You are bidding on a veryrare multi-image photo the English royal family / Royal family (Queen Victoria, Prince Consort Albert and their nine children).
Undated, around 1860 (from the age of the depicted max. +/- one year).
Format of the photo (composed of nine individual portraits): 7.7x5cm; mounted on 9 x 6.3 cm cardboard (i.e. very small format).
Inscribed in pencil on the back: "English Royal Family."
I'm unsure about the reproductive technology; the paper looks like photo paper; It's also shiny, so it's probably not a reproduction from a magazine or something similar.
In the middle is the Queen Victoria (1819-1901) seen holding her youngest daughter Beatrice of Great Britain and Ireland (1857-1944); rreally from her Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861).
At the top left you can see daughter Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland (1840-1901), the later "Empress Frederick", and in the other pictures her remaining seven children, the later King Edward VII. (1841-1910), Princess Alice (1843-1878), Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1844-1900), Princess Helena (1846-1923), Louise, Duchess of Argyll (1848-1939), Arthur, 1. Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1850-1942) and Leopold, 1st Duke of Albany (1853-1884).
Condition:Somewhat stained, cardboard cut crookedly. Cardboard with pinhole in the top center (outside the image area). bPlease also note the pictures!
Internal note: Althaus 2023-3 Photos Adel
About Queen Victoria (Source: wikipedia):
Victoria (German Viktoria; * 24. May 1819 as Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent at Kensington Palace, London; † 22. January 1901 in Osborne House, Isle of Wight) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901. Since May 1876, she was the first British monarch to also hold the title of Empress of India. She was the niece of her predecessor William IV. and daughter of his younger brother Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
With Victoria's accession to the throne in June 1837, the personal union between Great Britain and Hanover that had existed since 1714 ended due to the Salian Law in force in the Kingdom of Hanover, which excluded women from the succession to the throne. During the Victorian era, the Queen's 63-year reign, the British Empire reached the zenith of its political and economic power, and the upper and middle classes experienced unprecedented economic prosperity. Her reign was shaped by the influence of her husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her almost complete withdrawal from the public eye after his death in 1861. Overall, Victoria interpreted her role as constitutional monarch very idiosyncratically and quite self-confidently. Her 63-year reign was the longest of any British monarch until she was overthrown by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015. was exceeded. Because of her numerous descendants, she was nicknamed the “Grandmother of Europe”; For example, she is both the great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. as well as her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Victoria's death ended the rule of the House of Hanover. With her eldest son Edward VII. The crown went to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor in 1917.
Life: Family background: The sudden death of Princess Charlotte Augusta, the only daughter entitled to the throne of Crown Prince George, Prince of Wales, who stood for the incapable King George III. who exercised the regency triggered a political crisis in Great Britain. In 1817, the British royal family lacked legitimate descendants to maintain the line of succession to the throne. Of the seven sons of George III. At that time only three were legally married. However, the Prince of Wales's union with Caroline of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel was considered a failure, and the marriages of the Duke of York and Albany and the Duke of Cumberland were so far childless. For the king's still unmarried sons, the princess's death was the impetus to look for suitable wives among the Protestant noble houses of Europe in order to father legitimate offspring entitled to the throne.
The ambitious Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, for his part, sought to connect the House of Coburg with the British royal family and in 1814 - before he himself had married into the royal family through his marriage to Charlotte Augusta - he had his sister Victoire, widowed Princess of Leiningen , introduced to Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth-born son of George III. After Charlotte Augusta's death, the marriage plans were pushed forward and the marriage was finally arranged (marriage policy). However, securing the continued existence of the Hanoverian dynasty was not the only reason for the Duke of Kent to marry. Heavily in debt and removed from his military positions in 1803 due to his choleric and often sadistic leadership style, he hoped to get married to increase his salary. The dynastic and personal interests led to this on the 11th. July 1818 there was a double wedding in which the Duke of Kent married the Princess of Leiningen and his brother William, Duke of Clarence married Adelheid of Saxe-Meiningen.
Birth: A few weeks after the wedding, Victoire, now Duchess of Kent, became pregnant. In order to secure the unborn child's right to the British throne, Edward Augustus and his wife returned to Great Britain from the small German town of Amorbach before the birth. In the presence of high dignitaries, Victoire gave birth on the 24th. A healthy girl was born in Kensington Palace in May 1819. Unusually for the time, the princess was born with the help of Germany's first female gynecologist, obstetrician Charlotte von Siebold, vaccinated against smallpox immediately after birth and breastfed by her mother herself. The father wrote to his mother-in-law in Coburg that the girl was “plump as a partridge”. The birth was mentioned in the newspapers, but received little public attention.
On the 24th On June 1, 1819, the Princess was baptized in the Dome Hall of Kensington Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the royal baptismal font was brought from the Tower of London especially for this ceremony.[3] Due to the naming, there had previously been disagreements between the parents and Prince Regent Georg. The parents had suggested a number of first names that were common at the time, which the Prince Regent rejected and only allowed the two rather unusual names Alexandrina (after her godfather Tsar Alexander I) and Victoria (after her mother). In addition to the Prince Regent and the Russian Tsar, the princess's godparents were Victoria's paternal aunt, Queen Charlotte Auguste of Württemberg, and her maternal grandmother, Auguste of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent was initially fifth in line to the British throne behind her three uncles - Prince Regent George (King George IV from 1820), the Duke of York and Albany and the Duke of Clarence - and her own father. If legitimate descendants emerged from the marriages of her father's older brothers, they would also have been entitled to the throne before Victoria. From June 1830, however, Victoria was generally viewed as the first claimant to the British throne (Heiress Presumptive).
Education and the Kensington System: During a stay in Sidmouth, Victoria's father died of complications from pneumonia (23. January 1820); at that time his daughter was only eight months old. The royal family met the widow with rejection; George IV, since 29 The new monarch in January 1820 had always viewed his brother's marriage to Victoire critically and therefore preferred his sister-in-law to return to her German homeland. Given the horrendous debts, the Duchess of Kent had to turn down her late husband's inheritance and was only able to continue living in Kensington Palace on the advice and financial support of her brother Leopold. Because of her isolated position, Victoire increasingly came under the influence of John Conroy, whom her husband had appointed as executor of the estate and who would soon assume a dominant position in her household.
Victoria, known as “Drina” in family circles, was considered a strong-willed, robust child who occasionally burst into tantrums. In 1824, Louise Lehzen, a German pastor's daughter and future baroness, became governess to the five-year-old princess; From then on she was responsible for their upbringing. Lehzen became a crucial caregiver for the adolescent, especially as the relationship between Victoria and her mother became increasingly strained. Due to the household controlled by Conroy, Lehzen, although inadequately qualified, was responsible for preparing Victoria for her role as future monarch. Victoria later judged Lehzen: “She was an admirable woman, and I adored her, although I was also afraid of her.” Victoria enjoyed a superficial education that corresponded to that of the young aristocratic daughters of her time. From 1829 she was taught by the liberal Anglican clergyman George Davys, later Bishop of Peterborough, who had been appointed official tutor. Their program consisted of five classes per day, six days a week, with an emphasis on Bible studies, history, geography and language acquisition. Victoria later spoke fluent German and French as well as some Latin and Italian. In her daily interactions with her mother, she spoke exclusively in English, as the Duchess considered this politically expedient. The student's willingness to learn was described as limited. Later, dance, painting, riding and piano lessons completed the princess' training program.
Victoria probably learned about her position as Heiress Presumptive in March 1829 from a book on English history, whereupon she is said to have said to Lehzen: “I will be good.” Some authors refer such statements to the realm of legends.
