Queen Victoria

Victoria
Photograph by Alexander Bassano, 1882
Queen of the United Kingdom (more...)
Reign	20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901
Coronation	28 June 1838
Predecessor	William IV
Successor	Edward VII
Prime Ministers	See list
Consort	Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
more detail Issue
Victoria, German Empress King Edward VII Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg
Full name
Alexandrina Victoria
House	House of Hanover
Father	Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
Mother	Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Born	24 May 1819 (1819-05-24) Kensington Palace, London
Died	22 January 1901 (1901-01-23) (aged 81) Osborne House, Isle of Wight
Burial	2 February 1901 Frogmore, Windsor
Signature

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death. At 63 years and 7 months, her reign lasted longer than that of any other British monarch, and is the longest of any female monarch in history. Her reign is known as the Victorian era, and was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military progress within the United Kingdom.

Victoria was of mostly German descent; she was the daughter of the fourth son of George III, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Both the Duke of Kent and George III died a year after her birth, and she inherited the throne at the age of 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. She ascended the throne when the United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the king or queen held relatively few direct political powers and exercised influence by the prime minister's advice; but she became the iconic symbol of the nation and empire. She had strict standards of personal morality. Her reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire, which reached its zenith and became the foremost global power.

Her 9 children and 42 grandchildren married into royal families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe".^[1] She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Heiress to the throne

Victoria was born at 4.15 a.m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London.^[2] She was the only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and his wife, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The Duke of Kent was the fourth son of the reigning King of the United Kingdom, George III. The King's three eldest sons, the Prince Regent (later George IV), the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), had no surviving legitimate children, which placed Victoria fifth in the line of succession after her father and his three older brothers.

She was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. Her godparents were Emperor Alexander I of Russia (represented by her uncle the Duke of York), her uncle the Prince Regent, her aunt Queen Charlotte of Württemberg (represented by Victoria's aunt Princess Augusta) and Victoria's maternal grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (represented by Victoria's aunt Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh). On the instructions of the Prince Regent, the infant princess was named Alexandrina, after Emperor Alexander I, and Victoria after her mother.^[3]

Princess Victoria, aged four
Painting by Stephen Poyntz Denning, 1823

Victoria's grandfather and father died in 1820, within a week of each other, and the Duke of York died in 1827. On the death of her uncle George IV in 1830, she became heiress presumptive to her next surviving uncle, William IV. The Regency Act 1830 made special provision for Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, to act as Regent in case William died while Victoria was still a minor.^[4] King William distrusted the Duchess's capacity to be Regent, and in 1836 declared in her presence that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided.^[5]

Victoria later described her childhood as "rather melancholy".^[6] Her mother was extremely protective, and Victoria was raised largely isolated from other children under the so called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by the Duchess and her ambitious comptroller, Sir John Conroy, who was rumoured, probably wrongly, to be the Duchess's lover.^[7] The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable, and was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them.^[8] She shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play hours with her dolls and her King Charles spaniel, Dash.^[9] The Duchess was scandalised by the mistresses and bastard children of her brothers-in-law, and the public contempt for the royal family that resulted, and wanted her daughter to avoid any hint of sexual impropriety, perhaps prompting the emergence of Victorian morality.^[10] As a teenager, Victoria resisted persistent attempts by her mother and Conroy to make him her personal secretary.^[11] Once Queen, she banned him from her presence, but could not remove him from her mother's household.

By 1836, the Duchess's brother, Leopold, who had been King of the Belgians since 1831, hoped to marry his niece to his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.^[12] Victoria's mother, Albert's father (Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and Leopold were siblings. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victoria's mother, to invite her Coburg relatives to visit her in May 1836, with the purpose of introducing Victoria to Albert. William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of the Prince of Orange.^[13] Victoria was aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.^[12] Some authors have written that she initially found Albert to be rather dull,^[14] however according to her diary, she enjoyed his company from the beginning. After the visit she wrote, "[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful."^[15] Alexander, on the other hand, was "very plain".^[16]

Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold, whom Victoria considered her "best and kindest adviser",^[17] to thank him "for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert ... He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy. 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."^[18] However at seventeen, Victoria, though interested in Albert, was not yet ready to marry. The parties did not undertake a formal engagement, but assumed that the match would take place in due time.^[19]

