How Queen Victoria Restored The Reputation Of Britain’s Monarchy | History Makers | Real Royalty

It is always difficult to pass comment on the values and achievements of a society when so many years have passed. But it is true that unlike any other age, the extraordinary Victorian period of British history has always excited mixed emotions in those who care to look back. Many believe Victorian values are something to be aspired to. Others are disturbed to remember a society where great comfort and wealth stood in stark contrast to the dire poverty and child cruelty. Yet few could deny the age to which Queen Victoria gave her name saw incredible and monumental changes in British society. There was, for instance, the urbanisation of a country which was swept along by the Industrial Revolution, whose population rose from 25 million in the 1800s to almost 40 million by the end of the century. There were great advances in engineering, science and medicine. There was at least some attempt to tackle the poverty and squalor which plighted the land. The era heralded the genius of Dickens and Tennyson, Stevenson and Brunel, and the British people watched in admiration as the famous redcoat armies marched to win an empire for their queen and country. It was a remarkable era, an age of transition and progress. It was the age of Queen Victoria. I was awoke at six o'clock by Mama, who told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Coiningham 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 Coiningham, the Lord Chamberlain, then acquainted me that my poor uncle, the King, was no more and had expired at 12 minutes past two this morning, and that consequently I am Queen. It was the early hours of the 20th of June 1837 that the long reign of Queen Victoria began. She would become the longest reigning monarch in British history. Her journal noted the moment when she learned of her accession to the throne. It is said that upon hearing Lord Coiningham utter the word Queen, Victoria instinctively flung out her hand for him to kiss. It was a typical spontaneous gesture which symbolised the young Victoria's acute awareness of her new position. She was even now bound by the concept of duty, for the entry in her diary for that momentous day reads, I shall try to do what is fit and right. Born in 1819 to Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Prince Edward Augustus, Victoria was a mere 18 years old when she ascended the throne. She had been a serious child with a demeanour which is best described as spirited. There is no royal road to music, Princess. You must practice every day, her music master had pleaded to the seven-year-old Victoria. The young princess had responded by shutting the piano with a loud bang and fixing the master with a cold stare. You see, there is no must about it, she replied, leaving the chastened master to beg her forgiveness. As a child, Victoria was always acutely aware of her exalted position in life. She once scolded a playmate who dared to play with her toys. You must not touch those, they are mine. And I may call you Jane, but you must not call me Victoria. Victoria's childhood was one of seclusion. She was brought up in the confinements of Kensington Palace and therefore was kept apart from the royal court. Her father died when she was very young and she was brought up by her mother, who was the German princess, and her governess who was also German. And so there was a European and continental influence that lasted throughout her life. There was a lot of suspicion in her household and emanating from the court about her position and her succession and therefore she mistrusted the English establishment and there was that separateness from it. The queen was of a diminutive stature, a mere five foot two inches tall, but with a presence which impressed even the most worldly of her counsellors. She looked very well and though so small in stature and without any pretension to beauty, the gracefulness of her manner and the good expression of her countenance give her on the whole a very agreeable appearance. Her youth inspires an excessive interest in all those who approach her. However, Britain in 1837 was a divided, dispirited country. William Macaw's brief reign had seen a time of enormous political upheaval which seemed to bewilder the well-intentioned but rather timid king. The first reform bill of 1831, for example, which had sought to reform the country's system of parliamentary representation, was eventually defeated in the House of Commons, a result which pre-empted the dissolution of Parliament. A bad-tempered, acrimonious election followed which eventually resulted in a sensational Whig victory. Although violence erupted throughout the country, the great reform bill finally became law in 1832. When William's chaotic reign ended in 1837, the reputation of the monarch was at a low end, with public confidence in its most reliable institution somehow shaken. Some had even come to despise the monarchy. The new Queen Victoria came undaunted to this unhappy state of affairs. And it is a testament to her personality that by the time of her death, she was a figure who commanded worldwide respect and was greatly loved by her people. When Victoria came to the throne in 1837, the monarchy was in a parlour state. Her grandfather, George