Queen Victoria.
Born May 24, 1819
The happiest and most popular
of English queens,
is Victoria
Alexandrina,
Queen of Great Britain
and Empress of India.
She was born within the
homely brick walls
of Kensington palace, England.
Her father died when she was but
a few months old.
Brought up with the strictest economy--
as children of lower
position rarely are,--
she was taught at an early age
to restrain her expenditure
within the limits of her income,
even when that income was but
a child's pocket money.
One of the first things she did
on hearing that she had
succeeded to the throne was to call
one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting,
and excitedly asked: "Am I really
queen,
and I can do what I choose by
right?"
"Certainly, your majesty."
"Then," said the young queen,
"get me a cup of green tea.
Mamma never would let me have it;
now I mean to know what harm it can
do to me." And she drank three cups,
had a violent fit of the shivers,
and has never liked tea since.
She became queen in 1837,
and on February 10, 1840, was married
to
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
by whom she had nine children--
four sons and five daughters.
The union was one of unalloyed happiness.
Several unsuccessful attempts have
been made upon her life.
The jubilee of her great and glorious
reign of half a century was reached in 1887,
when she was feted far and
wide.