Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria de Wettin, née de Hanover) (born 24 May 1819 – died 22 October 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and Empress of India (1876- 1901). His reign, which lasted more than sixty-three years, remains the longest in the history of the United Kingdom. It was marked by an impressive expansion of the British Empire, which had become the world's leading power, and by the Industrial Revolution, a period of great social, economic and technological change. His reign was thus called the Victorian era. Victoria was the last ruler of the House of Hanover; after his death, the British crown passed to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Birth
A legend has it that in 1802, when Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, father of Victoria, was stationed in Gibraltar, a gypsy foretold him all sorts of "vicissitudes but a happy ending and a great throne. for his daughter".
From her full name Alexandrina Victoria of Hanover, Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Her father, Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, is the fourth son of King George III and Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. His mother, Princess Viktoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was the daughter of Duke Francis of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta of Ebersdorf.
She was baptized on June 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her godfather is Tsar Alexander I of Russia, in whose honor she received her first name. Her godmothers are her aunt Princess Charlotte, Princess Royal and her grandmother Augusta of Ebersdorf. Although her baptismal name is Alexandrina Victoria, she is officially recognized as Princess Victoria. Her family, meanwhile, nicknamed her Drina.
Childhood
Princess Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, died of pneumonia on January 23, 1820, when she was only one year old. His grandfather, King George III, blind and insane, died less than a week later, on January 29. His uncle, the Prince Regent, inherited the crown, becoming king as George IV. Although Victoria was well placed in the line of succession, during her early years she was only spoken German, the first language of her mother and governess. But as soon as she reached the age of three, she continued her schooling in English. She is also learning to speak Italian, Greek, Latin and French. His teachers are Reverend Davys and Baroness Lehzen.
She was eleven years old when her uncle King George IV died childless on June 26, 1830, leaving the throne to his brother, the Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews who became king as William IV. As the new king has no surviving legitimate children, the young Princess Victoria becomes heir apparent to the throne. As the law then made no special provision for an infant monarch, Victoria would have had the right to reign as an adult. To prevent such a scenario, Parliament passed the Regency Act of 1831, according to which Victoria's mother would, if necessary, take over as regent during the queen's minority. Knowing no precedent, Parliament does not create a council to limit the powers of the regent.
Princess Victoria was sixteen when she met her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Albert is actually Victoria's first cousin; Albert's father, Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is indeed Victoria's mother's brother. Princess Victoria's uncle, King William IV, disapproved of the union, but his objections failed to deter the couple. Many historians have suggested that Prince Albert was not in love with young Victoria and that he entered into a relationship with her on the one hand to gain social status (he was just a little German prince) and on the other hand out of a sense of duty (his family wanted the union). Whatever the reasons that led Prince Albert to marry Victoria, their marriage turned out to be extremely happy.
Accession
William IV died at the age of seventy-two on June 20, 1837, leaving the throne to Victoria. As the young queen has just turned eighteen, a regency is not necessary. But, according to Salic law, a woman cannot rule the Kingdom of Hanover, a state which has shared its monarch with Great Britain since 1714. Hanover therefore does not belong to Victoria, but to her uncle, Prince Ernest. Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, who becomes king as Ernest Augustus I. As the young queen is still unmarried and childless, Ernest Augustus I is also heir apparent to the British throne.
When Victoria came to the throne, the government was controlled by the Whig Party, which had been in power, with some interruptions, since 1830. The Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, immediately became an influential figure in the life of the queen, who lacked political experience and who relies on her opinion in many decisions to such an extent that some even call Victoria Mrs. Melbourne.
The Queen was crowned on June 28, 1838. She remarked:"...the moment when the crown was placed on my head...was, I admit, most magnificent and impressive."
The Melbourne government cannot stay in business for long; he becomes most unpopular and has to face difficulties related to the administration of the British colonies. In Canada, the United Kingdom is faced with an insurrection, and in Jamaica, the colonial assembly protests against British policy and refuses to pass certain laws. In 1839, unable to manage foreign policy, Lord Melbourne's government resigned.
