Queen Victoria

Victoria was the daughter of Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1786–1861). She was raised in isolation under the so-called 'Kensington System.'

After the death of her uncle, King William IV, Victoria assumed the throne on June 20, 1837. Through the mediation of her uncle Leopold I, she became engaged in 1839 to her maternal cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861). They married in 1840.

Albert and Victoria embodied an ideal of family life marked by harmony, care, and affection. They had nine children.

During Victoria’s reign, Britain reached the height of its power—dominant at sea and the world’s largest colonial empire. After Albert’s early death in 1861, Victoria never remarried and wore black for the rest of her life.