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Queen VictoriaQueen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death,
Date of Birth: 24.05.1819
Country:  Great Britain |
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Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ruled from June 20, 1837, until her death. Her reign was so long that it became known as the Victorian era, which saw the rise of Victorian morals, literature, architecture, music, and even furniture. Her rule marked a period of great prosperity for Britain in politics, industry, culture, and science. Under Queen Victoria, the British Empire became the empire on which the sun never set. However, the role of the queen did not hold real political power, and the British monarchy became more of a symbol of old England and its glorious traditions, which still exist today.
Biography of Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria, the Queen of the United Kingdom and Ireland, ruled longer than any other British monarch. She spent a total of 63 years, 7 months, and 2 days on the throne, from June 20, 1837, until her death on January 22, 1901. Following Victoria's reign, her son Edward VII became the King of Great Britain, who had been referred to as the Prince of Wales for 59 years, causing some criticism at the time.
Alexandrina Victoria, the daughter of Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, and his wife, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was born on May 24, 1819. Her birth brought relief to a dynasty that was at risk of disappearing. Two years prior to her birth, her cousin Charlotte Augusta of Wales, the only legitimate granddaughter of the old king and the potential heir to the throne, died during childbirth, leaving no one to inherit the crown of the British Empire. As a result, all unmarried British princes urgently got married in the following two years in an attempt to have children, and the only daughter of the king's fourth son became the heiress to the British Empire. Alexandrina was named after the Russian Emperor Alexander I, but later she rejected this name and preferred to be called Victoria. Interestingly, Victoria had older siblings, the children of her mother from her first marriage, although this is often not mentioned.
In 1820, Victoria's father died of pneumonia, and she grew up under the strict supervision of her mother, who raised her according to a special system called the Kensington System, named after the palace they lived in. Victoria's childhood was not a happy one. She was closely watched, and when she became queen at the age of eighteen after the death of her uncle, her first order was to remove her mother's bed from her bedroom to gain some personal space.
In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin on her mother's side, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Since young Victoria held a higher position, the marriage proposal had to come from her. She sincerely loved her husband, who became her faithful friend and advisor. They had nine children together, and when Albert died in 1861 of typhoid fever, Victoria mourned his loss deeply and wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life. Their nine children married into royal and aristocratic families all over Europe, earning Queen Victoria the nickname "the grandmother of Europe."
Another interesting but less significant fact is that Victoria survived several assassination attempts. She was shot at multiple times, and one former officer even managed to hit her with a cane, leaving bruises on her forehead. Victoria philosophically regarded these assassination attempts and somewhat gloomily remarked that after being shot at, the people seemed to love her a little more. However, the popularity of the queen fluctuated throughout her long life, and when she passed away, her subjects genuinely mourned her.
Victoria was the last representative of the Hanoverian dynasty. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty, as did his father. However, during the First World War, Victoria's grandson, George V, rid the dynasty of its overly German name and renamed it the House of Windsor.
