Victoria's father Edward, duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III, died when she was only eight months old. His brother William IV was determined to live long enough to ensure that his detested sister-in-law did not become regent for her young daughter, Victoria, William's heir. He succeeded with only days to spare: Victoria celebrated her 18th birthday (her royal coming of age) on 24 May 1837, and William died on 20 June.
Victoria's education had been strong in foreign languages and such traditional female accomplishments as drawing and music, but it had neglected the male curriculum of classics and mathematics. But she would be no meekly submissive woman: having been brought up by her governess to rule, she had the appetite and will for the necessary hard work.
The news that she was queen was brought to Victoria at Kensington Palace at 6am by the lord chamberlain and the archbishop of Canterbury. The contrast between the glowing young queen and the sombrely dressed, elderly male political establishment was only reinforced at her Accession Council, which was held later the same day.
Particularly susceptible to her was the prime minister Lord Melbourne, and the attraction was mutual. Charming, worldly wise and with a former roué's faint whiff of danger, he was the perfect mentor for the inexperienced queen. He was also of the right political persuasion, since Victoria had been brought up as an ardent Whig.
Within two years, Victoria's partiality for Melbourne and her blatant political partisanship caused a constitutional crisis, when the Tories tried to form a government and she wrecked their chances. Even the Whigs had to acknowledge that a young, unmarried girl on the throne was a loose cannon. But who would make a suitable husband'
The front-runner was her first cousin Prince Albert, younger son of the duke of Saxe-Coburg. When Victoria had met Albert previously, she'd been very taken by his good looks, but she was in no hurry: she was enjoying being a reigning queen far too much. Nevertheless, Albert was sent over to England to be inspected a second time.
He arrived at Windsor on 10 October 1839, with Victoria watching from the top of the stairs. 'It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert, who is beautiful,' she wrote in her diary with characteristic heavy underlining. It was love at second sight and it lasted for both their lives.
They were married on 10 February 1840 and departed for a two-day honeymoon at Windsor. 'We did not sleep much,' Victoria noted of their wedding night, and soon they were revelling in each other's sensuality. Albert helped Victoria pull on her stockings; she watched him shaving. Unsurprisingly, she conceived within days and gave birth to a daughter in November. A son, Albert Edward ('Bertie'), prince of Wales, came 11 months later, followed by seven more children, with never more than two years between them.
It was this wedded bliss that altered their relationship. From the beginning, Victoria had made it clear that, as was constitutionally proper, the business of queening was hers. But her repeated pregnancies, regularly followed by intense post-natal depression, began to swing the balance of power.
The change was completed by Albert's increasingly psychological dominance. Victoria was tempestuous, he coldly rational, and he soon turned her temperament against her by making her ashamed of her uninhibited behaviour. The result was that she not only became a submissive wife in private, she even surrendered public business to her husband. He acted as her private secretary, but with more power than any private secretary ever had. Once he had blotted despatches; now he dictated them.
When Albert died of typhoid fever in December 1861, Victoria was devastated. She also partly blamed the prince of Wales for his death (Albert had been trying sort out yet another scandal involving Bertie when he had become ill). This did nothing to improve relations between mother and son.
Carrying out only the bare minimum of her constitutional duties, she withdrew totally from the public, retreating to Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands. This made an increasing number of politicians question whether she was actually earning the money that the state paid her. Matters were not helped by rumours of her closeness to John Brown, one of her Scottish servants – some wags even began calling her 'Mrs Brown'.
From the start, Victoria did not get on with William Gladstone, who became Liberal prime minister in 1868. According to the historian G M Trevelyan, he had a 'habit of industriously expounding [his views] to her as if she were a public meeting'. She also abhorred the reforms that he was promoting, such as extension of the franchise, secret ballots, reduction in the power of the House of Lords and, later, home rule for Ireland. But she found that her power, too, had been reduced and she could not stand in his way.
She had a respite from the dour Liberal when, briefly in 1868 and then for six years from 1874, his place as prime minister was taken by a Tory – the charming, quick-witted and shameless flatterer Benjamin Disraeli. In particular, she appreciated Disraeli's imperialist policies and, in 1876, agreed to his suggestion that she adopt the title 'empress of India' (she rewarded him by creating him earl of Beaconsfield). However, while Victoria adored her new title, she detested royal – let alone imperial – pomp and circumstance, and her rare public appearances were marked by an almost republican simplicity. This was not popular.
Victoria's taste for public activity decreased even further when Disraeli's government lost the 1880 election and he was replaced again by Gladstone. When Disraeli died the following year, she wrote his private secretary that she was so devastated that she couldn't stop crying.
Her relationship with Gladstone hit a new low when a telegram she sent to him criticising his failure to take action to save General Gordon, under siege by the Mahdi's forces in Sudanese capital Khartoum, became public. It reached its nadir when the prime minister discovered that she was passing confidential government documents to the Conservative leader, the Marquess of Salisbury.
To Victoria's relief, Salisbury became prime minister in 1885. Two years later, the prince of Wales helped persuade her that she should celebrate her Golden Jubilee – and her Diamond Jubilee 10 years later – in right royal style. But it went against the grain, and despite ministerial pleadings, Victoria absolutely refused to wear her crown for the celebrations. 'Empires are ruled by crowns, not bonnets,' one bigwig fulminated, but it was in a bonnet that Victoria went to the thanksgiving service at St Paul's.
On 22 January 1901, Victoria died at Osborne House, the seaside residence she and Albert had built together. At almost 82, she was the longest lived of any English sovereign and, with more than 63 years on the throne, the longest reigning. The last thing she said was: 'Bertie.'
|
|
 Ruling her empire wearing a lace headdress, not a crown: Victoria by Henrietta Mary Ward, after Baron Heinrich von Angeli
Forbes Magazine Collection, New York/Bridgeman Art Library
 Victoria, Queen of England by James Parton
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/e
text/bl_eminent_victoria_a.htm
A biography of Victoria published in 1868 and reproduced on this site in full. Parton was American and the most well-respected biographer during this period. This webpage also contains links to other relevant articles.
 |
Young Victoria by Alison Plowden (Sutton, 2000)
Born in 1819, Victoria was left fatherless at the age of eight months. Brought up by her German mother in an atmosphere of family feuds and jealousy, her early years were difficult until she succeeded to the throne at 18.
Get this book
|
 |
Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey (Indypublish, 2002)
Considered revolutionary in the art of biography, Strachey's book uses elements of romantic fiction and melodrama to create a warm, humorous and very human portrait of an iconic figure.
Get this book
|
 |
Queen Victoria by Walter L Arnstein (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
Incorporating the findings of past studies and recent research, Arnstein sheds light on often-neglected aspects of Victoria's life and reign – her concern for gender roles, her religious views, her involvement with Britain's army, her connections with Ireland – as well as her involvement with controversial domestic issues and great international conflicts of the era.
Get this book
|
 Balmoral Castle
Ballater
Aberdeenshire AB35 5TB
Tel: (013397) 42534
Fax: (013397) 42034
E-mail: info@balmoralcastle.com
Website: www.balmoralcastle.com
A93 toward Braemer to Crathie (car park and tourist information centre)
Purchased for Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852, the original castle was considered too small so he designed a new building. It remains in the hands of the royal family as a private residence. The castle is open to visitors from March to July, but not when the royal family is in residence.
Channel 4 Television takes no responsibility for the content of third-party sites. |
|
