UK victory

Victoria of the United Kingdom (born Alexandrina Victoria; London, May 24, 1819-Isle of Wight, January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom from her accession to the throne, on June 20, 1837, until her death in January 1901. She was also the first British sovereign to hold the title of Empress of India from January 1, 1877 until her death.

She was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, fourth son of King George III. Both her father and her grandfather died in 1820, leaving Victoria under the supervision of her mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a German national. She inherited the throne from her at age 18, following the death without legitimate issue of hers three paternal uncles of hers: Frederick, Duke of York and King George IV and King William IV.

The United Kingdom was already at that time an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign had relatively few direct political powers. Privately, Victoria tried to influence the government and the appointment of ministers. In public, she became a national icon and the figure who embodied the model of strong values and personal morality typical of the time.

She married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of her 42 grandchildren married other royals or nobility of Europe, uniting them together, which earned her the nickname "Grandmother of Europe".

After Alberto's death in 1861, Victoria began a rigorous mourning period during which she avoided appearing in public. As a result of her isolation, republicanism gained strength for a time, but in the second half of her reign her popularity rose again. Her golden and diamond jubilees were highly celebrated.

His reign, at 63 years and 216 days, is the second longest in UK history, second only to that of his great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II, and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific and military change in the United Kingdom and was marked by the expansion of the British Empire. Victoria was the last monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the new House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, later renamed the House of Windsor by the latter's son George V in 1917.

Background

In 1817 Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales died giving birth to a stillborn son, causing a succession crisis in the United Kingdom. Charlotte was the only daughter of the Prince Regent (the future George IV, George's eldest son III of the United Kingdom, who was acting as regent due to his father's illness) and his "disowned" wife Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. The pregnancy was seen as miraculous, as the parents claimed not to have supported more than three sexual relations during the marriage, so the birth of another child to Prince George would be, to say the least, unlikely.

The line of succession to the British throne was quickly extinguished: George III had twelve children, but no legitimate grandsons who could inherit the crown. His five daughters were unmarried or barren and none of his sons were married, except for the second, Frederick, who was childless as well. This sparked a "rush" to marry among unmarried princes. His third son, William, married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, from whose marriage two daughters were born: Carlota (1819) and Elizabeth (1820), both of whom died before their second birthday, and several miscarriages, the last of twins in 1821, therefore it was likely that they would not have any more children.

George III's fourth son, Edward, married Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, widow of the Duke of Leiningen —with whom he had two children, Charles and Feodora—, and sister of Charlotte's widower, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. From this marriage a daughter named Alejandrina Victoria was born in 1819. After the successive deaths of the cousins and the father a few months later and, already in 1830, of George IV, Victoria became the heir presumptive to the British throne.

Birth and family

Portrait of Princess Victoria at age 4 by Stephen Poyntz Denning

Victoria's father, Prince Edward, married Princess Victoria on May 30, 1818, at Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg. So that there were no doubts about the validity of the marriage, a second ceremony was held in England, at Kew Palace, on June 11 of that same year, the same day that the prince's older brother, also Prince William, married. married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen.

The father of the future queen had quite a few debts before the marriage, but his financial situation began to worsen even more: since Edward did not agree with the political positions of his brother, the prince regent, he refused to help him and Therefore, Victoria's parents had to leave England and began to live in Germany. A few weeks later, Victoria learned that she was pregnant and the duke realized how important it was for the child to be born in England.. So, with the help of some friends, he managed to raise enough money for the trip when the Duchess was seven months pregnant. They reached their destination on April 24, 1819, and settled in Kensington Palace. The future Queen Victoria was born there just a month later, on May 24 at 4:15 a.m.

Victoria was christened in the Dome Room of Kensington Palace on June 24 of the same year by Charles Manners-Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Her godparents were Tsar Alexander I of Russia —represented at the ceremony by her uncle, Frederick of York—; hers her uncle Jorge hers, future Jorge IV; her aunt, Charlotte of Great Britain —played by Princess Augusta Sofia of the United Kingdom— and Victoria's maternal grandmother, Duchess Augusta —played by Princess Mary. Her parents wanted to call her Victoria Georgina Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta, but the Prince Regent—and the Duke's older brother—insisted that three of her names disappear. She ended up being baptized only as Alejandrina Victoria, in honor of Tsar Alexander I and his mother.

Victoria was fifth in the line of succession, after her father and his three older brothers. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife, and the Duke of York's wife, Princess Frederick Charlotte of Prussia, was 52 years old, so there was not much chance that the two eldest children would have heirs. The Duke of Clarence's two daughters died before they were two years old. Victoria's grandfather and father died in 1820 within a week of each other and the Duke of York died in 1827. Upon the death of King George IV in 1830, Victoria became heir presumptive to her uncle William IV.. The Regency Act of 1830 included a special clause that would make the Duchess of Kent and Victoria's mother Regent if William died before Victoria's 18th birthday. King William was wary of the Duchess's ability to be Regent and, in 1836, he declared in her presence that he wanted to live to see Victoria turn 18 to avoid a regency.

Heiress to the throne

Victory with his water dog Dash, in 1833, by George Hayter

Victoria would later describe her childhood as "rather melancholic". Her mother was very protective, so she was raised in isolation, away from other children her age, following the so-called "Kensington system", a set of rules and protocols drawn up by the Duchess and her ambitious and domineering butler, Sir John Conroy, who was rumored to be the Duchess's lover. The system prevented her from meeting with people her mother and Conroy considered undesirable—a group that included much of her father's family—and was intended to make her weak and dependent on them. The Duchess avoided the court, resenting the king's illegitimate children there, and also to show Victoria's morality by insisting on the fact that that her daughter avoid all forms of sexual indecency. Victoria shared a room with her mother, studied with private tutors according to a set schedule, and spent her leisure hours playing with her dolls and her toy spaniel in English, named Dash.She learned French, German, Italian and Latin, but spoke English at home.

In 1830 the Duchess of Kent and Conroy took Victoria to central England to visit the Malvern Hills, stopping at various villages and country houses along the way. Between 1832 and 1835 they made similar trips. Much to King William's irritation, Victoria was enthusiastically received everywhere. William considered these trips to reflect an ambition for royalty and feared that Victoria would come to be seen as a rival rather than an heiress. Victoria did not like these trips: the constant public appearances left her very tired and she had little time to relax. The princess would end up opposing this, and would argue that the king did not like them, but her mother ignored her complaints out of jealousy and forced her to to continue. While at Ramsgate in October 1835, Victoria caught a high fever, but Conroy ignored him, claiming that her complaints were childish fantasies. While Victoria was ill, Conroy and the Duchess tried to get her to make Conroy her secretary. private, but the princess refused. During her teenage years, Victoria resisted persistent attempts by her mother and Conroy to make him her secretary. When she was promoted to the throne, she eventually removed him from his presence, but Conroy remained in her mother's house.

Victory in his youth

In 1836 the Duchess's brother, Leopold, who had become King of Belgium in 1831, began making plans to marry his niece Victoria to his nephew Albert. Leopold, Victoria's mother and Victoria's father Albert (Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) were brothers. Leopold convinced his sister to invite the Coburg relatives to visit her in May 1836, with the aim of introducing Albert to Victoria. However, William IV did not approve of any union of his family members with the Coburgs and would have preferred her niece to have married Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of William II of the Netherlands. Victoria was aware of these plans and gave her opinion of the eligible princes presented to her.. According to her diary, Victoria always liked Alberto's company. At the end of the visit, she wrote: «[Alberto] is extremely handsome, his hair is the same color as mine, his eyes are big and blue and he has a pretty nose and a very sweet mouth with good teeth. But the charm of his face lies in his expression, which is very pleasant.” On the other hand, she found Alejandro “too simple”.

Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopoldo, whom she always considered her "best and kindest adviser", to thank him for the "expectation of great happiness for which the person of dear Alberto has contributed (...) he has all the desirable qualities to make me totally happy. He is so sensitive, so kind and so loving. In addition, he has the most pleasant and charming exterior that I have ever met » However, at 17 years old and despite being very interested in Alberto, her Victoria she was not ready to marry. Both parties did not move towards a formal engagement, but assumed that their union would occur over time.

Early years of reign

Victoria gets the news of her ascent to the throne

Victoria turned 18 on May 24, 1837, thus avoiding a regency. On June 20, 1837, William IV died at the age of 72, and Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom. She wrote in her diary: «Mother woke me up at six in the morning and told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Conyngham were here and wanted to see me. I got out of bed and went to my waiting room (dressed only in my nightgown), alone, and I saw them. Conyngham advised me that my poor uncle, the King, no longer existed and that he had breathed his last twelve minutes after two in the morning and that therefore I am queen." The official records of her first day of reign she was referred to as Alejandrina Victoria, but her first name was withdrawn at the queen's request and was never used again.

Because the Salic Law prevailed in Hanover, this throne passed to her younger uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, thus ending the union between the United Kingdom and Hanover that had existed since 1714. While the young queen had no children, the Duke of Cumberland was the heir presumptive to the throne.

Portrait of Victoria performed on the occasion of its coronation by George Hayter, 1838

The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, exerted a powerful influence over the politically inexperienced Sovereign from the start, who turned to him constantly for advice and help. Charles Greville believed that the widowed Melbourne, that he had never had children, "he liked her very much and loved her as a daughter if she had had one", and it is likely that Victoria saw him as a father figure. Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838 and Victoria she became the first sovereign to reside at Buckingham Palace. She inherited the estates of the dukedoms of Lancaster and Cornwall and began receiving £385,000 a year. By being financially prudent, she was able to pay off her father's debts.

Early in her reign, Victoria was very popular. However, her reputation suffered a severe setback due to court intrigue in 1839, when the abdomen of one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Flora Hastings, began to grow abnormally, creating rumors that she had become pregnant, out of wedlock, with John Conroy. Victoria believed the rumours; she hated Conroy and despised "that odious Lady Flora", as this she had conspired with Conroy and the Duchess of Kent in the Kensington system. Lady Flora at first refused to undergo a nude medical examination, but in mid-February she finally relented and it was discovered that she was still a virgin. Conroy, the family Hastings and the Tories mounted a press campaign claiming that the Queen had helped spread false rumors about Lady Flora. When Lady Flora died in July, an autopsy revealed that she had a large tumor on her liver and that this had been the cause of her liver disease. growth of your belly At public appearances, Victoria was hissed at and called "Mrs. Melbourne".

In 1839 Melbourne resigned, when Radicals and Conservatives—Victoria hated both parties—voted against a law suspending the Jamaican constitution, which removed political power from plantation owners who were resisting abolition of slavery.

The queen asked Robert Peel to form a government, but soon fell out with him over the Crisis of the Ladies of the Chamber. At that time, the conformation of the royal court was governed by the patronage system —that is, the prime minister chose the members who would serve the queen among her supporters—; many of the Queen's ladies of the chamber were Whig wives, and Sir Robert Peel demanded that they be replaced by Tory wives. Victoria, advised by Melbourne, steadfastly refused to remove the ladies from her position, as she had come to consider them very close friends. Peel felt that he could not govern under the restrictions imposed by the queen and finally resigned as prime minister, leaving the way clear for Melbourne to return to power.

Faced with the image inherited later as a maternal figure of the British Empire, David Cannadine exposes the low popularity that the British monarchy had at that time reflected in the local press. The subsequent creation of national mass media, mass rituals and economic growth improved the image of the monarchy in parallel to the decrease in its power directly, a trend that would be accentuated with its later descendants.

Marriage and family

Marriage

Marriage of Queen Victoria with Prince Albert, painting of George Hayter

Despite being queen, Victoria continued to live with her mother, with whom she did not get along due to the Kensington system and her continued dependence on Conroy, simply because she was single. Buckingham and Victoria often refused to see her. When the Queen complained to Melbourne that her mother's proximity had been a "torment for many years", he sympathized with her, telling her that a wedding could prevent that., something Victoria called the "shocking alternative". She was interested in the education Alberto was receiving to prepare for his future role as husband, but was reluctant to hasten the marriage.

Victoria continued to praise Albert after his second visit to England in October 1839. Albert and Victoria liked each other and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839, just five days after they arrived at Windsor. on February 10, 1840 in the Royal Chapel of St. James's Palace, London. Victoria was totally in love. She spent the first night of their marriage with a headache, but she wrote in her diary:

I haven't had a night like that. My dear, wanted, wanted Alberto... with his great love and affection has made me feel that I am in a paradise of love and happiness, something I never expected to feel. He caught me in his arms and we kissed again and again. His beauty, sweetness and kindness — I can never thank enough times to have a husband like this — [...] who calls me with tender names like they have never called me has been an incredible blessing. This has been the happiest day of my life.

Victoria

Albert became an important political adviser as well as a companion to the Queen, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant and influential figure in the first half of her life. Victoria's mother had to leave the palace and was sent to Ingestre in Belgrave Square. After the death of Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom in 1840, her mother received the houses of Clarence and Frogmore.With Albert's help, the relationship between mother and daughter slowly began to improve.

On June 10, 1840, shortly after the wedding and with Victoria pregnant with their first child, a young man named Edward Oxford, aged 18, attempted to assassinate her as she was in a carriage accompanied by Prince Albert on her way to his mother's house. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for high treason and found guilty, although he was later released as insane. After the incident, Victoria's popularity increased and the previous crisis was forgotten. Their first daughter, who was also named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840. The queen hated being pregnant, thought breastfeeding was disgusting, and believed that newborns were ugly. Even so, she would have eight more children with Albert.

Victoria's household was ruled by her childhood governess, Baroness Louise Lehzen. Lehzen had been a great influence on Victoria and had supported her against the Kensington system, however, Alberto believed that Lehzen was incompetent and that her misrule threatened the health of her daughter. After a discussion between Victoria and Alberto, Lehzen was retired and her close relationship with Victoria ended.

Offspring

Table Queen Victoria's Family in 1846by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
(from left to right) Princes Alfredo and Albert Edward; Queen and Prince Consort; Princesses Alicia, Elena and Victoria

	Name	Date of birth	Date of death	Consort (dates of birth and death) e children
	Victoria	182021 November 1840	19015 August 1901	Married in 1858 (25 January), Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (1831-1888), future Frederick III of Germany; with descent into the real houses of Europe as: William II of Germany (Hohenzollern). Sofia de Prussia in Greece (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg). Margarita de Prussia in Finland (Hesse-Kassel).
	Eduardo VII	18419 November 1841	19106 May 1910	Married in 1863 (10 March), Alejandra de Denmark (1844-1925); with descent into the real houses of Europe as: Jorge V of the United Kingdom (Windsor). Maud of Wales in Norway (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg).
	Alicia	184325 April 1843	187814 December 1878	Married in 1862 (1 July), Luis IV de Hesse-Darmstadt; with descent into the real houses of Europe as: Ernesto Luis, great Duke of Hesse (Hesse-Darmstadt). Alix de Hesse-Darmstadt in Russia (Romanov). Victory of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grandma of Philip of Edinburgh
	Alfredo	18446 August 1844	190031 July 1900	Married in 1874 (23 January), Maria Aleksándrovna of Russia; with descent into the real houses of Europe as: Mary of Edinburgh in Romania (Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen).
	Elena	184625 May 1846	19239 June 1923	Married in 1866 (5 July), Cristián de Schleswig-Holstein; with offspring
	Luisa	184818 March 1848	19393 December 1939	Married in 1871 (21 March), John George Campbell; without offspring
	Arturo	18501 May 1850	194216 January 1942	Married in 1879 (13 March), Luisa Margarita de Prussia (1860-1917); with offspring Margarita de Connaught, Sweden (Bernadotte).
	Leopoldo	18537 April 1853	188428 March 1884	Married in 1882 (27 April), Elena de Waldeck-Pyrmont; with descent (among others, Carlos Eduardo, Duke of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha).
	Beatriz	185714 April 1857	1944 26 October 1944	Married in 1885 (23 July), Enrique de Battenberg; with offspring Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg, Spain (Borbón).

Hemophilia

One of Victoria's children, the second youngest, Leopoldo, was Victoria's first descendant to have hemophilia B and two of her five daughters, Alicia and Beatriz, discovered, after having children, that they carried the defective gene. Among the royal descendants who suffered from this disease are his great-grandsons, Tsarevich Alekséi Nikolayevich Románov, the heir to the Spanish throne Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg and his brother the infante Gonzalo de Borbón y Battenberg. The presence of this disease in the descendants of the queen, but not her ancestors, has led to speculation that Victoria's real father was not the Duke of Kent, but a haemophiliac. There is no documented evidence of haemophiliacs in the mother's family of Victoria. It is more likely that there was a spontaneous mutation, since Victoria's father was quite old when he conceived her and hemophilia occurs more frequently in children born to older fathers. In addition, about 30% of cases of hemophilia appear due to spontaneous mutations.

Young years

The first known photograph of Queen Victoria, made in 1844, with her older daughter

On 29 May 1842 Victoria was in a carriage in The Mall area of London when John Francis pointed a pistol at her but did not fire. The next day Victoria went the same way, but faster and more confidently in a premeditated attempt to provoke Francis into shooting again and thus getting caught red-handed. As expected, Francis fired, he was caught by a plainclothes policeman and convicted of high treason. On July 3, two days after Francis' death sentence was commuted to exile to the English colonies for the rest of his life, another man, John William Bean, pointed a pistol at the queen, but the gun it was loaded only with paper and tobacco. Bean was sentenced to 18 months in prison. In 1849 there was a similar attack, this time carried out by the Irishman William Hamilton, who fired a pistol loaded with powder at Victoria's carriage when it it passed through Constitution Hill in London. In 1850 the Queen was injured when attacked by Robert Pate, a former army officer, possibly insane. While Victoria was in the carriage, Pate hit her with a flare, destroying her hat and leaving black spots on her face. Both Hamilton and Pate were sentenced to seven years in the British colonies.

Melbourne's support in parliament waned throughout Victoria's regnal years, and in the 1841 election the Whigs were defeated. Robert Peel became the new Prime Minister and the ladies-in-waiting who were associated with the Tories were replaced.

In 1845 Ireland was struck by the devastation of potato crops; in four years, this plague cost the lives of a million Irish people and the emigration of another million. In response to the so-called Great Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor), the Queen personally donated £2,000, more than any donation made by a single individual, and supported the Maynooth credit to a Catholic seminary in Ireland, despite opposition from of the Protestants. However, Victoria was known as the "Queen of Hunger". In fact, at the end of the 19th century false stories were told who said that he donated just £5 to famine relief and that it was the same amount that he donated to an animal shelter.

Queen Victoria, portrayed by Winterhalter in 1856

Peel's government was soon thrown into a crisis over the Corn Laws. Many Tories—by then also known as Conservatives—opposed repeal, but some of them and most Whigs supported it. Peel resigned in 1846, after the repeal was narrowly approved, and was succeeded by Lord John Russell.

Internationally, Victoria focused on improving relations between France and the United Kingdom. She visited and received many times with the French royal family, the Orleans, some of whom were related to the Coburgs by marriage. In 1843 and 1845, Victoria and Alberto stayed at the castle of Eu with King Louis Philippe I of France. Victoria was the first British monarch to visit a French monarch since the meeting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. When Louis-Philippe visited in 1844, he also became the first French sovereign to visit a British sovereign. Louis Philippe was deposed by the 1848 revolution and went into exile in England. At the height of the revolutionary wave in Britain in April 1848, Victoria and her family exchanged London for the safety of Osborne House, a private property on the Isle of Wight that the Queen had bought in 1845 and reformed. Demonstrations by Chartists and Irish nationalists failed to win national support and the disturbances died down without major problems. The Queen's first visit to Ireland in 1849 was successful, but had no lasting impact on the growth of Irish nationalism.

Russell's government, although Whig, was not favored by the Queen. Particularly offensive to Victoria was the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the Prime Minister or Queen. In 1849, Victoria filed a complaint in Parliament, supported by Russell, alleging that Palmerston had sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without their consent, but he continued in his post and continued to act on his own initiative, despite the queen's repeated calls for attention. It was not until 1851 that Palmerston was relieved of his post; on that occasion he had announced the British Government's approval of the coup d'état by French President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte without first consulting the Prime Minister. The following year, Bonaparte became Emperor Napoleon III, when the Russell administration had been replaced by the short-lived minority government led by Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.

In 1853, Victoria gave birth to her eighth child, Leopoldo, with the help of a new anesthetic, chloroform. The queen was so impressed with the relief provided by this compound that, four years later, she used it again during the delivery of her last daughter, Beatriz, despite opposition from many clerics, who considered that it went against the law. Biblical teachings, as well as by some members of the medical community, who considered it a very dangerous drug. Victoria may have suffered from postpartum depression after many of her pregnancies. There are letters written by Alberto to Victoria where she complained about her lack of self-control: for example, about a month after Leopoldo's birth, Alberto complained in a letter of the "continuous hysteria" his wife suffered due to "any unimportant matter".

Victoria in 1860

In early 1855, the Aberdeen government, which had replaced that of Derby, was criticized for its misuse of British troops during the Crimean War and fell. Victoria talked to Derby and Russell about forming a new government, but neither had sufficient support, so the Queen had to appoint Palmerston as the new Prime Minister.

Napoleon III, who since the Crimean War had become Britain's greatest ally, visited London in April 1855 and between August 17 and 28 of that same year, Victoria and Albert returned his visit. Napoleon met the couple at Dunkirk and accompanied them to Paris, where they visited the World's Fair (the successor to the Great Exhibition organized by Albert in 1851) and Napoleon's burial place at Les Invalides (in which his mortal remains had been placed). in 1840), and were guests of honor at a ball with 1,200 guests at the Palace of Versailles.

On January 14, 1858, an Italian refugee living in Great Britain attempted to assassinate Napoleon III with an English-made bomb. This sparked a diplomatic crisis that destabilized the government and caused Palmerston to resign. Derby became Prime Minister again. Victoria and Albert were present at the opening of a new base in the French military port of Cherbourg on 5 August 1858, an attempt by Napoleon to assure Britain that his armaments were directed to another place. When he returned to England, Victoria wrote to Derby and chided him for the weak state of the British Royal Navy in comparison with the French navy.

Eleven days after the assassination attempt in France, Victoria's eldest daughter married Prince Frederick of Prussia in London. They had been engaged since 1855, when the princess royal was only 14 years old, but the wedding was postponed by the bride's parents until she turned 17. The queen and the prince consort hoped that the couple would be responsible for the liberalization of the growing Prussian kingdom. Victoria felt "an ache in her heart" to see her daughter leave England for Germany. "Make me regret it," he wrote to her in one of his frequent letters, "when I see your sisters, so sweet, so happy, and I think I'm going to have to let them go one by one." Almost a year later, the Princess Royal gave birth to Queen Victoria's first grandchild, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

Widowhood

Photographic portrait of Victoria and Alberto, held in March 1861, nine months before the death of the prince consorte

In March 1861, Victoria's mother died at her side. When she read the documents he left her, she realized that her mother had loved her deeply. The queen was devastated, blaming Conroy and Lehzen for "maliciously" taking her away from her. To distract his wife during this period of intense suffering, Albert substituted for most of her duties despite his chronic stomach problems. In August, Victoria and Albert visited their son, Prince Edward of Wales, who was participating in an army exercise in Dublin, and spent a few days in Killarney. In November, Albert learned of rumors that Edward had slept with an actress in Ireland. Horrified, he went to Cambridge, where his son was studying, and confronted him. In early December, the Prince Consort he was very ill, and Dr. William Jenner diagnosed him with typhoid fever. Finally, he passed away on December 14 of that year.

The loss of her companion, friend and adviser devastated the queen, who has maintained a semi-permanent state of mourning ever since and used the color black for her dresses for the rest of her life. Also, in later years, she avoided public appearances and rarely set foot in London, earning her the nickname "the Widow of Windsor". Victoria considered her indiscreet and frivolous young son Edward guilty of the death of his father.

Victoria's isolation from the public greatly diminished the popularity of the monarchy, and even encouraged the growth of the republican movement. Although she fulfilled her official duties, she did not actively participate in government, remaining confined to her royal residences, like Balmoral in Scotland —which Albert had bought in 1847—, Windsor and Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. In March 1864, a man posted a sign on the balustrades of Buckingham Palace that read:

This property is for sale due to the bankruptcy of the former occupant's business.

His uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium, wrote to advise him to appear in public. Victoria agreed to appear at the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens in Kensington and take a ride in an open carriage around London.

Picture of the queen on horseback, next to his servant, John Brown, in 1868

Throughout the 1860s, Victoria began to rely more and more on a Scottish servant, John Brown; it was rumored that there was a romantic relationship and even a secret marriage between them, and some newspapers began calling her " Lady Brown". There is also a painting by Edwin Landseer showing the Queen and Brown, which is on display at the Royal Academy. Victoria published a book called Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands , which is very much about Brown, and in which the Queen highly praises her servant.

Meanwhile, one of the most important pieces of legislation of the 19th century—the Reform Act of 1867—was approved by parliament. This reform, which was supported by the Queen, doubled the number of electors and extended the right to vote to various urban workers, but not to women. Lord Palmerston had been strongly opposed to electoral reform, but his ministry ended with his death in 1865. Lord Derby took office, being succeeded by Russell. Derby then returned to the post of prime minister, and during his ministry the Reform Act was passed. In 1866 Victoria attended Parliament for the first time since Albert's death. In 1868 Derby resigned and was succeeded by the Conservative Benjamin Disraeli – later 1st Earl of Beaconsfield – who charmed the Queen: "To all the The world likes praise", he said, "but when a person comes into contact with royalty, they must take it with a grain of salt". He always greeted the queen with the phrase "we authors, Ma'am» and praised her. However, his government only lasted a few months and he was replaced by the liberal William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone's disagreements with Victoria and Disraeli during his political career became famous. She once commented that when he addressed her it was as if they were in a public meeting.

By 1870, republican sentiment reached a fever pitch, fueled by the isolation of Victoria and the creation of the French Third Republic. A republican rally was held in Trafalgar Square, where several radical members of the government criticized the queen and they demanded her abdication. Between August and September 1871, Victoria was seriously ill with an abscess on her arm, which Joseph Lister managed to treat successfully with his new antiseptic carbolic acid spray. In late November 1871, in At the height of the republican movement, the Prince of Wales contracted typhoid fever, the same disease that had killed his father, causing the Queen to fear his death.

As the tenth anniversary of her husband's death approached, the Prince of Wales's health seemed to show no signs of improvement and Victoria's concern continued. Fortunately, Edward recovered and survived the illness, appearing, later, with his mother in London during a public ceremony and a great service of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral on 27 February 1872. Thereafter, republican sentiment began to wane.

Two days after the thanksgiving service, Arthur O'Connor, the great-nephew of an Irish MP, pointed a pistol without bullets at the queen's open carriage as she drove through the gates of Buckingham Palace. Brown, who was at Victoria's side, caught him, and the gunman was sentenced to a year in prison. Thanks to this incident, the sovereign's popularity increased even more.

Empress of India

Following the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, the British East India Company, which had ruled much of India, was dissolved, and British possessions and protectorates were formally incorporated into the British Empire. The Queen took a relatively neutral view of the conflict and condemned the atrocities committed by both sides. She wrote of her "feeling of horror and regret at the outcome of this bloody civil war", insisting, at Albert's encouragement, that she announce that the official proclamation affirming the transfer of power from the company to the State "should show a feeling of generosity, benevolence and religious tolerance". By Victoria's command, a reference that threatened the "diminution of native religions and customs" it was replaced by a passage guaranteeing religious freedom.

In the 1874 election, Disraeli returned to power, and his government passed a Public Worship Regulation Act removing Catholic rituals from the Anglican liturgy, a law Victoria supported: the Queen preferred short, simple masses, and he liked the doctrine of the Scottish Presbyterian Church better than the English. It was this prime minister who passed the law conferring the title "Empress of India" on the Queen on 1 May 1876. The new title was proclaimed at the Delhi Durbar on 1 January 1877.

Last years

Lithography of Victoria appointing Benjamin Disraeli knight of the Order of the Jarretera, 1878

On December 14, 1878, the 17th anniversary of Prince Albert's death, Victoria's second daughter, Alice, married to Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse-Darmstadt, died of diphtheria in Darmstadt, Germany). Victoria found the coincidence of dates “almost unbelievable and very mysterious.” In May 1879, she became a great-grandmother for the first time with the birth of Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen, daughter of her granddaughter Charlotte of Prussia.

Between April 1877 and February 1878, the Queen threatened to abdicate the throne five times to pressure Disraeli to condemn the Russian Empire for its actions in the Russo-Turkish War, but her threats had no impact or ended with the Congress of Berlin.

Disraeli's expansionist foreign policy, which Victoria supported, sparked conflicts such as the Anglo-Zulu War and the Second Anglo-Afghan War, to which the Queen wrote:

If we want to maintain our position as a great power, we have to be prepared for attacks and wars in one place or another.

Victoria

He also saw the expansion of the British Empire as civilizing and beneficial, as it protected native peoples from the most aggressive powers or cruel rulers, declaring that: "It is not our custom to annex countries unless we see each other." compelled or forced to do so.

Much to Victoria's dismay, Disraeli lost the 1880 election and Gladstone returned to power as Prime Minister. Disraeli's death the following year shocked the Queen, who had a plaque placed on his grave. you could read:

Placed by your very grate sovereign and friend, Victoria, R.I.

On 2 March 1882, Roderick Maclean, a renowned poet who was offended that the Queen had refused to read one of his poems, shot Victoria as her carriage was leaving Windsor railway station. Two Eton College students beat the poet with their umbrellas until he was taken into custody by the police. Victoria was later enraged to learn that Maclean had been released for insanity, but was pleased by the displays of loyalty after the attack, and he came to affirm that it had been worth having suffered that attack, just to see the appreciation of his subjects.

On March 17, 1883, the Queen fell down some stairs in Windsor, leaving her in a wheelchair until July. Victoria never fully recovered from the fall and suffered from rheumatism until her death. John Brown died days after the accident and, to the dismay of his private secretary, Henry Ponsonby, the monarch began work on a laudatory biography of her faithful servant. Ponsonby and Windsor Dean Randall Davidson, who had seen early drafts, advised Victoria not to publish the work as it might cause rumors that the two had been in an affair, so the manuscript was destroyed.

