Queen Victoria (1819-1901) is one of the most famous monarchs of all time and her reign, lasting for 63 years and seven months, is now known as the Victorian era; a period of great industrial and scientific change as well as expansion of the British Empire. These excerpts from her diaries span from 1832, when Victoria was 13-years-old, to 1840, the same year that she married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the age of 20. Having just turned 18 in May 1837, she became queen the next month after the death of William IV. Covering her teenage years as well as the earlier parts of her reign, Victoria writes of subjects relating to her position as queen and the political climate of the times as well as more personal matters, such as her nervousness when giving speeches and her taking for her cousin Albert. Of her nervousness, she writes on Wednesday, 6th February 1839: