Victoria Queen inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue.
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Victoria Queen inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue.
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Victoria Queen married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840.
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Victoria Queen died in 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, at the age of 81.
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Victoria Queen was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace.
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Victoria Queen was baptised Alexandrina after one of her godparents, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother.
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Victoria Queen's father died in January 1820, when Victoria Queen was less than a year old.
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Victoria Queen was then third in line to the throne after Frederick and William.
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Victoria Queen's mother was extremely protective, and Victoria was raised largely isolated from other children under the so-called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by the Duchess and her ambitious and domineering comptroller, Sir John Conroy, who was rumoured to be the Duchess's lover.
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Victoria Queen shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play-hours with her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash.
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Victoria Queen's lessons included French, German, Italian, and Latin, but she spoke only English at home.
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Victoria Queen disliked the trips; the constant round of public appearances made her tired and ill, and there was little time for her to rest.
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Victoria Queen objected on the grounds of the King's disapproval, but her mother dismissed his complaints as motivated by jealousy and forced Victoria to continue the tours.
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At Ramsgate in October 1835, Victoria Queen contracted a severe fever, which Conroy initially dismissed as a childish pretence.
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Victoria Queen was aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.
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Victoria Queen possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.
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Victoria Queen is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too.
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Victoria Queen has besides the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see.
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Victoria Queen turned 18 on 24 May 1837, and a regency was avoided.
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Victoria Queen was Victoria's heir presumptive until she had a child.
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Victoria Queen's coronation took place on 28 June 1838 at Westminster Abbey.
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Victoria Queen became the first sovereign to take up residence at Buckingham Palace and inherited the revenues of the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall as well as being granted a civil list allowance of £385,000 per year.
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At the start of her reign Victoria Queen was popular, but her reputation suffered in an 1839 court intrigue when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, developed an abdominal growth that was widely rumoured to be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Sir John Conroy.
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Victoria Queen hated Conroy, and despised "that odious Lady Flora", because she had conspired with Conroy and the Duchess of Kent in the Kensington System.
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The Victoria Queen commissioned a Tory, Robert Peel, to form a new ministry.
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Victoria Queen's mother was consigned to a remote apartment in Buckingham Palace, and Victoria often refused to see her.
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Victoria Queen showed interest in Albert's education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into wedlock.
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Victoria Queen continued to praise Albert following his second visit in October 1839.
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Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor.
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Victoria Queen spent the evening after their wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:.
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Albert became an important political adviser as well as the Victoria Queen's companion, replacing Melbourne as the dominant influential figure in the first half of her life.
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Victoria Queen's mother was evicted from the palace, to Ingestre House in Belgrave Square.
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Victoria Queen was tried for high treason, found not guilty by reason of insanity, committed to an insane asylum indefinitely, and later sent to live in Australia.
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Victoria Queen's daughter, named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840.
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The Victoria Queen hated being pregnant, viewed breast-feeding with disgust, and thought newborn babies were ugly.
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Lehzen had been a formative influence on Victoria Queen and had supported her against the Kensington System.
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On 29 May 1842, Victoria Queen was riding in a carriage along The Mall, London, when John Francis aimed a pistol at her, but the gun did not fire.
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The assailant escaped; the following day, Victoria Queen drove the same route, though faster and with a greater escort, in a deliberate attempt to bait Francis into taking a second aim and catch him in the act.
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In 1850, the Victoria Queen did sustain injury when she was assaulted by a possibly insane ex-army officer, Robert Pate.
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Internationally, Victoria Queen took a keen interest in the improvement of relations between France and Britain.
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Victoria Queen made and hosted several visits between the British royal family and the House of Orleans, who were related by marriage through the Coburgs.
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Victoria Queen's first visit to Ireland in 1849 was a public relations success, but it had no lasting impact or effect on the growth of Irish nationalism.
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Victoria Queen found particularly offensive the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the Prime Minister, or the Queen.
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Victoria Queen complained to Russell that Palmerston sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without her knowledge, but Palmerston was retained in office and continued to act on his own initiative, despite her repeated remonstrances.
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In 1853, Victoria Queen gave birth to her eighth child, Leopold, with the aid of the new anaesthetic, chloroform.
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Victoria Queen was so impressed by the relief it gave from the pain of childbirth that she used it again in 1857 at the birth of her ninth and final child, Beatrice, despite opposition from members of the clergy, who considered it against biblical teaching, and members of the medical profession, who thought it dangerous.
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Letters from Albert to Victoria Queen intermittently complain of her loss of self-control.
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Victoria Queen approached both Derby and Russell to form a ministry, but neither had sufficient support, and Victoria Queen was forced to appoint Palmerston as prime minister.