Meanwhile, John Conroy also assessed the possibility of Victoria taking over the throne as very high if no legitimate descendants emerged from her uncles' marriages. In view of William IV's advanced age and poor health, he succeeded his brother George IV. was succeeded in 1830, this would probably take place at a time when Princess Victoria would not have yet reached her majority. In this case, according to the Regency Act, the Duchess of Kent would exercise the regency instead of her minor daughter and Conroy would thus indirectly gain political influence. This plan presupposed that the Duchess and her daughter should have as little contact as possible with the royal court, which is why Conroy specifically isolated and controlled them in Kensington Palace (Kensington System). He persuaded the Duchess that the Duke of Cumberland - the next in line to the throne after Victoria - was out to kill the Princess and that an isolated, isolated life was therefore necessary. For example, Victoria was prohibited from attending on the 8th. September 1831 to attend her uncle's coronation celebrations. Only people chosen by Conroy lived in the Duchess's household, and every daily routine was strictly regulated. Until the day of her own accession to the throne, Victoria had to sleep in her mother's bedroom and meetings with other people were only allowed to take place under supervision. She was not even allowed to go down stairs without an accompanying person. Overall, Victoria had little contact with her peers; Her few playmates included her half-sister Feodora zu Leiningen, who was twelve years older, Conroy's daughter Victoire and, from 1833, a King Charles spaniel, Dash. Throughout her life, Victoria was convinced that she had experienced a traumatic and unhappy childhood: “No outlet for my strong feelings and affections, no brothers and sisters to live with […] no intimate and trusting relationship with my mother,” she wrote even her eldest daughter.[
Victoria deliberately failed to prepare for her role as monarch. An exception was her uncle Leopold, who had been King of Belgium since 1831 as Leopold I and resided in distant Brussels. In numerous letters he advised his niece and recommended books and manuscripts that should prepare her for taking the throne, which is why Victoria thanked her in letters and described him as her “best and kindest advisor”.
When it became clear that Victoria would already be of age by the time she ascended the throne, Conroy tried to get her to agree to appoint him as her private secretary after the change to the throne. Despite the enormous pressure exerted by her mother and a recent serious illness (probably typhoid fever), 16-year-old Victoria Conroy steadfastly refused to sign his appointment as private secretary in October 1835. Thereupon there was a complete break with her mother, and by the time she ascended the throne, both of them hardly exchanged a word with each other. Meanwhile, Conroy spread the rumor that Victoria was too mentally unstable to bear the responsibilities of a monarch.
When William IV In the spring of 1837, he moved back to Windsor Castle due to illness and his life was coming to an end, Victoria's succession to the throne was imminent. During the birthday dinner on the occasion of her 18th birthday and thus their majority (24th In May 1837, the already ill king declared that he was grateful to have lived to see this day, as in this way he had managed to prevent a reign by completely unsuitable people. This public declaration caused a social scandal and led to a rift between the king and his sister-in-law. Leopold therefore sent his confidant Christian von Stockmar to Great Britain to advise and support Victoria in the following months. With Stockmar's support, she managed to fend off John Conroy's last attempts at influence.
Accession to the throne: On the morning of the 20th In June 1837, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain went to Kensington Palace and requested an audience with Victoria. They revealed to the princess that her uncle William IV. had died in the night and the royal dignity had fallen to her. Victoria noted this in her diary:
“I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning and consequently that I am Queen.”
“I was awakened at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my living room (in just my dressing gown) and received her alone. Lord Conyngham then informed me that my poor uncle the King had passed away at twelve minutes past two, and consequently that I was Queen.”
That same morning, Victoria received Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and attended her first Privy Council meeting. She signed the first state documents as Alexandrina Victoria, but after a few days she limited herself to using the ruler's name Victoria. With the change of throne, the personal union between Great Britain and Hanover, which had existed since 1714, ended, as the Salian law in force in the Kingdom of Hanover excluded female succession to the throne. In Hanover, her uncle Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale inherited the throne as Ernst August I and was the British claimant to the throne until the birth of Victoria's first child (Lord Justices Act 1837).
As early as July 1837, Victoria moved her court from Kensington Palace to the rebuilt and expanded Buckingham Palace, which served as the official main residence of the British monarchy for the first time. Victoria used her new position to get rid of the dominating influence of her mother and especially John Conroy. The Duchess of Kent moved to Buckingham Palace with her daughter, but was housed in a wing of the palace that was far away from the Queen's private quarters. At court she was only granted the role that the protocol intended for her. Mother and daughter only met on official occasions in the presence of third parties. Conroy received no official position at court; However, he remained a member of the Duchess of Kent's household and only left in 1839. Louise Lehzen, a close confidante of Victoria, was appointed Lady Attendant to manage the royal household.
As monarch, in addition to the annual allowance of 385,000 pounds (equivalent to the current amount of 17.6 million pounds) from the civil list, Victoria was entitled to the income of the two royal duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which enabled her to pay off her father's debts .
The coronation took place on the 28th. June 1838 at Westminster Abbey. Parliament had appropriated £79,000 for the ceremony, more than double what William IV had paid. was available in 1831. On Coronation Day, Victoria was escorted in the Gold State Coach in a procession from Buckingham Palace via Hyde Park, Piccadilly, St. James's Square, Pall Mall, Charing Cross and Whitehall to Westminster Abbey. After two very unpopular predecessors, the young monarch was greeted with enthusiasm and was regarded by the people as energetic, humorous and fun-loving. Four hundred thousand visitors are said to have come to London for the coronation celebrations.
Since Victoria found the Edwardian Crown too heavy, the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley, crowned her in a five-hour ceremony with the Imperial State Crown made especially for her (main article: Coronation of British monarchs). For the first time, members of the House of Commons also took part in the coronation, underlining the increasing democratization of Great Britain. On the occasion of the event, Victoria noted in her diary: “I really cannot say how proud I feel to be the Queen of such a nation. ”)
First years of reign
Lord Melbourne: Victoria's first prime minister was Lord Melbourne, who, alongside Leopold, would become the 18-year-old queen's second paternal mentor and advisor. He enjoyed the full trust of his monarch, and since she had initially decided not to appoint a private secretary to the Sovereign, Melbourne also took on this area of responsibility. Victoria and the 58-year-old widower developed a close relationship - in addition to political questions, he also advised her on private and fashion matters - which is why this intimacy was often interpreted as Victoria's infatuation. During almost daily audiences or hours-long rides together, Melbourne explained to her the history of the House of Hanover and gave his assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of leading politicians; Knowledge that was valuable to Victoria in the years that followed. He made it clear to her that as a constitutional monarch she represented the state and was not allowed to express an opinion different from that of her government in public. Melbourne did not show how surprised he was by the Queen's naivety, political inexperience and ignorance and endeavored to fill the gaps in her education and training.
With the support of their Prime Minister, Victoria's first year of government was successful, although Melbourne's good offices only lasted as long as its government remained stable. After losing the majority of votes in the House of Commons, Lord Melbourne stood down as Prime Minister in May 1839, and since neither the conservative Tories nor the Whigs had a sufficient majority in Parliament, Melbourne hoped for a failure of the new government and subsequent new elections should strengthen his party. This plan remained hidden from the politically inexperienced Victoria; she viewed the idea of the impending departure of her prime minister and the Tories taking over government under Robert Peel as a personal and political catastrophe. Peel, who was prepared to form a minority government, considered it essential to adapt the personnel of the court to the future balance of power and demanded that the Queen dismiss some ladies-in-waiting from Whig circles and replace them with ladies from the Tories' circle. Victoria, who viewed her ladies-in-waiting as friends and close companions whose selection she saw as a private matter, categorically refused this request, especially since Peel seemed unappealing to her (“cold and strange man”). When Peel refused to form a government under these circumstances, Lord Ashley was offered the post of Prime Minister, but he also declined under these conditions. Eventually the Tories gave up the government mandate and the Whigs under Lord Melbourne remained in government. The queen celebrated her refusal as a political victory and was convinced that she had defended the dignity of the crown. With her categorical refusal, Victoria moved into a constitutional gray area in this so-called “bedchamber crisis”, which earned her a lot of criticism from the public.