The Queen instructs Sir Peel, a Tory, to form a new government. Then, a politico-diplomatic crisis broke out, known as the Bedroom Crisis. At the time, it was customary for the Prime Minister to appoint the Ladies of the Queen of the Bedroom. These jobs are traditionally granted to women whose husbands belong to the ruling party. Many of the Queen's Ladies of the Bedroom are Whig wives, but Sir Peel wishes to replace them with Tory wives. Victoria strongly opposes this replacement because she considers these ladies more like close friends than members of a ceremonial institution. Sir Peel felt he could not rule under the Queen's dictates and resigned, allowing Lord Melbourne to return to office.
Wedding
The Queen married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on 10 February 1840 in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace; four days earlier, Victoria granted her future husband the title of Royal Highness. Prince Albert is commonly known as the Prince Consort, although he did not officially obtain this title until 1857. He was, however, never granted a peerage.
The queen is quickly pregnant. During her pregnancy, an eighteen-year-old young man, Edward Oxford, attempts to assassinate the Queen while she is riding in a car with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fires twice, but both bullets miss. He is tried for high treason, but acquitted after being found insane. Many people have wondered about his gesture; Oxford may simply have sought notoriety. Many have suggested that a Chartist conspiracy was behind the assassination attempt; others have attributed the plot to sympathizers of the heir apparent, King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover. These suspicions of conspiracy arouse in the country a wave of patriotism and loyalty.
The attack has no effect on the health of the queen or on her pregnancy. The royal couple's first child, named Victoria, was born on November 21, 1840. Eight more children were born during Victoria and Albert's exceptionally happy marriage. Prince Albert is not only the Queen's companion, but also an important political adviser, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in her life. Having found a partner, Victoria no longer relies on the wives of Whigs for her companionship. So when Lord Melbourne's Whigs lost the 1841 election and were replaced by Sir Peel's Tories, the Bedroom Crisis was not repeated. Victoria continued to correspond secretly with Lord Melbourne, whose influence, however, diminished as that of Prince Albert grew.
On June 13, 1842, Victoria made her first journey by train, traveling from Slough station (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop's Bridge, near Paddington (in London), in a special royal carriage provided by the Great Western Railway . She was accompanied by her husband and Great Western Railway engineer Isambard Brunel.
In 1842, the queen was the victim of three assassination attempts. Prince Albert believes that these new attempts were encouraged by the acquittal of Oxford in 1840. On May 29, 1842 in St. James' Park, John Francis (most likely seeking to gain some notoriety) fired a pistol at the Queen (then in a car), but he is immediately seized by William Trounce. He is convicted of high treason, but his death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. On July 3, another young man, John William Bean, shot the queen. Although his gun was only loaded with paper and tobacco, his crime still carries the death penalty. Considering such a sentence too harsh, Prince Albert encourages Parliament to pass a law, according to which pointing a firearm at the Queen, hitting her, throwing an object at her or displaying in her presence a firearm or any other dangerous weapon with intent to threaten her, is liable to imprisonment for seven years and flogging. Bean is thus sentenced to eighteen months in prison. However, neither he nor anyone else punishable for a similar offense was ever flogged.
