Queen Victoria - The UK's Longest Reigning Monarch Queen Victoria Queen Victoria The Longest Ruling Monarch of the United Kingdom Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Original Artist: By T H Maquire. (1852). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) By Patricia Daniels, Contributing Writer Updated July 26, 2016. Who Was Queen Victoria? Ascending to the throne at only 18 years old, Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom for nearly 64 years -- the longest of any British monarch. During her reign, Great Britain became a powerful industrial nation and boasted an empire that stretched across the globe. Despite the early loss of her beloved husband, Queen Victoria provided a reassuring stability during much of the 19th century - an era of great social and technological change. The years of her reign are referred to as the Victorian Era.

Dates: May 24, 1819 - January 22, 1901 Reign: 1837 - 1901 Also Known As: Alexandrina Victoria of the House of Hanover; "the Grandmother of Europe" The Girl Who Would Be Queen Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819 to Edward, the Duke of Kent (and fourth son of King George III) and German Princess Victoire of Leiningen. Although Victoria was fifth in line to the throne - unlikely to become monarch - the duke feared that any future claim to the throne might be challenged if she were born abroad. continue reading below our video Profile of Queen Victoria He ensured that his daughter was born on British soil, moving with his pregnant wife from Germany to England. Christened Alexandrina Victoria at birth, the child came to be called Victoria. Despite being born into royalty, she did not grow up surrounded by wealth. Edward's spendthrift ways had left him with many debts. The duke and duchess, in an attempt to reduce expenses, moved with their infant daughter to a modest home.

Not long after the move, Edward became ill and died of pneumonia on January 23, 1820 (Victoria was just eight months old). Six days later, King George III died as well, thus making George IV King of England. Victoria was now third in line to the throne behind her two uncles, who had failed to produce heirs. Victoria's Less Than Royal Childhood King George IV , whose only legitimate child had died in childbirth, was resentful of his brother's daughter. He begrudgingly allowed Victoria and her mother to move into an apartment at Kensington Palace, but would only approve a small allowance. The duchess’s brother, Prince Leopold (later King Leopold I of Belgium ), agreed to pay for Victoria's upbringing and education. Tutors were hired to school Victoria in history, math, drawing, and languages. Raised by a German mother who spoke little English, Victoria spoke mostly German the first few years of her life, but readily learned both English and French. In 1827, when Victoria was eight, her Uncle Frederick, the Duke of York, died, placing her one step closer to the throne.

A Scheming Pair When newly widowed, Victoria's mother had turned for advice to John Conroy, a colleague of her late husband. In the years following the duke's death, the self-serving Conroy convinced the duchess that she should have herself declared Victoria's regent (an agent acting on behalf of an incapacitated or underage monarch) in the event that Victoria became queen while still a minor. In this way, Conroy - through the duchess - could essentially control the throne. When King George IV (who loathed Conroy and the duchess) died in 1830, the pair believed they could easily persuade newly-crowned King William IV to name the duchess as Victoria's regent. But King William did not trust the duchess and refused her request. The duchess petitioned Parliament, winning approval as Victoria's sole regent in 1831. The regency proved unnecessary. On June 20, 1837, a month after Victoria's eighteenth birthday, King William died, making Victoria queen of England. The Young Queen Weeks after assuming the throne, Queen Victoria moved to Buckingham Palace , where she began the business of ruling the nation.

The young queen's composure and confidence impressed the prime minister and the Privy Council (a group of high government officials and advisers to a monarch). The official coronation was held on June 28, 1838 amid great celebration. The public was enchanted by the new queen, who seemed more eager to please them than her predecessors had been. A scandalous incident, however, would soon sway public opinion against her. The "Lady Flora affair," as it came to be known, was the product of the young queen's immaturity and lack of discretion. Victoria, among others, had noticed that her mother's lady-in-waiting, Flora Hastings - an unmarried woman - appeared to have a bulging abdomen. Queen Victoria jumped to the conclusion that Lady Flora was pregnant, and began to make comments about her to various members of her staff. The rumor circulated beyond palace walls. Within months, Lady Flora was gravely ill. When she died of an apparent abdominal tumor, the queen was blamed for having started the rumors that had brought dishonor upon a dying woman. The public was outraged; many of her detractors actually booed the queen when she went out in public.

It would take an engagement and marriage for Queen Victoria to regain her reputation. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: Courtship and Marriage Victoria's Uncle Leopold had long favored his German nephew Prince Albert - first cousin to Victoria - as the perfect candidate for marriage to the queen. When the prince and Victoria had met two years earlier, she had been impressed by Albert's looks and demeanor. Upon meeting with him a second time in October 1839, Victoria seemed smitten. Within days, she proposed to him (protocol would not allow him to propose to her), and the engagement was announced. Even before the wedding a debate arose as to what title Prince Albert should hold. Queen Victoria preferred "King Consort," so that Albert could rule by her side, but members of Parliament were opposed to giving that power to a foreigner. Parliament decided to award the prince no rank or title whatsoever; he was simply made a British subject. Prince Albert was immensely disappointed, and the queen was furious, but could not oppose the decision. The wedding was held on February 10, 1840 . Despite rainy weather, large crowds lined the streets to watch the procession from Buckingham Palace.

Later, the crowd cheered as the newly-married couple rode past in their carriage. The Royal Offspring Queen Victoria and Prince Albert welcomed the birth of their first child, Princess Victoria in November 1840. However, the queen was not happy that she'd become pregnant so soon after the wedding, and often complained in her journal about the difficulties of motherhood. Queen Victoria gave birth to a male heir, Albert ("Bertie"), a year later. Between 1843 and 1857, the queen had seven more children, completing her family of five daughters and four sons . All survived to adulthood, a rare outcome at a time when many children did not survive infancy. The queen's fourth son, Leopold, born in 1853, was diagnosed at an early age with hemophilia , a genetically-transmitted bleeding disorder. He died in his thirties of the disease. Through the marriages of Victoria's children, hemophilia later re-emerged in several European royal families, most notably in the son of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra (Victoria's granddaughter).

It was later determined that Queen Victoria and two of her daughters (as well as Alexandra) were carriers of the gene, which was passed on to their sons. Prince Albert's Role Prince Albert enjoyed being a father and found that having children had necessitated that he take on more responsibilities in the royal household. Queen Victoria increasingly relied upon him for advice, and he welcomed this new role. The prince was widely praised for organizing palace finances and eliminating wasteful spending. Prince Albert earned the admiration of the British public following an assassination attempt upon the queen in 1840. When a gunman shot at the royal carriage, Albert acted quickly, pushing his wife to the carriage floor to avoid the bullet. (Queen Victoria would survive seven assassination attempts.) After initial reservations about Albert's capabilities, Parliament appointed him regent in July 1840 during the queen's pregnancy. As regent, Prince Albert would be in charge of the heir if Queen Victoria were to die in childbirth, or otherwise. The prince was not awarded the title of "prince consort" until 1857. War and Rebellion The British became involved in the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856.

