Queen+Victoria+-+Cristina+Boitor

Born in 1819, Victoria was an only child of Edward, the Duke of Kent. In 1837, she ascended to the throne and became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. She was only 18 at this time, and the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, served as her educator in political decision-making. However, Victoria soon displayed her iron will, which allowed her to effectively rule by her own power. It was in June of 1840 that the Queen married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They happily raised nine children, who were to become important figures in the major monarchial states of the 20th Century. Still, the Queen's loss of the Prince Consort in December of 1861 drove her into prolonged mourning and depression. Her policy-making seemed to change substantially from the time prior to Albert's death. However, this prolonged mourning kept her occupied for the rest of her life and played an important role in the evolution of what would become the Victorian mentality. Eventually Victoria became one of Great Britain's most popular and prominent monarchs. She was named Empress of India in 1876, which was an event that showed the interest of the Queen and Great Britain in world colonization, throughout the 19th Century. Victoria's long reign witnessed an evolution in English politics and the expansion of the British Empire, as well as political and social reform on the continent. Queen Victoria died of natural causes in January of 1901.

Victoria was born in London on 24 May 1819, the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg. She succeeded her uncle, William IV, in 1837, at the age of 18, and her reign dominated the rest of the century. In 1840 she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. For the next 20 years they lived in close harmony and had a family of nine children, many of whom eventually married into the European monarchy. On her accession, Victoria adopted the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne as her political mentor. In 1840, his influence was replaced by that of Prince Albert. The German prince never really won the favour of the British public, and only after 17 years was he given official recognition, with the title of Prince Consort. However, Victoria relied heavily on Albert and it was during his lifetime that she was most active as a ruler. Britain was evolving into a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch had few powers and was expected to remain above party politics, although Victoria did sometimes express her views very forcefully in private. Victoria never fully recovered from Albert's death in 1861 and she remained in mourning for the rest of her life. Her subsequent withdrawal from public life made her unpopular, but during the late 1870s and 1880s she gradually returned to public view and, with increasingly pro-imperial sentiment, she was restored to favour with the British public. After the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown and in 1877, Victoria became Empress of India. Her empire also included Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and large parts of Africa. During this period, Britain was largely uninvolved in European affairs, apart from involvement in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856). In 1887, Victoria's Golden Jubilee and, 10 years later, her Diamond Jubilee were celebrated with great enthusiasm. Having witnessed a revolution in British government, huge industrial expansion and the growth of a worldwide empire, Victoria died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. ||
 * ====Victoria (1819 - 1901)==== ||
 * [[image:http://www.bbc.co.uk/furniture/tiny.gif width="1" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/images/victoria_queen.jpg width="136" height="170" caption="Queen Victoria"]]Queen Victoria //Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch and the figurehead of a vast empire. She oversaw vast changes in British societ[[image:http://womenshistory.about.com/library/graphics/victoria-portrait.jpg width="150" height="220" caption="Queen Victoria"]]y and gave her name to an age//