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On her return Victoria Queen wrote to Derby reprimanding him for the poor state of the Royal Navy in comparison to the French Navy.
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Victoria Queen was diagnosed with typhoid fever by William Jenner, and died on 14 December 1861.
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Victoria Queen blamed her husband's death on worry over the Prince of Wales's philandering.
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Victoria Queen had been "killed by that dreadful business", she said.
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Victoria Queen entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life.
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Victoria Queen avoided public appearances and rarely set foot in London in the following years.
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Victoria Queen's seclusion earned her the nickname "widow of Windsor".
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Victoria Queen's weight increased through comfort eating, which reinforced her aversion to public appearances.
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Victoria Queen's self-imposed isolation from the public diminished the popularity of the monarchy, and encouraged the growth of the republican movement.
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Victoria Queen did undertake her official government duties, yet chose to remain secluded in her royal residences—Windsor Castle, Osborne House, and the private estate in Scotland that she and Albert had acquired in 1847, Balmoral Castle.
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Victoria Queen agreed to visit the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Kensington and take a drive through London in an open carriage.
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In 1866, Victoria Queen attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time since Albert's death.
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Victoria Queen found Gladstone's demeanour far less appealing; he spoke to her, she is thought to have complained, as though she were "a public meeting rather than a woman".
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In 1870 republican sentiment in Britain, fed by the Victoria Queen's seclusion, was boosted after the establishment of the Third French Republic.
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Brown, who was attending the Victoria Queen, grabbed him and O'Connor was later sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, and a birching.
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The Victoria Queen had a relatively balanced view of the conflict, and condemned atrocities on both sides.
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Victoria Queen wrote of "her feelings of horror and regret at the result of this bloody civil war", and insisted, urged on by Albert, that an official proclamation announcing the transfer of power from the company to the state "should breathe feelings of generosity, benevolence and religious toleration".
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Victoria Queen noted the coincidence of the dates as "almost incredible and most mysterious".
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Disraeli's expansionist foreign policy, which Victoria Queen endorsed, led to conflicts such as the Anglo-Zulu War and the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
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Victoria Queen was outraged when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, but was so pleased by the many expressions of loyalty after the attack that she said it was "worth being shot at—to see how much one is loved".
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On 17 March 1883, Victoria Queen fell down some stairs at Windsor, which left her lame until July; she never fully recovered and was plagued with rheumatism thereafter.
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In early 1884, Victoria Queen did publish More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands, a sequel to her earlier book, which she dedicated to her "devoted personal attendant and faithful friend John Brown".
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Beatrice and Henry planned to marry, but Victoria Queen opposed the match at first, wishing to keep Beatrice at home to act as her companion.
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Victoria Queen was pleased when Gladstone resigned in 1885 after his budget was defeated.
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Victoria Queen thought his government was "the worst I have ever had", and blamed him for the death of General Gordon at Khartoum.
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Victoria Queen was promoted to "Munshi": teaching her Urdu and acting as a clerk.
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Victoria Queen and Albert's hopes of a liberal Germany would go unfulfilled, as Wilhelm was a firm believer in autocracy.
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Victoria Queen objected when Gladstone proposed appointing the Radical MP Henry Labouchere to the Cabinet, so Gladstone agreed not to appoint him.
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Victoria Queen's government was weak, and the following year Lord Salisbury replaced him.
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The Victoria Queen requested that any special celebrations be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee, which was made a festival of the British Empire at the suggestion of the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain.
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The procession paused for an open-air service of thanksgiving held outside St Paul's Cathedral, throughout which Victoria Queen sat in her open carriage, to avoid her having to climb the steps to enter the building.
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Victoria Queen died on 22 January 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81.
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In 1897, Victoria Queen had written instructions for her funeral, which was to be military as befitting a soldier's daughter and the head of the army, and white instead of black.
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Items of jewellery placed on Victoria Queen included the wedding ring of John Brown's mother, given to her by Brown in 1883.
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Victoria Queen experienced unpopularity during the first years of her widowhood, but was well liked during the 1880s and 1890s, when she embodied the empire as a benevolent matriarchal figure.
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Biographies of Victoria written before much of the primary material became available, such as Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria of 1921, are now considered out of date.
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They, and others, conclude that as a person Victoria Queen was emotional, obstinate, honest, and straight-talking.
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Royal haemophiliacs descended from Victoria Queen included her great-grandsons, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia; Alfonso, Prince of Asturias; and Infante Gonzalo of Spain.
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Places named after her include Africa's largest lake, Victoria Falls, the capitals of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, two Australian states, and the capital of the island nation of Seychelles.
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Victoria Queen Cross was introduced in 1856 to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War, and it remains the highest British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand award for bravery.
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Victoria Queen's arms have been borne by all of her successors on the throne.
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