A dynamic era is explored in this BBC History Magazine collector’s edition – that of the Victorian period, 1837 to 1901

Inside you will find: - A timeline of the key milestones in Victorian history - A cast of intriguing characters, from naturalist Charles Darwin to social reformer Florence Nightingale - A fascinating insight into the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert - Explorations into the lives of ordinary working people, at work and at play - Dramatic accounts of the events that led to social and political change - Expert analysis of the huge expansion of the British empire and its enduring legacy

The Story of the Victorians

WELCOME

The Victorian era • Simon Morgan explores some of the key themes and events affecting life in Queen Victoria’s Britain

QUEEN AND COUNTRY

VICTORIA WARRIOR QUEEN • During Queen Victoria’s reign, the British empire became the largest the world had ever seen. But, Saul David explains, this was achieved not just through commerce and control, but also a series of wars

VICTORIA’S WARS • Battling on all front: some of the wars through which the British empire achieved its expansion in the reign of Queen Victoria

Maharaja Duleep Singh 1838–93 • The ‘Black Prince of Perthshire’, a pampered captive of empire, and a symbol of India’s growing discontent with British rule

8 BIG QUESTIONS • Rampant expansion throughout the Victorian period built a vast, sprawling empire that spanned the globe. Here a selection of historians explore the themes and legacy of Britain’s imperial past

Darwin vs God? • When Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution, it unlocked the history of life on Earth. But, asks John van Wyhe, did the naturalist really cause an almighty clash between church and science?

Darwin: a biography • From Shropshire lad to world-shaking scientist

Myths and Mr Darwin

THE VICTORIAN WAR ON TERROR • In the 1880s, Irish republicans terrorised London with a diabolical new invention – dynamite. The Home Office hit back with a new weapon of its own, Britain’s first secret police force, writes Shane Kenna

Who were the Fenians? • Irish revolutionaries demanded independence and believed in the power of violence

Benjamin Disraeli 1804–81 • Colourful, quotable and slightly disreputable, he was a rank outsider who successfully reinvented the Tory party for the democratic age

Victoria and Albert • Charlotte Hodgman talks to Kate Williams about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s romance, and visits eight places linked to the marriage that restored the monarchy’s popularity

FROM THE CRADLE TO GRAVE

Was Victorian life really so grim? • Rosalind Crone reveals surprising truths about the experiences of the urban poor in 19th-century Britain

Samuel Smiles 1812–1904 • The original life coach and the often misunderstood and misquoted workaholic who wrote the manual on ‘Victorian values’

LIVING IN SIN? • Is it a myth that Victorian working-class couples skipped marriage in favour of cohabitation? Rebecca Probert examines the records to discover the real story

Cohabitation and the myth of the ‘common-law marriage’

William Ewart Gladstone 1809–98 • One of the greatest statesmen in British history, who dominated the political scene, thanks to his high moral tone

“The killings had to be coldblooded, the perpetrators calculating monsters” • Clive Bloom lifts the lid on the Victorians’ grisly fascination with murder – from the case of the constable-killer who believed he was Christ to the ruthless conman who drowned his wives in the bath

Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson 1836–1917 • Suffragette and social reformer who was Britain’s first qualified doctor, and at the centre of the Victorian feminist...