Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria (1819–1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 when at the age of 18 she succeeded her uncle William IV. As a woman she was unable to succeed to William's other title as King of Hanover. She was proclaimed Empress of India from 1876. Her reign of 63 years and 7 months is to date the longest of any British Monarch, but is likely to be overtaken by our present Queen in September 2015. In 1840 she married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She had nine children, most of whom married other European royal families. In 1861 Albert died of typhoid, and Victoria, heartbroken largely retired from public life for much of the rest of her reign.

There is no foundation in the story that Victoria vetoed a law being passed against lesbianism.