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Victoria from the beginning had good chances to win the people´s respect, because her two uncles George IV and William IV and her grandfather George III, who were in reign before, were quite unpopular to them. They were known as drunkards, cowards, fools. Because they had no legitimate heirs Victoria was the next in the order to be monarch.
With her entering of the British throne the 123 years lasting personal-union between Britain and the German house of Hannover (British monarch was also sovereign or even king of Hannover) ended and another son of George III (Victoria´s grandfather) became king in Hannover.
She herself had not the political education to rule the country and always had people who helped her doing this job. It is supposed that this behaviour for her was a way to compensate that her father had died one year after her birth so that she was searching for a kind of father in her later life. But she also had problems with doing serious things, because she felt so uneducated. For instance if she was to meet some author or inventor of the time, she tried not to speak with him about things she did not know anything about. Later Victoria also got inconfident because of her appearance: she was rather fat and small. It is said that she had great dignity, but to herself it might have looked different. On the other hand she was said to be a humorous person. The quotation \"we are not amused\" has never been authenciated.
Her first close attendants were Leopold I of the Netherlands and her first prime minister Melbourne. They helped her as good as possible in every affair of state or in private things. It was often mentioned that there may have been an affair between Melbourne and Victoria, but at least with her marriage to her cousin Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1940 those suggestions were abolished.
To this man, prince Albert (also born in 1819), she had the most loving relationship one can imagine, she really adored him. Besides that, he was her adviser in affairs of state. For instance he was the one who was responsible for the Great Exhibition in 1851, that showed all nations the outstanding position of Britain´s technical progress.
Together with Albert, Victoria had nine children (Victoria, Albert, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice) which all married into European royal famillies, mostly into German ones (e.g. Victoria became Empress of Germany). That is why Queen Victoria had the title of the \"Grandmother of Europe\".
They lived a common family life of the upper class, Albert was interested in the technical inventions of the time, Victoria was caring for the children and amusing herself with her letter-contacts. Most of the time they lived on the Isle of Wight in Osborne-House or in the Scottish castle of Balmoral. The contact to London was built by telegraph and the use of the new trains helped to get to their residence in London very fast.
In 1861 Albert died of fever in the age of 42. For Victoria a whole world collapsed. He had been the centre of her life, her help in political things and her \"master\" (Victoria had the opinion that a woman should always have a man to follow him). She sank into depression, wore only black for the rest of her reign and went to Balmoral or Osborne to live there for the most of the time.
This behaviour often was criticized by the people and especially by the members of parliament. Among the rare public appearances were the opening of parliament in `66 and ´67 and her travel to India when she was made Empress of India in 1877. In India several edifices were built (e.g. the Queen Victoria Memorial in Calcutta and the Victoria Station in Bombay) to honour this event.
In spite of all critical statements, these events were celebrated by the British people that loved their \"Great White Queen\". She herself could not enjoy such events, she felt helpless and lonely without her husband by her side. In her journal she wrote about the opening of parliament that she could not understand why they wanted to see \"a poor, brokenhearted widow, dragged in deep mourning, alone in State as a show\".
Especially in this time it was obvious how strong her emotions were compared to her longing to be a good person and a good queen. Often she simply refused to do the things her job wanted from her, in order to follow her feelings.
Her 50th and 60th anniversaries were celebrated with fulminant parties in London and all over the Commonwealth. The highest European noblemen came to London to honour Victoria and the people enjoyed themselves while celebrating the Queen. Actually, these jubilees in ´87 and ´97 were perfect occassions to show the British hegemony, Britain´s greatness to the world. In this time Victoria could again enjoy the public appearance, although she wrote down in her diary that she would have liked, if her husband could have seen all the pomp granted to the Queen.
On May 22nd in 1901 Victoria died of a short disease and was laid to rest near her husband Albert in Frogmore castle near Windsor.
The British people mourned deeply and long because they had lost the symbol of their very own age characterized by progress, success and a whole new lifestyle, that had been given the name \"Victorian Age\".
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