Early reign

Victoria receives the news of her accession from Lord Conyngham (left) and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, and a regency was avoided. On 20 June 1837, William IV died at the age of 71, and Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom. In her diary she wrote, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham 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 then 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."^[20] Drafts of all the official documents prepared on the first day of her reign described her as Queen Alexandrina Victoria, but the first name was withdrawn at her own wish and not used again.^[21] Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838, and she became the first sovereign to take up residence at Buckingham Palace.^[22]

Under Salic law, however, no woman could be monarch of Hanover, a realm which had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714. Hanover passed instead to her father's younger brother, her uncle the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who became King Ernest Augustus I. He was her heir presumptive until she married and had a child.^[23]

Queen Victoria in her early twenties
Painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

At the time of her accession, the government was led by the Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, who at once became a powerful influence on the politically inexperienced Queen, who relied on him for advice.^[24] However, the Melbourne ministry would not stay in power for long; it was growing unpopular and, moreover, faced considerable difficulty in governing the British colonies, especially during the Rebellions of 1837.

At the start of her reign Victoria was popular,^[25] but her reputation suffered in an 1839 court intrigue when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, developed an abdominal growth that was widely rumoured to be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Sir John Conroy.^[26] Victoria believed the rumours.^[27] She hated Conroy, and despised "that odious Lady Flora",^[28] because she had conspired with Conroy and the Duchess of Kent in the Kensington System.^[29] At first, Lady Flora refused to submit to a naked medical examination, until in mid-February she eventually agreed, and was found to be virgin.^[30] Conroy, the Hastings family and the opposition Tories organised a press campaign implicating the Queen in the spreading of false rumours about Lady Flora.^[31] When Lady Flora died in July, the post-mortem revealed a large tumour on her liver that had distended her abdomen.^[32] At public appearances, Victoria was hissed and jeered as "Mrs. Melbourne".^[33]

In 1839, Melbourne resigned after Radicals and Tories (both of whom Victoria detested) voted against a Bill to suspend the constitution of Jamaica. The Bill removed political power from plantation owners who were resisting measures associated with the abolition of slavery.^[34] The Queen commissioned a Tory, Sir Robert Peel, to form a new ministry. At the time, it was customary for the Prime Minister to appoint members of the Royal Household, who were usually his political allies. Many of the Queen's Ladies of the Bedchamber were wives of Whigs, and Peel expected to replace them with wives of Tories. In what became known as the bedchamber crisis, Victoria, advised by Melbourne, objected to the removal of these ladies. Peel refused to govern under the restrictions imposed by the Queen, and consequently resigned his commission, allowing Melbourne to return to office.^[35]

Marriage

Marriage of Victoria and Albert
Painting by Sir George Hayter

Though queen, as an unmarried young woman Victoria was required by social convention to live with her mother, despite her anger over the Kensington system and her mother's continued reliance on Conroy. Her mother was consigned to a remote apartment in Buckingham Palace, and Victoria often refused to meet her.^[10] When Victoria complained to Melbourne that her mother's close proximity promised "torment for many years", Melbourne sympathised but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a "schocking [sic] alternative".^[36] Her letters of the time show interest in Albert's education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into wedlock.^[37]

Victoria continued to praise Albert following his second visit in October 1839. Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor.^[38] They were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace, London. Albert became not only the Queen's companion, but an important political advisor, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant, influential figure in the first half of her life.^[39] Victoria's mother was evicted from the palace, to Ingestre House in Belgrave Square. After the death of Princess Augusta in 1840, Victoria's mother was given both Clarence and Frogmore Houses.^[40] Through Albert's mediation, relations between mother and daughter slowly improved.^[41]

Assassination attempts

During Victoria's first pregnancy, in the first few months of the marriage, eighteen-year-old Edward Oxford attempted to assassinate her while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert on her way to visit her mother. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for high treason and found guilty, but was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.^[42] In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Victoria's popularity soared, mitigating residual discontent over the Hastings affair and the bedchamber crisis.^[43] Her daughter, also named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840. The Queen hated being pregnant,^[44] and viewed breast-feeding with disgust.^[45] Nevertheless, she and Albert had a further eight children.

