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Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901. Her reign lasted sixty-three years and seven months, longer than that of any other British monarch. In general, the period centred on her reign is known as the Victorian era.
The Victorian era was at the height of the Industrial Revolution, a period of significant social, economic, and technological progress in the United Kingdom. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the foremost Global Power of the time.
Victoria was almost entirely of German descent. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Her father, Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Her mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was the sister of King Leopold I of Belgium. George III's eldest son, the Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), had only one child, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales. When she died in 1817, the remaining unmarried sons of King George III scrambled to marry and father children to guarantee the line of succession. [1] At the age of fifty the Duke of Kent and Strathearn married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the sister of Princess Charlotte's widower Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and widow of Karl, Prince of Leiningen. Victoria, the only child of the couple, was born in Kensington Palace, London on 24 May 1819. She was christened in the Cupola Room of Kensington Palace on 24 June 1819 by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Charles Manners-Sutton), and her godparents were the Prince Regent, the Emperor Alexander I of Russia (in whose honour she received her first name), Queen Charlotte of Württemberg and the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Although christened Alexandrina Victoria, from birth she was formally styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent. She was called Drina within the family. [2] Princess Victoria's father died of pneumonia eight months after she was born. Her grandfather, George III, died six days later. Princess Victoria's uncle, the Prince of Wales, inherited the Crown, becoming King George IV.
She occupied a high position in the line of succession. Victoria was taught German, English, Italian, Greek, Chinese, and French, Arithmetic, Music and her favourite subject, History. [3] Her teachers were the Reverend George Davys and Baroness Louise Lehzen, her governess. [4] When she learned from Baroness Lehzen that one day she would be Queen she replied, "I will be good." [5]
When Princess Victoria of Kent was eleven years old, King George IV died childless, leaving the throne to his brother, the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, who became King William IV. Although he was the father of ten illegitimate children by his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordan, the new king had no surviving legitimate children. As a result, the young Princess Victoria became heiress presumptive. The law at the time made no special provision for a child monarch. Therefore, Victoria needed a Regent appointed if she were to succeed to the throne before coming of age at the age of eighteen. Parliament passed the Regency Act 1830, under which it provided that Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, would act as Regent during the queen's minority. Parliament did not create a council to limit the powers of the Regent.
Princess Victoria met her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, when she was sixteen years old in 1836. [6] It was not until a second meeting in 1839 that she fell in love with him. She said of him, " ... dear Albert ... He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see." [7] Prince Albert was Victoria's first cousin; his father was her mother's brother, Ernst. Victoria as Queen had to propose to him. Their marriage proved to be very happy. [8]
On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, meaning that a regency was no longer necessary. Four weeks later, Victoria was awakened by her mother to find that at twelve minutes past two on the morning of 20 June 1837, William IV had died from heart failure at the age of seventy-one. [9] In her diary Victoria wrote, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma ...who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conynham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham the acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning , and consequently that I am Queen ..." [10] Victoria was now Queen of the United Kingdom— [11] however she did not inherit the throne of Hanover, a realm which had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714. Hanover had been given a constitution in 1833 that stated that no woman could inheirit the thone. Therefore the throne of Hanover passed to Victoria's uncle, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who became King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover. Victoria remained a Princess of Hanover and a Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg throughout her life. As the young queen was as yet unmarried and childless, Ernest Augustus also remained the heir presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom until her first child was born in 1840. [12]
When Victoria ascended the throne, the government was controlled by the Whig Party, which had been in power, except for brief intervals, since 1830. The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, at once became a powerful influence in the life of the politically inexperienced Queen, who relied on him for advice. (Some even referred to Victoria as "Mrs. Melbourne".) [13] The Melbourne ministry would not stay in power for long; it was growing unpopular and, moreover, faced considerable difficulty in governing the British colonies. In Canada, the United Kingdom faced an insurrection (see Rebellions of 1837, with uprisings lasting until 1839), and in Jamaica, the colonial legislature had protested British policies by refusing to pass any laws. In 1839, Lord Melbourne resigned.
