Palanačka gimnazija

Smederevska Palanka, Vuka Karadžića 18

Maturski rad iz engleskog jezika

QUEEN VICTORIA

Mentor: Učenik:
Violeta Stanković Katarina Radojević, IV-3

Smederevska Palanka, Maj 2016. god.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
2. EARLY LIFE...............................................................................................................................4
3. MARRIAGE................................................................................................................................5
4. QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, GREAT BRITIAN AND IRELAND........................6
5. GOLDEN JUBILEE....................................................................................................................9
6. DIAMOND JUBILEE...............................................................................................................10
7. DEATH AND SUCCESSION...................................................................................................11
8. LEGACY...................................................................................................................................12
9. CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................15
10. LITERATURE.........................................................................................................................16

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 1. INTRODUCTION

In the waning days of the 19th century, the United Kingdom was the most powerful country on
earth. The British Empire was at its imperial zenith. More than a quarter of the world’s
population, and a portion of every continent, was under its dominion, and ruling over it all was
Queen Victoria, the woman who had worn the crown longer than any sovereign in British history
until her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II surpassed her on 9 September 2015.

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 2. EARLY LIFE

Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, in

London, England, the only child of George III's
fourth son, Edward, and Victoria Maria Louisa of
Saxe-Coburg, sister of Leopold, king of the
Belgians.
Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June
1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. She
was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her
godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and
Victoria after her mother.
Victoria’s father died when she was eight months
old and her mother became a domineering influence
in her life. As a child, she was said to be
warmhearted and lively. Educated at the Royal
Palace by a governess, she had a gift for drawing
and painting and developed a passion for journal
writing.

At birth, Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after her father and his three older brothers:
the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence (later William IV). The Prince
Regent and the Duke of York were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing
age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further children. The Dukes of Kent
and Clarence married on the same day 12 months before Victoria's birth, but both of Clarence's
daughters (born in 1819 and 1820 respectively) died as infants. Victoria's grandfather and father
died in 1820, within a week of each other, and the Duke of York died in 1827. On the death of
her uncle George IV in 1830, Victoria became heiress presumptive to her next surviving uncle,
William IV. The Regency Act 1830 made special provision for the Duchess of Kent to act as
regent in case William died while Victoria was still a minor. King William distrusted the
Duchess's capacity to be regent, and in 1836 declared in her presence that he wanted to live until
Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided.

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 3. MARRIAGE

Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They were married
on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace, London.

At first, the British public didn’t warm up to the German prince and he was excluded from
holding any official political position. At times their marriage was tempestuous, a clash of wills
between two extremely strong personalities.

However, the couple were intensely devoted to each other and shared a strong enough affection
to have nine children.

Her daughter, also named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840. The Queen hated being
pregnant, viewed breast-feeding with disgust, and thought newborn babies were ugly.
Nevertheless, over the following seventeen years, she and Albert had a further eight children:
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (born 1841), Alice (born 1843), Alfred (born
1844), Helena (born 1846), Louise (born 1848), Arthur (born 1850), Leopold (born 1853)
and Beatrice (born 1857).

Prince Albert also became her strongest ally, helping her navigate difficult political waters.

In 1861, Victoria's beloved prince died of typhoid fever after several years of suffering from
stomach ailments. Victoria was devastated and went into a 25-year seclusion.

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4. QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, GREAT BRITIAN AND
IRELAND

Victoria became Queen when she was 18

years old. In foreign policy, the Queen's
influence during the middle years of her
reign was generally used to support peace
and reconciliation. In 1864, Victoria
pressed her ministers not to intervene in the
Prussia-Denmark war, and her letter to the
German Emperor (whose son had married
her daughter) in 1875 helped to avert a
second Franco-German war.

On the Eastern Question in the 1870s - the

issue of Britain's policy towards the
declining Turkish Empire in Europe -
Victoria (unlike Gladstone 1) believed that
Britain, while pressing for necessary
reforms, ought to uphold Turkish hegemony
as a bulwark of stability against Russia, and
maintain bi-partisanship at a time when
Britain could be involved in war.

Victoria's popularity grew with the increasing imperial sentiment from the 1870s onwards.
After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the government of India was transferred from the East
India Company to the Crown, with the position of Governor General upgraded to Viceroy,
and in 1877 Victoria became Empress of India under the Royal Titles Act passed by
Disraeli's government.

