visit to England of any French ruler. In 1845 Victoria, with Albert, made the first of many trips to Germany, staying at Albert's birthplace, Rosenau.

Her Ministers

In 1834, after Lord John Russell had failed to form a ministry (principally owing to Victoria's opposition to Palmerston as foreign minister), Lord John "handed back the poisoned chalice, " as Disraeli put it, to Peel. But Peel's ministry fell on a measure for Irish coercion, and by 1847 the Irish famine, in which 1½ million people died and 1 million emigrated, postponed Victoria's planned visit there, which did not take place until 1849, when she landed at Cove, changing its name to Queenstown. In 1846 Victoria tangled with Palmerston over the marriage of the Spanish queen Isabella, and in 1850 she informed him that he " (1) should inform her of the course of action he proposes, and (2) should not arbitrarily modify or alter a measure once it had received her sanction." Lord Palmerston "affected pained surprise" at these injunctions but did not alter his ways. In 1851 the Whig government was outvoted and Lord John resigned, but as Lord Derby, the Conservative (Tory) leader refused to form a government, Victoria again sent for Lord John Russell. She was at this time so happy and blessed in her homelife that she wrote, "Politics (provided my Country is safe) must take only 2nd place." In 1844 she had Osborne Palace built for her on the Isle of Wight and in 1848 Balmoral Castle in Scotland; thereafter until the end of her life she spent part of each spring and fall in these residences. In 1851 she and Prince Albert were much occupied with the Great Exhibition, held in London, the first of its kind.

In 1851 Victoria was furious with Palmerston for informing Walewski, the French ambassador to London, that he approved of the coup by which Prince Louis Napoleon made himself Emperor Napoleon III. Victoria was largely instrumental in compelling Lord John Russell to demand Palmerston's resignation. In 1852 the Whigs finally fell, and Lord Derby led a Tory Government. But in July the Tories were beaten in the general election, and in December Lord Derby resigned. At Victoria's request, Lord Aberdeen made a coalition government, with Palmerston relegated to the Home Office. In 1853 Victoria and Albert suffered unpopularity for their apparent pro-Russian stand but regained public approval after the British declared war on Russia Feb. 28, 1854. In January 1855 the government was defeated on their conduct of the war, and Palmerston formed an administration. On March 30, 1856, Victoria admitted that she admired Palmerston's winning of the war. In 1856 Victoria and Albert visited Napoleon III in Paris, and in 1857 the Indian Mutiny against British rule, as represented by the East India Company, led to Victoria's writing that there now existed in England "a universal feeling that India [should] belong to me." In 1858 the East India Company was abolished. That same year Victoria's eldest child, Victoria, married Prince (later Emperor) Frederick of Prussia. In March 1861 Victoria's mother died, and her eldest son, Albert Edward, while in camp in the Curragh in Ireland, had an affair with an actress called Nelly Clifden, distressing Victoria and Albert, who were planning his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Prince Albert, already ill, went in icy weather to Cambridge to remonstrate with his son; Albert was suffering from typhoid and died on Dec. 14, 1861, aged 42.

The widowed Victoria held her erring son as partly the cause of his father's death and never forgave him. She retired into complete seclusion and wore mourning until her death.

In 1862 Victoria's daughter Alice married Prince Louis of Hesse, and a year later her eldest son, now created Prince of Wales, whom his family called "Bertie, " married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Victoria supported Prussia during its war with Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein, whereas her daughter-in-law, her ministers, and her people openly upheld Denmark. She approved Russia's brutal suppression of Poland's national uprising in 1863. In 1865 in the Seven Weeks War between Prussia and Austria, which ended in Prussia's victory at Sadowa, Victoria was again pro-Prussian. In 1867 Victoria entertained the Khedive of Egypt and the Sultan of Turkey. In 1868 Benjamin Disraeli became prime minister but was defeated by William Gladstone over the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Disraeli offered to resign, but Victoria kept him in office for six months after his defeat. Victoria, though she thought him "odd" and his wife odder, much appreciated Disraeli because he treated her as a woman. Gladstone, she complained, treated her as though she were a public department. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Victoria was still pro-Prussian, though she welcomed the exiled French empress Eugénie and allowed her and the Emperor to live at Chislehurst. In 1873 Gladstone resigned, and in 1874, to Victoria's delight, Disraeli became prime minister. He called the plump, tiny queen "The Faery" and admitted he loved her - "perhaps the only person left to me in this world that I do love." That same year Victoria's son Prince Alfred married Marie, daughter of the Russian czar, who insisted she be called Imperial, not Royal, Highness. This encouraged Victoria to make "preliminary enquiries" about officially assuming the title Empress of India, which she did on May 1, 1876. In 1875 Disraeli, with the help of the Rothschilds, bought the majority of the Suez Canal shares from the bankrupt Khedive of Egypt, to Victoria's delight. That same year Gladstone roused the country with stories of "Bulgarian atrocities": 12, 000 Bulgarian Christians had been murdered by Turkish irregulars. In 1877 Russia declared war on Turkey; Victoria and Disraeli were pro-Turk, sending a private warning to the Czar that, were he to advance, Britain would fight. Disraeli complained that Victoria "writes every day and telegraphs every hour." In 1878 at the Congress of Berlin, Disraeli obtained, as he told Victoria, "peace with honour."

