Who Was Queen Victoria? [Paperback]

Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian Era, a period of industrial, cultural, scientific, and political change that was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.  But Victoria was raised under close supervision and near isolation until she became Queen of the United Kingdom at the young age of 18. She married her first cousin, Albert, and had nine children who married into families across Europe. By the time she had earned the nickname “The Grandmother of Europe” and the title “Empress of India” it was indeed true that the sun never set on the British Empire. Publicly, she became a national icon, but privately, Who Was Queen Victoria?Jim Gigliotti is a freelance writer based in Southern California. A former editor at the National Football League, he has written more than 50 books for all ages. His writing credits include biographies for young readers on Olympian Jesse Owens and baseball star Roberto Clemente.Who Was Queen Victoria?

Nothing was out of the ordinary when eighteen-year-old Princess Victoria went to bed on the evening of Monday, June 19, 1837. She fell asleep in Kensington Palace in London, in the room she shared with her mother, the Duchess of Kent. She had always shared a room with her mother. Her mother never allowed her to be alone.

At six o’clock the next morning, though, Victoria’s world changed. She woke up to hear her mother say that two men had arrived at the palace. They wished to see Victoria.

The men were the archbishop of Canterbury and the lord chamberlain. The archbishop of Canterbury was the leader of the Church of England. The lord chamberlain was the top official in the royal household, where the king lived.