Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria,

24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death. At 63 years and 7 months, her reign as the Queen lasted longer than that of any other British monarch, and is the longest of any female monarch in history. Her reign is known as the Victorian era, and was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military progress within the United Kingdom.

Victoria was of mostly German descent; she was the daughter of the fourth son of George III, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Both the Duke of Kent and George III died a year after her birth, and she inherited the throne at the age of 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. She ascended the throne when the United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the king or queen held relatively few direct political powers and exercised influence by the prime minister's advice; but she served as an important symbolic figure. Her reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire, which reached its zenith and became the foremost global power.

Her 9 children and 42 grandchildren married into royal families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Heiress to the throne

Victoria was born at 4.15 a.m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London.She was the only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and his wife, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The Duke of Kent was the fourth son of the reigning King of the United Kingdom, George III. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. Her godparents were Emperor Alexander I of Russia (for whom her uncle the Duke of York stood proxy), her uncle the Prince Regent (later George IV), her aunt Queen Charlotte of Württemberg (whose sister The Princess Augusta Sophia stood in proxy) and her maternal grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (for whom Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, the infant princess's aunt, stood proxy). On the instructions of the Prince Regent, she was named Alexandrina, after Emperor Alexander I, and Victoria after her mother.

Princess Victoria, aged four

Painting by Stephen Poyntz Denning, 1823

The King's three eldest sons, the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), had no surviving legitimate children, which placed Victoria fifth in the line of succession after her uncles and father. Her grandfather and father died in 1820, and the Duke of York died in 1827. On the death of her uncle George IV in 1830, she became heiress presumptive to her surviving uncle, William IV. Parliament passed the Regency Act 1830, to make special provision for a child monarch if William died while Victoria was still a minor. Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, would act as sole Regent during the Queen's minority, without a council to limit her powers. King William distrusted the Duchess's capacity to be Regent, and declared in her presence that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided.

Victoria later described her childhood as "rather melancholy." Victoria's mother was extremely protective of the princess, who was raised in near isolation under the so called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by The Duchess and her comptroller and supposed lover, Sir John Conroy, to prevent the princess from ever meeting people whom they deemed undesirable, and to render her weak and utterly dependent upon them. She was not allowed to interact with other children. Her main companion was her King Charles spaniel, Dash, and she was required to share a bedroom with her mother every night until she became queen.As a teenager, Victoria resisted their threats and rejected their attempts to make Conroy her personal secretary. Once queen, she immediately banned Conroy from her quarters (though she could not remove him from her mother's household) and consigned her mother to a distant corner of the palace, often refusing to see her.

The Duchess was scandalised by her brothers-in-law's numerous mistresses and bastard children, and the widespread public contempt for the royal family that resulted; she taught her daughter that she must avoid any hint of sexual impropriety, which has been proposed as having prompted the emergence of Victorian morality.

Victoria's governess, Baroness Lehzen from Hanover, was a formative influence for Victoria and continued to run Victoria's household after she ascended to the throne. Victoria's close relationship with Baroness Lehzen came to an end some time after the queen married Prince Albert, who found Lehzen incompetent for her authority in the household, to the point of threatening the safety and health of their first child.

Early reign

Accession

Victoria receives the news of her accession to the throne from Lord Conyngham (left) and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, and a second British Regency was avoided. On 20 June 1837, William IV died from heart failure at the age of 71. and Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom. In her diary she wrote, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma ...who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen..." Drafts of all the official documents (proclamation, oaths of allegiance, etc.) prepared on the first day of her reign described her as Queen Alexandrina Victoria, but at her first Privy Council meeting she signed the register as Victoria; thus, although she was expected to reign as Alexandrina Victoria, the first name was withdrawn at her own wish. Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838, and she became the first monarch to take up residence at Buckingham Palace.

Under Salic law, however, no woman could be monarch of Hanover, a realm which had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714. Hanover passed to her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who became King Ernest Augustus I. (He was the fifth son and eighth child of George III.) As the young queen was as yet unmarried and childless, Ernest Augustus also remained the heir presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom until Victoria's first child was born in 1840.

Earliest known photograph of Victoria, here with her eldest daughter, c. 1844

At the time of her accession, the government was controlled by the Whig Party. 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". However, the Melbourne ministry would not stay in power for long; it was growing unpopular and, moreover, faced considerable difficulty in governing the British colonies, especially during the Rebellions of 1837. In 1839, Lord Melbourne resigned after the Radicals and the Tories (both of whom Victoria detested at that time) joined together to block a Bill before the House of Commons that would have suspended the Constitution of Jamaica.

Victoria's principal advisor was her uncle King Leopold I of Belgium (her mother's brother, and the widower of Victoria's cousin, Princess Charlotte).

The Queen then 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 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. 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

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1854

Marriage of Victoria and Albert by Sir George Hayter

Princess Victoria first met her future husband, her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, when she was just seventeen in 1836. Some authors have written that she initially found Albert to be rather dull. However according to her diary, she enjoyed his company from the beginning. After the visit she wrote, "[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful." She also wrote to her maternal uncle Leopold I of Belgium to thank him "for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert ... He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy." Prince Albert's father was one of her mother's brothers, Ernest, who approved the match.

 However at seventeen, the Princess Victoria, though interested in Albert, was not yet ready to marry.

