Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria took over the throne at the age of 18. She had a strong passion for her colonial people and was an enthusiastic supporter of imperialism. Queen Victoria served as a uniting force for each province of Canada and supported the Confederation. The Queen never went to Canada, but five of her nine children did, and she left her mark on many public structures, streets, towns, and geographical characteristics there.

Parents

King George III's fourth son, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820), and Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1786-1861), had only a single child, who would become Queen Victoria. As far as the royal clan is concerned, Edward became the initial monarch to live in Canada permanently. He served as commander in chief of the British North American troops. He played a role in strengthening British North American defensive structures throughout the 1790s, which he served in Québec City and Halifax.

He is honored by having Prince Edward Island named after him. Edward, who was fifty years old, was married in 1817 after the passing away of his niece, Princess Charlotte. In the unfortunate circumstance that Charlotte died, his marriage was required to uphold the line of royal successors. Victoire, the surviving wife of Prince Charles of Leiningen, was twenty years younger than Edward. Through her first marriage, she gave birth to two children, Charles and Feodora.

Early Years

Victoria received the name Alexandrina Victoria on June 24, 1819, in memory of her mother & her godfather, Russian Czar Alexander I. Edward passed away from pneumonia before Victoria turned one. Following the death of King George, Victoria's uncle William IV ascended to the throne in place of Edward's brothers, who had no legal successors.

Victoria's mother swiftly allied with royal courtier John Conroy to establish her daughter's rule, and the two made Victoria comply with what was soon referred to as the Kensington System. The girl was an accomplished artist and passionate writer who was compelled to share her private space with her mom and never got to be alone. The girl discovered the stringent, controlling restrictions to be as restrictive as they were challenging.

Heir Presumptive

In 1827, Prince Frederick and George IV both passed away; their younger brother, William IV, became the heir apparent, and Victoria remained the consort. In the unlikely event that Victoria's father passed away. At the same time, she was still a juvenile and specific provisions were provided under the Regency Act 1830 for Victoria's mom to take over as regent. In 1836, King William revealed his distrust towards the Duchess's ability to hold the regency when he told her that he intended to live until Victoria became eighteen in order to prevent a regency.

The "Kensington System," a complex system of regulations and conventions formulated by the Duchess and her determined and tyrannical comptroller, Sir John Conroy-who was allegedly the Duchess's lover-kept Victoria primarily separated from other children due to her overbearing, protective mother. The system was set up to keep the princess weak and reliant on her parents by preventing her from meeting individuals whom they deemed undesirable, particularly the majority of her father's relatives.

The Duchess stayed away from court as she found King William's illegal descendants to be disgraceful. Victoria played with her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash, during playtime and was educated with private tutors following a set schedule. She likewise shared her space with her mother each night. Although she studied Latin, French, German, and Italian in class, she spoke English entirely at home.

During their tour to the Malvern Hills in 1830, the Duchess and Conroy brought Victoria across the heart of England, making stops at notable rural homes and towns en route. In the years 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1835, similar travels were made to other locations in England and Wales. Victoria was greeted with great enthusiasm at every spot, much to the King's displeasure. William was worried that the trips, which he likened to royal advancements, depicted Victoria as his opponent rather than his presumed successor.

Victoria did not enjoy the travels since she did not have much time to relax and was often sick from her round of public engagements. She rallied, citing the King's dissatisfaction but her mother made Victoria resume the travels after dismissing off his objections as an expression of fiercely.

Conroy thought Victoria's high fever was a juvenile charade when it first appeared in October 1835 when she was in Ramsgate. Conroy had been pressuring Victoria to appoint him as her private secretary while she was unwell, but their attempts were fruitless.

Leopold, Victoria's maternal uncle & the monarch of the Belgians from 1831 to 1836, intended to get married to Prince Albert, the child of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. In order to present Victoria to Albert, Leopold organized for Victoria's mother to send out an invitation to her Coburg family to come to see her in May 1836. The second son of the Prince of Orange, Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, was the applicant whom William IV preferred above any combination with the Coburgs. Victoria evaluated a line-up of suitable princes with a critical eye and was acquainted with the different marriage arrangements.

