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/NedKelly, {{Film/Utu}}, and Film/CaptainThunderbolt.

She ended at #18 in ''Series/OneHundredGreatestBritons''.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) reigned over [[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 [[LieBackAndThinkOfEngland prudish]] [[GrandeDame old woman with no sense of humour]], and in fact [[BeamMeUpScotty probably never said, "We are not amused"]].

* TheFederation: TheBritishEmpire under Victoria is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s. Towards the end of her reign, there was talk of establishing a literal Federation (well, "Imperial Federation") with a central Parliament to set Empire-wide policy and local parliaments in each realm to determine local matters; Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland (at the time separate from Canada), and of course the United Kingdom would be its initial members. The idea eventually morphed into the Commonwealth of Nations.

* The [[AnimatedCreditsSequence animated sequences]] of ''Film/TheChargeOfTheLightBrigade'' feature satirical representations of her and Prince Albert. Notably, they appear as angels dancing in Heaven to celebrate the British capture of Sevastopol and eat a cake shaped like the Kremlin. It's a strange film.

* The [[AnimatedTitle animated sequences]] of ''Film/TheChargeOfTheLightBrigade'' feature satirical representations of her and Prince Albert. Notably, they appear as angels dancing in Heaven to celebrate the British capture of Sevastopol and eat a cake shaped like the Kremlin. It's a strange film.

->'''Captain Darling:''' "I'm as British as Queen Victoria!"
->'''Captain Blackadder:''' "So your father's German, you're half-German, and you married a German?"

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: An AvertedTrope for many, but at least to [[TheIrishQuestion the Irish]], she is known as "The Famine Queen". Even if one accepts the Irish nationalist interpretation of the Potato Famine ("it was all Britain's fault!"), Victoria's influence on policy-making would have been negligible. In fact she is known to have repeatedly harangued her ministers over their neglect of the poor people of Ireland!

* LongRunner

* UnexpectedSuccessor: It's not often realized that Victoria was one. As of 1816, George III only had one legitimate grandchild: Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate child of the Prince of Wales.[[note]]The Prince of Wales may or may not have had any illegitimate children; unlike his brother William he never recognized any, but given his lifestyle it seems somewhat unlikely that it never happened.[[/note]] It was fully expected that Charlotte would inherit the throne in the fullness of time, as her parents loathed each other and neither was thought capable of having more children. And then Charlotte [[DeathByChildbirth died in childbirth at the age of 21]], leaving a huge gap in the line of succession. Cue a mad rush by Charlotte's uncles to dump their long-standing mistresses and woo and wed Protestant princesses who could give them the priceless heir. Even the Prince of Wales, sick, fat, and impotent, attempted to divorce his wife after he succeeded as King George IV. Victoria's father, Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, George III's fourth son, was the oldest to produce a surviving child.

* DumbassHasAPoint: At first the Queen and Prince couldn't decide on the design for the Great Exhibition Building; brick or stone would be too heavy and costly, and would never get done in time, and wood would still take too long and add fire danger. A public contest was held, and the winning answer (a giant greenhouse, which was easy to assemble quickly, let in sunlight and could be built around the trees in the park) came from a lower-class gardener, Joseph Paxton, who was supposedly quite dull (despite being in the employ of the Duke of Devonshire[[note]]although it was much more like that between two business partners rather than nobleman and servant--and indeed, they did launch at least one business venture together, and had spent 25 years turning the Duke's Estate into the most technologically advanced botanical establishment in the whole of Victorian-era Europe[[/note]]). This and Paxton's other work was also largely responsible for the modern greenhouse design.

* ''Film/FromHell'' has her playing a role in the JackTheRipper murders

* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Victoria had nine children herself, all of whom survived to adulthood. Considering the intermarriage that took place among European royalty, almost every royal family in Europe is or was somehow related to her (she is today known among historians and genealogists as "the grandmother of Europe").[[note]]A rare title for a monarch with many royals in the subsequent family tree. The most notable others are the "father-in-law of Europe," Christian IX of Denmark (father of Prince Albert Edward's wife Alix; his children married widely across the royal families of Europe, and his son Wilhelm became George I of Greece), and the "Grandfather of Europe" Philippe I, Duke of Orléans--who achieved this title despite being entirely homosexual--whose children married widely because he was the brother of LouisXIV.[[/note]] Victoria was also a carrier of the haemophilia gene ([[Series/DoctorWho or the werewolf gene, if you like]]) which ended up manifesting itself in one of the children of Tsar Nicholas II, resulting in the influence Rasputin had over the family.