Victoria came to the throne aged just eighteen on 20 June 1837. Though queen, as an unmarried young woman Victoria was nonetheless required to live with her mother, with whom she was quite angry over the Kensington System. Victoria gave her mother a remote apartment in Buckingham Palace and usually refused to meet her. Lord Melbourne advised Victoria to marry in order to be free of her mother. Her letters of the time show interest in Albert's education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, although she resisted attempts to rush her into marriage.

Though initially Victoria was quite popular, her reputation suffered somewhat in an 1839 court intrigue when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, developed an abdominal tumour that resulted in her death in July 1839. Lady Flora at first refused to submit to a physical examination by a doctor, and her abdominal growth was widely rumored to be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Sir John Conroy, who was long rumoured to be the lover of Victoria's mother. Victoria hated Conroy for his role in constructing the Kensington System that had rendered her childhood so unhappy, and believed the rumours. Lady Flora eventually submitted to an examination and was found to have a terminal tumour. When she died several months later, Conroy and Lady Flora's brother organised a press campaign accusing the Queen of spreading false and disgraceful insults about Lady Flora.

Victoria continued to praise Albert following his second visit in October 1839 after she had become Queen, when she wrote of him: "...dear Albert... He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see." Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to Albert just five days after he had arrived at Windsor on 15 October 1839.

The Queen and Prince Albert were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace, London. Albert became not only the Queen's companion, but an important political advisor, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in the first half of her life following Melbourne's death. Victoria's mother was evicted from the palace, and Victoria rarely visited her.

During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year-old Edward Oxford attempted to assassinate the Queen while 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. The first of the royal couple's nine children, named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in Court dress.

Further attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria occurred between May and July 1842. First, on 29 May at St. James's Park, John Francis fired a pistol at the Queen while she was in a carriage but was immediately seized by Police Constable William Trounce. Francis was convicted of high treason. The death sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Then, on 3 July, just days after Francis's sentence was commuted, another boy, John William Bean,attempted to shoot the Queen. Prince Albert felt that the attempts were encouraged by Oxford's acquittal in 1840. 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 the Treason Act 1842. Under the new law, an assault with a dangerous weapon in the monarch's presence with the intent of alarming her was made punishable by seven years' imprisonment and flogging. Bean was thus sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment; however, neither he, nor any person who violated the act in the future, was flogged.

During the same summer as these two assassination attempts, Victoria made her first journey by train, travelling from Slough railway station (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop's Bridge, near Paddington (in London), on 13 June 1842 in the 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. The Queen and the Prince Consort both complained the train was going too fast at 20 mph (30 km/h), fearing the train would derail.

Early Victorian politics and further assassination attempts

A young Queen Victoria

Peel's ministry soon 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 prior consultation of the Prime Minister.

Victoria's British Prime Ministers

Year Prime Minister (party)

1835 Lord Melbourne (Whig)

1841 Sir Robert Peel (Conservative)

1846 Lord John Russell (Whig)

1852 (Feb.) Lord Derby (Cons.)

1852 (Dec.) Lord Aberdeen (Peelite)

1855 Lord Palmerston (Liberal)

1858 Derby (C.)

1859 Palmerston (L.)

1865 Russell (L.)

1866 Derby (C.)

1868 (Feb.) Benjamin Disraeli (Cons.)

1868 (Dec.) William Ewart Gladstone (Lib.)

1874 Disraeli (C.)

1880 Gladstone (L.)

1885 Lord Salisbury (Cons.)

1886 (Feb.) Gladstone (L.)

1886 (July) Salisbury (C.)

1892 Gladstone (L.)

1894 Lord Rosebery (Lib.)

1895 Salisbury (C.)

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 pleaded 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. Her love of the country 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 a million Irish people and saw the emigration of another million.In response to what came to be called the Great Famine (in Irish, An Gorta Mór), the Queen personally donated £2,000 (2,000 pounds sterling) to the Irish people. However, when Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire declared that he would send £10,000 in aid, Queen Victoria requested that the Sultan send only £1,000, because she had sent only £2,000. The Sultan sent the £1,000 but also secretly sent three ships full of food. British courts tried to block the ships, but the food arrived at Drogheda harbour and was left there by Ottoman sailors.[citation needed] However, myths were generated towards the end of the 19th century that she had donated a maximum of £5 in aid to the Irish, and on the same day also gave £5 to Battersea Dog Shelter. This was false, as she in fact contributed £2,000, substantially more than many Irish Catholic Bishops, one of whom donated £1,000 to a charity for the hungry and £10,000 to a University project.

Additionally, the policies of her prime minister, Lord John Russell, were often blamed for exacerbating the severity of the famine, which adversely affected the Queen's popularity in Ireland. However Victoria was a strong supporter of the Irish; she supported the Maynooth Grant and made a point, on visiting Ireland, of visiting the seminary.

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 to both draw attention from the famine and alert British politicians through the Queen's presence to the seriousness of the crisis in Ireland. Despite the negative impact of the famine on the Queen's popularity she remained popular enough for many Irish nationalists at party meetings to finish by singing "God Save the Queen". She became known in Ireland as "The Famine Queen", and was much vilified then, as now. In 1853 she visited the Great Industrial Exhibition which was the biggest international event held to date in Ireland. Over one million attended and Victoria knighted the architect of the exhibition, John Benson.

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria and their nine children. Left to right : Alice, Arthur, The Prince Consort, The Prince of Wales, Leopold ( in front of him), Louise, Queen Victoria with Beatrice, Alfred, Victoria and Helena