the biography of queen victoria

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Queen Victoria

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 9, 2022 | Original: November 9, 2009

Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire for nearly 64 years, after ascending the throne just weeks after turning 18. She was the second-longest-reigning English royal in history, topped only by her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II . While short in stature–she was barely 5 feet tall–Victoria was a giant in shaping the modern monarchy, leaving her mark on what has come to be called the Victorian Era .

Early Life and Ascension to the Throne

Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, at London’s Kensington Palace to Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George III , and his wife, Princess Maria Louisa Victoria, who was of German descent. Named for her godfather, Russian Tsar Alexander I, she was fifth in line for the crown at birth.

Before Victoria turned 1, Edward died of pneumonia. When King George died, her uncle, William IV, was named king, and, because Edward’s brothers had no surviving legitimate heirs, Victoria became first in line to the throne. In preparation for her daughter’s reign, Victoria’s mother soon aligned with courtier John Conroy, and the two forced Victoria to follow what came to be known as the Kensington System. The set of strict, manipulative rules were as isolating as they were demanding on the girl, a gifted artist and avid diarist who was made to share her bedroom with her mother and was never left alone.

Just a few weeks after turning 18, Victoria ascended the throne as Queen of England on June 20, 1837, following William’s death, with the coronation taking place a year later on June 28, 1838. She almost immediately dismissed Conroy and moved into Buckingham Palace, which had been owned by William, making her the first monarch to reside at the estate.

“I shall do my utmost to do fulfil my duty towards my country,” she wrote in her diary soon after taking the crown. “I am very young and perhaps in many, although not all, inexperienced, but I am sure that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.”

British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne became her trusted advisor and confidante, and, under her rule, Victoria began to win back public approval of the monarchy as she worked to modernize the empire, supporting the arts and charities and championing industrial advancements. In fact, she was the first monarch to ride a train, in 1842, at the age of 23, writing that the “motion was very slight, and much easier than a carriage—also no dust or great heat.”

WATCH: How Department Stories Liberated Victorian-Era Women

Family and Descendants

Victoria married her first cousin, the German Prince Albert, on February 10, 1840, whom she loved dearly. "I never, never spent such an evening!!” she wrote in her diary following their wedding night. “My dearest dearest dear Albert ... his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before!"

Along with Melbourne, Albert carried great influence in setting the queen’s priorities and projects, which largely centered on arts, sciences, trade and industry. Among Albert’s projects was the Great Exhibition of 1851 , which brought 6 million people to London in celebration of global industry, technology and culture and is considered the first World’s Fair.

The couple had nine children from 1840-1857: Victoria, Edward, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice. Nearly all of them married into European royal families and many of her 42 grandchildren, including Kaiser Wilhelm II , the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruled monarchies across the continent.

Notable great-great-grandchildren include Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, King Constantine II of Greece, King Michael I of Romania, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, King Harald V of Norway, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. King Charles III is her great-great-great-grandson.

Albert’s Death and Victoria’s Later Years

Albert died in 1861 at the age of 42 from typhoid fever. Devastated, Victoria spent the next 10-plus years in seclusion, and wore black as a symbol of mourning for the rest of her life.

While in isolation, her popularity sank, but once she returned to public life, her penchant for foreign policy based on peace, support of charities that focused on the poor, health care and education, and wide expansion of the British Empire—along with her survival of at least seven assassination attempts during that led her to carry a chain mail “bulletproof” umbrella —won over public opinion.

Acting on advice from British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Victoria took the title of Empress of India in 1877, extending the empire’s imperialist reach. In 1887, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee , which marked the 50th anniversary of her accession, followed by the Diamond Jubilee, taking place a decade later in 1897, on the 60th anniversary, cemented her image and popularity among her subjects, earning her the nickname “Grandmother of Europe.”

During Victoria’s nearly 64-year reign, the British Empire was at its largest and most powerful. The empire included India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, and covered one-fifth of the globe and accounted for roughly one in four people on Earth. Locations around the world, from Victoria, Canada to Victoria Falls, Zambia to Queensland, Australia are named in her honor. The Victorian Era is noted for advancements in the arts and industry, inventions including telephone and telegraph and political reform and change.

She also helped shape popular culture: It was Victoria who started the trend of a bride wearing white on her wedding day and a widow wearing all black in mourning. Albert and Victoria made decorating Christmas trees customary. She is also credited with restoring the public’s view of the monarchy.

Victoria died January 22, 1901 at the age of 81, with her heir Edward VII and Emperor Wilhelm II at her side. She was succeeded by her oldest son, Edward VII, and was buried next to Albert at the Frogmore Mausoleum near Windsor.

“Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901),” Royal.uk .

“How Queen Victoria remade the British monarchy,” National Geographic .

“Queen Victoria: From Pampered Princess to Elderly Empress: Wife, Mother, and Queen,” Historic Royal Palaces .

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Biography Online

Queen Victoria Biography

Short Biography of Queen Victoria (1819 –1901)

Queen Victoria was born 24 May 1819. Aged 18 she became Queen of Great Britain and she went on to rule for 63 years – at the time – she was the longest-serving Monarch in Europe. She ruled through a period of British imperialism with the British Empire expanding and she became Empress of India. She came to epitomise an era of social conservatism and economic expansion.

She was the granddaughter of George III, and her father, Edward was fourth in line to the throne. However, her father’s three brothers all died without leaving any living relatives. She was crowned Queen on 20 June 1837 and ruled until her death 63 years later in 1901.

Her early life until the age of 18 was closeted and carefully controlled by her mother and her assistant John Conroy. Her mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld kept Victoria very close and allowed her little real-life experience. She was brought up with a strict set of rules and regulations known as the ‘Kensington System’. Victoria described her childhood as “rather melancholy.” In 1830 her grandfather George III died. He was succeeded by King William IV, but in 1837, he also passed away, meaning the crown passed onto Victoria who was aged only 18, and somewhat unprepared for the role.

One of her first decisions was to cut free from her mother and gain more independence from the controlling atmosphere she had been brought up in. She also took her new duties very seriously. On her ascendency to the throne, she said:

“Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to fulfil my duty towards my country; I am very young and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.”

Queen Victoria, Extract from the Queen’s Journal, Tuesday, 20th June 1837.

After her coronation, Queen Victoria met many potential suitors from Royal houses across Europe. She fell in love with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany. There were married in 1840. Victoria and Prince Albert had a very close, intimate relationship and she described the intensity of feelings towards her beloved husband. She wrote in her diary shortly after their marriage.

“MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before!”

– Queen Victoria.

In the same year as her marriage, Queen Victoria gave birth to her first child – a daughter named Victoria. They had nine children in total. She found pregnancy and childbirth difficult and once exclaimed. “An ugly baby is a very nasty object – and the prettiest is frightful.”

Queen Victoria and Nineteenth-Century Britain

The 19th Century was a time of unprecedented expansion for Britain in term of both industry and Empire. Although her popularity ebbed and flowed during her reign, towards the end of her crown, she had become a symbol of British imperialism and pride.

The Victorian period also witnessed great advances in science and technology. It became known as the steam age, enabling people to easily travel throughout the UK and the World.

Queen Victoria was emblematic of this period. She was an enthusiastic supporter of the British Empire. She celebrated at Lord Kitchener’s victory in the Sudan; she supported British involvement in the Boer War. She was also happy to preside over the expansion of the British Empire, which was to stretch across the globe. In 1877 Queen Victoria was made Empress of India, in a move instigated by the imperialist Disraeli. Famously, at the end of the Victorian period, people could say ‘the sun never set on the British Empire.’

Queen Victoria was conservative in her politics and social views. She opposed women’s rights and was socially conservative. This led to an unfortunate episode. When she saw a servant who appeared to be pregnant, Victoria claimed she was having an affair. The Queen actually made her take a test to prove she was a virgin. The test was positive and the growth in her stomach was actually a form of cancer; a few months later the servant died, and Queen Victoria suffered a decline in her popularity as a result of this episode.

In the early part of her reign, she became a close friend and confidant of the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. She spent many hours talking to him and relied on his political advice. Lord Melbourne was a Whig, with conservative attitudes. He tried to shield Queen Victoria from the extreme poverty that was endemic in parts of the UK.

Queen Victoria was also highly devoted to her husband, Prince Albert; together they had nine children. When Prince Albert died in 1861, at the age of 41, Queen Victoria went into deep mourning and struggled to overcome this loss. She became reclusive and was reluctant to appear in public. Parliament and Benjamin Disraeli had to use all their persuasive power to get her to open parliament in 1866 and 1867. Her hiding from the public led to a decline in popularity. However, by the end of her reign, her popularity was restored. This was partly due to the rise of Great Britain as the leading superpower of the era.

For various reasons, several attempts were made on the life of Queen Victoria. These were mostly between 1840 and 1882. She was always unharmed, but her courageous attitude helped to endear her to the public.

Personality of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria was successful in portraying a public image of an aloof Queen who embodied the virtues of the British Empire. In person, away from the public glare, she was known to be a combination of honesty, plain-speaking but also prone to emotional outbursts and quite obstinate.

“Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves.”

– Queen Victoria

Despite her social conservativism, she was passionate about her husband and greatly enjoyed spending time in close proximity. However, even their relationship could be punctuated with loud, emotional arguments. Despite perceptions of her being dry and serious, members of the household stated she could have a great sense of humour and laugh uproariously.

The death of her husband in 1861 was a huge blow and she was deeply affected with grief. She wore black and mourned for several years. Her grief was so intense, it affected the nation. She struggled to overcome the grief and Albert’s early death led to a further worsening of relationships with her first son Edward VII – whom Victoria blamed for his playboy lifestyle causing stress for his father Albert.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Queen Victoria”, Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net, 23rd May 2014. Last updated 8 March 2019.

Queen Victoria – A Life

Queen Victoria at Amazon.com

Queen Victoria Pictures

Queen Victoria Pictures at Amazon.com

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Further reading

• Quotes of Queen Victoria
• Queen Victoria at BBC
• Queen Victoria Biography from Encyclopedia Britannica

Biography of Queen Victoria, Queen of England and Empress of India

She ruled during a time of economic and imperial expansion

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Queen Victoria (May 24, 1819–January 22, 1901), was the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the empress of India. She was the longest-ruling monarch of Great Britain until Queen Elizabeth II surpassed her record and ruled during a time of economic and imperial expansion known as the Victorian Era.

