Queen Victoria and the Constitutional Monarchy

Victoria (1819-1901) ascended to the British throne in 1837 at the age of eighteen, following the death of her uncle William IV, and went on to reign for sixty-three years and seven months — the longest reign in British history until it was surpassed by Elizabeth II in 2015. Her 1840 marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha gave the monarchy an image of domestic virtue and family stability that became a social model for the Victorian middle class. Albert exercised considerable influence over affairs of state, science, and culture until his premature death in 1861, after which Victoria withdrew from public life for years in a prolonged mourning known as the "Windsor seclusion."