The lady-in-waiting affair and Victoria's unwise behavior in the Flora Hastings affair, in which Flora Hastings, a lady-in-waiting of the Duchess of Kent who was suffering from a liver tumor, was wrongly suspected of having an illegitimate pregnancy, cost the Queen public reputation and sympathy. Victoria was no longer seen as the innocent queen, but as a cold, heartless woman who, along with her gossipy Whig ladies-in-waiting, had ruined the reputation of an innocent woman. In neither affair did Lord Melbourne react as decisively as one might have expected from him as the advisor and confidant of an inexperienced monarch. Victoria herself assessed the behavior in her first political action 60 years later with the sentence: “It was a mistake.” Her rejection of Peel has also been repeatedly assessed by researchers as an immature decision – a typically emotional act of an inexperienced young woman. [34] There were increasing public demands for the Queen to marry, as they hoped that a husband would have a moderating influence on Victoria, who was often very emotional.
Marriage to Prince Albert: Leopold I and his advisor Baron Stockmar were firmly convinced that a marriage between Victoria and her German cousin Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha could not only serve Coburg's interests, but also make the queen a better ruler, and arranged a connection between the two. As early as the summer of 1836, the seventeen-year-old Victoria had met her future husband during a visit to her maternal uncle, Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and his sons in London. The princess warmed to her two cousins and wrote to Leopold after their departure that Albert had all the qualities she wanted. For the first time she felt the prospect of “great happiness”. The letter to her uncle is evidence that Victoria knew that King Leopold saw Albert as the right marriage candidate for her.
On Leopold's initiative, Prince Albert and Prince Ernst met on the 10th. October 1839 for another visit to the British royal court. Victoria noted in her diary: “I saw Albert with some emotion, he is beautiful.”[38] Just four days later she revealed her marriage intentions to Prime Minister Melbourne and on the 15th. October - according to protocol - asked for Albert's hand in marriage. “I am the happiest person,” Victoria described her impressions in her diary. The speed with which Queen Victoria shed her aversion to marriage and fell in love with Albert is explained by his biographer Hans Joachim Netzer with the young queen's need for a supporter and protector, as she felt increasingly insecure in her role as regent; Victoria's biographer Carolly Erickson also cites this as a key reason. But at the same time she emphasizes a number of similarities: both were emotionally damaged by an unhappy and loveless childhood, romantically inclined and shared a love of music. While Victoria's diary entries testify to a happy exuberance of emotions, Albert's letters from this time indicate that he viewed his future marriage to the British Queen in a much more sober manner. The British public's reaction to the planned wedding was overwhelmingly negative; the German prince from the insignificant Coburg was not considered his equal. In Great Britain, mocking verses appeared that the queen had given up half a crown to receive a ring. Others alluded to Victoria's increasingly rounder physique and insinuated that Prince Albert, another "happy Coburger", was only taking the fat queen because of her even bigger money bag. British history lacked comparable precedents as to what title the consort of a reigning queen should take, and Prime Minister Melbourne accepted that this decision was made in Parliament to Albert's disadvantage. After the wedding, he remained a simple Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and was not elevated to the privileged rank of Prince Consort. Parliament, which in 1816 had granted Prince Leopold an annual allowance of 50,000 pounds as the husband of the presumptive heir to the throne, Charlotte Augusta, only granted Albert 30,000 pounds. Queen Victoria took this affront so personally that she considered the Duke of Wellington not to be invited to the wedding.
The wedding preparations led to the first tensions between the bride and groom. Prince Albert wanted to at least partially assemble his personal court staff and - trained by King Leopold's example - maintain a staff that either consisted equally of Tories and Whigs or was politically neutral. Victoria appointed all members of his household without taking her future husband's wishes into account and, influenced by Lord Melbourne, chose exclusively Whig supporters. She appointed George Anson, a confidant of Melbourne, as private secretary - the most important position in the prince's household. The Queen's favoritism for the Whig party continued at the wedding. Only five Tories were invited to speak on the 10th. February 1840 to attend the wedding ceremony in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace.
First years of marriage: Queen Victoria made a strict distinction between her private life and her office as a ruler, which is why Albert, who had been prepared for a political role and for whom this was a reason for marriage, repeatedly complained that he played no role in political decisions. Albert, who had spent most of his life in close association with his brother, missed his company in London and suffered from his isolated position. The members of the British aristocracy viewed the German prince as too educated and stiff. The scientists, artists and musicians he would have liked to invite to evening events had to stay away from the court at his wife's request. Victoria was only too aware of her lack of education and felt unable to participate in such conversations, which she considered incompatible with her role as monarch. She did not share her husband's interest in politics, but claimed the role of ruler for herself alone. "I don't like him taking over my role in state affairs," she told Prime Minister Melbourne after he made positive comments about a public appearance by Prince Albert.[46] Albert, who was politically insignificant, was looking for fields of activity. He became a member of the Royal Society, studied English law with a London lawyer and took over the presidency of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery. Albert had the parks of Windsor Castle redesigned, began building a model agricultural estate and formed a small stud farm out of the Arabians from the royal riding stable.
The largely influent role of the prince changed with the birth of the children. Victoria became pregnant immediately after the wedding and on the 21st. Victoria (“Vicky”), named after her, was born in November 1840. After the birth, Albert took part in the Privy Council for the first time at the invitation of the Prime Minister and became politically active for the first time without the Queen's knowledge during the second pregnancy that quickly followed.
Given the financial situation, the political end of the Melbourne era became foreseeable and the Tories taking over government under Robert Peel was imminent. In order to avoid a situation like the one that had arisen in 1839 with the ladies-in-waiting affair, which had cost Victoria a lot of sympathy, Albert began negotiations with Peel in good time. Through his diplomatic actions, he reached an agreement with him that in the event of a change of government, only three of his wife's ladies-in-waiting would have to leave the court and be exchanged for supporters of the Tories. Victoria was initially angry at this agreement, but then came to terms with it and was later to hold Peel in high esteem. Albert's intervention was the first step that politically neutralized the British royal court. Trained by King Leopold and Christian von Stockmar, he was convinced that in a constitutional monarchy, in which the prime minister was primarily responsible to parliament, the royal family as an institution had to stand above daily political events and party political decisions. At his farewell on the 30th In August 1841, Lord Melbourne advised Victoria to seek advice from her husband on political matters; advice the Queen should follow. At the time of the birth of Albert Eduard (“Bertie”) on December 9th November 1841, her husband was already the most important advisor. He now had access to Allen documents presented to the Queen, drafted many of her official letters and influenced her decisions. According to George Anson, Albert became “in fact, if not in title, Her Majesty’s private secretary.”
What was probably the most serious marital crisis finally led to Baroness Lehzen's withdrawal from the court: the royal descendants grew up in the nursery, which was run by a governess and was under Lehzen's influence. At the beginning of her second year, Princess Victoria was ill and when her parents returned from a trip they found their daughter pale and emaciated. A critical remark from her husband caused Victoria to lose her composure and, in a fit of anger, accused him of a series of accusations. Albert then left the nursery without a word and wrote a letter to his wife that she could do with their daughter as she wanted. If the daughter dies, she will be responsible. Over the next few days, the couple only communicated with each other in writing. Albert sought advice from Christian von Stockmar; Victoria turned to Baroness Lehzen. Stockmar, whom the queen valued as an advisor as much as her husband, informed her that he would leave the British court if such scenes were repeated, to which she relented in her answer:
“Albert has to tell me what he doesn't like... when I'm quick-tempered, which I hope doesn't happen often anymore, he doesn't have to believe the stupid things I say, for example that it's a shame, ever being married & so on, which I only say when I’m not feeling well.”
Through this event, Albert was able to make it clear to his wife that Baroness Lehzen was overwhelmed by the tasks entrusted to her, which is why she was advised to retreat into private life. Provided with a reasonable pension, Lehzen left on the 30th. He left the court in September 1842 and settled in Bückeburg, Germany, whereby Albert's influence on the royal household and finances became noticeable.
