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| An registry from their wedding. |
In 1839 Victoria fell in love with her first cousin, Prince Albert, of the small
German principality of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They were married in February 1840 and he served as his wife’s private secretary.
Her marriage to Prince Albert brought nine children between 1840 and 1857. Most
of her children married into other royal families of Europe: Edward VII (born 1841, married Alexandra, daughter of Christian
IX of Denmark); Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1844, married Marie of Russia); Arthur, Duke
of Connaught (born 1850, married Louise Margaret of Prussia); Leopold, Duke of Albany (born 1853, married Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont);
Victoria, Princess Royal (born 1840, married Friedrich III, German Emperor); Alice (born 1843, married Ludwig IV, Grand Duke
of Hesse and by Rhine); Helena (born 1846, married Christian of Schleswig-Holstein); Louise (born 1848, married John Campbell,
9th Duke of Argyll); Beatrice (born 1857, married Henry of Battenberg). Victoria bought Osborne House (later presented to
the nation by Edward VII) on the Isle of Wight as a family home in 1845, and Albert bought Balmoral in 1852.
Victoria was deeply attached to her husband and she sank into depression after
he died, aged 42, in 1861. She had lost a devoted husband and her principal trusted adviser in affairs of state. For the rest
of her reign she wore black. Until the late 1860s she rarely appeared in public; although she never neglected her official
Correspondence, and continued to give audiences to her ministers and official visitors, she was reluctant to resume a full
public life. She was persuaded to open Parliament in person in 1866 and 1867, but she was widely criticised for living in
seclusion and quite a strong republican movement developed. (Seven attempts were made on Victoria's life, between 1840 and
1882 - her courageous attitude towards these attacks greatly strengthened her popularity.) With time, the private urgings
of her family and the flattering attention of Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880, the Queen gradually
resumed her public duties.
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