Queen Victoria

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than any previous British monarch. From 1876 onwards, she also held the title “Empress of India”.

## Life

Born in Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819, Queen Victoria was originally named Alexandrina Victoria, after her godfather, Tsar Alexander I, but always preferred to go by her second name, or the nickname 'Drina. At birth, Victoria was fifth in the line of succession for the British crown, behind the four eldest sons of George III, including her three uncles and her father, Edward. Shortly after her accession to the throne, Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace, which was previously owned by her late uncle King William IV. This made Queen Victoria the first reigning monarch to take up residence at Buckingham, though her move did not come without its struggles. As the royal family's website puts it, "Her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 soon showed up the Palace's shortcomings."

The Palace was in need of extreme renovations if it was going to be a family home as Queen Victoria intended it to be. Victoria put in the work, adding an entirely new wing, and years later, Buckingham continues to serve as a place of royal business and the London residence of Queen Elizabeth. The monarch was four inches shorter than Queen Elizabeth II. At 6 a.m. on June 20, 1837, Victoria was woken from her bed at and informed that her uncle, King William IV, had suffered a heart attack and died during the night. Less than a month after turning 18, Victoria was Queen. Less than a year after Queen Victoria's birth, her father, Edward, Duke of Kent (the fourth son of George III) died of pneumonia, leaving the young princess to be raised by her mother. Following his death, Victoria's mother, Duchess Victoria, was prepared to rule alongside her daughter if Victoria's uncle died and she ascended to the throne before she was officially of age. For this reason, Victoria's mother used a strict code of discipline to shape the Queen-to-be. Later known as the "Kensington System," it involved a strict timetable of lessons to improve Victoria's morality and intellect. This meant she rarely got to interact with children her own age because of the demands on her time. Princess Victoria was under constant adult supervision and was also made to share a bedroom with her mother until she became Queen. The young queen was an adept linguist, fluent in both English and German. Her mother and governess both had German roots, so Victoria grew up speaking the language and later used it frequently when speaking to her German husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Queen also studied French, Italian, and Latin.
Toward the end of her reign, when servants from India arrived at Windsor Castle in 1877, her attendant, Abdul Karim, taught the Queen many Hindu and Urdu phrases to better communicate with her servants. "I am learning a few words of Hindustani to speak to my servants," she wrote in her diary, according to a book about the period, *Victoria & Abdul*. "It is a great interest to me for both the language and the people, I have naturally never come into real contact with before. During her reign, several attempts were made at Queen Victoria's life, all of them unsuccessful. The first notable attempt was made in 1840, when 18-year-old Edward Oxford fired at the Queen’s carriage in London. Oxford was accused of high treason for his crime and was ultimately found not guilty for reasons of insanity, according to the History channel's website. Two men tried to shoot her in 1842, and in 1849, her carriage was attacked by William Hamilton, an unemployed Irish immigrant who later pled guilty to the crime and was banished for seven years, History reports. One year later, Robert Pate, a former soldier, used an iron-tipped cane to hit the Queen in the head, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

The final notable attempt took place in March of 1882, when a Scottish poet named Roderick Maclean shot at Queen Victoria's carriage with a pistol while leaving the Windsor train station. According to Time, this was Maclean's eighth attempt at assassinating the Queen. Maclean was tried for high treason and was found "not guilty, but insane," so Maclean was sentenced to live out his days in an asylum until his death in 1921, the Guardian reports. Despite the chaos and fear that followed the many assassination attempts, Queen Victoria became more and more popular with the public after each attempt.

## In *The Crown*

Despite the fact that Queen Victoria's reign was the second longest in British history, her immensely positive reputation and the fact that she is also a direct ancestor of over half of the main characters of *The Crown*, she is rarely mentioned in the events of the series. Despite this, her legacy is visible in the first two seasons of the series with elements such as the size of the British Empire and Commonwealth, the wider reputation of the Royal Family and the generally pro-monarchy mentality of upper and middle class Britons that cemented in her reign.

### Season 5

Her first and only mention and appearance is in the season 5 episode, "Queen Victoria Syndrome". This episode, the premier episode of season 5, surrounds the events that led to the decommissioning of the HMY Britannia, which had become an increasingly controversial symbol of the Royal Family's wealth. Alongside this, Prince Charles' deteriorating relationship with Princess Diana has also contributed to a decrease in the Queen's personal popularity. John Major, as well as several media outlets of the time, refer to this as "Queen Victoria Syndrome", a phenomenon in which a popular, long reigning monarch becomes increasingly unpopular as their reign drags on, and they become overshadowed by their children and grandchildren. In Queen Victoria's case, the numerous sexual scandals involving her son, Albert, Prince of Wales; increasing political tensions in Europe where many of her children and grandchildren now ruled; and the general sense that her reign was nearing its end and that she was becoming obsolete all contributed to her waning popularity towards the end of the 19th century. Similar phenomena occurred during the reigns of King George III of Great Britain, King Leopold II of the Belgians and King Christian X of Denmark. Despite this, Queen Elizabeth II welcomes the comparison, as (despite the turbulences of her reign) Queen Victoria was, and remains, one of the most well respected monarchs in history. A portrait of Queen Victoria is also shown in the episode.