Victoria

1819 - 1901. Queen of the United Kingdom (1837 - 1901), Empress of India (1876 - 1901).

Queen Victoria, daughter of Edward, the duke of Kent and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg was born on the 24th of May, 1819 in Kensington Palace in London.

Victoria was almost entirely of German descent and the last British monarch of the House of Hannover. Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 at the age of eigthteen and still attending school. At this time the United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy in which the king or queen held few political powers and exercised influence by the prime minister's advice.

She reigned the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland for more than 63 years. During her reign the British Empire expanded to a large extent, reaching its climax as the foremost global power of the time. The upper and middle class in the United Kingdom experienced an unprecedented economic prosperity. Therefore she gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age.

Her husband was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Together with him Queen Victoria had nine children for all of whom she arranged marriages. Furthermore she had fourty-two grandchildren all across Europe giving her the nickname "mother of Europe".

After the death of her husband in 1861 she almost completely retreated from the public. She died on the 22th of January, 1901 in Osborne House, Isle of Wight, and her death brought an end to the rule of the House of Hanover in the United Kingdom.

Sources

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/627603/Victoria
St. Aubyn, Giles: Queen Victoria - A Portrait. [Place?]: [Publishing House?], 1991.
Trevelyan, George Macaulay: English social history - A Survey of Six Centuries, Chaucer to Queen Victoria. [Place?]: [Publishing House?], 1945.