Victoria's household was largely run by her childhood governess, Baroness Louise Lehzen from Hanover. Lehzen had been a formative influence on Victoria,^[46] and had supported her against the Kensington System.^[47] Albert, however, thought Lehzen was incompetent, and that her mismanagement threatened the health of his daughter. After a furious row between Victoria and Albert over the issue, Lehzen was pensioned off, and Victoria's close relationship with her ended.^[48]

Earliest known photograph of Victoria, here with her eldest daughter, c. 1844^[49]

On 29 May 1842, Victoria was riding in a carriage along The Mall, London, when John Francis levelled a pistol at her but did not fire. The following day, Victoria drove the same route, though faster and with a greater escort, in a deliberate attempt to provoke Francis to take a second aim and catch him in the act. As expected, Francis shot at her, but he was seized by plain clothes policemen, and convicted of high treason. On 3 July, two days after Francis's death sentence was commuted to transportation for life, John William Bean also fired a pistol at the Queen, but it was loaded only with paper and tobacco.^[50] Oxford felt that the attempts were encouraged by his acquittal in 1840.^[51] Bean's assault, though physically harmless, was still punishable by death. Feeling that such a penalty was too harsh, Albert encouraged Parliament to pass the Treason Act 1842. Under the new law, an attempt to assault or alarm the monarch was made punishable by flogging and up to seven years' imprisonment.^[52] Bean was sentenced to 18 months in jail, but no-one who violated the act was ever flogged.^[53]

In a similar attack in 1849, unemployed Irishman William Hamilton fired a powder-filled pistol at Victoria's carriage as it passed along Constitution Hill, London. Hamilton was charged under the 1842 act, pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years' 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 cane, crushing her bonnet and bruising her face. He received the same sentence as Hamilton.^[54]

Early Victorian politics and foreign policy

Melbourne's support in the House of Commons continued to weaken, and in the 1841 general election the Whigs were defeated. Peel became prime minister, and the Ladies of the Bedchamber most associated with the Whigs were replaced.^[55] By 1846, Peel's ministry faced a crisis involving the repeal of the Corn Laws. Many Tories—by then known also as Conservatives—were opposed to the repeal, but some Tories (the "Peelites"), most Whigs and Victoria supported it.^[56] 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.^[57] She found particularly offensive the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the Prime Minister, or the Queen.^[58]

Victoria took a keen interest in the improvement of relations between France and Britain.^[59] She made and hosted several visits between the British royal family and the house of Orleans, who were related by marriage through the Coburgs. In 1843 and 1845, she and Albert stayed with King Louis Philippe I at his château d'Eu in Normandy; she was the first British or English monarch to visit a French one since the meeting on the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.^[60] When Louis Philippe made a reciprocal trip in 1844, he became the first French king to visit a British sovereign.^[61] Louis Philippe was deposed in the revolutions of 1848, and fled to exile in England.^[62] At the height of a revolutionary scare in the United Kingdom in April 1848, Victoria and her family left London for the greater safety of Osborne House,^[63] a private estate on the Isle of Wight that they had purchased in 1845 and redeveloped.^[64] Demonstrations by Chartists and Irish nationalists failed to attract widespread support, and the scare died down without any major disturbances.^[65]

Victoria complained to Russell that Palmerston sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without her knowledge, but Palmerston was retained in office and continued to act on his own initiative, despite her repeated remonstrances. It was only in 1851 that Palmerston was removed after he announced the British government's approval for President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's coup in France without consulting the Prime Minister.^[66] The following year, President Bonaparte was declared Emperor Napoleon III, by which time Russell's administration had been replaced by a short-lived minority government led by Lord Derby.

