Queen Victoria

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        Queen Victoria ( Alexandrina Victoria ; 24 May 1819 - 22 January 1901 )                          

                The Victorian Era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death , on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace , prosperity , refined sensibilities and national pride and self confidence for Britain. From 1 May 1876 , she had the additional title of Empress of India.

              Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children.

               Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe". Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

               Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British Monarch of the House of Hanover.

               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 Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India."

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Victoria's family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Left to right: Prince Alfred and the Prince of Wales; the Queen and Prince Albert; Princesses Alice, Helena and Victoria.

Heiress Presumptive

                 Victoria later described her childhood as "rather melancholy". Her mother was extremely protective, and Victoria was raised largely isolated from other children under the so-called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by the Duchess and her ambitious and domineering comptroller, Sir John Conroy, who was rumoured to be the Duchess's lover The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable (including most of her father's family), and was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them. The Duchess avoided the court because she was scandalised by the presence of King William's bastard children, and perhaps prompted the emergence of  Victorian morality by insisting that her daughter avoid any appearance of sexual impropriety. Victoria shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play-hours with her dolls and her King Charles spaniel, Dash. She loved singing and she enjoyed painting and drawing. She loved going to the Opera. Her lessons included French, German, Italian, and Latin, but she spoke only English at home.

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Victoria with her spaniel Dash, 1833 

Painting by George Hayter

Marriage

                  Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. They were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace, London. Victoria was besotted at the age of twenty-one. 

                  Victoria had nine children, forty grand children and thirty-seven great grandchildren, scattered all over Europe. Most of Victoria's children married into other royal families of Europe.

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Marriage of Victoria and Albert 

Painting by George Hayter

Widowhood

                   In March 1861, Victoria's mother died, with Victoria at her side. Through reading her mother's papers, Victoria discovered that her mother had loved her deeply; she was heart-broken, and blamed Conroy and Lehzen for "wickedly" estranging her from her mother. To relieve his wife during her intense and deep grief, Albert took on most of her duties, despite being ill himself with chronic stomach trouble. In August, Victoria and Albert visited their son, the Prince of Wales, who was attending army manoeuvres near Dublin, and spent a few days holidaying in Killarney. In November, Albert was made aware of gossip that his son had slept with an actress in Ireland. Appalled, Albert travelled to Cambridge, where his son was studying, to confront him. By the beginning of December, Albert was very unwell. He was diagnosed with typhoid fever by William Jenner, and died on 14 December 1861. Victoria was devastated. She blamed her husband's death on worry over the Prince of Wales's philandering. He had been "killed by that dreadful business", she said. 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 nickname "widow of Windsor".

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Victoria photographed by J. J. E. Mayall

Britain's Golden Years

                  Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era, ( 1850-1870 ) as Britain's "Golden Years". There was prosperity, as the national income per person grew by half. Much of the prosperity was due to the increasing industrialisation, especially in textiles and machinery, as well as to the worldwide network of trade and engineering that produce profits for British merchants and experts from across the globe.

                  Britain became the most powerful country in the world, with the largest empire that had ever existed, ruling a quarter of the world's population. The number of people living in Britain more than doubled, causing a huge demand for food, clothes and housing. Factories and machines were built to meet this demand and new towns grew up, changing the landscape and the ways people lived and worked. Railways, originally built to transport goods, meant people could travel easily around the country for the first time.

                 This shows the tremendous change in the lives of British people while Victoria was Queen.

Golden Jubilee

                  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 kings and princes were invited. The following day, she participated in a procession and attended a thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey.

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Victoria and the Munshi, Abdul Karim

Diamond Jubilee

                   On 23 September 1896, Victoria surpassed her grandfather George III as the longest-reigning monarch in  English,Scottish and British history. The Queen requested that any special celebrations be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee, which was made a festival of the British Empire at the suggestion of Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. The prime ministers of all the self-governing dominions were invited to London for the festivities.

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Victoria in her official Diamond Jubilee photograph by W. & D. Downey

Death and Succession

                   Queen Victoria was suffering from Rheumatism in her legs which rendered her lame and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts. Through early January, she felt "weak and unwell", and by mid-January she was drowsy, dazed and confused. She died on Tuesday, 22 January 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She was 81 years old. She is buried in a mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor. Her son and successor King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, were at her deathbed. Her favourite pet Pomeranian, Turri, was laid upon her deathbed as a last request.

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                                                  Queen Victoria aged 80

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        Poster proclaiming a day of mourning in Toronto on the day of Victoria's funeral.

Arms

              As Sovereign, Victoria used the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. Before her accession, she received no grant of arms. As she could not succeed to the throne of Hanover, her arms did not carry the Hanoverian symbols that were used by her immediate predecessors. Her arms have been borne by all of her successors on the throne. 

              Outside Scotland, the blazon for the shield—also used on the Royal Standard—is: 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 Scotland, the first and fourth quarters are occupied by the Scottish lion, and the second by the English lions. The crests, mottoes, and supporters also differ in and outside Scotland.

                                             
                                                      Royal Arms ( outside Scotland )

                                                          Royal Arms ( in Scotland )

Fun Facts about Queen Victoria

* She was barely five feet tall.

* She proposed to her husband, Prince Albert, and not vice versa.

* She was raised by a single mother, and later became a single mother herself.

* Queen Victoria was the first known carrier of hemophilia, an affliction that would become known as the “Royal disease.”

* At least six serious assassination attempts were made against Victoria during her reign — most of which while she was riding in a carriage.

Victoria's 63-year reign is the longest of any female monarch in history. Her great-great-granddaugther, England's current Queen Elizabeth II, will surpass Victoria's record should she remain on the throne until September 2015.