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 today's history lesson, we're going to be considering Victoria's accession to the throne.

Accession is the acquisition of a position of power, so how she became queen.

The outcome will be, I can describe what happened when Victoria became queen of the United Kingdom.

Here are the key words for today's learning.

My turn, your turn.

Coronation, prime minister, government, law.

So let's have a chat about what these mean then.

A coronation is an official ceremony where a king or queen receives their crown.

And we're gonna be considering today what Queen Victoria's coronation looked like.

The prime minister is the leader of the government in the United Kingdom.

The prime minister of the time was very helpful towards Queen Victoria.

The group of people who pass laws and run the country are called the government, and we're gonna consider today Queen Victoria's relationship with the government and the prime minister of the time.

And the law is a rule that must be followed by everyone in the country.

These laws are decided by the government.

So, we are looking at Victoria's accession to the throne, how she became queen and gained that position of power.

We're going to begin by considering how she became queen and then we're going to begin to think about Queen Victoria beginning to rule and what this looked like for her.

So let's begin by considering how she became queen.

Almost 200 years ago in 1837, Princess Victoria, as she was known before she became queen, became the queen of the United Kingdom.

This occurred at a very young age for her, and we can see here a painting of Victoria being told that she is now queen.

You can see the gentleman in front of her kneeling down to show respect towards the new queen.

Victoria was only 18 years old when she woke up early one morning and was told that her life had changed overnight.

She was no longer just going to be a princess, a member of the royal family, but she was going to become the queen of the United Kingdom, the monarch, the ruler.

She had a coronation a year later to officially become queen and to be given her crown.

Remember that a coronation is that ceremony where a king or queen officially become the monarch or ruler.

Within this ceremony, the king or queen will be crowned.

Here we can see an image on the left of Queen Victoria at her coronation, at this ceremony.

And you can see that she has had a crown placed upon her head.

Remember then, a coronation is an official ceremony where a king or a queen receives their crown.

How old was Victoria when she became queen? Select from A, B, or C now.

Think about what we've learned about already in this lesson.

Brilliant, she wasn't 10 years old.

She was in fact 18 in 1837 when she became queen.

And remember she had her coronation and was crowned a year later in 1838.

This was a very young age at which to become a monarch.

What is the name of the ceremony where a king or queen receives their crown? Is it A, an accession, B, a crowning, or C, one of our key words, coronation? Pause the video now and select the correct answer.

You've clearly been paying lots of attention team.

It is not A, an accession.

So the word accession is linked in meaning to both crowning and coronation, and it means the acquisition of the position of power.

It is not the name of the ceremony though.

Crowning is something that occurs during the ceremony.

The monarch, the king or the queen, will have that crown placed upon their head as they become the ruler of that nation.

The word that we were looking for, the name of the ceremony is, that's right, coronation.

This is the correct word.

It is the name for that ceremony where they officially gain their crown and have finally fully acceded to the throne.

Now, Victoria actually acceded in 1837, didn't she? At the age of 18.

But a year later she had a formal coronation.

So, Queen Victoria's coronation then, that special ceremony happened on the 28th of June, 1838.

This was a year after she had been named the new queen.

It took place in a large church in London called Westminster Abbey.

And you can see an image of Westminster Abbey in our photograph here.

This church is still used for coronations for monarchs to this day.

Around 400,000 people visited London to catch a glimpse of the new queen and to celebrate her coronation day.

Obviously, not all of these people could be crammed into Westminster Abbey.

So many people lie in the streets just to catch a glimpse of her on the way to the coronation.

And you can see here from this illustration of Victoria's coronation parade, she was pulled along in a special carriage.

This carriage is in fact called the Gold State Coach and is still used to this day for coronations and special royal events.

This shows that she was very popular with the people.

400,000 people coming to catch a glimpse of a monarch during this period of time is a huge number of people.

People would've travelled from all over the United Kingdom to come and see this important moment in British history.

So, who do you agree with here? Let's consider now the learning that we've done so far this lesson, the information that I've given you.

You could talk to a partner and explain your thinking.

