Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on Feb 10, 1840. Over the next 17 years, they had nine children, eight of whom were born at Buckingham Palace.

During her reign as a monarch, Foreman said Queen Victoria achieved much, particularly as a woman. "I can only compare her in some ways to Empress Wu Zetian, in the sense that Empress Wu had to create a new language of power, because the language of power that was available to her was male.

"Queen Victoria had the same problem－that power had a male face and male characteristics, so when Queen Victoria decided to change Buckingham Palace, she wanted to make it into a family home, which is a female characteristic," Foreman added.

The balcony of Buckingham Palace is arguably one of the best known in the world, and it was Queen Victoria who first used it as a stage to mark historic royal occasions, setting a trend that is still followed today.