Her journal indicates that she was comfortable with Albert's company right away. Yet, Victoria wasn't ready to be married at the age of 17, despite her desire for Albert. Instead of committing to a formal engagement, the parties decided that the match would happen eventually.

Wedding and Acceptance

Victoria turned eighteen on May 24, 1837, and a monarchy hadn't been formed. William IV passed away at the age of 71 on June 20, 1837, a little over a month later, making Victoria the next monarch of the United Kingdom. She became known as Alexandrina Victoria in the official papers created on the first day of her reign, but she dropped the first name at her request, and it was never used again.

Since 1714, Germany's Hanover and Britain have shared a king, but women weren't permitted to follow Hanover's line of succession according to Salic law. Victoria ascended to the British reign, while Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the detested younger brother of her dad, ascended to the throne of Hanover. Up until her fertile years, he was presumed to be Victoria's successor.

Lord Melbourne, the Whig prime minister, oversaw the governing body at the period of Victoria's ascension. He immediately positioned himself as an essential symbol for the politically unfamiliar king, who looked to him for guidance. Victorians were likely to see him as a dad, and Charles Greville speculated that Melbourne, who was barren and widowed, was "fervently devoted of her as he might have been of his daughter if he had one."

On June 28, 1838, the Abbey of Westminster hosted her coronation. To celebrate, more than 400,000 people traveled to London. She was the first royal to live at Buckingham Palace, inheriting the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall's income, and received an annual £385,000 civil list allowance. She settled her father's debts out of financial caution.

Victoria had acclaim early in her reign, yet her image took an adverse turn after one of her mom's waitresses, Lady Flora Hastings developed an abdominal expansion that was thought by many to be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Sir John Conroy in 1839. Melbourne quit in 1839 in the wake of votes opposing a bill to suspend the Jamaican constitution by Radicals and Tories, two parties Victoria despised.

For plantation owners who opposed measures connected to the end of slavery, the law stripped away their political authority. Robert Peel, a Tory, was appointed by the Queen to head a new cabinet. Traditionally, the prime minister chooses representatives of the Royal Household, commonly his wife and supporters in politics.

The spouses of Whigs comprised the majority of the Queen's ladies of the bedchamber, and Peel predicted that the wives of Tories would be taking their place. On Melbourne's guidance, Victoria opposed their evacuation in what was referred to as the "bedchamber crisis." Peel quit his commission, enabling Melbourne to take over as prime minister since he was unable to rule under the Queen's constraints.

Despite their disagreements regarding the Kensington System and her mom's ongoing reliance on Conroy, Victoria was compelled by social tradition to remain with her mother despite her sudden prominence as Queen. Victoria often refused to meet her mother, who was relegated to a secluded flat at Buckingham Palace.

Melbourne sympathized with Victoria when she lamented that her mother's close proximity would cause "torment throughout the years," but he additionally pointed out that marriage was a "shocking alternative" that would prevent the suffering. Although Victoria resisted efforts to force her into marriage, she did show dedication to Albert's schooling for the position that he would need to fulfill as her husband.

Melbourne had been replaced as the Queen's primary adviser in the first part of her reign by Albert, who acted as a significant political advisor and companion. After being forced out of the palace, Victoria's mother relocated to Belgrave Square's Ingestre House. Following the demise of Princess Augusta, Victoria's aunt, in 1840, Frogmore House and Clarence House had been left to her mother. Mother and daughter's relationship progressively improved with Albert's help.

In the early months after their marriage, during Victoria's first trimester in 1840, 18-year-old Edward Oxford made a plot on her life when she was traveling with Prince Albert in a carriage to see her mother. Oxford shot a couple of times, but perhaps the weapons had no shot, as he claimed after that, or both of his shots missed. He was put on trial for high treason, declared innocent because of insanity, consigned to an institution for the crazy for some time, and then moved to reside in Australia.

Victoria's popularity rose immediately after the assault, which aided in easing the remaining discontent about the Hastings scandal and the bedchamber situation. On the 21st of November 1840, her baby girl, Victoria, was born. The Queen felt newborns were unappealing, disliked being pregnant, and was disdainful of breastfeeding. However, she and Albert went on to have eight more children over the next seventeen years: Albert Edward, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold, & Beatrice sequentially.

