Before we begin, yes, I'm totally aware that many people don't like her, or any other monarch or the monarchy itself. I guess many of you by now know that I admire royals and there's nothing you can do that will stop me from doing so.

I have as much right of free speech as you do, and although you are free to give your opinion, when the very same group of people say the same things on every post I write such as "abolish the monarchy," "royals are parasites," and similar stuff, it stops being an opinion and is and will always be perceived as harassement and bullying.

Don't get me wrong, but why would anyone waste their time being negative and mean when people just spent hours of their day writing and researching to share their love and you come and destroy and disturb the little bit of happiness left in their lives? That's downright mean.

If you read the title of this post and clicked with those intentions, I must remind you, there are a lot of other posts for you to read that don't talk about royals or anything related to them. The right to have an opinion does not mean you get to be rude when you don't like something. Don't like my content? Ignore it. Bullying will not be tolerated.

I'm tired of feeling I can't be myself and share what I love even on MY space because of people who just can't control their anger and leave me be. 

And YES, I am aware royals haven't always done the right thing and might have slipped once or twice, but as a person that loves them, why would I address it and stop writing about them just to please you? I love royals and I don't intend to stop to share the love. If you can't handle that, well, you have a choice to NOT read my posts.

Queen Victoria

 The idea for this post came right on tiara day (24th of May) as I spent it watching two movies about Queen Victoria. The Young Victoria (2009) and Victoria and Abdul (2017) my favorite about her so far. 

I first knew about the Queen when I was watching a Tinkerbell movie and she held a Victorian coin with the Queen's face on it and mimicked it. I went to search for who the person on the coin was. Because I knew the movie was set in London (primarily), that it would most likely have to be a British queen. I searched and a few minutes later, I found her. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Little did I knew that from there a journey of strong admiration and devotion was about to begin. 

My affection for her grew in 2015 when I took English culture classes at university and we were learning about her and her kingdom (both the good and the bad things). I also learned a few things about her in English Literature class and basically spent and hour with my teacher talking about her and her influence on the Victorian culture and literature on the first class where she was mentioned. Now, shall we begin telling her story?

Alexandrina Victoria, was born on the 24th of May 1819 at 04:15 am as Princess of Kent, as the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent and the German princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She was born in Kensignton Palace, and it remained her home until she became queen. 

Because she was the heir apparent as a child, Victoria was very lonely. She was constantly isolated from people her age, and forbbiden to attend court. She had her food tasted for her and many popular books censored. She also could not sleep in a room without her mother and go upstairs or downstairs withouth holding the hand of an adult. 

She had every bit of her life controlled by these rules that were part of scheme called the Kensington System, which basically was enforced by John Conroy, a controller of Kensington Palace and by her own mother. The reason? To keep Victoria fragile and dependent of their help. There was a plan in which Victoria would sign an agreement of a regency with her mother and Conroy rulling in her name until her 21st bithday, but she never signed it. If she did, she would be even more controled, like a puppet. A puppet queen. Because her father and all his brothers were dead, Victoria was the last heir of the Hannover dynasty, the heir of King William IV, her uncle.

Victoria's mother and Conroy's plans were over when Victoria turned 18, just a month after King William IV died, on the 20th of June 1837. The new Queen was awakened at 6 AM by her mother, telling her that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were waiting for her. They told her the news, kissed her hand and said "Long live the Queen." 

At last, Victoria was free. The first thing she ordered was to arrange a room of her own. She climbed the stairs to get ready as the Prime Minister would be there early, and denied the help of her mother. She was finally free from that abusive woman. 

As Queen, Victoria was inexperienced, and because of that she was surrounded by vultures who wanted profit or to take advantage of her naivety. But she was strong and she persisted, with the help of the Prime Minister (and her friend) at the time, Lord Melbourne. 

Despite being free from her mother, she still lived with her, as Victoria was unmarried. They lived in separate wings in the palace and the Queen barely visited her. Victoria was still hurt, because her mother used her and failed to stand for her many, many times and let Conroy do as he wanted. 

Around 1836, Leopold the King of the Belgians started to plot an arranged marriage between her and his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha so that the German family would gain more power. Albert and his brother Ernest visited England that year with the purpose of meeting Victoria. 

Victoria wasn't stupid; she knew of the plans to get her married and didn't care to the point she expressed her opinions on the eligible princes that were desperately trying to impress her. But she did like Albert though. Her diaries reveal she though him to be very handsome and posessing a rather harmonious face. 

They did enjoy each other's company and started exchaging letters. It was obvious they both fell in love with each other, and Albert visited England a second time. They spent time together and it was becoming more and more clear, the love they felt. As the monarch, Victoria was the one proposing to him and not the other way around. They became engaged on the 15th of October, 1839, and married on the next year on the 10th of February, 1840. From then on, a deep love and connection for Albert grew and she never stopped loving him. 

Victoria married in a white lace gown, with a long white lace veil and instead of a tiara, she had a crown of orange blossoms. She also wore a pair of earrings and a necklace made with diamonds given to her by the Sultan of Turkey as a coronation gift.

Her bouquet had a tiny sprig of myrtle that she took from a myrtle tree given to her by Albert's grandmother planted ar Osborne House. But the star was the beautiful oval sapphire brooch surrounded by 12 larger diamonds gifted by Albert on the eve of their marriage. Queen Elizabeth II still wears this brooch today. 

Oh, did this sound familiar? Yes! Current wedding traditions! It was Queen Victoria who created this concept and made them strongly associated with weddings. White gowns weren't a requirement before. She popularized many of the Western world's bridal traditions that so many of us know and love! 

This is the end of the first part of her story, as it was getting too long! Keep your eyes open for the next part of this amazing journey we're taking to the past! Thank you so much for reading!