1
William Ewart Gladstone, was a British Liberal politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime
Minister four separate times, more than any other person, and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times.

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During Victoria's long reign, direct political power moved away from the sovereign. A
series of Acts broadened the social and economic base of the electorate.

These acts included the Second Reform Act of 1867; the introduction of the secret ballot in
1872, which made it impossible to pressuring voters by bribery or intimidation; and the
"Representation of the Peoples Act" of 1884 - all householders and lodgers in
accommodation worth at least £10 a year, and occupiers of land worth £10 a year, were
entitled to vote.

Despite this decline in the Sovereign's

power, Victoria showed that a
monarch who had a high level of
prestige and who was prepared to
master the details of political life
could exert an important influence.

This was demonstrated by her

mediation between the Commons and
the Lords, during the acrimonious
passing of the Irish Church
Disestablishment Act of 1869 and the
1884 Reform Act.

It was during Victoria's reign that the modern idea of the constitutional monarch, whose
role was to remain above political parties, began to evolve. But Victoria herself was not
always non- partisan and she took the opportunity to give her opinions, sometimes very
forcefully, in private.

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After the Second Reform Act of 1867, and the growth of the two-party (Liberal and
Conservative) system, the Queen's room for manoeuvre decreased. Her freedom to choose
which individual should occupy the premiership was increasingly restricted.

In 1880, she tried, unsuccessfully, to stop William Gladstone - whom she disliked as much
as she admired Disraeli and whose policies she distrusted - from becoming Prime Minister.
She much preferred the Marquess of Hartington, another statesman from the Liberal party
which had just won the general election. She did not get her way.

She was a very strong supporter of Empire, which brought her closer both to Disraeli and to
the Marquess of Salisbury, her last Prime Minister.

Although conservative in some respects - like many at the time she opposed giving women
the vote - on social issues, she tended to favour measures to improve the lot of the poor,
such as the Royal Commission on housing. She also supported many charities involved in
education, hospitals and other areas.

Victoria and her family travelled and were seen on an unprecedented scale, thanks to
transport improvements and other technical changes such as the spread of newspapers and
the invention of photography. Victoria was the first reigning monarch to use trains - she
made her first train journey in 1842.

The British Empire was at the height of its

power and she ruled over 450 million people,
one quarter of the world’s population and
approximately one quarter of the work’s
landmass. It stretched so far around the globe
from Canada to the Caribbean, Africa, India,
Australia and New Zealand. that it was said that
the sun never set on the British Empire.

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 5. GOLDEN JUBILEE

In 1887, the British Empire celebrated Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

Victoria marked the fiftieth anniversary of her accession to the
throne on 20 June with a banquet to which 50 kings and princes
were invited. The following day, she participated in a procession
and attended a thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey. By this
time, Victoria was once again extremely popular. Two days later on
23 June, she engaged two Indian Muslims as waiters, one of whom
was Abdul Karim2. He was soon promoted to "Munshi": teaching
her Hindustani, and acting as a clerk. Abdul Karim remained in her
service until he returned to India with a pension on her death.

Victoria's eldest daughter became Empress consort of Germany in 1888, but she was widowed
within the year, and Victoria's grandchild
Wilhelm became German Emperor as Wilhelm II. Under Wilhelm,
Victoria and Albert's hopes of a liberal Germany were
not fulfilled.
Gladstone returned to power after the 1892 general
election; he was 82 years old. Victoria objected when
Gladstone proposed appointing the Radical MP Henry
Labouchere to the Cabinet, so Gladstone agreed not to
appoint him. In 1894, Gladstone retired and, without
consulting the outgoing Prime minister, Victoria
appointed Lord Rosebery as Prime minister. His
government was weak, and the following year Lord
Salisbury replaced him. Salisbury remained Prime
minister for the remainder of Victoria's reign.

6. DIAMOND JUBILEE
2
Hafiz Mohammed Abdul Karim CIE, CVO, known as "the Munshi", was an Indian Muslim attendant of Queen
Victoria. He served her during the final fifteen years of her reign, gaining her maternal affection over that time.

