Victoria, the daughter of the duke of Kent and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, was born in 1819. She inherited the throne of Great Britain at the age of eighteen, upon the death of her uncle William IV in 1837, and reigned until 1901, bestowing her name upon her age.

    She married her mother's nephew Albert  in 1840. Albert was moralistic, conscientious, progressive and intellectually shallow, and with Victoria initiated various reforms and innovations (he organized the Great Exhibition of 1851, for example) which were responsible for a great deal of the popularity later enjoyed by the British monarchy.

    Dickens and the Queen had considerable respect and admiration for each other, evident in many ways.

    From 1845 on, Dickens directed and acted in a number of amatuer theatricals. These theatrical productions were so well done that many people looked forward to them and asked to attend them, including Queen Victoria. Over a number of years the Queen was invited to and attended many of these plays, including Wilkie Collins's The Frozen Deep.

    In March of 1870, three months before he died, Dickens was received by Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. She told Dickens how much pleasure she had gotten from seeing The Frozen Deep.
 
 

More information:

Literature of the Victorian Period
 

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