Children
Name Birth Death Marriage Spouse
Princess Victoria
(Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise)
November 21, 1840 August 5, 1901 January 25, 1858 Prince Friedrich of Prussia
(later Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia)
King Edward VII
(Albert Edward)
9 November 1841 6 May 1910 10 March 1863 Princess Alexandra of Denmark
Princess Alice
(Alice Maud Mary)
April 25, 1843 December 14, 1878 July 1, 1862 Prince Ludwig of Hesse
(future Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine)
Prince Alfred
(Alfred Ernest Albert)
August 6, 1844 July 31, 1900 January 23, 1874 Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
Princess Helena
(Helena Augusta Victoria)
25 May 1846 9 June 1923 5 July 1866 Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
Princess Louise
(Louise Caroline Alberta)
March 18, 1848 December 3, 1939 March 21, 1871 Marquess of Lorne
(future Ninth Duke of Argyll)
Prince Arthur
(Arthur William Patrick Albert)
1 May 1850 16 January 1942 13 March 1879 Princess Luise-Margarete of Prussia
Prince Leopold
(Leopold George Duncan Albert)
7 April 1853 28 March 1884 27 April 1882 Princess Helena of Waldeck-Pyrmont
Princess Beatrice
(Beatrice Mary Feodore Victoria)
April 14, 1857 October 26, 1944 July 23, 1885 Prince Henry of Battenberg
Ireland
The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland and chose to spend her holidays in Killarney, County Kerry, which she made one of the most popular tourist sites of the 19th century. In response to his passion for this island, the Irish first of all give him warm respect. But, in 1845, Ireland was hit by an epidemic of mildew which hit the potato crops, which, in more than four years, claimed the lives of more than half a million Irish people and caused the emigration of a million others. In response to what came to be known as the Great Potato Famine (Irish:An Gorta Mór), the Queen donated £5,000 from her personal tape and became involved in various famine relief organisations. While the responsibility for the aggravation of the famine in Ireland should above all be attributed to the policy of the Russell government, the queen was blamed for losing her popularity there. For the extremist republicans, Victoria becomes the Queen of Famine. There are even rumors in Republican circles about the paucity of his contribution to the fight against the famine (£5).
Victoria's first official visit to Ireland, in 1849, was personally organized by Lord Clarendon, representative of the Crown in Ireland, that is to say head of the British administration on the island. Its purpose is to try both to draw public attention to the famine, thanks to the presence of the queen, but also to alert British politicians to the extent of the crisis in Ireland. Despite the negative impact of the famine on the Queen's popularity, she still enjoyed a certain esteem among nationalists; indeed their meetings always end with the hymn of God Save the Queen. Yet during the 1870s and 1880s, respect for the monarchy declined dramatically in Ireland, partly as a result of Victoria's decision to cancel her visit to the island. Indeed, the Corporation of Dublin refuses to congratulate its son, the Prince of Wales, first on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, then on the occasion of the birth of his son the Prince Albert Victor of Wales in 1864.
Victoria resisted repeated pressure from several of her prime ministers, lord lieutenants and even members of the royal family, advising her to establish a royal residence in Ireland. In his 1930 memoirs, which he titled Ireland:Dupe or Heroine?, Lord Midleton, a former leader of the Irish Unionist Party, described this refusal as disastrous for the monarchy and for the British administration in Ireland.
Victoria organizes her last visit to Ireland in 1900, to call on the Irish to enlist in the British army to fight in the Boer War. Nationalist opposition to this visit was led by Arthur Griffith, who founded an organization called Cumann na nGaedheal. Five years later, Griffith uses the contacts he made during this campaign to form a new political movement, Sinn Féin.
Politics
1840s
Sir Robert Peel's government faces a crisis over the repeal of the Corn Laws. Many Tories are opposed to its repeal, while some of them (the Peelians) as well as most of the Whigs support the project. The law was finally repealed and Sir Peel resigned in 1846. He was succeeded by Lord Russell. Although he was a Whig, the Queen did not like his government. In particular, the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, often acts without consulting either the Cabinet, the Prime Minister or the Queen, and this appears to the Queen as impermissible insolence. In 1849, the queen complained about it to Lord Russell, pointing out that Lord Palmerston had sent official missives to foreign heads of state without informing her. She renewed her complaint in 1850, but still without success. Lord Palmerston did not finally leave the government until 1851:he had, among other things, approved on behalf of the British government the coup d'etat of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, without having consulted the Prime Minister beforehand.
The period during which Lord Russell was Prime Minister was painful for Victoria. In 1849, William Hamilton, a disgruntled unemployed Irishman tries to attack her by trying to set her car on fire with a pistol filled with powder. Hamilton was tried under the 1842 law. He pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment. In 1850, the Queen was assaulted by a probably insane former soldier, Robert Pate. As Victoria gets into a car, Pate hits her with his cane and injures her. Pate will also be judged; having failed to prove his madness, he receives the same sentence as Hamilton.