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On 23 September 1896, Victoria surpassed her grandfather George III as the longest-reigning
monarch in English, Scottish, and British history. The Queen requested that any special
celebrations be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee, which was made a
festival of the British Empire at the suggestion of Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain3. The
prime ministers of all the self-governing dominions were invited to London for the festivities.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee procession on 22 June 1897 followed a route six miles long
through London and included troops from all over the empire. The procession paused for an
open-air service of thanksgiving held outside St Paul's Cathedral,
throughout which Victoria sat in her open carriage, to avoid her
having to climb the steps to enter the building. The celebration
was
marked by vast crowds of spectators and great outpourings
of affection for the 78-year-old Queen. In her journal, Queen Victoria called it “a never to be
forgotten day.” “No one ever I believe, has met with such an ovation as was given to me, passing
through those six miles of streets,” she wrote. “The crowds were quite indescribable and their
enthusiasm truly marvelous and deeply touching. The cheering was quite deafening, and every
face seemed to be filled with real joy. I was much moved and gratified.” To Victoria and
everyone in London celebrating the Diamond Jubilee, it must have seemed as if the sun would
indeed never set on the British Empire.
Queen Victoria visited mainland Europe regularly for
holidays. In 1889, during a stay in Biarritz, she became
the first reigning monarch from Britain to set foot in
Spain when she crossed the border for a brief visit. By
April 1900, the Boer War was so unpopular in
mainland Europe that her annual trip to France seemed
inadvisable. Instead, the Queen went to Ireland for
the first time since 1861, in part to acknowledge the
contribution of Irish regiments to the South African
war. In July, her second son Alfred died.
7. DEATH AND SUCCESSION

Following a custom she maintained throughout her

widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne
House on the Isle of Wight. Rheumatism in her legs had

3
Joseph Chamberlain was a British politician and statesman, who was first a radical Liberal then, after opposing
Home Rule for Ireland, a Liberal Unionist, eventually serving as a leading imperialist in coalition with the
Conservatives.

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rendered her lame, and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts. Through early January, she felt
"weak and unwell", and by mid-January she was "drowsy, dazed and confused". She died on
Tuesday, 22 January 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81. Her son and
successor King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, were at
her deathbed.
Her favorite pet Pomeranian, Turri, was laid upon her deathbed as a last request.
In 1897, Victoria had written instructions for her funeral, which was to be military as befitting a
soldier's daughter and the head of the army, and white instead of
black. On 25 January, Edward VII, the Kaiser and Prince Arthur,
Duke of Connaught, helped lift her body into the coffin.
She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil. An array of mementos commemorating
her extended family, friends and servants were laid in the coffin with her, at her request, by her
doctor and dressers. One of Albert's dressing gowns was placed by her side, with a plaster cast of
his hand, while a lock of John Brown's4 hair, along with a picture of him, was placed in her left
hand concealed from the view of the family by a carefully positioned bunch of flowers. Items of
jewellery placed on Victoria included the wedding ring of John Brown's mother, given to her by
Brown in 1883. Her funeral was held on Saturday, 2 February, in St George's Chapel, Windsor
Castle, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore
Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.
With a reign of 63 years, seven months and two days, Victoria was the longest-reigning British
monarch and the longest-reigning queen regnant in world history until her great-great-
granddaughter Elizabeth II surpassed her on 9 September 2015. She was the last monarch of
Britain from the House of Hanover. Her son and successor Edward VII belonged to her
husband's House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
8. LEGACY

According to one of her biographers,

Giles St Aubyn, Victoria wrote an
average of 2,500 words a day during her
adult life. From July 1832 until just
before her death, she kept a
detailed journal, which eventually
encompassed 122 volumes. After

4
John Brown was a Scottish personal servant and favorite of Queen Victoria for many years. He was appreciated by
many (including the Queen) for his competence and companionship, and resented by others for his influence and
informal manner.

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Victoria's death, her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, was appointed her literary executor.
Beatrice transcribed and edited the diaries covering Victoria's accession onwards, and burned the
originals in the process. Despite this destruction, much of the diaries still exist. In addition to
Beatrice's edited copy, Lord Esher5 transcribed the volumes from 1832 to 1861 before Beatrice
destroyed them. Part of Victoria's extensive correspondence has been published in volumes
edited by A. C. Benson, Hector Bolitho, George Earle Buckle, Lord Esher, Roger Fulford,
and Richard Hough among others.
Victoria was physically unprepossessing—she was stout, dowdy and no more than five feet tall
—but she succeeded in projecting a grand image. She experienced unpopularity during the first
years of her widowhood, but was well liked during the 1880s and 1890s, when she embodied the
empire as a benevolent matriarchal figure. Only after the release of her diary and letters did the
extent of her political influence become known to the wider public. Biographies of Victoria
written before much of the primary material became available, such as Lytton Strachey's "Queen
Victoria" of 1921, are now considered out of date. The biographies written by Elizabeth
Longford and Cecil Woodham-Smith, in 1964 and 1972 respectively, are still widely admired.
They, and others, conclude that as a person Victoria was emotional, obstinate, honest, and
straight-talking.

