The Victorian age

On 20th June 1837, Lord Chamberlain and the Archbishop informed the eighteen year old Princess
Victoria that she was the Queen of England. During her reign of sixty four years, she was a popular
queen and she ruled England as a powerful country. She was affectionately known as “grand-mamma”
by the people of England. She was a loving wife to Prince Albert.

The telephone, penny post, the telegraph and the extension of franchise to more and more sections
of people were introduced. All her three jubilees of her coronation were celebrated in all parts of empire.
Finally, at the age of 83, her death was mourned by people all over the world.

The early part of her rule was not without trouble. The peace of the period was disturbed by the
chartist movement. Its aim was to increase the rights of the people. The working class people suffered a
lot. Feargus O’ Conner exploited the situation and organized a number of associations all over the
country. He drew a charted called people’s charter which contained six demands. The two political
parties the Whigs and the Tories were shocked by the chartist movement. Many leaders were arrested
and imprisoned or transported to distant places. On the whole the movement was a failure.

During the first half of the 19th century, the anti-corn law league and its activities caused a lot of
problems. The Corn Law passed in 1815 caused much suffering of the working class people. In order to
eradicate the sufferings of these people, Richard Cobden founded the fist anti- corn league in 1839.
Failure of the potato crops in 1845 caused indescribable sufferings to the poor peasants. Because of this
Robert peel repealed the corn-law in 1846. In spite of these miseries there was peace and prosperity in
the country. For instance, the great exhibition of 1851 conducted in the Crystal palace was visited by six
million people and lasted for nine months.

The Victorian age was a period of remarkable progress in physical and medical science. Production
of steel, Michael faraday’s electrical power, the use of chloroform in medical practice and Charles
Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” were some examples.

Oxford movement was started in1833 by a few oxford professors like John Keble, John Henry
Newman. The aim was to counteract the indifferent attitude of the educated men towards the ceremonies
and functions of the Church of England. They started studying the history of the church and as a result of
it; some of the old religions practices were revived. The movement came to an end when Newman
became a roman catholic in 1845. After Newman many others converted like a stream into Roman
Catholic. This led to re-establishment of Catholic hierarchy on St. Michael’s day in 1850 with Cardinal
Wiseman as its head.
 The Crimean war came to an end with the treaty of Paris in 1856. The Victorian also gained a new
dignity to the nurse’s profession. It was Florence Nightingale who played a prominent part in
reorganizing the army medical department after the war. With the opening of the Nightingale training
school for nurses in 1860, she became the founder of modern nursing.

The Crimean war was followed by trouble in India. In 1857, the Indian soldiers rose in rebellion at
Meerut and very soon it spread to Delhi also. As a result, the British government transferred the political
power from the East Indian Company to the crown. At the time of Victorian age, poetry, prose, history
and painting and writing on painting flourished. Alfred Tennyson, who became the poet laureate in
1850, was the greatest poet of the day. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues also became famous.
The latter half of Queen Victoria’s reign witnessed many reforms in the field of politics and education
.On the whole, Victorian age was a period of peace and prosperity.