In early 1855, the government of Lord Aberdeen, who had replaced Derby, fell amidst recriminations over the poor management of British troops in the Crimean war. Victoria approached both Derby and Russell to form a ministry, but neither had sufficient support, and Victoria was forced to appoint Palmerston as prime minister.^[67]

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1854

Napoleon III visited London in April 1855 and from 17 to 28 August the same year Victoria and Albert returned the visit.^[68] Napoleon III met the couple at Dunkirk and personally accompanied them to Paris. They visited the Exposition Universelle (successor to Albert's 1851 brainchild the Great Exhibition) and Napoleon I's tomb at Les Invalides (to which his remains had only been returned in 1840), and were guests of honour at a 1,200-guest ball at the Chateau de Versailles.^[69]

In January 1858, an Italian refugee from Britain attempted to assassinate Napoleon III with a bomb made in England.^[70] An ensuing diplomatic crisis destabilised the government, and Palmerston resigned. Derby was reinstated as prime minister.^[71] Victoria and Albert attended the opening of a new basin at the French military port of Cherbourg on 5 August 1858, in an attempt by Napoleon III to reassure Britain that his military preparations were directed elsewhere. On her return Victoria wrote to Derby reprimanding him for the poor state of the Royal Navy in comparison to the French one.^[72] Derby's ministry did not last long, and in June 1859 Victoria recalled Palmerston to office.^[73]

Ireland

The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland, choosing to holiday in Killarney in Kerry. Her love of the country 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 a million Irish people and saw the emigration of another million.^[74] In response to what came to be called the Great Famine (in Irish, An Gorta Mór), the Queen personally donated £2,000 (2,000 pounds sterling) to the Irish people.^[75] However, myths were generated towards the end of the 19th century that she had donated a maximum of £5 in aid to the Irish, and on the same day also gave £5 to Battersea Dog Shelter. This was false, as she in fact contributed £2,000, substantially more than many Irish Catholic Bishops, one of whom donated £1,000 to a charity for the hungry and £10,000 to a University project.^[76] Victoria also supported the Maynooth Grant to a Roman Catholic seminary in Ireland.

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 to both draw attention from the famine and alert British politicians through the Queen's presence to the seriousness of the crisis in Ireland. Despite the negative impact of the famine on the Queen's popularity she remained popular enough for many Irish nationalists at party meetings to finish by singing "God Save the Queen".^[77] She became known in Ireland as "The Famine Queen",^[78] and was much vilified then, as now.^[79] In 1853 she visited the Great Industrial Exhibition which was the biggest international event held to date in Ireland. Over one million attended and Victoria knighted the architect of the exhibition, John Benson.^[80]

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria and their nine children. Left to right : Alice, Arthur, The Prince Consort, The Prince of Wales, Leopold ( in front of him), Louise, Queen Victoria with Beatrice, Alfred, Victoria and Helena

Queen Victoria felt deeply hurt after Dublin Corporation returned a bust of her beloved late husband Albert, which she sent as a gift to the people of Dublin. In addition, she felt hurt by Irish indignation at the suggestion to place a statue of Albert on St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, and to rename it 'Albert Green'. It has been theorised that these perceived 'insults' to her beloved Albert's memory hardened her views of the Irish people.^[76]

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.^[77] 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 the union.^[81]

Widowhood

In March 1861, Victoria's mother died, with Victoria at her side. Through reading her mother's papers, Victoria discovered that her mother had loved her deeply;^[82] she was heart-broken, and blamed Conroy and Lehzen for "wickedly" estranging her from her mother.^[83] To relieve his wife during her intense and deep grief,^[84] Albert took on most of her duties, despite being ill himself with chronic stomach trouble.^[85] In November, Albert was made aware of gossip that their eldest son Edward, the Prince of Wales, had slept with an actress. Appalled, Albert travelled to Cambridge, where his son was studying, to confront him.^[86] By the beginning of December, Albert was very unwell.^[87] He was diagnosed with typhoid fever by William Jenner, and died on 14 December 1861. Victoria, still affected by the death of her mother, was devastated.^[86] She blamed her husband's death on worry over her son Edward's philandering. He had been "killed by that dreadful business", she said.^[88] She entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances, and rarely set foot in London in the following years.^[89] Her seclusion earned her the name "Widow of Windsor".

