Queen Victoria is the second-longest-reigning monarch in British history – she reigned for almost 64 years, from 1837 until her death in 1901. But her path to the throne wasn’t easy: born into a succession crisis, Victoria was fifth in line at the time of her birth, and her father was the fourth child of the reigning king, George III. So how did Victoria become queen? And why did she succeed her uncle King William IV? Professor Kate Williams reveals all...
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A woman on the throne of England – how ridiculous!” These words were uttered by Prince George of Cambridge, after he’d been pushed far from the succession by his plump little cousin, Princess Victoria. And many at the time agreed with his assessment. Even worse, as the queen herself put it, “I was the first person ever to bear the name Victoria.” Astonishingly to us for whom the word ‘Victorian’ seems so categorically English, it was then regarded as an absurd, invented name. Still worse, it had a French origin, and France had been until only a few years back the country’s great enemy. It might be compared to ‘Kylia’, if Australia had recently been at war with Britain.
The little princess was further hampered by other matters: an unprepossessing appearance, shyness, a wilful temper, and, most of all, a greedy mother who wished to use her daughter as a tool to power. But Victoria was also spirited, vibrant and determined, and, from a young age, determined to be queen.
“A pretty little Princess, as plump as a partridge,” declared the Duke of Kent on the day his daughter was born, 24 May 1819. The arrival of Princess Victoria thrilled her father, but made little noise in the country. Kent was only fourth in line to the throne, after his brothers the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence. To the rest of the royal family, Victoria was merely the daughter of a minor brother, nothing more than a pawn to be eventually traded in marriage.
The child later known as Queen Victoria was born in the midst of a succession crisis. By the time George III’s five surviving daughters and seven sons were nudging middle age, in 1817, they had managed one legitimate heir, Princess Charlotte, the daughter of the Prince Regent (their illegitimate children would finally total 56). The English looked to Princess Charlotte as the hope for their country, in contrast to her debauched, spendthrift uncles and spinster aunts. When she became pregnant by her popular husband, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the people were delighted. But after 50 hours of labor, she produced a stillborn baby boy. Within hours, she had fallen into a fatal fever and died. The country was grief-stricken, and the politicians began to panic over the lack of an heir.