The Queen commissioned Sir Robert Peel, a Tory, to form a new ministry, but was faced with a debacle known as the Bedchamber Crisis. At the time, it was customary for appointments to the Royal Household to be based on the patronage system (that is, for the Prime Minister to appoint members of the Royal Household on the basis of their party loyalties). Many of the Queen's Ladies of the Bedchamber were wives of Whigs, but Sir Robert Peel expected to replace them with wives of Tories. Victoria strongly objected to the removal of these ladies, whom she regarded as close friends rather than as members of a ceremonial institution. Sir Robert Peel felt that he could not govern under the restrictions imposed by the Queen, and consequently resigned his commission, allowing Melbourne to return to office. [14]
The Queen married her first cousin, Prince Albert, on 10 February, 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace, London. Prince Albert did not formally obtain the title of Prince Consort until 1857. He was never granted a peerage. [15] Albert was not only the Queen's companion, but also an important political advisor, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in the first half of her life.
During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year old Edward Oxford [16] attempted to assassinate the Queen while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for high treason, but was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.
The shooting had no effect on the Queen's health or on her pregnancy. The first of the royal couple's nine children, named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840.
When the Whigs under Melbourne lost the elections of 1841 and were replaced by the Tories under Peel, there was no repeat of the Bedchamber Crisis. Victoria continued to correspond with Lord Melbourne, whose influence faded as that of Prince Albert increased.
On 13 June 1842, Victoria made her first journey by train, travelling from Slough railway station (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop's Bridge, near Paddington (in London), in a special royal carriage provided by the Great Western Railway. Accompanying her were her husband and the engineer of thNOO THIS IS ALL WRONGn a carriage), [17] but was immediately seized by Police Constable William Trounce. Francis was convicted of high treason. The death sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Prince Albert felt that the attempts were encouraged by Oxford's acquittal in 1840. On 3 July, just days after Francis' sentence was commuted, another boy, John William Bean, [18] attempted to shoot the Queen. Although his gun was loaded only with paper and tobacco, his crime was still punishable by death. Feeling that such a penalty would be too harsh, Prince Albert encouraged Parliament to pass the Treason Act of 1842, under which aiming a firearm at the Queen, striking her, throwing any object at her, and producing any firearm or other dangerous weapon in her presence with the intent of alarming her, were made punishable by seven years imprisonment and flogging. Bean was thus sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment; however, neither he, nor any person who violated the act in the future, was flogged.
Victoria belonged to the royal House of Hanover. She had no family name. Her husband belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and accordingly at Victoria's death, her son and heir Edward VII was the first British monarch of the new House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. According to royal custom, a wife never gains the membership of her husband's house, but remains belonging to her own. Thus Victoria was not of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert was of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Her grandson, George V explored the issue of a surname when changing the Royal House name in 1917 to the Windsor. He adopted the surname of Windsor. In 1958 an Order-in-Council adapted the 1917 decision by granting male descendants or unmarried female descendants of Queen Elizabeth II without royal title the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. This does not apply to the Prince of Wales, his brothers or their children.
Peel's ministry faced a crisis involving the repeal of the Corn Laws (grain import tariffs). Many Tories (by then known also as Conservatives) were opposed to the repeal, but some Tories (the "Peelites") and most Whigs supported it. Peel resigned in 1846, after the repeal narrowly passed, and was replaced by Lord John Russell. Russell's ministry, though Whig, was not favoured by the Queen. Particularly offensive to Victoria was the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, [19] who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the Prime Minister, or the Queen.
In 1849, Victoria lodged a complaint with Lord John Russell, claiming that Palmerston had sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without her knowledge. She repeated her remonstrance in 1850, but to no avail. It was only in 1851 that Lord Palmerston was removed from office; he had on that occasion announced the British government's approval for President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's coup in France without previously consulting the Prime Minister.