Baroness Louise Lehzen of Hanover, Victoria's former administrator, was in charge of the home for the most part. Lehzen helped Victoria grow up and stood by her while the Kensington System was tormenting her. However, Albert believed that Lehzen lacked competency and that her inept leadership jeopardized the health of his daughter Victoria. After an intense argument between Victoria and Albert on the topic, Lehzen received an annuity in 1842, marking the end of their close bond.

Private and Public Domains

John Francis pointed a rifle at Victoria on May 29, 1842, while she had been driven down The Mall in London, but the weapon did not explode. The attacker made off; Victoria traveled the same path the following day, but she was escorted further and faster in an intentional effort to lure Francis into attempting a second shot and capture him in the act.

Francis fired at her as was to have been anticipated, but then officers in plain clothes apprehended him and found him guilty of high treason. John William Bean also attempted to point a gun at the Queen on July 3, just two days following Francis's execution, had been reduced to imprisonment for life. However, the pistol was empty and only filled with paper and smoke.

Edward Oxford believed his 1840 conviction had contributed to the attempts. Bean was given an 18-month prison term. An identical incident occurred in 1849 when William Hamilton, a jobless Irishman, shot Victoria's carriage while it was traveling along Constitution Hill in London with a pistol loaded with powder.

When the Queen was attacked in 1850 by Robert Pate, an apparently insane former army officer, she did suffer injuries. Victoria suffered a broken bonnet and injuries on her forehead when Pate struck her with his wooden stick while she was driving. Pate and Hamilton received sentences of seven years in prison for their transportation.

Early in Victoria's rule, Melbourne's popularity within the House of Commons collapsed, and the Whigs lost the 1841 general election. After Peel gained the prime ministership, the women in the bedchamber most closely connected to the Whigs were swapped out.

Ireland was struck by the potato blight in 1845. A million or more Irish people fled their country in what was referred to as the Great Famine, which claimed over a million lives in the following four years. Victoria had the moniker "The Famine Queen" in Ireland.

She individually gave a greater amount than every other individual contributor to famine relief efforts in January 1847, giving the British Relief Association £2,000 (within£178,000 and £6.5 million in 2016). She also supported the Maynooth Grant, which went to a Roman Catholic institution in Ireland in defiance of Protestant resistance. It was a myth formed near the end of the 1800s that she gave simply £5 to the Irish and the exact same money to Battersea Dogs Home on the very same day.

As the Corn Laws were being abolished by 1846, Peel's government was in crisis. When it came to the elimination, most Whigs, Peel, many Tories (the so-called "Peelites"), and Victoria favored it, while many Tories-by then referred to as Conservatives-were against it. Following the repeal's narrow passage in 1846, Peel quit and was succeeded by Lord John Russell.

Victoria was very interested in strengthening ties between Britain and France on a global basis. She arranged and hosted numerous excursions from the House of Orleans, a married family descended from the Coburgs to the British royal family. She served as the first British or English ruler to pay a visit to a French king because Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France encountered her at the Battle of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. She and Albert resided alongside King Louis Philippe I at Château d'Eu in Normandy between 1843 and 1845.

The first French monarch to pay a visit to a British royal was Louis Philippe, who executed an exchange visit in 1844. After being overthrown in the 1848 disruptions, Louis Philippe escaped into exile in England. Victoria and the rest of her family fled London in April 1848, at the peak of the British rebellion, to seek shelter in Osborne House, a private property on the Isle of Wight which they had bought and rebuilt in 1845.

Irish nationalists and Chartists failed to win much support for their rallies, and the panic subsided without causing any major commotions. The first visit by Queen Victoria to Ireland in 1849 was a marketing glory, but it had little real influence on the emergence of Irish nationalism.

Despite being a Whig, the Queen wasn't in favor of Russell's cabinet. She took special distinction at Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, who frequently made decisions without having first consulted the Queen, the Prime Minister, or the Cabinet. In spite of Victoria's constant assertions, Palmerston was kept in office and started to operate independently, sending official letters to foreign rulers without her knowledge, as she reported to Russell.

