Victoria  was born on 24 May 1819.  At birth, she was fifth in line of succession but in 1837, she inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue.

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 In her diary she wrote, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma ..... 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."  

 

Her reign saw industrial, political, scientific, and military change and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. 

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She married Prince Albert in 1840 - a love match as well as a political one - and upon his death went into a long period of mourning. Stout, dowdy and only about five feet tall, she nevertheless projected a grand image.  She 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.

She died in January, 1901.

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