Most of the fighting took place in Russian-held Crimea, where bitter cold and disease took as many lives as battle wounds. The queen, lacking any power in military situations, felt compelled to help. She organized relief efforts, knitted socks and mittens, and visited soldiers in hospitals. In her official capacity, Queen Victoria wrote letters of condolence to war widows. British presence in India stirred up a rebellion of Indian soldiers, called "sepoys," in 1857. The uprising resulted in the deaths of hundreds of European civilians. When the rebellion was finally subdued by British troops, all of India came under the control of the Crown of England. Queen Victoria proudly referred to India as a "jewel of her crown." She was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877, when Parliament passed the Royal Titles Act. The Death of Prince Albert Queen Victoria endured the darkest year of her life in 1861, beginning with the death of her mother in March. Later in the year, her oldest son, Bertie - first in line to the throne - created a scandal by becoming romantically involved with an actress. Prince Albert traveled to Cambridge to chastise his son, despite feeling weak and feverish.

He returned to Windsor Castle, where his condition deteriorated over the next few weeks. Prince Albert died on December 14, 1861 at age 42, from probable stomach cancer. A widow at 42, the queen was devastated. Faced with her official duties as well as the care of her children, she felt incapable of carrying on. Queen Victoria became a recluse, avoiding public events and social engagements and even refusing foreign visitors. Victoria's children suffered as well. They had lost their father; now their mother, too, seemed to abandon them in her grief. Some of the younger children became depressed and withdrawn, and Bertie became the object of his mother's anger. The queen blamed the 21-year-old prince for his father's death. She felt that her son's misbehavior had compelled Prince Albert to make the trip to Cambridge, worsening his illness. The public and Parliament began to lose patience with the queen, who neglected her duties and remained in mourning for more than three years. Queen Victoria and John Brown Desperate to help the grieving queen, the royal physician suggested that she go horseback riding to improve her health. He sent for the groom from the queen's stables in Scotland.

John Brown arrived in early 1865. The handsome 39 year old sported a kilt and had a straightforward, somewhat rough way of talking with the queen. She responded well to him and began venturing out in public for the first time in years. Although it was clear that the queen was in better spirits since Brown's arrival, he was unpopular with both the queen's family and the public. Rumors abounded that the two were having an affair, but no proof has ever been found to support that notion. John Brown remained the queen's servant until 1883, when he died of a streptococcal infection. Later Years Over the years, Queen Victoria regained her popularity by making more of an effort to attend public functions and by becoming involved in charitable causes. She kept close contact with an ever-changing roster of prime ministers, always ready with an opinion on the issues of the day. The queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 1897, marking sixty years as monarch. She was proud of the many jubilee biographies that were written about her, several of which described her as a virtuous woman who set a good example.

Queen Victoria died of a stroke on January 22, 1901 at the age of 81. Her eldest son, Albert, succeeded her as King Edward VII . Facts about Queen Victoria for kids Back to the top Who were Victoria's parents? Victoria was the only child of Prince Edward (Duke of Kent) and Princess Victoria Mary Louisa of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Prince Edward (1767-1820) was the fourth son of King George lll. Find out more about Victoria's family tree. Did you know? Both Queen Elizabeth, the Queen today, and her consort (as her husband is known), the Duke of Edinburgh, are great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria. When was Queen Victoria born? Queen Victoria was born on the 24 May in 1819. Her father died eight months after she was born. Where was Queen Victoria born? Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, London. Back to the top What name was Victoria christened as? Victoria was christened 'Alexandrina Victoria'. However, from birth she was formally addressed as Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent. Did you know?

Back to the top When did Victoria become Queen? Queen Victoria came to the throne when she was only 18 years of age on June 20, 1837. Her coronation was a year later on 28 June 1838. Back to the top Who did Queen Victoria marry? At the age of 21, Victoria married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, a German Prince. They married on the 10th February 1840 at the Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace. Victoria had nine children, 40 grand-children and 37 great-grandchildren, scattered all over Europe. Most of Queen Victoria's children married into other royal families of Europe. Back to the top How long exactly did Queen Victoria reign? Queen Victoria reigned for exactly sixty-three years, seven months, and two days (June 20, 1837 - January 22, 1901). Queen Victoria is our longest ever serving monarch. Back to the top How old was Victoria when she inherited the throne?

She inherited the throne at the age of eighteen, upon the death of her uncle William IV who had no legitimate children (children born to married parents). Why did Queen Victoria wear black? Her husband Albert died in 1861 at the young age of 42. She mourned his death for almost 10 years. For the rest of her reign she wore black. Back to the top Where did Queen Victoria live? Queen Victoria had many homes. She lived in Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Osborne House (Isle of Wight) and Balmoral Castle. Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace. Did you know? Victoria was known as the "Grandmother of Europe" because many of her children and grandchildren married into the royal families of other European countries. What hobbies did Queen Victoria have? Queen Victoria loved singing and she enjoyed painting and drawing. She loved going to the opera. How did Britain change whilst Victoria was Queen? Whilst Victoria was Queen there was a tremendous change in the lives of British people: Britain became the most powerful country in the world, with the largest empire that had ever existed, ruling a quarter of the world's population.

The number of people living in Britain more than doubled, causing a huge demand for food, clothes and housing. Factories and machines were built to meet this demand and new towns grew up, changing the landscape and the ways people lived and worked. Railways, originally built to transport goods, meant people could travel easily around the country for the first time. Queen Victoria survived seven assassination attempts When did Queen Victoria die? Queen Victoria died on 22 January, 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She was 81. Queen Victoria was survived by 6 children, 40 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren, including four future sovereigns of England: Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI. Where is Queen Victoria buried? She is buried in a mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor. Back to the top Who became the next King or Queen after Victoria? Queen Victoria was succeeded by her eldest son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. He became King Edward VII. BBC - Primary History - Famous People - Queen Victoria Who was Queen Victoria? Queen for an age People all over the world know the name of Queen Victoria. She is probably the most famous queen in history.

She was Queen of a vast empire , as well as of Britain. A long period of history is named after her - the Victorian Age. What does 'Victorian' mean? It means 'to do with Victoria'. It's an adjective used to describe people and things from her time. Victoria was Queen for over 60 years. Many things happened during her life. We talk about 'Victorian' buildings or 'Victorian' furniture. This doesn't mean that Queen Victoria made them herself! It usually means something dates from the 1800s. When did she live? Victoria was born in 1819. She became Queen in 1837 when she was 18. Her reign lasted for more than 60 years. Queen Victoria was born early in the 19th century . She lived to see the start of the 20th century, dying in January 1901. The little princess Her parents Victoria was born on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Her full name was Alexandrina Victoria. Her mother called her 'Drina'. Her father was Edward, Duke of Kent. He was a son of King George III.

Victoria's mother was German. She was Princess Maria Louisa Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. I will be good Victoria's father died when she was a baby, on 23 January 1820. A few days later (29 January), King George III died. Victoria's uncle became King George IV. Neither King George nor his brother King William IV (king from 1830) had any legitimate children. Victoria was next in line. She knew one day she would be Queen. 'I will be good' she promised. Growing up in a palace Although they lived in a palace, Princess Victoria and her mother were not very rich. Her uncles King George and King William did not often visit her. Uncle Leopold, King of Belgium, sent her presents. Did she go to school? Victoria did not go to school. Her German governess gave her lessons. Victoria grew up speaking German as well as English. Victoria was never left alone. But with no friends of her own age, the little princess was lonely. She played with dolls. She was good at maths, music and drawing. She had a pony called Rosa and a spaniel dog called Dash.