Palmerston's removal from office didn't take place until 1851 when he stated that the British government had approved President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's revolution in France without first informing the Prime Minister. Russell's ministry had given way to a brief minority government commanded by Lord Derby. By that point, President Bonaparte became Emperor Napoleon III a year later. With the use of the suspenseful anesthetic chloroform, Victoria delivered her eighth child, Leopold, in 1853.

Despite objections from the clergy and medical professionals for going towards the Bible's teachings and being hazardous, she used it once more in 1857 to deliver her ninth and last child, Beatrice, because she was so struck by the relief it provided from the misery of childbirth.

After several births, Victoria could have experienced postpartum depression. Victoria is always complaining in Albert's letters about losing her equilibrium. For instance, in a letter to Victoria sent around one month after Leopold's birth, Albert regretted her "continuance of hysterics" about a "miserable trifle."

The cabinet of Lord Aberdeen, who was in charge of Derby at the very start of 1855, disintegrated under accusations of mishandling British forces in the Crimean War. Victoria attempted to form a cabinet with Derby and Russell, but none had enough support, so she had to choose Palmerston as prime minister.

Following his defeat in the Crimean War, Napoleon III became Britain's most trusted advisor. He made an appearance in London during April 1855, & Victoria and Albert followed suit between August 17 to August 28 of the very same year. After meeting the newlyweds in Boulogne, Napoleon III drove them to Paris.

They saw the Exposition Universelle, which replaced Albert's 1851 creation, the Great Exhibition, and Napoleon I's mausoleum at Les Invalides, where his skeletal remains were just brought back in 1840. They were additionally invited as honorees to a gala hosted at the Palace of Versailles for 1,200 guests. For over four millennia, this was the first occasion when a British king was in power to visit Paris.

Felice Orsini, an Italian expatriate living in Britain, tried to kill Napoleon III on January 14, 1858, using an English-made explosive. As a consequence of the subsequent diplomatic crisis, Palmerston quit, and the government became unstable. Derby took the prime ministership back.

In an effort to persuade Britain that Napoleon III was not planning a military campaign there, Victoria and Albert were there when a new basin was inaugurated at the French military harbor of Cherbourg on August 5, 1858. Victoria sent Derby a letter upon her arrival, criticizing him for the Royal Navy's mediocre condition in relation to the French Navy. In June 1859, Victoria invited Palmerston back to the throne, ending Derby's brief government.

The eldest daughter of Victoria wed Prince Frederick William of Prussia in the British capital just eleven days after Orsini's tried assassination in France. From September 1855, when Princess Victoria was 14 years old, they were already engaged; however, the Queen & her spouse, Albert, postponed the marriage till the bride was 17.

It was Queen Victoria and Albert's desire that their son-in-law and daughter would help bring liberalization to the growing Prussian state. Wilhelm, the first grandchild of the Queen and future last German Emperor, was born to the Princess over a year later.

Widowhood and Isolation

When Victoria's mother passed away in March 1861, she was at her side. Victoria felt terrible to learn how much her mother cherished her and held Conroy and Lehzen culpable for "wickedly" destroying their relationship. She acquired this information by reading her mother's documents. Despite having severe digestive issues of his own, Albert took up most of his wife's obligations to help her during her times of great and deep sorrow.

In August, Victoria & Albert traveled to Killarney for a couple of days of vacation while their son, Prince Albert Edward, participated in army drills close to Dublin. News of rumors spreading claiming his son had slept with an Irish actress reached Albert in November. Outraged, he made an excursion to Cambridge, where his child was enrolled in school, to address him.

Albert had been quite ill by the start of December. He passed away on December 14, 1861, after William Jenner diagnosed him as having typhoid illness. Victoria was really heartbroken. Worried about the Prince of Wales's illicit relationships, she put her spouse's death down to pressure.

She stated that "that dreadful business" had killed him. She fell into a deep grief and lived the rest of her life in gloom. During the next years, she stayed out of the limelight and hardly visited London. She came to be known as the "widow of Windsor" due to her isolation. Comfort eating led to her excessive weight gain, which made her disdain for public appearances even more apparent.

By isolating herself from the people, Victoria facilitated the republican movement's expansion and reduced the public's backing for the monarchy. Even while she fulfilled all her official political responsibilities, she resided at her royal homes, Windsor Castle, Osborne House, and Balmoral Castle, the Scottish estate she and Albert bought in 1847.

