Long lived the Queen!
Pre-reading
Read the sentences below. What do you think? Are they true or false?
1. Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch ever.
2. Her mother was German.
3. Her husband was German.
4. She spoke German at home as a child.
5. Victoria became Queen when she was 18.
6. Queen Victoria married for love.
7. She proposed to her husband.
8. Queen Victoria had no influence on British politics.
9. Queen Victoria had the title Empress of India.
10. She was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace.
Now read the following texts to find out more about her.
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The many faces of Queen Victoria
Until last year in May she held the record for the longest reign of any queen in the world. She had also
reigned longer than any other monarch in Britain.
Queen Elizabeth II overtook her in May 2015, managing to stay on the throne longer than Queen Victoria’s
reign of 63 years and 7 months.
States (Victoria in Australia), towns, waterfalls, ships
and buildings have all been named after Queen
Victoria as well as periods in history (the Victorian
Age) and a code of conduct (Victorian morality). She is
possibly best known as the “Grandmother of
Europe” and you may be familiar with her saying, “We
are not amused”, which she may not have actually
said, but certainly sums up people’s opinions of her
as an outwardly tight-lipped person. But what kind of
person was she really? And was she really as lacking in
humour and joie de vivre as is commonly believed?
Victoria, the teenager
Alexandrina Victoria was born on 24th May 1819 to Prince Edward, fourth son of King George
II and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a German princess. Her father died when she
was only one year old and she was looked after by her German mother and Louise Lehzen, her
German governess, but she always spoke English at home. She did learn German and French as
a child though and later when she became Empress of India, she also learnt Hindustani. She had
no brothers or sisters and her mother had strict ideas about raising children. She devised a system
together with her advisor, Sir John Conroy, in which Victoria was only allowed to meet people that
they approved of. She was mostly forbidden from playing with other children and was not allowed
to meet most of her father’s family! The young princess hated Conroy and did not get on very well
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Long lived the Queen!
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with her mother. She once described her childhood as miserable. Despite those feelings, Victoria
showed a strong character as a young teenager refusing even under their joint pressure to allow
Conroy to become her own private secretary.
Victoria became heir to the childless King William IV when her uncle George IV died in 1830. Her
mother and Conroy did not like King William because of the many illegitimate children of his who
lived in the palace. They kept Victoria away from him.
When she was just eighteen, Victoria became Queen of England upon William‘s death. She was the
first British monarch to choose Buckingham Palace as her main home and official residence.
Until that time Victoria’s mother had insisted that she and her daughter share a bedroom. The first
thing that Victoria did on becoming Queen was ban her mother to a far corner of the Palace and to
ban Conroy from her sight. It was only when her mother died in 1860 and after Victoria had read her
mother’s diaries that Victoria realised her mother had loved her at all.
Queen Victoria, the romantic
Victoria would have made her mother leave the palace altogether but was not allowed to because
she was only 18 and therefore, according to social convention, had to carry on living with her mother. When she complained to the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, who was also her friend, he said
the only thing she could do about it was to get married. Victoria was shocked at the idea of getting
married in order to have more freedom from her mother, but she had, in fact, already met somebody
she liked a lot: her cousin, Albert. She met him when she was about 17 and her relations had already
started looking for suitable husbands. Albert was a German cousin from her mother’s side of the
family. After the visit she wrote in her diary how good looking he was with a “beautiful nose” and a
very charming character.
The admiration was mutual and they stayed in contact until his second visit when she was 20. Her
feelings for him grew and she proposed to him on 15th October 1839. They married four months
later, and Victoria was happier than ever before. She described how she felt in her diary:
I NEVER, NEVER spent
such an evening!!!
MY DEAREST DEAREST
DEAR Albert sat on a
footstool by my side,
and his excessive love
and affection gave me
feelings of heavenly
love and happiness .
I never could have
before! He clasped
me in his arms, and
we kissed each other
again and again!
His beauty, his
sweetness and
gentleness – really how
can I ever be thankful
enough to have such a
Husband!
hoped to have felt
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Long lived the Queen!
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Their first baby was born in November of the same year and named Victoria after her mother.
The Queen was not overly impressed with her first-born, writing that she thought she was ugly.
However, it didn’t put her off; they had eight more children over the next seventeen years.
Victoria and Albert’s marriage was not without disagreement and rows but their love remained
strong. When Albert died of typhoid in December 1861, Queen Victoria was devastated. She went
into mourning and wore black for the rest of her life. For the next few years the Queen did not
appear in public at all and her popularity as Queen suffered from it.
Victoria, the “Grandmother of Europe”
In Britain a constitutional monarchy had already been established, meaning that Queen Victoria
was only the head of state symbolically and had no real power in Britain – nor anywhere else in
the world for that matter. However, she did influence British politics and world affairs in a variety
of ways. In Britain a Prime Minister resigned when she refused to let him decide who should look
after her in the Palace.
Furthermore, Victoria worked personally – and quite
successfully – to improve the relationship between France
and England. After all, the Napoleonic Wars had ended
only 22 years before Victoria was crowned. She also tried
to encourage peace in Europe by marrying her children
and grandchildren into the many royal houses in Europe.