Meeting Albert On her 17th birthday, Victoria was pleased to meet visitors from Germany. They were her cousins Ernest and Albert. She liked Albert very much. Victoria and Albert Long live the Queen In June 1837, King William IV died. Victoria was told early in the morning. She was now Queen. She met the prime minister , and lots of other important people. 28 June 1838 was coronation day. Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey. People cheered and shouted 'Long live the Queen!' The coronation lasted 5 hours, and everyone got tired. One very old nobleman tripped and rolled on the floor. His name was Lord Rolle! Albert comes to call In October 1839 cousin Albert came to visit again. Victoria asked him to marry her. He could not ask her - she was the Queen! Victoria and Albert were married in February 1840. Victoria and Albert worked together each day. They had desks next to each other. The Queen had to read lots of government letters and papers. The royal family In 1841 Victoria had a baby, Princess Victoria ('Vicky'). A year later, she had a son, Prince Albert Edward.

The family called him 'Bertie'. The Queen had nine children. It was years since children had run about the royal palaces. The 'royal family' became part of Victorian Britain. Royal Christmas Christmas became fun. Albert liked Christmas trees, with candles. Soon lots of families in Britain had Christmas trees. The first Christmas cards were sent in 1843. The Queen began sending cards too. She gave Christmas presents to palace servants. Palace cooks cooked 50 turkeys and a side of beef for Christmas dinner. Family holidays The royal family had a seaside home at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Albert built a beach hut. The Queen had her first dip in the sea. The children were shown how to grow vegetables. From 1848 the royal family had a home at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Albert wore a kilt, went fishing, and hunted deer. Victoria tried Scottish country dancing. The Queen also enjoyed sea trips in the royal yacht Victoria and Albert. Queen and empire What was the British Empire? The British Empire included Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and India. Islands such as Jamaica and Barbados in the West Indies were in the British Empire too.

Victoria was Queen of the biggest empire in history. In 1877 she became 'Empress of India'. The Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in Hyde Park, in London. Queen Victoria went lots of times with Prince Albert. The Exhibition was full of inventions and machines. There were wonderful things from all over the world. What was the Crystal Palace? The Great Exhibition was inside the world's biggest glass building! It was called the Crystal Palace. Trees grew inside and birds flew around. The Crystal Palace was later moved to south London. Sadly, it burned down in 1936. The Crimean War In 1854 Britain went to war with Russia, in the Crimean War . Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole went to help the sick and wounded soldiers. Queen Victoria sent warm hats and scarves for the soldiers. She gave medals to soldiers. The first Victoria Cross was given in 1856. The Queen and government Britain's laws were made by Parliament . Every prime minister came to see the Queen, to tell her what the government was doing. Victoria did not like all her prime ministers.

In a letter, she called Palmerston a 'dreadful old man'. She said that solemn Mr Gladstone spoke to her 'as if she were a public meeting'! She liked Disraeli, who made her laugh. His plans for making the British Empire bigger pleased her. The Royal Family A growing family Victoria had four sons and five daughters. Her 9th and last child was Princess Beatrice, born in 1857. In 1858, the Queen's eldest daughter Princess 'Vicky' married the Crown Prince of Prussia (Germany). Everyone sat very still for the wedding photos. Taking a photo then took a long time. In 1859, the Queen became a grandmother. Vicky's son William later became German Emperor. He was known as the Kaiser . Prince Albert dies Albert was never king. His title was Prince Consort. He was serious, and worked hard. Though Victoria loved him, Prince Albert was never very popular in Britain. Victoria was hardly ever ill, but Albert was often unwell. In 1861 he became very ill. He died in December 1861, aged 42.

The Queen in black The Queen was so miserable she refused to go out or see people. People then wore black clothes as a sign of mourning , for a short time. The Queen wore black for the rest of her life. She kept Albert's room and clothes as when he was alive. She spent more time in Windsor or Scotland. She had a favourite Scottish servant, John Brown. Her Indian servant, the Munshi, taught her words in the Hindustani language. The Prince of Wales The Queen was disappointed in her eldest son 'Bertie', the Prince of Wales. He liked having fun too much. In 1862, the Prince of Wales married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. He saw more of the world than the Queen. He visited America, Canada, Russia and India. She never went outside Europe. Royal relations The Queen's children married other royal princes and princesses. In a few years, Queen Victoria had grandchildren and great-grandchildren in almost every royal family in Europe. Victorian Britain Great events There were many great events in Victoria's lifetime. You can find some of them on the timeline. Britain had the world's first steam railway.

People had their photos taken for the first time, had electric lights in their homes, made the first phone calls, and went for their first car rides. Changing Britain In 1801 there were 16 million people in Britain. By 1901 when Victoria died there were 41 million. When Victoria was a child, most people still lived and worked in the countryside. When she died, Britain had become an industrial nation. Most people lived in towns and cities. Jubilees In 1887 the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee. She had been Queen for 50 years. She rode in a carriage through London. Bands played, soldiers marched, crowds waved flags and cheered. In 1897 Victoria celebrated 60 years as Queen. For her Diamond Jubilee, there were more parades and children's parties. Victorian landmarks The Victorian age brought many advances in science. It left many landmarks in our towns, such as railway stations and town halls for example. There are still lots of statues of Queen Victoria. She had streets named after her. Victoria in Canada is a city. Victoria in Australia is a state. In Africa there is a mighty waterfall, the Victoria Falls.

End of an era In 1900 the Queen visited Ireland. By now she was old and not very well. She took a last carriage drive on 15 January 1901. On 22 January she died. For her funeral, she had asked for cheerful flowers, not too much black. Queen Victoria was buried beside Prince Albert at Frogmore, near Windsor. Her son 'Bertie' became King Edward VII. Her great-great-granddaughter is Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Victoria | Information Facts Summary Queen Victoria’s Childhood By M. Foster Farley The plump toddler watering the flowers in the garden of her home at Kensington Palace was to overcome her early difficulties to become Britian’s great Queen-Empress. The name “Queen Victoria” conjures up a picture of a small, plump old lady in a black gown and lace cap, querulous and exacting, “not amused” at the antics of the younger generation, yearning always to be reunited by death with her dear departed Albert. It is hard to visualise her as a child. Yet, of course, she was once young and not always the formidable matriarch and magnificent Queen-Empress of popular legend.

In fact, her childhood did not really end until she was 18 years old, when she succeeded to the throne. Victoria was born on a bright spring day, 24th May 1819, at Kensington Palace, in the then quiet suburb of London. “Plumb as a partridge” was her father’s description of the baby, and she certainly bore a marked resemblance to her sturdy and robust Hanoverian ancestors who had ruled Great Britain for little more than a century at the time of her birth. By 1798 Victoria’s grandfather, King George III, had reigned for nearly sixty years, but he was now old and ailing. The symptoms of his terrible illness, porphyria, seemed to his doctors to be those of madness, and for years the King had be confined in Windsor Castle while his eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled in his stead. Victoria’s father, Edward, Duke of Kent, was the old King’s fourth son, but since his three elder brothers were without heirs, there seemed a good chance that he might one day himself become King. He had married late in life, when he was over 50, to supply an heir to the throne in the younger generation.

