© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

festivities of Sydney's International Exhibition in 1879; 2) at a ceremony for the laying of the statue monument's foundation stone, held to coincide with a visit by Princes Edward and George in 1881 (the statue not actually being present on that occasion); and 3) on 24 January 1888 during celebrations for the Australian Centennial, when the statue was revealed on its Moruya granite pedestal (designed by James Barnett, Colonial Architect).

A statue of Queen Victoria was also unveiled in 1906 in Queens Gardens in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Style and arms

Victoria's first official style as monarch was "Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith". The title "Empress of India" was added in 1876.

At birth Victoria was a granddaughter of a monarch (George III) through the male line and as such held the style and title of a Royal Highness and Princess of the United Kingdom and was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent (as the daughter of the Duke of Kent and Strathearn). When she acceded to the throne as Queen of the United Kingdom she was styled Her Majesty The Queen, and later (occasionally) Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress after being created Empress of India in 1877.

• Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent (1819-1837)

• Her Majesty The Queen (1837-1901)

• occasionally Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress (1877-1901)

Victoria's arms were: Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland). These same arms have been used by every subsequent British monarch.

Surname

Victoria belonged to the House of Hanover, whereby some assign the surname d'Este or the surname Guelph to her though she never needed to use any surname (some other descendants of the House of Hanover have used the surname Hanover in Britain). Her husband belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and accordingly at Victoria's death, that House ascended the British throne in person of her son and heir Edward VII - according to custom of nobles and royals, a wife never gains the membership of her husband's house, but remains as belonging to her own and thus Victoria was not of House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a married woman, most genealogists assign to her the surname von Wettin, based on the advice of the College of Heralds. She is therefore sometimes referred to as Alexandrina Victoria von Wettin, nÈe Hanover.

While Albert was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the German house was descended from the Ernestine Branch of the Wettin dynasty. Victoria asked her staff to determine what Albert's and now her own marital surname was. After examining records from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha archives, they reported that her husband's personal surname, as was the case with other members of both the Ernestine and Albertine branches, was Wettin (or von Wettin). Queen Victoria's papers record her dislike of the name. Her grandson, George V, again explored the issue when changing both the surname and Royal House name in 1917 to Windsor. The College of Heralds again informed him that his family surname prior to the change was Wettin. In the 1958 an Order-in-Council adapted the 1917 decision by granting some of Queen Elizabeth II's descendants the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. This does not apply to the Prince of Wales or either of his sons, however; but only to those descendants of the Queen and Prince Philip who never come to the throne. By statute, 'all' reigning sovereigns from 1917 onward bear the surname "Windsor," whether they were born with it or not.

Trivia

• During her reign, Queen Victoria was styled "Her Majesty Queen Victoria".

• Cannabis tea was prescribed to treat Victoria's menstrual cramps.

• Queen Victoria publicly praised and used the fashionable 19th century cocaine-based drink Vin Mariani that later inspired Coca-Cola. The drink was also praised by Popes Leo XIII and Saint Pius X.

• Of the current line of succession to the British throne, the first 510 people listed are descended from Victoria.

• Queen Victoria became a grandmother at the age of 39 and she became a great-grandmother at the age of 59.

• Queen Victoria died in the arms of her first grandchild German emperor Wilhelm II

• Queen Victoria outlived three of her nine children.

• As of March 2006, there were two surviving great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria: Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Sweden and Lady Katherine Brandram.

• Queen Victoria became the de facto First Queen of Canada. The Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, during the reign of Queen Victoria, making her Canada's first sovereign.

• Likewise, Queen Victoria was the first Queen of Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia was confederated on 1 January 1901, just a few weeks before the Queen died.

• Queen Victoria's first act after coming to the throne was to remove her bed from her mother's room.

• Every day for forty years after her Prince Consort had died, Queen Victoria ordered that his clothes be laid afresh on his bed in his suite at Windsor Castle.

• As a member of the House of Hanover, Queen Victoria remained a Princess of Hanover and a Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg throughout her life.

• Queen Victoria started the tradition of a bride wearing a white dress at her wedding. Before Victoria's wedding a bride would wear her best dress of no particular colour.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oceania