Here are 26 Interesting Queen Victoria facts.
1-5 Queen Victoria Facts
1. In 1842 Queen Victoria had a pistol aimed at her while she was riding a carriage, but the gun misfired and the assassin escaped. The next day she deliberately took the same route to bait the assassin, who was subsequently caught. – Source
2. Sara Forbes Bonetta was a West African, she was orphaned, sold into slavery, and in a remarkable twist of events, was liberated from enslavement and became a goddaughter to Queen Victoria. – Source
3. During her adult life, Queen Victoria was estimated to have written 2,500 words a day. – Source
4. Violet Brown, at 117 years old, is the last living subject of Queen Victoria. – Source
5. Queen Victoria and King Christian IX’s descendants currently occupy the thrones of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. That includes all of the remaining kingdoms of Europe today except for Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. – Source
6-10 Queen Victoria Facts
6. In 1855, Queen Victoria pronounced ex-U.S. President Millard Fillmore to be the most handsome man she had ever seen. – Source
7. Before Coca-Cola, there was Coca Wine, 10% alcohol, and 8.5% cocaine extract by volume, and endorsed by Queen Victoria and Pope Leo XIII. – Source
8. There’s a term called the Royal We, also called majestic plural. It’s when someone holding a high position, usually religious, refers to themselves as “we” instead of “I”, and it was popularized by Queen Victoria. – Source
9. The Oval Office Resolute Desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes made from the timber of the HMS Resolute. – Source
10. Queen Victoria disapproved of women getting the right to vote, and was “most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights’.” – Source
11-15 Queen Victoria Facts
11. Upon Lincoln’s assassination, widow Mary Lincoln received condolences from Queen Victoria, to which she responded by writing that she was grateful Victoria could appreciate her mourning. Victoria had suffered the loss of her husband, Prince Albert, 4 years earlier. – Source
12. Upon opening the Digswell Viaduct, Queen Victoria was so afraid of its height that she left the train, took a horse-drawn carriage down the length of the viaduct at ground level, proceeded to return to the train after it successfully passed the viaduct and then resumed her journey. – Source
13. Had Princess Charlotte (and baby) not died giving birth, Queen Victoria would never have been born. – Source
14. Queen Victoria was the first queen regnant of England who had a direct heir. – Source
15. A popular myth about why Mt. Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania, is that Queen Victoria gifted it to her nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia, as a birthday gift. – Source
16-20 Queen Victoria Facts
16. Queen Victoria was raised under a strict set of rules called the Kensington System. This included being isolated away from most people, never being allowed an hour to herself, and having each of her every action planned beforehand. – Source
17. Last Week Tonight host John Oliver’s Paternal Two Times Great Grandfather was the Bishop of Ripon and court chaplain to Queen Victoria. – Source
18. King Michael I of Romania is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria. He was crowned at age six in 1927. If the Romanian monarchy would’ve survived he would be the longest reigning monarch currently alive. – Source
19. Queen Victoria owned a bulletproof chainmail-lined umbrella. – Source
20. John Snow, an anesthesiologist in 19th century London, gave Queen Victoria chloroform for child labor and discovered the germ etiology of London’s cholera epidemic. A book was written about him and a guy named Henry Whitehead is called The Ghost Map. – Source
21-26 Queen Victoria Facts
21. White wedding dresses didn’t catch on until Queen Victoria wore one in 1840. – Source
22. Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901) had nine children and 42 grandkids. During WWI she was Grandmother to the Wilhelm II of Germany, Tzar Nicholas II of Russia and Britain’s George V. – Source
23. The first grandchild of Queen Victoria to die died in 1866 and the last to die died in 1981. –
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24. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to be photographed. – Source
25. Fewer than 100 artifacts now remain in Liberia’s National Museum, including a 250-year-old dining table that was given by Queen Victoria to Liberia’s first president. – Source
26. Queen Victoria was quite critical of first-wave feminism, saying “Were women to “unsex” themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen, and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection.” – Source