Between the seven princes and five princesses of the royal family, not one of them had a legitimate child to carry on the succession, until 1819 saw three royal births within two months. The Prince of Wales had one child, the Princess Charlotte, who in time would have become Queen, but she died in childbirth in the autumn of 1817. It was her death which drove her uncles into marriage, to beget heirs to replace her in the line of succession. Indirectly, Charlotte herself had found her uncle Edward his bride: the Princess had married a minor German princeling, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and, deeply in love with him, suggested to the Duke of Kent that he would find an amiable wife in Leopold’s widowed sister, Victoire. In fact, Edward and Victoire met in 1816, but then there seemed no urgency in the matter of their marriage, and there were too many difficulties in the way at the time for the Duke of Kent to urge his suit — not the least of them being that he was perfectly happy with his French mistress of some quarter of a century’s standing.

But soon after Charlotte’s death, Edward proposed to Victoire, and the couple were married the following summer. Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was 31 years old when she married the English Duke, a pretty woman with dark hair and sparking eyes, with a fine figure and lively ways. A German Princess of ancient lineage but little fortune, she had been first married at the age of 17 to Prince Emich Charles of Leiningren, a widower in his late thirties. Together they had weathered the storms of the Napoleonic invasions of Germany, their tiny principality impoverished by the wars. Emich Charles died only a few months after the first defeat of Napoleon, in 1814, leaving his widow with two small children and the manifold demands of noblesse oblige to tax her wits and strength. Her marriage with the Duke of Kent seemed to promise Victoire a brighter future, taking her away from her narrow existence in the village of Amorbach, with its careful economies and restricted social life, into one of the leading Courts of Europe, with the chance of one day becoming a queen.

In the summer of 1818 Edward brought his bride to England, but then, after a few heady months in London “society”, it was back to Amorbach and the familiar daily round, for the Duke was so burdened with debts that he could not afford to keep up appearances as a royal personage in England. But he was determined that his child should be born in his native land, and by dint of borrowing from his long-suffering friends, he managed to bring his wife back to England in time for the baby’s birth. Edward was not disappointed that the baby was a girl and not the long-hoped-for male heir: “I am decidedly of the opinion that the decrees of Providence are at all times the wisest and the best,” he wrote to a friend. A month after her birth, the Kent baby was baptised. After much debate in the royal family — in which not a little ill-feeling was aroused, she was named “Alexandrina Victoria”, after her chief godfather, the Russian Tsar Alexander, and her mother. The name “Victoria: was then completely unknown in England, though it had long been in use in the forms “Victoire” and “Victoria” on the Continent.

For the first few years the child was known as “Drina”, but in one of her first copy-books is limned the name “Victoria” by which she came to be known in later childhood. Despite the fact that the Kents had married “for convenience” their union proved remarkably happy. Edward had never known the comforts of a settled home in England, nor had he ever enjoyed so much approval from his family as this new domesticity brought. For Victoire, the change in her circumstances was delightful: with her new baby, and with a husband who doted on her, she was well content. Unfortunately, however, this happy state of affairs did not last long. The family moved down to Sidmouth in Devon in December 1819, and there, on 23rd January 1820, Edward, Duke of Kent, suddenly died. He, who had no serious illness in his life, caught a cold and took no special care of himself, so that it turned to pneumonia. In abject grief and almost penniless, the widowed Duchess allowed her brother Leopold to make all the arrangements for her return to London.

For months she remained in seclusion, at Kensington or at Leopold’s house at Claremont in Surrey. It was a testing-time for too, in that she had to decide whether to return to the familiar German countryside which had been her home for any or to remain in England, where she was still a comparative stranger. But the fact that her baby was now third in line to the throne (for George III had died only days after his son Edward) steeled her to her duty: for the sake of the baby’s future inheritance, she would stay in England and bring up her child as an Englishwoman, ready to succeed to the throne. The new King George IV had had very little affection for his late brother, so unlike him in character and principles, and he was not enamoured of the idea of having to contribute to the support of his widowed sister-in-law. Fortunately for Victoire, she had her own brother Leopold at hand, for he had decided to make his home in England after the death of his wife Charlotte, and out of his own allowance he provided most of the Duchess’s income. Many years later, Queen Victoria gathered together her earliest memories.

Her infancy was people with kind faces: her mother, always anxious and prudent for the child’s health; her half-sister Feodora, ten years her senior but her constant companion; old Baroness Spath, the Duchess’s German lady-in-waiting; the adoring nurse Mrs. Brock, replaced when Victoria was 4 years old by Fraulein Lehzen, Feodora’s governess. There were numerous aunts and uncles of the Royal family: her favourites were kind Aunt Adelaide, Duchess of Clarence, and her bluff husband William, struggling to hold back, in polite company, those rough seamen’s oath which he had learned in his roistering youth, as well as the devoted Uncle Leopold from Germany. On the other hand, there was “Uncle Sussex” who lived next door and who, it was always threatened, would be angry if his niece’s raised voice reached his ears; and the sinister “Uncle Cumberland”, next in line to the throne after the little Victoria, who, it was rumoured, was not incapable of “removing” so irritating a small rival to his aspirations to the crown.

“We lived in a very plain manner”, reminisced the Queen later, “breakfast was at half past eight, luncheon at half past one, dinner at seven – to which I came generally (when it was not regular large dinner-party) — eating my bread and milk out of a small silver basin. Tea was only allowed as a great treat in my later years.” A few pen-pictures of the young Victoria were written by contemporaries: the plump toddler attempting to water the flowers in the Palace gardens but pouring most of the contents of her watering-can over her shoes; a straight backed infant atop an ambling donkey, with a sweet-faced elder sister to guide her; a solemn little girl at church at Esher, so wrapped in her own thoughts that she failed to notice the threatening bumble-bee buzzing inside the rim of her bonnet. Victoria was no model child. She had her fair share of the royal temper, screaming and stamping when she was crossed, throwing a pair of scissors at Lehzen in a right royal rage. “When you are naughty, you make me and yourself very unhappy,” her mother rebuked her on one occasion.

“No, Mamma,” corrected the child, “not me, mot myself, but you!” All her life the future Queen would be stubborn and obstinate, but when she became calm after an uncontrolled fit of temper, she would always be contrite and wheedling for forgiveness. She was bright enough, quick at her lessons and shrewd in personal relationships: when her uncle George IV whisked her off to hear the band at Windsor one day, and gave her choice of a “number”, the artful child requested “God Save the King”. But Queen Victoria’s childhood was not idyllic by any means. As she grew up, she came to realise how narrow the circle admitted to Kensington Palace; she agreed with her half-sister that only at Claremont, on their holiday, had she been completely happy. The darkest shadow over her young life was one John Conroy, the Comptroller of the Duchess’s household at Kensington and the virtual controller of all the Duchess’s attitudes and aspirations. Conroy had been the Duke of Kent’s aid-de-camp, a military man who made more success of his social studies than he ever had of active service.

