Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. She and her prince consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861), became the ancestors of many members of European royalty.
Victoria married Albert, her first cousin, on 10 February 1840, less than three years after she acceded to the throne. Although Victoria and Albert had a loving and intimate marriage, she struggled with pregnancy and motherhood. Her relationship with her eldest son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) was notably strained, and her animosity intensified following Albert's death in 1861.
Eight of Victoria and Albert's nine children had children of their own. Through these marriages, their descendants married into royal families across Europe, where many became either monarchs themselves or royal consorts, earning Victoria the nickname "grandmother of Europe." Their grandson Wilhelm II, for instance, became the Emperor of Germany, while their granddaughter Alix became the empress consort of Russia.
As of September 2026, the oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria is Anne Abel Smith (28 July 1932) who is her great-great-granddaughter.
The daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Victoria experienced the death of her father at eight months of age. Consequently, she was raised in isolation by her mother until becoming Queen of the United Kingdom in 1837.
In the early years of her reign, Victoria's first prime minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, influenced her to govern as a constitutional monarch. Throughout her reign, events such as the passing of the Reform Act 1867 and the introduction of the secret ballot in 1872 broadened the British electorate.
Following Albert's death in 1861, Victoria withdrew from public life, eroding the popularity of the British monarchy. However, by the time of her Golden Jubilee in 1887, she had restored her public popularity. Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee a decade later, eventually dying in 1901.
The younger son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Albert spent his childhood at Schloss Rosenau, Coburg. His uncle, Leopold I of Belgium, hoped that Albert would marry Victoria. Leopold arranged the first meeting between Albert and Victoria in 1836, with the latter two eventually marrying four years later.
After marrying Victoria, Albert had considerable influence over her in foreign affairs, freely corresponding with European monarchs. In addition, Albert believed that the United Kingdom should be at the forefront of modern science and art education.
During the 1850s, overwork caused Albert to become increasingly tired and suffer from ill health. Eventually, Albert died from typhoid fever in 1861, with Victoria and five of his children at his side.
Victoria was married to Albert on 10 February 1840 by William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in Westminster.
Queen Victoria, at times, had contentious relations with her children. Possibly due to her own childhood isolation, Victoria struggled to connect with and relate to her own children, particularly in their younger years. She also, occasionally, resented that they interfered with time that she would prefer to spend with Albert. According to one modern author, both Victoria and Albert habitually displayed undisguised favouritism amongst their children. Both Victoria and Alfred were the favourites of Albert, and Arthur enjoyed the favouritism of both his parents.
According to one modern author, Queen Victoria was initially jealous of the time that Albert had spent with Princess Victoria, but in her widowhood, Queen Victoria made Princess Victoria something of her confidante. For her part, Princess Victoria had accrued hundreds of letters from her mother, to the point that shortly before her death, she had them smuggled out of Germany by her brother's secretary, Sir Frederick Ponsonby.
Of her sons, Queen Victoria had the most trouble with her eldest, Albert Edward, and her youngest, Leopold. Among her daughters, Victoria clashed often with Louise. She also had an awkward relationship with her second-eldest daughter, Alice, whom the queen, despite praising her thoughtfulness, also criticised as being too melancholy and self-absorbed. In her widowhood, Victoria expected Beatrice, who was only four when her father died, to remain at home with her, and only permitted her to marry on the condition that she and her husband would remain in England.
Children of Victoria and Frederick III
In 1851, at the Great Exhibition, Victoria met her future husband, Frederick. When Victoria was 15 years old, Frederick proposed to her. Eventually, on 25 January 1858, they married.
Upon her husband becoming German Emperor as Frederick III, Victoria became German Empress on 9 March 1888. However, only 99 days later, Frederick died of cancer. Consequently, their eldest son, Wilhelm II, became German Emperor, Victoria’s only grandchild besides George V of her native UK to become a monarch.
Children of Edward VII and Alexandra