History UsefulNotes / QueenVictoria

* In Australian and Kiwi cinema, Victoria is usually the unseen BigBad in whose name the EvilBrit colonialist officials oppress the poor Irish settlers and natives. Examples: ''Film/MadDogMorgan'', ''[[Film/NedKelly1970 Ned Kelly]]'' (1970), ''[[Film/NedKelly2003 Ned Kelly]]'' (2003), ''{{Film/Utu}}'', and ''Film/CaptainThunderbolt''. There's also ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'' where one scene contrasts Mrs. Appleyard's breakdown and a [[RuleOfSymbolism portrait of Queen Victoria glowering stoically from the wall]].

* Victoria and Albert naturally appear in the 1975 [[Creator/{{ITV}} ATV]] miniseries Series/EdwardTheSeventh (also called ''Edward the King''). Victoria, played by Creator/AnnetteCrosbie in a UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}}-winning role, appears in 10 of 13 episodes and the first focuses largely on her (the title character being unborn, a baby, or small child for most of it).

Thanks to Victoria's above status as the grandmother of Europe, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI features a rather unusual familial aspect; of the superpowers involved, two (the British Empire and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany) were led by her grandchildren, King George V and Kaiser UsefulNotes/WilhelmII, while [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russia]] was led by UsefulNotes/{{Tsar|Tsar Autocrats}} UsefulNotes/NicholasII, who was married to her granddaughter, Alexandra. Further adding to the slightly convoluted network of connections is the fact that all three leaders were equally descended from George II of the United Kingdom, one of Victoria's own ancestors, thus making the three ''fifth cousins'' of each other!

** She had her own book dedicated to her in the original book series and her own episode in season 6 of the TV series. Both take pains to point out various facts about her beyond the stereotype, such as her actually being a very sensual woman despite the stereotypical prudery of the age[[note]]the series episode points out she scandalized her husband by presenting him with erotic artwork as gifts[[/note]]. Both also claim she did say "We are not amused", but only once in her life, and the story differs between the two versions[[note]]the book claims she said it when an unlucky official showed off his "humorous impersonation of Queen Victoria", which amounted to draping a white handkerchief over his head and puffing out his cheeks, whilst the episode claims she said it in regards a very boring opera that she attended[[/note]].

Though she never stopped mourning for Prince Albert, she did to some extent move on eventually. Though her children and the upper class of Britain largely wished she ''hadn't'', because her close friendship (widely speculated to also be romantic) with her Scottish servant John Brown was widely seen as scandalous. Not only was he a commoner, he was seen as almost a barbarian for his complete lack of concern for their difference in social class. Victoria on the other hand seemed to find this refreshing. There were even rumors that she secretly married him, though most historians discount this.[[note]]Some conclude that if Victoria ''had'' remarried, even to someone so "inappropriate", she would've been headstrong enough not keep it secret.[[/note]] When Brown died in 1883 (at only 56), Victoria proceeded to scandalize the upper class again because her new favorite servant was Mohammed Abdul Karim, an Indian Muslim who taught Victoria the Hindustani language[[note]]today known as Hindi-Urdu[[/note]] after she was given the rank Empress of India and wished to be able to speak with her new subjects. While there was absolutely no hint of romance by Karim, the simple fact that he was [[ValuesDissonance not white and not Christian]], as well as genuinely taking advantage of his position and Victoria's age, meant that he was seen as an even more inappropriate friend for the Queen.

* Victoria and Albert naturally appear in the 1975 [[Creator/{{ITV}} ATV]] miniseries Series/EdwardTheSeventh (also called ''Edward the King''). Victoria, played by Annette Crosbie in a BAFTA-winning role, appears in 10 of 13 episodes and the first focuses largely on her (the title character being unborn, a baby, or small child for most of it).

* She was played by Annette Crosbie in ''Series/EdwardTheSeventh''.

Thanks to Victoria's above status as the grandmother of Europe, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI features a rather unusual familial aspect; of the superpowers involved, two (the British Empire and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany) were led by her grandchildren, King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm II, while [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russia]] was led by UsefulNotes/{{Tsar|Tsar Autocrats}} UsefulNotes/NicholasII, who was married to her granddaughter, Alexandra. Further adding to the slightly convoluted network of connections is the fact that all three leaders were equally descended from George II of the United Kingdom, one of Victoria's own ancestors, thus making the three ''fifth cousins'' of each other!

Thanks to Victoria's above status as the grandmother of Europe, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI features a rather unusual familial aspect; of the superpowers involved, two (the British Empire and the German Empire) were led by her grandchildren, King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm II, while Russia was led by Tsar Nicholas II, who was married to her granddaughter, Alexandra. Further adding to the slightly convoluted network of connections is the fact that all three leaders were equally descended from George II of the United Kingdom, one of Victoria's own ancestors, thus making the three ''fifth cousins'' of each other!