He was a flamboyantly good-looking Irishman, possessed of an ample measure of charm and an overweening ambition. The Duchess of Kent was no simpleton, but she was used to having her life ruled by men and could not accustom herself to having to make independent decisions. A better guide would have been her brother Leopold but, he, after a few years of carefully supervision of his sister’s affairs, took a mistress of whom she could not approve, which drove a wedge between them; then, as he tired of inactivity in England, he began to travel abroad more frequently. Finally, in 1831, he departed permanently to take up the crown of the newly-created kingdom of Belgium. Left alone in England, daunted by her responsibility as mother of a future Queen, Victoire of Kent relied increasingly on the soothing blandishments of her Comptroller. It was Conroy who insisted that Victoria should be strictly guarded, playing on her mother’s fear of a fatal “accident” at the hands of the Duke of Cumberland.

It was Conroy who urged a suitable match for Feodora with a German prince, when it seemed likely that the widower King George IV himself might offer for her hand (thus snatching the little Victoria’s chance of a crown by begetting heirs of his own). Conroy could see himself as the chief adviser to the future Queen Victoria, the father-figure who would be the girls éminence grise, the “power behind the throne” of her reign, and he did all he could to prepare his glorious future. Having made himself indispensable to the Duchess by his administration of her household and his advice to her as to the care of her child was not averse to a little more personal interest too: Conroy, a married man, never became the Duchess’s lover — she was far to circumspect and he was far too fearful of scandal for such a situation to develop, but he knew hot to make himself agreeable to a lonely widow. The child Victoria once witnessed “some familiarities” between her mother and Conroy and prattled of them to lady-in-waiting Spath.

When the horrified Baroness rebuked her mistress, she received short shrift and was sent packing by Conroy, of course, to the safe distance of Feodora’s new home in Germany. Sir John could not risk malicious gossip: if it were ever thought that the Duchess of Kent was an unfit moral influence on her daughter, the child might be swept off to other guardians. In 1827, the heir to the throne, the Duke of York, died, followed in 1830 by his brother King George IV. Now only the frail life of King William IV, already in his sixties, stood between the Princess Victoria and the Throne. By 1830 the Duchess of Kent — or rather, Conroy — had plans already in train in case the princess should succeed while still a minor. By proving to an invited committee of prelates that her child was well grounded in her education and religion, the Duchess of Kent won wide approval; it was a short step to gaining recognition, a few months later that she, Victoire, should be her daughter’s regent should Victoria come to the throne before she reached the age of eighteen.

In fact, by the modern standards of royal training, Victoria’s education was somewhat deficient. Lehzen, and the visiting tutors who were brought in, gave the child a good grounding in English, French and German (though her Latin, which she began at 8 years old, never progressed very far). More interesting to the Princess were her music and dancing lessons, and she actually chose to learn Italian from her passion for the Italian opera. Her reading in history, however, was prodigious: at 15 she was immersed in Clarendon’s dry History of the Rebellion and Sully’s Memoirs, so that though she was taught no political theory or philosophy, Victoria came to have a good appreciation of the mistakes and achievements of past rulers. Apart from her tutors, Victoria’s contacts with the outside world were few in her early years. Conroy induced the Duchess of Kent to discourage visits from the royal family, who might, he feared, either woo Victoria’s affections away from her mother or enquire too closely of his own influence.

Occasionally, the Princess might be allowed to attend a children’s ball or a little girl might be brought in to play with her (“You must not touch those, they are mine,” declared the Princess to a child who wanted to play with the royal toys, “and I may call you Jane, but you must not call me Victoria!”) but usually she had only the company of the Conroy girls, Jane and Victoire, and so much had she come to hate their father that they never became her friends. How soon Victoria realised how baneful was the influence of Sir John Conroy in her life is hard to say. But certainly, once she had come to realise her own significance and her destiny, it would not be too difficult for even a child to see through his wiles. It has often been affirmed that she never knew for years that she would one day be Queen, and did not understand why men stared at her in the Park, sweeping off their hats and bowing.

If so, there could well be a good deal of truth in the oft-told story of Lehzen’s slipping a family tree of the royal dynasty into the child’s history book in 1830: when Victoria realised the significance of her own place in the royal family, she pondered “I am nearer to the throne than I thought.” Then she said the memorable words, “I will be good.” As presumptive heir to William IV from 1830, Victoria became an important personage in the Kingdom. Her mother (that is, Conroy) was careful to keep the Princess’s name totally disassociated from that of the King; while William IV was reviled throughout the nation for his opposition to the Parliamentary Reform Bill of 1832, the Duchess, via Conroy, courted the Radical and Whig politicians of the Opposition. While stones were thrown at the royal carriage in London streets, Victoire and Victoria were everywhere cheered as they made a summer “progress” through the provinces. As these journeys continued, every summer, the King became increasingly resentful. In petty spite, he forbade the firing of gun salutes at the appearances of his niece and her mother.

At first Victoria found these journeys enthralling, a wonderful escape from Kensington. When she first left London for a tour of Wales in 1982, she began a journal in a book which the Duchess had given her. So fascinating was the coach ride and so tempting the blank pages of the diary that for the first few days she would record the exact time of her arrival and departure at the stages along the route: “Twenty minutes to nine. We have just changed horses at Barnet, a very pretty little town. Five minutes past half past nine. We have just changed horses at St. Albans. The situation is very pretty and there is a beautiful old abbey there. Five minutes past ten. The country is beautiful here: they have begun to cut the corn; it is so golden and fine that I think they will have a good harvest . . . A quarter to eleven. We have just changed horses at Dunstable . . .” With these naive beginnings, the future Queen instituted the great disciplined life-work of her journals, in which, for the first time, a British monarch recorded conversations, impressions and feelings to the eternal benefit of her biographers. But by 1835 the strenuous journeys had lost their appeal.

Conroy had planned a series of visits to the great houses of the aristocrats very much to the advantage of the Duchess’s popularity. Victoria balked at the idea. So violent was the quarrel between the Princess and her mother over this issue that the Duchess had to resort to writing a letter to her daughter, for she could not control her anger in conversation. She demanded that Victoria recognise her responsibilities to show herself to “the people”: “I must tell you, dearest love, if your conversation with me could be know, that you had not the energy to undertake the journey, or that your views were not enlarged enough to grasp the benefits arising from it, then you would fall in the estimation of the people in this country.” Victoria conceded the victory, but throughout the “progress” she complained vehemently of head-ache and back-ache and other ailments. Only a few weeks after the family settled at Ramsgate to recuperate from the journey, Victoria fell really ill, most probably of a severe case of tonsillitis. Having recovered from a fever, she was still very week for more than a month, losing a good deal of weight and continually complaining of cold, through bad circulation.

