Queen Victoria of England Biography

Queen Victoria I of England was the British monarch from 1837 to 1901. With her on the throne, England became industrialized and the world power country. The strengthening of the middle class was reached. The time that she reigned is known as the Victorian era and is usually defined as a deeply conservative and moralistic era. The Victorian era is the second longest reigns, only surpassed by Isabel II’s which did not have internal revolutions.

Her full name was Alexandrina Victoria and was born on May 24, 1819. Her parents were Edward, Duke of Kent (son of King George III) and Princess Maria Luisa of Saxony-Coburg. Her father died in 1820 when she was one year old so she was raised by her mother. His mother was in charge of keeping her constantly under surveillance in order to keep her away from the court environment.

The year her father died, her grandfather, King George III, died as well. As his father was the fourth son of Jorge III did not ascend the throne until the death of her uncles Jorge IV and Guillermo IV. She was only eighteen when he inherited the throne in 1837. The coronation ceremony took place on June 28, 1838, at Westminster Abbey. Queen Victoria assumed the role of the queen at a time when the United Kingdom was a constitutional monarchy

so that the real political power of the queen was almost nonexistent. At that time, the main role of royalty was to present oneself as symbols of sovereignty and greatness, to be representatives of the values ​​and morality of the kingdom. However, Victoria did her best because her work was not limited to being a decorative object.

The first thing she did when she assumed the throne was to order her mother to leave her alone and lock herself in her room for an hour. During that hour, she organized her room in such a way that she could sleep alone (without her mother). Until that moment the most important political figure was William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, prime minister.

His intelligence and pleasant temperament allowed the queen to trust him enough to leave most of her decisions to his charge. The problem was that Lord Melbourne’s cabinet lost most of the votes in the House of Commons, so he decided to resign. The queen was horrified by the idea of ​​working with Robert Peel, the representative of the Tories (Tory) because his manners were unacceptable and refused to accept him as a substitute for Melbourne. Therefore, Lord Melbourne regained his position.

On February 10, 1840, she married Prince Albert of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha, of Germany. The marriage had been previously arranged for political reasons. Upon meeting him, the queen was honestly pleased with her new husband, due to his intelligence, attractiveness, and kindness.

Prince Albert took a little time to get used to his position as Prince Consort and in the manner of the English aristocracy. Luckily his intelligence and the support of the queen were enough to overcome this situation. Prince Albert replaced Lord Melbourne as counselor and protector. Albert’s support helped the queen to accept to work with Robert Peel, partly because she knew that she had the help of her husband and also because they both, Albert and the Queen discovered that the ideas defended by the conservatives were much closer to her than those proposed by the liberals.

The couple had four sons and five daughters. In 1841, the Prince of Wales, Edward VII, who would succeed Victoria was born. The large number of descendants they had, allowed the royal family to occupy a place in almost all the royal and imperial courts of Europe. This explains why at some point Victoria was called the grandmother of Europe.

Victoria managed to restore the image of the crown because she was willing to respect parliamentary mechanisms, even if they opposed her own wishes. Since 1856, Albert’s health began to decline and on December 14, 1861, he died.

1861 was a particularly hard year for the queen since she not only lost her husband but shortly before, in March, she had to say goodbye to her mother. Since that moment the untiring work of the Queen allowed her to reach an international recognition and appreciation of the people that none of her predecessors had enjoyed. In addition, it helped to take the steps towards the Industrial Revolution, limited the power of the Parliament, that is to say, the last nobility redoubt with real political power, and considerably increased the respect for morality, both in the people and in the members of the court.

In 1877, she was crowned Empress of India as a symbol of empire control that was recovered after controlling the Sepoy rebellion. Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901.