Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria

"Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria" by Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett is a historical account written in the late 19th century. The book explores the life and reign of Queen Victoria, focusing on her formative years and the influences that shaped her character, as well as significant political and personal events that illustrate her role as a monarch. The narrative aims to highlight the complexities of her duties and struggles while presenting an admiring perspective on her contributions to England's monarchy and constitutional development. The opening of the text sets the stage for the biography by discussing the perceptions surrounding female sovereignty and the historical context of Queen Victoria's reign. Fawcett emphasizes the unjust biases that suggest male rulers are inherently superior to their female counterparts, citing the successful queens of history as counterarguments. It also introduces Queen Victoria's early childhood, focusing on the dynamics of her family and the political climate leading up to her accession to the throne. The narrative delves into her upbringing, the challenges she faced with her immediate predecessors, and her eventual path to overcoming societal expectations as she matured into a respected sovereign. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights association, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), explaining, "I cannot say I became a suffragist. I always was one, from the time I was old enough to think at all about the principles of Representative Government." She tried to broaden women's chances of higher education, as a governor of Bedford College, London and co-founding Newnham College, Cambridge in 1875. In 2018, a century after the Representation of the People Act, she was the first woman honoured by a statue in Parliament Square.