Queen Victoria was born May 24th, 1819. She was a daughter of the Duke of Kent, Prince Edward, minor son of the leading King George III, and German princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg. 

Her dad and granddad passed away in 1820. The following year, her uncle prospered as King George IV. When George passed away in 1830, Victoria was standing to become the successor to the throne after the offspring of her next royal uncle, King William IV, died in early childhood. William personally passed away in 1837, and the eighteen-year-old monarch went on to become Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland on June 20th that year.

Her Marriage to Prince Albert

Victoria remained a virgin queen up until February 10th, 1840, when she got married to her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. Victoria had given birth to nine children within the following seventeen years, amongst them the forthcoming King Edward VII. Albert was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts, sciences and flourishing industries. He also helped manage the well-known Great Exhibition of 1851 at the “Crystal Palace.”

Victoria really loved her husband, who inspired her significantly and became her most reliable adviser in the affairs of state. The other significant influence in her early rule was Prime Minister William Lamb, next Viscount Melbourne, of the liberal Whig party. 

These first few years of Victorian rule witnessed major improvements in British schooling, with the Grammar Schools Act of 1840 and the establishment of Queen’s College for females in London in 1848.

Her Accomplishments as Queen

Throughout the middle years of her reign, Queen Victoria oversaw Britain’s involvement in the Crimean War (1854–56). 

There were several other wars during Queen Victoria’s reign that she managed to keep away from her shores, including the Prussia-Austria-Denmark war of 1864-1866 and the Franco-German war of 1875. 

Queen Victoria also helped major reforms domestically, like the Second Reform Act of 1867 and the Representation of Peoples Act of 1884—both of which greatly expanded the population of her subjects permitted to vote in parliamentary elections.

Throughout Victoria’s reign, the British overseas empire attained its highest rule and power. The queen inserted the title Empress of India into her crown in 1876. She was a staunch supporter of the empire, which frequently pitted her opposition to the Liberal party’s William Gladstone, prime minister from 1869–1874, 1880–1885, and again from 1886–1894.

The Death of Queen Victoria

After serving sixty-three years as queen of England —the world’s longest rule of any English monarch—Victoria passed away on January 22, 1901. She was 81 years old at that time.