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Victoria of the United Kingdom

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

                             Victoria
   Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
   Golden Jubilee Photograph
   Golden Jubilee Photograph
      Reign     20 June 1837 - 22 January 1901
    Coronation  28 June 1838
   Predecessor  William IV
    Successor   Edward VII
     Consort    Albert, Prince Consort
                              Issue
   Victoria, German Empress and Queen of Prussia
   Edward VII
   Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse
   Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
   Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
   Louise, Duchess of Argyll
   Arthur, Duke of Connaught
   Leopold, Duke of Albany
   Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg
                            Full name
   Alexandrina Victoria
                              Titles
   HM The Queen
   HRH Princess Victoria of Kent
   Royal House  House of Hanover
   Royal anthem God Save the Queen
      Father    Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent
      Mother    Victoria, Duchess of Kent
       Born     24 May 1819
                Kensington Palace, London
     Baptised   24 June 1819
                Kensington Palace, London
       Died     22 January 1901
                Osborne House, Isle of Wight
      Burial    2 February 1901
                Frogmore, Windsor

   Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the
   Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June
   1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 January 1877, until her
   death in 1901. Her reign lasted more than sixty-three years, longer
   than that of any other British monarch. Victoria's reign was marked by
   a great expansion of the British Empire. The Victorian Era was at the
   height of the Industrial Revolution, a period of significant social,
   economic, and technological change in the United Kingdom. In that
   period the British Empire reached its zenith and became the formidable
   global power of the time.

   Victoria, who was almost entirely of German descent (except from her
   ancestor Sophia of Hanover, who was a female-line granddaughter of
   James I), was the last monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King
   Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Early life

   Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth son
   of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Her mother was Princess
   Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. George III's eldest son, the Prince
   of Wales (the future King George IV), had only one child, Princess
   Charlotte Augusta of Wales. When she died in 1817, the remaining
   unmarried sons of King George III scrambled to marry and father
   children to guarantee the line of succession.

   At the age of fifty the Duke of Kent and Strathearn married Princess
   Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the sister of Princess Charlotte's
   widower Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and widow of Karl,
   Prince of Leiningen. Victoria, the only child of the couple, was born
   in Kensington Palace, London on 24 May 1819. She was christened in the
   Cupola Room of Kensington Palace on 24 June 1819 by the Archbishop of
   Canterbury ( Charles Manners-Sutton), and her godparents were the
   Prince Regent, the Emperor Alexander I of Russia (in whose honour she
   received her first name), Queen Charlotte of Württemberg and the
   Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

   Although christened Alexandrina Victoria, from birth she was formally
   styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent. She was called
   Drina within the family. Princess Victoria's father died of pneumonia
   eight months after she was born. Her grandfather, George III, died six
   days later. Princess Victoria's uncle, the Prince of Wales, inherited
   the Crown, becoming King George IV.

   Though she occupied a high position in the line of succession, Victoria
   was taught only German, the first language of both her mother and her
   governess, during her early years. After reaching the age of three,
   however, she was schooled in English. She eventually learned to speak
   Italian, Greek, Latin, and French. Her educator was the Reverend George
   Davys and her governess was Louise Lehzen.

   When Princess Victoria of Kent was eleven years old, King George IV
   died childless, leaving the throne to his brother, the Duke of Clarence
   and St Andrews, who became King William IV. Although he was the father
   of ten illegitimate children by his mistress, the actress Dorothy
   Jordan, the new king had no living legitimate children. Hence the young
   Princess Victoria became heiress presumptive. Since the law at that
   time made no special provision for a child monarch, Victoria would have
   been no less eligible to reign than an adult would. In order to prevent
   such a scenario, Parliament passed the Regency Act 1830, under which it
   was provided that Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent and
   Strathearn, would act as Regent during the queen's minority. Ignoring
   precedent, Parliament did not create a council to limit the powers of
   the Regent.

   Princess Victoria met her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg
   and Gotha, when she was sixteen years old. Prince Albert was Victoria's
   first cousin; his father was her mother's brother. King William IV
   disapproved of the match, but his objections failed to dissuade the
   couple. Victoria had to propose to him because a man of even slightly
   lower social status was not allowed to propose to her. Many scholars
   have suggested that Prince Albert was not in love with young Victoria,
   and that he entered into a relationship with her in order to gain
   social status (he was a minor German prince) and out of a sense of duty
   (his family wanted the match). Whatever Albert's original reasons for
   marrying Victoria may have been, theirs proved to be an extremely happy
   marriage.
                       British Royalty
                       House of Hanover
                          George III
   Grandchildren
       Charlotte, Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield
       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

Early reign

   On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, meaning that a regency would not be
   necessary. Four weeks later, Victoria was awoken by her mother to find
   that at 12 minutes past 2 a.m. on 20 June 1837, William IV had died
   from heart failure at the age of seventy-one. Victoria was now Queen of
   the United Kingdom—however she did not inherit the throne of Hanover, a
   realm which had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714. Hanover had
   been given a constitution in 1833 that implied the Welf heritage law
   that if there was no male heir to the king, the Welf line of
   Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel would inherit the realm of Hanover (kingdom
   since 1806). Only after that line would a woman have been able to
   inherit the throne.