1850s
In 1851, the first universal exhibition, Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, was organized at the Crystal Palace. Orchestrated by Prince Albert, the exhibition is officially inaugurated by the Queen on May 1. Despite the fears of some, it was a great success. Proceeds support the upkeep of the South Kensington Museum.
Lord Russell's ministry collapsed in 1852, when the Whig Prime Minister was replaced by a Tory, Lord Derby. Lord Derby did not stay in power for long, as he could not retain a majority in Parliament and had to resign within a year of taking office. Victoria then seeks to put an end to this period of weak governments. The queen and her husband strongly encouraged the formation of a coalition between the Whigs and the Peelian Tories. Such a government is indeed formed, under the aegis of Lord Aberdeen.
One of the most important acts of the new government was to bring the United Kingdom into the Crimean War in 1854, alongside France and the Ottoman Empire, against Russia. Immediately before the entry of the United Kingdom, rumors that the Queen and Prince Albert would prefer the alliance with Russia dent the popularity of the royal couple. However, Victoria publicly takes the side of the troops engaged alongside the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the war, she even created the Victoria Cross, a decoration rewarding bravery in combat.
His highly criticized management of the Crimean War led Lord Aberdeen to resign in 1855. He was replaced by Lord Palmerston, with whom the queen was reconciled. Lord Palmerston had to leave office due to his unpopularity due to the way he led the Second Opium War, in 1857. He was replaced by Lord Derby. Under the administration of Lord Derby, the Sepoy Rebellion broke out against the domination of the English East India Company over India. After the crushing of the rebellion, India is subject to the direct management of the Crown, but the title of Empress of India is established only later. Lord Derby's second government did no better than the first; it fell in 1859, allowing Lord Palmerston to return to power.
1860s
The death of the Prince Consort on December 14, 1861 deeply affected the Queen, who went into mourning, dressed in black and avoided public appearances and visits inside London. Her isolation earned her the nickname of the Widow of Windsor. She reproaches her son, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales for his frivolity as well as the death of his father.
On the other hand, Victoria confides more and more in a Scottish servant, John Brown, to such an extent that one suspects an affair and even a secret marriage. A recently discovered diary is said to be the confession to the death of the Queen's private chaplain and insinuates that he presided over the secret marriage of Victoria and John Brown. But many historians are loath to give credit to this document. However, at Queen Victoria's request, two objects were placed beside her in her coffin:one of Albert's dressing gowns and in her left hand a portrait and a lock of Brown's hair. Following these affair and marriage rumors, some gave Victoria the nickname Mrs. Brown.
Meanwhile, Victoria's isolation and estrangement from the public arena helped to slump the monarchy's popularity and foster the republican movement. The queen, however, carried out her official duties seriously, but she no longer participated actively in the government of the kingdom, isolating herself in her royal residences of Balmoral in Scotland and Osborne in the Isle of Wight. It was during this period that Parliament passed the most important law of the 19th century:the 1867 Reform Law of the electoral system. Lord Palmerston is vigorously opposed to it. On his death in 1865, he was replaced by Lord Russel, then by Lord Derby and it was under this last government that the Reform Act was passed.
1870s
This caricature, New Crowns for Old, inspired by an Arabic tale, depicts Disraeli as a peddler offering Victoria an imperial crown
This caricature, New Crowns for Old, inspired by an Arabic tale, depicts Disraeli as a peddler offering Victoria an imperial crown
Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli took office in 1868; he happens to be Victoria's favorite prime minister. However, his government resists for a short time and William Gladstone replaces him. A member of the Liberal Party (as the Whig-Peel coalition was called), he disagreed with both Victoria and Disraeli. She feels, as she has said on occasion, that when he addresses her, he does so as if addressing political activists. It was under the government of Gladstone, in the early 1870s, that the queen began to emerge little by little from her mourning and her isolation. Encouraged by those around her, she intervenes more often.