In 1879 Victoria visited Italy and Germany. In the fall Gladstone's Midlothian campaign led to the government's defeat in April 1880. In 1882 a third attempt was made on Victoria's life. Africa gave trouble, the Zulu killed Empress Eugénie's son, and the Sudanese killed Gen. Gordon in Khartoum before Lord Wolseley, sent at Victoria's urging to relieve him, arrived. In 1885 Victoria went to Aix-les-Bains; she thought Gladstone a humbug, and "he talks so very much." In June he resigned, but Lord Salisbury, who became prime minister, lost the ensuing general election. Gladstone, pledged to Irish home rule, came in again, to Victoria's unconcealed annoyance. When he was defeated on this issue, Lord Salisbury returned to power.

Last Years

In 1887 Victoria's golden jubilee was celebrated, and in 1888 she actually approved of Gladstone - when he persuaded Parliament to vote £37, 000 annually for the Prince of Wales' children. In 1889 the German kaiser, Victoria's grandson, visited England; in 1892 Gladstone again became prime minister. His Home Rule Bill was passed in the House of Commons but thrown out by the House of Lords. Gladstone resigned, to be succeeded by Lord Rosebery. In 1897 Victoria's diamond jubilee was magnificently celebrated, the apotheosis of her reign and of her empire. In 1897 the repression of the Sudan culminated in Lord Kitchener's victory at Omdurman on September 2. Victoria was joyful; "Surely Gordon is avenged, " she wrote. In 1899 the Boer War broke out, and in 1900 Victoria went to Ireland, where most of the soldiers who fought on the British side were recruited. In August she signed the Australian Commonwealth Bill and in October lost a grandson in the war. On Jan. 22, 1901, she died in the arms of the Kaiser. Her last word was "Bertie." She was the mother of four boys and five girls, all of whom had issue. In her lifetime she had 40 grand-children and 37 great-grandchildren. During her reign the British crown ceased to be powerful but remained influential.

Heiress to the throne

Victoria was born in Kensington Palace in 1819. At the time of her birth, her grandfather, George III, was on the throne, but his three eldest sons, the Prince Regent (later George IV), the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), had no surviving legitimate children. The princess was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. Her godparents were Emperor Alexander I of Russia, the future King George IV of the United Kingdom (her uncle), Queen Charlotte of Württemberg (her aunt, whose sister The Princess Augusta Sophia stood in proxy) and Duchess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield (her maternal grandmother, for whom Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, the infant princess' aunt, stood proxy). The princess was named Alexandrina, after Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria after her mother.^[2]

The young Princess Victoria, as the only legitimate child of the fourth son of George III, the Duke of Kent, who died in 1820, became heiress presumptive after the death of George IV in 1830.^[3]^[1] 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.^[1]

Victoria later described her childhood as "rather melancholy."[1] Victoria's mother was extremely protective of the princess, who was raised in near isolation under the so called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by The Duchess and her comptroller 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.^[4] She was not allowed to interact with other children. Her main companion was her King Charles spaniel, Dash, and she was required to share a bedroom with her mother every night until she became queen.^[4] 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.^[4]

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 morality.^[4]

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.

Early reign

Accession

Victoria receives the news of her accession to the throne from Lord Conyngham (left) and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, and a second British Regency was avoided. On 20 June 1837, William IV died from heart failure at the age of 71,^[5] and Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom.^[6] In her diary she wrote, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma …who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham 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…"^[5] 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.^[7] Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838, and she became the first monarch to take up residence at Buckingham Palace.^[8]

Under Salic law, however, no woman could be monarch of Hanover, 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 I. (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 presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom until Victoria's first child was born in 1840.^[9]

Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, 1844. This is the first photograph ever taken of Queen Victoria

At the time of her accession, the government was controlled by the Whig Party, which had been in power, except for brief intervals, since 1830. The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, 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".^[10] 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 1837. In 1839, Lord Melbourne resigned after the Radicals 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 Jamaica.^[11]

Victoria's principal advisor was her uncle King Leopold I of Belgium (her mother's brother, and the widower of Victoria's cousin, Princess Charlotte).^[10]

The Queen then commissioned Sir Robert Peel, a Tory, to form a new ministry, but was faced with a débâcle known as the Bedchamber Crisis. At the time, it was customary for appointments to the Royal Household to be based on the patronage 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.^[10]

Marriage

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1854

Marriage of Victoria and Albert by Sir George Hayter

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.^[12]. 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."^[13] She also wrote to her maternal uncle Leopold I of Belgium 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."^[14] 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 system. Victoria gave her mother a remote apartment in Buckingham Palace 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.^[15]

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 Hastings, 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 pregnancy by Sir John Conroy, who was long rumoured to be the lover of Victoria's mother. Victoria hated Conroy for his role in constructing the Kensington System 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."^[12] 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.^[16]

The Queen and Prince Albert were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace, 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.^[17] Victoria's mother was evicted from the palace, and Victoria rarely visited her.

