An Overview of the Life of Queen Victoria

The reign of Queen Victoria endured for almost sixty-four years from 1837 to 1901, longer than any other British monarch in history. When Victoria ascended to the throne, the United Kingdom of Britain already had a constitutional monarchy in place that significantly limited the political power of the ruler. However, during her reign that would come to be known as the "Victorian era," Victoria served as a powerful figurehead of the U.K. during a period of massive growth due to the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the British Empire (Munich 265). Victoria became the presumptive heiress to the throne when her uncle William IV died without leaving any legitimate heirs to the throne. Victoria was nine so her mother, the Duchess of Kent and Straithearn, served as Regent until she assumed full command of the throne at eighteen.

Family values, Victoria as mother figure, and morality were highly significant during Queen Victoria's reign. Placing her in the company of Marcus Aurelius, King Alfred, and St. Louis, one historian says of her reign, "Even in a palace life may be well led" (Colby 792). This analysis will provide a discussion of some of the most significant events in the life and reign of Queen Victoria.

Victoria became Queen of the U.K. and Ireland on her eighteenth birthday. At the age of twenty-one, Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They wo

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discord...and to resisting every impulse to join the fray" (Arnstein 2). Where some Queens like Elizabeth I and engaged in frequent warfare, at times in defense, in no sense of the word was Queen Victoria a warmonger. Walter Bagehot maintains that there was a purposeful attempt during the reign of Queen Victoria to turn "the sovereign into a perfect middle-class wife" (Arnstein 3). The purpose behind this effort was to create an image of Queen Victoria that the working-classes could relate to rather than an elite monarch. Queen Victoria refused to wear a crown and often dressed modestly without the pomp and circumstance about her person generally reserved for monarchs. Kuhn (646) maintains that the political elite wanted to transform the monarchy into such an image because they understood the position as "a weapon in the class struggle." During Queen Victoria's time Great Britain would become a firmly established modern constitutional monarchy. The various efforts to limit the political power and control of the monarch during Queen Victoria's time are readily apparent. She was forced by parliament to provide a "civil list" that listed the fixed annual payment she received from the state to support the roy

Category: History - A