Do we agree with Sam or do we agree with Alex? Sam says Victoria was already queen before the coronation happened, before that ceremony.

And Alex says, Victoria did not become queen until her coronation.

Think about the learning that we've done so far this lesson.

Talk your partner and explain who you agree with.

Off you go.

Brilliant, I loved hearing your reasoning and explanations there.

Really great use of full sentences as well.

So, the person who is correct here is Sam, and let's consider why that is.

Well, Sam is correct because Victoria became queen in 1837 when her uncle died.

But her coronation did not happen until a year later in 1838 in Westminster Abbey.

Remember that the coronation is the ceremony at which a king or queen, a monarch, are given their crown, but she had actually formally become queen the year before in 1837.

Again, who do you agree with? Talk to a partner and explain your thinking.

Sam says, very few people celebrated Victoria as their new queen, but Alex says the people were happy when Victoria was crowned queen.

Think about some of the evidence that we've looked at in our previous slides in this lesson.

Talk to your partner and explain who you agree with.

Off you go.

Excellent, again, some great full sentences and some great reasoning being offered here.

So, the person who's correct here is Alex.

Sam says, very few people celebrated Queen Victoria as the new queen.

However, we know that Alex is actually correct and Sam is incorrect because 400,000 people went to London because they wanted to see the new queen at her coronation ceremony.

She was actually a much loved and popular figure.

So, for our practise task now what I'd like you to do is match the beginnings and endings to make the correct sentences about how Victoria became queen, how she ascended to the throne.

So, on the left hand side we have Victoria became queen, Victoria received her crown, Victoria's coronation took place.

And on the right we have, at her coronation ceremony, at Westminster Abbey, and at the age of 18.

Have a go at saying each part of the sentences and see if you can complete the correct full sentences.

Off you go.

Excellent job team.

I'm really impressed.

So, Victoria became queen at the age of 18 in 1837, remember.

Victoria received her crown at her coronation ceremony.

This was a year later, in 1838.

And remember, 400,000 people are thought to have come to just catch a glimpse of their new ruler.

Victoria's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey in London.

And remember, this Abbey is still used to this day for coronations of monarchs.

So, we've considered how Victoria became queen and her accession to the throne, the fact that she became a monarch in 1837 and that her coronation was a year later in 1838.

Now we're going to consider the beginning of her rule and the figures who helped her at such a young age.

So, Victoria was very young when she became queen.

I wonder if you can remember her the age at which she was when she became queen in 1837.

Yep, that's right, she was 18 years old.

Here we can see an image of Victoria at her coronation.

She looks very young, doesn't she? She had never tried running a country before.

Being a monarch or figurehead for a state is a very important job, and she knew that she needed to ask for some help.

I wonder where then she would seek this help.

Well, the person that first helped Queen Victoria was Lord William Melbourne.

He was the prime minister of the United Kingdom at the time.

This is the gentleman here that we can see in this painting.

The prime minister is the leader of the government.

Together, the government and the prime minister make decisions about important things like taxes, and they also create new laws.

Laws are those rules that must be followed by the people living in that country.

Do you know who the Prime Minister today is? Brilliant.

So, laws are important rules that must be followed by everyone in that country and the government and the prime minister look after the country by making new laws to keep people safe.

This is a very important job.

At this time, Britain was a democracy.

The government and its politicians were voted for by the people.

Today, the police help to make sure that people don't break the law.

And this was the same in the Victorian era.

So true or false, Lord Melbourne was king alongside Queen Victoria.

Brilliant, absolutely.

This is false.

Although he gave her lots of advice and guided her in how best to rule the country, he was not the king alongside her.

He was the prime minister, the leader of the government at the time.

Lord Melbourne was prime minister, the leader of the government.

So, as a little check, let's check and see if you've been listening so far and what you've taken in.

Can you match the keywords to the definitions? Our keywords are government, prime minister and laws, and our definitions are the group of people that run a country, rules that people have to follow, and the leader of the government.

Match those keywords now to their definitions.

Off you go.

Brilliant job team.

You've clearly soaked up so much knowledge already.