   Victoria remained a Princess of Hanover and a Duchess of Brunswick and
   Lunenburg throughout her life, but the crown of Hanover went to her
   uncle the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who became King Ernest
   Augustus I of Hanover. As the young queen was as yet unmarried and
   childless, Ernest Augustus also remained the heir presumptive to the
   throne of the United Kingdom until her first child was born in 1840.

   When Victoria ascended the throne, the government was controlled by the
   Whig Party, which had been in power, except for brief intervals, since
   1830. The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, at once became a
   powerful influence in the life of the politically inexperienced Queen,
   who relied on him for advice. (Some even referred to Victoria as "Mrs.
   Melbourne".) The Melbourne ministry would not stay in power for long;
   it was growing unpopular and, moreover, faced considerable difficulty
   in governing the British colonies. In Canada, the United Kingdom faced
   an insurrection (see Rebellions of 1837), and in Jamaica, the colonial
   legislature had protested British policies by refusing to pass any
   laws. In 1839, unable to cope with the problems overseas, the ministry
   of Lord Melbourne resigned.

   The Queen commissioned Sir Robert Peel, a Tory, to form a new ministry,
   but was faced with a debacle known as the Bedchamber Crisis. At the
   time, it was customary for appointments to the Royal Household to be
   based on the patronage system (that is, for the Prime Minister to
   appoint members of the Royal Household on the basis of their party
   loyalties). Many of the Queen's Ladies of the Bedchamber were wives of
   Whigs, but Sir Robert Peel expected to replace them with wives of
   Tories. Victoria strongly objected to the removal of these ladies, whom
   she regarded as close friends rather than as members of a ceremonial
   institution. Sir Robert Peel felt that he could not govern under the
   restrictions imposed by the Queen, and consequently resigned his
   commission, allowing Melbourne to return to office.

Marriage

   The Queen married her first cousin, Prince Albert on 10 February 1840,
   at the Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace; four days before, Victoria
   granted her husband, who was born the same year as herself, the style
   His Royal Highness. Prince Albert was commonly known as the Prince
   Consort, though he did not formally obtain the title until 1857. Prince
   Albert was never granted a peerage dignity. Albert was not only the
   Queen's companion, but also an important political advisor, replacing
   Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in her life.

   During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year old Edward Oxford
   attempted to assassinate the Queen while she was riding in a carriage
   with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets
   missed. He was tried for high treason, but was acquitted on the grounds
   of insanity. His plea was questioned by many; Oxford may merely have
   been seeking notoriety. Many suggested that a Chartist conspiracy was
   behind the assassination attempt; others attributed the plot to
   supporters of the heir presumptive, King Ernest Augustus of Hanover.
   These conspiracy theories produced a wave of patriotism and loyalty
   within the country.

   The shooting had no effect on the Queen's health or on her pregnancy.
   The first of the royal couple's nine children, named Victoria, was born
   on 21 November 1840.

   When the Whigs under Melbourne lost the elections of 1841 and were
   replaced by the Tories under Peel, there was no repeat of the
   Bedchamber Crisis. Victoria continued to secretly correspond with Lord
   Melbourne, whose influence, however, faded away as that of Prince
   Albert increased.

   On 13 June 1842, Victoria made her first journey by train, travelling
   from Slough railway station (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop's Bridge,
   near Paddington (in London), in a special royal carriage provided by
   the Great Western Railway. Accompanying her were her husband and the
   engineer of the Great Western line, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

   Three attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria occurred in 1842. On 29
   May at St. James's Park, John Francis (most likely seeking to gain
   notoriety) fired a pistol at the Queen (then in a carriage), but was
   immediately seized by Police Constable William Trounce. Francis was
   convicted of high treason, but his death sentence was commuted to
   transportation for life.
   A young Victoria is depicted at her coronation, 28 June 1838

        A young Victoria is depicted at her coronation, 28 June 1838

   Prince Albert felt that the attempts were encouraged by Oxford's
   acquittal in 1840. On 3 July, just days after Francis' sentence was
   commuted, another boy, John William Bean, attempted to shoot the Queen.
   Although his gun was loaded only with paper and tobacco, his crime was
   still punishable by death. Feeling that such a penalty would be too
   harsh, Prince Albert encouraged Parliament to pass the Treason Act of
   1842, under which aiming a firearm at the Queen, striking her, throwing
   any object at her, and producing any firearm or other dangerous weapon
   in her presence with the intent of alarming her, were made punishable
   by seven years imprisonment and flogging. Bean was thus sentenced to
   eighteen months imprisonment; however, neither he, nor any person who
   violated the act in the future, was flogged.

