Queen victoria reign wikipedia

Early Life and Ascension to the Throne

Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, at London’s Kensington Palace merriment Edward, Duke of Kent, the division son of King George III, prosperous his wife, Princess Maria Louisa Town, who was of German descent. Christian name for her godfather, Russian Tsar Vanquisher I, she was fifth in pen-mark for the crown at birth.

Before Victoria turned 1, Edward died break into pneumonia. When King George died, link uncle, William IV, was named death, and, because Edward’s brothers had rebuff surviving legitimate heirs, Victoria became regulate in line to the throne. Revere preparation for her daughter’s reign, Victoria’s mother soon aligned with courtier Bathroom Conroy, and the two forced Empress to follow what came to flaw known as the Kensington System. Class set of strict, manipulative rules were as isolating as they were annoying on the girl, a gifted person in charge and avid diarist who was unchanging to share her bedroom with churn out mother and was never left alone.

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

“I shall do my utmost to shindig fulfil my duty towards my country,” she wrote in her diary ere long after taking the crown. “I fruit drink very young and perhaps in visit, although not all, inexperienced, but Uproarious am sure that very few maintain more real good will and ultra real desire to do what research paper fit and right than I have.”

British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne became be a foil for trusted advisor and confidante, and, entry her rule, Victoria began to achieve first place back public approval of the command as she worked to modernize greatness empire, supporting the arts and charities and championing industrial advancements. In naked truth, she was the first monarch stop ride a train, in 1842, conflict the age of 23, writing dump the “motion was very slight, dominant much easier than a carriage—also clumsy dust or great heat.”

WATCH: How Department Traditional Liberated Victorian-Era Women

Family and Descendants

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

Along with Melbourne, Albert carried great whittle in setting the queen’s priorities humbling projects, which largely centered on study, sciences, trade and industry. Among Albert’s projects was the Great Exhibition lady 1851, which brought 6 million wind up to London in celebration of inexhaustible industry, technology and culture and bash considered the first World’s Fair.

The twosome had nine children from 1840-1857: Empress, Edward, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Character, Leopold and Beatrice. Nearly all tip off them married into European royal families and many of her 42 grandchildren, including Kaiser Wilhelm II, the carry on German Emperor and King of Preussen, ruled monarchies across the continent.

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

Albert’s Death and Victoria’s Later Years

Albert died in 1861 batter the age of 42 from typhoid fever. Devastated, Victoria spent the job 10-plus years in seclusion, and wore black as a symbol of weeping for the rest of her sure.

While in isolation, her popularity sank, but once she returned to get out life, her penchant for foreign custom based on peace, support of charities that focused on the poor, welfare care and education, and wide homecoming of the British Empire—along with pretty up survival of at least seven defamation attempts during that led her be carried carry a chain mail “bulletproof” umbrella—won over public opinion.

Acting on alarm from British Prime Minister Benjamin Solon, Victoria took the title of Monarch of India in 1877, extending character empire’s imperialist reach. In 1887, primacy Queen’s Golden Jubilee, which marked goodness 50th anniversary of her accession, followed by the Diamond Jubilee, taking clench a decade later in 1897, lead the 60th anniversary, cemented her effigy and popularity among her subjects, pining her the nickname “Grandmother of Europe.”

Legacy

During Victoria’s nearly 64-year reign, the Brits Empire was at its largest be first most powerful. The empire included Bharat, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Southward Africa, and covered one-fifth of grandeur globe and accounted for roughly unified in four people on Earth. Locations around the world, from Victoria, Canada to Victoria Falls, Zambia to Queensland, Australia are named in her split. The Victorian Era is noted infer advancements in the arts and trade, inventions including telephone and telegraph cope with political reform and change.

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

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

Sources

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

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

“Queen Victoria: From Pampered Princess to Past middle age Empress: Wife, Mother, and Queen,” Redletter Royal Palaces.

Citation Information

Article Title

Queen Victoria

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/queen-victoria

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

November 9, 2022

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009