III, had been on the throne for 60 years and he was succeeded by his two sons, first of all George IV, then William IV. These two were corrupt and decadent, had extramarital affairs, large families with actresses, several liaisons with unsuitable women, and this was public knowledge. So the monarchy was really seen as a corrupt and unsavoury set of affairs. George IV had been forced by bribing into marrying a German princess, which he tried to divorce, and on the coronation day had locked her out of Westminster Abbey. This had caused great public sympathy for the Queen and thus public opinion was really turning against the monarchy. Victoria was crowned on the 28th of June 1838 and remained on the throne until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. That she survived at all as Queen is perhaps remarkable as the 19th century is often referred to as an age of revolutions. The underclass of Europe had first exercised their strength in France in 1789 when Louis XVI was deposed and eventually executed 40 years later. In 1830 France was once again plunged into revolutionary turmoil when King Charles X was forced into exile in England. By 1848 the desire for revolution and change had spread throughout Europe. In Italy there were uprisings in Venice, Rome, Messina, Pallerno, Reggio and Milan, while rebellions also broke out in the German kingdoms. Increasingly Europeans wanted to replace small principalities with large estates in which they believed their voice could be more clearly heard. Queen Victoria wrote of the tumultuous events in Europe in her journal. So much and such extraordinary incredible things have been happening these days in France that I hardly know how or what to write. There is no doubt that Victoria played an important part in ensuring the survival of the British monarchy during the age of revolutions. The Queen also set a personal example which had a profound effect on the moral attitudes of the Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all from History Hit. Watch them on your smart tv or on the go with your mobile device. Download the app now to explore everything from the wonders of ancient Pompeii and the mystery of the princes in the tower to the life of Anne Boleyn and D-Day. Sign up via the link in the description. But Victoria had to earn her eventual popularity with her people. It was during the early years of her reign for example that she found herself in direct confrontation with her new prime minister Robert Peel who wanted her to make changes in her household in order that the ladies of her bedchamber were of his Tory persuasion rather than the winks which were favoured by the Queen. Displaying her usual strength of mind Victoria refused but at that time public opinion was resolutely set against her. In the resultant furore Peel resigned. Victoria's early on popularity stems from the fact that she was a woman. She was the first woman to accede to the throne since Queen Anne a century and a half before. This coincided with a great public debate about the position, public position of women and the feeling that they should really remain within the household and become icons of motherhood and sort of safe haven for men to return to. So there was a great debate about whether the person of the monarchy should actually be a woman. She also faced a number of court conspiracies from what she termed her wicked uncles who were other brothers, other sons of George III and who felt that their claim to the throne was greater than hers. There were a number of attempts on her life early in her reign and although it's difficult to see this as a conspiracy there was certainly a feeling that the monarchy was in unsuitable hands being both vested in the person of a woman and at that 20 year old woman. In an effort to improve her popularity it was suggested by the royal household that the Queen should get married. It would seem that the idea of a royal wedding was popular even then. Perhaps not surprisingly the headstrong Victoria was completely against the idea at least at first. I said I dreaded the thought of marrying but I was so accustomed to have my own way that I thought it ten to one I shouldn't agree with anyone. However the Queen quickly changed her mind when she met Prince Albert her handsome cousin from Saxe-Coburg. Victoria appears to have been smitten at first sight as the enthusiastic entry in her diary reveals. He has an exquisite nose and such a pretty mouth with delicate mustachios and slight but very slight whiskers. Albert's beauty is most striking and he is so amiable and unaffected. In short very fascinating. Albert was a German prince. He was the same age as Victoria and had been brought up in a relatively secluded environment. He was a very well educated man. He came to England and with the express intention of seeking out Victoria as his bride and when they were married devoted a lot of time to the arts, to music. He was the architect of Osborne House for example and he was a model farmer, a statesman. He was the instigator of the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was a misunderstood figure because he was a foreigner, he was German and there was suspicion of him especially amongst the English politicians but he was also a diplomat and paid great attention to detail and therefore managed to win