Through Victoria's reign, the gradual

establishment of a modern constitutional
monarchy in Britain continued. Reforms of
the voting system increased the power of
the "House of Commons" at the expense of
the "House of Lords" and the monarch. In
1867, Walter Bagehot6 wrote that the monarch
only retained "the right to be consulted, the
right to encourage, and the right to warn". As
Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic
than political, it placed a strong emphasis on
morality and family values, in contrast to the

5
Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount was a historian and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom, although his
period of greatest influence over military and foreign affairs was as a courtier, member of public committees and
behind-the-scenes "fixer".
6
Walter Bagehot was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government,
economics, and literature.

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sexual, financial and personal scandals that had been associated with previous members of the
"House of Hanover" and which had discredited the monarchy. The concept of the "family
monarchy", with which the burgeoning middle classes could identify, was solidified.
Victoria's links with Europe's royal families earned her the nickname "the grandmother of
Europe". Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren, of whom 34 survived to adulthood. Their
descendants include Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Harald V of Norway, Carl
XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Margrethe II of Denmark, and Felipe VI of Spain.
Victoria's youngest son, Leopold, was affected by the blood-clotting disease haemophilia B and
two of her five daughters, Alice and Beatrice, were carriers. Royal haemophiliacs descended
from Victoria included her great-grandsons, Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, Alfonso, Prince of
Asturias, and Infante Gonzalo of Spain. The presence of the disease in Victoria's descendants, but
not in her ancestors, led to modern speculation that her true father was not the Duke of Kent but
a haemophiliac. There is no documentary evidence of a haemophiliac in connection with
Victoria's mother, and as male carriers always suffer the disease, even if such a man had existed
he would have been seriously ill. It is more likely that the mutation arose spontaneously because
Victoria's father was over 50 at the time of her conception and haemophilia arises more
frequently in the children of older fathers. Spontaneous mutations account for about a third of
cases.
Around the world, places and memorials
are dedicated to her, especially in
the Commonwealth nations. Places
named after her include the capital of the
Seychelles, Africa's largest lake, Victoria
Falls, the capital of Gozo and a line of
fortifications in Malta, the capitals
of British Columbia (Victoria)
and Saskatchewan (Regina), and two
Australian states (Victoria and
Queensland).
The Victoria Cross was introduced in
1856 to reward acts of valour during
the Crimean War, and it remains the
highest British, Canadian, Australian,
and New Zealand award for
bravery. Victoria Day is a Canadian
statutory holiday and a local public

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holiday in parts of Scotland celebrated on the last Monday before or on 24 May (Queen
Victoria's birthday).

9.

CONCLUSION

Her reign, the second longest in English history, saw advances in industry, science (Darwin’s
theory of evolution), communications (the telegraph, popular press), and other forms of
technology; the building of the railways and the London Underground, sewers, and power
distribution networks; bridges and other engineering feats; a vast number of inventions; a greatly
expanded empire; unequal growth of wealth, with class differences to the fore; tremendous
poverty; (možda ispred ova dva staviti neko “but”, a možda ih I izdvojiti I napomenuti da
je to ona loša strana) increase in urban populations, with the growth of great cities like
Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham; increased literacy; and great civic works, often funded by
industrial philanthropists. Ovde bih samo još jednu rečenicu, baš nešto za kraj rada, da se ne
završi samo sa nabrajanjem, iako je to sa nabrajanjem svega značajnog baš dobra ideja!

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 10. LITERATURE

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria 25 Maj 2016

2. http://www.biography.com/people/queen-victoria-9518355 25 Maj 2016

3. http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/queen-victoria 25 Maj 2016

4. http://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=victoria 25 Maj 2016

5. http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon58.html 25 Maj 2016

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