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Royalty > Queen Victoria
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| Queen
Victoria
Queen Victoria - Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria)
(24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and Empress of India
from 1 January 1877 until her death. Her reign lasted more than
sixty-three years, longer than that of any other British monarch.
As well as being Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, she was also the first monarch to use the title Empress
of India. The reign of Victoria 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. Victoria was the
last monarch of the House of Hanover; her successor belonged to
the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. |
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Early life
Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth
son of King George III. The Duke of Kent and Strathearn, like many
other sons of George III, did not marry during his youth. The eldest
son, the Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), did marry,
but had only a daughter, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales. When
she died in 1817, the remaining unmarried sons of King George III
scrambled to marry (the Prince Regent and the Duke of York were
already married, but estranged from their wives) and father children
to provide an heir for the king. At the age of fifty the Duke of
Kent and Strathearn married Princess Viktoria 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 baptised in the Cupola Room of Kensington Palace on 24 June
1819 by Charles Manners-Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury and her
godparents were the Prince Regent, the Tsar of Russia (in whose
honour she received her first name), the Queen 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, but was called
Drina within the family. Princess Victoria's father died of pneumonia
eight months after she was born. Her grandfather, George III, died
blind and insane less than a week 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, her uncle,
King George IV, died childless, leaving the throne to his brother,
the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, who became King William IV.
As the new king was childless, the young Princess Victoria became
heiress-presumptive to the throne. Since the law at that time made
no special provision for a child monarch, Victoria would have been
eligible to govern the realm as would an adult. In order to prevent
such a scenario, Parliament passed the Regency Act 1831, 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-Gotha,
when she was sixteen years old. Prince Albert was Victoria's first
cousin; his father was the brother of her mother. Princess Victoria's
uncle, King William IV, disapproved of the match, but his objections
failed to dissuade the couple. 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
desired the match). Whatever Albert's original reasons for marrying
Victoria may have been, theirs proved to be an extremely happy marriage.
Early Reign
King William IV died at the age of seventy-one on 20 June 1837,
leaving the throne to Victoria. As the young queen had just turned
eighteen years old, no regency was necessary. By Salic law, no woman
could rule Hanover, a realm which had shared a monarch with Britain
since 1714. Hanover went not to Victoria, but to her uncle, the
Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who became King Ernest Augustus
of Hanover. As the young queen was as yet unmarried and childless,
Ernest Augustus was also the heir-presumptive to the British throne.
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 Prince Albert on 10 February 1840 at the Chapel
Royal in St. James's Palace; four days before, Victoria granted
her husband 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.
During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year old Edward Oxford
attempted to assassinate the Queen whilst 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, the King of Hanover.
These conspiracy theories afflicted the country with a wave of patriotism
and loyalty.
The shooting had no effect on the queen's health or on her pregnancy.
The first child of the royal couple, named Victoria, was born on
21 November 1840. Eight more children would be born during the exceptionally
happy marriage between Victoria and Prince Albert. Albert was not
only the Queen's companion, but also an important political advisor,
replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in her life. Having
found a partner, Victoria no longer relied on the Whig ladies at
her court for companionship. Thus, when Whigs under Melbourne lost
the elections of 1841 and were replaced by the Tories under Peel,
the Bedchamber Crisis was not repeated. 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 the Queen 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 PC53 William Trounce. He was convicted
of high treason, but his death sentence was commuted to transportation
for life. 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 an act, 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; neither he,
nor any person who violated the act in the future, was flogged.
Early Victorian politics
Peel's ministry faced a crisis involving the repeal of the Corn
Laws. 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 pled 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.
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 and was involved in various famine charities.
Nevertheless the fact that the policies of the ministry of Lord
John Russell were widely blamed for exacerbating the severity of
the famine affected the Queen's popularity. To extreme republicans
Victoria came to be called the "Famine Queen", with mythical
stories of her donating as little as £5 to famine relief becoming
accepted in republican lore.
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 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.
Middle Years
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).
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. After the conclusion 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 the direct rule of the
Crown (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 in 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. 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".
