The First Media Monarch: Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria has been described as the first media monarch by researches looking at the influence that the new technologies, such as the printing press, had on her reign. (Plunkett, 2003) On the other hand, Elizabeth II’s experience with the media was fraught with new challenges of trying to remain aloof in an intrusive society. Each of these monarchs ruled during a time of great political, technological, and social change but it is their relationship with these forces that defines their rule (Pimlott, 1996). While the media’s growth during Victoria’s reign strengthened the monarchy and secured its role in a changing time, the media threatened the monarchy throughout the reign of Elizabeth the II because of a more intrusive approach of the media, the stoic personality of Queen Elizabeth and the changing perception of the royal family being a moral compass for the nation. In the end both Monarchs were accepted and even beloved by a majority of their people, including some of the biggest critics to their reign, the republican newspapers.

When looking at the influence of the reign of Queen Victoria it is almost impossible not to look at the birth of photography. In a book written by Getty Museum Curator Anne Lyden, Victoria’s influence on photography is looked at intently, from her first time encounter with the new technology to her famous Diamond Jubilee portrait. Victoria was able to use this new technology from a young age in a way that it would take years to become main-stream. That photography was not just an artistic medium but was an instrument of propaganda. (Lyden, 2014)

Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840 and he was even more of a supporter of new technologies. (Veldman & Williams, 2014) Together they became the most ...

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...being female which allowed her to appear ‘politically innocent’ (Plunkett, 2003). The queen is usually the only character who is not caricatured or satirized. (Morris, 1968) She instead remains dignified in clothing and expression. This is seen in a similar vein when political cartoons, more than once, depicted the Queen’s relations with Benjamin Disraeli. Disraeli is generally reduced to a prejudiced stereotype, while Victoria, by contrast, is depicted with seriousness. She appears somber, regal and in a similar stance and costume to those of her royal portraits. It was, similarly, much more critical of Prince Albert and his German connection than it ever was of the English Queen. So while the media was at times fiercely satirical of contemporary British events and figures. When presenting the generally popular Queen, its artists were aware of their limitations.