Hello historians, and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss, and I'm incredibly passionate about history, and I can't wait to teach you today.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains, as well as that someone or something to talk to would be excellent, and having something to write on and write with would also be really helpful.

All right, let's get straight into today's history lesson then.

I can't wait.

In this history lesson, we're going to be thinking about Britain at the time of Victoria's death.

In this unit, we'd been considering the question, "How did Britain change during Victoria's lifetime?" And in today's lesson, we're going to consider what Britain was like at the point at which Queen Victoria died, and the changes that had occurred during the course of her reign.

The outcome will be, I can describe how Britain changed by the time of Victoria's death.

Here are the key words for today's learning.

There's only two.

My turn, your turn, and make sure you keep an eye out for them today.

The first word is laws.

The second word is education.

So laws are rules of a country that all people must follow.

During the Victorian Era, many new laws were introduced.

Many of these laws were introduced to improve lives and to protect people.

Education is the act of learning.

Many laws and acts were introduced to improve children's education during the Victorian Era, and we're gonna look at more of these in detail today.

So we are considering Britain at the time of Victoria's death.

We're going to, first of all, consider the British Empire at the time of Victoria's death, and then we're going to look at British laws at the time of Victoria's death.

Let's get on then with looking at the British Empire at the time of Queen Victoria's death.

So Queen Victoria died on the 22nd of January, 1901.

She was 81 years old, and she had been queen for 63 years, longer than any other monarch before her.

We know that she was an incredibly significant ruler who ruled throughout a significant point in British history.

The Victorian times were times of radical change.

The British Empire had expanded.

Large scale industry had taken off, many factories had been built.

Moreover, many new and modern inventions were invented that looked to improve people's daily lives.

Here on the left hand side, we can see an image.

This is a photo of Queen Victoria's funeral procession after her death.

The country went into mourning over the death of such a significant monarch.

The only monarch to have reigned longer than Queen Victoria is Queen Elizabeth II.

She reigned for 70 years and 214 days, from 1952 to 2022.

So she's the only monarch to reign longer than Queen Victoria.

So which statement is correct? Queen Victoria reigned for longer than any other monarch, Queen Victoria reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II reigned longer than Queen Victoria.

Who is correct, Sam, Alex, or Izzy? Choose the correct answer now.

Off you go.

Great job.

Hmm, Sam says, "Queen Victoria reigned for longer than any other monarch." Well, she had reigned for longer than any other monarch at the point of her death.

Alex says, "Queen Victoria reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II." Well, this is not true.

We know that Queen Victoria had reigned for 63 years.

However, Queen Elizabeth II reigned longer than Queen Victoria.

She reigned for a total of 70 years, 214 days.

So here we have a map of the British Empire at the time of Victoria's death.

The British Empire had expanded greatly during the Victorian era.

Indeed, Queen Victoria had become Empress of India in 1876.

When Victoria died, Britain ruled over all of the countries in red upon this world map.

They were part of the British Empire.

This is a huge legacy of the Victorian Era, this expansion of the British Empire.

This had many positive effects for the United Kingdom and Great Britain, but also had negative impacts on many of the countries that were colonised during this time.

The British Empire included countries all around the world, in six different continents.

Queen Victoria was ruler of all of the countries in the British Empire, and as mentioned before, she was even empress of some of them, like India, of which she became empress in 1876.

Britain's rule had a huge impact on these countries, as well as these countries having a huge impact on Britain.

Queen Victoria herself had a very close link to this empire.

Abdul Karim, who was born in British India, in her later life, became one of her key attendants and servants.

What name was given to the group of countries around the world which were ruled by Britain? Was it A, the British Islands, B, British Empire, or C, British Colonies? Pause the video now and select the correct answer.

Off you go.

Great job, team.

Well, although some islands were part of the British Empire, they weren't called the British Islands.

That's not all of the countries collectively together that were ruled by Britain, it was the British Empire, and although they were colonised, and some of them were colonies, the correct term for the group of countries that were collectively ruled by Britain, was the British Empire during this time.

Remember, that Victoria herself was Empress to India.

So let's see what you've learned in this learning cycle.

We've been considering the British Empire at the time of Victoria's death, the fact that it was so large and it expanded so much, the fact that it had countries in six continents around the globe.

Remember that map we looked at earlier with all of those countries in red? Decide whether each statement is true or false, and tick your choice.

The statements are, at the time of her death, Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch.

Think carefully about the wording there, at the time of her death.

At the time of her death, Queen Victoria ruled countries all around the world.

At the time of her death, Queen Victoria was 100 years old, and at the time of her death, Queen Victoria had reigned for 70 years.

Pause the video now, read the statements again, and decide whether they're true or false.

Remember to consider the learning that we've done.

Off you go, team.

Brilliant job.

I'm incredibly impressed.

You've clearly picked up so much information.

This is really going to help us in the next part of our learning cycle, and just help to grow your knowledge base generally.

So at the time of her death, Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch.

This is true.