An announcement claiming "these majestic sites were being let or sold in view of the late occupant's faltering business" was fastened to the gates of Buckingham Palace by a protestor in March 1864. In a letter, her uncle Leopold encouraged her to make public appearances. She consented to travel across London in an open-top carriage and see the estate of the Royal Horticultural Society in Kensington.

Victoria became more and more reliant on her Scottish manservant, John Brown, throughout the 1860s. In newspapers, there were rumors of a sexual relationship and even a covert marriage; certain reports even called the Queen "Mrs. Brown." The 1997 film Mrs. Brown focused on their relationship's storyline.

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer painted a picture of the Queen alongside Brown, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy. Victoria authored a book called Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, where Brown was mentioned prominently, and the Queen expressed her admiration for him.

Following Palmerston's death in 1865, Derby gained leadership under Russell's short administration. For the very first time after Albert's death, Victoria went to the State Opening of Parliament in 1866. The next year, despite her opposition to women obtaining voting rights, she helped the Reform Act of 1867 pass, which raised voter turnout by granting the right to vote to a lot of urban laboring males.

The Queen of India

The British Empire officially acquired Britain's holdings and borders on the Indian subcontinent with the dissolution of the British East India Company, which had dominated much of India since the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Queen's perspective on the war was relatively impartial; she denounced crimes committed by all sides.

Inspired by Albert, she remarked on "her sentiments of grief and sorrow at the outcome of this terrible civil war." She demanded that a formal proclamation declaring the state's takeover of the business's affairs "should exude sentiments of kindness, kindness and religious acceptance." The section that threatened the "undermining of native faiths and traditions" was changed to one that guaranteed freedom of religion at her request.

Disraeli won re-election in the overall election of 1874. Victoria strongly defended the adoption of the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874, which eliminated Catholic rites from Anglican liturgy. In terms of personal alignment, she felt that the Presbyterian denomination of Scotland and the Episcopal Church of England are more similar. She also liked short, straightforward liturgies.

Along with gaining the Royal Titles Act of 1876 approved by Parliament, Disraeli additionally guaranteed that Victoria was titled "Empress of India" as of May 1, 1876. The announcement of the new title took place on January 1, 1877, at the Delhi Durbar.

She twice threatened to quit when urging Disraeli to take action against Russia amid the Russo-Turkish War from April 1877 to February 1878. However, her warnings had little effect on the occurrences or their resolution at the Congress of Berlin. Victoria favored Disraeli's expansionist foreign policy, which caused wars like the Second Anglo-Afghan War and the Anglo-Zulu War.

As the British Empire expanded, Victoria regarded it as a positive and civilizing trend that would shield indigenous cultures from greater authority or brutal governments. "It is not our traditional custom to annex nations unless we are compelled & forced to do so," she said. Disraeli failed the 1880 general election, much to Victoria's surprise, and Gladstone took back the prime ministership.

A dissatisfied poet named Roderick Maclean fired shots at Queen Victoria on March 2, 1882, as her carriage was leaving Windsor railroad station. Maclean's bullets seemed to be motivated by Victoria's dismissal of one of his poems.

Before a policeman dragged him off, Gordon Chesney Wilson and another Eton College student hit him using their umbrellas. In spite of her rage at his being assessed to be innocent due to insanity, Victoria was so happy to have seen the outpouring of affection that she said that it was "worth getting shot at-to see the extent to which one is loved" after the shooting.

Victoria was maimed on March 17, 1883, when she fell down some steps at Windsor. She did not entirely heal and suffered from rheumatism for the rest of her life. Ten days following the accident, John Brown passed away. To the dismay of Sir Henry Ponsonby, her private secretary, Victoria started writing a laudatory biography of Brown. Victoria was persuaded not to publish the work by Ponsonby and Randall Davidson, the Dean of Windsor, because they had both viewed early manuscripts and believed it would fuel speculations of a romantic relationship. The manuscript disappeared.

A sequel to her first book, More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands, was released by Victoria at the beginning of 1884. She inscribed the book to the "devoted personal attendant and faithful friend John Brown." Victoria received word via telegraph that her youngest child, Leopold, had passed away in Cannes one day following the first date of Brown's passing. She regretted that he was "the loveliest of my dear sons."

