Queen Victoria: the woman who gave the name to the era

Not every monarch manages to leave on himself such a memory as this woman. When historians speak of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the second half of the 19th century, they call the country Victorian England, and the period from 1837 to 1901, in which Queen Victoria rules, is called the Victorian era. But the beginning of the tale was not at all rosy ...

Alexandrina Victoria was the only child in the family of Edward Augustus, the Duke of Kent from the Hanover dynasty, and the princess of one of the German principalities of Victoria Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Victoria's mother first married at age 17, but she seemed to be born to carry a widow cross. The first husband died 11 years after the wedding, leaving a woman with two children. The second marriage was made in 1818. The groom (duke of Kent) was at that time 50. Only 8 months after the birth of his only daughter, he died of pneumonia (the invention of antibiotics was still ahead), six days ahead of his father, King George III of Britain.

The future Queen Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 in a modest Kensington Palace on the London outskirts. Although Victoria was only the fifth in the queue for the throne, and the chances of taking him were not large, the Duke of Kent considered that the other heirs could in the future challenge Victoria's right to the throne if she was not born on British soil. Because he insisted on moving from Germany to England. For the newborn girl, the name Victoria was chosen. The Russian Emperor Alexander I became the godfather of the baby, so Aleksandrin became the second name of the future queen. In the family she was called Drina.

Victoria was born into a royal family, but her childhood was spent in rather cramped conditions (the father left them a legacy of debts).

After the death of his father and grandfather Victoria is already in third place in the queue for the throne after two of his childless uncles. King George IV, who was a regent with a sick father since 1811, becomes king. The new king weighed more than 120 kilograms, loved luxury and entertainment. Although he was a fan of Jane Austen's books, he patronized the artists of his time, but the daughter of the late brother irritated the king. He reluctantly allowed Victoria and his mother to move to Kensington Palace and approved a small allowance for the girl. The mother's brother Leopold (future King of Belgium) paid for her education.

Victoria did not attend school, she studied at home in history, geography, mathematics, religion, piano and drawing. In the first three years of her life, she spoke only German, but then quickly mastered English and French. Conservative mother protected her from the worst aspects of royal life, instilled noble values and brilliant manners. After the death of three uncles who separated the princess from the throne, at the age of 18, Queen Victoria entered the throne.

She ruled the country 63 years, 7 months and 2 days (from 1837 to 1901), to this day remaining a monarch, the longest occupying the British throne. At the age of 21, the Queen of Britain married her cousin, Albert Saxe-Coburg-Goth, the German prince. They were married on February 10, 1840 in the chapel of the royal palace in St. James.

During the reign of Victoria, Britain became a powerful empire that subdued a quarter of the world, its soldiers fought on many fronts. The population of the country doubled and became predominantly urban. Slavery was abolished. In the cities there were water, gas, electricity, police, asphalt roads and pedal bicycles, the first postage stamps and comics, as well as the world's first metro (the famous London Pipe). Factories and railways were built, photography, rubber tires, first mailboxes and sewing machines were invented. Drina followed her husband Albert and patronized new technologies and was interested in them. With it there were laws on the education of children and the mass opening of schools began.

Queen Victoria became the first monarch who lived in Buckingham Palace. She loved singing, she painted a lot of her life, wrote books, went to the opera and was very happy in marriage. However, her husband's death shocked the queen. Albert was her real assistant both in the government of the country and in family life. She mourned for his death for almost 10 years and until the end of her life wore mourning and did not show emotion in public. Remaining a widow at 42, the queen of Britain had difficulty in finding the strength to return to her duties and children.

Victoria and Albert had nine children, 40 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Eight royal children sat on the throne of Europe. All survived to adulthood, which was a rarity in the XIX century. However, as it turned out later, Queen Victoria was the carrier of the hemophilia gene, spreading the disease through morganatic marriages to many European royal families, including the family of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, whose wife Alexander was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The only heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Alexei, was severely affected by this disease.

Queen Victoria herself, whose biography worried more than one generation of historians, successfully survived seven attempts and died in 81 years from a stroke. She is buried in the Frogmore Mausoleum in Windsor. The current Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Albert, are great-great-great-grandchildren of Victoria.