Queen Victoria

Alexandrina Victoria was the only child of the fourth son of King George III: Edward, duke of Kent.

Her mother was Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg, sister of King Leopold of the Belgians, and she was born on May, 24, 1819. Victoria didn't go to school. She was taught at home.
She studied history, geography, and the Bible.
She was taught how to play the piano and learned how to paint, a hobby that she enjoyed into her 60s.
Victoria's first language was German.
At three years old she learnt to speak English and French.

Later she learnt to speak Hindustani because she was ruler of India as well.
She also learned to speak Italian because she loved opera.

Victoria succeeded her uncle, William IV in 1837, aged eighteen.
She made it clear that she wished to be politically informed, and so she was fostered by the Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne who became her mentor .
Her reign would dominate the rest of the century.

She 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.
She reigned for 64 years, the longest reign in British history.

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.
She was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace.

Politics

On her accession, the morale of the population was low and the monarchy was unpopular, but Victoria won the nation's hearts with her modesty and practicality.
She soon gained the love and respect of her country.
She was intelligent. She was sincere and honest.
She had a sense of humour.
She was considerate and tolerant of others, she wanted to hear other people's opinions.
She loved animals.
People loved her personality and style.

In 1847, The House of Lords (unelected senior members of state and church) was officially opened and were completed in 1852.
The Houses of Parliament are officially known as the New Palace of Westminster. Victoria's first Legislative Council (1851-6) took three decisions that profoundly influenced the course and conduct of parliamentary democracy in Victoria:
* It drafted a Constitution.
* It introduced the Secret Ballot.
* It began the construction of Parliament House.

Britain became the most powerful country in the world, with the largest empire that had ever existed, ruling a quarter of the world's population.

The number of people living in Britain more than doubled, causing a huge demand for food, clothes and housing.
Factories and machines were built to meet this demand and new towns grew up, changing the landscape and the ways people lived and worked.
Railways, originally built to transport goods, meant people could travel easily around the country for the first time.


Marriage and family
In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha they fell madly and deeply in love.

They had a mutual respect and admiration for each other.
They were completely devoted to each other.
He was her husband, her friend, her confidant and her top advisor. They had 9 children together.
Albert died from typhoid fever in 1861.

Queen Victoria mourned for the rest of her life, wearing black and secluding herself in her castle.
She said that she would soon follow her beloved in death, but lived 40 years more! Victoria had nine children, 40 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren, scattered all over Europe.
Many of their children and grandchildren married heirs to thrones of Spain, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Romania. That’s the reason why Victoria was known as the "Grandmother of Europe".


She died in 1901 at the age of 81.

She was buried in a white dress and her wedding veil.
Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the House of Hanover in the United Kingdom.
King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, inherited from his father Prince Albert. Both Queen Elizabeth, the Queen today, and her consort (as her husband is known), the Duke of Edinburgh, are great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.