A palace of iron and glass built in Hyde Park to house the industry of all nations (1851)
The Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition, Albert's project; the profits bought the South Kensington museum site
Monarchs · Hanoverian
Victoria
1819–1901
House of Hanover — the Victorian era and the Empire
In office: 1837–1901
Victoria came to the throne at eighteen and reigned for more than sixty-three years, longer than any British monarch before her. Her marriage to Prince Albert produced nine children who married into most of the royal houses of Europe; his death in 1861 sent her into four decades of mourning. She was proclaimed Empress of India in 1876 and gave her name to an age of industry, empire and moral earnestness.
How to spot them
- ▸The Widow of Windsor; the grandmother of Europe; Empress of India from 1876
- ▸Albert, the Great Exhibition and the Albertopolis of South Kensington museums
- ▸Melbourne, Peel, Palmerston, Gladstone and Disraeli — who flattered her and was rewarded
- ▸Carrier of haemophilia; eight assassination attempts; died at Osborne House in January 1901
In the reign
A new decoration for conspicuous valour, cast — by tradition — from the bronze of captured Russian guns (1856)
The Victoria Cross, instituted by royal warrant in January 1856
A mutiny of sepoys ends a trading company's rule over a subcontinent (1857)
The Indian Rebellion; the Government of India Act 1858 transferred power to the Crown
A death from typhoid at Windsor in December sends a queen into forty years of black (1861)
The death of Prince Albert, aged 42
A Royal Titles Act adds an imperial style, proclaimed at a great assembly in Delhi (1877)
Empress of India, Disraeli's gift; the Delhi Durbar of 1 January 1877
Fifty years on the throne marked by a service in Westminster Abbey and a gathering of fifty European royals (1887)
The Golden Jubilee
Sixty years marked by a procession of colonial troops through London and a service on the steps of St Paul's (1897)
The Diamond Jubilee, staged by Joseph Chamberlain as an imperial festival
A war in southern Africa against two Boer republics begins with the sieges of Ladysmith and Mafeking (1899)
The Second Boer War, which outlived her
Quick-fire facts
- •Born Alexandrina Victoria at Kensington Palace on 24 May 1819, daughter of the Duke of Kent and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
- •She acceded on 20 June 1837, aged 18, and at once escaped the controlling 'Kensington System' of her mother and Sir John Conroy
- •She married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 10 February 1840; they had nine children
- •She used chloroform for the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853, making obstetric anaesthesia respectable
- •She carried haemophilia, which passed through her daughters into the Spanish and Russian royal houses
- •Her closeness to the Highland servant John Brown, and later to her Indian Munshi Abdul Karim, scandalised the court
- •She survived at least eight assassination attempts, the first by Edward Oxford in 1840
- •She reigned 63 years and 216 days, the longest of any British monarch until Elizabeth II passed her in September 2015
- •She died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight on 22 January 1901 and is buried with Albert at the Frogmore Mausoleum, Windsor
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- The Royal Household — Victoria (r. 1837-1901)
- Christopher Hibbert — Queen Victoria: A Personal History