Queen Victoria
Britain's longest-reigning monarch of her age survived at least seven attempts on her life, popularised the white wedding dress and never quite stopped grieving.
Published
Quick Facts
- Born
- 24 May 1819, Kensington Palace, London
- Died
- 22 January 1901, Osborne House, Isle of Wight
- Reign
- 20 June 1837 to 22 January 1901, 63 years and 7 months
- Became Empress of India
- 1876 (proclaimed at Delhi in 1877)
- Married
- Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 10 February 1840
- Children
- Nine, whose marriages linked her to most of Europe's royal houses
- Nickname
- The grandmother of Europe
- Buried
- Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, Windsor
The girl who was kept under lock and key
Victoria was born fifth in line to the throne, and nobody expected her to wear the crown. Then a string of royal uncles failed to produce legitimate heirs, and she became the one that mattered. Her childhood was governed by the Kensington System, a strict set of rules devised by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and the Duchess's adviser Sir John Conroy. Victoria slept in her mother's bedroom until she became queen and was rarely left alone. On 20 June 1837, aged 18, she was woken early to be told that her uncle William IV had died. She is said to have asked for an hour alone, and her first act as queen was to claim the private life she had been denied. She had her bed moved out of her mother's room.
Seven shots, and a queen who kept turning up
Victoria survived several attempts on her life. The first came in 1840, when Edward Oxford fired two pistols at her carriage while she was pregnant. Later incidents included a man who struck her with a cane in 1850 and Roderick Maclean's pistol shot at Windsor station in 1882. Her response was stubborn rather than dramatic: she carried on appearing in public. Those attacks, set against the long reign that followed, helped turn her from a young woman who was distrusted into a figure of national affection.
A love match that rewrote the monarchy
Royal etiquette meant Victoria had to propose to Albert herself, since nobody could propose to the queen. She did so in October 1839, a few days after he arrived at Windsor. At their wedding in 1840 she wore white satin trimmed with Honiton lace. White was not yet the standard bridal colour, but the image was reproduced so widely that it became one. Albert reshaped the court. He pushed her household towards respectability and championed science, design and education. He was the driving force behind the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace, and the profits helped to found the museums and colleges of South Kensington. The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Albert Hall are among the legacies. The couple also made the royal family a model of domestic life. Christmas trees had been known in Britain before, but an 1848 engraving of the royal family around one helped make them a national tradition.
The widow who wore black for 40 years
Albert died of typhoid on 14 December 1861, aged 42. Victoria never fully emerged from mourning. She wore black for the rest of her life, and for years she withdrew so far from public view that critics muttered about the queen who had vanished. She kept his rooms prepared, had his clothes laid out and commissioned memorials across the country, including the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. Her Scottish retreat, Balmoral, became a refuge. There she relied on John Brown, a Highland servant, whose closeness to the queen set off gossip and the unkind nickname "Mrs Brown". Her recovery began as she reconciled herself to public duty, helped by the political flattery of Benjamin Disraeli.
Empress of a growing empire
Under Victoria the British Empire expanded enormously. By 1901 it covered roughly a fifth of the world's land and nearly a quarter of its population. It only reached its greatest territorial extent in the early 1920s, after her death. Disraeli engineered the Royal Titles Act of 1876, which made her Empress of India, a title she cherished. She later employed Indian servants, including Abdul Karim, and learned some Urdu from him. Her Golden Jubilee of 1887 and Diamond Jubilee of 1897 were vast imperial pageants. By 1897 she had reigned longer than any previous British monarch. The empire's legacy is contested, but her name still appears on streets, statues, stations, lakes and cities from Victoria in British Columbia to Lake Victoria in East Africa and Victoria Falls.
Where you can still find her
Her mark is easy to find. The Victoria Memorial stands before Buckingham Palace, which she made the monarch's main London residence. Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, where she died, is open as a museum, and Balmoral remains a royal holiday home. In Windsor, she lies beside Albert in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore. Her funeral in February 1901 was military in style, and she had given instructions for it, including white rather than black trappings. She also left a vast written record. She kept journals from childhood, and her daughter Princess Beatrice later edited and rewrote them, destroying the originals. What survives is a vivid portrait of a determined, funny, emotional and formidable woman.
Notable people
- Prince Albert
- Benjamin Disraeli
- John Brown
- Abdul Karim
- Duchess of Kent
- Sir John Conroy
- Princess Beatrice
- William IV
- Edward VII
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