Sir John Conroy was not the man to miss such a chance of taking advantage of the girl’s debility. The Princess’ antipathy to him was becoming ever more apparent, and he had by then given up the hope of obtaining future power through her affections. While Victoria was still weak from her illness, he put before her the demand that he should become her secretary when she succeeded to the throne. He actually produced a document for her to sign, binding her to the promise. Victoria firmly resisted. Despite her physical frailty, she had the strength of her hatred of Sir John to give her resolution. At the same time, she had the encouragement of Baroness Lehzen, her governess, who was always her ally against Conroy. For years this woman had attempted to shield her charge from him and to open the Princess’s eyes to the scope of his enormities. Despite Lehzen’s power over Victoria, which was grounded on sincere affection and bulwarked on common cause against the enemy, Conroy dare not act against the governess, to oust her as he had the lady-in-waiting Spath.

He knew only too well that Lehzen enjoyed the confidence of both King William IV and King Leopold of the Belgians, the Duchess’s brother. Infuriated by this impotence, he only made matters worst by continually sniping at Lehzen in Victoria’s presence. Nevertheless, the girl’s life was not completely unhappy, and for quite long periods Kensington Palace could be free of raised voices and sudden bursts of tears. Victoria would spend many quiet hours with Lehzen, dressing her large collection of dolls as characters from history or fabricating tiny trinket boxes from odds and ends of silk and coloured beads. There was a stream of letters from Feodora to cheer Victoria, with news of her growing family, or the screeds of advice from her Uncle Leopold, who fancied himself as mentor to the future Queen. Although the Duchess had not encouraged visits from her own German family in the early years, she had made sure that Victoria learned a large measure of devotion to her unseen aunts and uncles to make up for her deprivation of closer ties.

When the Princess was in her early teens, several of the German relations were invited to Kensington Palace, including, in the summer of 1836, her cousins Ernest and Albert, sons of Victoire’s eldest brother, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Victoria was open to teenage enthusiasms (for years she went into raptures of the singing of the young and beautiful Giulia Grisi, who sang her favourite Italian operas so well) and she threw herself whole-heartedly into entertaining her cousins and could not sufficiently praise their looks and accomplishments. However, King William was not so rapturous. He had dark suspicions that the Duchess, or the King of the Belgians (whom he had never liked), was angling for a Coburg match for Victoria, which was certainly not to his tastes. His reception of the Prince of Orange and his eligible sons was timed to coincide with that of the Coburgs. For once, Victoria did not side with her English uncle against her mother, and she assured her Uncle Leopold that Ernest and Albert were perfectly to her taste while the Oranges were detestable.

By the middle of the 1836, relations between the King and his sister-in-law were at breaking point. Matters came to a head in August when William IV openly insulted the Duchess at a public dinner in honour of his birthday: “I trust in God that my life may be spared for nine months longer [when Victoria would gain her majority], after which period, in the event of my death, no regency would take place. I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the royal authority to the personal exercise of that young lady . . . the heiress presumptive of the crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me [Victoire], who is surrounded by evil advisers and who is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the station in which she would be placed.” It was a bombshell. From that moment Conroy became desperate — and Victoria more resolute. Recognising that the future Queen would never willingly allow in him any power in her future government, Sir John began to make out a case for her unworthiness to govern and need for guardians. He was forever harping on her emotional instability and inciting her mother repeatedly to draw attention to her faults.

But though the Princess was certainly unbalanced in her emotions after such years of strain at home, she was by no means unfit to rule. And above all, she had the will to do her duty, to “be good.” On 24th May 1837 Victoria celebrated her 18th birthday. At last she was free of the impending regency. But she had had a narrow escape: by that date her Uncle William was already close to death. Conroy panicked. In the last days of William IV’s life, he stepped up his campaign. He tried to convince Lords Liverpool and Melbourne, the leading politicians of the day, that Victoria was totally unfit to govern — but they were not taken in. He put pressure on the Duchess of Kent and her son Charles of Leiningren, Victoria’s half-brother, to force the Princess into signing away her independence. But already it was too late. King Leopold, realising now how precarious was his niece’s position, sent over his own trusted adviser, Baron Stockmar, both to report to him on the situation and to attempt to hold it in check. At last Conroy ruined everything.

He told the Duchess, “if Princess Victoria will not listen to reason, she must be coerced.” Victoire was already becoming apprehensive: realising that she had lost her daughter’s trust, she was now hesitant to take any more drastic measures. Even Charles Leiningen, formerly a pawn of Conroy’s by his reliance on financial loans, saw that Sir John had gone too far and advised his mother not to obey him. For the last few days of King William’s life, Kensington was in a state of uneasy truce. At 6 o’clock on the morning of 20th June 1837 the Duchess of Kent woke her daughter with the news that William IV was dead. All her life Victoria had been used to receiving visitors in the company of her mother; now, for the first time, she went alone into the room where the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain were waiting. All through that day of mixed grief and triumph, Victoria undertook her first duties alone, emphasising that word in her account of the day in her journal with immense relish. That night, for the first time, she did not sleep in her mother’s bedroom. Victoria was no longer a child.

She was now a woman and a Queen. All her accounts were paid in full: Lehzen became her closest attendant, remaining her confidante; her mother, though treated with deference in public, was shunned at home — often, in reply to the Duchess’s request to see her daughter, Victoria would send a note with the one word “Busy”; Conroy was forbidden access to the Queen’s private rooms at Buckingham Palace. In the years to come, it was obvious to courtiers that Victoria had more regard for her former governess than for her mother, for the Duchess would complain of such treatment to all who would listen. Conroy stayed in her service and, in 1839, was involved in a scandal at Court which seriously threatened the Queen’s popularity in the country. It was suspected that he had made a young lady-in-waiting pregnant: Victoria hounded the unfortunate woman mercilessly — though in fact Lady Flora Hastings, an old enemy from Kensington days, was suffering from an incurable illness which merely gave her body the appearance of pregnancy. The ensuing furore gave Victoria’s advisers a chance to press for Conroy’s resignation.

It was to be many years, however, before the Duchess of Kent regained her daughter’s affection. When the Queen married her Coburg cousin Albert, in 1840, Victoire mourned that now she would never be “all in all” to her daughter. But gradually with her new emotional balance, Victoria would look more kindly on her mother and recognise the good intentions which had prompted her to such unwitting former unkindness. As a doting grandmother, the Duchess found her ideal role, and one which her daughter could grant without loss of dignity. By the time of her death in 1861, Victoire had Victoria’s complete devotion. The Queen mourned her mother in typically hysterical fashion, bitterly regretting the years of their estrangement. Many Kings and Queens of England have had unhappier childhoods than Victoria; Elizabeth I, for example, when she was repudiated by her father and left to live in poverty, when she first learned to fear the headsman’s axe and the marriage-bed; or Charles II, amid war and political intrigues, with fears for his life at the hands of his father’s enemies.

Perhaps it is a prerequisite of a great monarch to have a previous tempering in the fires of adversity. Victoria’s early misfortune certainly did not mar her suitability for the throne. [tabby title=’More Queen Victoria Articles’][srp widget_title=”Queen Victoria Articles” widget_css_id=”testing-grid” post_type=”post” post_content_type=”content” post_content_length=”50″ post_content_length_mode=”words” post_title_length=”12″ post_title_length_mode=”words” post_date=”no” category_include=”148″ post_offset=”2″ string_break=” More…” layout_mode=”multi_column” srp post_limit=”200″ display_thumbnail=”no” vf_everything=”no”][tabbyending] Copyright 2014 British Heritage. Victoria Becomes Queen, 1837 Victoria Becomes Queen, 1837 She became England's longest reigning monarch, her offspring governed Europe, she gave her name to an era, but she was only a teenager when she ascended the throne of the world's mightiest empire.