In 1872, Victoria suffered her sixth assault with a firearm. As she gets out of the car, a seventeen-year-old Irishman, Arthur O'Connor, rushes towards her, a gun in one hand and a petition for the release of Irish prisoners in the other. The weapon is not loaded; the young man's goal is most likely to scare Victoria into accepting the petition. John Brown, who is next to the queen, tackles the boy to the ground before Victoria can even see the gun; he is decorated with a gold medal for his bravery. O'Connor was sentenced to transportation and corporal punishment, as provided by the 1842 Act, but Victoria granted her pardon for the second part of the sentence.
Disraeli returned to power in 1874, at a time when the colonialist fiber was born in the kingdom, a feeling shared by the new Prime Minister and the Queen, as by many in Europe. In 1876, encouraged by Disraeli, the Queen assumed the title of Empress of India, a title officially recognized by the Royal Titles Act of 1876. Victoria rewarded her Prime Minister by making him Earl of Beaconsfield. /P>
1880s
In 1880 the Liberals won the general election and Lord Beaconsfield's government resigned. As Gladstone had left the leadership of the Liberals four years earlier, the Queen invited Lord Hartington, the leader of the Liberals in the House of Commons, to form a government. But Lord Hartington refused, saying that a Liberal government could not work without Gladstone and that he, Hartington, would not serve in any government not headed by him. Victoria relents and appoints Gladstone Prime Minister.
The seventh and final attempt on Victoria's life occurred in 1882. A Scottish madman, Roderick Maclean, fired a bullet at the Queen, then seated in her carriage, but missed. Since 1842, every individual who has tried to attack the Queen has been tried for indiscretion (punishable by seven years hard labor), but Maclean is tried for high treason (punishable by the death penalty). He is acquitted, having been judged irresponsible and is locked up in an asylum. Victoria expresses great annoyance with the “not guilty, but insane” verdict, and encourages the introduction of the “guilty, but insane” verdict the following year.
Victoria's conflicts with Gladstone continue. She was forced to accept the electoral reforms he proposed, including the Representation of the People Act of 1884, which considerably increased the size of the electorate. Gladstone's government was replaced in 1885 by the Conservative government of Lord Salisbury, but Gladstone returned to power in 1886 and introduced the Irish Home Rule Bill, which proposed a separate house for Ireland. Victoria opposes this, arguing that it would undermine the British Empire. When the bill is rejected by the House of Lords, Gladstone resigns, and Victoria appoints Lord Salisbury Prime Minister.
1890s
In 1887, the United Kingdom celebrated the Jubilee of Victoria, that is to say the fiftieth anniversary of its accession to the throne. The Queen marked the event on June 20, 1887 with a banquet, to which fifty European kings and princes were invited. The next day, she took part in a parade which, according to Mark Twain, "stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions". At the time, Victoria was an extremely popular monarch. The scandal of her supposed relationship with her servant died down after the death of John Brown in 1883, allowing the Queen to be seen as a symbol of morality.
Victoria was forced to support a government of William Gladstone again, in 1892. After the final defeat of his Irish Home Rule Bill, he retired in 1894, to be replaced by Lord Rosebery, a liberal colonialist. Lord Rosebery was succeeded in 1895 by Lord Salisbury, who remained in power until the end of Victoria's reign.
Old age
On September 22, 1896, Victoria became the longest-reigning monarch in English, Scottish, or British history, shattering the record previously held by George III. In accordance with the Queen's request, all special public celebrations of the event are delayed until 1897, for the sixtieth anniversary of her accession to the throne. The Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, proposes that the Jubilee become a festival of the British Empire. Thus, the prime ministers of all the autonomous colonies are invited with their families. The parade attended by the Queen features troops from each British colony and dependencies, as well as soldiers sent by Indian princes and chiefs (who are vassals of Victoria, Empress of India). The celebration of the sixtieth anniversary is an occasion marked by great outpourings of affection towards a septuagenarian queen, then confined to a wheelchair.
