RasmaSandra 12:20 am on January 26, 2021  

Tuesday Trivia – Queen Victoria

Little known facts about Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria’s full name was Alexandrina Victoria and she ascended to the throne on June 20, 1837. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 28, 1838.

  1. Her first act as queen was to ask to have an hour alone. At this time she was 18 years old and had been strictly raised always kept isolated, sheltered, and controlled. Governesses went with her everywhere and slept in the same room until the day she became queen.
  2. Victoria met Prince Albert while she was a teenager. She liked him right away but did not look at him romantically. Then Prince Albert and his brother Ernest arrived in Kensington in the spring of 1836 and Victoria could get to know him better. However, it was not until his second visit in 1839 when she was already queen that romance blossomed.
  3. It was Queen Victoria who made the white wedding dress popular. She wore a white satin gown with a very deep flounce of Honiton lace. On her head she had a wreath of orange blossoms and a diamond necklace and earrings. On her wedding dress was pinned a lovely sapphire brooch which was a wedding present from Albert. After her wedding, white became the tradition for wedding gowns.
  4. Queen Victoria was very much involved in politics and did not hesitate to make her views known.
  5. She was the first of notable persons to try out chloroform. It was her physician who gave her this new drug to numb the pain during the birth of her youngest son, Leopold. She was highly in favor of it.
  6. When Prince Albert passed on in 1861 Queen Victoria’s very secluded mourning was highly criticized by the public. By 1865 she seemed to have abandoned her royal duties.
  7. The well-known quote “We are not amused” is commonly attributed to Queen Victoria. This was her response to a vulgar joke that was told at a dinner party. However, it is not known if she really said this and she was shown as being stern and dour when actually she could be very fun loving and enjoyed laughing at jokes that others might find scandalous or shocking.