round most of his critics. Victoria though tended to push Albert to the sidelines emphasising her role as monarch and his as a sort of subsidiary. For example he was only made prince consort in 1857, 17 years after their marriage and so though you can see him as a very able man in addition he's sort of kept on the periphery. Within days of her meeting her handsome cousin Princess Victoria had fallen deeply in love. At first he rode with her and then she allowed him to sit next to her on the sofa although she did not permit herself to dance with the young man at the ball held in his honour. Once she had decided that Albert would be her husband however the thorny issue of the marriage proposal had to be addressed for royal protocol and etiquette denied him the opportunity to propose to her. The happy deed therefore was performed in her closet where Victoria informed the prince that if he were to marry her it would make her too happy. The prince and princess were married on the 10th of February 1840 in the chapel royal at St James's Palace and so began one of history's great love stories for Albert and Victoria were to enjoy an extraordinarily happy marriage which would produce nine children Victoria, Edward, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice. In their family the royal couple would find their greatest joy but also their deepest despair. The arrival of the prince consort certainly brought more sober atmosphere to the royal household. The royal court soon came to reflect his personal standards of duty, industry, morality and domesticity. The influence that Albert exercised over his loving wife cannot be overstated and the support he gave her as she faced the dual demands of public work and private life was immeasurable. The question of who contributed most to domestic affairs is a difficult one. Obviously during their marriage which was a short one, 20 years in length, cut short by Albert's early death, the queen was pregnant for much of that time. She had nine children between 1840 and 1857 and it's very difficult to distinguish her role from Albert's during their marriage. Albert acted almost as her private secretary, drafting memoranda on her behalf, forming legislation, commenting on reports from ministers and so on. However the period of their marriage coincided with a period of instability in British politics as a whole. In 1846 the Conservative Party split over the repeal of the and for much of the time until 1859 there was no overall party in control. So in that case the monarch with the consultation of Albert had a great role to play in public affairs, selecting ministers, selecting cabinets, vetoing appointments of bishops, commenting on foreign affairs. Outside the period of her marriage with Albert however, Victoria's probably most famous for her relationships with individual politicians. She had her favourites, notably Lord Melbourne early on in her career and Disraeli in the latter half of her reign. However you can see Victoria's influence on a number of pieces of legislation. She was particularly interested in foreign affairs and she was the instigator of specific pieces of legislation such as the 1876 anti-diversection bill. The culmination of the prince consort's love affair with science and manufacture came in 1851 with the opening of the Great Exhibition, a remarkable testimony to the prince's hard work and organisational powers. It reflected his enthusiasm for fast evolving industrial techniques of the age and his deep belief that they could be used for the betterment of mankind. The Great Exhibition had a profound effect on Britain and its people as they visited in their thousands to view the unique displays of the mechanical, bizarre and exotic. It is amazing to think that more than six million people visited the Great Exhibition, a staggering number considering the total population of England and Wales was then only 18 million. It was Prince Albert's greatest success and the proceeds from the Great Exhibition would eventually fund the building of the famous museum sites at Kensington and of course the Royal Albert Hall. The young British couple soon became the focus of worldwide attention as they courted and received recognition from the great and the good. The prince consort in particular was enthusiastic for the arts, an interest which resulted in the couple's unlikely friendship with the composer Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn had composed his acclaimed works the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony the composer to ask formally if he might dedicate the Scottish Symphony to the Queen. not to last, for the composer was to die in 1847, struck down tragically at the early age of 38. However it was in 1861 that Queen Victoria's own blissfully happy world was shattered, when on December the 14th that year typhoid claimed the life of her beloved Prince Albert. Victoria, suddenly a widow at only 42, was inconsolable in her grief. Now all I have to live for, she confided to her diary, is my poor fatherless children and my unhappy country. Albert's death at an early age from typhoid fever had a devastating effect on Queen Victoria. She withdrew from public affairs for about 15 years, only coming out in public to open memorials to Albert and maintaining very strict code mourning. The effect