A monarch is Born
Victoria's father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of the reigning King of the United Kingdom, George III. Until 1817, Edward's niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a succession crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent and his unmarried brothers to marry and have children. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl (1804–1856) and Feodora (1807–1872)—by her first marriage to Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen. Her brother Leopold was Princess Charlotte's widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kent's only child, Victoria, was born at 4:15 a.m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. At birth, Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III: the Prince Regent (later George IV); Frederick, Duke of York; William, Duke of Clarence (later William IV); and Victoria's father, Edward, Duke of Kent.[3] The Prince Regent had no surviving children, and the Duke of York had no children; further, both were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further legitimate children.
William and Edward married on the same day in 1818, but both of William's legitimate daughters died as infants. Victoria's father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old. A week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son as George IV. William's second daughter, Princess Elizabeth of Clarence, lived for twelve weeks. The Duke of York died in 1827, followed by George IV in 1830; the throne passed to their next surviving brother, William, and Victoria became heir presumptive. The Regency Act 1830 made special provision for Victoria's mother to act as regent in case William died while Victoria was still a minor. King William distrusted the Duchess's capacity to be regent, and in 1836 he declared in her presence that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided.
Coronation
Interesting fact: Queen Victoria was only 19 when she rose to succession!
Queen Victoria was crowned on 28th June 1838, aged 19. The ceremony took five hours and suffered from a lack of rehearsal. No one except the Queen and Lord John Thynne (Sub-Dean of Westminster acting for the Dean), knew what should be happening. The coronation ring was painfully forced on to her wrong finger and Lord Rolle, an elderly peer, fell down the steps while making his homage to the Queen. A confused bishop wrongly told her the ceremony was over and she then had to come back to her seat to finish the service. In her Journal Victoria recorded the events of the day, calling it 'the proudest of my life'. The red footstool she used at this ceremony can be seen in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries. A musical festival to celebrate the coronation was held in the Abbey on 2nd July before the special seating was removed.
Jewels Used in Crown
269 pearls
17 saphires
11 emeralds
4 rubies
Marriage
FUN FACT:
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The couple first met at Victoria's 17th birthday in April 1836 when she was heir to the British throne. The cousins were introduced by their uncle, Leopold I (1790 - 1865), King of the Belgians. In their memoirs, both Albert and Victoria record that they almost instantly fell in love. After Victoria acceded to the throne in 1837, tradition dictated that no one could propose to a reigning monarch.
Therefore, Victoria proposed to Albert - she proposed during his second visit in October 1839 at Windsor Castle in Berkshire. On 10 February 1840, Queen Victoria married Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (he later took the title of Prince Consort). They were married at the Chapel Royal, St. James Palace in London. This was the first marriage of a reigning English Queen since Queen Mary in 1554. Victoria arrived at the chapel as part of a long carriage procession from Buckingham Palace. Albert was escorted by a squadron of his senior cavalry, while 12 bridesmaids carried Victoria's train. As Victoria's father had died when she was a child, she was given away by her favorite uncle, Prince Augustus Frederick, the Duke of Sussex. After the ceremony, the married couple and the carriage procession travelled to the Queen's residence at Windsor Castle. For her wedding, Victoria chose to wear a white satin and lace dress, which was seen as unusual at the time. It was more common for brides to wear gowns of rich colors which could be used again for other occasions. The white dress was chosen as a symbol of wealth, purity, and ensured the Queen would stand out from the crowd in the procession. The silk dress used material woven in Spitalfields in London, while the lace was made in Honiton, Devon, supporting the then-flagging English craft. The dress was designed by William Dyce, the head of the Government School of Design, now known as the Royal College of Art. While Victoria did not start the tradition of the 'white wedding', she did help to popularize the white wedding dress. During the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, many comparisons were made between Victoria and Catherine Middleton's dresses. Victoria and Albert were married for 21 years, remaining together until his death on 14 December 1861. The Queen was distraught at his passing; her diaries describe how reliant the couple were on each other practically, politically and emotionally.
Not so fun fact: After prince Albert's death, the Queen wore black in mourning for the rest of her life, earning the nickname the 'widow of Windsor'.
Death
Queen Victoria is born in Kensington Palace, London
June 20, 1837
Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert
1 January 1877
Queen Victoria dies at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight
May 24, 1819
Queen Victoria ascends to throne, becoming queen
February 10, 1840
Queen Victoria officially becomes the empress of India
January 22, 1901
Queen Victoria served as the ruling monarch of Great Britain, India and Ireland from 1837. Her death on January 22, 1901 ended the 63-year period that claimed her name and was a great shock to both the British Empire and many nations further afield. Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 on 22 January 1901 at 6.30 pm. She passed away at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. This included the future King, Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Her death marked the end of an era where many of her subjects knew no other monarch. Her 63-year reign was the longest in British history, until Queen Elizabeth II. Victoria died of a cerebral hemorrhage, which is a type of stroke. However, the Queen had been growing weaker for several years before her death. Her eyesight had become clouded by cataracts, and she was a wheelchair user due to her rheumatism. In one of her last diary entries on the 4 January 1901, she wrote, "From not having been well, I see so badly, which is very tiresome." In the second week of January, the Queen's doctors found she had suffered from a series of minor strokes, and the end was coming. The royal family came to Osbourne House to pay their respects. On her death bed, she whispered that Turi, her Pomeranian dog, be brought to her.