Alexandrina Victoria of the United Kingdom, 1819 - 1901
1887 photo by Alexander Bassano
Born: 24 May 1819, Kensington Palace, London, England, UK
Died: 22 January 1901, Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England, UK
Victoria's father died when she was eight months old, her mother and John Conroy devised the "Kensington System" to keep her dependant and in virtual isolation, seeing no one not carefully vetted. On the death of George IV in 1830 she became heir to the throne. A month after her 18th birthday, William IV died and she became Queen of the United Kingdom, surprising her counselors by dropping her first name within days. Britain and Hanover had shared a monarch since 1714 but Hanoverian law required male monarchs. As an unmarried woman she was required to live in her mother's household but as queen and the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace she placed her mother's apartment in the most distant corner of the palace and routinely refused to see her. She married her cousin Albert of Saxe-Coberg and Gotha in the third year of her reign. Despite her negative comments about marriage, pregnancy, and babies they had nine children, most of whom were married into other European royal houses. Albert died in 1861 and Victoria wore black for the rest of her life, withdrawing from the public eye for the next decade to the distinct detriment of her popularity. With the dissolution of the British East India Company she became Empress of India from May of 1876. After Albert died Victoria spent Christmas at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight each year, it was there that she died from a cerebral haemorrhage. Her son Edward became king on her death, establishing the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor. Victoria ruled longer than any other British monarch and longer than any other female monarch, under her rule the empire grew to the point where the sun never set on it. She also survived seven assassination attempts.
Her Majesty Elizabeth II put Victoria's journals online in May 2012. With over 43,000 pages of images and the early text transcribed, even though parts of this were rewritten and redacted by Victoria's daughter Beatrice, this is a great resource.
Biography from Wikipedia and the Crown
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Victoria quotes:
Quotes found : 37 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
Click here to find books by Victoria at Amazon.com
- A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one. permalink
Victoria - letter to her daughter Louisa - Affairs go on, and all will take some shape or other, but it keeps one in hot water all the time. permalink
Victoria - letter to King of the Belgians (15 June 1841) - All marriage is such a lottery — the happiness is always an exchange — though it may be a very happy one — still the poor woman is bodily and morally the husband's slave. That always sticks in my throat. When I think of a merry, happy, and free young girl — and look at the ailing aching state a young wife is generally doomed to — which you can't deny is the penalty of marriage. permalink
Victoria - letter (16 May 1860) - An ugly baby is a very nasty object — and the prettiest is frightful when undressed. permalink
Victoria - Letter to daughter Victoria (4 May 1859) - Being married gives one one's position like nothing else can. permalink
Victoria - Being pregnant is an occupational hazard of being a wife. permalink
Victoria - Everybody grows but me. permalink
Victoria - For a man to strike any women is most brutal, and I, as well as everyone else, think this far worse than any attempt to shoot, which, wicked as it is, is at least more comprehensible and more courageous. permalink
Victoria - Good Hock [Hochheimer] keeps off the Doc. permalink
Victoria - Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves. permalink
Victoria - letter to her father, King Leopold of Belgium, April 4, 1848 - He speaks to Me as if I was a public meeting. permalink
Victoria - Said of Gladstone - I am every day more convinced that we women, if we are to be good women, feminine and amiable and domestic, are not fitted to reign; at least it is they that drive themselves to the work which it entails. permalink
Victoria - I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of "Women's Rights," with all its attendant horrors on which her poor, feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety. permalink
Victoria - I don't dislike babies, though I think very young ones rather disgusting. permalink
Victoria - I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all. permalink
Victoria
Quotes found : 37 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
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