During Victoria's last years, the United Kingdom was embroiled in the Boer War, which received enthusiastic support from the Queen. Victoria's personal life is marked by many personal tragedies, including the death of her son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the fatal illness of her daughter, Princess Victoria, Princess Royal and the deaths of two of his grandsons. Her last official public appearance was in 1899, when she laid the foundation stone for the new buildings of the South Kensington Museum, which became the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Death [
According to the habit she has followed since the beginning of her widowhood, Victoria spends Christmas at Osborne House (which Prince Albert designed himself), on the Isle of Wight. She died there on January 22, 1901, having reigned for sixty-three years, seven months and two days, more than any British monarch before or since. His funeral took place on February 2; after two days of solemn exposition, her body is buried in the Frogmore Mausoleum, in Windsor, alongside that of her husband.
Victoria is succeeded by her eldest son, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, who reigns as Edward VII. The death of Victoria marks the end of the reign of the House of Hanover, a branch of the House of Este, in the United Kingdom; Edward VII, like his father Prince Albert, belongs to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a branch of the House of Wettin. Edward VII's son and successor, King George V, changed the name of the Royal House to House of Windsor during World War I, as the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was associated with the enemy of the United Kingdom, namely Germany, ruled by Victoria's grandson, William II.
Inheritance
Queen Victoria was Britain's first modern monarch. While his predecessors had been able to take an active role in governing the country, a series of reforms increased the power of the House of Commons at the expense of that of the monarchy and the lords, leading the monarch to a more symbolic role. From the reign of Victoria, the queen or king, in Walter Bagehot's words, had "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to warn." »
La monarchie de Victoria est devenue plus symbolique que politique, avec un accent porté sur la moralité et les valeurs de famille victoriennes, par opposition aux scandales sexuels, financiers et personnels qui avaient été associés aux membres précédents de la Maison de Hanovre et qui avaient discrédité la monarchie. Le règne de Victoria voit la création du concept de monarchie familiale auquel les classes moyennes naissantes peuvent s’identifier.
Sur le plan international, Victoria fut une figure majeure, non seulement par l’image qu’elle incarne ou par l’influence du Royaume-Uni sur l’Empire, mais aussi à cause des liens familiaux qu’elle a su créer entre les familles royales d’Europe, lui valant ainsi le surnom affectueux de grand-mère de l’Europe. On peut citer par exemple le fait que trois des monarques principaux des pays impliqués dans la Première Guerre mondiale étaient, soit les petits-enfants de Victoria, soit des époux de petits-enfants de Victoria. Huit des neuf enfants de Victoria épousèrent des membres de familles royales européennes, et la neuvième se maria à un duc écossais, premier gouverneur du Canada.
Victoria a transmis à sa descendance le gène de l’hémophilie, mais on ne sait pas comment elle en a hérité. Elle a pu l’acquérir à la suite d’une mutation de sperme, son père ayant cinquante-deux ans quand Victoria fut conçue. On a aussi dit que le prince Edward Augustus, duc de Kent et de Strathearn n’était pas le père biologique de Victoria, et qu’elle était en fait la fille du secrétaire particulier irlandais et amant de sa mère, Sir Conroy. Si l’on a bien quelques preuves d’une relation entre la princesse Viktoria de Saxe-Cobourg-Saalfeld et Sir Conroy (Victoria elle-même a raconté au duc de Wellington avoir assisté à un incident entre eux), l’histoire médicale de Sir Conroy ne révèle aucune trace d’hémophilie dans sa famille, ce qui aurait dû être le cas s’il avait dû transmettre le gène. Il est beaucoup plus probable que la maladie lui a été transmise par sa mère, bien qu’il n’y ait pas eu de cas connu d’hémophilie dans sa famille maternelle. Elle n’a pas souffert de la maladie, mais l’a transmise à au moins trois de ses enfants. La victime d’hémophilie le plus célèbre dans sa descendance fut son arrière petit-fils, le tsarévitch Alexei de Russie.
En 2004, les monarques européens et anciens monarques descendants de Victoria sont :la reine Élisabeth II du Royaume-Uni, le roi Harald V de Norvège, le roi Charles XVI Gustave de Suède, la reine Marguerite II de Danemark, le roi Jean-Charles Ier d’Espagne, le roi Constantin Ier des Hellènes (détrôné) et le roi Michel Ier de Roumanie (détrôné). Les prétendants aux trônes de Serbie, de Russie, de Prusse et Allemagne, de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha, de Hanovre, de Hesse et de Bade sont aussi ses descendants.
