Victoria, ___ 1819-1901 ___ British ___ sovereign

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
The only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg, Victoria succeeded her uncle, William IV, to the throne when only 18 in 1837. Three years later, she married her first cousin, Albert. Together they had nine children, many of whom married into European monarchic families. Albert was somewhat moralistic but also progressive, and, with Victoria, initiated various reforms and innovations, such as the Great Exhibition of 1851, which helped re-establish the British monarchy's popularity. The success of the Great Exhibition led to the opening of public museums, such as the Victoria and Albert. Albert died of typhoid in 1861, and, it is said, Victoria never fully recovered from the loss. Nevertheless, she continued to reign for another 40 years. During her time as queen, the British Empire doubled in size, taking in India, Australia, Canada and parts of Africa and the South Pacific. Her governments faced a number of foreign trials, including the Irish uprising, the Boer Wars and an Indian rebellion. She was also the subject of at least seven assassination attempts between 1840 and 1882. Her golden and diamond jubilees in 1887 and 1897 led to national celebrations. Victoria kept a detailed near-daily diary from the age of 13. There are over 100 volumes - available online (see third of web text links below). Ponsonby notes that she made £2,500 from the publication of 'Leaves' and used the money to set up university and school bursaries for the people of Balmoral.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Victoria's diary online; The crown hurt me

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1832-1840 1842-1882 ___ political royalty childhood historyeye people society theatre

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
etext
etexts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The Royal Archives

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Girlhood of Queen Victoria
Leaves from a Journal of Our Life in the Highlands
More Leaves

May 2005, August 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.