Fast Facts: Queen Victoria

• Known For : Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (r. 1837–1901), Empress of India (r. 1876–1901)
• Born : May 24, 1819 in Kensington Palace, London, England
• Parents : Edward, Duke of Kent and Victoire Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg
• Died : January 22, 1901 in Osborne House, Isle of Wight
• Published Works : Letters , Leaves From the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands , and More Leaves
• Spouse : Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (m. Feb. 10, 1840)
• Children : Alice Maud Mary (1843–1878), Alfred Ernest Albert (1844–1900), Helena Augusta Victoria (1846–1923), Louise Caroline Alberta (1848–1939), Arthur William Patrick Albert (1850–1942), Leopold George Duncan Albert (1853–1884), Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore (1857–1944)

Queen Victoria's children and grandchildren  married into many royal families of Europe, and some  introduced the hemophilia gene  into those families. She was a member of the house of Hanover , later called the house of Windsor.

Queen Victoria was born Alexandrina Victoria at Kensington Palace, London, England on May 24, 1819. She was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent (1767–1820), the fourth son of King George III (1738–1820, r. 1760–1820). Her mother was Victoire Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg (1786–1861), sister of Prince (later King) Leopold of the Belgians (1790–1865, r. 1831–1865). Edward had married Victoire when an heir to the throne was needed after the death of Princess Charlotte, who had been married to Prince Leopold. Edward died in 1820, just before his father did. Victoire became the guardian of Alexandrina Victoria, as designated in Edward's will.

When George IV became king (r. 1821–1830), his dislike for Victoire helped isolate the mother and daughter from the rest of the court. Prince Leopold helped his sister and niece financially.

In 1830 and at the age of 11, Victoria became heir-apparent to the British crown on the death of her uncle George IV, at which point the parliament granted her income. Her uncle William IV (1765–1837, r. 1830–1837) became king. Victoria remained relatively isolated, without any real friends, though she had many servants and teachers and a succession of pet dogs. A tutor, Louise Lehzen (1784–1817), tried to teach Victoria the kind of discipline that Queen Elizabeth I had displayed. She was tutored in politics by her uncle Leopold.

When Victoria turned 18, her uncle King William IV offered her a separate income and household, but Victoria's mother refused. Victoria attended a ball in her honor and was greeted by crowds in the streets.

When William IV died childless a month later, Victoria became Queen of Great Britain and was crowned June, 20, 1837.

Victoria began to exclude her mother from her inner circle. The first crisis of her reign came when rumors circulated that one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora, was pregnant by her mother's adviser, John Conroy. Lady Flora died of a liver tumor, but opponents at court used the rumors to make the new queen seem less innocent.

Queen Victoria tested the limits of her royal powers in May 1839, when the government of Lord Melbourne (William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, 1779–1848), a Whig who had been her mentor and friend, fell. She refused to follow established precedent and dismiss her ladies of the bedchamber so that the Tory government could replace them. In the "bedchamber crisis" she had the support of Melbourne. Her refusal brought back the Whigs and Lord Melbourne until 1841.

Neither Victoria nor her advisers favored the idea of an unmarried queen, despite or because of the example of Elizabeth I (1533–1603, r. 1558–1603). A husband for Victoria would have to be royal and Protestant, as well as an appropriate age, which narrowed the field. Prince Leopold had been promoting her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861) for many years. They had first met when both were 17 and had corresponded ever since. When they were 20, he returned to England and Victoria, in love with him, proposed marriage. They were married on Feb. 10, 1840.

Victoria had traditional views on the role of wife and mother, and although she was queen and Albert was prince consort, he shared government responsibilities at least equally. They fought often, sometimes with Victoria shouting angrily.

Their first child, a daughter, was born in November 1840, followed by the Prince of Wales, Edward, in 1841. Three more sons and four more daughters followed. All nine pregnancies ended with live births and all the children survived to adulthood, an unusual record for that time. Although Victoria had been nursed by her own mother, she used wet-nurses for her children. Though the family could have lived at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, or the Brighton Pavilion, they worked to create homes more appropriate for a family. Albert was key in designing their residences at Balmoral Castle and Osborne House. The family traveled to several places, including Scotland, France and Belgium. Victoria became especially fond of Scotland and Balmoral.

Government Role

When Melbourne's government failed again in 1841, he helped with the transition to the new government to avoid another embarrassing crisis. Victoria had a more limited role under Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (1788–1850), with Albert taking a lead for the next 20 years of "dual monarchy." Albert guided Victoria to an appearance of political neutrality, though she didn't become any fonder of Peel. Instead, she became involved with establishing charities.

European sovereigns visited her at home, and she and Albert visited Germany, including Coburg and Berlin. She began to feel herself part of a larger network of monarchs. Albert and Victoria used their relationship to become more active in foreign affairs, which conflicted with the ideas of the foreign minister, Lord Palmerston (Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, 1784–1865). He didn't appreciate their involvement, and Victoria and Albert often thought his ideas too liberal and aggressive.

Albert worked on a plan for a Great Exhibition, with a Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Public appreciation for this construction completed in 1851 finally led to a warming of the British citizens toward their queen's consort.

In the mid-1850s, the Crimean War (1853–1856) engrossed Victoria's attention; she rewarded Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) for her service in helping protect and heal soldiers. Victoria's concern for the wounded and sick led to her founding Royal Victoria Hospital in 1873. As a result of the war, Victoria grew closer to the French emperor Napoleon III and his empress Eugénie. Napoleon III (1808–1873) was president of France from 1848–1852, and when he was not reelected, seized power and ruled as an emperor from 1852–1870.

The unsuccessful revolt of Indian infantrymen in the army of the East India Company known as the Mutiny of the Sepoys (1857–1858) shocked Victoria. This and subsequent events led to British direct rule over India and Victoria's new title as empress of India on May 1, 1876.

In family matters, Victoria became disappointed with her eldest son, Albert Edward, prince of Wales, heir presumptive. The eldest three children—Victoria, "Bertie," and Alice—received better educations than their younger siblings did, as they were most likely to inherit the crown.

Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal Victoria weren't as close as Victoria was to several of the younger children; the princess was closer to her father. Albert won his way in marrying the princess to Frederick William, son of the prince and princess of Prussia. The young prince proposed when Princess Victoria was only 14. The queen urged delay in marriage to be sure that the princess was truly in love, and when she assured herself and her parents that she was, the two were formally engaged.

Albert had never been named prince consort by parliament. Attempts in 1854 and 1856 to do so failed. Finally in 1857, Victoria conferred the title herself.

In 1858, Princess Victoria was married to the Prussian prince. Victoria and her daughter, known as Vicky, exchanged many letters as Victoria attempted to influence her daughter and son-in-law. 

A series of deaths among Victoria's relatives kept her in mourning starting in 1861. First, the king of Prussia died, making Vicky and her husband Frederick crown princess and prince. In March, Victoria's mother died and Victoria collapsed, having reconciled with her mother during her marriage. Several more deaths in the family followed, and then came a scandal with the prince of Wales. In the middle of negotiating his marriage with Alexandra of Denmark, it was revealed that he was having an affair with an actress.

Then Prince Albert's health failed. He caught a cold and couldn't shake it. Perhaps weakened already by cancer, he developed what may have been typhoid fever and died on Dec. 14, 1861. His death devastated Victoria; her prolonged mourning lost her much popularity.

Eventually coming out of seclusion in February 1872, Victoria maintained an active role in government by building many memorials to her late husband. She died on January 22, 1901.

Her reign was marked by waxing and waning popularity, and suspicions that she preferred the Germans a bit too much diminished her popularity. By the time she had assumed the throne, the British monarchy was more figurehead and influence than it was a direct power in the government, and her long reign did little to change that.

Queen Victoria's influence on British and world affairs, even if often was a figurehead, led to the naming of the Victorian Era for her. She saw the largest extent of the British empire and the tensions within it. Her relationship with her son, keeping him from any shared power, probably weakened the royal rule in future generations, and the failure of her daughter and son-in-law in Germany to have time to actualize their liberal ideas probably shifted the balance of European history.

The marriage of her daughters into other royal families and the likelihood that her children bore a mutant gene for hemophilia affected the following generations of European history.

• Baird, Julia. "Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire." New York: Random House, 2016.
• Hibbert, Christopher. "Queen Victoria: A Personal History. " New York: Harper-Collins, 2010.
• Hough, Richard. "Victoria and Albert." New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
• Rappaport, Helen. "Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion." Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003.
• How Was Queen Victoria Related to Prince Albert?
• Queen Victoria's Children and Grandchildren
• Biography of Prince Albert, Husband of Queen Victoria
• Women Rulers of England and Great Britain
• Queen Victoria Trivia
• Germanic Trivia: The Houses of Windsor and Hanover
• Biography of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife
• How Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Are Related
• Empress Carlota of Mexico
• Queen Victoria's Death and Final Arrangements
• The Relationship Between Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria
• Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
• Anne of Hanover, Princess of Orange
• Biography of Elizabeth of York, Queen of England
• Biography and Facts About Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
• Biography of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England

• HISTORY & CULTURE

How Queen Victoria remade the British monarchy

She took the throne amid calls to replace the royals with a republic. But Queen Victoria held power through ambitious reforms and imperialist policies, and her legacy endures today.

The Famine Queen. The Widow of Windsor. Grandmother of Europe. Queen Vic. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria earned all those nicknames and more—testaments to the enduring influence of her 64-year (1837-1901) reign over the United Kingdom.

During the period now known as the Victorian Era, she oversaw her nation’s industrial, social, and territorial expansion and became known as a trendsetter who made over European attitudes toward the monarchy. An estimated one in four people on Earth were subjects of the British Empire by the end of her rule. But when Victoria took the throne, the British monarchy was deeply unpopular.

Ascension to the throne

Victoria was the product of a succession crisis in England’s royal family that occurred when Princess Charlotte, the presumptive successor to King George, and her infant son died in childbirth. Charlotte’s brothers—all of whom were single and had given the monarchy a bad name with their profligate spending and messy personal lives—raced to produce an heir. One of those brothers, Edward, hastily married a widowed German princess and became the first to produce an heir. Born in 1819, Alexandrina Victoria was a direct successor to the crown.

