Queen Victoria Research Paper

Alexandrina Victoria, also known as Queen Victoria, was born on May 24, 1819 in Kensington Palace to Princess Victoria Saxe-Saalfield-Coburg and Edward, Duke of Kent(PBS). She was Edward’s only child. He died in 1820 of pneumonia before Victoria turned one years old. Victoria recalled her childhood as an unhappy and lonely time. Her mother was cut off from her late husband’s family so Princess Victoria Saxe-Saalfield-Coburg fell for a power-hungry advisor, Sir John Conroy. He insisted that Victoria was raised in what’s known as the “Kensington System.” Victoria was intentionally secluded from everyone except for Conroy and her mother in an attempt to gain control over her once she became queen. She wasn’t allowed to spend one second alone.

Victoria was only 11 years old when she found out she would be acquiring the throne as the Queen of Britain(Rompalske 72). Rumor has it, Lehzen, her governess, has slipped a genealogical table of England’s rulers into Victoria’s schoolbook. By staying on top of her lessons and applying herself with diligence, she came across the chart. As soon as she saw it, she claimed she would be a great queen(Rompalske 72). Victoria was third in line for the throne. Her uncle, William IV, the Duke of Clarence, duly married a minor German princess, but no child survived early infancy(PBS). At the age of 18, on June 20, 1837, King William IV died from a heart attack and Victoria succeeded to the throne of England. Victoria met a man named Albert in 1836. They were both 17 years old and as different as could be. Victoria came from a Hanoverian dynasty known for it’s vulgar and belligerent nature. She was very strongly opinionated but she was also naive and poorly educated. Albert on the other hand, had turned himself into a pillar of virtue and self-discipline in reaction to the debauchery of his father, the Duke of Coburg, and his elder brother Ernest(Lewis