Victoria's self-imposed isolation from the public diminished the popularity of the monarchy, and encouraged the growth of the republican movement.^[90] She did undertake her official government duties, yet she also chose to remain secluded in her royal residences—Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, and Windsor Castle.^[86] In March 1864, a protester stuck a notice on the railings of Buckingham Palace that announced "these commanding premises to be let or sold in consequence of the late occupant's declining business".^[91] Her uncle Leopold wrote to her advising her to appear in public. She agreed to visit the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society and take a drive through London in an open carriage.^[92]

Victoria and Brown at Balmoral, 1863
Photograph by G. W. Wilson

Through the 1860s, Victoria relied increasingly on a manservant from Scotland, John Brown.^[93] Rumours of a romantic connection and even a secret marriage appeared in print,^[94] with the Queen referred to as "Mrs Brown".^[95] The story of their relationship was the subject of the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown. A painting by Edwin Landseer depicting the Queen with Brown was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and Victoria published a book, Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, which featured Brown prominently and in which the Queen praised him highly.^[96]

Palmerston died in 1865, and after a brief ministry led by Russell, Derby returned to power. In 1866, she attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time since Albert's death.^[97] The following year she supported the passing of the Reform Act 1867 which extended the franchise and doubled the electorate.^[98] Derby resigned in 1868, to be replaced by Benjamin Disraeli, who charmed Victoria. "Everyone likes flattery," he said, "and when you come to royalty you should lay it on with a trowel."^[99] His ministry only lasted a matter of months, and at the end of the year his Liberal rival, William Ewart Gladstone, was appointed prime minister. Victoria found Gladstone's demeanour far less appealing; he spoke to her, she complained, "as though she were a public meeting rather than a woman".^[100]

In 1870, republican sentiment in Britain, fed by the Queen's seclusion, was boosted after the establishment of the Third French Republic. A republican rally in Trafalgar Square demanded Victoria's removal, and Radical MPs spoke against her.^[101] In late November 1871, at the height of the republican movement, the Prince of Wales contracted typhoid fever, the disease that was believed to have killed his father, and Victoria was fearful her son would die.^[102] As the tenth anniversary of her husband's death approached, Edward's condition grew no better, and Victoria's distress continued.^[103] To general rejoicing, Edward pulled through.^[104] Victoria and Edward attended a public parade through London and a grand service of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral on 27 February 1872, and republican feeling subsided.^[105]

Empress of India

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Queen Victoria's Proclamation

After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British East India Company, which had ruled much of India, was dissolved, and Britain's possessions and protectorates on the Indian subcontinent were formally incorporated into the British Empire. The Queen had a relatively balanced view of the conflict, and condemned atrocities on both sides.^[106] She wrote of "her feelings of horror and regret at the result of this bloody civil war",^[107] and insisted, urged on by Albert, that an official proclamation announcing the transfer of power from the company to the state "should breathe feelings of generosity, benevolence and religious toleration".^[108] A reference to the "undermining of native religions and customs" was, at her behest, replaced by a passage guaranteeing religious freedom.^[108]

In the 1874 general election, Disraeli was returned to power. He pushed the Royal Titles Act 1876 through Parliament, so that Victoria took the title "Empress of India" from 1 May 1876.^[109] The new title was proclaimed at the Delhi Durbar of 1877.

To Victoria's dismay, Disraeli lost the 1880 general election, and Gladstone returned as prime minister.^[110] She was pleased when Gladstone resigned in 1885 after his budget was defeated;^[111] he was replaced by Lord Salisbury. Salisbury's government only lasted a few months, however, and Victoria was forced to recall Gladstone, who she referred to as a "half crazy & really in many ways ridiculous old man".^[111] Gladstone attempted to pass a bill granting Ireland home rule, but to Victoria's glee it was defeated.^[112] In the ensuing election, Gladstone's party lost to Salisbury's and the government switched hands again.

Later years

Golden Jubilee and an assassination attempt

Victoria's Golden Jubilee silver double florin, struck 1887.

