Queen Victoria was the very first person in Great
Britain to be given this name.
There are over one hundred and ten thousand
Victoria’s in Britain today.
So great was Victoria's love for Albert, that every
day for forty years after he died, she had his clothes laid afresh
on his bed at Windsor Castle and herself wore black for the rest of
her life.
There are over 200 places around the world named in
honour of Queen Victoria. These range from the exotic Victoria Falls
in Africa right through to the London Underground line you're
travelling on.
Queen Victoria fell in love with Prince Albert and
proposed to him on their second meeting. She wrote in her diary "He
has the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can
possibly see.”
The ultimate trend setter of her day, Queen Victoria
began the tradition of the white wedding dress. Previously brides
wore their best dress, of no particular colour.
FURTHER VICTORIA TRIVIA
·Victoria's
face appeared on the world's first stamp, the Penny Black.
·She
was the first monarch to have electric lights and a telephone.
·Victoria
was the first monarch to use Buckingham Palace as the main Royal
residence.
·She
was the first British monarch to be photographed.
·She
produced nine children, forty grandchildren and thirty-seven
great grandchildren.
·Victoria
proposed to Albert five days after their second meeting! As
Queen, Victoria could not receive a proposal from a man.
· Queen
Victoria once won six prizes at the 1891 Crufts Dog Show when
she entered her Pomeranian dogs.
·Her
first act after coming to the throne was to remove her bed from
her mother's room.
·Supposedly,
when her ex-prime minister Benjamin Disraeli was on his death
bed, Victoria offered to come and see him, he is said to have
answered, "No, it is better not. She would only ask me to take a
message to Albert.
2.Queen
Victoria and Albert are credited with having invented the tartan in
about 1850. It was intended that the tartan should be personal to the
Sovereign's family and so it was not possible to purchase it for public
use
3.Victoria
proposed to Albert five days after their second meeting! As Queen,
Victoria could not receive a proposal from a man.
4.Until
she was Queen, Victoria was forbidden from going up or down stairs
without holding someone’s hand – in case she hurt herself.
5.Queen
Victoria publicly praised and used the fashionable 19th century
cocaine-based drink Vin Mariani that later inspired Coca-Cola.
6.The
Kinks’ song Victoria, which appeared on their 1969 album
Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), was named
after Queen Victoria.
7.There
were seven attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria during her reign,
between 1840 and 1882.
8.She
is the name sake of Britain’s most famous fictional pub, The Queen Vic
in Eastenders. 55 other UK pubs are named after her.
9.In
2008, a pair of Queen Victoria's 50 inch waist bloomers were bought at
auction for £4,500
10.She
was the first monarch to have electric lights and a telephone.
11.First
British monarch to own the Koh-i-Noor diamond
12.Victoria
was the first monarch to use Buckingham Palace as the main Royal
residence.
13.Victoria
has links throughout Europe's royal families, nicknaming her "the
grandmother of Europe"
14.Victoria’s
face appeared on the world’s first stamp, the Penny Black.
15.
Victoria was the last monarch in the House of Hanover.
16.Albert
bought Balmoral Castle for Queen Victoria in 1846
17.Alexandrina
Victoria was named after her godfather, Russia's Tsar Alexander I.
18.A
pair of stockings worn by Queen Victoria was sold for £8,000 in
September 2008.
19.Victoria
kept a diary from the age of 13 until the end of her life.
20.Victoria
took on the title Empress of India in 1876, officially becoming the
first British Monarch to rule India
21.Until
she came of age at 18 she always slept in her mother's room
22.She
was the first British monarch to be photographed.
23.Victoria
is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic
progress and, especially, the empire.
24.Supposedly,
when her ex-prime minister Benjamin Disraeli was on his death bed,
Victoria offered to come and see him, he is said to have answered, “No,
it is better not. She would only ask me to take a message to Albert.
25.Her
first act after coming to the throne was to remove her bed from her
mother's room
26.She
was the first Queen of Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia was
confederated on 1 January 1901, only 21 days before her death
27.Photography
was refined and portraits became rapidly available to the masses during
Victoria’s reign.
28.Alexander
Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1873
29.Another
great engineering feat in the Victorian Era was the sewage system in
London.
30.When
she was young her nickname was Drina.
31.Queen
Victoria has been played by over 95 different people on screen,
including Dame Judi Dench in Mrs Brown and both Michael Palin and
Terry Jones in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
32.She
produced nine children, forty grandchildren and thirty-seven great
grandchildren.
33.One
of the enduring authors of the Victorian era is George Eliot (a
pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans)
34.She
was one of the first users of chloroform as an anaesthetic in
childbirth.
35.The
Victorian era cultivated the study of science and saw the publication of
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
36.Victoria’s
reign saw the world famous Jack the Ripper murders.
37.Basic
State Education became free for every child under the age of 10 under
her rule.
38.Brass
bands and 'The Bandstand' became popular in the Victorian era.
39.Sherlock
Holmes, Dracula, Edward Hyde and The Invisible Man were all created
under Victoria’s reign
40.She
surpassed her grandfather King George III as the longest lived British
monarch, reaching the age of 81 years and 243 days.
41.One
of Victoria’s favourite books was The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde
42.She
died in the arms of her first grandchild, the German Emperor William II
43.She
outlived eleven of her 42 grandchildren
44.Edward
Bulwer-Lytton is widely regarded as the worst writer of the
Victorians (although he was immensely popular in his day). Bulwer-Lytton
is responsible for this infamous sentence: “it was a dark and stormy
night.”
