Editing 1830s (section)

=== Northern Europe ===

==== United Kingdom ====

===== Royalty =====
[[File:Dronning victoria.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[June 20]]: [[Queen Victoria]], Queen of the United Kingdom (1837–1901).]]
In 1830, [[William IV]] succeeded his brother [[George IV]] as King of the [[United Kingdom]]. Upon his death in 1837, his 18-year-old niece, [[Queen Victoria|Princess Victoria]].<ref name="web.archive.org 1820-1840">{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1820-1840 |title=Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840 |access-date=2007-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922055840/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1820-1840 |archive-date=22 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Under [[Salic law]], the [[Kingdom of Hanover]] passed to William's brother, [[Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover|Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland]], ending the [[personal union]] of Britain and Hanover which had existed since [[1714]]. [[Queen Victoria]] took up residence in [[Buckingham Palace]], the first reigning British monarch to make this, rather than [[St James's Palace]], her London home.<ref name="Pocket On This Day">{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref>

===== Politics and law =====
Britain had four [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime ministers]] during the 1830s.  As the decade began, Tory [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]] led parliament. Wellington's government fell in late 1830, failing to react to calls for reform.<ref>Holmes (2002). p. 283.</ref> The Whigs selected [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey]] to succeed him, who led passage of many reforms, including the [[Reform Act 1832]], the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]] (abolishing slavery throughout the [[British Empire]]), and the [[Factory Acts]] (limiting [[child labour]]).

In 1834 Grey retired from public life, leaving [[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]] as his successor. Reforms continued under Lord Melbourne, with the [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834|Poor Law Amendment Act]] in 1834, which stated that no able-bodied British man could receive assistance unless he entered a [[workhouse]]. King [[William IV]]'s opposition to the Whigs' reforming ways led him to dismiss Melbourne in November and then appoint Sir [[Robert Peel]] to form a Tory government. Peel's failure to win a House of Commons majority in the resulting [[1835 United Kingdom general election|general election]] (January 1835) made it impossible for him to govern, and the Whigs returned to power under Melbourne in April 1835. The [[Marriage Act 1836]] established [[civil marriage]] and registration systems that permit marriages in [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] chapels, and a [[Registrar General]] of Births, Marriages, and Deaths.<ref>[[wikisource:1836 (33) Registration of Births &c. A bill for registering Births Deaths and Marriages in England]].</ref><ref name=CBH>{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Alan|last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd|location=London|pages=260–261|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}</ref>

There were protests and significant unrest during the decade. In May and June 1831 in Wales, coal miners and others rioted for improved working conditions in what was known as the [[Merthyr Rising]]. [[William Howley]] [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] has his coach attacked by an angry mob on his first official visit to [[Canterbury]] in 1832. In 1834, [[Robert Owen]] organized the [[Grand National Consolidated Trades Union]], an early attempt to form a national [[union confederation]]. In May [[1838]], the [[People's Charter of 1838|People's Charter]] was drawn up in the [[United Kingdom]], demanding [[universal suffrage]].  Chartism continued to gain popularity, leading to the [[Newport Rising]] in 1839, the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.

In 1835, [[James Pratt and John Smith]] were [[hanging|hanged]] outside [[Newgate Prison]] in London after a conviction of [[sodomy]], the last deadly victims of the judicial [[persecution]] of [[homosexual men]] in England.<ref>See [http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/newgate.html] 2012</ref>