Brown died in 1883, and to the consternation of her private secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby, Victoria began work on a eulogistic biography of Brown.^[113] Ponsonby and Randall Davidson, who had both seen early drafts, advised Victoria against publication, on the grounds that it would stoke the rumours of a love affair.^[114] The manuscript was destroyed, and instead Victoria published More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands, a sequel to her earlier book, which she dedicated to her "devoted personal attendant and faithful friend John Brown".^[115]

In 1887, the British Empire celebrated Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Victoria marked the fiftieth anniversary of her accession on 20 June with a banquet to which 50 European kings and princes were invited. Although she could not have been aware of it, there was a plan—ostensibly by Irish anarchists—to blow up Westminster Abbey. 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 once again an extremely popular monarch.^[116] Victoria, impressed by the Indian princes who had attended the celebrations, engaged two Indian servants as waitors, one of whom was a muslim called Abdul Karim. He was soon promoted to "Munshi": teaching her Hindustani, and acting as a clerk.^[117] Her family and retainers were appalled, and accused Abdul Karim of spying for the Muslim Patriotic League, and biasing the Queen against the Hindus.^[118] Equerry Frederick Ponsonby (the son of Sir Henry) discovered that the Munshi had lied about his background, and reported to Lord Elgin, Viceroy of India, "the Munshi occupies very much the same position as John Brown used to do."^[119] Victoria dismissed their complaints as racial prejudice. Abdul Karim remained in her service until he returned to India with a pension on her death.^[120]

Gladstone returned to power aged over 82 after the 1892 general election. Victoria objected when Gladstone proposed appointing the Radical MP Henry Labouchere to the Cabinet, and so Gladstone agreed not to appoint him.^[121] In 1894, Gladstone retired and, without consulting the outgoing prime minister, Victoria appointed Lord Rosebery as prime minister. His government was weak, and the following year Lord Salisbury replaced him. Salisbury remained prime minister for the remainder of Victoria's reign.^[122]

Diamond Jubilee

Queen Victoria in her Diamond Jubilee photograph (London, 1897)

On 23 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.^[77]

The Prime Ministers of all the self-governing dominions and colonies were invited. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee procession included troops from all over the empire. 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; she wore her usual black mourning dress trimmed with white lace. Many trees were planted to celebrate the Jubilee, including 60 oak trees at Henley-on-Thames in the shape of a Victoria Cross.^[123][124] The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War, and its modern Commonwealth variants remain to this day the highest British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Commonwealth awards for bravery.

Victoria visited mainland Europe regularly for holidays. In 1889, during a stay in Biarritz, she became the first monarch from Britain to set foot in Spain when she crossed the border for a brief visit.^[125] By 1900, the Boer War was so unpopular in mainland Europe that her annual trip to France seemed inadvisable. Instead, the Queen went to Ireland for the first time since 1861.^[126] Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith established an organisation called Cumann na nGaedhael to unite opposition to her visit. Five years later Griffith used the contacts established in his campaign against the Queen's visit to form a new political movement, Sinn Féin,^[77] which ultimately brought about the establishment of the Irish Free State.

Death and succession

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She died there from a cerebral haemorrhage on Tuesday 22 January 1901 at half past six in the evening,^[127][128] at the age of 81. At her deathbed she was attended by her son, the future King, and her eldest grandson, German Emperor Wilhelm II. As she had wished, her own sons lifted her into the coffin. She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil, and the coffin was draped with the Royal Standard that had been flying at Osborne House; it was later given by Victoria's grandson, George V, to Victoria College at the University of Toronto.^[129] Her funeral was held on Saturday 2 February, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park. Since Victoria disliked black funerals, London was instead festooned in purple and white. When she was laid to rest at the mausoleum, it began to snow.^[130]

Flags in the United States were lowered to half-mast in her honour by order of President William McKinley, a tribute never before offered to a foreign monarch at the time and one which was repaid by Britain when McKinley was assassinated later that year. Victoria had reigned for a total of 63 years, seven months and two days—the longest of any British monarch—and surpassed her grandfather, George III, as the longest-lived monarch (since surpassed by Elizabeth II) only three days before her death.^[131][132]

Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the House of Hanover in the United Kingdom. Her husband belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and her son and heir Edward VII was the first British monarch of this new house.^[14] Later, in 1917, her grandson King George V changed the house name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the (currently serving) House of Windsor.

Victoria outlived three of her nine children. Alice died in 1878, Leopold in 1884, and Alfred in July 1900, just six months before his mother. Her eldest daughter, Victoria, narrowly outlived her, and died in August 1901. Victoria outlived 11 of her 42 grandchildren (3 were stillborn, 6 died as children, and 2 as adults).

