QUEEN VICTORIA
Longevity
Queen Victoria was born the 24th of May, 1819 at Kensington Palace, in London. She died the 22nd of January, 1901 at Osborne Palace in Wight Island, near Southampton.
She died at the age of 81, an older age than what it was used to in her times.
Her reign lasted for 63 years and seven months. Queen Victoria’s reign was the longest of the British crown until the current queen broke his record a few years ago, in 2015.
The current queen and Victoria still have a blood relation. Elizabeth II is the great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria. That means that prince William, the most likely future king of the United Kingdom will follow Queen Victoria’s lineage as he is her great-great-great-great grandson.
Victoria was crowned in May 1838 and maintained his reign until she died. She wasn’t expected to be the queen but when his uncle took the throne because his brother died, she became her next sucesor because he didn’t have any direct descendants. As a result, when William IV, his uncle, died, she took the throne and became the queen.
Years later, in December 1861 her husband Albert died. The queen was 42 years old when this happened. She was so in love that she never recovered from his husband’s death. This caused that she started appearing less in public and wore black clothes the rest of her life as a sign of mourning.
Love affair with Albert
The marriage between the young Queen and the German prince, two first cousins, was a love match.
Paintings and photographs projected an image of a virtuous, devoted young couple with obedient and happy children.
But behind the doors of their palace, the young couple were locked into a power struggle. It is said that King Albert didn't have the importance and recognition that he wanted. After their wedding, Albert took over more and more of Victoria's work as queen and also, her pregnancies forced her to step aside. For that reason, Victoria was conflicted: on one side, she admired her "angel" (like she used to call his husband) for his talents and ability but on the other side, she really hated being robbed of her powers as queen which caused the start of many fights. For his part, Albert was terrified of Victoria’s violent outbursts, fearing that she had inherited the madness of her grandfather George III, who had periods of mental ill health.
However, the physical attraction between the pair was never over and, between 1840 and 1857, Victoria gave birth to nine children.
Wedding dress anecdote
Queen Victoria’s wedding to Prince Albert in 1840 was the most popular event as it was a celebration of love.
The Queen adorned her skirt with 139 inches in circumference and 37-40 inches in depth. It’s important to note that the gown was constructed only of British materials, to patronize industries that were in decline.
Queen Victoria’s wedding dress was not the first of its kind, but it was different that any monarch had worn before her. She wanted to be seen, so she didn’t wear the red ermine robe of state. She decided to wear a white dress when for the time it was very unusual. After that, all representations in Godey‘s (a magazine very famous in its time) and other fashion magazines picked up on that. The white wedding dress became the standard symbol for innocence and romance.
Victoria had chosen to wear white mostly because it was the perfect color to highlight the delicate lace of her dress, and she also banned anyone that wanted to wear white clothes because she wanted to stand out.
Offspring. Grandmother of Europe
Her links with the other European Royal families made her the name 'the grandmother of Europe'. Why? Because her legacy can be found in all Europe's Royal families. Some of Victoria's and Albert's grandchildren are the queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, the king of sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf and the king of Norway, Harald V.
Leopold, her youngest son, was affected with the disease Haemophilia B, like his brothers and sisters, but he was the only one who suffered the disease, because it only appears on men. At least two of his five brothers and sisters carried this disease. Some carriers of the disease from all European Royal families are: the last Tsarevich of Russia, Alexei Nikolaevich, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias and Infante Gonzalo of Spain. These two last died (not together) due to a car accident. (Alfonso in Miami and Infante in Austria) Both got few injuries, but the haemophilia caused them internal bleeding and they died at the age of 31 and 19.
Name sakes
After her death, places and memorials were dedicated to her, like the Victoria falls (the largest waterfalls in the world). The Seychelles and the British Columbia (Canada) capitals are named with her name.
Anecdotes
Assasination attempts
Queen Victoria survived to several assassination attempts during her reign, there were exactly eight attempts.
The first one happened when the queen was 18 years old. All happened while Queen Victoria was going in her carriage. Suddenly a man called Edward Oxford fired her with his gun. He was finally accused of high treason. The sentence was not guilty for reasons of insanity.
The final attempt to kill her was the eight notable try. It took place in 1882, and as the first one, the criminal tried to hurt her by shooting the carriage where she was.
This time, the man who shot was a Scottish poet called Roderick Maclean.
For different reasons he was sentenced not guilty of high treason but he had to live out his days in an asylum the rest of his life.
All this tries to kill her made her become even more famous and popular between the public.
Love proposal
A curiosity of the relationship between Victoria and Albert is that it was her who proposed marriage to him after four years of friendship. According to the tradition she had to do it because a man couldn’t propose to the queen.
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