Overall, the almost twenty-one-year relationship between Victoria and Albert was considered very happy. During her marriage, the queen was heavily influenced in Allen decisions, including political ones, by her husband, who, especially in his later years, was said to have been both king and prime minister. Victoria herself expressed it in a letter dated March 9th. June 1858 to her eldest daughter as follows:
“I can never believe or admit that any other person has been blessed by fate as I have been, with such a man, such a perfect man. Dad was everything to me, and still is today. […] He was everything to me, my father, my protector, my guide, my advisor in Allen things, I would almost like to say he was my mother and husband at the same time. I believe no one has been so completely transformed as I have been by the influence of the dearest Papa. His position towards me is therefore very unusual, and when he is not there I feel paralyzed.”
Raising children: Victoria, who gave birth to her first five children in six years and became a mother of nine within 17 years, found each of her pregnancies and births to be torture and an imposition (“I think more about the fact that we are in such situations moments like a cow or a bitch; that our poor nature seems so animalistic and banal"). In order to reduce the pain and strain, Victoria had the doctor John Snow anesthetize her with chloroform, which was still very controversial at the time, when she gave birth to her two youngest children. Thanks to her example, this new anesthesia technique became widespread in obstetrics. The queen reacted to the pregnancy and the postpartum period with moodiness, depression, nervousness and sudden outbursts of temper. Victoria rated the undirected movements of newborns as frog-like and unattractive and, for example, considered it a lack of parenting when her one-year-old daughter was still sucking on bracelets. Neither Victoria nor Albert had any experience in dealing with and raising small children, which is why the pedantic Albert wrote a series of memoranda after the birth of his first daughter that set out how she should be raised. On the occasion of the birth of Crown Prince Albert Eduard (later Eduard VII), who was ahead of his older sister in the line of succession to the throne because of his gender, Christian von Stockmar also wrote a 48-page memorandum in which he wrote down in detail the educational principles of the royal descendants. Princess Victoria received French lessons at the age of one and a half, and German language lessons were added at the age of three. The intelligent and eager to learn princess lived up to her parents' high standards; Her younger brother Albert Eduard, whom they had subjected to a rigorous learning and education program, found it much more difficult to learn.
The parents saw the life of Victoria's father and his brothers as a warning example. Their unrestrained, wasteful lifestyle had cost the British monarchy a lot of reputation; the marital conflict between George IV. and Caroline of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel had even brought the country to the brink of revolution. The ambition of both parents was not only to let their children grow into morally stable personalities, but also to ensure that they were best prepared for their future tasks. The Royal Family became the most distinguished representative of an ideal that was stylized by bourgeois society as a source of strength and virtue and a haven of stability. Albert in particular wanted to keep the children away from the potentially corrupting influence of the court for as long as possible and preferred the quiet country life to the hectic capital, which is why the couple moved their center of life from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle. In order to provide family life and the growing number of children with a protected, private retreat, they purchased Osborne House, a 400-hectare country estate on the Isle of Wight, in 1845. Albert was able to finance the purchase through significant restrictions on the Queen's private spending and through the sale of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. He then had the building extensively rebuilt and expanded according to his ideas in the Italian style; The garden was also designed according to his specifications. A wooden house (Swiss Cottage) was imported for the children, in which the princes were supposed to learn carpentry and gardening and the princesses were supposed to learn housekeeping and cooking. In contrast to the queen, Albert played a decisive and direct role in their upbringing: he took a large part in their progress in teaching, taught some of them himself and spent a lot of time playing with his children.
Famine in Ireland: Ireland occupied a special position within the United Kingdom. Although the island has been around since the 16th century In the 19th century, although it was part of the kingdom with its own representation in parliament, it was effectively treated as a colony. The policies of the British landowners, together with potato blight and poor harvests, led to the great famine of 1845 to 1849. As a result of this catastrophe, around a million Irish people lost their lives (around twelve percent of the population), and two million people emigrated to North America, Australia or New Zealand.
Prime Minister Peel was unable to prevail in Parliament against the large landowners with his demand for the abolition of the corn tariffs (Corn Laws) in order to be able to import cheap grain to Ireland. He received support from Albert, who wrote a memorandum, also on behalf of Victoria, in which he expressed her dismay and suggested suitable measures to alleviate the distress. However, his demands, such as the opening of ports, as had been successfully done in other countries affected by potato blight, were initially not heard. When an even worse potato harvest was predicted for 1846, Peel achieved the abolition of grain tariffs, but as a result he lost the support of his party and was replaced as Prime Minister by the Whig John Russell. Victoria, who was only allowed to express her sympathy for the Irish in private, donated £2,000 (not just £5 as some claim) to the British Society for the Relief of the Greatest Needs in the Remote Communities of Ireland and Scotland.[62] As an expression of her support for the Irish people, Victoria planned to acquire a country estate in Ireland, but again distanced herself from this plan as this would probably have been interpreted as “Irish landlord behavior”.[63] Instead, she decided to go on a royal tour of Ireland in 1849, and the people there showed her enthusiasm and affection during the visit. The departure and re-embarkation took place with “ Allen conceivable sign of affection and respect,”[64] according to Victoria. Many contemporaries saw this visit as an opportunity for reconciliation, which, however, remained unused by the monarch. Victoria made three further visits in 1853, 1861 and 1900, but these did not offer the opportunities that would have been possible in 1849. On the contrary, they increased the Irish people's feeling that they had been abandoned by the British government.
Despite these events, Victoria was not to have any significant influence on British social policy in the period that followed, on the one hand because she knew that this area was in good hands - Prince Albert was not indifferent to the social conflicts due to his Christian faith - and on the other hand because this was a It was an area she found difficult to navigate. Where she personally experienced misery, she showed herself helpful; The simple people in the Scottish highlands in particular made the burdens of poverty understandable to her. However, the underprivileged classes below the middle class remained alien to her. As a widow, Victoria was asked to take social policy measures several times in the 1880s, but this commitment was more likely to be understood as an obligation to her husband than as a personal decision based on innermost convictions.
Fascinated by the Scottish landscape, the couple purchased Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire in 1852. This new acquisition was made possible by an unexpected inheritance: John Camden Neild had bequeathed his entire property - his property alone was worth over 250,000 pounds - to the Queen, making Balmoral, like Osborne House, the private property of the royal family.[66] Balmoral was subsequently rebuilt in the baronial style according to Albert's plans, and despite the initially very cramped conditions, Victoria preferred to stay far away in Osborne or Balmoral rather than in the "dark splendor" of Windsor Castle or the urban atmosphere of Buckingham Palace.
Revolutionary year 1848 and conflicts with Palmerston: After the first years of Victoria's reign passed without any significant political unrest, the European revolutionary year 1848 was also to have an impact on Great Britain. Against the express advice of Prime Minister John Russell, Victoria granted the In February 1848, French King Louis-Philippe I, who was overthrown by the February Revolution, received political asylum and made Claremont House available to him. In Great Britain itself, speculators had caused enormous financial losses through inflationary railway stocks (railway crisis) and the price of wheat was at a low. The resulting financial crisis led to unemployment and poverty, which contributed to the Chartist reform movement that emerged in the early 19th century. century, gave new impetus. For the 10th In April 1848 the Chartists announced a mass meeting in London, which is why the royal family was taken to Osborne House as a precautionary measure for security reasons. Contrary to expectations, the event was non-violent. Instead of the target number of 300,000 participants, only 20,000 demonstrators gathered on Kennington Common; Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor delivered a petition calling for liberalized citizenship that was signed by more than a million people. Although the revolution had had little impact in Great Britain, Victoria felt existential fear for the first time and saw the Chartists in the wrong:
“I am of the opinion that revolution is always bad for a country and the cause of untold misery for the people. Obedience to the laws and to the ruler is obedience to a higher power.”
The socio-politically harsh climate between 1840 and 1850 was certainly responsible for the fact that five of the seven assassination attempts, all of which Victoria survived without any notable injuries, occurred in this decade. The other two were committed in 1872 and 1882. It was certainly no coincidence that the courts certified that Allen defendants were “mentally disturbed” and were careful to rule out political motives. It was not in the state's interest to see the explosiveness of social conflicts confirmed by conspiracies against the queen. Of course, the self-control with which she endured these attempts on her life - rather unusual for Victoria - made an impression on the public.
