Queen Victoria

Victoria (1819–1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 and Empress of India from 1876, reigning for sixty-three years, longer than any British monarch before her. She came to the throne at eighteen after a sheltered childhood at Kensington Palace, married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840 and had nine children whose marriages linked most of the royal houses of Europe. After Albert's death in 1861 she withdrew from public life for years, returning under Disraeli's influence. A tireless correspondent and diarist, she wrote every day of her life; her letters, selected in three volumes in 1907, show a monarch of strong opinions and plain speech.