this had on public opinion was to revive her unpopularity. There was even a short-lived republican movement in the 60s and early 70s and so therefore there was not a great deal of sympathy with the fact that she continued to reign. She wouldn't pass over the reins of power to her son, the Prince of Wales, but that she would not participate in public affairs. During Queen Victoria's reign, Britain was probably at her peak as a world power and although she fought no wars in Europe at that time, there was almost constant British involvement in other countries affairs. Under the guidance of Lord Palmerston, who between 1830 and 1865 held the post of Prime Minister of Foreign Secretary almost without interruption, Britain sought to defend what she saw as constitutional states. There were disagreements with the Chinese in 1839, the Greeks in 1850 and most famously of all, the great war against Russia in defense of Turkey in the Crimea in 1854 and 1855. It was during the Crimean War that the Light Brigade made its famous charge, inspiring a much-loved poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, a lasting testament to the gallantry and courage of the Victorian soldier. Into the valley of death rode the 600. Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them. Vollied and plundered, stormed at with shot and shell. Boldly they rode and well into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell rode the 600. There was also introduced a new Victorian heroine in Florence Nightingale, who did so much to improve the awful conditions in field hospitals of the Crimea. In fact, Lord Palmerston nearly involved Britain on the side of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Only more cautious colleagues dissuaded him from what would surely have been a ruinous enterprise. But the Victorian era would be forever known as the Age of Empire. For during that heady period, Britain ruled over the largest empire the world had yet seen. Proudly, Britons called it the empire on which the sun never sets. And by the end of Victoria's reign, it stretched across a quarter of the world's land mass and contained a population of something like 400 million people. In no other country in Europe do you have a system which is so entrenched. Russia, backward, lots of peasants, lots of serfs who are agitating for political rights. Britain, people already have political rights. The queen is a good queen, a benevolent queen. France, every 30 years a new government walks in. Do they have a king? Don't they have a king? Oh, well, we don't know. Italy, very young, very unstable, and just like the picture of Italy today, every year a new government in power. And Prussia, well, that's a big problem. Prussia is kind of strong, but it is strong just in terms of Europe. It doesn't have a great navy. It doesn't have this great overseas empire. And, you know, Kaiser Wilhelm versus Queen Victoria, Victoria still wins hands down because Kaiser Wilhelm, of course, is a puppet being manipulated by Bismarck. Queen Victoria, well, she's independent. In other words, the image of empire is a very powerful image. People don't believe it in whole. They can be skeptical about it on one level, but no one tries to overthrow it. No one tries to step in and remove it from public view. And that was the great triumph of the monarchy in Victoria herself, whether she, in fact, brought it about on her own in the 19th century. The famous redcoat armies marched out before cheering crowds to win more land for their sovereign. Their most spectacular gains were made in Africa, on the Sudan and the Gold Coast, and in the Zulu Wars. Only the resistance of the stubborn Afrikaners during the Boer Wars undermined further progress in South Africa. In 1876, Disraeli bestowed upon the Queen the title Empress of India. It was called the jewel in the crown of the empire. Britain was drawn in to Africa to an extent in order to protect the trade routes through to the Indian subcontinent and the Far East. They were drawn in to Egypt, for example, to protect the Suez Link and the Overland Link through the Middle East. And also it's been argued that their presence in South Africa was to make sure that they could protect the Cape and the sea routes around the Cape. So whilst economics were important, and there's also the strategic element. And after 1870, of course, Africa becomes the focus of a great deal of international rivalry over colonies, collecting colonies, and Britain always held to the idea that free trade was the best mode of international relations. It was the type of economic organisation which would ensure peace. But if other countries were trying to dominate markets, then it was difficult to leave those markets unoccupied or unprotected in a general sense. And so often they were drawn in to protect free trade as they saw it. And this also happened in Africa. Missionaries such as David Livingstone ventured out into the world's remotest regions to spread the Christian world and convert the heathen. Powerful Britain surveyed her conquests, secure in the knowledge that now she had captive markets for her manufactured goods, and an invaluable source of supply for essential raw materials. For British foreign policy, it was the best of times. Only the emerging German empire clouded its golden horizon. There is