During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year-old Edward Oxford attempted to assassinate the Queen while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London.^[6] Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for high treason, but was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.^[18] The first of the royal couple's nine children, named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840.^[19]

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in Court dress.

Further attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria occurred between May and July 1842. First, on 29 May at St. James's Park, John Francis fired a pistol at the Queen while she was in a carriage,^[6] but was immediately seized by Police Constable William Trounce. Francis was convicted of high treason. The death sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Then, on 3 July, just days after Francis's sentence was commuted, another boy, John William Bean,^[6] 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 1842. 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 flogging.^[20] Bean was thus sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment; however, neither he, nor any person who violated the act in the future, was flogged.^[21]

During the same summer as these two assassination attempts, Victoria made her first journey by train, travelling from Slough railway station (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop's Bridge, near Paddington (in London), on 13 June 1842 in the special royal carriage provided by the Great Western Railway. Accompanying her were her husband and the engineer of the Great Western line, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Queen and the Prince Consort both complained the train was going too fast at 20 mph (30 km/h), fearing the train would derail.^[6]

Early Victorian politics and further assassination attempts

A young Queen Victoria

Peel's ministry soon faced a crisis involving the repeal of the Corn Laws. Many Tories—by then known also as Conservatives—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 Russell. 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.^[22]

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's coup in France without prior consultation of the Prime Minister.^[22]

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, London. Hamilton was charged under the 1842 act; he pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years of penal transportation.^[23]

In 1850, the Queen did sustain injury when she was assaulted by a possibly insane ex-Army officer, Robert Pate. 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.^[22]

Ireland

The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland, choosing to holiday in Killarney in Kerry. Her love of the country 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.^[24] In response to what came to be called the Great Famine (An Gorta Mór, Irish for "The Great Famine"), the Queen personally donated £2,000 sterling to the Irish people.^[25] However, when Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire declared that he would send £10,000 in aid, 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 three ships full of food. British courts tried to block the ships, but the food arrived at Drogheda harbour and was left there by Ottoman sailors.^[26]

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. However Victoria was a strong supporter of the Irish; she supported the Maynooth Grant and made a point, on visiting Ireland, of visiting the seminary.^[27]

Victoria's first official visit to Ireland, in 1849, was specifically arranged by Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland—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 many Irish nationalists at party meetings to finish by singing "God Save the Queen".^[28] Her personal donation of money was not backed up by any ground movement to deal with the famine,^{[citation needed]} and she became known in Ireland as "The Famine Queen",^[29] and was much vilified then, as now.^[30]In 1853 she visited the Great Industrial Exhibition 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.^[31]

Queen Victoria with her youngest daughter, the Princess Beatrice of Battenburg; photo by Alexander Bassano

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 Corporation's decision not to congratulate her son, the Prince of Wales on both his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark and on the birth of the royal couple's oldest son, Prince Albert Victor.^[27]

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.^[28] 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 the union.^[32]

The Queen paid her last visit to Ireland in 1900, when she came to appeal to Irishmen to join the British Army and fight in the Second Boer War. Nationalist opposition to her visit was spearheaded by Arthur Griffith, who established an organisation called Cumann na nGaedhael 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 Féin.^[28]

India

After the Mughal Emperor was deposed by the British East India Company, 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 Durbar of 1877. The title was created nineteen years after the formal incorporation into the British Empire of Britain's possessions and protectorates on the Indian subcontinent. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is usually credited with creating the title for her.^[33] Victoria began learning Hindi and Punjabi in 1867.

Widowhood

The Prince Consort died of typhoid fever 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.^[34] She entered a state of mourning 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 Edward, 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.^[34]

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 Castle in Scotland, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Windsor Castle.^[34]

As time went by Victoria began to rely increasingly on a manservant from Scotland, John Brown.^[34] 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.^[35] Rumours of an affair and marriage earned Victoria the nickname "Mrs Brown".^[34] The story of their relationship was the subject of the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown.^[36]

Later years

Golden Jubilee and an assassination attempt

Victoria's Golden Jubilee silver double florin, struck 1887.

In 1887, the British Empire celebrated Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Victoria marked the fiftieth anniversary of her accession on 20 June with a banquet to which 50 European 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 Abbey while the Queen attended a service of thanksgiving.^{[citation needed]} This assassination 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 Twain, "stretched to the limit of sight in both directions". By this time, Victoria was once again an extremely popular monarch.^[22]

Diamond Jubilee

Queen Victoria in her Diamond Jubilee photograph (London, 1897)

On 25 September 1896, Victoria surpassed George III 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 Jubilee. The Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, proposed that the Diamond Jubilee be made a festival of the British Empire.^[28]

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.^[10] Many trees were planted to celebrate the Jubilee, including 60 oak trees at Henley-on-Thames in the shape of a Victoria Cross.^[37] The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War, and its modern Commonwealth variants remain to this day the highest British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Commonwealth award for bravery.

