Height- something that can play a big role in your personality, and something that you have zero control over. As a short person who is typically the shortest person in any room of adults, I tend to handle myself in specific ways, and am hyper aware that it would be easy to overpower me if you are tall enough. However, you know who didn’t let her height affect her self perception? You are correct if you guessed Queen Victoria! Today we are going to look at this long reigning Queen and Empress, and what her physical size actually was.
If you don’t know much about Queen Victoria, you may have only seen one of the older portraits of her. There is a good chance she is a dour old woman, who fills the entire photograph with her angry expression and black widow’s weeds. By the end of her life, she reportedly had a 50 inch waist. I know what you are going to say- lots of people have larger waists. Well, you when you take the period into account, as well as her height, that is a rather shocking figure.
Queen Victoria stood a whole whopping 152cm tall (or 5′ tall for my US readers)! Yes, that’s right- you are probably taller than her. (I actually am, and I’m tiny…) Given that she was Queen and Empress over the largest empire in the world, and had no shortage of confidence, you may expect her to be a much taller figure. However, she was a short person much like many of us!
I always wonder with Victoria if it was a Napoleon complex that led to much of her precocious confidence (and sometimes arrogance). She was kept under strict control as a child, and although she did grow up to be queen in her own right, she was surrounded by men who literally looked down on her. Perhaps it had nothing to do with it at all, but I think that it must have played at least a small role in who she became! And seriously, although these shoes are super tiny (tinier than mine), they are still gorgeous. Why aren’t we all wearing silk slippers?! (Right, we don’t all live in palaces….)
Did you know about Queen Victoria’s height, or lack thereof? And do you think it had any effect on her personality?
Cheers,
The Historian
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I had no idea she was so short! Perhaps you can shed some light here — my understanding (which may be a myth) is that human beings were on average much shorter back then in general. Would her equivalent today be a couple of inches taller?