Early in 1884, he published More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands, a sequel to his first book, dedicated to his "personal servant, devoted, and faithful friend, John Brown". The day after the anniversary of Brown's death, Victoria learned by telegram that her young son, Leopoldo, had died in Cannes, a victim of haemophilia. Victoria mourned the death of the most beloved of her children. The following month, the Queen's youngest daughter, Beatrix, met and fell in love with Prince Henry of Battenberg at the wedding of her niece Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt. with the prince's older brother, Louis of Battenberg. Beatriz and Enrique wanted to get married but, at first, Victoria opposed the union, since she wanted Beatriz to stay by her side and keep her company. A year later, she changed her mind when the couple promised that they would continue to live near her to accompany her.

Victoria was delighted when Gladstone was forced to resign in 1885, after failing to pass his budget. The Queen thought his government had been the "worst she ever had" and blamed him for the death of General Gordon in Khartoum Gladstone was succeeded by Lord Salisbury. However, this government only lasted a few months, and Victoria had to call back Gladstone, whom she called "half mad and, in truth, just a ridiculous little man in many ways". Gladstone tried to pass a law that it gave Ireland its own government but, to Victoria's delight, it was not approved. At the election, Gladstone's government ceded power to Salisbury.

Golden Jubilee

Victory in your Gold Jubilee

In 1887 the United Kingdom celebrated Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. On June 20 of that year, the monarch celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of her ascension to the throne with a banquet, to which 50 European kings and princes were invited. The next day, she took part in a parade that, in the words of Mark Twain, "extended beyond the limit of sight in both directions" and attended a thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey.

By now, Victoria was again extremely popular. Two days later, on June 23, she hired two Muslim Indians to be her servants. One of them, Abdul Karim, was promoted to "Munshi" (teacher), taught the queen Hindi Urdu, and became her scribe.

The Queen's family and servants were frightened and accused Karim of being a spy for the Muslim League, and tried to turn Victoria against him. The Queen's equerry, Frederick Ponsonby—son of Henry, the The sovereign's secretary—discovered that Karim had lied about his parents and told Lord Elgin, Viceroy of India, that "the Indian occupies the same position as John Brown". Victoria ignored the complaints, considering them racist. Karim was with the queen until her death, and then returned to India with a pension.

Victoria's eldest daughter became empress consort of Germany in 1888, but was widowed three months later and her grandson, Wilhelm, became emperor as Wilhelm II. With the reign of Guillermo, the hopes that Victoria and Alberto had for German liberalization were not fulfilled, since he believed in autocracy. Victoria thought that her grandson had "little heart or tact and [that] (...) his conscience and intelligence had been totally distorted."

Gladstone returned to power once more in 1892, aged 82. Victoria vetoed the appointment of the Radical MP Henry Labouchere to a seat in the government and Gladstone accepted it. In 1894, he retired and was succeeded by the liberal-imperialist Lord Rosebery, and succeeded the following year by Lord Salisbury, who ruled until Victoria's death.

Diamond Jubilee

Arrival from Victoria's carriage to St. Paul's Cathedral to celebrate its diamond jubilee, 1897

On September 22, 1896, Victoria became the longest-reigning monarch in British history, surpassing her grandfather, George III. In accordance with a request from the Queen, all special public celebrations of the event were delayed until 1897, the year in which her Diamond Jubilee was celebrated. Secretary for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, proposed that the jubilee be a festival in the entire Empire.

Thus, they invited the prime ministers of all the autonomous colonies along with their families. The queen's parade through London stopped for an outdoor thanksgiving mass next to St Paul's Cathedral, during which the queen sat in her open carriage. The celebration was marked by displays of affection for the monarch.

Victoria visited Europe many times during her vacations. In 1889, while at Biarritz in France, she became the first reigning sovereign to visit Spain by crossing the border for a brief visit. By April 1900, the Second Boer War was being so frowned upon that it was advised against his annual trip to France. Instead he went to Ireland, for the first time since 1861, partly to give thanks for the contribution of the Irish regiments in South Africa. In July his second son, Alfred, died: "My God, my dear poor Affie." "He is dead," he wrote in his diary; "This has been a horrible year, there's just sadness and horror everywhere."

Death and succession

Funeral Court of Queen Victoria, 1901

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent her last Christmas at Osborne Castle—designed by Albert—on the Isle of Wight. The rheumatism of her legs prevented her from walking, and her vision was badly affected by the cataracts. In early January she reported feeling "bad and weak", and in the middle of the month she wrote in her diary that she was "drowsy (...) dizzy and confused". She died there, due to her failing health, on Tuesday, January 22, 1901, at 6:30 a.m., aged 81. On her deathbed she was accompanied by her son and future king, Edward, and her eldest grandson, German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Four years before her death, in 1897, Victoria had written the instructions for her funeral, which she wanted to be military, since she was the daughter of a soldier and head of the army, and that the dominant color was white instead of black. On 25 January, King Edward, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Prince Arthur helped carry the coffin. The Queen was dressed in her bridal veil. At her request, the doctor and maids who dressed her also placed several photographs and objects of her large family and her servants in the coffin. Thus, they also placed Alberto's nightshirt next to him, along with a plaster cast of his hand, as well as a photograph and a lock of John Brown's hair, which they hid on the left side, under a bouquet of flowers. Several jewels were buried along with Victoria, including the wedding ring John Brown's mother had given her in 1883. Her funeral was held on Saturday, February 2, 1901, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. and, after two days' wake, she was buried next to Albert in the Frogmore Royal Mausoleum, in Windsor Great Park. As she was buried, it began to snow.

