Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria
Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, and lived for 81 years and 243 days.
When King William IV died on June 20th 1837, Princess Victoria became queen at the age of 18. She was described as a "studious, thoughtful, accomplished, serious and quiet but cheerful girl".
Victoria still holds the record for longest-serving monarch ever: she ruled Britain and its empire for nearly 64 years.

Victoria was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June the 28th, 1838. After the ceremony there were fire-works and a fair in Hyde Park, and that night most of the theatres in London were open free to the public.



Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha arrived in London on October 10th 1839. Albert belonged to the family of the Duchess of Kent and was the Queens first cousin. He was born on August 26th 1819 and visited England as a guest of his aunt the Duchess. At Kensington Palace, Albert shared lessons with his cousin Princess Victoria and they became firm friends.

On February 10th 1840 the marriage was celebrated in the Chapel Royal of St James Palace. The Prince wore the uniform of a British field-marshal. The Queen wore white satin trimmed with orange flower blossoms, a bridal wreath and veil of Honiton lace.

I saw this question posed on a site on the internet:

"Why is the Wedding dress white?"

The answer given was this:

Queen Victoria chose white not because it symbolized purity, but because she wanted to show her people that she would run the country in an economical way. White was a much less expensive color to make than the colors typically popular for wedding dresses at the time (red, black, and purple). Plus, it gave her the option of using some lace that she already owned, rather than having something specially made. So basically, the white dress was originally a political move.