Queen Victoria, former ruler of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, is recognized for being the longest ruling monarch in British history. Her reign of sixty-three years seven months came to be known as the Victorian era. Queen Victoria was not only the ruler of the United Kingdom, but also the British Empire, which included Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and significant parts of Africa.Queen Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, and christened Alexandrina Victoria, in Kensington Palace, London. She was the only child of Victoria Maria Louisa, daughter of the Duke of the German principality of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and ...view middle of the document...
As their relationship grew, Lord Melbourne taught Queen Victoria how the British government worked on a day-to-day basis.Queen Victoria was very fond of Lord Melbourne, and because he was the leader of the Whig party, she began to publicly support the Whigs, rather than the opposing party, the Tories. The Whigs were sympathetic towards freedom of speech and the press and favored greater religious liberty to those who did not belong to the official Church of England. The Tories were more concerned with maintaining the country's institutions and with making no further legal compromises to religious minorities.In 1836, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, nephew of Queen Victoria's uncle Leopold and her first cousin, visited England. Soon after that, Queen Victoria wrote to Leopold expressing that she liked Prince Albert in every possible way. Sometime after Victoria wrote those words, Leopold tried to bring the two together. In 1839, Prince Albert was about to make another voyage to England, which made Queen Victoria quite nervous. He arrived at the English court on October 10th, and just five days later, Queen Victoria proposed to him and he accepted. They were married on February 10, 1840.Albert slowly pulled Queen Victoria away from politics and the life of London parties. In November, their first child, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise the Princess Royal, was born. Over the next seventeen years, eight more children would follow (Prince Albert Edward, Princess Alice Maud Mary, Prince Alfred Ernest Albert, Princess Helena Augusta Victoria, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, Prince Arthur William Patrick, Prince Leopold George Duncan, and Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria).The public, however, was not charmed with Queen Victoria marrying Prince Albert. The country disliked foreigners. Prince Albert was excluded from holding any official political position and was named Prince Consort only after 17 years of marriage with Queen Victoria. Although the public influenced her, Queen Victoria did nothing without her husband's approval. His interests in art, science and industry encouraged him to organize the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. He used the proceeds of £186,000 to purchase lands in Kensington for the establishment of several cultural and industrial museums. Prince Albert was moralistic, conscientious and progressive and with Queen Victoria initiated various reforms. He organized the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was responsible for a great deal of the popularity later gained by the British monarchy. Prince Albert replaced Lord Melbourne as a male influence in Queen Victoria's life. She was devoted to him and did nothing without his approval.In November of 1861, Prince Albert contracted typhoid and a month later he died at the age of forty-two. Prince Albert's death created a noticeable turning point in Queen Victoria's life. Queen Victoria no longer wished to either live or rule. She quickly stopped attending public duties and...