Palace intrigue made for a miserable childhood. Victoria’s father died when she was a child, and her ambitious mother allied herself with the scheming Sir John Conroy, a member of the royal household who seized the chance to gain power and influence through the future queen. He created what became known as “the Kensington system,” an elaborate set of rules that isolated the young princess at Kensington Palace and put him in control of her education and upbringing. Designed to keep Victoria dependent and loyal to Conroy and her mother, the system resulted in an unhappy childhood—and a growing sense of resentment.

Victoria broke free in 1837, when she turned 18 and rose to the throne. As soon as she became queen, she banned Conroy from her court and marginalized her mother. In 1840, she married her cousin Albert, a German prince. It was a genuine love match—she wrote that her wedding night was “bliss beyond belief”—and they went on to have nine children.

Early reign

During her early reign, Victoria was heavily influenced by Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, and Albert, who was her closest political advisor and whom some historians believe was “king in all but name.” Together, they pursued an agenda of modernization and stability in an era of political upheaval. The monarchy’s reputation had been badly damaged by Victoria’s predecessors, and the British populace clamored to replace the monarchy with a republic. And in Ireland, the potato famine between 1845 and 1852 fomented outright rebellion.

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Together with her husband, Victoria faced those challenges head-on, working to strengthen the position of the monarchy in England and throughout Europe, where there was also a growing distaste for royals who expected the public to foot the bill for their lavish lifestyles. In contrast, Victoria expanded the monarch’s public role, supporting charities, the arts, and civic reform to counter the view that British royalty wasn’t worth the expense. As a result, the queen and her growing family became beloved celebrities and influenced popular culture, introducing England to everything from white wedding dresses to Christmas trees .

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In 1861, tragedy struck when Albert died at 42. Victoria was devastated and went into deep mourning. She wore black for the rest of her life and withdrew from the public eye for years. The republican movement grew during her isolation, and she was criticized for her absence from public life.

Later years

Victoria resumed her public duties by the late 1860s. Her later reign was largely devoted to encouraging peace in Europe and expanding and consolidating her massive political empire. She became Empress of India in 1877 and influenced foreign relations closer to home through her children and grandchildren, many of whom married into European royalty.

At the beginning of her monarchy, Britain was seen largely as a trading power. But under Victoria, it became a mighty empire and the world’s most powerful nation. Over the course of the 19 th century, it grew by 10 million square miles and 400 million people. Those gains came at a tremendous price: England was almost constantly at war during Victoria’s reign, and the colonialism practiced in her name involved brutal subjugation.

Though Victoria was popular, her subjects still pushed to reform the monarchy. Ultimately, this led to an erosion of the monarch’s direct political power as ordinary British people gained the vote, the secret ballot, and other political reforms in the mid- to late 1800s.  

Vintage photos of royal families from around the world

By her death in 1901, Victoria was an institution, known for her willpower and the vast empire she ruled. The British Empire covered a full fifth of the Earth’s surface and had become the preeminent superpower of its day.

Victoria’s attempts to bolster European monarchies by marrying off her family members achieved short-term peace, but they sowed the seeds of some of the 20th century’s most destructive conflicts. By the onset of World War I in 1914, her grandchildren would turn against each other.

Although the relentless colonialism of the empire she ruled and the devastating war she inadvertently helped seed now cast a shadow over Victoria’s reign, she believed British power and prosperity were paramount. As she wrote in 1899, “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.” For a woman born to rule, there was no room for doubt as to her historic destiny—or the might of the empire built in her name.

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World History Edu

• Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria: Biography, Reign and Facts

by World History Edu · March 28, 2019

Queen Victoria biography | Queen Victoria’s reign as a trusted British monarch spanned over 6 decades.

Reigning from 1837 to 1901, Queen Victoria was a monumental 19th-century matriarch that ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Her longevity on the British throne was as staggering as the economic and territorial expansion she oversaw. Her 63-year rule puts her second only to Queen Elizabeth II as the longest-serving monarch in British history. Although history will forever remember her as one of the most beloved monarchs of the British crown, her child-rearing skills will always stick out like a swollen thumb. Perhaps her 9 children were a tar bit more than she could handle.

The article below presents everything that you need to know about Queen Victoria, in terms of the monarch’s biography, reign, and facts:

Her Childhood and Early Life

Born as Alexandrina Victoria on May 24, 1819, this future Queen of England was the only child of the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Strathearn.  Her father, Prince Edward , was the fourth son of King George III. Her mother was the beautiful German noblewoman by the name of Princess Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg . Unfortunately, Victoria got no chance of being raised by both parents because her father, Prince Edward, died 8 months after her birth. This meant that Victoria was raised entirely by her mother. Regardless of this, she did get a lot of help from the numerous court servants and aids, particularly from Germany. Her mother’s brother, Prince Leopold of Belgium, also played a very active role in Victoria’s upbringing.  Victoria learned a great deal of politics from this maternal uncle of hers.

Victoria becomes Heiress-Apparent to the British Throne

At the time of her birth, Victoria was the fifth in line for the British throne, behind her three uncles (Prince George, the Duke of Cornwall; Prince Fredrick, the Duke of York; Prince William, the Duke of Clarence) and her father. Very few of the household or the general public gave her much attention simply because no one ever expected her to one day become queen. Well, history proved otherwise. Upon her father’s death, she became the fourth in line to the throne. And in less than 11 years since her birth, the young Victoria had moved from being a long short from ever sitting on the British throne to becoming heiress apparent to the crown. Exactly how did Victoria rise up the inheritance line to become the Queen of England?

Even though King George III (Victoria’s paternal grandfather) had three sons in line for the throne, it turns out that none of those sons produced any children. The records show that Victoria’s parents purposely got married so as to bear children for the throne. And after King George III died in 1820, her uncle became George IV. Her uncle was not so much fond of the young Victoria and her mother. The two women remained relatively isolated under George IV’s rule. Princes and governesses from her mother’s family in Germany filled this vacuum by providing the young Victoria a lot of training and financial support.

Back in England, the general public and the British politicians and ministers did not take delight to King George IV’s unusual lifestyle of drinking and partying. One could say that the king was not the most beloved of kings the country had ever seen. Misfortune also struck his house, the House of Hanover, as his brother died in 1827. His brother was the Duke of York and one of the heirs to the British throne. Three years later, in 1830, King George IV died. And because he bore no heir to the throne, his second younger brother (King William IV) took the reins of the Empire in 1830. What this meant was that young Victoria was now heiress-apparent to the throne. She started gaining the public’s attention and was even given a fixed income (as tradition demands).

King William IV, unlike his predecessor, was a much kinder person to Victoria and her mother. However, his kindness and benevolence were not always taken in good faith by Victoria’s mother. On countless occasions, Victoria and her mother refused the income and household that William IV bestowed upon them.

Bitter Feud with her Mother and Sir John Conroy

Queen Victoria’s mother (the Duchess of Kent) had a very close relationship with her private secretary, Sir John Conroy. It is believed that Conroy had so much sway over the Duchess of Kent. Both Conroy and the Duchess hatched a plan to have greater control over the heir-apparent, Princess Victoria. In the plan would be appointed a private secretary to Victoria. As a result of this plan, Victoria’s mother somewhat became an unpopular figure in the royal family as well as in the public’s eyes. The duchess and Conroy shielded the young Victoria from other members of the family. Their intention was to make Victoria rely solely on them when she eventually became Queen. She even started denying King William IV access to his niece, the young Victoria.

In spite of all the rift between King William and Victoria’s mother, young Victoria was fond of both the King and his wife (Queen Adelaide). Also, the latter very much adored her niece, Victoria. Bar for Victoria’s mother and Conroy, King William IV and the entire royal family would have had a very lovely relationship with the heiress presumptive to the British Crown, Victoria.

However, all the plans that Victoria’s mother cooked fail. King William IV survived long enough for Victoria to attain the age of 18. This meant that there was not going to be any regency government led by Victoria’s mother.  And upon becoming Queen Victoria, the young queen became very resentful of her mother and Conroy. Her mother even pressured her into making her personal secretary. Eventually, Victoria saw through the plan of her mother. Conroy’s services were later terminated. And as time went on, the two women reconciled their differences. The birth of Victoria’s first child, Princess Royal Victoria, made things smooth for both Queen Victoria and her mother.

The house of Hanover made a very savvy decision by proactively looking for an heir long before King George III died. This decision paid dividends because had Victoria’s father (who was the fourth in line) not produced a child, the house of Hanover would have seen its worst nightmare come to being the moment William IV passed away. Victoria’s last surviving and childless Uncle, William IV, sadly passed away in 1837. The heiress to the throne, Princess Victoria, was a little bit north of 18 years at the time of his passing.

Exactly a month later, Victoria no longer went by the name Princess Victoria. The young woman was now Queen Victoria, queen of all Britain and her colonies. It was an unbelievable elevation for the young Victoria. The records show that upon hearing of her uncle’s death (William IV), Victoria shut herself indoors for quite some time in order to process everything.

Marriage to Prince Albert

Social convention dictated that the Queen resides with her mother because she was still single at that time. As a result of the fall out she had had with her mother, the Queen and queen mother did not see eye to eye. To avoid any further fall out with her mother, Queen Victoria thought it was best she got married in order to completely free herself from the clutches of her mother. Her beloved maternal uncle, Prince Leopold (later King Leopold, King of the Belgians) introduced her to his cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Albert was a gentleman and very often made the Queen laugh. As a Protestant, Albert was a perfect match for the Queen.

After several visits and interactions between the young Queen and Prince Albert, Queen Victoria eventually proposed to Prince Albert on October 15, 1839. On February 10, 1840, the two got married in the Chapel Royal of St. James’ Palace, London.

Prince Albert immediately hit the ground rolling as a husband to the Queen. He became her most trusted confidante and adviser. Prince Albert and the Queen worked tirelessly to portray to the general public traditional values of family and motherhood. Albert was also a very good father to their kids. In the space of about 19 years, Queen Victoria had nine children – five daughters and four sons. The first of their kids was Victoria and the last was Beatrice. The former was born on November 21, 1840, while the latter was born on April 14, 1857. The future King Edward VII (born 9 November 1841) was the second child of Queen Victoria.