Legacy

Victoria amused. The celebrated remark "We are not amused" is attributed to her but there is no direct evidence that she ever said it,^[133][134] and she denied doing so.^[135] Her staff and family recorded that Victoria "was immensely amused and roared with laughter" on many occasions.^[136]

Within Britain

The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace was erected as part of the remodelling of the façade of the Palace a decade after her death.

Queen Victoria's reign marked the gradual establishment of a modern constitutional monarchy. A series of legal reforms saw the House of Commons' power increase, at the expense of the House of Lords and the monarchy, with the monarch's role becoming gradually more symbolic. Since Victoria's reign the monarch has had only, in Walter Bagehot's words, "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to warn".^[77]

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.^[14]

One of Victoria's children, her youngest son, Leopold, was affected by the blood-clotting disease haemophilia B and two of her five daughters, Alice and Beatrice, were carriers. Royal haemophiliacs descended from Victoria included her great-grandsons, Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, and Infante Gonzalo of Spain.^[137] The presence of the disease in Victoria's descendants, but not in her ancestors, led to speculation that her true father was not the Duke of Kent but a haemophiliac.^[138] There is no documentary evidence of a haemophiliac man in connection with Victoria's mother, and as male carriers always suffer the disease, even if such a man had existed he would have been seriously ill.^[139] It is more likely that the mutation arose spontaneously because Victoria's father was old at the time of her conception and haemophilia arises more frequently in the children of older fathers.^[140] Spontaneous mutations account for about 30% of cases.^[141]

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 BBC conducted a poll regarding the 100 Greatest Britons; Victoria attained the eighteenth place.^[142]

Penny Black stamp depicting a teenage Victoria in profile

The design of the Queen's head on the first postage stamp was based upon the 1837 Wyon City medal engraved by a famous coin engraver William Wyon. The design of Queen Victoria's head is based on a sitting when she was a princess aged 15.^[143] Victoria also started the tradition that a bride wears a white dress to her wedding. Before Victoria's wedding a bride would wear her best dress of no particular colour.^[144]

International Legacy

Map of the Dominions under Queen Victoria at the end of the nineteenth century.

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". Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren. Their hundreds of descendants include Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Harald V of Norway, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Margrethe II of Denmark, and Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain.^[145]

Queen Victoria remains the most commemorated British monarch in history. Around the world, places and memorials are dedicated to Victoria, especially in the Commonwealth nations. Places named after Victoria, include the capital of the Seychelles, Africa's largest lake, Victoria Falls, the capitals of British Columbia (Victoria) and Saskatchewan (Regina), and two Australian states (Victoria and Queensland). Australia went through a period of rapid growth and great prosperity during her reign due primarily to the Australian gold rushes.

Queen Victoria invited Martha Ann Ricks, on behalf of Liberian Ambassador Edward Wilmot Blyden, to Windsor Castle on 16 July 1892. Martha Ricks, a former slave from Tennessee, had saved her pennies for more than fifty years, to afford the voyage from Liberia to England to personally thank the Queen for sending the British navy to patrol the coast of West Africa to prevent slavers from exporting Africans for the slave trade. Martha Ricks shook hands with the Queen and presented her with a Coffee Tree quilt, which Queen Victoria later sent to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition for display. A mystery remains as to where the Coffee Tree quilt is today.^[146]

Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on 24 May 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.^[147]

Titles, styles, coat of arms and cypher

Royal styles of Victoria of the United Kingdom
Reference style	Her Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Ma'am

Titles and styles

• 24 May 1819 – 20 June 1837: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent^[148]
• 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901: Her Majesty The Queen^[148]
• 1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901: Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress^[148]

As the male-line granddaughter of a King of Hanover, Victoria also bore the titles of Princess of Hanover and Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg. In addition, she held the titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess in Saxony etc. as the wife of Prince Albert.^[148]

At the end of her reign, the Queen's full style and title were:

Coat of arms

As Victoria could not succeed to the throne of Hanover, the royal arms since 1837 have no longer carried Hanoverian symbols but just four quarters representing England, Scotland and Ireland. Victoria's arms have been borne by all of her successors on the throne, including the present Queen.