Lord Palmerston: A policy of “fait accompli” drew increasing disapproval from Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, who had held office almost continuously since 1830 and enjoyed great popularity among the population. Instructions to ambassadors were issued without Victoria's approval, letters to the monarch were opened at the Foreign Office, staff suggestions from the Crown were ignored and ministerial decisions were communicated through the press. Palmerston made it clear that the Crown did not have to interfere in foreign policy, which was seen by Victoria as an indispensable monarchical prerogative and was increasingly seen as a question of British constitutionalism. When the minister declared the United Kingdom an ally of every liberation movement on the continent in the revolutionary year of 1848, he also brought the peoples into play as a political power factor. With this liberal foreign policy he horrified the queen, who, in contrast, viewed the dynastic connections of European dynasties as a means of stabilizing international relations. She questioned what impact this would have on Irish emancipation efforts. All attempts by the court to get rid of the unloved foreign minister - Victoria also referred to him as her "pilgrimage stone" - failed. As Napoleon III. on 2. When the Second French Empire was proclaimed in Paris in December 1851 after a successful coup, the queen expected strict neutrality from her government. Foreign Secretary Palmerston, however, congratulated the French ambassador on the successful coup, prompting his dismissal on 22. December 1851 became inevitable. It would be the only time that the Queen actively secured the dismissal of a minister, and it would prove to be only an apparent political victory. Victoria's subsequent demands for the government to provide a program of definitive foreign policy guidelines to guide any future foreign secretary were rejected by Prime Minister Russell. After the formation of a new government under George Hamilton-Gordon on 28. In December 1852, the influential Palmerston joined his cabinet as Home Secretary[69] before taking over the office of Prime Minister himself from 1855.
The Crimean War (1853–1856): In March 1854, Great Britain and France entered the conflict with Russia on the side of the Ottoman Empire, known as the Crimean War. Through this intervention, Western powers wanted to counter Russian expansionism on the Balkan Peninsula and the Bosphorus. The Crimean War is seen as the first “modern” and “industrial” conflict, which was characterized by costly material battles and trench warfare (siege of Sevastopol) due to technical innovations. The conflict exposed the grievances within the British army; catastrophic conditions prevailed in the army camps and especially in the field hospitals, which led to high personnel losses and ultimately to the resignation of the Aberdeen government in 1855. In total, British losses amounted to 22,000 men, of whom around 17,000 died due to inadequate supplies, disease or epidemics.
In keeping with their understanding of sovereignty, neither Victoria nor Albert could have direct influence on military policy, but the crown's authority was great enough that their advice was taken into account in the cabinet and was partially adopted. The monarch discovered her maternal duty of care for the army, showed compassion and personal concern for her soldiers by initiating military reform and supporting the renewal of the hospital system. Victoria, who first personally took part in a maneuver in March 1856, took a keen interest in the military events and wrote enthusiastically: “How I regret that I am not a man and should be allowed to fight in the war. There is no better death for a man than falling on the battlefield.” In the future, she was of the opinion that the troops should remain as far away from the influence of politicians as possible, but that they should be in direct contact with the monarch through the commander-in-chief would have. As an expression of her support, Victoria donated a donation on the 29th. In January 1856, he was awarded the Victoria Cross to honor soldiers who had demonstrated particular bravery in front of the enemy or outstanding performance of duty during the Crimean War. Since its foundation, it can be awarded Allen members of the British armed forces, regardless of rank.[74] The medals were awarded on the 26th. Awarded in June 1856 as part of a troop parade in London's Hyde Park. After the victory and the peace agreement on March 30th On March 18, 1856 (Peace of Paris), Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister since 1855, thanked the Queen, saying that the task he and his colleagues had to perform had been made comparatively easy by the “illuminated ideas which Your Majesty has expressed in Allen great things "[75] The relationship between the Crown and Prime Minister had noticeably relaxed; Palmerston's energetic efforts at the end of the Crimean War as well as Prince Albert's tireless efforts as an advisor and organizer had led to mutual rapprochement and appreciation.[76] Even at the beginning of the war, Palmerston's resignation as Home Secretary had triggered a harsh press campaign against Albert, which may have been initiated by Palmerston himself. Among other things, rumors had been circulated by The Daily News that the prince - who was still insulted as a "German" - and Even the Queen herself was imprisoned in the Tower of London as a traitor.
The open hostilities in the press had shown Albert's continued constitutionally undefined position. His influence on official business was expressly desired by Victoria, even though there was no precedent for his position in the British constitution. “I love peace and quiet, I hate politics and hustle and bustle. Women are not made to govern and if we are good women, then we cannot love these male pursuits” (“I love peace and quiet, I hate politics and turmoil. “We women are not made for governing, and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations”),[78] Victoria described her view of politics. The prince had reformed the organization of the court, the bureaucracy and the finances of the crown. With considerable enthusiasm, Albert managed and administered the royal household, acting as his wife's confidential advisor and private secretary. During her pregnancies, he himself came into direct contact with ministers and members of the government. Although his services to Britain were undisputed, he only enjoyed public popularity during the first Great World's Fair, which he initiated in 1851. After Parliament once again rejected Albert's appointment as Prince Consort, Victoria awarded him the Prince Consort on 25 December. June 1857 this privileged title itself. Due to a lack of description of the powers of this position, the government only officially stated that the Prince Consort had the right to provide advisory support to the monarch. The extent of this consulting activity was by no means defined.
On the 27th. In January 1859, at the age of 39, she became a grandmother for the first time; Her eldest daughter Victoria gave birth to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, later Emperor Wilhelm II, in Berlin.
Widowhood: The death of her 74-year-old mother on January 16th March 1861 had hit Victoria hard, which is why Prince Albert, who himself suffered from chronic respiratory problems, took on many of his wife's tasks in the following months. Towards the end of 1861, Albert's health deteriorated noticeably before the royal personal physician William Jenner arrived on the 9th. He was diagnosed with typhoid fever in December. Albert was not to recover and died on the 14th in the presence of Victoria and five of their nine children. December 1861 at around 10:50 p.m. at Windsor Castle at the age of 42. In her diary, Victoria described the scene:
“Two or three long, very calm breaths, his hand pressed mine and... everything, everything was over... I stood up, kissed the dear heavenly forehead and cried out in the most bitter pain: 'O my love!', then I fell down in silent despair my knees and couldn't utter a word or cry a tear.
“I will never forget how beautiful my darling looked as he lay there with the rising sun illuminating his face. His unusually bright eyes saw invisible things and no longer noticed me. Now there’s no one to call me Victoria anymore.”
The official cause of death was given as typhus, but more recent speculations suggest that it was stomach cancer, kidney failure or Crohn's disease, as Albert had been in poor health since 1859. The death of her husband was a painful blow of fate for Victoria, which the desperate widow was never able to overcome and which plunged her into the greatest personal crisis of her life. A week after Albert's death she wrote to Leopold I:
“The poor fatherless baby of eight months is now a completely broken and devastated widow of 42! My happy life is over! The world no longer exists for me! If I must live on […], henceforth only for our poor, fatherless children, for my unfortunate country which has lost everything through his loss, and solely to do what I know and feel he would wish ; for he is near to me, his spirit will guide and enlighten me! […] His great soul now enjoys what is worthy of it. And I don't want to envy him, I just want to pray that my soul becomes more perfect so that I can be with him in eternity; for I sincerely long for this blessed moment.”
Victoria held her eldest son partly responsible for the early death of her “beloved Albert”. "Oh! That boy - to my great regret I can never or will never be able to look at him without shuddering" ("Oh! “That boy – much as I pity I never can or shall look at him without a shudder”), she confided in her diary. The easy-going and dissolute Bertie was involved in an inappropriate love affair with the Irish actress Nellie Clifden, which is why Albert, who was already ill, died on the 25th. November 1861 traveled to Cambridge to speak to the heir to the throne during a long walk in the rain.[83] Victoria wrote: “He had been killed by that dreadful business,”[84][85] which is why the relationship with her son was permanently strained. Victoria rejected the idea of making Bertie, whom she accused of indolence and indifference, into her male support and thus allowing him to grow into the role of his father.