• Life and Reign of King Edward VII
• Queen Victoria’s Husband – Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

The Queen’s parenting and child nurturing skills were tested time and time again. And in most cases, she failed miserably. She simply hated being pregnant and breastfeeding. This made her employ the services of wet nurses for her children. It would be later revealed that what the Queen had was a mild case of postnatal depression. She often shied away from being directly involved with the children. This role was perfectly carried out by her husband, Albert. As it was normal in most royal families, the children had several governesses to attend to them. Victoria’s childhood governess, Baroness Louise Lehzen of Hanover, played a huge role in the lives of her children. However, Prince Albert later terminated her services over some disagreements in her methods.

Queen Victoria’s Era – the Victorian Age

Aside from being a naturally gifted father, Albert served beside the Queen in truth and honesty. He played an influential role in preventing several political stalemates and embarrassments to Queen. He was also involved in diffusing the numerous tensions Queen Victoria had with some of her Prime Ministers. Albert’s strategy of gradually placing the Queen as an apolitical ruler was vital in building  Victoria’s public reputation over the next 20 years. Also, Albert was phenomenal in maintaining a very cool head all throughout the American Civil War. His calmness was crucial in diffusing tensions when Union forces abducted a foreign diplomat of the Confederate States on their visit to Europe.

The big royal family frequented Germany and other European countries a lot. Certainly, Victoria and Albert were received very warmly by the various European monarchs. These sorts of trips often helped her to shape the kingdom’s foreign strategy. In 1857, the Queen conferred the title of Prince Consort on Albert. This was after two attempts in parliament had failed.

Queen Victoria goes into a Decade-long Mourning and Isolation

Tragedy struck when the Queen mother, Victoria, passed away on March 1861.  Victoria’s mother’s death came as a huge shock to her considering the fact that their relationship got better during her marriage. She leaned strongly on her husband for comfort. Albert also stepped up by taking most of the Queen’s duties both domestic and abroad.

A few months after the Queen mother’s passing, the House of Hanover saw another scandal. The Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, was engaged in an affair with another woman in the lead up to his marriage with Alexandra of Denmark. Victoria and Albert quickly rushed in aid of their son. As usual, Albert aptly handled the situation to prevent any further public fallout. This and many more royal demands started to take a toll on the Prince Consort. On 14th of December 1861, Prince Albert died after succumbing to a cold that he caught on one of his numerous visits to his son, Prince Edward. Prior to the cold, Prince Albert had been in a fierce battle with cancer. Many historians believe that the sheer workload of his regal responsibilities was the most contributory factor to his death.

The news of her husband’s passing away turned the Queen’s life upside down. Some say, she never fully recovered from Albert’s death. She became very gloomy afterward and was always seen in black clothes. The very much active and jubilant Queen faded away and made way for a secluded and very sorrowful queen for close to a decade. The public at some point in time got impatient as the queen could not get over the death of her beloved husband. She had isolated herself so much so that the public started calling her the “widow of Windsor”. She also gained a lot of weight from taking comfort in eating. All of these further alienated her from the public.

Her lack of fondness for her children meant that she could not draw close to them in her time of emotional stress. Her children were either married off across Europe or were at best not serious like the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward. Therefore, the Queen’s only source of comfort and strength often came from her court advisers and ministers. One particular adviser of hers that filled the void left by Prince Albert was John Brown, the Queen’s manservant from Scotland.

When the queen got back to her feet (around the 1870s), she went straight into steering the affairs of the empire. She was instrumental in building strong relationships with countries abroad. However, some sections of the public criticized her for being too friendly with the Germans. Who could blame her for doing this? After all, she was in part German. She spoke fluent German. And the times she and Albert spent in Germany were one of the best in her life.

Queen Victoria’s Illness and Death

In the later years of her life, Queen Victoria was plagued by a number of illnesses. Most notable of them all was the rheumatism in her body. She gradually lost her eyesight to cataracts. She became really ill. Her second son’s (Prince Alfred) death in July 1900 was also too much for the ailing monarch. She constantly felt sad and weak. Eventually, Queen Victoria gave up the ghost and died on January 22, 1901, in the company of her eldest son, Prince Edward, and Emperor Wilhem II (her grandson). She chose white for her funeral procession. On February 4, 1901, Queen Victoria was interred beside her husband, Prince Albert, in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.

Read More: What Caused the Death of Queen Victoria ?

Queen Victoria’s Legacy

Her longevity on the throne saw the affairs of the country grow in strength. Her era has famously been referred to as the Victorian Era. She was a huge matriarchal figure all across Europe. What she lacked in height, she made up for in a disciplined approach to managing the affairs of the royal family. One must remember that her time marked the beginning of Britain moving into a full constitutional monarchy. Therefore, Queen Victoria had very little real power over these politicians. However, her wise words and consultations are what set her apart. Her reign also saw about 11 different British Prime Ministers. She was a very affable and honest straight-talking person. Victoria always had an unflinching sense of having strong family bonds and values. She was a different type of monarch than the uncles and grandfather who reigned before her. Victoria will go down in history as the British monarch that restored British monarch’s image and reputation.

On a lighter note, it was during her era that the Christmas tree tradition became popular. During the festive season, Victoria, along with all her family, would bring pine trees into Windsor Castle and personally decorate the tree with assorted sweets and candles. And most of the Christmas carols and hymns that we enjoy today were most likely written during the Victorian Era.

Pop culture references and On-Screen portrayal of Queen Victoria

In popular and urban culture, Queen Victoria holds the record of being the most featured British monarch on television and radio. Here are three very famous depictions of Victoria:

• 2016 ITV drama, Victoria . This drama series stars a host of spectacular actors and actresses such as Jordan Waller, Jenna Coleman, and Adrian Schiller.
• Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988). This was a light comedy with stellar acts from Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry. The movie highlighted Victoria’s generous side during the festive Christmas season.
• Mrs. Brown (1997) that starred Billy Connolly and Judi Dench. Dench’s performance was so good that it won her an Academy nomination for Best Actress.

11 Quick Facts about Queen Victoria

• Both her father (Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn) and her Grandfather ( King George III ) died in the same year, 1820.
• She is regarded as the “Grandmother of Europe” because all 9 of her children married royals and nobles across Europe.
• Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was her first maternal cousin. The two got married in 1840.
• She was the first British monarch to officially rule India. She went by the title: Empress of India.
• Queen Victoria is the 2nd longest-reigning British monarch.
• She was the last British monarch to hail from the House of Hanover.
• One of Queen Victoria’s uncles was Leopold, the future king of the Belgians.
• Queen Victoria had two other half-siblings: Prince Carl of Leiningen (1804-1856) and Princess Feodora of Leiningen (1807-1872). The prince and princess were Queen Victoria’s mother’s children from her first marriage to Charles, 2nd Prince of Leiningen (1763-1814).
• The Queen is said to be the originator of the “royal disease”, hemophilia, in the royal family. Hemophilia is a disease that prevents the blood from clotting after a cut to the skin. She passed this gene on to 3 of her children: Leopold, Alice, and Beatrice. These royal members went on to introduce it to the House of Windsor as well as other royal families across Europe.
• Queen Victoria was not the tallest of the British monarchs. She was a mere five feet tall.
• Throughout her reign, there were a total of six separate assassination attempts on her life.

Tags: Achievements of Victoria Queen Victoria Queen Victoria's Era Queen Victoria's illness and death Queen Victoria's legacy Queen Victoria's reign

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Queen Victoria

Article by Alan Rayburn , Carolyn Harris

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited September 8, 2015

Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne at age 18, following the death of her uncle, William IV, in 1837. She was an ardent imperialist and took an intense interest in her colonial subjects. Queen Victoria favoured Confederation and acted as a unifying influence for Canada’s provinces. While the Queen never visited Canada, five of her nine children spent time in Canada, where her name has been given to numerous public buildings, streets, communities and physical features.

The future Queen Victoria was the only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820), the fourth son of King George III, and Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1786–1861). Edward was the first member of the royal family to reside in Canada for a sustained period of time. He spent the 1790s in Québec City and Halifax , where he helped improve British North American defences and became commander-in-chief of the British North American forces. Prince Edward Island is named for him. After the death of his niece, Princess Charlotte, in 1817, Edward married at the age of 50. His marriage was necessary in order to continue the line of royal heirs after Charlotte's passing. Victoire was 20 years younger than Edward and the widow of Prince Charles of Leiningen. She had two children, Charles and Feodora, from her first marriage.

On 24 June 1819, Victoria was christened Alexandrina Victoria in honour of her godfather, Czar Alexander I of Russia, and her mother. Her father died of pneumonia before her first birthday, and she grew up at Kensington Palace in London under the guardianship of her mother. Victoire disapproved of Edward’s brothers, who were derided for their gambling and mistresses; and the young Victoria saw little of the royal family . She was, for example, not permitted to attend the coronation of her uncle and predecessor, William IV, in 1830. Victoria was educated at home and grew up to be stubborn and strong willed.

Accession to the Throne

Victoria became queen upon the death of William IV on 20 June 1837. There was an outpouring of popular enthusiasm about the 18-year-old monarch, whose respectability contrasted with her uncles George IV and William IV. After attending her coronation at Westminster Abbey on 28 June 1838, diarist Sir Charles Greville wrote, “It is, in fact, the remarkable union of naïveté, kindness, nature, good-nature, with propriety and dignity, which makes her so admirable and so endearing to those about her.” After the seclusion of her childhood, Victoria enjoyed her new position and was an enthusiastic participant in court balls and other entertainments.

Victoria came to the throne just months before the Rebellions of 1837–38 were mounted in Upper and Lower Canada . On 22 December 1837, the Queen wrote in her journal, "The news are, I grieve to say, very bad from Canada; that is to say rumours and reports by the Papers, though we have no Official Reports. But [Prime Minister] Lord Melbourne hopes it may not be so bad as it is rumoured. There certainly is open Rebellion." In honour of her coronation, the Queen granted amnesties to the rebels in Upper and Lower Canada ( see Amnesty Act ).