now myth and counter myth about the British Empire. There's always the myth about greatness and glory and leading the world into a brighter future. And then in recent years, there's been a counter myth that the British Empire was simply for exploitation or gain for Britain's and for no one else. The reality in a way is a little bit more boring. The British Empire didn't suddenly appear in the 19th century. It was part of a gradual process that came about because of other powers that were suffering problems. In other words, there was a vacuum into which Britain stepped. And it wasn't just a Britain. It was various businessmen or various missionaries or various politicians. In other words, there were a whole range of groups that became what was known as the British Empire. The reason why we think of the British Empire as a whole today is more because of the propaganda which surrounded it during the 19th century, which was developed. At the head of the empire, for example, would be Queen Victoria, who only became Empress of India, for example, in 1876, three quarters of the way through the century. It was in that period, however, that the idea of a benevolent Britain, not only through Victoria, but through the mythical figure of Britannia, leading all peoples of the world, not just black, but Asian, white, in Africa, whether it be in China, whether it be in India, whether it be in the new Americas, that is when it began to emerge. Meanwhile, at home, Queen Victoria's Britain was undergoing monumental changes. As the Industrial Revolution gathered pace and the country took its first faltering steps on the road to much-needed social reform. Up until the end of the 18th century, the British economy had centered largely on farming in the land. There now came a period of incredible change as urban cities grew and Britain became industrialized. There had been a huge growth in the size of population. Between 1801 and 1831, it increased by more than four million, providing not only an enormous pool of labor, but also a large market whose requirements needed to be met. Britain had the raw materials with which to do this, that have vast supplies of coal, iron and water. There also existed a long tradition of craftsmen with skills in textile making and metalworking. Individual enterprise dominated political thinking and there was a strong merchant navy on hand to distribute British goods throughout the world. So we have to see industrialization in the 19th century as a process rather than a big bang affair. It has its roots in an agricultural development, the enclosure of land and the movement of the agricultural population into the towns where they became labor for industry. Britain is not an industrial nation until the later 19th century. The process of industrialization takes place on a much smaller scale than we might imagine. We have this image of Britain full of factories and smoking chimneys. But in fact, a lot of what went on went on in small workshops. A much more apposite term is the workshop of the world. In the 1860s, Britain was called the workshop of the world and that's precisely what it was. Most of its industrial production took place in industries like small metal production, that kind of thing. The first industry, the leading industry in Britain's industrialization was cotton textiles. This is what brought Britain's exports to high levels which allowed them to dominate the world manufacturing trade. In 1860, Britain had something like 70% of the steel manufacturing trade and 50% of the textile manufacturing trade. Queen Victoria, if not exactly a champion of the poorer classes, was keen to continue the social reforms and improvement which had so interested her husband. Overcrowded housing and poor sanitation were her particular concerns. Of course, her interest in improving sanitation was born of a personal experience. For the typhoid which had killed Albert had almost certainly been contracted from the putrid ditches which ran through Windsor. One of the things that may have helped people become so aware of the problems was the high density population in the towns. A great many classes were living within close proximity and certainly the problems and certainly the smells of bad sewage and what have you drifted across the town became very apparent to everyone. A lot of people became very concerned about social conditions, particularly the poor during the early part of the Victorian period. Lord Shaftesbury for one is someone who devoted a great deal of time, energy and his political time to try to improve those conditions. Reform was slow in coming and it gathered momentum through the century towards the end. The main campaign to start with was to prevent young children being made to work but it was not until the middle of the century until children under nine and in minds under ten were banned from working so that's really quite late in the 19th century. Education was another matter that did not get fully reformed until late in the century. The government was putting money into certain organisations to support education on a payment by results basis from before Victoria's reign and that carried on throughout the century. It was not until towards the end of the century, we're talking about the 1880s, when children received compulsory education until the age