Death and succession

The Victoria Cross

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She died there from declining health on Tuesday 22 January 1901 at half past six in the evening,^[38]^[39] at the age of 81. At her deathbed she was attended by her son, the future King, and her eldest grandson, German Emperor William II. 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 College at the University of Toronto.^[40] 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 Park. 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.^[41]

Statue of Victoria in George Square, Glasgow

Flags in the United States were lowered to half-staff in her honour by order of President William McKinley, 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.^[42]^[43]

Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the House of Hanover in the United Kingdom. As her husband belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her son and heir Edward VII was the first British monarch of this new house.^[12] Later, in 1917, her grandson King George V changed the house name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the (currently serving) House of Windsor.

Victoria outlived 3 of her 9 children, and came within seven months of outliving a fourth (her eldest daughter, Vicky, 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).^[44]

Legacy

Within Britain

The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Statue on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds

Victoria Tower in St Peter Port, Guernsey

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 Lords and the monarchy, with the monarch's role becoming gradually more symbolic. Since Victoria's reign the monarch has had only, in Walter Bagehot's words, "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to warn".^[28]

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 classes could identify.^[12]

The sudden appearance of haemophilia 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 line. 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.^[45] 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).^{[citation needed]} 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.^[46]

Evidence indicates Victoria passed the gene on to two of her five daughters: Princess Alice and Princess Beatrice. Her son, Prince Leopold, 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 Spain, the eldest and youngest sons of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Queen Victoria Eugenie (Victoria's granddaughter).^[47]

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 BBC conducted a poll regarding the 100 Greatest Britons; Victoria attained the eighteenth place.^[48]

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 Wyon. The design of Queen Victoria's head is based on a sitting when she was a princess aged 15.^[49] 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.^[50]

Around the world

Statue of Victoria in Victoria Square, Montreal, Canada.

Queen Victoria statue, Gore Park, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

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 War 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 Louise, married Marquess of Lorne, a future Governor-General of Canada.^[51]

Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren and their current descendants number into the hundreds. As of 2009, the European monarchs and former monarchs descended from Victoria are: Queen Elizabeth II (as well as her husband), King Harald V of Norway, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, King Juan Carlos I of Spain (as well as his wife), and the deposed kings Constantine II of Greece (as well as his wife) and Michael of Romania. The pretenders to the thrones of Serbia, Russia, Prussia and Germany, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Hanover, Hesse, Baden and France (Legitimist) are also descendants.^[52]

Statue of Victoria at Cubbon Park in Bangalore, India

Several places in the world have been named after Victoria, including two Australian States (Victoria and Queensland), the capitals of British Columbia (Victoria), and Saskatchewan (Regina), the capital of the Seychelles, Africa's largest lake, and Victoria Falls.^[28]

Victoria, or Città Vittoria, is the capital of Gozo, an island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. 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 Malta, Mons. Sir Pietro Pace. However Gozitans still often refer to it by its old name, Rabat.

Statue of Victoria on Parliament Hill, Canada.

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 Edinburgh and Dundee, where it is also a public holiday.^[53]

Queen Victoria remains the most commemorated British monarch in history, with statues to her erected throughout the former territories of the British Empire. These range from the prominent, such as the Victoria Memorial 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 Coast, Ghana, 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.^[12]

Statue of Victoria in front of the 1890s Queen Victoria Building (QVB), Sydney, Australia.^[54]

There is a statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria Square in Adelaide, capital city of the Australian state of South Australia;^[55] in Queen's Square in Brisbane, capital city of the Australian state of Queensland;^[56] and in the Domain Gardens in Melbourne, 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 Perth, 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.^[57] 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 Parliament, and her statue is in the Parliamentary library as well as on the grounds.^[58]

Statue of Victoria in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, a statue of Queen Victoria is located on the east side of Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island. The statue once sat in Statue Square in Central 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 Valletta, Malta's capital.^[59] 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 Liberian Ambassador Edward Wilmot Blyden, 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 Liberia 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 Exposition 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. ^[60]

Titles, styles, coat of arms and cypher

Royal styles of Victoria of the United Kingdom


Reference style	Her Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Ma'am

Titles and styles

24 May 1819 – 20 June 1837: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent^[61]
20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901: Her Majesty The Queen^[61]
1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901: Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress^[61]

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.^[61]

At the end of her reign, the Queen's full style and title were:

“

Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India.^[62]

”

Coat of arms

Main article: Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

Queen Victoria's Royal Cypher

As Victoria could not succeed to the throne of Hanover, the royal arms since 1837 have no longer carried Hanoverian symbols but just four quarters representing England, Scotland and Ireland. Victoria's successors, including the present Queen, have all borne the same arms.

Outside Scotland, the shield of Victoria's coat of arms—also used on her Royal Standard—was:

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).

[In heraldic blazon, Or is gold (or yellow), Gules is red, Azure is blue, and Argent is silver (or white).]

Within Scotland, the first and fourth quarters were taken by the Scottish lion, and the second by the English lions. The Lion and the Unicorn who supported the shield also differed between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. ^[63]^[64]

Royal Cypher

Victoria's Royal Cypher 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.^[64]

Ancestors and descendants

Ancestry of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Both Victoria and Albert were grandchildren of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, whose son Duke Ernest was Prince Albert's father and whose daughter Princess Victoria was Queen Victoria's mother.