Victoria with son Edward (the future King) and daughter Vickie (the future mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany) The British monarchy had suffered bad times, discredited by the madness of George III (1760-1820), the excesses of George IV (1820-1830), and the unimpressive reign of William IV (1830-37). Victoria was William's niece and had been designated the heir to the childless king from her birth. On Tuesday June 20, 1837 the king died of pneumonia. Awakened at dawn Victoria lived with her mother in Kenningston Palace, London (the same palace Lady Di lived in before her death). It was there that the eighteen-year-old was told of her Uncle's death. Victoria refers often in her diary to seeing her visitors "alone" or "quite alone". This is an indication of the teenager establishing her independence with her ascendancy to the throne. Victoria's mother (the Duchess of Kent) had raised Victoria in a cloistered and highly controlled environment (the two in fact shared the same bedroom).

The mother had hoped to extend her control once her child became Queen and had lobbied unsuccessfully to be named Regent. Victoria's pointed references to seeing her visitors "alone" reveal that the young girl will be charting her own course as Queen. We can only imagine her mother's chagrin when Victoria tells her that her presence will not be required during her various meetings that day. Victoria recorded the day in her diary: ADVERTISMENT "Tuesday, 20th June 1837 I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here, and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing-gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham (the Lord Chamberlain) then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen. Lord Conyngham knelt down and kissed my hand, at the same time delivering to me the official announcement of the poor King's demise.

The Archbishop then told me that the Queen was desirous that he should come and tell me the details of the last moments of my poor good Uncle; he said that he had directed his mind to religion, and had died in a perfectly happy, quiet state of mind, and was quite prepared for his death. He added that the King s sufferings at the last were not very great but that there was a good deal of uneasiness. Lord Conyngham, whom I charged to express my feelings of condolence and sorrow to the poor Queen, returned directly to Windsor. I then went to my room and dressed. Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to fulfill my duty towards my country; I am very young and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure that very few have more real good-will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have. Breakfasted, during which time good, faithful Stockmar [Baron Stockmar - a friend] came and talked to me. Wrote a letter to dear Uncle Leopold [King of the Belgians] and a few words to dear good Feodore [Victoria's stepsister].

Received a letter from Lord Melbourne [the Prime Minister] in which he said he would wait upon me at a little before 9. At 9 came Lord Melbourne, whom I saw in my room, and of course quite alone, as I shall always do all my Ministers. He kissed my hand, and I then acquainted him that it had long been my intention to retain him and the rest of the present Ministry at the head of affairs, and that it could not be in better hands than his. He again then kissed my hand. He then read to me the Declaration which I was to read to the Council, which he wrote himself, and which is a very fine one. I then talked with him some little time longer, after which he left me. He was in full dress. I like him very much and feel confidence in him. He is a very straightforward, honest, clever and good man. I then wrote a letter to the Queen. At about 11 Lord Melbourne came again to me, and spoke to me upon various subjects. At about half-past 11 I went downstairs and held a Council in the red saloon. Victoria in the 1880s I went in of course quite alone and remained seated the whole time.

My two Uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex, and Lord Melbourne conducted me. The Declaration, the various forms, the swearing in of the Privy Councillors of which there were a great number present, and the reception of some of the Lords of the Council, previous to the Council, in an adjacent room (likewise alone) I subjoin here. I was not at all nervous and had the satisfaction of hearing that people were satisfied with what I had done and how I had done it. Received after this, audiences of Lord Melbourne, Lord John Russell, Lord Albemarle (Master of the Horse), and the Archbishop of Canterbury, all in my room and alone. Saw Stockmar. Saw Clark, whom I named my Physician. Saw Mary. Wrote to Uncle Ernest. Saw Ernest Hohenlohe, who brought me a kind and very feeling letter from the poor Queen. I feel very much for her, and really feel that the poor good King was always so kind personally to me, that I should be ungrateful were I not to recollect it and feel grieved at his death. The poor Queen is wonderfully composed now, I hear. Wrote my journal. Took my dinner upstairs alone.

Went downstairs. Saw Stockmar. At about twenty minutes to 9 came Lord Melbourne and remained till near 10. I had a very important and a very comfortable conversation with him. Each time I see him I feel more confidence in him; I find him very kind in his manner too. Saw Stockmar. Went down and said good-night to Mamma, etc. My dear Lehzen [Victoria's governess as a child] will always remain with me as my friend, but will take no situation about me, and I think she is right." References: Benson, Arthur Christopher and Viscount Eshers, ed. The Letters of Queen Victoria 1837-1861 (1907); Erickson, Carolly, Her Little Majesty: The Life of Queen Victoria (1997) How To Cite This Article: "Victoria Becomes Queen, 1837," EyeWitness to History, (1999). Baron Stockmar, a German nobleman, brokered the marriage between Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840. Should we celebrate when the Queen becomes our longest reigning monarch?

- Telegraph Should we celebrate when the Queen becomes our longest reigning monarch? September 9 marks a historical landmark for our nation yet no official celebrations are planned Buckingham Palace says the Queen is 'politically neutral' Photo: Geoff Pugh/The Telegraph 7:00AM GMT 22 Mar 2015 Comments Don’t expect a commemorative stamp. Forget gilded carriages, rows of painted faces along the Mall, cardboard periscopes in red, white and blue. There will be no Red Arrows fly-past, nor any salute of guns in Hyde Park or at the Tower of London; no concert or picnic or fireworks display to disturb the peace of Buckingham Palace gardens. Instead, according to royal aides, Wednesday September 9 2015 will be 'business as usual’. As far as the Palace is concerned, this is not a day for celebration. Yet this is not a “usual” day. September 9 represents an extraordinary milestone in our island story. It is the day on which Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history , the day on which she breaks the record held for more than a century by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.

September 9 is the day that casts in a new light the National Anthem’s prayer about a Queen who is “long to reign over us”. Victoria’s reign of 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes – 63 years and seven months – defined an era and a people. No one was more “Victorian” than the public Victoria, with her sincere do-goodery, lugubrious piety, conspicuous wifely devotion and imperial bombast. (Admittedly, the private woman could be quite different, altogether more kittenishly charming or scabrously Hanoverian, depending on her mood.) In the eyes of her contemporaries, Victoria was the symbol of the age, sturdy as a steam engine and as solidly built as any of Eugenius Birch’s cast-iron seaside piers. Her longevity was interpreted as proof that theirs was, as she herself described it, “an epoch of progress”. Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years and seven months Victoria set her record on September 23 1896. “Today is the day I have reigned longer, by a day, than any English sovereign,” she recorded in her journal.