On 15 October 1839, Queen Victoria proposed to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They were married at St. James’s Palace on 10 February 1840. Victoria wore a white satin and lace dress, starting the fashion for white wedding dresses that continues to the present. Victoria was deeply in love with her husband, writing in her journal at the time of her wedding: “His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness — really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband!”

During the first years of her marriage, Victoria prevented Albert from becoming involved in her duties as sovereign , a stance that Albert resented. As their marriage progressed, Victoria became increasingly dependent on Albert, and he came to exert political and cultural influence. He advised Victoria on state documents, drafted her correspondence and reformed royal finances. Albert chaired the Great Exhibition, which showcased British and international trade at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851 and inspired similar displays around the world. He received the title of prince consort in 1857, though Sir Charles Greville remarked, "He is King to all intents and purposes."

Queen Victoria had nine children: Victoria (1840–1901), Albert Edward, the future Edward VII (1841–1910), Alice (1843–1878), Alfred (1844–1900), Helena (1846–1923), Louise (1848–1939), Arthur (1850–1942), Leopold (1853–1884) and Beatrice (1857–1944). Prince Albert was present in the delivery room for the births with government ministers and clergymen assembled in the adjoining room. Albert was likely the first royal father to be present for the births of his children. Current royal christening traditions, such as the use of the lily font and Honiton lace robe, date from the christenings of Victoria’s children.

Victoria popularized childbirth anaesthesia, then a controversial medical intervention, when she requested chloroform for the births of Leopold and Beatrice. She had little interest in young children — writing that “an ugly baby is a very nasty object — and the prettiest is frightful when undressed” — and Albert assumed a more active role in the children’s education and upbringing. Victoria became closer to her children as they aged. The royal family ’s public image conformed to 19th-century ideals of domesticity in the English-speaking world. Images of Victoria, Albert and their children celebrating Christmas and taking family vacations influenced broader parenting trends.

All four of Victoria’s sons spent time in Canada. Edward VII, the future king, undertook a highly successful tour of British North America and the United States in 1860 that set precedents for future royal tours , including engagement with Canadians from a variety of communities and backgrounds, and showcasing local culture. Alfred spent five weeks in the Maritimes in 1861; and Arthur spent a year with the Rifle Brigade based in Montréal in 1869–70. As Duke of Connaught, Arthur would return to Canada as Governor General from 1911 to 1916. Victoria’s daughter, Louise, was vice-regal consort from 1878 to 1883, when her husband, the Marquess of Lorne , became the fourth Governor General since Confederation . Leopold visited Louise in Ottawa and they visited Niagara Falls together. Louise and Lorne founded the National Gallery of Canada (1880), the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880) and the Royal Society of Canada (1882) during their time in Canada.

Prince Albert died at Windsor Castle on 14 December 1861 from either typhoid fever or Crohn’s Disease . Victoria was devastated and began a long period of seclusion during which she refused to undertake most public duties. While the public was initially sympathetic, Victoria’s unwillingness to either resume regular public appearances or delegate responsibilities to her eldest son attracted criticism and increasing republican sentiment. Victoria’s popularity in Britain was restored in 1872 when she agreed to a public thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral after the future Edward VII recovered from a near-fatal attack of typhoid . In Canada, a day of thanksgiving was celebrated in honour of the heir to the throne’s recovery. Victoria’s popularity remained constant in Canada during her widowhood, as she had never visited in person and therefore Canadians did not experience a direct change in her public appearances. Victoria was a widow for 40 years and her best-known public image as “the widow of Windsor,” in which she appeared in simple black dresses and white bonnets, is one that endures.

Political Influence

As a constitutional monarch , Queen Victoria was expected to be above politics, but she nevertheless expressed her partiality for particular British prime ministers. During the early years of her reign, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, acted as a father figure and mentor to Victoria. Later in her reign, she favoured Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli — who provided her with entertaining political anecdotes — over the more reserved Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, whom she complained, “addresses me as though I were a public meeting.”

Victoria’s political opinions and priorities shifted after Albert’s death. During her 20-year marriage to Albert, she shared his commitment to such domestic reforms as reducing tariffs and raising the minimum working age to reduce child labour . Over the course of her widowhood, she became an enthusiastic imperialist and emphasized her role as “mother” of the British Empire.

Canada’s Confederation

It is fitting that Province of Canada delegates sailed to the 1864 Charlottetown Conference in Prince Edward Island aboard the Queen Victoria steamship. At the conference, Canadian delegates took the opportunity to propose British North American union to the Atlantic colonies . Victoria played a supportive role in the development of the Dominion of Canada, bringing together political figures from the British North American colonies through their shared loyalty to the Crown . She was broadly known as the “Mother of Confederation,” who believed that Confederation would reduce defence costs and strengthen relations with the United States. “I take the deepest interest in it,” Victoria told a Nova Scotian delegation in London, “for I believe it will make [the provinces] great and prosperous.” In 1857, Victoria selected Ottawa — then an obscure lumber town called Bytown — as the Province of Canada’s capital. She chose Ottawa again as capital for the Dominion in 1867 as it was sheltered from potential American invasions and stood on the border between English and French Canada.

Victoria met with John A. Macdonald and four Canadian delegates in February 1867 as the British North America Act was passed before British Parliament. Macdonald recalled that Victoria said, “I am very glad to see you on this mission. […] It is a very important measure and you have all exhibited so much loyalty.” Macdonald invited Victoria to open Canada’s first session of Parliament in Ottawa on 1 July, but she was unable to attend.

Mother of the British Empire

It is estimated that one-fifth of the world’s land mass became part of the British Empire and Dominions during Victoria’s reign — supporting the axiom that the sun never set on the British Empire. During the last decades of her reign, Victoria’s role as “mother” to the British Empire became a central part of her image. She became Empress of India at the suggestion of Disraeli in 1877.

Although Victoria did not personally travel beyond Europe, she emphasized her personal relationship with Indigenous peoples around the world. In Canada, treaties were concluded between First Nations and the Crown as the “Great Mother.” As Canada expanded westward, so did Victoria’s empire. Royal visits by Victoria’s children to Canada’s west were an opportunity to affirm Victoria’s personal relationship with her subjects. Victoria’s son-in-law, Lord Lorne , was greeted as the “great brother-in-law” by First Nations communities when he travelled across the Prairies in 1881.

Canadian author Charles Dent wrote in 1880, “In Canada, loyalty has by no means degenerated into a mere feeble sentiment of expediency. Throughout the length and breadth of our land the name of Queen Victoria is regarded with an affectionate love and veneration which is felt for no other human being.”

Grandmother of Europe

Victoria’s children and grandchildren married into Europe’s royal houses, which resulted in the monarchies of Europe being closely interrelated by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Her granddaughters included five royal consorts: Empress Alexandra of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Queen Maud of Norway, Queen Sophie of Greece and Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain. Her eldest grandchild was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The marriages of Victoria’s descendants spread British cultural practices and political influence across Europe. Victoria’s youngest son, Leopold, suffered from hemophilia, an inherited blood disorder passed to males through the female line. Hemophilia became known as the “royal disease” as it spread through Victoria’s descendants to the German, Spanish and Russian ruling houses.

Victoria was the first British monarch to celebrate public Golden and Diamond Jubilees , which marked the 50th and 60th anniversaries of her accession to the throne. These jubilees were celebrated throughout the British Empire including thanksgiving holidays in Canada. The 1887 Golden Jubilee showcased Victoria’s role as “grandmother” of Europe and the guests included royalty from across the continent. The prime ministers of the 10 self-governing overseas provinces in addition to Canada gathered in London for the Golden Jubilee to hold what was, in effect, the first Commonwealth Conference, a forerunner of the modern day Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings.

The 1897 Diamond Jubilee emphasized Victoria’s role as head of the British Empire and Dominions. The Canadian cavalry rode five abreast at the Head of the Colonial Procession. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier , who had received his knighthood from the Queen that morning, followed in a carriage. The Toronto Grenadiers and Royal Canadian Highlanders were also part of the parade. Victoria’s personal message to Canada on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee was “From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them.” Canada’s gift to Victoria in honour of her Diamond Jubilee was the establishment of the Victorian Order of Nurses . The Diamond Jubilee also had a profound effect on Canadian popular culture as new songs were composed in the Queen’s honour and buildings named for her.

Victoria was Britain’s longest reigning monarch at the time of her death in 1901, a record that Queen Elizabeth II surpassed on 9 September 2015. Victoria remained actively engaged with the British Empire until her last days, closely following the South African War . She died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight surrounded by family. Her death was regarded as the end of an era. The Canadian government decided that Victoria Day , which had been celebrated as the Queen’s birthday in Canada since 1845, would be a permanent statutory holiday to honour her role as a “Mother of Confederation .”

Canadian Sites Named for Queen Victoria

Many of Canada's towns and cities, public buildings and institutions, parks and plazas, streets and physical features have been named for Queen Victoria — and under different iterations of her title: Queen, Empress, Victoria, Regina. Explorers, mapmakers and administrators assigned the name Victoria to a multitude of geographical features all over the Canadian map. Perhaps no individual has been more honoured in this way in Canada.

Victoria College (now part of the University of Toronto ) and Queen’s University in Kingston , Ontario , were named for the Queen during her reign, as was the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal . The Victoria General Hospital (built 1911) in Winnipeg was also named for her.

The best-known place named for the British monarch is the city at the base of Vancouver Island . In 1843, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) resolved to name its new fort overlooking the Juan de Fuca Strait for the Queen, though Fort Albert was the name it was assigned locally. Subsequently, a stern message from London insisted on the use of Fort Victoria . The town site of Victoria was established there in 1851–52; and in 1868, the expanding city became the capital of the colony of British Columbia (itself named by Queen Victoria).

The province of Alberta also had a Victoria northeast of Edmonton , where George McDougall had established a mission (1862) and the HBC had set up a post (1864). To avoid confusion with other Victorias, the name of this small community was changed to Pakan, the nickname of a Cree chief, in 1887.

The village of Empress, northeast of Medicine Hat , was named in 1913 in commemoration of the Queen's imperial title received from British Parliament in 1877 . The Marquess of Lorne and his wife, Princess Louise (the Queen's daughter), wanted to give the name Victoria to the capital of the North-West Territories in 1882, but chose instead the other half of her Latin title, Regina . In 1905, it became the capital of the new province of Saskatchewan . Manitoba has a rural municipality and a lake named Victoria and another municipality called Victoria Beach.