Surname

   Victoria belonged to the House of Hanover. Although some assign the
   surname d' Este or the surname Welf to her, she never needed to use any
   surname (some other descendants of the House of Hanover have used the
   surname Hanover in Britain). Her husband belonged to the House of
   Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and accordingly at Victoria's death, that House
   ascended the British throne in the person of her son and heir Edward
   VII - according to custom of nobles and royals, a wife never gains the
   membership of her husband's house, but remains as belonging to her own
   and thus Victoria was not of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a
   married woman, most genealogists assign to her the surname von Wettin,
   based on the advice of the College of Arms. She is therefore sometimes
   referred to as it Alexandrina Victoria von Wettin, née Hanover.

   While Albert was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the German
   house was descended from the Ernestine Branch of the Wettin dynasty.
   Victoria asked her staff to determine what Albert's and now her own
   marital surname was. After examining records from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
   archives, they reported that her husband's personal surname, as was the
   case with other members of both the Ernestine and Albertine branches,
   was Wettin (or von Wettin). Queen Victoria's papers record her dislike
   of the name.

   Her grandson, George V, again explored the issue when changing both the
   surname and Royal House name in 1917 to Windsor. The College of Arms
   again informed him that his family surname prior to the change was
   Wettin. In the 1958 an Order-in-Council adapted the 1917 decision by
   granting some of Queen Elizabeth II's descendants the surname
   Mountbatten-Windsor. This does not apply to the Prince of Wales or
   either of his sons, but only to those descendants of the Queen and
   Prince Philip who never come to the throne. By statute, 'all' reigning
   sovereigns from 1917 onward bear the surname "Windsor," whether they
   were born with it or not.

Early Victorian politics

   Peel's ministry faced a crisis involving the repeal of the Corn Laws
   (grain import tariffs). Many Tories (by then known also as
   Conservatives) were opposed to the repeal, but some Tories (the
   "Peelites") and most Whigs supported it. Peel resigned in 1846, after
   the repeal narrowly passed, and was replaced by Lord John Russell.
   Russell's ministry, though Whig, was not favoured by the Queen.
   Particularly offensive to Victoria was the Foreign Secretary, Lord
   Palmerston, who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the Prime
   Minister, or the Queen.

   In 1849, Victoria lodged a complaint with Lord John Russell, claiming
   that Palmerston had sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without
   her knowledge. She repeated her remonstrance in 1850, but to no avail.
   It was only in 1851 that Lord Palmerston was removed from office; he
   had on that occasion announced the British government's approval for
   President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's coup in France without previously
   consulting the Prime Minister.

   The period during which Russell was prime minister also proved
   personally distressing to Queen Victoria. In 1849, an unemployed and
   disgruntled Irishman named William Hamilton attempted to alarm the
   Queen by firing a powder-filled pistol as her carriage passed along
   Constitution Hill, London. Hamilton was charged under the 1842 act; he
   pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years of
   penal transportation. In 1850, the Queen did sustain injury when she
   was assaulted by a possibly insane ex-Army officer, Robert Pate. As
   Victoria was riding in a carriage, Pate struck her with his cane,
   crushing her bonnet and bruising her. Pate was later tried; he failed
   to prove his insanity, and received the same sentence as Hamilton.
   A likeness of Queen Victoria appears on the widely circulated 1841
   Penny Red postage stamp
   Enlarge

     A likeness of Queen Victoria appears on the widely circulated 1841
                           Penny Red postage stamp

Ireland

   The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland, choosing to holiday
   in Killarney in Kerry, in the process launching the location as one of
   the nineteenth century's prime tourist locations. Her love of the
   island was matched by initial Irish warmth towards the young Queen. In
   1845, Ireland was hit by a potato blight that over four years cost the
   lives of over one million Irish people and saw the emigration of
   another million. In response to what came to be called the Irish Potato
   Famine (An Gorta Mor), the Queen personally donated (5000 pounds
   sterling) to the starving Irish people.

   The policies of her minister Lord John Russell were widely blamed for
   exacerbating the severity of the famine, killing a million Irishmen,
   which adversely affected the Queen's popularity in Ireland. There was
   more than enough food produced in Ireland during the famine, but most
   of it was exported by the British land owners, leaving the Irish people
   to die with green mouths from eating grass during their last days of
   starvation.

