She took the throne amid calls to replace the royals with a republic. But Queen Victoria held power through ambitious reforms and imperialist policies, and her legacy endures today.

维多利亚女王是在共和政体取代王室的呼声中登上王位的，但她通过雄心勃勃的改革和帝国主义政策掌权了，她的影响流传至今。
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BY ERIN BLAKEMORE

作者：艾琳·布莱克莫尔
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The Famine Queen. The Widow of Windsor. Grandmother of Europe. Queen Vic. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria earned all those nicknames and more—testaments to the enduring influence of her 64-year (1837-1901) reign over the United Kingdom.

饥荒中的女王，温莎的寡妇，欧洲的祖母，这些称号都属于维多利亚女王。在19世纪，维多利亚女王赢得了所有这些绰号和更多的头衔，这也证明了她64年(1837-1901)间统治英国的持久影响力。

During the period now known as the Victorian Era, she oversaw her nation’s industrial, social, and territorial expansion and became known as a trendsetter who made over European attitudes toward the monarchy. An estimated one in four people on Earth were subjects of the British Empire by the end of her rule. But when Victoria took the throne, the British monarchy was deeply unpopular.

在如今被称为维多利亚时代的那个时期，她管理着国家的工业、社会和领土扩张，她还被称为改变欧洲人对君主制态度的潮流引领者。据估计，在大英帝国统治结束时，地球上四分之一的人都是大英帝国的臣民。但实际上，在维多利亚初即位时，英国的君主制极不受欢迎。

Ascension to the throne

女王登基

Victoria was the product of a succession crisis in England’s royal family that occurred when Princess Charlotte, the presumptive successor to King George, and her infant son died in childbirth. Charlotte’s brothers—all of whom were single and had given the monarchy a bad name with their profligate spending and messy personal lives—raced to produce an heir.

维多利亚是英国王室一场继承危机的产物，当时乔治国王(King George)的假定继承人夏洛特公主(Princess Charlotte)和她尚在襁褓中的儿子死于难产。彼时，夏洛特的兄弟们又都是单身，他们的挥霍无度和混乱的私生活给王室带来了坏名声，在这种情况下，英国王室急迫地想要一个王位继承人。

One of those brothers, Edward, hastily married a widowed German princess and became the first to produce an heir. Born in 1819, Alexandrina Victoria was a direct successor to the crown.

于是这些王室兄弟中的一个，爱德华王子，匆忙地娶了一位寡居的德国公主，成为了第一个产下王室继承人的人。生于1819年的亚历山大·维多利亚是王位的直接继承人。

Palace intrigue made for a miserable childhood. Victoria’s father died when she was a child, and her ambitious mother allied herself with the scheming Sir John Conroy, a member of the royal household who seized the chance to gain power and influence through the future queen. He created what became known as “the Kensington system,” an elaborate set of rules that isolated the young princess at Kensington Palace and put him in control of her education and upbringing. Designed to keep Victoria dependent and loyal to Conroy and her mother, the system resulted in an unhappy childhood—and a growing sense of resentment.

宫廷的勾心斗角使维多利亚的童年过得非常悲惨。维多利亚的父亲在她还是个孩子的时候就去世了，她雄心勃勃的母亲与老谋深算的王室成员约翰·康罗伊爵士结盟，他们抓住机会通过未来的女王获得了权力和影响力。康罗伊爵士还创建了后来被称为“肯辛顿体系”的制度，这是一套精心制定的将年轻的公主隔离在肯辛顿宫，并让他来控制她的教育和教养的规则。为了让维多利亚对康罗伊爵士和她的母亲保持依赖和忠诚，这个制度导致了她的不快乐的童年以及一种与日俱增的怨恨感。

Victoria broke free in 1837, when she turned 18 and rose to the throne. As soon as she became queen, she banned Conroy from her court and marginalized her mother. In 1840, she married her cousin Albert, a German prince. It was a genuine love match—she wrote that her wedding night was “bliss beyond belief”—and they went on to have nine children.

1837年，18岁的维多利亚女王登上了王位。她一当上女王之后就禁止康罗伊爵士入宫了，同时她也很排斥她的母亲。1840年，维多利亚女王嫁给了她的表兄阿尔伯特，一位德国王子。这是一场真正的始于爱情的婚姻。她写道，她的新婚之夜有着“难以置信的幸福”，他们接着有了9个孩子。

Early reign

早期的统治
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During her early reign, Victoria was heavily influenced by Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, and Albert, who was her closest political advisor and whom some historians believe was “king in all but name.” Together, they pursued an agenda of modernization and stability in an era of political upheaval. The monarchy’s reputation had been badly damaged by Victoria’s predecessors, and the British populace clamored to replace the monarchy with a republic. And in Ireland, the potato famine between 1845 and 1852 fomented outright rebellion.