The sovereign she had in mind was her grandfather George III. By then, Victoria was regarded by the majority of her subjects with something close to idolatry. A newspaper announced that there was only “One Being more majestic than she”: God himself. Victorians responded enthusiastically to Victoria’s historic milestone. Everything from printed handkerchiefs to china plates bore the legend “the longest reign in history”. No disrespect was implied towards George III. Rather his granddaughter’s subjects revelled in a present they considered more glorious than the past. Their reaction was not one Victoria herself desired or encouraged. In 1896 she insisted she wanted no sort of demonstration ahead of the festivities of her Diamond Jubilee. “Notwithstanding that this was made public in the papers,” she wrote, “people of all kinds and ranks, from every part of the Kingdom, sent congratulatory telegrams and they kept coming in all day.

They were all most loyally expressed and some very prettily.” 21 April 1965: The Queen with her family Prince Andrew, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh on the Queen's 39th birthday Like her great-great-grandmother before her, Elizabeth II has requested there be no celebrations on September 9. Her attitude is shaped by respect for her formidable predecessor. The Queen is said to hope that, if the event is marked at all, it is done so reverently, with no spirit of triumphalism and no suggestion that what is being celebrated is Victoria’s death. Instead palace officials are at work on the programme for the Queen’s ninetieth birthday next April. And so there is a dilemma. To become the longest reigning of the forty-one kings and queens of England since the Norman Conquest is unquestionably an historic achievement, even if the achievement itself ultimately comes down to survival. It is also the case that a reluctance to crow is part of Elizabeth II’s make-up.

She will spend the day at Balmoral, the castle of glittering Aberdeenshire granite built for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert, just as Victoria herself did on the day she passed George III’s record (in the latter’s case she was entertaining the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, whose own long-term prospects proved decidedly less rosy). The Queen’s hope is for a “quiet” day, although this may well include an engagement in the vicinity. Last year a suggestion by Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow that the Queen relay a video message from Balmoral to crowds outside Parliament was vetoed on the grounds that it lacked dignity. A call by historian Andrew Roberts for a “proper national celebration” has also so far failed to find legs. Buckingham Palace has indicated the possibility of a photo call. Only in the event of “a spontaneous national clamour” for something more significant, Palace aides offer, will there be a change to the current, deliberately low-key plans. The Queen and Queen Mother attend Royal Ascot in 1950 After a lifetime of devoted public service and approaching her eighty-ninth birthday, the Queen deserves to have her wishes be taken into account.

A proper national celebration need not require her presence. George III celebrated his Golden Jubilee on October 25 1809. The ageing monarch was already incapacitated by illness. While the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London processed in thanksgiving to St Paul’s Cathedral, past crowds singing “Rule, Britannia” and “God Save the King” and crown-shaped decorations on the columns of the Mansion House, George remained in seclusion at Windsor Castle: he attended in private a service in St George’s Chapel. Afterwards, accompanied by his wife Charlotte, he visited a fete and fireworks display at nearby Frogmore. As acts of commemoration go, George’s own participation was unspectacular, organised without any allocation of public funds and witnessed by few of his subjects, who preferred to arrange their own celebrations in locations across the country. Their disparate junketings included throwing cakes from the roof of the Market House in Abingdon and freeing Danish prisoners of war in Reading. One contemporary described them as proof of a “spontaneous effusion of love”. Given his state of health, George’s case was unusual. By the end of the century, a handful of the more sensitive among Victoria’s subjects recognised the limitations imposed by her age.

One wellwisher suggested that Victoria absent herself from her Diamond Jubilee procession altogether and instead be replaced in the carriage by a puppet. In 1899, she was advised to tie a balloon to her jacket whenever she undertook an engagement, in order to take the weight off her legs. On September 9, there will be no carriage processions of puppets. Nor is it likely that Elizabeth II will replace her trusty Launer handbag with a balloon. But few people would deny that she has merited a 'spontaneous effusion of love’ to match that shown to her great-great-great-great-grandfather George III. How best to express that effusion is a decision to be taken individually by communities across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The majority of Victorians did not question Victoria’s greatness. One particularly florid commemorative mug labelled an unsmiling and heavily pixilated image of Victoria, complete with Bible and laurel wreath, “The Centre of a World’s Desire”. Also on the mug were “Notable Achievements in Peace and War”, including “Railways 1837”, “Afghan War 1839” and “Imperial Institute 1897”.

Victoria thus made contact with her subjects’ lips as a divinely ordained, classically heroic, technologically precocious, international love object (except possibly in Afghanistan). With every patriotic mug of tea they drank, Victoria’s subjects not only celebrated their sovereign’s milestone, they applauded themselves, advances in wealth, inventiveness and international peace wrought by the world’s first industrialised nation and its greatest imperial superpower. 1996: Nelson Mandela with the Queen For modern Elizabethans, the achievements of the last 63 years are more equivocal. The national record does not inspire tub-thumping or bombast. Crown and country have both undergone retrenchment. And yet the Queen herself is the most respected figure in British public life, acclaimed by world leaders, admired across the globe. At eighty-eight she remains the world’s poster girl for public service, unstinting in her devotion to duty, to the claims of others before self – as one historian had described her, “Elizabeth the Good, Elizabeth the Dutiful”.

In 1897, George Bernard Shaw wrote grudgingly about Queen Victoria in the Pall Mall Gazette: “the ideal of monarchy is still with us; and it is as the impersonatrix of that ideal that the Queen is worshipped by us.” That the ideal of monarchy survives at all into the twenty-first century is largely the doing of Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter. For centuries the British have forged a very personal relationship with their sovereigns. As Queen Maud of Norway wrote to Queen Mary following George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, “I loved the enthusiasm which the people have for dear George and you, it is so touching – and in no other country I am sure it is like that!” Public reaction to the Diamond Jubilee of 2012, the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton and the birth of Prince George prove that enthusiasm persists. In 2002, Hello!

magazine captioned a photograph in its Golden Jubilee coverage: “More than a million people throng the Mall to show the Queen how much she is loved.” A special Golden Jubilee coin bore a Latin inscription: “Amor populi preasidium reg.” (“The love of the people is the Queen’s protection”). On September 9, wherever we are in Britain, let us take the opportunity of demonstrating again that genuine affection between Crown and country. Let us put aside “business as usual” and seize the opportunity of celebrating our remarkable sovereign, recently described by Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood as “a reassuring and enduring source of stability, security and inspiration; a permanent anchor in a fast-moving world”. As a teenager anticipating her destiny, the future Queen Victoria studied the reign of Elizabeth I. “Elizabeth was a great Queen but a bad woman,” she pontificated. The achievement of the second Elizabeth has been to unite royal greatness with every indication of personal goodness. It is an achievement worth marking.

Matthew Dennison is the author of 'Queen Victoria: A Life of Contradictions’ (William Collins) The longest reigns in British history Edward III: January 25 1327 to June 21 1377, 50 years 147 days. Born 1312, died 1377, age 64 Henry III: October 18 1216 to November 16 1272: 56 years 29 days. Born 1207, died 1272, age 65. James VI of Scotland, later James I of England: King of Scotland July 24 1567 to March 27 1625: 57 years, 246 days. Born 1566, died 1625, age 59 George III: October 25 1760 to January 29 1820: 59 years 96 days.

Born, 1738, died 1820, age 81 Queen Victoria: June 20 1837 to January 22 1901: 63 years 216 days. Born, 1819, died 1901, age 81

Question: In which year did Victoria become Queen?
Answer: 1837