On the death of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), Arthur Balfour wrote, ‘I suppose that, in all the history of the British Monarchy, there never has been a case in which the feeling of national grief was so deep-seated as it is at present, so universal, so spontaneous. And that grief affects us not merely because we have lost a great personality, but because we feel that the end of a great epoch has come upon us—an epoch the beginning of which stretches beyond the memory, I suppose, of any individual whom I am now addressing, and which embraces within its compass sixty-three years, more important, more crowded with epoch-making change, than almost any other period of like length that could be selected in the history of the world.’

Characters

Queen Victoria – Queen of the United Kingdom and Ireland (1837-1901)
Prince Albert – Prince Consort of the United Kingdom and Ireland (1837-61)
Prince Edward (Bertie) – Duke of Edinburgh, son of Victoria and Albert, heir apparent
Duchess of Kent – mother of Victoria
Prince Edward, duke of Kent – father of Victoria

Previous Kings of the United Kingdom and Ireland

George III –1760-1820
George IV – 1820-30
William IV – 1830-37

John Conroy – comptroller to the duchess of Kent
Louise Lehzen – governess of the Victoria’s household
Feodore – Victoria’s half-sister
Leopold I – King of Belgium

Ernest Augustus – King ofHanover, uncle of Victoria

Prime Ministers

Lord Melbourne – 1835-41
Robert Peel – 1841-46
John Russell – 1846-52, 65-66
Earl of Derby – 1846-52, 66-68
Earl of Aberdeen – 1852-55, 58-59
Lord Palmerston – 1855-58, 59-65
Benjamin Disraeli – 1868, 74-80
William Gladstone – 1868-74, 80-85, 86, 92-94
Earl of Rosebury – 1894-95
Lord Salisbury – 1885-86, 86-92, 95-02
Arthur Balfour – 1902-05

Flora Hastings – lady-in-waiting for the Duchess
John Snow – physician and leader in the development of anaesthesia
Mary Seacole – nurse who set up the ‘British Hotel’
Florence Nightingale – social reformer and founder of modern nursing

Credits

Cherry Ripe
Sail the Ocean Blue – HMS pinafore – Gilbert and Sullivan
Hallelujah – George Frideric Handel

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