The period during which Russell was prime minister also proved personally distressing to Queen Victoria. In 1849, an unemployed and disgruntled Irishman named William Hamilton attempted to alarm the Queen by firing a powder-filled pistol as her carriage passed along Constitution Hill, London. Hamilton was charged under the 1842 act; he pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years of penal transportation.
In 1850, the Queen did sustain injury when she was assaulted by a possibly insane ex-Army officer, Robert Pate. As Victoria was riding in a carriage, Pate struck her with his gun, crushing her bonnet and bruising her. Pate was later tried; he failed to prove his insanity, and received the same sentence as Hamilton.
The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland, choosing to holiday in Killarney in Kerry. Her love of the island was matched by initial Irish warmth towards the young Queen. In 1845, Ireland was hit by a potato blight that over four years cost the lives of over one million Irish people and saw the emigration of another million. In response to what came to be called the Irish Potato Famine (An Gorta Mor), the Queen personally donated (5000 pounds sterling) to the starving Irish people. [20]
The policies of her minister Lord John Russell were often blamed for exacerbating the severity of the famine, killing a million Irishmen, which adversely affected the Queen's popularity in Ireland.
Victoria was a strong supporter of the Irish. She supported the Maynooth Grant and made a point, on visiting Ireland, of visiting the seminary.
Victoria's first official visit to Ireland, in 1849, was specifically arranged by Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the head of the British administration, to try both to draw attention off the famine and also to alert British politicians through the Queen's presence to the seriousness of the crisis in Ireland. Notwithstanding the negative impact of the famine on the Queen's popularity, she still remained sufficiently popular for nationalists at party meetings to finish by singing God Save the Queen. [21] However, by the 1870s and 1880s, the monarchy's appeal in Ireland had diminished substantially, partly as a result of Victoria's refusal to visit Ireland in protest of the Dublin Corporation's decision not to congratulate her son, the Prince of Wales, on both his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark and on the birth of the royal couple's oldest son, Prince Albert Victor.
Victoria refused repeated pressure from a number of prime ministers, lords lieutenant and even members of the Royal Family, to establish a royal residence in Ireland. [22] Lord Midleton, the former head of the Irish unionist party, writing in his memoirs of 1930 Ireland: Dupe or Heroine?, described this decision as having proved disastrous to the monarchy and British rule in Ireland.
Victoria paid her last visit to Ireland in 1900, when she came to appeal to Irishmen to join the British Army and fight in the Second Boer War. Nationalist opposition to her visit was spearheaded by Arthur Griffith, who established an organisation called Cumann na nGaedheal to unite the opposition. Five years later Griffith used the contacts established in his campaign against the queen's visit to form a new political movement, Sinn Féin.
The Prince Consort died of typhoid fever on December 14 1861, devastating Victoria, [23] who entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances and rarely set foot in London in the following years. Her seclusion earned her the name "Widow of Windsor." She blamed her son Edward, the Prince of Wales, for his father's death.
Victoria began to rely increasingly on a manservant from Scotland, John Brown. [24] A romantic connection and even a secret marriage have been alleged, but both charges are generally discredited. However, when Victoria's remains were laid in the coffin, two sets of mementos were placed with her, at her request. By her side was placed one of Albert's dressing gowns while in her left hand was placed a piece of Brown's hair, along with a picture of him. Rumours of an affair and marriage earned Victoria the nickname "Mrs Brown". [25] The story of their relationship was the subject of the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown.
Victoria's isolation from the public greatly diminished the popularity of the monarchy, and even encouraged the growth of the republican movement. Although she did undetake her official government duties, she chose to remain secluded in her royal residences, Balmoral in Scotland, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Windsor Castle. During this time, one of the most important pieces of legislation of the nineteenth century — the Reform Act 1867 — was passed by Parliament. Lord Palmerston was vigorously opposed to electoral reform, but his ministry ended upon his death in 1865. He was followed by Earl Russell (the former Lord John Russell), and afterwards by Lord Derby, during whose ministry the Reform Act was passed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was a stauch supporter of the expansion and preservation of the British Empire. He introduced the Royal Titles Act, which created Queen Victoria Empress of India, putting her at the same level as the Russian Tsar.
