Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901) [Chapter 5, pp. 234-235] was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her her death in 1901. She had the longest reign of the Victorian era at 63 years and 216 days. She would marry her first cousing Prince Albert in 1840, where they would have many children down the road.

Queen Victoria was mentioned in Orlando when Orlando clarified to a widow that the Queen wore a crinoline, "Were they not all of them weak women? wearing crinolines the better to conceal the fact; the great fact; the only fact; but, nevertheless, the deplorable fact; which every modest woman did her best to deny until denial was impossible; the fact that she was about to bear a child?" (234-235). This revelation made me realize that Queen Victoria wanted to hide her pregnancy, especially since each pregancy took away her duties as queen. Victoria did not like this, she did not want pregnancy to dominate her reign ("Griffiths") So by wearing the crinoline, she essentially did not want to show sign of weakness, which goes to say that she prefers being Queen than as a mother. (197 word count)

Griffiths. "Did Queen Victoria really hate being pregnant - and what was she like as a mother?" RadioTimes.com, 12 May, 2019 https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/did-queen-victoria-really-hate-being...

Woold, Virgina. Orlando, Mariner Books 1928.