Queen Victoria

Short Biography of Queen Victoria (1819 –1901)

Queen Victoria was born 24 May 1819. Aged 18 she became Queen of Great Britain and she went on to rule for 63 years – at the time – she was the longest-accommodating Monarch in Europe. She ruled through a period of British imperialism with the British Imperium expanding and she became Empress of India. She came to epitomise an era of gregarious conservatism and economic expansion.

She was the granddaughter of George III, and her father, Edward was fourth in line to the throne. However, her father’s three brothers all died without leaving any living relatives. She was crowned Queen on 20 June 1837 and ruled until her death 63 years later in 1901.

Early life
Her early life until the age of 18 was closeted and meticulously controlled by her mother and her assistant John Conroy. Her mother,
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld kept Victoria very proximate and sanctioned her little genuine-life experience. She was brought up with a rigorous set of rules and regulations kenned as the ‘Kensington System’. Victoria described her childhood as “rather melancholy.” In 1830 her grandfather George III died. He was prospered by King William IV, but in 1837, he withal passed away, denoting the crown passed onto Victoria who was aged only 18, and marginally extemporaneous for the role.

One of her first decisions was to cut liberate from her mother and gain more independence from the controlling atmosphere she had been brought up in. She additionally took her incipient obligations very solemnly. On her ascendency to the throne, she verbalized:

“Since it has delectated Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to consummate my obligation towards my country; I am very adolescent and perhaps in many, though not in all things, callow, but I am sure that very few have more genuine good will and more authentic desire to do what is fit and right than I have.”

Queen Victoria, Extract from the Queen’s Journal, Tuesday, 20th June 1837.

Espousement
After her coronation, Queen Victoria met many potential suitors from Royal houses across Europe. She fell in love with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany. There were espoused in 1840. Victoria and Prince Albert had a very proximate, intimate relationship and she described the intensity of feelings towards her beloved husband. She inscribed in her diary shortly after their espousement.

“MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his exorbitant love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & jubilance I never could have hoped to have felt afore!”

– Queen Victoria.

In the same year as her espousement, Queen Victoria gave birth to her first child – a daughter designated Victoria. They had nine children in total. She found gravidity and childbirth arduous and once exclaimed. “An unsightly baby is a very nasty object – and the most pulchritudinous is frightful.”

Queen Victoria and Nineteenth-Century Britain
The 19th Century was a time of unprecedented expansion for Britain in term of both industry and Imperium. Albeit her popularity ebbed and flowed during her reign, towards the terminus of her crown, she had become a symbol of British imperialism and pride.

The Victorian period withal witnessed great advances in science and technology. It became kenned as the steam age, enabling people to facilely peregrinate throughout the UK and the World.

Queen Victoria was emblematic of this period. She was an ebullient adherent of the British Imperium. She celebrated at Lord Kitchener’s triumph in the Sudan; she fortified British involution in the Boer War. She was withal jubilant to preside over the expansion of the British Imperium, which was to stretch across the globe. In 1877 Queen Victoria was made Empress of India, in a move instigated by the imperialist Disraeli. Famously, at the terminus of the Victorian period, people could verbalize ‘the sun never set on the British Imperium.’

Queen Victoria was conservative in her politics and convivial views. She opposed women’s rights and was convivially conservative. This led to a lamentable episode. When she optically discerned an auxiliary who appeared to be enceinte, Victoria claimed she was having an affair. The Queen authentically made her take a test to prove she was a virgin. The test was positive and the magnification in her stomach was genuinely a form of cancer; a few months later the coadjutant died, and Queen Victoria suffered a decline in her popularity as a result of this episode.

In the early part of her reign, she became a close friend and confidant of the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. She spent many hours verbalizing with him and relied on his political advice. Lord Melbourne was a Whig, with conservative postures. He endeavored to shield Queen Victoria from the extreme penuriousness that was endemic in components of the UK.

Queen Victoria was withal highly devoted to her husband, Prince Albert; together they had nine children. When Prince Albert died in 1861, at the age of 41, Queen Victoria went into deep mourning and struggled to surmount this loss. She became reclusive and was reluctant to appear in public. Parliament and Benjamin Disraeli had to utilize all their persuasive power to get her to open parliament in 1866 and 1867. Her obnubilating from the public led to a decline in popularity. However, by the terminus of her reign, her popularity was renovated. This was partly due to the ascension of Great Britain as the leading superpower of the era.

For sundry reasons, several endeavors were made on the life of Queen Victoria. These were mostly between 1840 and 1882. She was always unharmed, but her stouthearted posture availed to endear her to the public.

Personality of Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was prosperous in portraying a public image of an aloof Queen who embodied the virtues of the British Imperium. In person, away from the public glare, she was kenned to be a coalescence of veracity, plain-verbalizing but withal prone to emotional outbursts and quite obstinate.

“Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that exasperate my nerves.”

– Queen Victoria

Despite her gregarious conservativism, she was ardent about her husband and greatly relished spending time in close proximity. However, even their relationship could be punctuated with loud, emotional arguments. Despite perceptions of her being dry and solemn, members of the household verbalized she could have a great sense of humour and laugh uproariously.

The death of her husband in 1861 was a sizably voluminous blow and she was deeply affected with grief. She wore ebony and mourned for several years. Her grief was so profound, it affected the nation. She struggled to surmount the grief and Albert’s early death led to a further worsening of relationships with her first son Edward VII – whom Victoria incriminated for his playboy lifestyle causing stress for his father Albert.