Victoria (1819-1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India. Alexandrina Victoria was born to the Duke of Kent and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and was the granddaughter of George III and niece of William IV. She acended the throne after the death of William IV in 1837, her reign lasting 63 years - the longest of any British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in the world. He reign was known as the Victorian age, one of intense progress in science, industry, politics and the final expansion of the British Empire. Victoria married her first cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, under whose considerable influence industry flourished. When Albert died in 1861, Victoria entered a state of mourning from which she never truly recovered. The last Hannoverian monarch, Victoria had nine children with Albert, the eldest of which succeeded her as Edward VII.