Queen Victoria

Victoria was born in 1819. She became Queen in 1837 when she was 18. Her reign lasted for more than 60 years. Queen Victoria was born early in the 19th century. She lived to see the start of the 20th century, dying in January 1901.  She was officially Princess Alexandrina Victoria, though, and upon her ascent to the throne on June 20, 1837, at age 18 -- escaping the necessity of a regency by mere weeks -- the papers drawn up to declare her sovereignty listed her as Alexandrina Victoria. One of her first official acts as queen was to have the papers changed and for the next six decades would reign simply as Victoria.  

One of Victoria's great passions was for art. She was an accomplished artist herself, having taken drawing lessons from poet-illustrator Edward Lear, and some of her sketches recently went on display after having been sealed for 150 years.   In terms of art created by others, she had a distinct affinity for nudes, many of which she gave to Albert as gifts to celebrate some special occasion or another. He sometimes reciprocated by giving her nude or semi-nude works as well.  

Queen Victoria survived at least seven attempts on her life, mostly when she was riding in open carriages.  Some of these attempts seem almost comical in retrospect, such as the time a midget named John William Bean came at her with a gun that was discovered to be stuffed more with tobacco than with gunpowder. Another time would-be attacker William Hamilton apparently forgot to load his pistol before trying to dispose of the Queen.

There were other attempts, however, which were much more serious. Shortly after she and Albert were married, when she was three months pregnant with her daughter Vicki, a man by the name of Edward Oxford fired two shots at her carriage. Fortunately Albert was with her at the time and was able to get her out of harm's way. Two years later a man named John Francis also came at her on one of her carriage rides. In 1872 a man named Arthur O'Connor tried to attack her carriage at the very gates of Buckingham Palace before he was subdued, and ten years after that a man by the name of Roderick Maclean managed to fire off a shot before before some bystanders brought him down.

The only time an attacker ever managed to inflict bodily harm on the Queen was in 1850, when Robert Pate came at her with a brass-tipped walking stick and struck her on the head with it. The Queen, naturally, was quite startled and the assault was severe enough to bruise her face and give her a black eye. Nevertheless, she went about her duties and even appeared at the theater shortly afterward, to thunderous cheers!  

Victoria often like to have the windows open , even in the winter and liked to have ice on the dinner table, to keep the room cool.  When she died, Queen Victoria had 37 great-grandchildren.