Magnet #269 - Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901)Hands down, my favorite monarch of all time is Queen Victoria, (oh, and that guy she was married to. Heh.). And, it's for a million reasons, none of which have all that much to do with the quality of her reign, or how much she did or didn't do for her country.
She was just awesome. Imagine, becoming Queen of one of the largest superpowers in the world...at 18!
She married Prince Albert - in a white wedding gown. They totally give her credit for making it de rigueur for brides to wear white. Dudes, up til then, women would just throw on a pretty frock. Yay, Vic.
She was one-half of the Victoria and Albert love story. Whether or not you believe it or not (I do), Victoria and Albert were completely devoted to each other and their nine kids. She was devastated when he passed away, and wore only black for the rest of her life.
She had a great hub. Prince Albert was in charge of the supercool Great Exhibition of 1851, and supervised the building of the Great Crystal Palace (which burned to the ground in 1936). My goodness, what I wouldn't give to have seen this building. Oh, and let's not forget that the Exhibition seeded the fabulous Victoria & Albert Museum, one of the world's greatest museums of art & design, and one of my favorites in London.
She was a tough girl. Apparently, she'd had several assassination attempts against her, and she totally didn't let it faze her at all.
She's the whole reason that I LOVED that Tooth and Claw episode of Doctor Who, where the Doctor takes Rose back to 1979, and they end up in 1879 and meet Queen Victoria instead. And then in between battling the weirdo werewolf at the Torchwood house, the two spent the episode trying to get the Queen to actually say "We are NOT amused." Seriously one of my favorite DWs ever.
Ok, ok, I'll stop now, this post is getting a little too geeky-fangurly...even for me.
5 comments:
Hands down, my favorite monarch of all time is Queen Latifah. Or maybe The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That's a tough one...
Yeah, she was cool, but I bet my fave British royal, Elizabeth I, could have kicked her butt in a cage match. ;-)
Your couple is also said to have invented diamond engagement rings. In 1839 Al gave Vicky a diamond ring to celebrate the day they met. And now every girl gets one! A random gift between husband and wife became total establishment behavior! Imagine if people the world over did something just because YOU did it. Like that wave of women this summer who suddenly all had the Victoria Beckham haircut.
Or maybe it's just the name Victoria...
Hahahah, or the Duke of Earl, I suppose, Cotter. Though now I have the Fresh Prince rap in my head. Thanks for that.
Oooh, GG, I missed the engagement ring thing - though I'm totally calling them Al and Vic from now on. That's totally how I'm listing it on my London itinerary.
Does this explain Victoria's Secret?
lol Yes, I believe we have discovered a fool proof path to Total World Domination. Tomorrow I'm going to go legally change my first name to Victoria and begin my hostile take over.
All non-Victorias beware.
:-)
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