VICTORIA,

born May 24, 1819, Kensington Palace, London died Jan. 22, 1901, Osborne, near Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng. in full Alexandrina Victoria queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (18371901) and empress of India (18761901), who gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age. She and her husband, Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had nine children, who through their marriages and their descendants linked the British royal house with many of the royal families of Europe. A brief account of the life and works of Queen Victoria follows; for a full biography, see Victoria and the Victorian Age. Victoria's long reign restored dignity and popularity to the British crown and may have saved the monarchy from abolition. The only child of Edward, duke of Kent, Victoria acceded to the throne in 1837. Prince Albert, her cousin, met her on his first court visit at Windsor on Oct. 10, 1839. Victoria proposed to him five days later, and they were married in the following February. She was devoted to her husband, relied on his advice, and mourned his premature death (1861) for the remaining 40 years of her reign. Despite Victoria's determination to retain political power, her actual influence on governments was slight. She fought a long rearguard action against the growth of democratic monarchy, a development to which she herself had actually contributed by making the monarchy respectable. At her death, in contrast to the time of her coronation, its continuance was guaranteed. born May 24, 1819, Kensington Palace, London, Eng. died Jan. 22, 1901, Osborne, near Cowes, Isle of Wight Victoria of England in full Alexandrina Victoria queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (18371901) and empress of India (18761901). She was the last of the House of Hanover and gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age. During her reign the English monarchy took on its modern ceremonial character. She and her husband, Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had nine children, through whose marriages were descended many of the royal families of Europe. Victoria first learned of her future role as a young princess during a history lesson when she was 10 years old. Almost four decades later Victoria's governess recalled that the future queen reacted to the discovery by declaring, I will be good. This combination of earnestness and egotism marked Victoria as a child of the age that bears her name. The queen, however, rejected important Victorian values and developments. Although she hated pregnancy and childbirth, detested babies, and was uncomfortable in the presence of children, Victoria reigned in a society that idealized both motherhood and the family. She had no interest in social issues, yet the 19th century in Britain was an age of reform. She resisted technological change even while mechanical and technological innovations reshaped the face of European civilization. Most significantly, Victoria was a queen determined to retain political power; yet unwillingly and unwittingly she presided over the transformation of the sovereign's political role into a ceremonial one and thus preserved the English monarchy. When Victoria became queen, the political role of the crown was by no means clear; nor was the permanence of the throne itself. When she died and her son Edward VII moved from Marlborough House to Buckingham Palace, the change was one of social rather than of political focus; there was no doubt about the monarchy's continuance. That was the measure of her reign. state of southeastern Australia, occupying a mountainous coastal region of the continent. Victoria is separated from New South Wales to the north by the Murray River for a length of 1,065 miles (1,714 kilometres) and by an additional boundary of 110 miles linking Cape Howe and the nearest source of the Murray. The westen boundary is with South Australia, and the southern coastline on the Tasman Sea and the Antarctica Ocean stretches for 1,045 miles and includes the shoreline of Port Phillip Bay. Melbourne, the state capital, is at the head of the bay off Bass Strait. Among the Australian states, Victoria is second to New South Wales in terms of population, production, and party strengths in federal politics, but, since 1945, as the traditional financial hub of Australia, it has sustained a faster rate of economic advancement. Thousands of immigrants have arrived each year, and manufacturing industry has expanded to the point at which the economy has become broadly and soundly based. The discovery and exploitation of oil and gas in Bass Strait helped to reduce the economic gap between Victoria and New South Wales in the 1970s and '80s. Production from those fields has declined, however, and by the year 2000 oil output is expected to be half the 1986 figure. Victoria was separated politically from New South Wales in 1851, and responsible government was conferred in 1855, with power vested in a bicameral legislature. On Jan. 1, 1901, Victoria and the other five colonies became states and formed the Commonwealth of Australia. Only Tasmania is smaller than Victoria, but only New South Wales has a population greater than that of Victoria. Area 87,900 square miles (227,600 square km). Pop. (1996) 4,373,520. Additional reading The most important authority for the queen's life is