   Victoria was a strong supporter of the Irish. She supported the
   Maynooth Grant and made a point, on visiting Ireland, of visiting the
   seminary.

   Victoria's first official visit to Ireland, in 1849, was specifically
   arranged by Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the head of
   the British administration, to try both to draw attention off the
   famine and also to alert British politicians through the Queen's
   presence to the seriousness of the crisis in Ireland. Notwithstanding
   the negative impact of the famine on the Queen's popularity, she still
   remained sufficiently popular for nationalists at party meetings to
   finish by singing God Save the Queen.

   However by the 1870s and 1880s the monarchy's appeal in Ireland had
   diminished substantially, partly as a result of Victoria's decision to
   refuse to visit Ireland in protest at the decision of Dublin
   Corporation to refuse to congratulate her son, the Prince of Wales, on
   his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, or to congratulate the
   royal couple on the birth of their oldest son, Prince Albert Victor.

   Victoria refused repeated pressure from a number of prime ministers,
   lords lieutenant and even members of the Royal Family, to establish a
   royal residence in Ireland. Lord Midleton, the former head of the Irish
   unionist party, writing in his memoirs of 1930 Ireland: Dupe or
   Heroine?, described this decision as having proved disastrous to the
   monarchy and British rule in Ireland.

   Victoria paid her last visit to Ireland in 1900, when she came to
   appeal to Irishmen to join the British Army and fight in the Second
   Boer War. Nationalist opposition to her visit was spearheaded by Arthur
   Griffith, who established an organisation called Cumann na nGaedheal to
   unite the opposition. Five years later Griffith used the contacts
   established in his campaign against the queen's visit to form a new
   political movement, Sinn Fein.

   In 1851, the first World Fair, known as the Great Exhibition of 1851,
   was held. Organised by Prince Albert, the exhibition was officially
   opened by the Queen on 1 May 1851. Despite the fears of many, it proved
   an incredible success, with its profits being used to endow the South
   Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum).
   Portraits of Queen Victoria from (top to bottom) 1897, 1890 and 1899
   Enlarge

    Portraits of Queen Victoria from (top to bottom) 1897, 1890 and 1899

   Lord John Russell's ministry collapsed in 1852, when the Whig Prime
   Minister was replaced by a Conservative, Lord Derby. Lord Derby did not
   stay in power for long, for he failed to maintain a majority in
   Parliament; he resigned less than a year after entering office. At this
   point, Victoria was anxious to put an end to this period of weak
   ministries. Both the Queen and her husband vigorously encouraged the
   formation of a strong coalition between the Whigs and the Peelite
   Tories. Such a ministry was indeed formed, with the Peelite Lord
   Aberdeen at its head.

   One of the most significant acts of the new ministry was to bring the
   United Kingdom into the Crimean War in 1854, on the side of the Ottoman
   Empire and against Russia. Immediately before the entry of the United
   Kingdom, rumours that the Queen and Prince Albert preferred the Russian
   side diminished the popularity of the royal couple. Nonetheless,
   Victoria publicly encouraged unequivocal support for the troops. The
   year after the end of the war, she instituted the Victoria Cross, an
   award for valour.

   His management of the war in the Crimea questioned by many, Lord
   Aberdeen resigned in 1855, to be replaced by Lord Palmerston, with whom
   the Queen had reconciled. Palmerston too was forced out of office due
   to the unpopular conduct of a military conflict, the Second Opium War,
   in 1857. He was replaced by Lord Derby. Amongst the notable events of
   Derby's administration was the Sepoy Mutiny against the rule of the
   British East India Company over India. After the mutiny was crushed,
   India was put under direct British rule (though the title "Empress of
   India" was not instituted immediately). Derby's second ministry fared
   no better than his first; it fell in 1859, allowing Palmerston to
   return to power.

Widowhood

   The Prince Consort died on 14 December 1861, devastating Victoria, who
   entered a semi-permanent state of mourning and wore black for the
   remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances and rarely set
   foot inside London in the following years, her seclusion earning her
   the nickname "Widow of Windsor". She regarded her son, the Prince of
   Wales, as an indiscreet and frivolous youth, blaming him for his
   father's death.

   Victoria began to increasingly rely on a Scottish manservant, John
   Brown; and a romantic connection and even a secret marriage have been
   alleged, but are generally discredited. A passage in an article from
   Petronella Wyatt for the Daily Mail ( September 02, 2006) refers that
   her late father, Woodrow Wyatt, met Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen
   Mother, in the Eighties and she came frequently to their house for
   lunch and dinner. In one of those occasions, the conversation turned to
   Queen Victoria and John Brown. The Queen Mother claimed she found
   documents in the royal archives at Windsor suggesting they had married.
   Asked what she had done about the discovery, she said she burned the
   documents. .

