Unlike Elizabeth, Victoria rose to the throne by default. However, despite her more favourable circumstances, she nonetheless proved to be just as formidable a ruler. While, during Victoria’s time, the role of a monarch was concerned more with ceremonial duties than actually ruling, Victoria nonetheless had many responsibilities to see to. She took the throne amidst powerful calls for the replacement of the monarchy with a republic, in a time when the status of monarchs across Europe was in question with the French Revolution in recent memory, and completely remade its image. She oversaw a massive expansion of the territories of the British Empire and numerous political reforms, in a time which later would become known as the Victorian Age.
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