!!The Queen has been seen in the following works:

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria, 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) reigned over [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire the largest empire the world has ever seen]]. She was a hugely important figure, causing sweeping changes in the history of many parts of the world, and inspiring her people. She was not simply a [[GrandeDame prudish old woman with no sense of humour]], and in fact [[BeamMeUpScotty probably never said, "We are not amused"]].[[note]][[Website/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]] even has a photo on her article they note as "Victoria amused", which explains that she likely never said it. The Other Wiki also states she denied ever saying it.[[/note]]

Many, many books have been written about her and [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain the era named after her]]. These tend to be set when they were written, either in VictorianLondon or in the colonies. Also the default timeframe for {{Steampunk}} works.

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria, 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) reigned over [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire the largest empire the world has ever seen]]. She was a hugely important figure, causing sweeping changes in the history of many parts of the world, and inspiring her people. She was not simply a [[GrandeDame prudish old woman with no sense of humour]], and in fact [[BeamMeUpScotty probably never said, "We are not amused"]].[[note]][[Website/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]] even has a photo on her article they note as "Victoria amused", which explains that she likely never said it.[[/note]]

She fell head over heels in love with, [[note]]and never fell out of love with either as long as he lived - her diary entries about, and letters to, him are often strikingly passionate, and give the lie to the myth that she didn't approve of sex[[/note]]and married, her handsome first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a small principality in what is now [[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thuringia]], Germany, in 1840 and then ''never stopped breeding''[[labelnote:fun fact]]After having her first child, the queen noted the opinion that newborn babies were ugly, and also disliked breast-feeding. She went on to have eight more; all nine children made it to adulthood.[[/labelnote]] until Albert died of typhoid fever in 1861, only 42, leaving Victoria stricken with grief. She never remarried, and indeed she spent the rest of her reign wearing only mourning colours and only rarely making public appearances and even more rarely living at Buckingham Palace;[[note]]Allegedly, she kept EmptyBedroomGrieving going for the remainder of her life -- ''forty years.''[[/note]] this earned her the not-entirely-complimentary nickname "the Widow of Windsor." As a result, republican sentiment in Britain was at its height, to the extent that some felt the monarchy was going to be abolished sooner or later; fortunately (for the monarchy at any rate), the Prince of Wales, and future Edward VII, "Bertie" had a better understanding of public relations and charmed the socks off the whole country, and partied the socks off the whole upper crust.[[note]]He also ''shagged'' the socks off... anyone female and willing, basically, but the former two seem to have cancelled this latter one out; most of his affairs took place in the later 19th century, a time when discreet love affairs and sexual encounters were one of the favorite pastimes of aristocratic and well-to-do Europeans, and weren't seen as anything out of place or unusual in his social circles.[[/note]]

She had a famously good working relationship – to the point it's also been viewed as quasi-romantic – with Prime Minister UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli (who arranged for her to become Empress of India)[[note]] if you're keeping score here, Victoria definitely [[HasAType Had A Type]], in that every man she got thoroughly involved with and emotionally attached to was an outsider in traditional British upper-crust society, even her original beloved, disaffected, and scandalous [[UsefulNotes/ViscountMelbourne Lord M]][[/note]], and to a lesser extent with his eventual successor as Conservative Party leader, the UsefulNotes/MarquessOfSalisbury. By contrast, she had a famously ''bad'' working relationship with Disraeli's (and later Salisbury's) Liberal Party rival UsefulNotes/WilliamGladstone, in part because of his manner (she famously complained of him that he spoke to her "as if [she] were a public meeting"), and also because of his support for Irish home rule. The end result was that when Gladstone retired in 1894, she disregarded his advice to appoint Lord Spencer[[note]]Incidentally, [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Diana]]'s half-great-great-uncle[[/note]] as his successor and instead appointed UsefulNotes/TheEarlOfRosebery, Gladstone's unpopular foreign secretary, in what many felt was a transparent ploy to help Salisbury return to power. This naturally inflamed those who considered it unacceptable political interference on her part, but if so then it had the desired result -- Rosebery's government lasted barely a year, and Salisbury returned as PM following a LandslideElection, with him remaining in the office for the rest of her life (he stood down the year after her death). To put the icing on the cake, she denied Gladstone the earldom traditionally given to retired [=PMs=] who did not already have peerages. (As a result, it's pure bad luck that Gladstone didn't get an earldom; the future Edward VII liked and respected Gladstone as much as his mother had hated him, and if Gladstone had lived long enough to see the Prince of Wales become King, it's likely he would have become Earl of Somewhere shortly after the new monarch's accession.)