   One recently discovered diary records a supposed deathbed confession by
   the Queen's private chaplain in which he admitted to a politician that
   he had presided over a clandestine marriage between Victoria and John
   Brown. Not all historians trust the reliability of the diary. However,
   when Victoria's corpse was laid in its coffin, two sets of mementos
   were placed with her, at her request. By her side was placed one of
   Albert's dressing gowns while in her left hand was placed a piece of
   Brown's hair, along with a picture of him. Rumours of an affair and
   marriage earned Victoria the nickname "Mrs Brown". The story of their
   relationship was the subject of the movie Mrs. Brown.

   Victoria's isolation from the public greatly diminished the popularity
   of the monarchy, and even encouraged the growth of the republican
   movement. Although she did perform her official duties, she did not
   actively participate in the government, remaining secluded in her royal
   residences, Balmoral in Scotland or Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
   Meanwhile, one of the most important pieces of legislation of the
   nineteenth century — the Reform Act 1867 — was passed by Parliament.
   Lord Palmerston was vigorously opposed to electoral reform, but his
   ministry ended upon his death in 1865. He was followed by Earl Russell
   (the former Lord John Russell), and afterwards by Lord Derby, during
   whose ministry the Reform Act was passed.

Gladstone and Disraeli

   In 1868, the Conservative Benjamin Disraeli entered office. He would
   later prove to be Victoria's favourite Prime Minister. His ministry,
   however, soon collapsed, and he was replaced by William Ewart
   Gladstone, a member of the Liberal Party (as the Whig-Peelite Coalition
   had become known). Gladstone was famously at odds with both Victoria
   and Disraeli during his political career. She once remarked that she
   felt he addressed her as though she were a public meeting. The Queen
   disliked Gladstone, as well as his policies, as much as she admired
   Disraeli. It was during Gladstone's ministry, in the early 1870s, that
   the Queen began to gradually emerge from a state of perpetual mourning
   and isolation. With the encouragement of her family, she became more
   active.

   In 1872, Victoria endured her sixth encounter involving a gun. As she
   was alighting from a carriage, a seventeen-year old Irishman, Arthur
   O'Connor, rushed towards her with a pistol in one hand and a petition
   to free Irish prisoners in the other. The gun was not loaded; the
   youth's aim was most likely to alarm Queen Victoria into accepting the
   petition. John Brown, who was at the Queen's side, knocked the boy to
   the ground before Victoria could even view the pistol; he was rewarded
   with a gold medal for his bravery. O'Connor was sentenced to penal
   transportation and to corporal punishment, as allowed by the Act of
   1842, but Victoria remitted the latter part of the sentence.
   This cartoon, New Crowns for Old Ones from a famous Arabic tale,
   depicts Disraeli as a peddler offering Victoria an Imperial crown
   Enlarge

      This cartoon, New Crowns for Old Ones from a famous Arabic tale,
      depicts Disraeli as a peddler offering Victoria an Imperial crown

   Disraeli returned to power in 1874, at which time an imperialist
   sentiment was espoused by many in the country, including the new Prime
   Minister and the Queen, as well as many in Europe. In 1871 the German
   Empire had been proclaimed, and Vicky, Victoria's eldest daughter, was
   married to its heir. This meant the daughter would someday become an
   Empress consort, appearing to outrank her far more powerful mother the
   Queen.

   To prevent such a diplomatic anomaly, the Royal Titles Act 1876 gave
   the Queen the additional title "Empress of India". Victoria rewarded
   her Prime Minister, accelerating the customary award of an Earldom to a
   former prime minister, by creating him Earl of Beaconsfield while he
   was still in office.

   Lord Beaconsfield's administration fell in 1880 when the Liberals won
   the general election of that year. Gladstone had relinquished the
   leadership of the Liberals four years earlier and the Queen invited
   Lord Hartington, Liberal leader in the Commons, to form a ministry.
   However Lord Hartington declined the opportunity, arguing that no
   Liberal ministry could work without Gladstone and he would serve under
   no one else. Victoria could do little but appoint Gladstone Prime
   Minister.

   The last of the series of attempts on Victoria's life came in 1882. A
   Scottish madman, Roderick McLean, fired a bullet towards the Queen,
   then seated in her carriage, but he missed. Since 1842, each individual
   who attempted to attack the Queen had been tried for a misdemeanour
   (punishable by seven years of penal servitude), but McLean was tried
   for high treason (punishable by death). He was acquitted, having been
   found insane, and was committed to an asylum. Victoria expressed great
   annoyance at the verdict of "not guilty, but insane", and encouraged
   the introduction of the verdict of "guilty, but insane" in the
   following year.

