Queen Victoria. One of the most famous women in British history... The only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, Alexandrina Victoria became the heir-apparent to the English throne upon her father's death and ascended the throne at the age of eighteen, in 1837. Reigning for over sixty years Victoria lent her name to a period of history that spanned nearly three-quarters of a century and saw marked change in England as well as around the world in industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military matters. As the ruler of the British Empire, Victoria played a role in the global domination of British interests in the nineteenth century. Domestically Victoria formed Victorian era conceptions of the ideal roles of wife and mother. Her marriage to Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, generally considered a love match, was notable for Victoria's desire to be a wife to her husband, even as she wielded the reins of enormous power in her position as Queen. Queen Victoria's influence reached beyond the boundaries of British-controlled regions and into virtually every country in Europe due to the fact that many of her nine children married into royal or noble European families. These alliances created deep-seated links between the major powers of the late nineteenth century, opening lines of communication even during times of war. At the time of her death, she had sixty-six direct descendants. John Castell Hopkins's account of Victoria's life covers a wide range of material over the course of her six-decade reign, including her relationships with her beloved husband and many children and grandchildren, and the devastating premature loss of so many of her relations; as well as her political and diplomatic connections with Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, and the United States of America. John Castell Hopkins (1854-1923) was born to British parents but grew up in Canada. He worked as a clerk, associate editor, and writer and produced around forty books and pamphlets in a three-decade span, including the first encyclopaedia on Canada. His suspicion of the United States and championing of British imperialism is apparent in much of his work.