Victoria Day

The third monday in May is known as Victoria Day - and is a holiday here in Canada. To celebrate this long weekend which has become the unofficial start of summer, here's a trivia challenge about this long-lived queen.

1. What were Queen Victoria's given names?

Victoria Alexandra

Alexandrina Victoria

Victoria Charlotte Augusta

Georgia Charlotte Augusta Alexndrina Victoria

2. Who were Queen Victoria's half brother and sister?

Mary and Edward

Victor and Augusta

Alexander and Elizabeth

Charles and Feodora

3. Until the age of three, what language did Queen Victoria speak?

English

German

French

Spanish

4. Why was Queen Victoria never left alone when she was a child?

Her mother feared that Victoria's uncles would try to kill her in order to become king.

She was afraid of being alone.

Her mother was extremely overprotective.

She was afraid to have her mother out of her sight.

5. Who was Victoria's first prime minister?

Lord Melbourne

Tony Blair

Winston Churchill

Lord John Russell

6. Who did Queen Victoria want to put her into her coffin?

Her sons.

Members of her family.

Her previous, still-living Prime Ministers

Her men-at-arms.

7. After Prince Albert died, what did Queen Victoria wear for the rest of her life?

Purple

White

Red

Black

8. Queen Victoria had nine children and they all married into royal families which gave Britain ties to almost every European nation. This caused Victoria to be known as:

The Grandmother of Europe

The Queen who Reigned for 63 Years

The Godmother of Europe

The Iron Lady

9. What reigning monarch is Queen Victoria's great- great granddaughter?

Queen Mary

Princess Anne, the Princess Royal

Elizabeth II

Princess Diana

10. What previous monarch did Queen Victoria find extremely vain?

Queen Mary I

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Mary II

Queen Anne

ANSWERS:

1. Alexandrina Victoria

Georgiana Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria was the name first proposed for Queen Victoria but the Prince Regent who would later be George IV refused to allow his name, George, or his daughter's name, Charlotte Augusta, to be used as a name for the young princess. Victoria was named Alexandrina after the Russian Czar, Alexander I. Queen Victoria's mother wanted Victoria to come before Alexandrina but the Prince Regent said that no name would come before that of the Russian Czar. After a long debate the Prince Regent told the priest who was baptizing Queen Victoria that the baby's name would be Alexandrina Victoria. Queen Victoria's mother thought it an insult that the princess should only have two names. As a child Queen Victoria was called Drina.

2. Charles and Feodora

Charles and Feodora were Victoria's mother's, Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg's, children from her first marriage to Prince Emich Charles of Leiningen.

3. German

Princess Victoire did not like any of Queen Victoria's uncles and preferred to keep Victoria away from them. Victoria spoke German until she was three years old when her uncle the future King Leopold of Belgium told Princess Victoire that if Victoria was to become England's Queen she would need to speak English and be English. He said that Victoria could not show any signs of being anything but English, or the English people would not accept her.

4. Her mother feared that Victoria's uncles would try to kill her in order to become king

Princess Victoire was afraid that any of Queen Victoria's uncles would kill Victoria just so they could be King when George IV died. If Princess Victoire could not be with Victoria she had one of her maids of honor stay with Victoria.

5. Lord Melbourne

Victoria's first prime minister was Lord Melbourne. They became close friends and he helped her learn her role as queen. Because of her loyalty to Melbourne, the queen supported his party, the Whigs, early in her reign. Later her husband, Prince Albert, persuaded her that the monarch should not favor any particular party.

6. Her sons

Queen Victoria left elaborate instructions for her funeral. Among these were that her own sons would lift her into her coffin. This was done when she died.

7. black

Victoria mourned for Albert the rest of her life. She wore black every day and had his rooms kept exactly as they would have been if he had still been alive. Victoria even had hot water brought to his dressing room each morning for shaving.

8. The Grandmother of Europe

Because it was Victoria's children that linked almost all of Europes royal families together, Victoria became known as the Grandmother of Europe.

9. Elizabeth II

Elizabeth is the daughter of George VI who was Queen Victoria's great-grandson. George VI was the son of George V who was Victoria's grandson. George V was the son of Edward VII who was Victoria's son.

10. Elizabeth I

Queen Victoria had dolls of all of the previous reigning monarchs. Upon being told that after Elizabeth I's death 2,000 dresses had been found, Queen Victoria threw down the doll of Elizabeth I and tore up the doll's skirt. Queen Victoria remarked that she no longer liked Queen Elizabeth because she must have been extremely vain to have owned 2,000 dresses.