   Victoria's conflicts with Gladstone continued during her later years.
   She was forced to accept his proposed electoral reforms, including the
   Representation of the People Act 1884, which considerably increased the
   electorate. Gladstone's government fell in 1885, to be replaced by the
   ministry of a Conservative, Lord Salisbury. Gladstone returned to power
   in 1886, and he introduced the Irish Home Rule Bill, which sought to
   grant Ireland a separate legislature. Victoria was opposed to the bill,
   which she believed would undermine the British Empire. When the bill
   was rejected by the House of Commons, Gladstone resigned, allowing
   Victoria to appoint Lord Salisbury to resume the premiership.

Later years

   In 1887, the United Kingdom celebrated Victoria's Golden Jubilee.
   Victoria marked the fiftieth anniversary of her accession, 20 June
   1887, with a banquet to which fifty European kings and princes were
   invited. Although she could not have been aware of it, there was a plan
   - ostensibly by Irish freedom fighters - to blow up Westminster Abbey
   while the Queen attended a service of thanksgiving. This assassination
   attempt, when it was discovered, became known as The Jubilee Plot. On
   the next day, she participated in a procession that, in the words of
   Mark Twain, "stretched to the limit of sight in both directions". At
   the time, Victoria was an extremely popular monarch. The scandal of a
   rumoured relationship with her servant had been quieted following John
   Brown's death in 1883, allowing the Queen to be perceived as a symbol
   of morality.
   A silver pound of Queen Victoria, dated 1887, with the crest of the
   House of Hanover on the reverse.
   Enlarge
   A silver pound of Queen Victoria, dated 1887, with the crest of the
   House of Hanover on the reverse.
   Queen Victoria in her Diamond Jubilee photograph. London, 1897
   Enlarge

       Queen Victoria in her Diamond Jubilee photograph. London, 1897

   Victoria was required to tolerate a ministry of William Ewart Gladstone
   one more time, in 1892. After the last of his Irish Home Rule Bills was
   defeated, he retired in 1894, to be replaced by the Imperialist Liberal
   Lord Rosebery. Lord Rosebery was succeeded in 1895 by Lord Salisbury,
   who served for the remainder of Victoria's reign.

   On 22 September 1896, Victoria surpassed George III as the longest
   reigning monarch in English, Scottish, and British history. The Queen
   requested all special public celebrations of the event to be delayed
   until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee. The Colonial
   Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, proposed that the Jubilee be made a
   festival of the British Empire.

   Thus, the Prime Ministers of all the self-governing colonies were
   invited along with their families. The procession in which the Queen
   participated included troops from each British colony and dependency,
   together with soldiers sent by Indian Princes and Chiefs (who were
   subordinate to Victoria, the Empress of India). The Diamond Jubilee
   celebration was an occasion marked by great outpourings of affection
   for the septuagenarian Queen, who was by then confined to a wheelchair.

   It is thought by some historians, though, that Queen Victoria wore a
   white dress only for her Diamond Jubilee celebration, abandoning the
   black she wore continuously since the death of her husband.

   During Victoria's last years, the United Kingdom was involved in the
   Second Boer War, which received the enthusiastic support of the Queen.
   Victoria's personal life was marked by many personal tragedies,
   including the death of her son, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the
   fatal illness of her daughter, The Empress Friedrich, Queen Dowager of
   Prussia, and the death of two of her grandsons, Prince Alfred of
   Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Prince Christian Victor of
   Schleswig-Holstein. Her last ceremonial public function came in 1899,
   when she laid the foundation stone for new buildings of the South
   Kensington Museum, which became known as the Victoria and Albert
   Museum.

Death

   Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria
   spent Christmas in Osborne House (which Prince Albert had designed) on
   the Isle of Wight. She died there from a cerebral haemorrhage on 22
   January 1901, at the age of 81. As she had wished, her own sons lifted
   her into the coffin, where she was dressed in a white dress and her
   wedding veil. Her funeral occurred on 2 February, and after two days of
   lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore
   Mausoleum in Windsor Castle. Because Victoria had a dislike for black
   funerals, London was instead festooned in purple and white. Victoria
   had reigned for a total of 63 years, seven months and two days - the
   longest reign in British history

Succession

   Victoria was succeeded by her eldest son, The Prince of Wales,as King
   Edward VII. Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the House of
   Hanover in the United Kingdom. Edward VII belonged to the House of
   Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, inherited from his father Prince Albert.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

     * 1819-1837: Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent
     * 1837-1901: Her Majesty The Queen

   and, occasionally, outside of the United Kingdom, and with regard to
   India
     * 1876-1901: Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress

   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 as the wife of Prince Albert.

Arms

   Victoria's arms were: Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant
   guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double
   tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or
   stringed Argent (for Ireland). These same arms have been used by every
   subsequent British monarch.

