In 1840, when Great Britain was fighting wars with Afghanistan and China and facing a working-class movement, Melbourne helped the queen work with an uncooperative Conservative government and suggested she let her husband, Albert, take the reigns of state responsibilities. He acted as the queen’s political advisor and confidant during the early years of her reign. When she first took the crown at the young age of 18 in 1837, Melbourne helped teach Victoria the intricacies of being a constitutional monarch. Lord Melbourne was Victoria’s first prime minister, who served in 1834 and again from 1835 to 1841. Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s First Prime Minister When King William IV died in June 1837, Victoria became queen at the age of 18. However, upon her father’s death in 1820, Victoria became the heir apparent, since her three surviving uncles - who were ahead of her in succession - had no legitimate heirs who survived childhood.

Ascension to the ThroneĪt birth, Victoria was fifth in line to the throne. Her mother remarried Queen Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent, and promptly moved from Germany to England for the future queen’s birth. When Princess Feodora was 6 years old, her father died. Queen Victoria also had a half-sister who was 12 years her senior, Princess Feodora, from her mother’s first marriage to Emich Carl, Prince of Leiningen. Her mother was Victoria Saxe-Saalfield-Coburg, sister of Leopold, king of the Belgians. Queen Victoria was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, who was King George III's fourth son. Later in life, her weight ballooned, with her waist reportedly measuring 50 inches. As a child, she was said to be warm-hearted and lively.Įducated at the Royal Palace by a governess, she had a gift for drawing and painting and developed a passion for journal writing.ĭespite a feisty temperament, Victoria was famously tiny in stature, measuring just 4 feet 11 inches tall. Her mother became a domineering influence in her life. Early Lifeīorn Alexandrina Victoria on May 24, 1819, Queen Victoria’s father died when she was 8 months old.

Victoria's reign saw great cultural expansion advances in industry, science and communications and the building of railways and the London Underground.

After Queen Elizabeth II, Victoria is the second-longest reigning British monarch. Queen Victoria served as monarch of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901.

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