For the 42-year-old Victoria, an incessant phase of mourning began, which - even by the standards of the time - took on strange forms and ritualized the memory of the deceased as a cult: Albert's death room in Windsor remained unchanged, furnishings and utensils became relics, his bed sheets and towels were changed regularly, and hot water was provided in his bedroom every evening.[86] As an expression of deep sadness and appreciation for her husband, who died early, Victoria wore only widow's clothing until the end of her life. Almost all photos and paintings show her as a woman in black mourning clothing, with a melancholic or dignified, serious facial expression. At the Queen's express request, Albert was not buried in St George's Chapel, but in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore in Windsor Park, which Victoria had commissioned especially for them both and where she herself was later laid to rest. Overwhelmed by grief, the once fun-loving Queen initially withdrew completely from the public eye and tried to avoid Buckingham Palace throughout her life. She went to the seclusion of Balmoral Castle or Osborne House and, much to the chagrin of the politicians who were summoned there, the stays were an integral part of the annual routine during her 40 years as a widow. Even during government crises, Victoria could hardly be persuaded to return to London and had to be literally begged by members of the government in order to enable efficient contact. She consistently refused to fulfill her public duties as a representative of the monarchy and did not appear until the 6th. February 1866 again for the opening of Parliament in the House of Lords (State Opening of Parliament). In her 40 years as a widow, Victoria only appeared in person seven times (1866, 1867, 1871, 1876, 1877, 1880 and 1886) at the annual opening of Parliament, which she disparagingly referred to as the "state theatre",[88] and was otherwise represented by the Lord Chancellor. She was only willing to appear in public for the inauguration of Albert monuments and even traveled to Coburg in 1865.
Even though Victoria continued to fulfill her official duties conscientiously, she came under criticism due to her years of public absence and became increasingly unpopular among the people.[89] For many subjects, the “Widow of Windsor” became a somewhat strange hermit in a widow's dress, a distant figure, awe-inspiring and ruling over a global empire, which at times gave supporters of a republic great support. The constitutional lawyer and newspaper editor Walter Bagehot put it this way: “For reasons that are not difficult to name, the Queen has done almost as much damage to the popularity of the monarchy through her long withdrawal from public life as the most unworthy of her predecessors did through his vice and frivolity “. After her apprenticeship with Lord Melbourne, her years as a journeyman with Prince Albert and a transition phase lasting several years, she now had the self-confidence to rule as an independent constitutional monarch. In the decades that followed, whenever she wanted to assert her political will against the respective prime minister, she bluntly threatened to abdicate, not without pointing out that this was easy for her because this crown was a “crown of thorns” for her. In the four decades of her widowhood, she was always able to claim an emotional political advantage and often prevailed.
With the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial, Victoria commissioned the creation of a national memorial in honor of her husband.
John Brown: A significant part of the widowed Victoria's emotional relaxation was attributed to her long-time servant John Brown, who was initially employed as Prince Albert's Scottish hunting assistant in Balmoral. Since Victoria refused to be accompanied by a foreign groom, Brown took on this task in the winter of 1864/65 and his duties soon extended beyond leading the horse. The Queen valued him as a reliable, discreet servant, whom she made her constant companion and named The Queen's Highland Servant in 1865.[92] She defined his tasks in a memorandum: Brown was responsible for safety on horses and in the carriages, for her clothing outdoors and for the dogs. The queen had great sympathy for her servant, due, among other things, to his open-hearted statements without regard to rank and status, as well as his informal, rustic behavior. He entered Victoria's room without knocking, simply called her "Woman" and gave orders even in public, despite being accompanied appropriately.[93] In June 1865 the relationship became the subject of widespread gossip. The trigger was a painting by the painter Edwin Landseer that shows the queen on horseback with John Brown holding the reins. From the work sessions, Landseer reported that the queen had taken a fancy to a certain Scottish servant and did not want to be served by anyone else. In the tabloid press, John Brown became the target of cruel jokes; there were rumors that he was Victoria's lover or even secretly married to her, which is why the Queen herself was derogatorily referred to as Mrs. Brown.[94] When Victoria traveled to Switzerland in 1868, there were rumors that the then 49-year-old queen had given birth to her servant there.
Victoria's environment and family viewed Brown's behavior as tactless and rude, which is why they tried in vain to get rid of the favorite.[95] Above all, he was envied for his many privileges: Brown allocated hunting and fishing rights on the royal lands in Scotland, and it was well known that a recommendation from a Highlander was more beneficial for a job or promotion than that of a prince. Victoria also demanded that Brown be treated with particular politeness and consideration, which angered dignitaries at court.
In 1872, Brown prevented an assassination attempt by the Fenian Arthur O'Connor in front of Buckingham Palace, which gave the Queen another reason to insist on the services of her Highland servant. She donated the gold Victoria Devoted Service Medal for a special act of sacrifice for the monarchy; the first was given to John Brown. He later received a silver Faithfull Service Medal for ten years of faithful service. Victoria is said to have personally determined the design of both medals.[96] In addition to all these indirect expressions of favor, there was also concrete evidence in the form of very personal gifts: in 1869, a volume of poetry in Scottish dialect bore the dedication “from his sincere friend VR”, in 1875 he received a gold watch, and in 1879 a leather-bound Bible “from his faithful friend VRI”. The Queen also gave him a house over the Dee, where Brown planned to live after his retirement, and although the Queen rarely attended funerals, she appeared in person at the memorial service for Brown's father.[97] Eventually he was even given the title of ESQUIRE . As the years passed, the relationship became less the subject of rumors and Brown's presence was appreciated as a sign of attentive care, which it probably was.[98] Brown himself took on the task of bringing bad news to the Queen, and in 1878, for example, he gave her the news of the death of her daughter Alice, who had died on the exact day Albert died. Victoria also sent him to inquire about the sick and dying, which is why his presence could be seen as a sign of Victoria's special and personal concern.
After John Brown's death on December 29th In March 1883, the Queen wrote in her diary that she was “terribly moved by this loss, which deprives me of a person who served me with so much devotion and loyalty and did so much for my personal well-being. With him I'm not just losing a servant, but a real friend."[99] Brown "didn't leave her for a day for 18½ years" - Victoria dedicated the second volume of her diary entries to him.
Between Gladstone and Disraeli
British Empire around 1898: Under Victoria's reign, ten prime ministers headed the government; their relationships with these statesmen were very different.[100] Victoria's personal affection for the conservative Benjamin Disraeli and her dislike for his political rival, the liberal William Gladstone, both of which were influential in British politics in the second half of the 19th century, attracted particular attention. Century - Disraeli in foreign policy, Gladstone in domestic policy. From 1868 until Disraeli's death in 1881 they took turns at the head of the government. Unfortunately for Victoria, Gladstone's reign (1868 to 1874, 1880 to 1885, 1886, 1892 to 1894) lasted twice as long as Disraeli's (1868 and 1874 to 1880).