Ancestors of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India

16. George II of Great Britain

8. Frederick, Prince of Wales

17. Margravine Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach

4. George III of the United Kingdom

18. Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

9. Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha

19. Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst

2. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

20. Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

10. Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow

21. Princess Christiane Emilie of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

5. Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

22. Ernest Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen

11. Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen

23. Countess Sophia Albertine of Erbach-Erbach

1. Victoria of the United Kingdom

24. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

12. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

25. Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

6. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

26. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

13. Duchess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

27. Duchess Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

3. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

28. Heinrich XIX, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf

14. Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf

29. Countess Sophia Dorothea of Castell-Castell

7. Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf

30. George Augustus, Count of Erbach-Schönberg

15. Countess Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg

31. Countess Ferdinande Henriette of Stolbert-Gedern

Ancestors of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

16. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

8. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

17. Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

4. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

18. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

9. Sophia Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

19. Duchess Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Blankenburg

2. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

20. Henry XXIX, Count Reuss of Ebersdorf

10. Henry XXIV, Count Reuss of Ebersdorf

21. Countess Sophie Theodora of Castell-Remlingen

5. Countess Augusta Caroline Reuss of Ebersdorf

22. George Augustus, Count of Erbach-Schönberg

11. Countess Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg

23. Countess Ferdinanda of Stolberg-Gedern

1. Albert, Prince Consort

24. Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

12. Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

25. Princess Luise Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen

6. Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

26. Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

13. Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen

27. Princess Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Philippsthal

3. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

28. Duke Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

14. Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

29. Princess Charlotte Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

7. Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

30. Prince John August of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

15. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

31. Countess Luise Reuss of Schleiz

Marriage of Victoria and Albert

Queen Victoria (who had ascended to the throne on 20 June 1837 and been crowned on 28 June 1838) was married to Prince Albert on 10 February 1840 by William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in Westminster (London).^[65] (Albert died fourteen-and-a-half years before Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on 1 May 1876.)

Picture	Name	Birth	Death	Marriage and children ^[62]
	[Alexandrina] Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, later Empress of India	24 May 1819	22 January 1901	Married 10 February 1840; 4 sons, 5 daughters (including British King Edward VII and German Empress Victoria); 20 grandsons (of which 2 still-born), 22 granddaughters (including British King George V, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Russian Empress Alexandra, and the Queens of Norway, Greece, Roumania and Spain.)
	Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (The Prince Consort)	26 August 1819	14 December 1861

Children of Victoria and Albert

Family of Victoria in 1846
(from left to right:) Princes Alfred and Albert Edward; The Queen and the Prince Consort; Princesses Louise, Helena and Victoria

Name	Birth	Death	Spouse (dates of birth & death) and children ^[62]^[66]
The Princess Victoria, Princess Royal	184021 November 1840	19015 August 1901	Married 1858 (January 25), Prussian Crown Prince Frederick, later Frederick III, German Emperor and King of Prussia (1831–1888); 4 sons, 4 daughters (including German Emperor William II and Sophia of Prussia, Queen of the Greeks)
The Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII	18419 November 1841	19106 May 1910	Married 1863 (March 10), Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844–1925); 3 sons, 3 daughters (including King George V and Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway)
The Princess Alice	184325 April 1843	187814 December 1878	Married 1862 (July 1), Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1837-1892); 2 sons, 5 daughters (including Alexandra, the last Empress of All the Russias)
The Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh; Admiral of the Fleet	18446 August 1844	190031 July 1900	Married 1874 (January 23), Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (1853–1920); 2 sons (1 still-born), 4 daughters (including Marie of Edinburgh, Queen of Roumania)
The Princess Helena	184625 May 1846	19239 June 1923	Married 1866 (July 5), Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1831–1917); 4 sons (1 still-born), 2 daughters
The Princess Louise	184818 March 1848	19393 December 1939	Married 1871 (March 21), John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, later 9th Duke of Argyll (1845-1914); no issue
The Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; Field Marshal, Governor General of Canada (1911-1916)	18501 May 1850	194216 January 1942	Married 1879 (March 13), Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (1860–1917); 1 son, 2 daughters
The Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany	18537 April 1853	188428 March 1884	Married 1882 (April 27), Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1861–1922); 1 son, 1 daughter
The Princess Beatrice	185714 April 1857	1944 26 October 1944	Married 1885 (July 23), Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896); 3 sons, 1 daughter (Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain)