Outside Scotland, the shield of Victoria's coat of arms—also used on her Royal Standard—was:

Quarterly:
I and IV, Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or [ — for England] ;
II, Or, a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules [ — for Scotland] ;
III, Azure, a harp Or stringed Argent [ — for Ireland].

[In heraldic blazon, Or is gold (or yellow), Gules is red, Azure is blue, and Argent is silver (or white).]

Within Scotland, the first and fourth quarters were taken by the Scottish lion, and the second by the English lions. The Lion and the Unicorn who supported the shield also differed between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.^[150][151]

Royal Cypher

Victoria's Royal Cypher was the first to be used on a postbox. The letters are VR interlaced, standing for "Victoria Regina". Victoria eventually used the cypher VRI ("Victoria Regina Imperatrix") when she became Empress, but this never appeared on postboxes. Victoria's cypher was the only one to appear on postboxes without a crown above it.^[151]

The Royal Arms in England, Wales and Ireland  The Royal Arms in Scotland  Queen Victoria's Royal Cypher

Ancestry

Children

Portrait of Queen Victoria's family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
(from left to right:) Princes Alfred and Albert Edward; The Queen and the Prince Consort; Princesses Alice, Helena and Victoria

See also

British Royalty
House of Hanover
George III
Grandchildren
Charlotte, Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Princess Elizabeth of Clarence
Victoria
George V, King of Hanover
George, Duke of Cambridge
Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck
Victoria

• Cultural depictions of Queen Victoria
• List of coupled cousins
• Small diamond crown of Queen Victoria
• Victoria and Albert Museum

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Auchincloss, Louis. Persons of Consequence: Queen Victoria and Her Circle. Random House, 1979. ISBN 0-394-50427-5
• Benson, Arthur Christopher & Esher (Viscount). The Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection From Her Majesty's Correspondence Between The Years 1837 and 1861. John Murray, 1908
• Cecil, Algernon. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers. Eyre and Spottiswode, 1953.
• Eilers, Marlene A. Queen Victoria's Descendants. 2d enlarged & updated ed. Falköping, Sweden: Rosvall Royall Books, 1997. ISBN 0-8063-1202-5
• Hibbert, Christopher (2000) Queen Victoria: A Personal History, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 0006388434
• Hicks, Kyra E. "Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria". Brown Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1-933285-59-7
• Kirwn, Anna. "The royal diaries; Victoria. May blossom of Britannia" Scholastic Inc. New York, 2001
• Longford, Elizabeth Victoria R.I. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998. ISBN 0-297-84142-4.
• Marshall, Dorothy. The Life and Times of Queen Victoria. George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd, 1972.
• Packard, Jerrold M. Victoria's Daughters. St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 0 312 24496 7
• Potts, D. M. & W. T. W. Potts. Queen Victoria's Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family. Alan Sutton, 1995. ISBN 0-7509-1199-9
• St. Aubyn, Giles (1991) Queen Victoria: A Portrait, London: Sinclair-Stevenson, ISBN 1856190862
• Strachey, Lytton. Queen Victoria. Londres, Chatto et Windus Publishers, 1921. ISBN 2-228-88610-6
• Waller, Maureen, "Sovereign Ladies: Sex, Sacrifice, and Power. The Six Reigning Queens of England". St. Martin's Press, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-312-33801-5
• Weintraub, Stanley (1997) Albert: Uncrowned King London: John Murray. ISBN 0719557569
• Woodham-Smith, Cecil (1972) Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times, London: Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0241022002

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Queen Victoria

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Queen Victoria

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Queen Victoria

• Works by Queen Victoria at archive.org
• The Death of Queen Victoria Original reports from The Times
• Queen Victoria Memorial Page at Find a Grave
• Historica’s Heritage Minute video docudrama “Responsible Government.” (Adobe Flash Player.)
• Archival material relating to Queen Victoria listed at the UK National Register of Archives
• Historical Images of Slough Railway Station Queen Victoria's first rail journey
• Historical Images of Constitution Hill, London. Scene of failed assassinations on Queen Victoria
• Historical Images of Osborne House one of the royal residences held by Queen Victoria
• Images of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee at Westminster Abbey
• Historical Images of The Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore which Victoria ordered to be built following the death of Prince Albert

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