House of Hanover - Queen Victoria
Name: Queen Victoria
Father: Edward, Duke of Kent (son of George III)
Mother: Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Born: May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace
Ascended to the throne: June 20, 1837 aged 18 years
Crowned: June 28, 1838 at Westminster Abbey
Married: Albert, son of Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, on February 10, 1840
Children: Four sons including Edward VII, and five daughters
Died: January 22, 1901 at Osborne, Isle of Wight, aged 81 years, 7 months, and 29 days
Buried at: Frogmore
Named Alexandrina Victoria but known as Victoria, she was the only child of Edward Duke of Kent and Victoria Saxe-Coburg. Her father died when she was 1 year old and her domineering mother kept her away from her ‘wicked’ uncles Kings George and William. She had a sheltered upbringing, and came to the throne shortly after her 18th birthday in 1837 on the death of her uncle William IV who had no surviving legitimate children. She was at the time unmarried and not crowned until June 28, 1838. In February 1840 she married her cousin and love of her life Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The British Empire was at the height of its power and she ruled over 450 million people, one quarter of the world’s population and approximately one quarter of the work’s landmass. It stretched so far around the globe from Canada to the Caribbean, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand that it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. India was Jewel in the Crown and in 1876 she was given the title Empress of India. The Victorian era was a time of immense industrial, political, trade, scientific and military progress for Great Britain. In her early years she was dependent on her Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and her uncle King Leopold of Belgium for advice, but increasingly her husband Albert became her main advisor. He was involved in organising the Great Exhibition in 1851, and persuaded her to take a more constitutional role in leaving the rule of the nation and Empire to Parliament. She was strong willed and her relations with her prime ministers ranged from the affectionate (Melbourne and Disraeli) to the stormy (Peel, Palmerston, and Gladstone).
Victoria and Albert had four sons, five daughters and 42 grandchildren who were married to royalty across Europe making her the ‘grandmother of Europe’. Her daughter Victoria was mother of the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, and her grand-daughter Alexandria was the wife of Nicholas II Emperor and last Tzar of Russia. The death of Albert from typhoid in 1861 plunged Victoria into mourning and she withdrew almost completely from public life spending her time at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and Osborne house on the Isle of Wight where she spent time with her favourite Scottish servant John Brown. This encouraged republican sentiments and she was the target of several assassination attempts.
However she kept control of affairs, refusing her son Edward, Prince of Wales (who became Edward VII) any active role. Her golden jubilee in 1887 and diamond jubilee in 1897 regained her popular support and matriarchal role as Queen of the nation and Empire. She died at Osborne House on 22 January 1901, and was buried at Windsor. Her reign lasted 63 years and 7 months which is the second longest of any British monarch.
Queen Victoria's Signature
Timeline for Queen Victoria
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1837 | Victoria succeeds her uncle, William IV |
| 1838 | Publication of People’s Charter. Start of Chartism. |
| 1839 | First Afghan War. British Forces capture the fortress of Ghazi in Afghanistan. |
| 1839 | - 42 First Opium War. Britain gains Hong Kong. |
| 1840 | Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. |
| 1840 | The Penny Post is introduced. First postage stamp is the Penny Black. |
| 1840 | First colonist settlement in New Zealand |
| 1841 | Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister |
| 1842 | End of First Opium War. Britain gains Hong Kong |
| 1843 | Launch of SS Great Britain the worlds first all metal ship. |
| 1844 | Railway building mania starts. 5,000 miles of track are built in Britain by 1846 |
| 1845 | - 1849 Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people. Many emigrate to America. |
| 1846 | Repeal of the Corn Laws |
| 1848 | Major Chartist demonstration in London. |
| 1848 | Pre-Raphaelite movement begins |
| 1849 | Harrods store in London is opened |
| 1851 | Great Exhibition takes place in Hyde Park. Its success is largely due to Prince Albert. |
| 1852 | Death of the Duke of Wellington |
| 1853 | Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory. |
| 1853 | Victoria uses chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold. |
| 1854 | -1856 Crimean War fought by Britain and France against Russia. |
| 1854 | Charge of the Light Brigade |
| 1854 | 10,000 die of cholera from contaminated water in London. |
| 1856 | The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery. |
| 1856 | David Livingstone discovers the Victoria Falls |
| 1857 | -1858 Indian Mutiny against British rule. |
| 1858 | Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches The Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world and the first with a double iron hull. |
| 1858 | First trans-Atlantic telegraph service |
| 1859 | Publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species. |
| 1861 | Prince Albert dies of typhoid |
| 1861 | - 65 Civil War in America. Southern states unsuccessfully seek to involve Britain which has sufficient cotton from Egypt and India, but needs the Union North's grain. |
| 1863 | The world's first underground railway is opened in London |
| 1863 | Edward, Prince of Wales, marries Alexandra of Denmark |
| 1863 | The Salvation Army is founded. |
| 1863 | The Football Association is founded. |
| 1865 | Slavery is ended in America with Northern Union victory in the American Civil War |
| 1867 | The Second Reform Bill doubles the franchise vote to two million. |
| 1867 | Canada becomes the first independent dominion in the Empire. |
| 1867 | Karl Marx publishes the first volume of Das Kapital |
| 1868 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time. |
| 1869 | The Irish Church is disestablished. |
| 1870 | First Education Act. Primary education becomes compulsory. |
| 1870 | Death of Charles Dickens |
| 1871 | Trade Unions are legalized |
| 1872 | Secret voting is introduced for elections. |
| 1872 | Henry Stanley finds David Livingstone who had been missing in Africa. |
| 1874 | Disraeli becomes Prime Minister for the second time. |
| 1875 | Suez Canal shares purchased for Britain. |
| 1875 | Thomas Moy demonstrates his Aerial Steamer the worlds first flying machine at Crystal Palace, London |
| 1876 | Victoria becomes Empress of India. |
| 1876 | Scots Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone |
| 1878 | Second Afghan War. British defend the Kyber Pass. |
| 1878 | William Booths Christian movement adopts the name The Salvation Army |
| 1879 | Tay Bridge disaster |
| 1879 | Zulu war, British troops massacred at Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift |
| 1880 | Gladstone succeeds Disraeli as Prime Minister |
| 1880 | - 1881 First conflict with Boers in South Africa |
| 1883 | British occupy Egypt |
| 1884 | Third Reform Act all adult males given the vote. |
| 1884 | Greenwich Meridian and Mean Time adopted |
| 1886 | First Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. |
| 1887 | Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee. She has ruled for 50 years. |
| 1887 | Independent Labour Party is founded. |
| 1891 | Free schooling is introduced. 11 years later school attendance becomes compulsory for all children. |
| 1893 | Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords. |
| 1897 | Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. |
| 1897 | Marconi demonstrates wireless transmission across the Bristol Channel |
| 1899 | -1902 Boer War in South Africa. Siege of Mafeking |
| 1900 | Labour party founded |
| 1901 | Queen Victoria dies, aged 81. |