Issue

   Name Birth Death Notes
   The Princess Victoria, Princess Royal 21 November 1840 5 August 1901
   married 1858, Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia; had
   issue
   King Edward VII 9 November 1841 6 May 1910 married 1863, Princess
   Alexandra of Denmark; had issue
   The Princess Alice 25 April 1843 14 December 1878 married 1862, Ludwig
   IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue
   The Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh
   6 August 1844 31 July 1900 married 1874, Grand Duchess Marie
   Alexandrovna of Russia; had issue
   The Princess Helena 25 May 1846 9 June 1923 married 1866, Prince
   Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg; had issue
   The Princess Louise 18 March 1848 3 December 1939 married 1871, John
   Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll; no issue
   The Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn 1 May 1850 16
   January 1942 married 1879, Princess Louise Margarete of Prussia; had
   issue
   The Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany 7 April 1853 28 March 1884 married
   1882, Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont; had issue
   The Princess Beatrice 14 April 1857 26 October 1944 married 1885,
   Prince Henry of Battenberg; had issue

Ancestors

   CAPTION: Victoria of the United Kingdom ancestors in three generations

                       Victoria of the United Kingdom

                                   Father:
             Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
   Father's father:
   George III of the United Kingdom Father's father's father:
   Frederick, Prince of Wales
   Father's father's mother:
   Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
   Father's mother:
   Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Father's mother's father:
   Carl Luis Frederick of Mecklenburg
   Father's mother's mother:
   Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen
   Mother:
   Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Mother's father:
   Francis Frederick of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Mother's father's father:
   Ernst Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
   Mother's father's mother:
   Sofie Antonie of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel
   Mother's mother:
   Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf Mother's mother's father:
   Heinrich XXIV of Reuss-Ebersdorf
   Mother's mother's mother:
   Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg

Legacy

   The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace
   Enlarge

             The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

   Queen Victoria was Britain's first modern monarch. Previous monarchs
   had been active players in the process of government. A series of legal
   reforms saw the House of Commons' power increase, at the expense of the
   Lords and the monarchy, with the monarch's role becoming more symbolic.
   Since Victoria's reign the monarch has had, in Walter Bagehot's words,
   "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to
   warn".

   As Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic than political, it placed a
   strong emphasis on morality and family values, in contrast to the
   sexual, financial and personal scandals that had been associated with
   previous members of the House of Hanover and which had discredited the
   monarchy. Victoria's reign created for Britain the concept of the
   'family monarchy' with which the burgeoning middle classes could
   identify.

   Internationally Victoria was a major figure, not just in image or in
   terms of Britain's influence through the empire, but also because of
   family links throughout Europe's royal families, earning her the
   affectionate nickname "the grandmother of Europe". An example of that
   status can be seen in the fact that three of the main monarchs with
   countries involved in the First World War on the opposing side were
   themselves either grandchildren of Victoria's or married to a
   grandchild of hers. Eight of Victoria's nine children married members
   of European royal families, and the other, Princess Louise, married the
   first Governor General of Canada.
   The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, India
   Enlarge

                   The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, India

   Victoria was the first known carrier of haemophilia in the royal line,
   but it is unclear how she acquired it. It may have been a result of a
   sperm mutation, her father having been fifty-two years old when
   Victoria was conceived. It had also been rumoured that the Duke of Kent
   was not the biological father of Victoria, and that she was in fact the
   daughter of her mother's Irish-born private secretary and reputed
   lover, Sir John Conroy. While there is some evidence as to the
   allegation of a relationship between the duchess and Conroy (Victoria
   herself claimed to the Duke of Wellington to have witnessed an incident
   between them), Conroy's medical history shows no evidence of the
   existence of haemophilia in his family, nor is it normally passed on
   the male side of the family.

   It is much more likely that she acquired it from her mother, though
   there is no known history of haemophilia in her maternal family.
   Victoria herself did not suffer from the disease, however, she passed
   it on to Princess Alice and Princess Beatrice as carriers, and Prince
   Leopold was affected with the disease. The most famous haemophilia
   victim among her descendants was her great-grandson, Alexei, Tsarevich
   of Russia. However, Victoria's line of haemophilia has now probably
   been eliminated. There could still be a surviving branch in the royal
   family of Spain, but, as of 2005, the disease had not surfaced.

   As of 2005, the European monarchs and former monarchs descended from
   Victoria are: the Queen of the United Kingdom (as well as her husband),
   the King of Norway, the King of Sweden, the Queen of Denmark, the King
   of Spain, the King of the Hellenes (deposed) and the King of Romania
   (deposed). The pretenders to the thrones of Serbia, Russia, Prussia and
   Germany, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Hanover, Hesse, and Baden are also
   descendants.