La reine Victoria a été impopulaire pendant les premières années de son veuvage, mais elle est revenue dans le cœur de ses sujets, durant la décennie 1880-1890. En 2002, un sondage organisé par la BBC concernait les cent Britanniques considérés comme les plus grands, Victoria arriva en dix-huitième position.
Parmi les innovations de l’ère victorienne, on peut citer les timbres postaux, dont le premier, le Penny Black (émis en 1840), présente une image de la reine, et le chemin de fer, que Victoria fut le premier souverain britannique à prendre.
Dans le monde, plusieurs lieux ou sites ont été nommés en l’honneur de la reine Victoria, à savoir :
* l’Etat du Victoria, un état d’Australie.
* l’Île Victoria, la deuxième plus grande île du Canada.
* la ville de Victoria, capitale de la Colombie-Britannique, au Canada.
* la ville de Regina, capitale du Saskatchewan, au Canada.
* la ville de Victoria, capitale des Seychelles.
* le Lac Victoria, plus grand lac d’Afrique.
* les Chutes Victoria, plus grandes chutes d’eau du Monde.
* le Pont Victoria à Montréal, au Canada.
La reine Victoria reste le monarque britannique dont le souvenir est le plus présent. De nombreuses statues la représentant sont érigées à travers tout l’empire, parmi lesquelles :
* le Victoria Memorial, situé à l’extérieur du Palais de Buckingham, érigé une dizaine d’années après sa mort au moment de la rénovation de la façade du Palais.
* la Statue qui se trouvait sur Kildare Street en face de la Leinster House à Dublin (siège de la Société Royale de Dublin), sculptée par l’Irlandais John Hughes et inaugurée par Edouard VII. En 1924, deux années après avoir été loué pour des activités parlementaires, le bâtiment est acheté et devient le siège officiel de Oireachtas Eireann, le parlement de l’Etat libre d’Irlande. Pendant des années, des voix se sont élevées à l’idée de voir une statue de Victoria, connue de façon peu flatteuse par les républicains irlandais comme la Reine de la Famine, trôner en face du parlement d’Irlande. C’est pourquoi la statue est enlevée en 1947. Après des années d’oubli, la statue est offerte par la République d’Irlande à l’Australie dans les années 1980 et se trouve maintenant, depuis le 20 décembre 1987, devant le Queen Victoria Building, dans le centre de Sydney.
Titres
Partiels
* 1819-1837 :Son Altesse Royale la princesse Victoria de Kent
* 1837-1901 :Sa Majesté la reine
* 1876-1901 :Sa Majesté Impériale la reine-impératrice (occasionnellement)
Complets
* 1837-1876 :Victoria, par la Grace de Dieu, Reine du Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d’Irlande, Défenseur de la Foi.
* 1876-1901 :Victoria, par la Grace de Dieu, Reine du Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d’Irlande, Impératrice des Indes, Défenseur de la Foi.
* En tant que membre de la Maison de Hanovre, elle fut également princesse de Hanovre et Duchesse de Brunswick et de Lunenbourg tout au long de sa vie.
Anecdotes
* Victoria se maria en blanc et lança ainsi la mode de la robe blanche. Auparavant, les mariées portaient des robes qui n’avaient pas de couleur particulière.
* Elle est devenue grand-mère à l’âge de trente-neuf ans et arrière-grand-mère à l’âge de cinquante-neuf ans.
* Dans l’ordre de succession au trône britannique, les 510 premières personnes listées descendent de Victoria.
* Elle survécut à trois de ses neuf enfants.
* Victoria devint la première reine du Canada et la première reine d’Australie, lorsque ces deux territoires sont devenus des dominions britanniques, respectivement en 1867 et en 1901.
* Victoria est morte dans les bras de son premier petit-fils, l’empereur Guillaume II d’Allemagne
* En mars 2006, deux arrières-petits-enfants de Victoria vivent encore :le prince Carl Johan de Suède et Lady Katherine Brandam.