Victoria
was the daughter of Prince Edward Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son
of King George III. Both the Duke
of Kent and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close
supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Cobourg-Salted.
She inherited the throne at the age of 18 after her father's three elder brothers
died without surviving legitimate issue. The United Kingdom was already an
established constitutional monarchy, in which the Sovereign held relatively few
direct political powers. Privately, she attempted to influence government
policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and
was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
She married her first cousin, Prince
Albert of Saxe-Cobourg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of
their 34 grandchildren who survived childhood married into royal and noble
families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname
"the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria
plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her
seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in
the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of
public celebration.
Her reign of 63 years and 7 months, which
is longer than that of any other British
monarch and the longest of
any female monarch in history, is known as the Victorian
era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and
military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion
of the British Empire. She
was the last British monarch of
the House of Hanover; her son and
successor Edward VII belonged
to the House of Saxe-Cobourg and Gotha.
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