Queen Victoria,

Queen Victoria

Alexandrina Victoria , born in 24th May 1819. The only child of Duke Edward of Kent and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg. Her father died soon after and her mother developed a fondness for Sir John Conroy, who assumed he could control Victoria but actually she became the heir of William who became king after George IV died.
In 1837 William IV died 27 days after Victoria's eighteenth birthday. Alexandrina Victoria became Queen Victoria, At a time when woman had little status, one of the first things she did was to banished Conroy (who was still trying to control her) from the Royal Court.
Queen Victoria had friends and enemies in the Royal Court, she was popular and unpopular at times with the people but always had her own idea of what was right and played an important role in the evolution of what would become the Victorian mentality. Many social injustices were corrected.
Queen Victoria fell in love and married prince Albert, they had nine children. When Prince Albert's death in 1861 the desolate Victoria remained in self-imposed seclusion for ten years. Eventually the flattery of Disraeli brought her out of it. She tended to choose what was morally right over what England might gain by force.
Queen Victoria played a big role in Victorian society, the steam engine created industrialization and ethical considerations were brought in with increased wealth.
Queen Victoria died, a venerable old lady, at Osborne on January 22, 1901, after having reigned as Queen of England and mother of the Empire for sixty-four years.

Queen Victoria

Alexandrina Victoria , born in 24th May 1819. The only child of 
Duke Edward (of Kent) and Victoria Maria Louisa (of Saxe-Coburg)

Alexandrina Victoria , named Alexandrina after her godfather, 
Tsar Alexander II of Russia and Victoria after her mother

Victoria Maria Louisa was the sister of King Leopold of Belgium.

Edward, Duke of Kent was the fourth son of George III, he died 
when Victoria was eight months old.

The Duchess of Kent developed a close relationship with Sir John 
Conroy, an ambitious Irish officer. Conroy acted as if Victoria 
was his daughter and had a major influence over her as a child.

George IV died and his brother William IV became king. William 
had no surviving legitimate children and so Victoria, became his 
heir.

William IV died 27 days after Victoria's eighteenth birthday.

Victoria becomes queen (Victoria banished her pseudo step father, 
Conroy {who was still trying to control her} from the Royal 
Court.)

Lord Melbourne was Prime Minister (fifty-eight and a widower 
whose only child had died) and he treated Victoria like his 
daughter and he tried be her mentor and shield her from the 
harsh realities of British life Victoria was fond of Melbourne 
and dependent on him for political advice. Once Queen Victoria 
wrote: "he is such an honest, good kind-hearted man and is my 
friend, I know it."

In 1839 Lord Melbourne resigned after a defeat in the House of 
Commons. Sir Robert Peel, the Tory leader, now became Prime 
Minister. but he quit after Victoria refused replace the Queen's 
ladies of the bed chamber to ladies of Peel's political party 
Peel resigned and Melbourne returned to office.

Queen Victoria saw Lady Flora Hastings, one of her 
ladies-in-waiting, getting into a carriage with Sir John Conroy. 
A few months later she appeared to be pregnant. Lady Hastings 
claimed she was still a virgin but Queen Victoria insisted on a 
medical examination which showed that Lady Hastings was a virgin 
and the swelling was cancer of the liver. Lady Hastings died of 
cancer a few months later, Victoria became very unpopular with 
the British public.

Soon afterwards an attempt was made to kill Victoria while she 
was driving in her carriage in London. Further assassination 
attempts took place in 1842 (twice), 1849, 1850, 1872 and 1882.

Queen Victoria's cousin, Prince Albert (of Saxe-Coburg related 
to her mother.), visited London in 1839. Victoria fell in love 
with Prince Albert

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in February 1840. In the 
next eighteen years Queen Victoria had nine children by Prince 
Albert.

Lord Melbourne resigned as Prime Minister in 1841. (by than 
Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria's political ideas more 
credit.)

Palmerston had attempted to seduce Lady Dacre, one of Victoria's 
ladies in waiting. at Windsor Castle. In the summer of 1850 
Queen Victoria asked Lord John Russell to get rid of Palmerston 
but he was not able to do it because Palmerston was very popular 
in the House of Commons.

In December of 1851, Lord Palmerston praised Napoleon on his 
coup in France. This upset the Whig party and they sacked 
Palmerston.

Six weeks later Palmerston took revenge by helping to bring down 
Lord John Russell's government.

In 1855 Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister. Queen Victoria 
found it difficult to work with him but dealt with it.

Prince Albert died in December 1861 of typhoid fever Victoria 
did her constitutional duties as much as necessary but she 
completely withdrew from public view and spent most of her time 
at her home at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands Queen 
Victoria became very close to John Brown, a Scottish servant at 
that time.

In 1868 William Gladstone, leader of the Liberals in the House 
of Commons, became Prime Minister. Victoria totally disagreed 
with these policies but did not have the power to stop 
Gladstone's government from passing the 1867 Reform Act and the 
1872 Secret Ballot Act.

In 1874 the Tory, Benjamin Disraeli, became Prime Minister. 
Victoria much preferred Disraeli's conservatism to Gladstone's 
liberalism. Victoria also approved of Disraeli's charm.

Queen Victoria was very upset when Gladstone replaced Disraeli 
as premier in 1880. Gladstone's relationship with Victoria 
failed to improve.

When Disraeli died the next year, Victoria wrote to his private 
secretary that she was devastated by the news and could not stop 
crying.

In 1885 Victoria sent a telegram criticizing Gladstone and this 
telegram it became public knowledge and relations were worse 
with Gladstone than ever. To make matters worse they made an 
issue of Queen Victoria giving confidential documents to her 
friend, the Marquess of Salisbury.

In 1885 the Marquess of Salisbury became Prime Minister and 
stayed in power for twelve of the last fifteen years of her 
reign.

Queen Victoria died at her house on the Isle of Wight on 22nd 
January 1901.

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