of 10 and the end of the century before they received compulsory education to the age of 12. This may to some extent tie in with Disraeli's bill that finally got through in the 1870s to limit working hours to 10 hours a day which may help release the children for their education but as we find and indeed in the schools around here that in the autumn when the harvest was due you would still release children to go and work in the fields at that particular time of year. Also a small practical point, you've got poor attendance on wet days without Macintoshes and umbrellas all you got by going to school on the wet day was a very very wet child and they were sent home. Health was another matter requiring considerable attention particularly the concentration of disease and bad sewage in the towns and it wasn't until after a fourth cholera epidemic in 1866 the government finally decided to take positive action about doing something to improve the sewage in the big cities. The final years of the Queen's reign were perhaps her most glorious. Her early unpopularity was now long forgotten. The years of mourning which had seen her accused of neglecting her duties a distant memory. She was now a queen of her beloved people an institution, an icon. Her diamond jubilee in 1887 was celebrated with great pomp and splendour. The lavish celebrations a fitting tribute from the grateful and loving nation. When people look back at the 19th century many of them think well because the working class were excluded from the political nation because they were so put upon economically because they lived in such bad housing they must have hated England. They didn't. Patriotism was a powerful force. In his seminal work The Making of the English Working Class E.P Thompson describes the fate of one poor man in the north of England who realises now that the workhouses have come in that if he loses his job as he gets older which he will do because of his age he will have to go into the workhouse. Hated institutions and at the end of this letter which this working man writes to London to complain about the imposition of the workhouse system he puts these words England my England I love thee still because to most working class people patriotism wasn't nationalism. Patriotism wasn't being a Whig or a Tory or necessarily going and fighting for your country. Patriotism was your mum and dad. Patriotism was your brothers and sisters. Patriotism was your yard. Patriotism was your street. Patriotism was your town and patriotism was your country to which you belonged even though they were disenfranchised economically and politically they belonged to this country and so patriotism was a powerful force amongst the working class but it was an elemental form of patriotism a love of place grounded in the way that so many working class people belonged to the street and showed great loyalty to that street despite the bad housing. Was it good was it bad it depended on the perspective that you adopted at the time if you made a lot of money out of the empire as a trader or as an explorer well and good but there were a lot of people who lost money as well similarly there were a lot of people in the indigenous communities in African Asia who made money off the British empire there were middlemen who traded with the Britons who came over there were of course many who lost out however by the time of her golden jubilee some 10 years later the queen was a fading weary figure although the celebrations were as splendid and enthusiastic as those of her diamond jubilee the queen's deteriorating health meant that she was less able to enjoy the occasion for the remaining years of her reign the old queen struggled on her indomitable spirit sustaining her as her health failed and her strength ebbed away as the year of 1901 dawned victoria wrote in her faithfully kept diary that she was unable to view the coming year with anything else but sadness on the 19th of january the royal household issued a somber bulletin regarding the queen's health on the 22nd of january 1901 queen victoria died at osborne house surrounded by her beloved children and grandchildren she was 82 years old and had reigned for 64 years britain was immediately plunged into mourning as the queen's coffin traveled through london the crowds gathered to pay their respects to britain's one and only queen empress a woman who commanded the respect and love of her subjects in a way few monarchs before or since have ever done for most of course her passing marked the end of an epoch and of course it was the feelings of the country were eloquently summed up by the daily telegraph which solemnly declared the golden reign is over never never was lost like this so inward and profound that only the slow years can reveal its true reality the queen is dead victoria's reign uh coincides with a great period of material prosperity for the english people and again that is something for which her period in office will be remembered but above all it is her connection with the british empire the fact that she was made empress of india the jewel in the crown of the english empire and the fact that in the 1890s one in four of the population of the world was one of her subjects and so it is the period of britain's greatness and her connection with it that is maybe her most lasting legacy