   Queen Victoria experienced unpopularity during the first years of her
   widowhood, but afterwards became extremely well-liked during the 1880s
   and 1890s. In 2002, the British Broadcasting Corporation conducted a
   poll regarding the 100 Greatest Britons; Victoria attained the
   eighteenth place.
   Queen Victoria statue and Neo-Romanesque 1890s Queen Victoria Building
   (QVB), Sydney.The statue stood outside the Irish parliament building,
   Leinster House until 1947.
   Enlarge

   Queen Victoria statue and Neo-Romanesque 1890s Queen Victoria Building
                               (QVB), Sydney.
   The statue stood outside the Irish parliament building, Leinster House
                                 until 1947.

   Queen Victoria statue Queens Gardens, Brisbane
   Enlarge
   Queen Victoria statue
   Queens Gardens, Brisbane

   Innovations of the Victorian era include postage stamps, the first of
   which—the Penny Black (issued 1840)—featured an image of the Queen, and
   the railway, which Victoria was the first British Sovereign to ride.

   Several places in the world have been named after Victoria, including
   two Australian States ( Victoria and Queensland), the capitals of
   British Columbia and Saskatchewan, Canada, the capital of the
   Seychelles, Africa's largest lake, and Victoria Falls. See also List of
   places named after Queen Victoria.

   Queen Victoria remains the most commemorated British monarch in
   history, with statues to her erected throughout the former territories
   of the British Empire. These range from the prominent, such as the
   Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, which was erected as part
   of the remodelling of the façade of the Palace a decade after her
   death, to the obscure: in the town of Cape Coast, Ghana, a bust of the
   Queen presides, rather forlornly, over a small park where goats graze
   around her. Many institutions, thoroughfares, parks, and structures
   bear her name. See also Victoria (disambiguation).

   Post-colonial sensitivities have led to the removal of Victoria's image
   and name from some of these legacies. For instance, the statue of Queen
   Victoria sculpted by Irishman John Hughes erected in front of Leinster
   House in Dublin in 1924, was removed in 1947 after years of criticism
   that it was inappropriate to have the British Queen's likeness stand in
   front of the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State. After
   decades in storage the statue was given by the Republic of Ireland to
   Australia and unveiled on 20 December 1987 to stand outside the Queen
   Victoria Building in the centre of Sydney.

Trivia

     * Queen Victoria publicly praised and used the fashionable 19th
       century cocaine-based drink Vin Mariani that later inspired
       Coca-Cola. The drink was also praised by Popes Leo XIII and Saint
       Pius X
     * Of the current line of succession to the British throne, the first
       510 people listed are descended from Victoria
     * She became a grandmother at 39 and a great-grandmother at 59
     * She died in the arms of her first grandchild, the German Emperor
       William II
     * She outlived three of her nine children and came within seven
       months of outliving a fourth (her eldest daughter, Vicky, who died
       in August, 1901)
     * She outlived eleven of her 42 grandchildren
     * She outlived three of her 88 great-grandchildren
     * As of November 2006, there were two surviving great-grandchildren
       of Queen Victoria: Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Sweden and Lady
       Katherine Brandram
     * Queen Victoria became the de facto first Queen of Canada. The
       Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, during the reign of Queen
       Victoria, making her Canada's first sovereign
     * The Royal Military College of Canada was founded in 1874 and opened
       two years later. In 1878 Queen Victoria conferred the title,
       "Royal"
     * Queen Victoria took on the title Empress of India in 1876,
       officially becoming the first British Monarch to rule India
     * She was the first Queen of Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia
       was confederated on 1 January 1901, only 21 days before her death
     * Her first act after coming to the throne was to remove her bed from
       her mother's room
     * Every day for forty years after her Prince Consort had died, the
       Queen ordered that his clothes be laid afresh on his bed in his
       suite at Windsor Castle
     * Queen Victoria was the only world leader to respond positively to
       messages that were sent to 19th century monarchs by Bahá'u'lláh,
       the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, inviting them to establish
       the " Most Great Peace". Out of all the empires addressed, hers -
       albeit in a lessened form - is the only empire that still remains
     * Queen Victoria started the tradition of a bride wearing a white
       dress at her wedding. Before Victoria's wedding a bride would wear
       her best dress of no particular colour
     * The queen and all her female-line descendants are known to be
       members of mitochondrial haplogroup H
     * She was the first British monarch to be photographed
     * She surpassed her grandfather King George III as the longest lived
       British monarch when she reached the age of 81 years and 240 days
       on 19 January 1901, only three days before her death
     * One of her favourite books was The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
       Hyde

   A statue of Queen Victoria stands in the city centre of Bristol,
   England
   Enlarge

      A statue of Queen Victoria stands in the city centre of Bristol,
                                   England

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