Remember, later in history, Queen Elizabeth II would become the longest reigning monarch that Britain has ever seen.

But at the time of her death, Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch there had ever been.

Queen Victoria ruled countries all around the world.

This is true.

We know that she was emperors or ruler of many countries around the world that were part of the Victorian British Empire.

This had expanded greatly during her reign, and this is one of the significant legacies of her reign.

At the time of her death, Queen Victoria was 100 years old.

This is false.

She was in fact 81 years old when she died, which is pretty good game for someone in the Victorian Era.

At the time of her death, Queen Victoria had reigned for 70 years.

This is false.

She hadn't rained for 70 years.

She had in fact rained for, that's it, 63 years, which, at the time of her death, was the longest reigning monarch that Britain had ever seen.

Great job, team.

Check your answers now.

Make sure you've got them correct.

Make any corrections and share your learning.

Off you go.

So we've learned about Queen Victoria's death, when she died, and the fact that at her time of death, she was the longest ruling monarch.

We've also considered the expanse of the British Empire at the time of her death.

Now we're going to consider some other parts of British society that changed throughout the course of Queen Victoria's reign, and what they were like upon her death.

So now we're going to look at British laws at the time of Victoria's death.

So in the 63 years that Queen Victoria reigned, many changes took place in Great Britain.

It truly was a time of radical change.

By the time of Queen Victoria's death in 1901, Britain was a very different place than when she became Queen in 1837.

And I'm sure you know about lots of these changes already, about the expansion of the British Empire, about the changes in British society, the fact that great wealth came into Britain, but at the same time, there was great poverty, about the factories that shot up, about people moving from rural countryside areas into cities to work in these factories.

There were also changes in education as well.

Many new laws were introduced in attempts to improve and make people's lives better.

Many new inventions were created, and we're going to be considering some of these changes now.

Some of the greatest changes to life in Britain happened because the laws of the country changed.

Remember that laws are rules that must be followed.

Laws often help to protect people from bad things happening to them.

Many new laws were introduced in Victorian times to help protect people and improve their lives.

Here in this image by Ford Madox Brown, this painting called "Work," it shows life in early Victorian times.

We can see the difference between those who have money and those who don't, those who are wealthy and those who are poor.

We can see the unemployed and people sleeping on the streets, the orphan children with nowhere to go, the poor flower seller on the left.

We can also see the workers working incredibly hard.

We know that, dependent on social class and opportunity, life in the Victorian times could have really been varied.

This painting really shows this.

Many laws in the early Victorian times couldn't keep up with these rapid change.

Many workers were exploited in factories, but gradually, throughout the Victorian period, laws began to be introduced that protected workers.

So, true or false? During Victorian times, the laws of Britain did not change.

Great, absolutely this is false.

We know that many laws did change during the Victorian Era.

Let's see if we can pick the correct justification for our answer.

During Victorian times, many new laws were introduced, or during Victorian times, there were no new laws introduced.

Which justifies our answer here? Choose from A or B now.

Off you go.

Great, absolutely.

During the Victorian times, many new laws were introduced.

As we've spoken about, this was a time of rapid and radical change.

In early Victorian times, life for children was very different to how it is today.

Not all children in Victorian times were able to go to school and receive an education.

Many Victorian children needed to work instead, and the work that they were given to do was really tough, really difficult, and they weren't paid a lot of money for this work.

Those that were wealthy could send their children to school, and perhaps even have a tutor that came to their household to teach them.

But those children from poorer families, from the lower class, from the lower social groups, were not able to go to school often, and they would have to go and work for their families.

Can you imagine what you do if you didn't go to school? Life in Victorian times then was very different for children.

In early Victorian times, factories opened in cities all around the country.

Men, women, and children went to work in them.

Child workers were useful, because they were small enough to squeeze into places that were hard to reach.

In this image here we can see a woman and a child, the child at the front here of the picture, of the machine, working in a cotton factory.

You can imagine the cotton spinning machine here becoming jammed, and who do you think would be sent in to unblock it, because they could fit into the gap? And the machine would suddenly come back on, perhaps causing life-threatening damage to the child.

Yes, a young child.

So these children who were forced into work to help provide for their families, received no education.

This was not fair at all.

By the time of Queen Victoria's death in 1901, new laws have been introduced to stop young people and young children from having to go to work.

We can see here an illustration of a child worker pulling a coal tub in a coal mine.

Small children were also sent down coal mines.

This was incredibly dangerous and unhealthy work for the children.

But by the end of the Victorian Era, new laws have been introduced to help protect children from having to go to work.

The new laws made sure that children were offered a free education.

The government even provided support for poor families so that they could afford to send their children to school.

So the new laws made sure that children were offered a free education, instead of being made to work in places like factories and coal mines.

This was definitely an improvement that occurred during the Victorian times.

So what I'd like us to do now is to check and find the correct word to put at the end of each sentence.

The words are education, factories, and small.

Remember that education is the act of learning.

In early Victorian times, children worked in places like hmm.