Already during his first term in office (February to December 1868), the charming Disraeli had succeeded in winning over the “Fairy Queen,” as he called Victoria. He cleverly exploited her weaknesses, created an atmosphere of familiarity, showed excessive respect and thereby gave the Queen a feeling of self-affirmation, which is why his return to the office of Prime Minister was longed for by the monarch after the Tories' election victory in 1874. Disraeli gave Victoria the feeling that he was her minister and constant servant and that they were running the country together.[101] As a special token of her favor, she allowed him to sit in her presence during audiences; a privilege that she had only granted to Lord Melbourne other than him, and Disraeli became her “Melbourne of old age”. Victoria was particularly impressed by his foreign policy, and the imperial self-confidence that prevailed in Great Britain at the time made it possible for Disraeli to push through the Queen's personal wish for another title in parliament.[102] With the founding of the German Empire in 1871, her eldest daughter Vicky, who was married to the German Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, became Empress-designate and would have had formal precedence over her mother. Hardly anyone in Great Britain considered the titles to be less than equal, but the queen, who was conscious of her status, feared for her rank.[103] A change in British titulary would not have been possible, but since Victoria was considered Empress (Kaisar-i-Hind) in India, she was eager to officially bear this title. The suggestion was not new: Disraeli had already pointed out during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 that it was important to bind all sections of the Indian people more closely to the Crown.[104] At Disraeli's instigation, Parliament passed the Royal Titles Act, which granted Victoria on 1 December. Raised to the rank of Empress of India in May 1876. From this point on, Victoria signed with the initials VR & I. (Victoria regina et Imperatrix), which became a symbol of the high phase of British imperialism.[105] The proclamation in Delhi took place on January 1st. January 1877 at a Delhi Durbar, at which Victoria was represented by the British Viceroy. The appointment as Empress was also the decisive trigger for Victoria's return the public.[106] As a sign of thanks and recognition, Disraeli was ennobled by the Queen and granted him the hereditary title of Earl of Beaconsfield. After Disraeli's death (1881), Victoria described him as "one of my best, most devoted, and most amiable friends, and one of my wisest advisers."
Victoria developed a particular interest in India, which she was never supposed to visit in person. She had a Durbar wing built in Osborne House especially for the homage gifts from Indian princes,[108] she surrounded herself with an Indian body guard, invited Indians staying in Great Britain to an annual reception and founded the Order of the Star of India. From 1887 she employed a servant, Abdul Karim, who she promoted to “The Queen's Munshi”. arim gave Victoria language lessons in Hindustani and Urdu and taught her Indian customs; in later years the favorite became the “Queen's Indian Secretary”.
Lacking her own views and experience, Victoria's knowledge of the colonies was limited to official documents and, under these conditions, it was hardly possible for her to understand the complexity of the problems. Victoria now legitimized the numerous wars - for example the Zulu War (1879) or the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 to 1880) - that were waged in her rapidly growing empire, in terms of civilization, unlike before when it came to British matters sense of mission; She considered them regrettable but necessary, while she continued to regard wars in Europe as reprehensible for reasons of civilization. “Because the native rulers cannot maintain their authority […] Not to expand our colonial possessions, but to avoid war and bloodshed, we must do this.” Victoria thus justified colonial power politics as a policy to prevent war.
William Gladstone: In contrast to the eloquent Disraeli, William Gladstone showed no interest in flattering the queen; rather, the “people's William” was considered sober, objective and pedantic. Gladstone endured his monarch's obvious dislike ("I could never have the slightest shred of confidence in Mr. Gladstone after his impetuous, harmful and dangerous behavior")[114] while at the same time being loyal to her - without ever receiving any recognition for it - that he actively protected them from opponents of the monarchy and pushed through their children's controversial demands for appanage in parliament.[115] Under the influence of the Paris Commune and Victoria's continued absence from public life, opponents of the monarchy gained strong support around 1870/71, which led Gladstone to urge the queen to return to public life. On the occasion of the Crown Prince's recovery from typhoid fever, Victoria took part on the 27th. February 1872 took part in a thanksgiving service in London's St Paul's Cathedral - her first appearance in nine years outside of the State Opening of Parliament or the dedication of Albert monuments. Victoria's appearance sparked great enthusiasm among the population and became a demonstration of affection for the royal family. “It was a most affecting day, and many a time I repressed my tears,” the emotional queen confided in her diary. Undoubtedly Gladstone's priorities lay in domestic politics; From 1868 he led the most important reform cabinet of the Victorian era. He abolished official patronage in the civil service in favor of specialist examinations, ordered a ban on the sale of officers' certificates, opened the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to non-Anglican students, extended compulsory education until the age of thirteen and introduced secret voting, thereby reducing the influence of landowners on the voting behavior of the population dependent on them should be prevented. In particular, the defusing of the Irish conflict triggered a feeling of unease in Victoria. Gladstone dissolved the Anglican state church in Ireland, improved the position of Irish tenants (Land Act) and, above all, saw Irish self-government (Home Rule) as unavoidable. For Victoria, Ireland, like the majority of the British, was actually just a colony To her eyes, this action was shocking and she complained that her government did not have the power to bring peace to the country.[118] The Queen behaved towards Prime Minister Gladstone in a way that she should not have allowed herself as a constitutional monarch, by very idiosyncratically testing and occasionally even exceeding the limits of the constitution. She secretly sought to isolate Gladstone within his party, encouraged subordinate officials to abandon their loyalty to the government, and conspired with the opposition to the Prime Minister.[119] Gladstone made himself particularly unpopular with Victoria because he hardly supported colonial imperialism and even rejected it on moral grounds.[120] Above all through his agitation against Disraeli's government from 1876, but subsequently also his hesitant foreign policy during the Mahdi revolt in Sudan, Gladstone incurred the displeasure of his monarch, who blamed him personally for the military defeat during the siege of Khartoum and the death of the Governor-General Charles George Gordon was blamed (see Gordon Relief Expedition). “The news from Khartoum is appalling, and the thought that earlier action could have prevented all this and saved many precious lives is too appalling.” Victoria considered the crown's humiliation, which she blamed on Gladstone's indecision, just as inexcusable like Gladstone's deliberate affront to his sovereign.[121] When the 85-year-old Gladstone announced his departure from the premiership in March 1894, Victoria's dislike of him was still such that she was at a loss for words for anything more than expressions of general regret during his final audience.
Late years of government: Britain was in the late 19th century. Century the leading trade, economic and maritime power and took on the role of a “world policeman”. Foreign policy was characterized by the principles of splendid isolation and the Pax Britannica: other major powers were bound by conflicts in Europe, while Great Britain deliberately did not intervene and was able to further expand its supremacy by concentrating on trade.[122][123] In the mid-1870s, Victoria left her self-imposed seclusion and increasingly took part in public life again. People no longer saw her as the grieving, reclusive widow who neglected her public duties as monarch; instead, they saw Victoria as the mother of the country, whom they showed respect and affection for. It gave the population a sense of continuity and stability and became a symbol of the British Empire and its achievements. The monarchical traditions, personified by Queen Victoria, gave people support and security in an increasingly complicated, changing world. For this purpose and for the Empire's self-expression, courtly rituals became increasingly pompous, without this having any influence on Victoria's modest life. The actual power of the crown had diminished considerably under Victoria's reign (Reform Act 1867), but its prestige had increased enormously. However, the reputation of the monarchy was tied to the person of Victoria and she in turn radiated a political impact that should not be underestimated. No matter how consistently Victoria tried to influence her country's politics, especially foreign policy, she was largely unaffected by social change and social problems (see main article: Social Question). Victoria gave her era its name, but she did not have a decisive influence on it.
In 1879, at the age of 60, she became a great-grandmother for the first time: to Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen.
Golden Jubilee (1887): On the occasion of the 50th The Golden Jubilee was celebrated in 1887 on the anniversary of her accession to the throne. Fifty European monarchs and princes, excluding the Russian Tsar, as well as numerous delegations from overseas were expected in London for the main festivities, scheduled for May and June. In addition to parades, family dinners, official banquets and pageants, there was a church service on the 21st. June 1887 in Westminster Abbey the ceremonial climax (“my sons, sons-in-law, grandchildren [...] and great-grandchildren came forward, bowed and kissed my hand, and I kissed each of them; the same ritual then with the daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters and Great-granddaughters; they curtsied and I hugged them warmly. It was a very moving moment and I saw tears in some eyes."[127] To frenzied cheers, Victoria was escorted from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey in an open landau, escorted by Indian cavalrymen. For Victoria herself, the celebrations were overshadowed by concern for her seriously ill son-in-law, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm.[128] With the marriage of their eldest daughter, Victoria and Albert had once hoped to be able to export British constitutionalism to Prussia and create a British-Prussian alliance.[129] Victoria was particularly distressed by the prospect that her grandson, Prince Wilhelm (the future William II), who in her opinion had inherited all of the Hohenzollern's unfortunate character traits, was apparently in for an early inauguration and a long reign.[130] She doubted Wilhelm's personal maturity and experience for the office of emperor. The thought that this would be supported by the Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, whom she hated and whom she had met personally during a private family visit in April 1888, did not reassure her in any way.
