Author Description
This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life--from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements--enlarged how she defined and lived her faith. It portrays a woman who had simple convictions but a complex identity that suited her multinational Kingdom: a determined Anglican who preferred Presbyterian Scotland; an ardent Protestant who revered her husband's Lutheran homeland but became sympathetic towards Roman Catholicism and Islam; a moralizing believer in the religion of the home who scorned Sabbatarianism. Drawing on a systematic reading of her journals and a rich selection of manuscripts from British and German archives, Michael Ledger-Lomas sheds new light not just on Victoria's private beliefs but also on her activity as a monarch, who wielded her powers energetically in questions of church and state. Unlike a conventional biography, this book interweaves its account of Victoria's life with a panoramic survey of what religious communities made of it. It shows how different churches and world religions expressed an emotional identification with their Queen and Empress, turning her into an embodiment of their different and often rival conceptions of what her Empire ought to be. The result is a fresh vision of a familiar life, which also explains why monarchy and religion remained close allies in the nineteenth-century British world.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
How did Queen Victoria’s personal religious convictions shape her identity as a monarch and influence the spiritual landscape of the nineteenth-century British Empire? Michael Ledger-Lomas, a scholar of Victorian history, utilizes a comprehensive analysis of the Queen’s private journals and archival manuscripts to examine the intersection of personal faith and public duty. The book argues that Victoria’s evolving religious identity was not merely a private matter but a central component of her role as a global sovereign, reflecting the complex, often contradictory, religious character of her multinational kingdom.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A detailed examination of Victoria’s religious development from her accession through her later years of bereavement.
- An analysis of the Queen’s influence on church and state relations within the British Empire.
- A survey of how various religious communities and denominations perceived and projected their own values onto the monarch.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a general political or military history of the Victorian era, focusing strictly on the religious and spiritual dimensions of the period.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and historians recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of Victorian religiosity, noting its success in bridging the gap between private belief and public imperial identity. Readers frequently highlight the depth of archival research, which provides a nuanced view of a monarch often defined by her political or domestic roles rather than her spiritual life.
Page Count:
361
Publication Date:
2021-01-01
ISBN-10:
0191068004
ISBN-13:
9780191068003
History
Religion
Biography
MONARCHY
British History
Nineteenth century
Great Britain