Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
Queen Victoria was born May 24 1819, and ascended to the throne at the age of 18. In 1840 she married her cousin, Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to whom she had herself proposed. Victoria had this portrait of herself done and presented it to Albert before their marriage.
Albert, shown here in 1852, was described as tactless, serious, intelligent, and
conscientious, as well as a dedicated husband and father. Victoria was very much in
love with Albert, and did nothing without his approval. She called him her
"Angel." They had nine children together, five girls and four boys.
The family is pictured above. Only after Albert and Victoria had been married for 17
years was he finally named as Prince Consort. Following is a lithograph of the
couple in 1839, during their courtship.
Here is the royal couple in 1859, two years before Albert's death.
Albert
died on December 14, 1861 from typhoid in the Blue Room of Buchingham Palace. Both Albert
and Victoria were 42 years old. From that time, Victoria went into a period of
mourning which lasted over 25 years, during which time her people did not see her at all,
lasting until 1887. She mourned Albert horribly, and felt that her own death was
imminent. As Albert's effigy was carved for his entombment, she had her own effigy
carved as well, for she wanted the tomb to show them together at the same age.
Victoria converted the Blue Room to a memorial to Albert, and had numerous other
memorials, statues, and busts of him erected, at which she would herself place fresh
flowers. Buckingham Palace was hardly used for the next 40 years. Victoria
wore only "widow's weeds" from the death of her husband on, always appearing
dressed in black. For some time she slept with his nightclothes in her
arms. It has been said that when Albert died, she ordered a plaster cast of his
hands made, and she kept this plaster cast of his hands and slept with it under her pillow
for the rest of her life, such was her love for him.
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