On the 23rd In September 1896, Victoria's reign outlasted that of her grandfather George III. and she became the longest-reigning monarch in English, Scottish and British history to date; first her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II. should beat this record again. In accordance with Victoria's wishes, the celebrations on the occasion of her 60th birthday were held. Jubilee postponed to 1897. At the suggestion of the Conservative Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and the Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, the Diamond Jubilee was organized as the Festival of the British Empire. To demonstrate the size and power of the Empire[132], delegations from all colonies should take part instead of the European monarchs. On the sidelines of the celebrations, the heads of government of the Dominions met for the first time in a conference (Colonial Conference).
On the 22nd On June 18, 1897, the 78-year-old Victoria paraded through London in an eight-horse state carriage along a route almost ten kilometers long, accompanied by troops from Allen parts of the Empire. An open-air thanksgiving service was held in front of the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, which Victoria had to attend sitting in her carriage as she could no longer climb the steps due to her rheumatism. Eventually the procession passed through the poorer parts of London, south of the Thames. Victoria thought she was at the peak of her popularity. Celebrations took place in the British colonies all over the world; there were countless fireworks displays, festive events, parades and church services for weeks.
To mark the Jubilee, the London and North Western Railway's Queen Empress steam locomotive was painted white with lavender trim and the United Kingdom coat of arms.
Despite her advanced age, Queen Victoria continued to work hard and was unwilling to let her eldest son take part in the affairs of state. Bertie was exposed to persistent criticism from his mother, who repeatedly denied him the ability to fulfill the role of ruler (“totally, totally unfit for ever becoming king”). During the loss-making and costly Boer War (1899 to 1902) in South Africa, the self-confident Victoria repeatedly urged her government to resolutely represent British interests: “Please understand that no one is depressed in this House; we have no interest in the possibility of defeat; they do not exist.” (“Please understand that there is no one depressed in this house; we are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist”).
Death: Victoria, who had enjoyed stable health throughout her life, increasingly struggled with age-related physical ailments from the mid-1890s onwards. As a result of a fall down the stairs in 1883 and rheumatism in her legs, she found it difficult to walk, which is why she became increasingly dependent on a wheelchair. In addition, cataracts permanently impaired Victoria's eyesight, making reading and writing more laborious, but her mental vitality remained remarkable. Against the background of the death of her son Alfred (in her diary she wrote: “Oh, God! My poor darling Affie is gone too. "It's a terrible year, nothing but sadness and one horror after another.") and the increasingly unpopular Boer War, mental failures became noticeable for the first time in the summer of 1900 - the beginning of a physical deterioration that spread over the next few months without one could have linked it to a specific clinical picture. Victoria complained of general weakness, tiredness during the day, loss of appetite and insomnia. As usual, she had spent Christmas and the New Year at Osborne House; At the beginning of January 1901 she felt "weak and unwell", and in mid-January she felt "drowsy ... dazed and confused",[139] which is why her surviving children, with the exception of her Even Vicky, who was seriously ill, came to Osborne and gathered at her deathbed. On the 22nd On January 1, 1901, at around 6:30 p.m., Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 in the arms of her grandson Wilhelm II. and her son Albert Eduard.
On the 25th. In January her successor Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was laid to rest. and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught in her coffin. Victoria's personal physician ensured that a collection of favorite items were placed in the coffin, as she had ordered in secret instructions. These included, among other things, an alabaster print of Albert's hand, photographs and a lock of John Brown's hair. Her wish to be buried in a white dress and her bridal veil was also fulfilled. On 2. In February 1901, Victoria was laid in state for two days in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle and then buried alongside Albert in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, which she had built for herself and her late husband in the Italian Romantic style.
With a reign of 63 years, seven months and two days, Victoria was the longest-reigning British monarch before her death on December 9th. September 2015 by her great-great-granddaughter Elisabeth II. was exceeded. Victoria's death ended the rule of the House of Hanover that had existed since 1714, which had ended with the accession to the throne of her eldest son Edward VII. passed to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (renamed House of Windsor from 1917).
Descendants: Queen Victoria's union with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha resulted in nine children:
Victoria (Vicky) (* 21. November 1840; † 5. August 1901), Princess Royal
⚭ 1858 Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia; as Frederick III. German Emperor
Albert Eduard (Bertie) (* 9. November 1841; † 6. May 1910), Prince of Wales; as Edward VII. King of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India
⚭ 1863 Princess Alexandra of Denmark
Alice (* 25. April 1843; † 14. December 1878)
⚭ 1862 Grand Duke Ludwig IV. from Hesse
Alfred (Affie[141]) (* 6. August 1844; † 31. July 1900), Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
⚭ 1874 Grand Duchess Marija Alexandrovna Romanova of Russia
Helena (Lenchen) (* 25. May 1846; † 6. June 1923)
⚭ 1866 Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Louise (* 18. March 1848; † 3. December 1939)
⚭ 1871 John Campbell , 9. Duke of Argyll
Arthur (*1. May 1850; † 16. January 1942), Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
⚭ 1879 Princess Luise Margarete of Prussia
Leopold (* 7. April 1853; † 28. March 1884), Duke of Albany
⚭ 1882 Princess Helene of Waldeck and Pyrmont
Beatrice (baby) (* 14. April 1857; † 16. October 1944)
⚭ 1885 Prince Heinrich of Battenberg
Victoria was so close to her husband that she was quite indifferent to the children during his lifetime. After Albert's death, the children certainly meant more to her, but there was no sense of intimacy in her daily interactions with them. Her relationship with heir to the throne, Prince Albert Eduard, was difficult throughout her life and a constant disappointment. She even reproached him for his appearance (not unlike hers). Many sources claim that the heir to the throne's strict upbringing greatly hindered his development and caused many of his later behaviors. The relationship with the daughters was much better, especially in later years. Victoria made sure that a daughter was always close by as a secretary and partner. Helena, Louise and Beatrice took on this task one after the other. She only agreed to Beatrice's marriage on the condition that she should continue to live with her after the wedding.
She was much more loving and forgiving toward her grandchildren and great-grandchildren; for example, she took intensive care of the children of her daughter Alice, who died early. However, she often felt overwhelmed by the large number of her descendants and the personal financial burden that many of them represented, as Parliament saw no reason to provide public support to descendants who were not in line to the throne.
Grandmother of Europe: Part of the family tree with the inheritance of hemophilia among the descendants of Queen Victoria (see family tree analysis). Victoria had 40 grandchildren and 88 great-grandchildren. She decreed that all her grandchildren should bear her name or Albert's. Through their marriages, she has descendants in almost Allen European monarchies, which is why she was nicknamed the “Grandmother of Europe”. For them, it was an instrument of securing peace to cover the European continent with a dense network of relatives on the princely thrones. How ineffective this form of peacekeeping was was shown in the German-Danish War (1848–1851), in the German War (1866) and finally in the First World War (1914–1918), in which the fronts ran across the family lines.
As of 2008, Victoria's descendants include the following European monarchs and former monarchs: King Charles III. of Great Britain, King Harald V of Norway, King Carl XVI. Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Sophia of Spain, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Queen Margrethe II. of Denmark, the former king of Greece Constantine II. and the former King of Romania Michael I. Their descendants also include the heads of the former ruling houses of Serbia, Russia, Prussia, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Hanover, Hesse, Baden and France as well as the British Prince Consort Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Hemophilia: Victoria was the first known carrier of the hereditary disease hemophilia (bleeding disease) in the British royal family. She passed the disease on to numerous of her offspring. Among other things, her great-grandson Alexei Nikolayevich Romanov, the last Tsarevich, son of her granddaughter Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (née. Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt) and her husband Tsar Nicholas II. of Russia, from this disease.