In 1887, the British Empire celebrated Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Victoria marked the fiftieth anniversary of her accession, 20 June 1887, with a banquet to which 50 European kings and princes were invited. Although she could not have been aware of it, there was a plan - ostensibly by Irish freedom fighters - to blow up Westminster Abbey while the Queen attended a service of thanksgiving. This assassination attempt, when it was discovered, became known as The Jubilee Plot. On the next day, she participated in a procession that, in the words of Mark Twain, "stretched to the limit of sight in both directions". By this time, Victoria was an extremely popular monarch.
Victoria had never found William Ewart Gladstone, her Prime Minister on a number of occasions, very agreeable. She was required to tolerate his ministry for one final term in 1892. After the last of his Irish Home Rule Bills was defeated, he retired in 1894. On his death Harriet Phipps asked her if she would write a condolatory message to Mrs.Gladstone. She replied, "No. I did not like the man. How can I say I am sorry when I am not?" [26] Gladstone was succeeded as Prime Minister by the Imperialist Liberal Lord Rosebery. Lord Rosebery was succeeded in 1895 by Lord Salisbury, who served for the remainder of Victoria's reign.
On 22 September 1896, Victoria surpassed George III as the longest reigning monarch in English, Scottish, and British history. The Queen requested all special public celebrations of the event to be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee. The Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, proposed that the Diamond Jubilee be made a festival of the British Empire.
The Prime Ministers of all the self-governing dominions and colonies were invited. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee procession included troops from every British colony and dominion, together with soldiers sent by Indian Princes and Chiefs as a mark of respect to Victoria, the Empress of India. The Diamond Jubilee celebration was an occasion marked by great outpourings of affection for the septuagenarian Queen. A service of thanksgiving was held outside St.Paul's Cathedral. Queen Victoria sat in her carriage throughout the service. Queen Victoria wore her usual black mourning dress trimmed with white lace. [27]
During Victoria's last years, the British Empire was involved in the Boer War. The Queen remained a symbol of empire unity and did not countenance the idea of defeat. She stated, "... that my whole nation is with me in a fixed determination to see this war through without intervention. The time for, and the terms of peace must be left to our decision, and my country ..." [28]
Victoria's personal life was marked by many personal tragedies, including the death of two of her sons, Prince Alfred, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Leopold, the Duke of Albany and by one of her daughters, Princess Alice Maud Mary; later The Grand Duchess of Hesse; and the death of three of her grandsons, Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein. Her last ceremonial public function came in 1899, when she laid the foundation stone for new buildings of the South Kensington Museum, which became known as the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent Christmas at Osborne House (which Prince Albert had designed) on the Isle of Wight. She died there from a cerebral hemorrhage on 22 January, 1901, at the age of 81. At her deathbed she was attended by her son, the future King, and her oldest grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. As she had wished, her own sons lifted her into the coffin. She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil. Her funeral occurred on 2 February, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park. Since Victoria disliked black funerals, London was instead festooned in purple and white. In fact, when she was laid to rest at Frogmore Mausoleum it began to snow. [29] Victoria had reigned for a total of 63 years, seven months and two days — the longest reign in British history.
Victoria was succeeded by her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, as King Edward VII. Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the House of Hanover in the United Kingdom. Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Queen Victoria's reign marked the gradual establishment of modern constitutional monarchy. A series of legal reforms saw the House of Commons' power increase, at the expense of the Lords and the monarchy, with the monarch's role becoming more symbolic. Since Victoria's reign the monarch has had, in Walter Bagehot's words, "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to warn".
As Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic than political, it placed a strong emphasis on morality and family values, in contrast to the sexual, financial and personal scandals that had been associated with previous members of the House of Hanover and which had discredited the monarchy. Victoria's reign created for Britain the concept of the 'family monarchy' with which the burgeoning middle classes could identify.
Internationally Victoria was a major figure, not just in image or in terms of Britain's influence through the empire, but also because of family links throughout Europe's royal families, earning her the affectionate nickname "the grandmother of Europe". An example of that status can be seen in the fact that three of the main monarchs with countries involved in the First World War on the opposing side were themselves either grandchildren of Victoria's or married to a grandchild of hers. Eight of Victoria's nine children married members of European royal families, and the other, Princess Louise, was married to the Marquis of Lorne, a Governor-General of Canada.
Victoria was the first known carrier of haemophilia in the royal line, but it is unclear how she acquired it. It may have been a result of a sperm mutation, her father having been fifty-two years old when Victoria was conceived. She may have acquired it from her mother, though there is no known history of haemophilia in her maternal family. Victoria herself was a carrier, as were her daughters Princess Alice and Princess Beatrice. Prince Leopold was affected by the disease. The most famous haemophilia victim among her descendants was her great-grandson, Alexei, Tsarevich of Russia and some of the sons of King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain. In 2007 it appears that the disease has been eliminated from the descendants of Queen Victoria.
As of 2007, the European monarchs and former monarchs descended from Victoria are: the Queen of the United Kingdom (as well as her husband), the King of Norway, the King of Sweden, the Queen of Denmark, the King of Spain, the King of the Hellenes (deposed) and the King of Romania (deposed). The pretenders to the thrones of Serbia, Russia, Prussia and Germany, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Hanover, Hesse, and Baden are also descendants.
Queen Victoria experienced unpopularity during the first years of her widowhood, but afterwards became extremely well-liked during the 1880s and 1890s. In 2002, the British Broadcasting Corporation conducted a poll regarding the 100 Greatest Britons; Victoria attained the eighteenth place.
Innovations of the Victorian era include postage stamps, the first of which—the Penny Black (issued 1840)—featured an image of the Queen, and the railway, which Victoria was the first British Sovereign to ride.
Several places in the world have been named after Victoria, including two Australian States (Victoria and Queensland), the capitals of British Columbia and (Regina) Saskatchewan, Canada, the capital of the Seychelles, Africa's largest lake, and Victoria Falls. See also List of places named after Queen Victoria.
Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on May 24 in honour of both Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian Sovereign's birthday. While Victoria Day is often thought of as a purely Canadian event, it is also celebrated in some parts of Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh and Dundee, where it is also a public holiday.
Queen Victoria remains the most commemorated British monarch in history, with statues to her erected throughout the former territories of the British Empire. These range from the prominent, such as the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, which was erected as part of the remodelling of the façade of the Palace a decade after her death, to the obscure: in the town of Cape Coast, Ghana, a bust of the Queen presides, rather forlornly, over a small park where goats graze around her. Many institutions, thoroughfares, parks, and structures bear her name. See also Victoria (disambiguation).
Post-colonial sensitivities have led to the removal of Victoria's image and name from some of these legacies. For instance, the statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by Irishman John Hughes erected in front of Leinster House in Dublin in 1924, was removed in 1947 after years of criticism that it was inappropriate to have the British Queen's likeness stand in front of the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State. After decades in storage the statue was given by the Republic of Ireland to Australia and unveiled on 20 December 1987 to stand outside the Queen Victoria Building in the centre of Sydney, capital city of the Australian state of New South Wales. There is also a statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria Square in Adelaide, capital city of the Australian state of South Australia and in Brisbane, capital city of the Australian state of Queensland in Queen's Square.
As the male-line granddaughter of a King of Hanover, Victoria also bore the titles of Princess of Hanover and Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg. In addition, she held the titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duchess in Saxony as the wife of Prince Albert.
Victoria's arms were: Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland). These same arms have been used by every subsequent British monarch.