When Victoria came to the throne on 20 June 1837, the British royal family was not popular. The House of Hanover, of which she was the sixth successive monarch, was viewed as foreign and corrupt. There hadn't been a woman on the throne for more than a century - not since the death of Queen Anne in 1714- and many questioned whether a woman as young as Victoria could do the job.
Their genius as a couple was not just to have one of the most successfull royal marriages ever, but to reinvent the British monarchy as a cosy incarnation of domestic bliss that everyone could aspire to.