The Letters of Queen Victoria in three series: for the years 183761, ed. by Arthur Christopher Benson and Viscount Esher (Reginald B. Esher), 3 vol. (1907); for 186285, ed. by George Earle Buckle, 3 vol. (192628); and for 18861901, ed. by George Earle Buckle, 3 vol. (193032). See also Hector Bolitho (ed.), Letters of Queen Victoria, trans. from German (1938; U.K. title, Further Letters of Queen Victoria, 1938, reprinted 1976). Correspondence between the queen and her eldest daughter was edited by Roger Fulford: Dearest Child (1964, reissued 1977), covering the years 185861; Dearest Mama (1968, reissued 1977), covering 186164; Your Dear Letter (1971), covering 186571; Darling Child (1976), covering 187178; and Beloved Mama (1981), covering 187885. Her correspondence with Gladstone is collected in Philip Guedalla (ed.), The Queen and Mr. Gladstone, 2 vol. (1933); and with Palmerston in Brian Connell (ed.), Regina vs. Palmerston (1961), covering the years 183765. See also Hope Dyson and Charles Tennyson (eds.), Dear and Honoured Lady: The Correspondence Between Queen Victoria and Alfred Tennyson (1969, reissued 1971). Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861 (1868, reprinted 1969), and More Leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands, from 1862 to 1882 (1884), both ed. by Arthur Helps, were published in the queen's lifetime and played their part in eventually securing public affection. Selections from these two journals were published in David Duff (ed.), Queen Victoria's Highland Journals, new and rev. ed. (1980). See also Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria in Her Letters and Journals: A Selection (1984).Important biographies are Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria (1921; reissued with the title The Illustrated Queen Victoria, 1987), which was written before the second and third series of her Letters had been published; Elizabeth Longford, Victoria R.I. (1964; U.S. title, Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed, 1965, reprinted 1974); Cecil Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria, from Her Birth to the Death of the Prince Consort (U.K. title, Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times, 1972); Dorothy Marshall, The Life and Times of Victoria (1972); and Stanley Weintraub, Victoria: An Intimate Biography (U.K. title, Victoria: Biography of a Queen, 1987).Additional sources on her private life include Marina Warner, Queen Victoria's Sketchbook (1979), a collection of the queen's artistic works with accompanying narrative text; Tyler Whittle (Michael Sidney Tyler-Whittle), Victoria and Albert at Home (1980); Ronald W. Clark, Balmoral, Queen Victoria's Highland Home (1981); Robert Rhodes James, Albert, Prince Consort: A Biography (1983; U.S. title, Prince Albert: A Biography, 1984); and Delia Millar, Queen Victoria's Life in the Scottish Highlands: Depicted by Her Watercolour Artists (1985).Studies of the queen's reign include Frank Hardie, The Political Influence of Queen Victoria, 18611901, 2nd ed. (1938, reissued 1963); Hector Bolitho, The Reign of Queen Victoria (1948); Theo Aronson, Victoria and Disraeli: The Making of a Romantic Partnership (1977, reprinted 1987); Jeffrey L. Lant, Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and Confusion at Queen Victoria's Court (1979); John May, Victoria Remembered: A Royal History, 18171861, Entirely Illustrated by Commemoratives (1983); and Barry St.-John Nevill (ed.), Life at the Court of Queen Victoria, 18611901 (1984). Sir Edgar Trevor Williams Meredith Veldman Additional reading The Victorian Year Book is an outstanding reference. J.S. Duncan (ed.), Atlas of Victoria (1982), describes the landscape, settlement, history, and economy. Landforms are analyzed by J.G. Douglas and J.A. Ferguson (eds.), Geology of Victoria (1976). J.M. Powell, Watering the Garden State: Water, Land, and Community in Victoria, 18341988 (1989), treats environmental and social issues. Histories include Geoffrey Blainey, Our Side of the Country: The Story of Victoria (1984); Don Garden, Victoria: A History (1984); and The Victorians (1984), which includes 3 vol.: Richard Broome, Arriving; Tony Dingle, Settling; and Susan Priestley, Making Their Mark. J.M. Powell, The Public Lands of Australia Felix (1970), probes environmental factors influencing European land settlement, 183491. Geoffrey Serle, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria, 18511861 (1963), is a brilliant, perceptive, and thorough tour de force, and The Rush to Be Rich: A History of the Colony of Victoria, 18831889 (1971) analyzes political, social, economic, and intellectual currents. Michael Cannon, The Land Boomers, rev. ed. (1986), gives a readable account of the orgy of speculation that afflicted Victoria in the 1880s and '90s. Margaret Kiddle, Men of Yesterday: A Social History of the Western District of Victoria, 18341890 (1962, reprinted 1980), describes the establishment of a squatting oligarchy in western Victoria and the political and social challenges to its hegemony. Studies of Melbourne are Graeme Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne (1978), one of the finest urban histories yet written in Australia; and David Dunstan, Governing the Metropolis: Politics, Technology, and Social Change in a Victorian City, Melbourne 18501891 (1984). John R.V. Prescott Duncan Bruce Waterson