VICTORIA (1819-1901). Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India. She was the daughter aml only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George I I L Iler mother, Victoria Mary Louisa, fourth daughter of Francis. Duke of Saxe Coburg-Saalfeld, and sister of Leopold, King of the Belgians, was married to the Duke of Kent in ISIS, four years after the death of her former husband, the Prince of Leiningen. Victoria (baptized as Alexandrina Victoria ) was born May 24, 1819, at Kensington Palace, whence her parents had temporarily removed from their home in Germany, in order that the child, a pos sible claimant for the British throne, might be born on English soil. The princess, left father less when eight months of age, was taught by her mother and the Duchess of Northumberland. She ascended the throne on the death of her uncle, William IV. (q.v.), June 20, 1837. Iler uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, became King of Hanover in virtue of the Salic law, and thus terminated the connection which had lasted 123 years between the crowns of England Han over. Victoria was proclaimed June 21. 1S37, and crowned at Westminster, June 23, 1S38.
On her accession she found at the head of the Whig Government Viscount Melbourne. by whom her early political course was largely influenced. Ifer long, prosperous, and comparatively peace ful reign included the administrations of Mel bourne (till 1841). Peel (1841-46), Russell (1846 and 1865-66), Derby (1852, 1S58-59, and 1866- 68), Aberdeen (1852-55), Palmerston (1855-58 and 1859-65), Disraeli (1868, and as Earl of consfield, 1874-80), Gladstone (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, and 1892-94). Salisbury (1885-86, 1886-92, and 1895 to the end of the reign), Rosebery (1894-95). Of the legislative record of her reign the most important events are the establishment of penny postage (1840), amendment of the poor laws of Scotland (1845) and Ireland (1847). re peal of the corn laws (1846). the Irish encumbered estates act (1848), repeal of the navigation laws (1849), the removal of the disabilities of the Jews (1858), the reform net of 1867, the disestab lishment of the Irish Church (1869), elementary education act (1870) and abolition of religious tests in the universities (1871), Irish land acts (1870, 1881), abolition of purchase in the army (1871), Scotch educational act (1S72), and the franchise bill of 1884. Events of national and international importance were numerous in her long reign, among them being the rebellion in Canada (1837-38). Afghan War (1838-42), Opium War in China (1840-42), culmination of the repeal agitation in Ireland under O'Connell (1843), First Sikh War (1845-46), Irish famine (1846-47), chartist agitation (1,943), Second Sikh War (1849), the establishment of a Catholic hierarchy in England (1850). Crimean War (1854-56), war with China (1556-5S), Indian Mutiny (1857-5S), transfer of India front the East Indian Company to the Crown (1858), ex pedition to China (1860), complicated relations with the United States during the Civil War (1861-65), Canadian confederation (1S67), Abys sinian War (1867-6S). Ashanti War (1873-74), the assumption by Victoria of the title of Em press of India (1676), Afghan War (1878-80), Zulu War (1870), Transvaal War (1580), and the virtual establishment of British domination in Egypt (1882). the struggle for the reconquest of Nubia for Egypt (1884-98). the conquest of Burma (1885). Ashanti War (1890), the great Boer War (begun in 1899), Australian federation (1900-01). The reign of Victoria witnessed an extraordinary development of Imperial Britain as shown in the growth and political organiza tion of the Canadian. Australian. and African colonies. For many years the agitation for home rule in Ireland was the main feature of internal politics. Victoria is preeminent among sover
eigns by her personal character. She "for many years . . . exerted an almost unbounded moral control over the larger policies of the British Empire. She was industrious and me thodical, patient and tactful, with a memory that was a great storehouse of knowledge of things past and present." The leading feature of the Victorian epoch was "the new conception of the British monarchy which sprang from the de velopment of the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain. and the sudden strengthening of the sense of unity between them and the mother country. The Crown after 1880 became the living symbol of imperial unity, and every year events deepened the impression that the Queen in her own person typified the common interest and the common sympathy which spread a feeling of hrotherhood through the continents that formed the British Empire." Queen Victoria was married, February 10, 1840, to her cousin. Albert. Princ•e of Saxe Coburg-t otha. second son of the then reigning Duke. Although the union was not at the time greatly approved of by the Queen's advisers and subjects, it proved a most feliCitous one. marked by a degree of mutual affection rarely found in marriages of state. The Prince Consort died December 14, 1801: Victoria never ceased to mourn him. To them were born four sons and five daughters: The Princess 'loyal, Victoria, born November 21. 1840, married January 25. 1858, to Frederick William, who in 1888 became Fred erick 111.. Emperor of Germany of brief reign (died 1901) : Albert Edward. now King of Great Britain, born November 0, 1341. married March 10. 1803, Princess Alexandra Caroline, eldest daughter of Christian 1X., King of Denmark; Princess Alice. born April 25. 1843, married July 1, 1802, Prince Frederick William of Besse (died 1878) : Prim•e Alfred. horn August 0, 1544, created of Edinburgh. 1500, married Jan nory 23, 1574. Alarie, only daughter of the Em peror of Russia (died 1901): Princess Helena, born Alay 1540, married in 1800 to Prince Christian of Denmark; Primes,: Louisa. born Alarch 15, 1845. married in 1571 to the Marquis of Lorne: Prince Arthur, born May 1. 1850, created Duke of 1874, married in 1879 Princess lla rmerite of Prussia: Prince Leopold. born April 7, 1853, was erealed Duke of Albany, 1551, and married to Primess llelena of Waldeck in 1882 (died 1884) ; Princess Beatrice, lairn -11a•il 11, 1857, married, 1885, Prince Henry of Battenberg.
In her seclusion from public life after the death of the Prince Consort, :mil as later lesti monials of her affection for him. Nricfo•ia super vied the publication in 18G7 of Early Days of His Royal Highness, the Prince Consort ; published in 1808 Leares from the Journal of Our Lifc in the Highlands; supervised a second Life of the Prince Consort in 1874; adding in 1 884 More Lcares from the Journal, etc.
Among the almost numberless biographies. me moirs, and sketches of Queen Victoria the most is Lee. Queen Victoria (London and New York. 1903). Others include Ward, Reign of Queen Victoria (London and Philadelphia, ISS7)., a series of essays on various phases of the Vic torian era; Holmes, Queen Victoria, 1S19-190.1 (London. 1901). a revision of his sketches of 1897; Macaulay, Life and Reign of Queen Victoria (ib.. 1887) ; Smith. Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (ib., 188G) ; Wall. Fifty Years of a Good Queen's Reign (ib.. 1887) ; Life and Times of Queen Victoria (lb., 1888) ; Jeaffreson, Victoria. Queen and Empress (ib.. 1893) : Arnold, Victoria, Queen and Empress: the Sixty Years (ib., 1897) Tooley, Personal Life of Queen. Vic toria (ih., 1897).