Gladstone's resignation in 1885, after his budget's rejection, delighted Queen Victoria. She saw his rule as "the most awful I could have experienced" and held him accountable for General Gordon's death in Khartoum. Following Gladstone, Lord Salisbury took over.

Though Victoria described Gladstone as a "half crazy & genuinely in numerous ways silly old man," Salisbury's administration had been in place for a few months before she was obliged to recall him. To the astonishment of Victoria, Gladstone's effort to enact a measure giving Ireland home authority failed. After Salisbury's party defeated Gladstone's at the next election, the government changed hands once again.

Deteriorating Health and Death

Victoria had frequent vacations to continental Europe. Her short trip to the border of Spain in 1889, when she was staying in Biarritz, made her the first reigning Queen from Britain to enter Spain. She decided not to go to France for her yearly holiday since the Boer War was turning extremely unpopular in continental Europe by April 1900. As an alternative, the Queen made her first trip to Ireland since 1861, partly as a way of thanking Irish troops for their service in the South African War.

Victoria celebrated Christmas 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, maintaining a tradition she carried out during her widowhood. She suffered from rheumatism in her legs and had cataracts in her vision. She described herself as feeling "weak and unwell" at the beginning of January and as "drowsy... dazed and bewildered" in the middle.

As a last wish, her beloved Pomeranian puppy, Turi, was set on her bed. In the care of her grandchild Wilhelm II and her oldest son Albert Edward, she passed away on January 22, 1901, at half past six in the late hours, at her old age of 81. As Edward VII, Albert Edward took over right away.

Victoria wrote down her wishes in 1897 for an armed forces funeral-fitting for the daughter of an officer and the commander of the army-and wanted her tombstone to be white rather than black. Prince Arthur assisted in descending her corpse into the coffin on January 25, alongside Edward VII and Wilhelm II. She had on a white gown and her bridal veil.

At her direction, her dressers and doctor deposited a variety of keepsakes honoring her friends, carers, and extended relatives in the burial container alongside her. A cement cast of Albert's palms was beside her, and a strand of John Brown's hair and an image of him was in her left hand, hidden from the family's view by a thoughtfully arranged bouquet.

Among the valuables on Victoria was her mother's engagement ring, which Brown had given her in 1883. She was laid to rest next to her husband, Prince Albert, in the Imperial Mausoleum, Frogmore, in Windsor Great Park, following a two-day imperial memorial on Saturday, February 2, at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Before her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II overtook her on September 9, 2015, Victoria held the record for both the longest-serving ruling British monarch and the longest-surviving monarch in global history, having reigned for 63 years, seven months, and two days. Her child, Edward VII, was an ally of her spouse's House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, making her the final monarch of the House of Hanover in Britain.

Credibility

Victoria penned 2,500 words every day roughly throughout her adult life, claims Giles St Aubyn, among her biographers. Her extensive diary, ultimately consisting of 122 volumes, had been kept from July 1832 till shortly before her death. Princess Beatrice, the youngest of Victoria's daughters, was named her literary administrator upon her death.

After burning the original journals, Beatrice selected and copied the ones that covered Victoria's ascension. The journals have survived in a significant way despite this damage. Lord Esher transcribed the volumes from 1832 to 1861 before Beatrice burned them, in addition to her modified copy.

Victoria was around five feet (1.5 meters) tall, dull, and overweight in her later years, yet she put off a regal impression. As a kind matriarchal figure who personified the world's power in the period between 1880 and 1890, she was beloved during the initial phases of her being widowed but disliked elsewhere. The public was not made aware of her prominence in politics until her journals and letters were made public.

Current opinion is that biographies of Victoria, like Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria (1921), which were written before an immense quantity of source material became accessible, are outdated. Still highly regarded are the biographies published in 1964 by Elizabeth Longford and in 1972 by Cecil Woodham-Smith. They come to the conclusion that Victoria is an emotional, stubborn, truthful, and forthright person.

The progressive building of a contemporary monarchical system in Britain continued throughout Victoria's rule. Voting system changes gave the House of Commons more authority at the cost of the House of Lords and the monarchy. The idea of the "family monarch" became a reality, which the emerging upper crust could relate to.