Child workers were used for tasks in tight spaces because they were hmm.

By the time of Queen Victoria's death, children were given a free hmm.

Could you find the correct word to put at the end of each sentence, and then say the sentences out loud? Consider what we've been learning about.

Off you go.

Excellent job, team.

You've clearly learned a lot in this learning cycle.

Let's see if you managed to complete the sentences correctly then.

In early Victorian times, children worked in places like factories, but not only in factories, they would also work in farm gangs, which was really exhausting work.

They would also work in coal mines.

We know that children had to work as chimney sweeps as well.

These jobs were poorly paid and could be incredibly dangerous.

Gradually we know that laws were introduced to ensure that children were educated, and also protected from having to work in such conditions.

Child workers were used for tasks in tight spaces, because they were small.

Indeed, they could be crammed up chimneys, put down thin mineshafts, and crawl into gaps in machines to unblock them.

These jobs could be incredibly dangerous.

By the time of Queen Victoria's death, children were given a free education.

Indeed they were, up until a certain age, and the government even supported poor families to pay for their education.

This was one of the huge improvements and changes during the Victorian Era.

So in Victorian times, many people went to live in cities so that they could work.

There was a huge rush towards cities, so that families could work in factories, so that they could earn more money.

Here is an illustration of a cotton factory in Manchester in 1829.

This factory would've housed large machines for spinning cotton.

Workers would've needed to work the machines, so many people moved to cities to find work in these factories.

This meant that there were lots of people in small areas, making cities really crowded, dirty, and unhealthy to live in.

We have some historical sources that tell us what it was like to live in these cities.

Pictures like this by Gustave Dore, "Over London by Rail," show us the conditions in Victorian cities.

We can see the crowded terraced houses, the pollution coming from the train, but also from the chimneys, the number of people living in these small, crowded spaces.

There are lots of houses here, crowded with people who were living in poor, cramped, which means tightly together, conditions.

Large numbers of people would've been living in these small spaces.

Illness would've spread easily.

And in the early Victorian Era, there was very poor sanitation and sewage services.

But by the time of Queen Victoria's death, new laws had been introduced to help clean up dirty cities and improve water supplies.

In London, the engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, helped to sort out the huge issues with sewage.

He helped to design London's first super sewers, which would take away waste, and leave the city far cleaner than it had before.

The laws meant that sewers were constructed then under the streets to remove dirty water from homes.

This was yet another improvement that occurred during the Victorian Era.

So at the time of Victoria's death, Britain was a healthier place to live in.

Consider what we've looked at in this learning cycle.

Do you agree or disagree? And can you say why? I agree, because.

Off you go, team.

Excellent.

I loved hearing your historical reasoning there.

I love the fact that you've clearly picked up so much knowledge throughout the course of this lesson, and can now answer this question.

Well, I think I would agree with this statement.

I agree, because new laws meant that people had clean water, and there were sewers to take the dirty water away.

We also know that new laws were introduced to keep children in education, so that they wouldn't have to go and work in dangerous factories, or do work in mines, or be chimney sweeps.

These jobs could be very negative for a child's health.

So if they weren't doing these jobs, it was surely better for their health.

So for our practise task now, what I'd like us to do, tell your learning partner what you have learned about Britain at the time of Victoria's death.

Consider the changes that had occurred during the Victorian Era.

Consider some of the improvements that had also been made in Britain.

Consider the expansion that had occurred to the British Empire during Queen Victoria's reign.

Some of the key words that you might use are empire.

You might consider cities, life, education, laws, and the word change.

Pause the video now.

Tell your partner what you've learned about Britain at the time of Victoria's death.

Off you go.

Excellent.

I loved hearing your incredible answers there.

I'm so impressed.

So you've been telling your partner what you've learned about Britain at the time of Victoria's death.

Your answers could have included, and I heard some great ones, by the time of Victoria's death, countries all over the world were parts of the British Empire.

This is true.

The British Empire expanded greatly during Queen Victoria's reign.

She'd even become Empress of India.

In Victorian times, lots of children didn't get an education.

By the time Victoria died, though, in 1901, the law said that all children should have a free education.

We know too, that some laws were introduced to protect children from having to go and work in factories and mines.

As well as this, laws were introduced to improve sewage and sanitation in major cities.

Remember that lots of people had moved to the cities because of the increased industrial activity in factories.

Britain truly had changed a lot during Queen Victoria's reign.

So we've been considering today Britain, at the time of Victoria's death.

Queen Victoria died in January, 1901, and she had been a queen for 63 years.

By the time Queen Victoria died, Britain ruled many other countries around the world.

This was called the British Empire, and this had expanded greatly during Queen Victoria's reign.

At the time of Queen Victoria's death, many new laws, which are rules that must be followed, have been introduced in Britain to protect people and improve their lives.

These laws meant that children could have a free education, instead of working, and cities became cleaner and healthier places to live.

The Victorian Era was truly one of rapid change.

It's a significant time period in British history, and Queen Victoria herself was certainly a significant monarch.