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 her residence at Osborne
in 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 Lord 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 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. |
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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 Victoria's eldest daughter was married to its
heir, so the daughter would someday become an Empress, outranking
her far-more-powerful mother the Queen. To prevent such a diplomatic
anomaly, in 1876 a new Royal Titles Act of Parliament 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, and Victoria could do little but appoint
Gladstone Prime Minister. |
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This cartoon, New Crowns for Old Ones
from a famous Arabic tale, depicts Disraeli as a peddler offering
Victoria an Imperial crown. |
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The last of the series of attempts
on Victoria's life came in 1882. A Scottish madman, Roderick Maclean,
fired a bullet towards the Queen, then seated in her carriage, but
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 Maclean 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 20 June 1887 — the fiftieth anniversary of her accession
— 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 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.
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, or British history. In accordance
with the Queen's request, all special public celebrations of the
event were delayed until 1897, the Queen's 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.
During Victoria's last years, the United Kingdom was involved in
the 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 of Germany, and the
death of two of her grandsons. 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.
Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria
spent Christmas in Osborne House (which Prince Albert had designed
himself) on the Isle of Wight. She died there on 22 January 1901,
having reigned for sixty-three years, seven months, and two days,
more than any British monarch before or since. Her funeral occurred
on 2 February; after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred
in the Frogmore Mausoleum beside her husband.
Victoria was succeeded by her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, who
reigned as King Edward VII. Victoria's death brought an end to the
rule of the House of Hanover in the United Kingdom; King Edward
VII, like his father Prince Albert, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
King Edward VII's son and successor, King George V, changed the
name of the Royal House to Windsor during the First World War. (The
name "Saxe-Coburg-Gotha" was associated with the enemy
of the United Kingdom during the war, Germany, led by her grandson
Kaiser Wilhelm II.)
Legacy
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".
Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic than political, with 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 opposite sides 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 a Scottish Duke.
Victoria was the first known carrier of haemophilia in the royal
line, but it is unclear how she acquired it. She may have acquired
it as 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. Though she did not suffer from the disease, 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 has not surfaced.
As of 2004, the European monarchs and former monarchs descended
from Victoria are: the Queen of the United Kingdom, 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 Yugoslavia and 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.
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 British Empire.
The most prominent statue is 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.
A much more controversial statue to Queen Victoria sculpted by Irishman
John Hughes was erected on the Kildare Street front of Leinster
House in Dublin, the then headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society.
It was unveiled by King Edward VII. In 1924, two years after renting
the property for parliamentary purposes, the building was bought
and turned into the official seat of Oireachtas Eireann, the parliament
of the Irish Free State. After years of criticism of having a statue
of Victoria, known disparagingly by Irish republicans as the "famine
queen", outside Ireland's parliament, the statue was removed
in 1947. 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.
A statue of Queen Victoria was also unveiled in 1906 in Queens Gardens
in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Style and Arms
Victoria's first official style as monarch was "Victoria, by
the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Queen, Defender of the Faith". The title "Empress of India"
was added in 1876.
At birth Victoria was a granddaughter of a monarch (George III)
through the male line and as such held the style and title of a
Royal Highness and Princess of the United Kingdom and was styled
Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent (as the daughter of
the Duke of Kent and Strathearn). When she acceded to the throne
as Queen of the United Kingdom she was styled Her Majesty The Queen,
and later (occasionally) Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress
after being created Empress of India in 1877.
Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent (1819-1837)
Her Majesty The Queen (1837-1901)
occasionally Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress (1877-1901)
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 British monarch since Victoria.
Surname
Victoria belonged to the House of Hanover, whereby some
assign the surname d'Este or the surname Guelph to her though 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 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
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 Heralds. She is therefore sometimes referred to as Alexandrina
Victoria von Wettin, née Hanover.
While Albert was of the House of Saxe-Coburg-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 Heralds again informed him that
his family surname prior to the change was Wettin. (In the early
1960s an Order-in-Council partially reversed the decision by granting
Queen Elizabeth II's descendants a separate family surname, Mountbatten-Windsor.)
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