So, the government is the group of people that run a country and that have been democratically voted for to do so.

The prime minister, the leader of the government, he's in charge of the group of people that are running the country.

And laws are rules that people have to follow.

These laws are decided on and enacted into law by the government.

So Queen Victoria trusted the prime minister, Lord Melbourne, more than anyone else to give her advice.

You can see here from this illustration of Lord Melbourne giving Queen Victoria advice that the two worked very closely together.

He helped her decide what she should do in many situations and gave her lots of advice.

As someone who was the leader of the government, he was in a very strong position to do so.

So, how did Lord Melbourne help Victoria? Did he A, gave her advice when she first became queen, B, he told her what to do when she first became queen, or C, he ruled alongside her as king.

Select the correct answer now.

Off you go.

Brilliant job team.

It is A, he gave her advice.

He didn't command her and tell her what to do, and he didn't rule alongside her as king, as he was the prime minister.

He advised her and gave her support.

The reason he did so is because she was so young when she became queen and she needed this support.

He was also very well placed to do so as the prime minister, the leader of the government at the time.

So for our practise task now, what I'd like us to have a good at doing is to consider how sure you are about each sentence being correct.

Consider the evidence that we've looked at in this lesson and the information that I've passed on to you.

I'd like you to talk to your partner and explain your decisions.

The statements that we have are: Victoria was helped by the prime minister, the prime minister told the government what to do, and Queen Victoria decided new laws for the country.

Are you sure this is correct? Do you think this is correct? Do you think this is incorrect? Or are you sure this is incorrect? Talk to your partner now.

Decide how sure you are about these statements and make sure you give some reasoning as well in full sentences.

Off you go, team.

Excellent job.

So for me, this is how I've decided how sure I am about those statements, and I'm sure that you've come to some similar conclusions.

Victoria was helped by the Prime Minister.

Yes, we know that this is a fact.

We can be sure that this is correct.

Lord William Melbourne supported Victoria when she first became queen.

He helped her by giving her advice.

He didn't tell her what to do.

She was very young and we saw some images earlier, some illustrations from the time that showed him advising her.

The prime minister told the government what to do.

This is incorrect.

He was a leader within the government, but the government worked democratically to decide the direction it would go in and the laws that it would put into place.

They could be supported and guided by the prime minister.

And Queen Victoria decided new laws for the country.

This is incorrect.

The monarch at this period in British history did not have final say on these laws.

They were put into practise and decided upon by the democratically elected government of the time.

So talk with your partner and hopefully you've explained your decision.

Victoria was helped by the prime minister.

Well, Victoria was very young when she became queen.

Remember she was only 18 when she acceded to the throne in 1837.

And so she needed advice on how to run a country.

And Lord William Melbourne was very well paced to do this at the time as the prime minister of the current government.

The prime minister told the government what to do.

I'm hoping you've decided that you thought this was incorrect.

The prime minister is the leader of the government, but the government worked together to make important decisions.

And Queen Victoria decided new laws for the country.

This is incorrect.

The prime minister and the government decide the new laws of the country.

The monarch still played an important role, but she was not the one at the time, Queen Victoria, to be deciding upon the laws and the new rules that must be followed within a country.

That was the government's role.

Great job in history today, team.

We've been looking at Victoria's accession to the throne.

Remember, that word accession means the acquisition of a position of power.

So how she became the monarch of the United Kingdom.

In 1837, Queen Victoria became the queen at the young age of 18.

Her coronation ceremony, so the ceremony in which she was crowned was the following year in 1837.

Around 400,000 people visited London to celebrate the new queen and her coronation because she was very popular.

Lord Melbourne was the prime minister at the time, and he gave Queen Victoria a lot of advice in her first years as queen.

Remember, he didn't tell her what to do, but he advised her.

He was the leader of the government and the group of people who make laws and run the country.

Remember, Queen Victoria was not the person deciding upon the laws and how the country should be run.

This was the democratically elected government at the time.

Great job in history today.

I hope you've learned a lot more information about Queen Victoria, how she came to the throne and how she was supported in her early years, and I look forward to seeing you in our next history lesson.