Victoria's death marked the end of the House of Hanover's power in the United Kingdom. As her husband belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha hers her son and heir, Edward VII, was the first British monarch of this new dynasty.

Legacy

Statue of Queen Victoria in Glasgow

According to one of her biographers, Giles St. Aubyn, Victoria wrote an average of 2,500 words a day during her adult life. From July 1832 until shortly before her death, she kept diaries frequently, numbering 122 volumes. After Victoria's death, her youngest daughter, Beatriz, was named her literary executor. The queen's youngest daughter transcribed and edited the diaries beginning with Edward VII's accession and burned the originals. Despite this destruction, many of the diaries still exist. In addition to Beatrice's edited copy, Lord Esher transcribed two volumes from 1832 to 1861 before Beatrice destroyed them. Some of Victoria's extensive correspondence was published in several volumes by different authors.

Victoria was physically disproportionate: she was heavyset, inelegant, and no taller than five feet. Despite these flaws, she projected an image of grandeur. She was unpopular during her early widowhood, but was much loved in the 1880s and 1890s, when she embodied the figurehead of empire, a benevolent matriarchal figure. she learned of her true political influence after the diaries and letters were revealed to the public. Many biographies published to date conclude that Victoria was emotional, stubborn, honest, and sincere.

Throughout Victoria's reign the gradual establishment of a modern constitutional monarchy in Great Britain continued. Reforms in the electoral system increased the power of parliament, hurting the nobles and the monarchy. In 1867 Walter Bagehot wrote that the monarch only had "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to advise". As the Victorian monarchy became more symbolic than political, it began to place more importance on morality and family values. This is set against the financial, sexual and personal scandals associated with previous members of the House of Hanover, which had brought the monarchy into disrepute. The concept of "family monarchy", with which the middle classes could identify, was strengthened.

Victoria's ties to the European royal families earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren. Her descendants include Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom; her husband, Prince Philip; King Harald V of Norway; King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; King Juan Carlos I of Spain, his wife Sofia of Greece, among other members of European royalty.

Pop Culture

Queen Victoria has been portrayed in a variety of films, television series, books, magazines, and other publications. The first film was Victoria, the Great , directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox, and the leading actress was the British Anna Neagle. The film was released in 1937, the year of the coronation of Victoria's great-grandson, King George VI, and served to commemorate the centenary of the queen's coronation in 1837. It was so successful that the sequel was released the following year Sixty Glorious Years.

Another well-known film about Victoria's life was released in 1950, The Mudlark. It had Irene Dunne as the protagonist and was an alternative version of the queen's mourning years. from Sissy. In 1997, Judi Dench and Billy Connolly starred in the film Mrs Brown, about the Queen's relationship with her Scottish servant, John Brown. The film was highly acclaimed by critics and earned Dench an Academy Award nomination. In 2001, the BBC released a two-episode series titled Victoria & Albert , starring Victoria Hamilton and Jonathan Firth, which portrayed Victoria's life from her childhood until Albert's death in 1861.

The queen also appears in the anime Kuroshitsuji, which is set in the 19th century.

In 2009, Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend starred in the film The Young Victoria, a critically acclaimed romantic take on the lives of the royal couple, which received multiple Academy Award and Globe Award nominations. Gold Awards, including Best Dramatic Actress for Emily Blunt (at the Golden Globes), Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Costumes (for which she won the Oscar).

In 2015 the queen appears in the video game Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, set during the year 1868. There, Queen Victoria maintains a friendly relationship with the assassins Jacob and Evie Frye (the protagonists of the game), to whom he asks some favors in the form of side missions.

In August 2016, the miniseries Victoria premiered, starring Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes, taking the role of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, respectively.

On September 22, 2017, Victoria & Abdul , starring Judi Dench and Ali Fazal, as Victoria and Abdul Karim, her last counselor before her death, respectively.

TV series

Cinema

Titles and commands

Titles

• 24 May 1819-20 June 1837: Your Royal Highness Kent's Princess Alexandrina Victoria.
• 20 June 1837-22 January 1901: Your Majesty the queen.
  • In the British Raj, 1 May 1876-22 January 1901: Your Imperial Majesty Queen, Empress of India.

At the end of her reign, her full title was: "Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India."

Orders

• Member of the Order of the Family of Jorge IV ( United Kingdom, 24 May 1823)
• Lady of the Order of the Noble Ladies of Queen Mary Louise (December 21, 1833, Kingdom of Spain).
• Lady of the Order of Queen Saint Elizabeth (1836, Kingdom of Portugal).
• Great cross of the Imperial Order of San Carlos de México. (1866, Mexican Empire)
• Lady of the Order of the Golden Lion (25 April 1885, great Duke of Hesse).

Ancestors