Queen Victoria was the queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 until her death in 1901. She was the second-longest reigning monarch in British history, overseeing a period of great industrial, cultural, and scientific progress known as the Victorian Era. Her reign marked the expansion of the British Empire and significant changes in society, including the rise of the middle class. Victoria was known for her strict standards of morality and personal conduct, which influenced the values of her time. She married her cousin, Prince Albert, and together they had nine children, who married into various European royal families, earning her the nickname 'the grandmother of Europe.'