Queen Victoria

Anahí Denis and Florencia Maneiro

The Queen
Alexandrina Victoria of Hannover was born at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819 during a
critical moment for the British Monarchy. [1] Before her birth, none of insane King George III’s
successors had descendants who survived. Princes were forced to marry and produce an heir
to the throne. When Princess Victoria was born she was the fifth in line of succession, after
three of her uncles and her father Edward Duke of Kent. Edward died in 1820 only a week
before the King himself. Her accession to the throne occurred in June 20, 1837 when her
predecessor, King William IV died without children. The coronation ceremony took place at
Westminster Abbey in June 28, 1838 and she became Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Her
reign lasted sixty-three years, from 1837 to 1901 when she died at eighty-one years old. Her
second child, Prince Edward, succeeded her as King Edward VII. That period during the second
half of the nineteenth century was known as ‘The Victorian Age’.

Personality Traits
Queen Victoria was a passionate woman with a strong personality and clear ideas who enjoyed
cultural and free-air activities that let her connect with nature. She loved to write, and left
more than one hundred and twenty diaries that recorded her life since the beginning of her
teen years. Her love for letters was nothing strange in a person who was able to speak six
languages, five of them fluently. She was also keen on painting and had a particular interest in
pictures that show nude people. What is more, she can be shortly described as a contradictory
person, as this characteristic of her personality ruled most of her life style.

During her unhappy childhood, she was raised under a strict orthodox system design by her
mother’s advisor, Sir John Conroy. That developed into a series of emotional wounds that
affected all her life and provoked controversy after her coronation. [1] For example: as she has
spent her adolescence sharing room with her controlling mother, once she was queen not only
she asked for her own bedroom but also she demanded her mother to reside in other
house.[2] Furthermore, she was a woman that gave her political opinion and was openly
impartial about ministers and parties. However, with her servants and the society, she kept as
a conservative lady that did not want to accept woman’s right to vote, freedom to protest or
politics that reduce the royals’ powers. [1]

Something similar happened with her family life. Being a queen prevented her cousin Albert to
propose her, so she had to ask him to merry her: this was not a common aspect of the
Victorian Era. As well, another uncommon situation for those years was the love and pure
attraction the pair felt for each other. It went up to a point that, although at first Queen
Victoria was reluctant to allow her husband to take part into royal business, after his initial
participations she became completely dependent on his advice and decisions. [2] As partners,
the queen and prince consort had nine children with little age difference, which is another
proof of Victoria’s contradictions. The woman hated being pregnant and felt uncomfortable
around babies and kids. She even suffered from post-birth depression after each kid deliver.
Finally, her emotional health was deeply compromised after Albert’s death at forty-three years
old that leave the queen hopeless and forced her to retire of public-eye during a long period,
showing a high contrast with the fierce woman that was crowned. [1]

Main Contributions
The Victorian Era was a period of social, political, military and scientific revolutions within
Great Britain. Queen Victoria took active part in all of them, either in a positive or negative
way. She expected and succeeded in turning her country into a great Empire. With that she
was able to restore the faith in a monarchy that had damaged its reputation during the
previous reigns because of the kings’ behaviour. And also the power lost occurred since the
creation of the democratic parliament, formed during the 1800. As the largest reigning Queen
up to that point, and the second largest in history (in 2015, Queen Elizabeth II exceeded her
sixty-three years and seven month of monarchy), Queen Victoria had to overcome important
changes and crisis. [1]

The first main event happened was the Irish famine that starter in 1845, occasioned by a
plague that affected the potato’s crops. Before that situation, people in the catholic country
felt real affection upon the young Queen as well as she did for the nation. However, the British
government delayed three years to repeal the ‘Corn Law’ that prevented the import of cheap
grain into Ireland, a time that cost many lives. During this deep crisis, a million people died and
other million emigrated. As a result, almost 25 per cent of Irish population went down. Queen
Victoria donated 5000 pounds to help the famine relief, and visited Ireland in 1849 trying to
repair the government’s reputation. But she failed and nowadays many historians agreed in
that it was one of the most important drivers of the Irish independence. [3]

After that hard episode, better times came to the British monarchy thanks to Prince Albert. He
organized in 1851 the Great Exhibition. That was the first of many following International fairs
of culture and industry that became a fashion during the Victorian Age. It was held in a Crystal
structure built in Hyde Park specially for housing the important show. It took park between
May and October. Many inventions were presented there like the daguerreotypes, a
predecessor of fax-machine, the first voting machine and a new powerful telescope; also some
strange diamonds and jewellery was exhibit, among other things. Important people of those
times, as Charles Darwin, Lewis Carroll or Charles Dickens attended to the presentations. The
money raised by the event was used to create the South Kensington complex of colleges and
museums. [4]

The Crimean war, in which Great Britain took part from 1854 to its end, as well as the Indian
Mutiny (1856-57) were two hard situations that highlighted the appreciation that British
People felt for their royal family. Also, they clearly established the new role that the monarchy
had in a country that had become constitutional. As the Queen did not have power to take
military decisions by herself, she took active part as a figure of hope and support for her
nation. That helped to silence rumours about Prince Albert’s relations with Russia during the
Crimean conflict while keeping citizens’ spirits high. Both triumph of the British Crown, gave a
 victorious closing to the Prince’s life, which ended suddenly in the latest days of 1861 leaving
behind a bereaved Victoria. [5] [6]

During the following years, Queen Victoria disappeared from public eye until the 1870s. In
those years her eldest daughter got married with the German heir to the throne. After that,
the conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, decided to take back the Queen to her
royal duties. In 1876 he proclaimed her Empress of India as a symbol power within the British
monarchy and to create a sense of belonging in the Indian culture, which had used the
investment along its history. [7] Although at first British people showed discontent with the
news, it lasted for not much as the reigning woman started a period of great movement and
attention towards the nation. She kept for the rest of her life peace policies and social ideas
that helped all citizens of Great Britain, who return her love: her Golden and Diamond Jubilees
were highly celebrated. Queen Victoria’s later years were dedicated to accompany the fighters
of the South African War, and to become a model sovereign. [2] As stated in her biography in
the site Britannica.com:

“Her essential achievement was simple. By the length of her reign, the longest in British history
until that of Elizabeth II, she had restored both dignity and popularity to a tarnished crown: an
achievement of character, as well as of longevity. Historians may differ in their assessment of
her political acumen, her political importance, or her role as a constitutional monarch. None
will question her high sense of duty or the transparent honesty, the massive simplicity, of her
royal character.”

She died in January 22, 1901 at Osborne, Isle of Wight. She was buried at Winsor besides her
husband in a Royal Mausoleum she had built for them. [1]

References
[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Victoria-queen-of-United-Kingdom written by
Edgar Trevor Williams and Meredith Veldman. Updated June 14, 2018
[2] http://www.pbs.org/empires/victoria/majesty/index.html History of a Reign; Her Majesty ; Secrets of the
Empire
[3] https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history written by Joel Mokyr. Updated April 19, 2017
[4] http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/g/great-exhibition/ Victoria and Albert Museum Site, London 2016
[5] https://www.historyextra.com/period/your-60-second-guide-to-the-crimean-war/ the official website for BBC
History Magazine and BBC World Histories Magazine. Crimean War Interview to Dr. David Murphy March 7, 2014.
[6] http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/indian_rebellion_01.shtml By Professor Peter Marshall
Last updated February 17, 2011.
[7] http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/queen-victoria-becomes-empress-india Makin
Britain- Discover how South Asians shaped the nation, 1870-1950

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