* Appears in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode ''Last Exit to Springfield'' during Lisa's dream sequence, where a large photo cut-out of her makes the Music/Beatles' airship crash.

* UnexpectedSuccessor: It's not often realized that Victoria was one. As of 1816, George III only had one legitimate grandchild: Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only child of the Prince of Wales. It was fully expected that Charlotte would inherit the throne in the fullness of time, as her parents loathed each other and neither was thought capable of having more children. And then Charlotte [[DeathByChildbirth died at the age of 21]], leaving a huge gap in the line of succession. Cue a mad rush by Charlotte's uncles to dump their long-standing mistresses and woo and wed Protestant princesses who could give them the priceless heir. Even the Prince of Wales, sick, fat, and impotent, attempted to divorce his wife after he succeeded as King George IV. Victoria's father, Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, George III's fourth son, was the oldest to produce a surviving child.

* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Victoria had nine children herself, all of whom survived to adulthood. Considering the intermarriage that took place among European royalty, almost every royal family in Europe is or was somehow related to her (she is today known among historians and genealogists as "the grandmother of Europe").[[note]]A rare title for a monarch with many royals in the subsequent family tree. The most notable others are the "father-in-law of Europe," Christian IX of Denmark (father of Prince Albert Edward's wife Alix), and the "Grandfather of Europe" Philippe I, Duke of Orléans--who achieved this title despite being entirely homosexual--whose children married widely because he was the brother of LouisXIV.[[/note]] Victoria was also a carrier of the haemophilia gene ([[Series/DoctorWho or the werewolf gene, if you like]]) which ended up manifesting itself in one of the children of Tsar Nicholas II, resulting in the influence Rasputin had over the family.

* Victoria and Albert naturally appear in the 1975 [[Creator/{{ITV}} ATV]] miniseries ''Edward the Seventh'' (also called ''Edward the King''). Victoria, played by Annette Crosbie, 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).

* Vicki and Albert begin to appear in episode 3 of the 1978 ITN miniseries ''Disraeli, Portrait of a Romantic'', played by Rosemary Leach and Jeremy Longhurst. Disraeli is telling his wife that facing the royal couple is like -- cutting to our first view of them as Dizzy continues in voiceover -- "looking into a double-barreled shotgun."

** [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans Lakotah]] dancer and eventual holy man Black Elk toured England with Buffalo Bill's company (seen in ''Film/{{Hidalgo}}''). When Victoria met the Indians, she said they were "the best-looking people" she'd ever seen. About two weeks later they attended her Golden Jubilee parade, and Black Elk's memoir is worth quoting:

* ParentalSubstitute: Arguably her uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, and her first Prime Minister ViscountMelbourne; Victoria's own father, the Duke of Kent, died when she was an infant.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists'' has Queen Victoria as a katana-wielding [[TheCaligula Caligula]] and CruellaToAnimals.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'s Christmas Carol'' has a short, chubby Victoria and a doofus Albert (played by Miriam Margoles and Jim Broadbent, respectively) singing Christmas carols and exchanging gifts.

** Incidentally, in real life Victoria really was an obsessive [[{{Diary}} journal writer]], even by the standards of the times.

She married her cousin Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel in 1840, leading prank phone callers to ask if their victim had Prince Albert in a can. Albert died of typhoid fever in 1861, still young(ish) and handsome, 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; 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 Albert Edward had a better understanding of public relations and charmed the socks off the whole country, and partied the socks off the whole upper crust.

* The "Wacky Queen" sketch from ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' features Queen Victoria acting out silly hijinks from a turn-of-the-century silent film comedy, like squirting Gladstone with a garden hose.