In Good Company - Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria was the monarch of Britain from June 20th 1838 until her death Jan 22nd 1901 making her reign of just over 63 years the longest of any British monarch to date. At the time of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne Britain was already a constitutional monarchy, however she held considerable sway in her time, and the era of her reign is forever known as the Victorian Era. She is also an important figure in Canadian history as it was under her reign that Canada became a confederation under its own rule. She was also the last monarch of the House of Hanover.

Queen Victoria was a trend setter in British history. Her name itself was the beginning of a trend and the source of much debate. Apparently the name Victoria was not deemed a suitable name for a princess and heiress presumptive*. The reason the name was not considered suitable is because the name Victoria apparently was “never known heretofore as a Christian name in [Britain]”, the issue was finally resolved because the people of Britain were used to referring to her as Victoria. Count Bismark the Chancellor of Germany was rumored to exclaim “Mein Gott! That is a woman!” after emerging from an audience with Queen Victoria.

The British North America act was read by Queen Victoria on Feb 11th 1867 and was presented to the House of Lords the next day and was quickly passed establishing Canada as a Confederation, and passed through the House of Commons and received Royal Assent on March 29th 1867 and July 1st 1867 was the date set of the union.

All of this is fairly common knowledge to most people, even over a hundred years after her death, however what is often ignored is her use of marijuana as a medicine to control her menstrual cramps. Her personal physician J.R. Reynolds prescribed her marijuana in order to deal with the monthly cramps. Reynolds was a strong supporter in the medicinal properties of marijuana stating that “by far the most useful of drugs" in treating "painful maladies."

*an heir or heiress presumptive is a person who is presumed to be next in line for the throne under the provision that the current monarch has no heirs of their own.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_victoria
http://marijuana-as-medicine.org/Alliance/facts.html
Queen Victoria: A Personal History