在统治早期，维多利亚深受首相墨尔本勋爵和阿尔伯特的影响，阿尔伯特是她最亲密的政治顾问，一些历史学家甚至认为他是“实际意义上的国王”。 他们在一个政治动荡的时代共同追求现代化和稳定的议程。由于维多利亚女王之前的王位继承人们严重损害了君主制的声誉，当时英国民众大声疾呼要用共和制取代君主制。在爱尔兰，1845年至1852年间的马铃薯饥荒引发了彻底的叛乱。

Together with her husband, Victoria faced those challenges head-on, working to strengthen the position of the monarchy in England and throughout Europe, where there was also a growing distaste for royals who expected the public to foot the bill for their lavish lifestyles. In contrast, Victoria expanded the monarch’s public role, supporting charities, the arts, and civic reform to counter the view that British royalty wasn’t worth the expense.

维多利亚和她的丈夫一起直面这些挑战，努力加强英国和整个欧洲君主制的地位。在当时的欧洲，其他国家的民众也越来越讨厌王室成员希望公众为他们奢侈的生活方式买单的行为。相比之下，维多利亚女王扩大了女王的公共角色，她支持慈善事业、艺术和公民改革，以此来反驳认为英国王室不值得花这么多钱的观点。
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As a result, the queen and her growing family became beloved celebrities and influenced popular culture, introducing England to everything from white wedding dresses to Christmas trees.

结果，女王和她日益壮大的家族成为了受人爱戴的名人。他们还影响了流行文化，在他们的影响下，英国引入了从白色婚纱到圣诞树的一切新鲜事物。
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In 1861, tragedy struck when Albert died at 42. Victoria was devastated and went into deep mourning. She wore black for the rest of her life and withdrew from the public eye for years. The republican movement grew during her isolation, and she was criticized for her absence from public life.

1861年，悲剧发生了，42岁的阿尔伯特去世了。维多利亚伤心欲绝，陷入了深深的悲痛之中。在她的余生中，她一直穿着黑色的衣服，并有好几年远离了公众视线。在她与世隔绝的这个时期，共和运动在英国大肆发展，她因为从公众视线缺席而招致批评。

Later years

晚年

Victoria resumed her public duties by the late 1860s. Her later reign was largely devoted to encouraging peace in Europe and expanding and consolidating her massive political empire. She became Empress of India in 1877 and influenced foreign relations closer to home through her children and grandchildren, many of whom married into European royalty.

维多利亚在19世纪60年代末恢复了她的公职。她后来的统治主要致力于促进欧洲和平，扩大和巩固她庞大的政治帝国。她在1877年成为印度女皇，并通过她的子女和孙辈影响了与邻国的外交关系，其中许多人嫁给了欧洲皇室。

At the beginning of her monarchy, Britain was seen largely as a trading power. But under Victoria, it became a mighty empire and the world’s most powerful nation. Over the course of the 19th century, it grew by 10 million square miles and 400 million people. Those gains came at a tremendous price: England was almost constantly at war during Victoria’s reign, and the colonialism practiced in her name involved brutal subjugation.

在君主制初期，英国在很大程度上被视为一个贸易大国。但在维多利亚统治下，它成为了一个强大的帝国，也是世界上最强大的国家。在整个19世纪，英国的土地增长了1000万平方英里，人口增长了4亿。不过这些成就也付出了巨大的代价:在维多利亚统治时期，英国几乎一直处于战争状态，以她的名义实行的殖民主义涉及了非常残酷的暴力镇压。
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Though Victoria was popular, her subjects still pushed to reform the monarchy. Ultimately, this led to an erosion of the monarch’s direct political power as ordinary British people gained the vote, the secret ballot, and other political reforms in the mid- to late 1800s.

虽然维多利亚很受欢迎，但她的臣民也仍在推动改革君主制。最终，由于普通英国人在19世纪中后期获得了选举权、无记名投票和其他政治改革运动的兴起，君主直接政治权力受到侵蚀。

Legacy

遗产

By her death in 1901, Victoria was an institution, known for her willpower and the vast empire she ruled. The British Empire covered a full fifth of the Earth’s surface and had become the preeminent superpower of its day.

1901年维多利亚女王去世，彼时，维多利亚已经成为一种标志，她的名字以她的毅力和她统治的庞大帝国而闻名。大英帝国曾覆盖了地球表面的五分之一，成为当时最卓越的超级大国。

Victoria’s attempts to bolster European monarchies by marrying off her family members achieved short-term peace, but they sowed the seeds of some of the 20th century’s most destructive conflicts. By the onset of World War I in 1914, her grandchildren would turn against each other.

维多利亚试图通过让她的家族成员与其他国家的王室联姻来巩固欧洲君主制，这虽然实现了短期的和平，但也为20世纪最具破坏性的冲突埋下了种子。到1914年第一次世界大战爆发时，她的孙辈们开始互相仇视。
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Although the relentless colonialism of the empire she ruled and the devastating war she inadvertently helped seed now cast a shadow over Victoria’s reign, she believed British power and prosperity were paramount. As she wrote in 1899, “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.” For a woman born to rule, there was no room for doubt as to her historic destiny—or the might of the empire built in her name.

尽管她所统治的帝国残酷的殖民主义和她无意中促成的毁灭性战争给维多利亚的统治蒙上了阴影，但她相信英国的权力和繁荣是至高无上的。正如她在1899年写道:“我们对失败的可能性不感兴趣; 他们不存在。” 对于一个天生要当统治者的女人来说，她的历史命运，以及以她的名义建立起来的帝国的力量是不容置疑的。

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