Her eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, was married to
Prince William of Prussia in the hope that Prussia would
become more liberal with the connection. Eventually
Victoria had 42 grandchildren. Descendants include the
monarchs Harald V of Norway, Felipe VI of Spain, and
Margrethe II of Denmark.
During Victoria’s reign, India started to be ruled by Britain and Victoria became Empress of India. She used her
remaining influence to add a passage to an official
document allowing religious freedom in India.
Victoria, the moralist
The Victorian Era is now regarded as a time with a strict code of conduct verging on repression in
many areas. Women and men were supposed to appear with dignity in public. Many people hold
Victoria responsible for this, but in reality the morality of this era was probably a general backlash
against the “loose living” of the period before. For example, King William had many illegitimate
children and acknowledged them openly. Victoria’s uncle, George IV, was known as a playboy who
lived for pleasure, going into debt by spending his money on art, buildings and women.
Victoria was brought up very strictly and carried on the tradition in many ways herself, although
her children were brought up more lovingly than she had been. She is supposed to have said, “We
are not amused” when somebody told a risqué joke in her presence. The “we” was supposed to
refer to the women present. There is no proof of this but evidently it is the kind of thing that she
might have said.
On pictures or photographs, Victoria is mainly seen with a very serious expression on her face.
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Long lived the Queen!
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This was because of the [photographic…but that’s another
subject] tradition of the time and also later because she
spent a lot of her time in mourning after her husband,
Albert, had died. However Victoria apparently had a good
sense of humour and probably enjoyed life to the full. Later
on in life she developed a “friendship” with a Scottish
servant, John Brown. People believed that he was her lover
and Victoria herself did little to refute these suggestions.
When she was buried, at her request, a lock of his hair was
put in her left hand. One of Albert’s dressing gowns was
placed by her side too, and so Queen Victoria was buried
with mementos of two of the men she loved.
Post-reading
1. Check your answers to the pre-reading questions.
Vocabulary
2. Find words or phrases which mean:
a) period of time a monarch rules a country
b) a French expression, which is also used in
English meaning enjoyment of life
c) unhappy
d) an adjective describing a person whose parents are not married to each other
e) to demand, to request something and not take “no” for an answer
f) something or somebody that is good for a certain purpose or use
g) felt or done by each towards the other
h) very upset
i) to feel very bad when somebody has died; to grieve
j) not allowing somebody to live freely
k) a reaction against something that was done before
l) to say that something is not true
3. Draw a timeline of Victoria’s life and label it with the events you know about.
4. Write a short character study of Victoria.
What kind of person do you think she was? How do you know? Would you like to have met her?
Why (not)?
Discussion
1. The Victorian Era is famous for having a strict moral code or code of conduct. Do we have a
code of conduct today? If so, what is it like? Is it repressive? In what way(s) does it favour men
or women?
2. Victoria shared a room with her mother until she was 18 and married Albert after proposing
to him. How do you think things would have been different if she had been a man?
To what extent do you think the upbringing of Queen Elizabeth II was different?
© Ernst Klett Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2016 | www.klett.de Von dieser Druckvorlage ist die Vervielfältigung für den eigenen
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Teacher’s page: Long lived the Queen!
Pre-reading
1. Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch ever. – false
2. Her mother was German. – true
3. Her husband was German. – true
4. She spoke German at home as a child. – false
5. Victoria became Queen when she was 18. – true
6. Queen Victoria married for love. – true
7. She proposed to her husband. – true
8. Queen Victoria had no influence on British politics. – false
9. Queen Victoria had the title Empress of India. – true
10. She was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace. – true
2. Vocabulary
a) period of time a monarch rules a country – reign
b) a French expression, which can be found in any English dictionary, meaning
enjoyment of life – joie de vivre
c) unhappy – miserable
d) an adjective describing a person whose parents are not married to each other – illegitimate
e) to demand, to request something and not take “no” for an answer – to insist
f) something or somebody that is good for a certain purpose or use – suitable
g) felt or done by each towards the other – mutual
h) very upset – devastated
i) to feel very bad when somebody has died; to grieve – to mourn
j) not allowing somebody to live freely – repression
k) a reaction against something that was done before – backlash
l) to say that something is not true – to refute
3. A time-line of Victoria’s life could include these things:
1819 (24th May) – born
1830 – became heir to the throne
1836 – met Albert for the first time
1837 – became Queen
1839 – proposed to Albert
1840 – married Albert
1840 – her first daughter (Victoria) was born
1860 – mother died
1861 – Albert died
1901 – Queen Victoria died
4. The students should just give their own opinion of how Victoria comes across in the newsletter.
Nowadays she has a reputation for being strict but there were many other sides to her character.
She had a good sense of humour and may have had a warm personality. Anybody who is interested can find out a lot more about her by seeing her scrapbook online.
See http://www.queen-victorias-scrapbook.org/index.html
© Ernst Klett Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2016 | www.klett.de Von dieser Druckvorlage ist die Vervielfältigung für den eigenen
Unterrichtsgebrauch gestattet. Die Kopiergebühren sind abgegolten.
Autorin: Pauline Ashworth, Stuttgart
Bildquellen: Thinkstock -Getty Images Deutschland GmbH; gemeinfrei,
public domain, domaine public
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