She had a famously good working relationship with Prime Minister UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli (who arranged for her to become Empress of India), and to a lesser extent with his eventual successor as Conservative Party leader, the UsefulNotes/MarquessOfSalisbury. By contrast, she had a famously ''bad'' working relationship with Disraeli's (and later Salisbury's) Liberal Party rival UsefulNotes/WilliamGladstone, in part because of his manner (she famously complained of him that he spoke to her "as if [she] were a public meeting"), and also because of his support for Irish home rule. The end result was that when Gladstone retired in 1894, she disregarded his advice to appoint Lord Spencer[[note]]Incidentally, [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Diana]]'s half-great-great-uncle[[/note]] as his successor and instead appointed UsefulNotes/TheEarlOfRosebery, Gladstone's unpopular foreign secretary, in what many felt was a transparent ploy to help Salisbury return to power. This naturally inflamed those who considered it unacceptable political interference on her part, but if so then it had the desired result -- Rosebery's government lasted barely a year, and Salisbury returned as PM following a LandslideElection, with him remaining in the office for the rest of her life (he stood down the year after her death). To put the icing on the cake, she denied Gladstone the earldom traditionally given to retired [=PMs=] who did not already have peerages. (As a result, it's pure bad luck that Gladstone didn't get an earldom; the future Edward VII liked and respected Gladstone as much as his mother had hated him, and if Gladstone had lived long enough to see the Prince of Wales become King, it's likely he would have become Earl of Somewhere shortly after the new monarch's accession.)

The hemophilia which plagued the royal houses of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was likely the result of a spontaneous mutation in her genome[[note]]such mutations are more common in the offspring of older men, and her father was 50 when she was conceived[[/note]]. It was spread by fact that she had so many children, and how they married, giving her the nickname "Grandmother of Europe" (during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the king of the United Kingdom, the German emperor, the tsarina of Russia, the queens of Norway, Spain, Greece, and Romania, and the crown princess of Sweden were all her grandchildren). Two of her daughters were confirmed carriers, and one of her sons suffered the disease[[note]]she had four and a 50% chance of passing it on, so only one of them getting it was actually a stroke of luck[[/note]]. This went on to have [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions major implications]]. Hemophilia has been associated with RoyalInbreeding, but is not actually a result of it -- Victoria's husband Albert being her cousin had nothing to do with it.[[note]]The classic inbreeding fear -- both parents are unknowing carriers of a disease, which then manifests in their children -- is much more unlikely with hemophilia. Hemophilia is a sex-linked trait, meaning only women can be carriers for it. Men either outright have the disease themselves, or don't carry it at all, meaning that a hemophiliac has to be cautious about marrying a woman who's a carrier or risk passing the actual disease to his ''daughters'' rather than simply making them automatic carriers (Victoria's granddaughter Alice of Albany was automatically a carrier due to her father Prince Leopold. She went on to have a hemophiliac son, Rupert, who also sadly died from it. Her brother Charles Edward was of course completely healthy) regardless of their mother... but it's a very rare scenario and still has nothing to do with inbreeding.[[/note]]

The hemophilia which plagued the royal houses of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was likely the result of a spontaneous mutation in her genome[[note]]such mutations are more common in the offspring of older men, and her father was 50 when she was conceived[[/note]]. It was spread by fact that she had so many children, and how they married, giving her the nickname "Grandmother of Europe" (during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the king of the United Kingdom, the German emperor, the tsarina of Russia, the queens of Norway, Spain, Greece, and Romania, and the crown princess of Sweden were all her grandchildren). Two of her daughters were confirmed carriers, and one of her sons suffered the disease[[note]]she had four and a 50% chance of passing it on, so only one of them getting it was actually a stroke of luck[[/note]]. This went on to have [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions major implications]]. Hemophilia has been associated with RoyalInbreeding, but is not actually a result of it -- Victoria's husband Albert being her cousin had nothing to do with it.[[note]]The classic inbreeding fear -- both parents are unknowing carriers of a disease, which then manifests in their children -- is much more unlikely with hemophilia. Hemophilia is a sex-linked trait, meaning only women can be carriers for it. Men either outright have the disease themselves, or don't carry it at all, meaning that a hemophiliac has to be cautious about marrying a women who's a carrier or risk passing the actual disease to his ''daughters'' rather than simply making them automatic carriers (Victoria's granddaughter Alice of Albany was automatically a carrier due to her father Prince Leopold. She went on to have a hemophiliac son, Rupert, who also sadly died from it. Her brother Charles Edward was of course completely healthy) regardless of their mother... but it's a very rare scenario and still has nothing to do with inbreeding.[[/note]]