Notes and references

^ ^a ^b ^c Carolly Erickson (1997). Her Little Majesty: The Life of Queen Victoria. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-3657-2.
^ Yvonne's Royalty Home Page: Royal Christenings
^ "History of the Monarchy > Hanoverians > William IV". The Royal Family. http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page116.asp. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lacey, Robert (2006). Great Tales from English History, Volume 3. London: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 133-136. ISBN 0-316-11459-6.
^ ^a ^b Giles St. Aubyn (1992). Queen Victoria. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 55–60. ISBN 978-0340571095. OCLC 27171944.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Giles St. Aubyn (1992). Queen Victoria. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 161–165. ISBN 978-0340571095. OCLC 27171944.
^ Ernest Llewellyn Woodward (1962). The age of reform, 1815-1870. Oxford University Press. pp. 103. ISBN 0198217110.
^ "Buckingham Palace". The Royal Family. http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page555.asp. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ Jerrold M. Packard (1999). Victoria's Daughters. St. Martin's Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-0312244965. OCLC 43559899.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Christopher Hibbert (2001). Victoria: A Biography. Da Capo Press. pp. 16–78. ISBN 978-0306810855. OCLC 191215627 48687442.
^ "Lord Melbourne (1779 – 1848)". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/melbourne_lord.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dorothy Marshall (1972). The Life and Times of Queen Victoria. Book Club Associates. pp. 16–154.
^ Victoria quoted in Weintraub, Stanley (1997) Albert: Uncrowned King London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5756-9, p. 49
^ Victoria quoted in Weintraub, Stanley (1997) Albert: Uncrowned King London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5756-9, p. 51
^ Weintraub, Stanley (1997) Albert: Uncrowned King London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5756-9, p. 62
^ Weintraub, Stanley (1997) Albert: Uncrowned King London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5756-9, pp. 77–81
^ "Prince Albert (1819 – 1861)". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/albert_prince.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
^ Michael Diamond (2003). Victorian sensation. Anthem Press. ISBN 1-84331-150-X. OCLC 57519212.
^ "Empress Frederick: The Last Hope for a Liberal Germany?". The Historian. 1999-09-22. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-515932_ITM. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
^ "Treason Act 1842 (c.51) - Statute Law Database". Statutelaw.gov.uk. [16 July 1842]. http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?activeTextDocId=1034300. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
^ Steve Poole (2000). The Politics of Regicide in England, 1760–1850: Troublesome Subjects. Manchester University Press. pp. 199–203. ISBN 0719050359. OCLC 185769902 222735433 44915199 47352204 59575274.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Giles St. Aubyn (1992). Queen Victoria. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 9–27. ISBN 978-0340571095. OCLC 27171944.
^ "Third Attack on American Presidents". New York Times. 7 September 1901. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B07E0DF1E39EF32A25754C0A96F9C946097D6CF&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
^ David Ross (2002). Ireland: History of a Nation. New Lanark: Geddes & Grosset. pp. 268. ISBN 1842051644. OCLC 52945911.
^ Pope Pius IX. "Multitext - Private Responses to the Famine". Multitext.ucc.ie. http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Private_Responses_to_the_Famine3344361812. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
^ Wikipedia. "Wikipedia - Irish Potato Famine (Ottoman Aid)". Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine#Ottoman_aid. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
^ ^a ^b "Victoria (queen of United Kingdom)". Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/627603/Victoria. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Giles St. Aubyn (1992). Queen Victoria. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0340571095. OCLC 27171944.
^ Maud Gonne's 1900 article upon Queen Victoria's visit to Ireland was entitled this
^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2951395.stm
^ http://www.lib.umd.edu/digital/worldsfairs/record.jsp?pid=umd:986
^ Midleton, William St. John Fremantle Brodrick Midleton, William St. John Fremantle Brodrick (1932). Ireland-dupe or Heroine. William Heinemann.
^ History of the Monarchy, Victoria
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dorothy Marshall (1972). The Life and Times of Queen Victoria. Book Club Associates.
^ "Queen Victoria's sex life exposed (Royal Watch News)". Monsters and Critics.com. 2008-05-30. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/royalwatch/news/article_1408421.php/Queen_Victorias_sex_life_exposed.
^ "Mrs. Brown (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/mrs_brown/. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
^ "Special trees and woods - Henley Cross | The Chilterns AONB". Chilternsaonb.org. http://www.chilternsaonb.org/caring/stwp_site_details.asp?siteID=585&frommap=truein. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
^ "Calendar for year 1901". Gazzetes-Online.co.uk. http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=1901&country=1. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ "Supplement to The London Gazette". London Gazette. 23 January 1901. http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPDF.aspx?pdf=27270. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Rynor, F. Michah (2001). "Royal Gems". UofT Magazine (Toronto: University of Toronto) (Winter 2001). http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/looking-back/founding-of-victoria-college-royal-gems/. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
^ Giles St. Aubyn (1992). Queen Victoria. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 600. ISBN 978-0340571095. OCLC 27171944.
^ "The record-breaking age of Elizabeth, longest-lived monarch to reign over us". The Times. 2007-12-21. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3080583.ece. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ "History of the Monarchy > Hanovarians > Victoria". The Royal Family. http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
^ "Grieving a grown-up child". BBC News. 2002-02-15. http://news.google.co.uk/archivesearch/url?sa=t&source=archive&ct=res&cd=5-0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Flow%2Fuk%2F1820374.stm&ei=JzLNSJqkOpeC3QbNytRq&usg=AFQjCNGHVO8irqyKbf57waEJem-58ewkXg. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ DM Potts & WTW Potts, Queen Victoria's Gene, Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0750908688
^ "In the blood". Jones, Steve. In the blood. BBC. 1996.
^ Daniel L. Hartl, Elizabeth W. Jones (2005). Genetics. Jones & Bartlett. ISBN 9780763715113. OCLC 55044495.
^ "The 100 greatest Britons: lots of pop, not so much circumstance". Guardian. 2002-08-22. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/aug/22/britishidentityandsociety.television. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ "A Royal Icon - The Machin Stamp". Postal Heritage. http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:ReXbbK72LRYJ:postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/icons/downloads/Teachers_notes_MachinStamp.pdf+Teachers+Notes+Machin+Stamp&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ "Here comes the scarlet bride". The Times. 2006-04-09. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article703537.ece. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ Martin J. Daunton, Bernhard Rieger (2001). Meanings of Modernity. Berg Publishers. ISBN 9781859734025. OCLC 186477900 238671662 45647912 46737764.
^ Elizabeth Harman Pakenham Longford (1965). Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed. Harper & Row.
^ "Let's get rid of Victoria Day". The Toronto Star. 2008-05-15. http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/425517. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ The statue stood outside the Irish parliament building, Leinster House, until 1947.
^ "Adelaide - Statues and Memorials". State Library South Australia. http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/manning/adelaide/statues/statues.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ "Valour of the visionary". The Australian. 2008-07-21. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24048837-16947,00.html. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ "Striving for musical freedom". Decan Herald. http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug212008/metrothurs2008082085629.asp. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
^ "Sun never sets on Queen Victoria statues". The Toronto Star. 2008-05-17. http://www.thestar.com/article/425461. Retrieved 2008-09-14. In Calcutta, India, an imposing building named Victoria Memorial Hall, was built to homages the queen.
^ http://maltadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/03/statue-of-queen-elizabeth-in-valletta.html Statue of Queen Elizabeth in Valletta, Malta
^ Kyra E. Hicks (2006). Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria. Brown Books Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1933285597. OCLC 70866874.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Greg Taylor, Nicholas Economou (2006). The Constitution of Victoria. Federation Press. pp. 72–74. ISBN 9781862876125. OCLC 81948853.
^ ^a ^b ^c Whitaker's Almanack, 1900, Facsimile Reprint 1999 (ISBN 0-11-702247-0), page 86
^ Greg Taylor, Nicholas Economou (2006). The Constitution of Victoria. Federation Press. pp. 19. ISBN 9781862876125. OCLC 81948853.
^ ^a ^b Stephen Patterson (1996). Royal Insignia. Merrell Holberton. ISBN 9781858940250. OCLC 185677084 243897335 37141041.
^ Elizabeth Longford, The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, 1989 (ISBN 0-19-214153-8), pages 368-369
^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1993, Concise Edition, (ISBN 0-85021-232-4), pages 134–136

