Queen Victoria’s Diary
Queen Victoria was 13 when she began the first volume of her journal, 1832.
“This book, Mamma gave me, that I might write the journal of my journey to Wales in it.” So begins the 13-year old Princess Victoria’s first volume of her Journal. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, had given the young princess the diary in August 1832 on their journey to Powis Castle in Wales to record what she saw on a series of educational visits around the country.
Her first journal to the left and the young Victoria at age 13 to the right.
This journal writing continued for nearly sixty-nine years, writing her final entry shortly before she died in 1901, aged eighty-one. In total, 141 volumes of her diary survive, numbering 43,765 pages!
And they tell the touching story of a young Queen who was head over heels in love with prince Albert. On first meeting Albert in October 1839 she wrote: “It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert – who is beautiful.”
After their wedding on February 10, 1840 she gushed: “I felt so happy when the ring was put on, and by my precious Albert. He clasped me in his arms and we kissed each other again and again.”
Two days later, she wrote with joy: “Oh! Was ever woman so blessed as I am.”
The diary is accompanied by many colorful illustrations drawn by the Queen.
The journals contain seven decades of royal history and cover all the key events of the Queen’s life. They are stored in the Royal Archives in Windsor Castle. In 2012, they were scanned and made available online as a special project for the diamond jubilee of Victoria's great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II to users in the UK.
You can read the journals here if you live in the UK.
Princess Beatrice in mourning with Queen Victoria (coloured from black and white photo). Photograph by W. & D. Downey, colourization by Peter Symonds.
Upon the Queen’s instructions, her daughter, Princess Beatrice, produced abridged copies of the remaining volumes after her death, destroying the originals.
Beatrice spent 40 years transcribing the journals covering the period 1837 to 1901 – a total of 111 volumes.