One does not travel far in Ontario before encountering Victoria Corners, Victoria Square, Victoria Harbour, Victoria Springs, Victoria Lake or just plain Victoria. Evidence of Victoria is less apparent in Québec , although the second-largest place in Canada with her name is in that province. Victoriaville , a town of more than 44,313 people (2013), was named for the queen in 1861. There are also seven physical features in Québec with the name Victoria, including Grand-Lac-Victoria at the head of the Ottawa River , south of Val-d'Or .

The Atlantic Provinces have numerous places and features with the name Victoria. Among these are a county in each of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia . Victoria is an attractive seaside village in Prince Edward Island , where there are also places called Victoria Cross and Victoria West. Newfoundland and Labrador has a Victoria . A town of nearly 2,000, it lies on the west side of Conception Bay .

The territories contain Victoria Island , Canada's second-largest island in the Arctic Archipelago (after Baffin ), and Victoria and Albert Mountains on Ellesmere Island . ( See also Place Names .)

Interested in the monarchy?

Further Reading

Margaret Homans, Royal Representations: Queen Victoria and British Culture (1999)

Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria: A Personal History (2001)

A.N. Wilson, Victoria: A Life (2015)

Helen Rappaport, A Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy (2012)

Recommended

Queen mother (hm queen elizabeth the queen mother), queen elizabeth ii, catherine (hrh the princess of wales).

How Queen Victoria remade the British monarchy

She took the throne amid calls to replace the royals with a republic. but queen victoria held power through ambitious reforms and imperialist policies, and her legacy endures today..

n the 1800s, Queen Victoria oversaw the expansion of the British Empire—which would cover a fifth of the Earth's surface by the end of the century—and critical reforms to the monarchy. 

The Famine Queen. The Widow of Windsor. Grandmother of Europe. Queen Vic. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria earned all those nicknames and more—testaments to the enduring influence of her 64-year (1837-1901) reign over the United Kingdom.

During the period now known as the Victorian Era, she oversaw her nation’s industrial, social, and territorial expansion and gained a reputation as a trendsetter who made over European attitudes toward the monarchy. An estimated one in four people on Earth were subjects of the British Empire by the end of her rule. But when Victoria took the throne, the British monarchy was deeply unpopular.

Ascension to the throne

Victoria was the product of a succession crisis in England’s royal family that occurred when Princess Charlotte, the presumptive successor to King George, and her infant son died in childbirth. Charlotte’s brothers—all of whom were single and had given the monarchy a bad name with their profligate spending and messy personal lives—raced to produce an heir. One of those brothers, Edward, hastily married a widowed German princess and became the first to produce an heir. Born in 1819, Alexandrina Victoria was a direct successor to the crown.

Palace intrigue made for a miserable childhood. Victoria’s father died when she was a child, and her ambitious mother allied herself with the scheming Sir John Conroy, a member of the royal household who seized the chance to gain power and influence through the future queen. He created what became known as “the Kensington system,” an elaborate set of rules that isolated the young princess at Kensington Palace and put him in control of her education and upbringing. Designed to keep Victoria dependent and loyal to Conroy and her mother, the system resulted in an unhappy childhood—and a growing sense of resentment.

Victoria broke free in 1837, when she turned 18 and rose to the throne. As soon as she became queen, she banned Conroy from her court and marginalised her mother. In 1840, she married her cousin Albert, a German prince. It was a genuine love match—she wrote that her wedding night was “bliss beyond belief”—and they went on to have nine children.

Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert were patrons of the arts—including the burgeoning field of photography. They commissioned images to document life at the palace and even reenacted their wedding for a photograph in 1854.

Early reign

During her early reign, Victoria was heavily influenced by Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, and Albert, who was her closest political advisor and whom some historians believe was “king in all but name.” Together, they pursued an agenda of modernisation and stability in an era of political upheaval. The monarchy’s reputation had been badly damaged by Victoria’s predecessors, and the British populace clamoured to replace the monarchy with a republic. And in Ireland, the potato famine between 1845 and 1852 fomented outright rebellion.

Together with her husband, Victoria faced those challenges head-on, working to strengthen the position of the monarchy in England and throughout Europe, where there was also a growing distaste for royals who expected the public to foot the bill for their lavish lifestyles. In contrast, Victoria expanded the monarch’s public role, supporting charities, the arts, and civic reform to counter the view that British royalty wasn’t worth the expense. As a result, the queen and her growing family became beloved celebrities and influenced popular culture, introducing England to everything from white wedding dresses to Christmas trees .

In 1861, tragedy struck when Albert died at 42. Victoria was devastated and went into deep mourning. She wore black for the rest of her life and withdrew from the public eye for years. The republican movement grew during her isolation, and she was criticised for her absence from public life.

Discover the luminous history of London's Royal Albert Hall.

Later years

Victoria resumed her public duties by the late 1860s. Her later reign was largely devoted to encouraging peace in Europe and expanding and consolidating her massive political empire. She became Empress of India in 1877 and influenced foreign relations closer to home through her children and grandchildren, many of whom married into European royalty.

At the beginning of her monarchy, Britain was seen largely as a trading power. But under Victoria, it became a mighty empire and the world’s most powerful nation. Over the course of the 19 th century, it grew by 10 million square miles and 400 million people. Those gains came at a tremendous price: England was almost constantly at war during Victoria’s reign, and the colonialism practiced in her name involved brutal subjugation.

Though Victoria was popular, her subjects still pushed to reform the monarchy. Ultimately, this led to an erosion of the monarch’s direct political power as ordinary British people gained the vote, the secret ballot, and other political reforms in the mid- to late 1800s.  

By her death in 1901, Victoria was an institution, known for her willpower and the vast empire she ruled. The British Empire covered a full fifth of the Earth’s surface and had become the preeminent superpower of its day.

Victoria’s attempts to bolster European monarchies by marrying off her family members achieved short-term peace, but they sowed the seeds of some of the 20th century’s most destructive conflicts. By the onset of World War I in 1914, her grandchildren would turn against each other.

Although the relentless colonialism of the empire she ruled and the devastating war she inadvertently helped seed now cast a shadow over Victoria’s reign, she believed British power and prosperity were paramount. As she wrote in 1899, “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.” For a woman born to rule, there was no room for doubt as to her historic destiny—or the might of the empire built in her name.

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Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire Hardcover – Deckle Edge, November 22, 2016

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• Print length 752 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Random House
• Publication date November 22, 2016
• Dimensions 6.57 x 1.64 x 9.58 inches
• ISBN-10 9781400069880
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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1400069882
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; First Edition (November 22, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 752 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781400069880
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400069880
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.57 x 1.64 x 9.58 inches
• #834 in Historical British Biographies
• #1,036 in Royalty Biographies
• #7,295 in Women's Biographies

About the author

Julia baird.

Julia Baird is a journalist, broadcaster, and author based in Sydney, Australia. She is a columnist for the International New York Times and Sydney Morning Herald and host of The Drum on ABC TV (Australia). Her writing has appeared in a host of publications including Newsweek, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly,and Harper’s Bazaar. She has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Sydney. (Her 2004 book, Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians was based on her PhD research) In 2005, Baird was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.

She is also an owl who aspires to be more like a fish.

Baird lives by the sea with her two children and Australia's clumsiest cat.

She is not the sister of John Lennon, nor any other Beatle.

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Victorian Era

From Georgian to Edwardian

Queen Victoria’s Biography Facts

She was the queen of Great Britain for 63 years. She is the second longest reigning British monarch with Queen Elizabeth II being the first.

During Victoria’s reign, great cultural expansions were seen, advancement in science and technology, industry and communications as well as building of railways and London underground . Her reign was longer than that of her predecessors and is known as Victorian era.

Queen Victoria I’s Early life and childhood

Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, in London, England. Her father died when she was only eight months old and her mother was the domineering figure in her life.

Her early life and childhood were quiet and secluded living in Kensington Palace with her mother. Since her mother was a German, German was Victoria’s first language.

However, she mastered English soon even though never expected to reign as monarch. Her mother made sure that Victoria received liberal education and training in music, drawing, history, foreign languages and natural philosophy.

When King George IV passed away in 1830, Victoria was eleven years old and it seemed she might play an important role in British politics. When Victoria entered teenage it became clear that she would be the heir to the throne.

In 1832, Sir John Conroy, the comptroller of Duchess Victoria’s household, organized semi-royal tours in which Princess Victoria was formally presented to the nation. Victoria was enthusiastically welcomed by the people.

Early Reign of Queen Victoria I

On May 24, 1837, Victoria turned 18 and less than a month later, when William IV died, Victoria became the queen of the United Kingdom on 20 June 1837. The documents signed on the first day of her reign named her Alexandrina Victoria, but she withdrew her first name and preferred to be called Victoria. Her first name was never used again.

At the time of her accession, Lord Melbourne, Whig Prime Minister led the government. The politically inexperienced queen relied on Lord Melbourne for advice. On 28 June 1837, when her coronation took place, about 400,000 visitors attended the celebration in London. Victoria was financially prudent and paid off all her father’s debt.

Marriage of Queen Victoria I

Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert , on 10 February 1840. A huge crowd had gathered and cheered the young couple each time they got a chance. Victoria became a mother of nine children and Prince Albert proved himself to be an admirable consort. He made a strong contribution to British life. His premature death at the age of 42 in 1861 led Queen Victoria to deep mourning and she took many years to recover from that setback. Here are her suitors before her marriage .

See more about Queen Victoria’s royal pets

Queen Victoria I’s Children

One of the reasons was that both, Victoria and Albert were a product of unhappy childhood. However, when her first child was born, the queen was busy with her duties as monarch and had very little time to spare for her child. However, in 17 years she had nine children.

Albert and Victoria’s desire to be seen as a model family in public led them to display many harmonious family group portraits. Today they are a beautiful record of the development of the royal family. While Victoria devoted herself to regal duties, Albert took the responsibility of upbringing his children.

Albert took to punishing educational programme for his children and right from infancy, it was tried to instill discipline in children. However, from an early age, Prince Edward refused to follow his father’s plan for the royal children’s education.

