... Victorias uncle, Prince Leopold ho in 1831 became King Leopold I of Belgium. Victoria learned to speak and rite French and German as readily as English. She also studied history, geography, and the Bible. She as taught ho to play the piano and learned ho to paint, a hobby that she enjoyed into her 60s. Because Victorias uncle, King illiam IV, had no legitimate children, Victoria became heir apparent to the British cron upon his accession in 1830. On June 20, 1837, ith the death of illiam IV, she became queen at the age of 18.III EARLY REIGN Immediately after becoming queen, Victoria began regular meetings ith illiam Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, the British prime minister at the time. The to gre very close, and Melbourne taught Victoria ho the British government orked on a day-to-day basis.Britain in the 19th century as a constitutional monarchy, and the king or queen ruled through ministers ho ere members of, and required the support of, the British Parliament. This meant that the monarch had some influence in government, but not a great deal of real poer. In the course of her reign, Queen Victoria played a role in appointing some cabinet ministers and even a prime minister, as ell as particular ambassadors and bishops of the Church of England, and she consulted regularly ith her prime ministers by letter and in person. In private, Victoria as never afraid to speak her mind. Much of her time, hoever, as devoted to ceremonial activities such as the official opening and closing of each years session of Parliament. Victoria as very fond of Melbourne, and because he as the leader of the hig Party hich later became the Liberal Party, Victoria began publicly to support the higs rather than the opposition party, the Tories later the Conservative Party. The higs ere sympathetic to freedom of speech and of the press and favored greater religious liberty for those people ho did not belong to the official Church of England. The Tories ere more concerned ith maintaining the countrys established institutions and ith making no further legal concessions to religious minorities.The young queen hoped that the higs ould continue to keep a majority of seats in the House of Commons the loer house of the British Parliament so that Melbourne could remain prime minister. hen it appeared in 1839 that he might have to give up the post, the queen successfully used her influence to keep him. In the so-called Bedchamber Crisis, she refused to allo Tory leader Sir Robert Peel to change the ladies-in-aiting of her court, all of hom ere hig sympathizers. Peel then felt unable to form a government, and Melbourne continued as prime minister for to more years. A general election in 1841 resulted in a majority of Tory party members in the House of Commons, hoever, and Victoria as compelled to accept Peel as prime minister. IV MARRIED LIFE In 1839 Victoria fell in love ith her first cousin, Prince Albert, of the small German principality of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They ere married in February 1840, and Albert soon developed a keen interest in the government of his ne country. Albert as an unusually studious and serious young man, and he served as his ifes private secretary. He as an active patron of the arts and sciences, and he as the prime organizer of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first true orlds fair, hich as held in the Crystal Palace in Londons Hyde Park. Albert also favored the expansion of education, and he served as chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He became a great champion of the strengthening and modernizing of Britains armed forces. Though Albert as respected by most of his ne countrymen, he as not loved many resented him because he as a foreigner, and his heavy German accent did not help.The Royal Family For Victoria, hoever, Albert represented perfection, and the to ere very happy together. The royal couple offered an example of family life that contrasted sharply ith the images of previous British monarchs. Beteen 1840 and 1857, Victoria and Albert had nine children. They took an intense personal interest in the upbringing of their children, and they did not leave them solely in the care of nannies and governesses. They increasingly enjoyed a private family life, particularly at Osborne House on the Isle of ight and Balmoral Castle in Scotland, both of them rebuilt on the basis of Alberts designs. B Early Victorian Politics The royal couple took a sympathetic interest in the efforts of Sir Robert Peel in 1846 to abolish the Corn Las acts of Parliament that protected landlords and farmers against foreign competition and to lead Britain toard international free trade, but in the process he divided his Conservative Party. During the 1850s, ith the to-party tradition in temporary disarray, the influence of the monarchy on the formation of ministries reached a 19th-century highpoint. In 1851 royal initiative led to the dismissal of the popular Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, from his post as foreign secretary. He had failed too often to consult the queen before sending dispatches to British diplomats abroad. Although Victoria and Albert ere initially unhappy ith the manner in hich their country drifted into the Crimean ar 1853-1856 against Russia, they became enthusiastic supporters of the conflict once fighting had begun, and in 1855 Victoria appointed Palmerston as artime prime minister. The queen personally instituted the Victoria Cross as the highest British aard for artime valor. V IDOHOOD Queen Victoria never truly recovered from Alberts death in December 1861 at the age of 42. For almost a decade she remained in strict mourning. She rarely set foot in London, and she avoided most public occasions, including the state opening of Parliament. She made an exception, hoever, for the unveiling of statues dedicated to Prince Albert and, after a fe years, for attendance at army revies. Behind the scenes, she continued to correspond ith and talk to her ministers, and she took comfort in the company of her favorite servant, a Scottish Highlander named John Bron. By the late 1860s, the queens absence from the public stage caused her popularity to decline, and there as talk of replacing the monarchy ith a republic. In the course of the later 1870s and the 1880s, she gradually returned to the public arena, and her popularity rose once more.Late Victorian Politics Although in her youth she had been knon as the Queen of the higs, in the course of the later 1860s and 1870s she came to prefer Benjamin Disraeli, the leader of the Conservative Party, to illiam Eart Gladstone, the leader of the Liberal Party. Disraeli impressed Victoria as being more concerned ith Britains international prestige and ith the strengthening of its empire. She strongly supported Disraelis government from 1874 to 1880. In 1876, hen Parliament made her empress of India, she shoed her gratitude to Disraeli by opening Parliament in person and by creating him earl of Beaconsfield.hen Disraelis government...
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