Victoria married her first cousin,Prince Albert, in 1840 and their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe".
Queen Victoria was also highly devoted to her husband in fact when he died at the age of 41 in 1861, she went into deep mourning and struggled to overcome this loss. She became reclusive and was reluctant to appear in public.
Although her popularity ebbed and flowed during her reign, towards the end of her crown, she had become a symbol of British imperialism and pride.
Her reign, known as the Victorian Era, of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific and military change in the United Kingdom also marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover.
