Queens bound by history
The reigns of Elizabeth and Victoria are similar in many ways
TORONTO — They grew up in the shadow of a throne they were never intended to occupy, then went on to carve unique and revered places in British history.
They bucked royal traditions by marrying their cousins for love, raised broods of children that thrust them into an unwelcome spotlight, and coped with public criticism about their aloofness and emotional reserve.
But among the many parallels that exist between Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria, one looms larger than the rest — longevity. On Wednesday, the current Queen will succeed Victoria as the United Kingdom’s longestreigning monarch after 63 years and 218 days on the throne.
The years from 1837 to 1901 when Victoria ruled were markedly different from Elizabeth’s era. The women who presided over more than half of their respective centuries, however, are strikingly alike.
Royal commentator Rafe Heydel-Mankoo said the two share similar temperaments and values, and Britons quickly came to view them in similar lights.
“They brought in a new spirit of hope — Victoria, after all the scandals of her uncles, and Elizabeth after all the problems of the Depression and the Second World War and the post-colonial devastation of Britain and the British economy.
“They both basically offered hope and a new, bright future.”
The two queens led strikingly different lives in early childhood, with Victoria’s life rigidly under the control of a domineering single mother and Elizabeth enjoying a more conventional family life with loving parents and an adored younger sister.
That changed for both after the age of 10, however. Victoria became heir presumptive after a number of royal deaths left her as the only legitimate member of the family in the line of succession. The present-day Queen’s fate was decided when her father, George VI, took the throne after the abdication of his elder brother.
Historian Barbara Rusch said both future queens learned of their pending responsibilities as preteens, and neither one shied away from the daunting futures before them.
The then-Princess Elizabeth emerged as a poised public presence at age 14 with a radio address to British children sent from home at the height of the Second World War. The confidence she expressed in that speech with the line “in the end all will be well” was echoed more than a century earlier by Victoria, who greeted the news of her accession to the throne with the declaration: “I will be good.”
They both also showed early signs of tenacity, Rusch said, particularly when it came to their future husbands.
Although relatives had more than one prospective suitor in mind for Victoria, she fell hard for her German cousin Prince Albert and wrote rapturously in her diary about her excitement to marry him. Elizabeth had to fight harder to make Prince Philip the future Duke of Edinburgh, Rusch said, adding her parents initially balked at her choice of the dashing naval officer long-rumoured to have a roving eye.
Both families led comparatively modest lives by royal standards in a bid to be in closer touch with traditional middle-class values. When Elizabeth married Prince Philip, she followed the postwar norms of the day and collected clothing coupons to buy material for her wedding gown.
Victoria played a quiet but active role in shaping the politics of her time. The current queen has taken the opposite path, said royal historian Carolyn Harris.
Elizabeth has always taken her role as a non-partisan constitutional monarch “very seriously,” Harris said, adding her lack of political involvement and unflappable poise have redefined the public image of what a queen should be.
“Because she’s been on the throne for so long, her approach has become synonymous with how a constitutional monarch should behave,” Harris said.
Such exemplary behaviour didn’t always trickle down to the next generation. Both queens had first-born sons whose sexual proclivities and extra-marital antics shone uncomfortable spotlights on lives they preferred to keep private. Their parenting techniques were both questioned in similar ways.
But public images can be deceiving. Heydel-Mankoo said both women, frequently depicted as everything from stoic to joyless, both had strong senses of humour that didn’t always shy away from the off-colour.
Heydel-Mankoo believes Victoria’s example helped mould the current queen into someone who could carry on the traditions she began.
“Queen Victoria really shaped the idea of middle-class monarchy in terms of its morality and its lifestyle,” he said. “One could argue that Queen Elizabeth is the last heir of that tradition.”