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Regnal titles
Victoria of the United Kingdom House of Hanover Cadet branch of the House of Welf Born: 24 May 1819 Died: 22 January 1901
Preceded by William IV	Queen of the United Kingdom 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901	Succeeded by Edward VII
Vacant Title last held by Bahadur Shah II as Mughal emperor	Empress of India 1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901	Succeeded by Edward VII
British royalty
Preceded by Prince William, Duke of Clarence	Heir to the throne as heiress presumptive 26 June 1830 – 20 June 1837	Succeeded by Ernest Augustus I of Hanover

v • d • e Monarchs of Canada

Dominion of Canada (1867-1931)	Victoria · Edward VII · George V

Canada (1931-present)	George V · Edward VIII · George VI · Elizabeth II

v • d • e English, Scottish and British monarchs

Kings of the English 886–1066	Alfred the Great · Edward the Elder · Ælfweard · Athelstan the Glorious¹ · Edmund the Magnificent¹ · Eadred¹ · Eadwig the Fair¹ · Edgar the Peaceable¹ · Edward the Martyr · Æthelred the Unready · Sweyn Forkbeard · Edmund Ironside · Cnut¹ · Harold Harefoot · Harthacnut · Edward the Confessor · Harold Godwinson · Edgar the Ætheling

Kingdom of England 1066–1649	William I · William II · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda · Henry II² · Henry the Young King · Richard I · John² · Henry III² · Edward I² · Edward II² · Edward III² · Richard II² · Henry IV² · Henry V² · Henry VI² · Edward IV² · Edward V² · Richard III² · Henry VII² · Henry VIII² · Edward VI² · Jane² · Mary I² with Philip² · Elizabeth I² · James I³ · Charles I³ · Interregnum

Kingdom of Scotland 889–1651	Donald II · Constantine II (III) · Malcolm I · Indulf · Dub · Cuilén · Amlaíb · Kenneth II · Constantine III (IV) · Kenneth III · Malcolm II · Duncan I · Macbeth · Lulach · Malcolm III Canmore · Donald III · Duncan II · Donald III · Edgar · Alexander I · David I · Malcolm IV · William I · Alexander II · Alexander III · Margaret · First Interregnum · John · Second Interregnum · Robert I · David II · Robert II · Robert III · James I · James II · James III · James IV · James V · Mary I · James VI³ · Charles I³ · Charles II³

Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland 1653–1659	Oliver Cromwell⁴ · Richard Cromwell⁴

Kingdom of England & Kingdom of Scotland 1660–1707	Charles II³ · James II & VII³ · William III & II³ with Mary II³ · Anne³

Kingdom of Great Britain 1707–1801	Anne² · George I² · George II² · George III²

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801–1927	George III · George IV · William IV · Victoria · Edward VII · George V

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 1927	George V · Edward VIII · George VI · Elizabeth II

¹Overlord of Britain. ²Also ruler of Ireland. ³Rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland. ⁴Lord Protector. Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.

v • d • e British princesses

The generations indicate descent from George I, who formalised the use of the titles prince and princess for members of the British Royal Family. Where a princess may have been or is descended from George I more than once, her most senior descent, by which she bore or bears her title, is used.

1st Generation	Sophia, Queen in Prussia

2nd Generation	Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange · The Princess Amelia · The Princess Caroline · Mary, Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel · Louise, Queen of Denmark-Norway

3rd Generation	Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick · Princess Elizabeth · Princess Louisa · Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark-Norway

4th Generation	Charlotte, Queen of Württemberg · The Princess Augusta Sophia · Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg · Sophia of Gloucester · Caroline of Gloucester · Mary, Duchess of Gloucester · The Princess Sophia · The Princess Amelia

5th Generation	Charlotte Augusta, Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld · Frederica of Hanover · Charlotte of Clarence · Victoria · Elizabeth of Clarence · Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz · Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck

6th Generation	Victoria, Princess Royal and German Empress · Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse · Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein · Frederica, Baroness Alfons von Pawel-Rammingen · Louise, Duchess of Argyll · Marie of Cumberland · Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg

7th Generation	Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife · The Princess Victoria · Maud, Queen of Norway · Marie, Queen of Romania · Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Hesse · Alexandra, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg · Marie Louise, Princess Maximilian of Baden · Margaret, Crown Princess of Sweden · Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin · Alice, Countess of Athlone · Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera · Olga of Hanover · Patricia of Connaught

8th Generation	Alexandra, Duchess of Fife · Maud, Countess of Southesk · Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood · Sibylla, Duchess of Västerbotten · Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha · Frederica, Queen of the Hellens

9th Generation	Elizabeth II · Margaret, Countess of Snowdon · Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy

10th Generation	Anne, Princess Royal

11th Generation	Beatrice of York · Eugenie of York · Lady Louise Windsor

v • d • e Hanoverian princesses

1st Generation	Charlotte, Queen of Württemberg* · The Princess Augusta Sophia* · Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg* · Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh* · The Princess Sophia* · The Princess Amelia*

2nd Generation	Charlotte Augusta, Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld* · Princess Frederica* · Princess Charlotte* · Victoria of the United Kingdom* · Princess Elizabeth* · Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz* · Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck*

3rd Generation	Frederica, Baroness Alfons von Pawel-Rammingen* · Princess Marie*

4th Generation	Marie Louise, Princess Maximilian of Baden* · Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin* · Princess Olga*

5th Generation	Frederica, Queen of the Hellenes*

6th Generation	Marie, Countess of Hochberg · Princess Frederica, Mrs. Jerry Cyr · Princess Olga · Alexandra, Princess of Leiningen · Princess Caroline-Louise · Princess Mireille

7th Generation	Princess Saskia, Mrs. Edward Hoope · Princess Vera, Mrs. Manuel Dmoch · Princess Nora, Mrs. Christian Falk · Princess Alexandra · Princess Eugenia

* also princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

v • d • e Princesses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, duchesses in Saxony by marriage

1st Generation	Maria Antonia, Princess of Kohary* · Princess Marie Louise d'Orléans

2nd Generation	Princess Alexandrine of Baden · Victoria of the United Kingdom · Maria II of Portugal · Princess Clémentine of Orléans · Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria · Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

3rd Generation	Princess Alexandra of Denmark* · Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia* · Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia* · Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont* · Princess Louise-Marie of Belgium · Princess Leopoldina of Brazil · Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria**

4th Generation	Princess Mary of Teck* · Alexandra, Duchess of Fife* · Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg*** · Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria-Tuscany · Princess Mathilde of Bavaria

5th Generation	Countess Viktoria Luise of Solms-Baruth · Denyse Henriette de Muralt^ · Johanna Károlyi de Károly-Patty^ · Edith de Kózolne^

6th Generation	Carin Dabelstein^ · Freiin Gabrielle of Fürstenberg · Princess Mathilde of Saxony

7th Generation	Kelly Rondesvedt^

* pricess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld by marriage until 1826 also a princess of Belgium by marriage * also a princess by marriage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ^ did not have a royal or noble title by birth

Persondata
NAME	Queen Victoria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Alexandrina Victoria
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901. The period centered on her reign is known as the Victorian era.
DATE OF BIRTH	24 May 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kensington Palace, London, England
DATE OF DEATH	22 January 1901
PLACE OF DEATH	Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England

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Queen Victoria

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