As other Queen Victoria’s children grew, each one of them displayed the quirks and specific features of individual human nature. However, one of the factors that saved Britain from foreign entanglement during Victoria’s reign was her children’s marriages.

Directly or indirectly she was related to the royal families most of which were in major European power. Her children turned out well even after the sudden and untimely death of their father. Edward VII became a successful king who had the special charm and diplomatic skill which helped in the continuing popularity of British royal family.

Queen Victoria’s Death & Funeral

Victoria used to spend her Christmas at Osborn House on the Isle of Wight throughout her widowhood. In 1901, also she followed the same tradition. During early January, she felt weak and unwell and by the middle of the month, she started feeling drowsy, dazed and confused.

After death, Victoria was dressed in white with her wedding veil. Her funeral was held on February 2 and after lying in state for two days, her body was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.

What is the legacy of Queen Victoria I?

According to her biographies, Victoria wrote 2,500 words per day and right from 1832 to almost up to her death, she maintained a detailed journal. After her death, her youngest daughter Beatrice was appointed as literary executor who edited the diaries and buried the originals.

Victoria was stout, dowdy and almost five feet of height. During her first few years of widowhood her popularity came down but she gained it during the 1880s and 1890s.

Throughout Victoria’s reign establishment of modern constitutional monarchy in Britain continued gradually. The voting system was reformed increasing the powers of the House of Commons as well as above the House of Lords and the Monarch.

The Monarch had the right to be consulted, right to encourage and right to warn.

Victorian era brought in strong family values and this became popular and trended in middle class a lot. This also created a huge gap between the middle class and poor.

Many places and memorials have been dedicated to her name around the world especially in the Commonwealth nations. To reward acts of valour during the Crimean war, the Victoria Cross was introduced in 1856, which remains the highest bravery award in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand even today.

The Victorian day is a statutory holiday in Canada and public holiday in parts of Scotland. It falls on the last Monday before or after 24 May, queen’s birthday.

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Victoria: A Life by AN Wilson – review

T owards the end of this subtle, thoughtful biography of Queen Victoria AN Wilson presents his defining argument. Victoria, he suggests, was an artist. He isn't talking here about her rather good watercolours, but something more profound. The queen, he claims, lived an entirely inward life, filled with characters and narratives of her own making: saintly Albert, bad Bertie, twinkly Disraeli and the wicked, wicked Boers. Just like that other epic storyteller Marcel Proust , Victoria stayed home (although, unlike the Frenchman, she never allowed herself to lie in bed) and conjured up a world that unfurled over the decades as larger-than-life characters bloomed, hovered and faded, leaving behind their own particular perfume.

It is the queen's inwardness, Wilson says, which makes her such an excellent subject for a biographer. There's no requirement to go puffing after her on endless banal state visits, bridge openings, or troopings the colour – because she didn't do them, or at least not much. Anyway, Wilson covered all that in The Victorians , his bestseller of 10 years ago that dealt with the 19th-century's outerworld of iron, brick and cotton bales. In this new book he prefers to stay indoors with Victoria in one of her freezing residences as she pours out millions of words into her daily journal and letters, sifting external events through what Wilson calls "the rich comedy" of her consciousness.

Like any artist whose vision was both protean – she was perfectly capable of believing six contradictory things before breakfast – and particular, Victoria has been a magnet for biographical rereadings in the 11 decades since her death. The best include Lytton Strachey 's surprisingly tender Queen Victoria of 1921 and Elizabeth Longford 's still highly readable Victoria RI of 1964. Then, in the 1990s, academic scholars got hold of the queen and the result was a poststructuralist Victoria – all fragments, gaps and jagged edges. Now, 20 years since that last serious flurry of biographical interest, Wilson picks up the pieces and puts the jigsaw back together again, creating in the process a Victoria for our own times.

And what those times require, it turns out, is a passionate pan-Europeanist. It has long been a given of Victorian scholarship that Prince Albert spent his short, strenuous life trying to graft German liberalism on to the British constitution to create a template of moderate monarchism that could withstand the challenge of revolution and nationalism alike. His grand idea was to export this model back to Protestant Europe as a gift-with-purchase whenever someone married one of his and Victoria's nine-strong nursery tribe. By this means every Duchy, Palatinate and hyphenated micro-kingdom would be given the tools it needed to stay safe in an uncertain world. They would also, in time, join up to form a central European hub that was rock-solid liberal.

The assumption has always been that by the time of Albert's early death in 1861 this project had stalled under pressures of working class democracy at home and Prussian militarism abroad. Wilson, though, has been back to the archives in Coburg and reconnected with the tap-root of Victoria and Albert's plan for a united, moderate Germany. He shows convincingly that, despite being poleaxed by grief at losing her "Angel", Victoria remained passionately engaged in what might be described as "the Coburg project". When the Schleswig-Holstein crisis blew up in the early 1860s she understood, in a way that her prime minister, Palmerston, did not, that buried in this parochial squabble between Prussia and Denmark were the first signs of the Bismarckian aggression that would eventually rip Europe apart. It was only thanks to the wise queen, suggests Wilson, that Britain did not blunder into a war with Germany at this point, 50 years before it was capable of winning.

Wilson pays proper attention to the Hanoverian side of Victoria's inheritance too. She was the granddaughter of King George III, which meant that whenever she behaved oddly courtiers began to wonder if she might be mad. Wilson believes that there were times, especially in the late 1860s, when Victoria was properly "out of her mind". Her letters to Gladstone, sometimes scrawled in blue crayon and barely stretching to two lines, read like dispatches from an interior world to which the drawbridge has been pulled temporarily shut.

In the end, though, Wilson doesn't put the queen's strange episodes down to porphyria , the heritable disease that is assumed to have caused her grandfather to clatter off into his own imaginary kingdom. Instead, he blames grief, the menopause and too much whisky: Victoria picked up the tippling habit from John Brown and never shook it off. And as to whether or not she actually slept with the man in the tartan skirt, Wilson thinks it doesn't really matter, although it's pretty clear he thinks she did. What interests him, rather, is the way that "Mrs Brown's" spectacular bad behaviour makes her the obvious, if unlikely, role model for her scoundrel heir, the hapless Bertie. Mother and son both did exactly as they damn well pleased, embarrassing their families and imperilling the monarchy as they acted on the prompts of their own emotional and erotic inner worlds.

This makes Victoria's constant criticism of Bertie as well as his siblings – arrogant Affie, wild Louise, selfish Leopold – seem hypocritical. But, Wilson insists, for Victoria, the political always remained intensely personal. She was critiquing her children not so much as real people but as characters in an imaginary dynastic drama, as vivid to her as the Guermantes were to Proust. As Prussia began to dominate Germany, the ageing queen continued to fret over the marriages of her grandchildren – all those oyster-eyed Victorias, Alices, Arthurs and Alfreds – who were to be sent out in a second wave to the four corners of Europe, carrying their fateful cargo of haemophilia, porphyria and sound constitutional principles.

Of course, anyone who gathered in the streets in 1897 to wave a flag as the queen passed by on her way to celebrate her diamond jubilee with a Te Deum on the steps of St Paul's was probably not thinking much about the Coburg project. Decades earlier she had thrown in her lot with Disraeli , that other great storymaker, who had turned her into the Empress of India, a suitably gaudy figurehead for the new age of popular, jingoistic Toryism. All the same, Wilson suggests in this shimmering and rather wonderful biography, as the elderly queen smiled and inclined her head to the ecstatic crowd, it was still possible to discern in that dumpling form traces of all the earlier versions of herself still buried deep inside. She had become nothing less than a symbol of Time itself, a reminder of the good intentions of the past and a warning about what might happen once she was gone and, with her, the dream of a united Europe.

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An eye-opening biography of Queen Victoria

Posted by Mal Warwick | Biography , Nonfiction | 0

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

When we think today of an English Queen, we tend to conjure up the benevolent figure of Elizabeth II, waving from the balcony at Buckingham Palace or from the back seat of a car. Of course, if we read English history—or if we’ve watched the popular Netflix series, The Crown —we know more than that. For example, we’re aware that the demands of constitutional monarchy strictly circumscribe the Queen’s role. Elizabeth II had no political role whatsoever. Her job was merely to accept the will of her subjects and deal with the hand Parliament dealt her. For her son, Charles III, it’s no different. But that was emphatically not true with her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, who ruled Great Britain from 1837 to 1901, imprinting her name on an era. And Julia Baird makes that case with penetrating clarity in her masterful biography of Queen Victoria.

A strong-willed monarch

The power Victoria wielded as sovereign was considerable despite the fact that little in the English constitution prescribed it. In fact, Britain has no written constitution. Like the common law, it evolves through the years, shaped by the will of the men and women who rise to positions of leadership. And when Victoria was born two centuries ago (in 1819), vestiges of medieval customs and expectations still governed the relationship between the monarch and Parliament. And when Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837, a strong-willed and opinionated teenager, she seized on every opportunity to shape the course of British politics and foreign affairs.

As Baird asserts, it is eye-opening today “to discover what a robust and interventionist ruler Victoria was. She regularly stretched the boundaries of her role. She tried as hard as she could to ensure she and the foreign secretary would decide matters of foreign policy together, without their needing to be canvassed in the Cabinet. [And] she bypassed the prime minister to give her own directives to generals.” But she went even further. On several occasions Vitoria attempted to install men she favored as Prime Minister or block those she opposed. She was in no way limited to a decorative role. “It was not until after [her son] Bertie ascended the throne [as King Edward VIII] that this ceremonial and symbolic kind of monarchy would become the norm.”

Victoria, the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird (2016) 752 pages ★★★★★

Asserting the Crown’s influence over policy

For two decades, Victoria ruled jointly with her husband, Prince Albert. And their workload was prodigious. “In 1848,” for example, “twenty-eight thousand dispatches came to them from the Foreign Office alone, on everything from the Chartists and the European revolutions to the devastating impact of increased tariffs on sugar in the West Indies . . . and the ambitious king of Sardinia. Victoria and Albert jointly wrote letters, corrected drafts sent from the foreign minister and PM, fired off letters to a host of political figures, both domestic and foreign, and prepared memoranda on events. They were intensely involved in all correspondence with other countries.”

