QUEEN VICTORIA

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland

Head of the British EmpireEmpress of India

Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and German Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg.

She was not an evident successor to the throne. She became Queen beause she was an only child and because her 3 uncles died with no heirs.

Victoria received a secluded education, following the Kensington system under the tight supervision of her omnipresent mother.

LORD MELBOURNE(1779-1848)

Melbourne was Victoria’s first Prime Minister and tutor until 1841.He was a Whig and developed Victoria’s support of the party although Prince Albert would later advise her to be more apolitical.

Melbourne’s major act:Dissenters' Marriage Bill 1836: legalised civil marriage outside of the Church

On October 15, 1839, Victoria proposes to Prince Albert Their Wedding was celebrated on February 10, 1840

“ I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert ... his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! ... to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life![57]” (Victoria’s diary)

In 1861, Prince Albert died at only 42. His death plunged the Queen in a deep mourning. She lived secluded and started toneglect her royal duty. The people knew/saw nothing about the Queen. Rumors concerning her mental stability started to emerge, radical voices started to question the utility of the monarchy…

John Brown, the devoted servant who devotedly accompanied the Queen during her mourning.

Inside Queen Victoria's drawing room on the Royal Train

On Wednesday 13th June 1842, Queen Victoria became the first reigning British monarch to travel by railway !

Victoria would continue to use the railways regularly.

Victoria's use of the train helped make it popular with both the less fortunate and the priviledged classes of Britain.

A locomotive decorated for Victoria’s Golden Jubilee ==>

"The Queen's First Trip by Railway”. 1842. Illustrated London News. <==

The Koh-I-Noor diamond on view at the Great Exhibition

THE GREAT EXHIBITION 1851

Victoria as a dedicated mother“I don't dislike babies, though I think very young ones rather disgusting”.

“An ugly baby is a very nasty object - and the prettiest is frightful”.

Queen Victoria with Princess Beatrice

“I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to ‘unsex’ themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection.”

Queen Victoria on Feminism (excerpt of her diary):

A Few Satirical Cartoons :

(The Queen’s bathing machine)

Cartoon from Punch:

Disraeli prososing to exchange Victoria’s old Crown with the a Crown embodying the Empire

(you can read ‘India’ on the crown held by the character on the left)

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee 1897:

The Queen’s Funeral:

On 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria died at Osborne. Her funeral was held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor

"Albert said Sir Robert's speech had been very able, his proposal very comprehensive and excellent," Queen Victoria wrote. "He had been much cheered by the opposition but was received in complete silence by the Conservatives."

Robert Peel was a Conservative stateman was was the Queen’s PM between 1841 and 1846.The repeal of the Corn Law didn’t get the support of his fellow Conservatives

NO PERSECUTION NO INTIMIDATION !

William Ewart Gladstone (1809 – 1898) was a British Liberal politician. He served 4 times as PM between 1868 and 1894.

Gladstone's time saw many reforms including the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the introduction of secret voting as well as the Third Reform Act.

Gladstone had poor relationships with the Queen who said in her diary “He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting”and Disraeli who called him « God’s only mistake »

« THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE »

The Munshi Abdul Karimwho becameThe Indian intendant of

Victoria for 15 Years and

gained her affection.

EMPRESS OF INDIA 1877

The other side of India’s colonization …

Prestige and wealth abroad, poverty at home

Bibliographie:An illustrated history of Britain, David McDowall, LongmanQueen Victoria: First Media Monarch, John Plunkett

www.punch.photoshelter.com www.royal.gov.uk/ muse.jhu.edu/journals/vic/ http://www.victorianweb.org/