Queen Victoria Essay, Research Paper

Queen Victoria was born in 1819 and she died in 1901.

She was queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

Ireland (1837-1901) and empress of India (1876-1901).

Queen Victoria was born Alexandrina Victoria on May 24,

1819, in Kensington Palace, London. Victoria?s mother

was Victoria Mary Louisa, daughter of the duke of

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Her father was Edward Augustus,

duke of Kent and Strathern, the fourth son of George III

and youngest brother of George IV and William IV, they

were kings of Great Britain. Because William IV had no

legal children, his niece Victoria became inheritor apparent

to the British crown upon his accession in 1830. On June

20, 1837, with the expiration of William IV. Victoria

became queen at the age of 18. Early in her power Victoria

developed a serious concern with goings on of state,

guided by her first prime minister, William Lamb, 2nd

Viscount Melbourne. Melbourne was leader of that wing of

the Whig Party that later became known as the Liberal

Party. He exercised a immovably progressive command on

the political thinking of the sovereign. Marriage In 1840

Victoria married her first cousin, Albert, ruler of

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who she had known for about four

years. Although this was a wedlock of state, it was a highly

extravagant and prosperous one, and Victoria was devoted

to her family responsibilities. The first of their nine children

was Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise, later queen of

Germany. Their first son, Albert Edward, prince of Wales

and later monarch of Great Britain as Edward VII, was

born in 1841. When the cautious Prince Albert persuaded

her that Liberal policy jeopardized the coming of the

Crown, the queen began to lose her eagerness for the

party. After 1841, when the Melbourne government fell

and Sir Robert Peel became prime minister, Victoria was

an enthusiastic supporter of the Conservative Party. Also

under Albert’s influence, she began to interrogation the

tradition that restricted the British ruling to an advisory part.

In 1850 she challenged the command of Henry John

Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, alien secretary in the

Whig government that had been in command since 1846.

Her post was that the sovereign should at least be

consulted on different policy. Palmerston, independent and

self-assertive, disregarded the request. Their conflict

reached a crucial period in 1851, when the prime minister,

Lord John Russell, who was also unhappy with

Palmerston’s elective methods, removed him from the

foreign office. Their altercations with Palmerston, one of the

most liked political leaders in the country, caused Victoria

and Albert to lose some of the regard of their subjects.

Their popularity dwindled even more in 1854, when they

tried to avert the Crimean War. After the war had started,

however, they gave it their sincere support. In 1856,

shortly before the end of the war, the queen established the

Victoria Cross, the highest British award for wartime

courage. In 1857, Victoria had the title of prince associate

granted on Albert. Four years later he died, and she

remained in implied grieving for much of the rest of her life.

She avoided common appearances, letting the prince of

Wales accomplish most of the royal ritualistic duties. Her

detailed personal interest in the affairs of state protracted,

however. Reign After 1861 Several prime ministers served

during the latter part of Victoria’s reign, but only the

Conservative Party leader Benjamin Disraeli, who held

office in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880, gained her

confidence. He ingratiated himself with the queen by his

skillful personal advance and his gift for compliments. He

also allowed her a free hand in the awarding of church,

army, and some political appointments. She fully affirmed

his policy of strengthening and roaming the British Empire,

and in 1876 Disraeli attained for her the title of empress of

India. She seldom agreed with the brilliant leader of the

Liberal Party, William E. Gladstone, who served as prime

minister four times betwixt 1868 and 1894. Victoria

unaccepted of the democratic reforms he distinct, such as

abolishing the purchase of military commissions and

legalizing trade unions, and his powerful intellectualized

procedure of argument. She was also solidly opposed to

his policy of home law for Ireland. The Conservative pilot

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of

Salisbury, who served as prime minister three times

between 1885 and 1902, more often found favor with the

queen. Like Disraeli, he advocated protecting British

interests and increasing British authority abroad. British Idol

Victoria’s popularity among all classes in British society

reached its prominence in the last two decades of her reign.

Her golden gala in 1887 and her diamond jubilee in 1897

were occasions for great public rejoicing. Her subjects

were then enjoying an unprecedented period of prosperous

complacency, and her eager execution of the Boer War

increased her appeal at home and abroad. Victoria died on

January 22, 1901. Her 63-year reign was the longest in the

archives of England. Her offspring, including 40

grandchildren, married into almost every royal family of

Europe. With her personal example of honesty, nationalism,

and devotion to family life, Victoria became a living symbol

of the solidity of the British Empire. The many years of her

reign, often referred to as the Victorian age, witnessed the

rise of the middle class and were marked by a deeply

conservative morality and intense nationalism. Victoria’s

correspondence was published in three series, Letters,

1837-61 (3 vol., 1907), Letters, 1862-85 (3 vol.,

1926-1928), and Letters, 1886-1901 (3 vol., 1930-32).