After Albert’s passing in 1861, ending their twenty-one years of marriage, Victoria ruled alone for another thirty-nine years. Although she was less attentive to detail than they had been together, she was no less involved in exerting her influence on the major questions of the day. In fact, if anything, she was even more assertive during the final three decades of the century. As Baird notes, “While the role of the monarch in British politics dwindled to one of constitutional consigliere as the franchise was expanded and the House of Commons grew in influence, Victoria continued to demand space.”

More than an “intimate biography”

Victoria, The Queen delivers the “intimate biography” promised in its subtitle. We follow Victoria’s life up close and personal through the birth of nine children and forty-two grandchildren, her cherished relationships with several men, and, one after another, the death of loved family and friends as the end of her long life approached. But there’s a lot more here. The author provides nothing less than a wide-ranging view of the Victorian Age. The book is full of vivid cameo portraits of many of the leading figures in British life in the nineteenth century. Charles Dickens. Florence Nightingale. Lord Tennyson. Charles Darwin. Oscar Wilde. And the storied Prime Ministers with whom Victoria alternately collaborated or resisted, especially Melbourne , Disraeli , Palmerston , and especially Gladstone .

Similarly, Baird offers insight into many of the signature events of the nineteenth century. The Continental revolutions of 1848 . Prince Albert’s inspired Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace. The Crimean War . The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, when the Crown seized India from the British East India Company, eventually making Victoria an empress. And the Boer War , when the British invented the concentration camp. The effect is panoramic.

About the author

Julia Baird is an Australian journalist and author as well as a television news reporter in Sydney. Until the age of ten, she grew up in the United States, where her father was a trade commissioner. She holds a BA and PhD in History from the University of Sydney, and she was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She also has received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. Baird is the author of four nonfiction books on diverse subjects.

For related reading

You’ll find this book listed along with 10 great biographies .

For an excellent overview of British history, see The Shortest History of England: Empire and Division from the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit—A Retelling for Our Times  by James Hawes ( English history that’s not just about kings and queens ).

You might also care to check out 20 top nonfiction books about history and Top 10 nonfiction books about politics .

And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the  Home Page .

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Queen Victoria

• Occupation: Queen of the United Kingdom
• Born: May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace, London
• Died: January 22, 1901 at Osborne House, Isle of Wight
• Reign: June 20, 1837 to January 22, 1901
• Nicknames: The Grandmother of Europe, Mrs. Brown
• Best known for: Ruling the United Kingdom for 63 years
• She was named after her mother as well Alexander I, the Emperor of Russia.
• Victoria's favorite pet growing up was her dog, a King Charles spaniel named Dash.
• Prince Edward Island in Canada was named after Victoria's father.
• She went by the nickname "Drina" while growing up.
• Victoria was told she would someday be queen when she was thirteen years old. She remarked "I will be good."
• In 1887, the United Kingdom celebrated the 50th anniversary of her reign with a big party called the Golden Jubilee. They celebrated again in 1897 with the Diamond Jubilee.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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Prince Albert

(1819-1861)

Who Was Prince Albert?

Prince Albert was born in Bavaria, becoming the prince consort of the United Kingdom and Ireland upon his marriage to Queen Victoria. He served as the queen’s trusted adviser, and he had a hand in both internal and international affairs, advancing social issues in the United Kingdom, masterminding the Great Exhibition of 1851, and helping England avoid war with the United States. He died at the age of 42 from typhoid fever.

Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was born on August 26, 1819, at Schloss Rosenau, in Bavaria. He was the younger son of the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who divorced Albert's mother on grounds of adultery when Albert was 7 years old.

Role as Prince Consort

Albert's new role was serving as prince consort of Great Britain and Ireland, which meant that he had married a sitting queen but had no real power of his own. Thus, soon after their union, Prince Albert essentially became Victoria's private secretary and adviser, and Victoria tended to listen to his advice, which turned out to be level-headed and sage. The place of prince consort is a difficult one, but he wielded his influence with grace, discretion and intelligence, and when the public turned on him, which they inexplicably often did, he had an extraordinarily happy marriage to fall back on. He and Victoria produced nine children and 42 grandchildren.

When he wasn't being assailed by the public as an interloper, Prince Albert was raising the ire of British aristocracy for what they considered his morally severe tone, and their outrage is perfectly embodied by Albert not being granted the title prince consort until 17 years after the wedding, being addressed until then as HRH Prince Albert. It was not until after his death, in fact, that he was appreciated for what he brought to both the Crown and the country.

In dispensing advice, Prince Albert encouraged Victoria to take a greater interest in social welfare issues, including child labor, and suggested she favor a stance of political neutrality (which she did, abandoning her Whig ties). The queen became a hardworking agent for her people and country, prodded on by Albert's enthusiasm. Prince Albert also spearheaded the Great Exhibition of 1851, a World's Fair event celebrating British industrial advancement and culture, which was attended by such luminaries as Charles Darwin , Charlotte Bronte and Lewis Carroll .

Internationally, Prince Albert led the queen through disputes with Prussia (in 1856) and the United States (in 1861). The latter, referred to as the Trent Affair, is said to have ended peacefully, at least in part, because Albert suggested revising Foreign Office dispatches to avoid having them read as threatening ultimatums.

Death and Legacy

Prince Albert had been quite sick during his Trent Affair intervention, and on December 14, 1861, he succumbed to what his doctor diagnosed as typhoid. (Modern medical examination of the facts at hand have suggested something more chronic, such as cancer or Crohn’s disease)

Queen Victoria was so distraught at Albert's passing that she wore black in mourning for the rest of her life, which lasted 40 more years. She erected numerous monuments to Albert's legacy, and a re-examination of Albert's life let the public finally view him as the respectable and honorable figure he always was.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Great Britain and Ireland
• Birth Year: 1819
• Birth date: August 26, 1819
• Birth City: Bavaria
• Birth Country: Germany
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Prince Albert married his first cousin, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, at the age of 20, and after his untimely death at age 42, the queen's memory of him guided her for the next 40 years.
• Astrological Sign: Virgo
• Death Year: 1861
• Death date: December 14, 1861
• Death City: Berkshire
• Death Country: United Kingdom

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Prince Albert Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/royalty/prince-albert
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 15, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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Was Queen Victoria a political genius – or just a ‘spoilt child?’

A biographer’s task is not always an earnest one. More than once, researching my own short life of Queen Victoria, I found myself laughing out loud in archives and libraries. Queen Victoria may or may not have been amused, her sense of humour was undoubtedly limited, but she possessed an inadvertent talent to amuse unsurpassed by any other of Britain’s monarchs.

Her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II once described herself as “like Queen Victoria, a believer in moderation in all things”. As Anne Somerset demonstrates in this masterly account of Victoria’s relationship with the 10 men who served as her prime ministers, Victoria was frequently far from moderate. Her dislike of vivisectionists, Russians and four-times prime minister William Ewart Gladstone was violent. A foreign secretary who ignored her advice provoked a response one observer described as of “the utmost vehemence and bitterness”. Even Disraeli, who deployed skittish flattery to manage his exacting sovereign with marked success, found her “very wilful and whimsical, like a spoilt child”, once dismissing her behaviour as “very mad”.

Victoria’s voice, preserved in her letters and memoranda, ripples through Somerset’s account, undimmed by the passage of time. It is her occasional lapses of self-awareness that amuse, like her description of Gladstone in 1872 as “so very arrogant, tyrannical and obstinate”, the very complaint he might have levelled at her. 

Yet it would be wrong to dismiss Victoria as a termagant with an exaggerated view of her own political clout. Vehement and forthright, intensely patriotic and unswervably convinced of her right to intervene in government appointments and policies, she was as capable of admirable common sense as of silliness, wonderfully compassionate (save in her dealings with the hapless Gladstone, who was too honest for Disraelian unctuousness), an assiduous desk worker with an instinct for demagoguery: her responses frequently aligned with those of the bulk of her subjects. Sometimes commonplace in her thinking, she also demonstrated sound judgment and pertinent conclusions, increasingly, over time, informed by long experience. Her written style could be homely and pithy, like her warning in 1886 that her government not underestimate the strength of anti-British feeling in Ireland: “the snake is only scotched not killed”. Only with considerable effort did she bring herself to mince her words. She was at all times, as she described herself in the third person with emphatic capitalisation, “The Queen”.

So well known is the assessment of Victoria’s contemporary Walter Bagehot that the monarch’s role within Britain’s executive is confined to the right to be kept informed, to advise and to warn, that it’s easy to assume that Victoria herself accepted these restrictions. Far from it. Victoria considered Bagehot a radical who inspired mistrust. In Victoria’s understanding, her powers and areas of responsibility were extensive and wide-ranging, including, as she put it, “the unfettered right to approve or disapprove the choice of a Minister for [an] office”. On occasion she resorted to threats. Consumed by her horror at Palmerston’s conduct of foreign affairs, she told the prime minister that the day might come when “I could not put up with Lord Palmerston any longer”. Throughout her reign Victoria expected Cabinet ministers to truckle to her whims. Any attempt by MPs to alter her travel plans would, she announced, be met with “a firm high tone of reproof”. Nevertheless, in 1885, government problems forced Victoria to postpone her departure for the Highlands. She did not conceal her irritation, issuing a diktat that, in future, “ministerial crises must not happen again in Ascot weeks and during Balmoral times”. On another occasion this constitutional monarch spelled out that she would consider it impossible to remain queen if she were “to become the servant of Parliament”. No wonder Gladstone told his wife “the conduct of the Queen… weighs upon me like a nightmare”. 

Somerset has written an exhilaratingly impressive account. Her view, for example, that Prince Albert’s indefatigable inquisitiveness about every aspect of British political life, which Victoria maintained after his death, prevented the crown from losing ground politically in a period of significant political reform is a persuasive one. For some readers, uninterested in the minutiae of Italian unification or Balkan upheavals in the 1870s, the present survey may be too exhaustive; others will share my delight. 

“I think of nothing but the country,” Victoria once wrote. Since the security of her throne and the nation’s fortunes were so closely interwoven, she may well have been telling the truth.

Matthew Dennison is the author of Queen Victoria: A Life of Contradictions , and a biography of Victoria’s daughter Beatrice, The Last Princess . Queen Victoria and the Prime Ministers is published by William Collins at £30. To order your copy for £25 call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books

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