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Home / Periods / Long Nineteenth Century / Victorian & Edwardian Britain

Period

Victorian & Edwardian Britain

1837–1914 CE

Victorian & Edwardian Britain spans the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. During these decades Britain became more urban and industrial, railways and mass print transformed communication, and an expanding empire connected domestic politics to wars, migration and commerce across the world.

Political reform widened the electorate while organised labour, Irish nationalism and campaigns for women’s suffrage challenged established institutions. Public health, education, medicine and municipal government expanded, but poverty, dangerous work and rigid class distinctions remained central features of everyday life.

The Edwardian years retained much of the Victorian social order while exposing its strains. Constitutional conflict, industrial unrest, the Home Rule crisis, the militant suffrage campaign and mounting international rivalry all intensified before the European war of 1914 ended the period.

Related people for Victorian & Edwardian Britain

Abraham Lincoln1809–1865 Ahmed ‘Urabi1841–1911 Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner1854–1925 Alum Bhegd. 1858 Anne Brontë1820–1849 Arthur Maurice Hocart1883–1939 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769–1852 Bahadur Shah Zafar1775–1862 Barghash bin Said of Zanzibarc. 1837–1888 Beatrix Potter1866–1943 Belle Elmorec. 1873–1910 Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881 Branwell Brontë1817–1848 Cecil Rhodes1853–1902 Charles Dickens1812–1870 Charles George Gordon1833–1885 Charles Pearson1793–1862 Charlotte Brontë1816–1855 Charlotte Canning1817–1861 Christiaan de Wet1854–1922 Dabulamanzi kaMpande1839–1886 David Lloyd George1863–1945 Diana, Princess of Wales1961–1997 Dingane kaSenzangakhona1795–1840 Dost Mohammad Khan1793–1863 Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig1861–1928 Edward VII1841–1910 Edward VIII1894–1972 Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861 Elizabeth Blackwell1821–1910 Elizabeth II1926–2022 Emily Brontë1818–1848 Ethel Le Neve1883–1967 Evelyn Wood1838–1919 FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan1788–1855 Frank Pick1878–1941 Franz Joseph I of Austria1830–1916 Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts1832–1914 Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley1833–1913 George III1738–1820 George IV of the United Kingdom1762–1830 George Pomeroy Colley1835–1881 George VI1895–1952 Giuseppe Garibaldi1807–1882 Gonville Bromhead1845–1891 Haile Selassie1892–1975 Harry Beck1902–1974 Hawley Harvey Crippen1862–1910 Henry Montgomery Lawrence1806–1857 Henry Pulleine1838–1879 Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston1784–1865 Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener1850–1916 Horatio Nelson1758–1805 James Brooke1803–1868 James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie1812–1860 James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan1797–1868 James McNeill Whistler1834–1903 James Young Simpson1811–1870 Jan Smuts1870–1950 Jennie Churchill1854–1921 Jim Driscoll1880–1925 John Chard1847–1897 John Frost1912–1993 John Frost (Chartist)1784–1877 John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence1811–1879 John Ruskin1819–1900 Jomo Kenyatta1893–1978 Joseph Chamberlain1836–1914 Lachlan Macquarie1762–1824 Lord Randolph Churchill1849–1895 Louis Botha1862–1919 Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948 Majid bin Said of Zanzibar1834–1870 Manfred von Richthofen1892–1918 Mangal Pandey1827–1857 Margaret Murray1863–1963 Margaret Thatcher1925–2013 Menelik II1844–1913 Mohammad Akbar Khan1816–1845 Muhammad Ahmad1844–1885 Nana Sahib1824–c. 1859 Napoleon1769–1821 Napoleon III1808–1873 Napoléon, Prince Imperial1856–1879 Neville Chamberlain1869–1940 Nicholas II of Russia1868–1918 Nicholas I of Russia1796–1855 Otto von Bismarck1815–1898 Patrick Brontë1777–1861 Paul Kruger1825–1904 Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari1841–1879 Ranavalona I1788–1861 Rani Lakshmibai1828–1858 Ranjit Singh1780–1839 Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley1760–1842 Robert Baden-Powell1857–1941 Robert Browning1812–1889 Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala1810–1890 Robert Peel1788–1850 Shah Shujah Durrani1780–1842 Shaka1787–1828 Siegfried Sassoon1886–1967 Tewodros II1818–1868 Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919 Thomas Stamford Raffles1781–1826 Tipu Sultan1751–1799 Victoria1819–1901 Vladimir Lenin1870–1924 Walter Dew1863–1947 Walter Hamilton1856–1879 Wilfred Owen1893–1918 Wilhelm II1859–1941 William Blake1757–1827 William Bligh1754–1817 William Brydon1811–1873 William George Keith Elphinstone1782–1842 William Halse Rivers Rivers1864–1922 William Pitt the Younger1759–1806 William Wordsworth1770–1850 Winston Churchill1874–1965 Woodrow Wilson1856–1924

Series

Series about Victorian & Edwardian Britain (3 series)

Soldier of the Queen in Order

by Griff Hosker 6 books 4.5(8,768)

Soldier of the Queen follows the Roberts family through the late Victorian and Edwardian imperial army. The books move from Rorke’s Drift and Egypt to Sudan, oil interests, desert garrisons and pre-war diplomacy, showing imperial soldiering as a mixture of danger, ambition, family strain and long overseas service.

Inspector Lestrade in Order

17 books 3.9(2,700)

The Inspector Lestrade novels take the Scotland Yard detective familiar from the Sherlock Holmes stories and give him an independent career of his own. Trow’s Sholto Lestrade is persistent, practical and frequently exasperated by the eccentric world around him, investigating murders that carry him through circuses, the Underground,…

Margaret Murray Mysteries in Order

2 books 3.6(234)

The Margaret Murray mysteries turn the real Egyptologist and archaeologist Margaret Alice Murray into the centre of historical murder investigations at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her scholarly training, attention to material evidence and refusal to accept convenient explanations make her a plausible fictional investigator within the…

Books

30 Best Novels About Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Non-Fiction

30 Best Non-Fiction Books About Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.