Editing Queen Victoria (section)

== Declining health and death ==
{{Main|Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria}}
[[File:Queen Victoria In Dublin (Rare archive footage from 1900).webm|thumb|upright|Queen Victoria in Dublin, 1900]]

Victoria regularly holidayed in mainland Europe. In 1889, during a stay in [[Biarritz]], she became the first reigning monarch from Britain to visit Spain by briefly crossing the border.<ref>Hibbert, p. 436; St Aubyn, p. 508</ref> By April 1900, the [[Boer War]] was so unpopular in mainland Europe that her annual trip to France seemed inadvisable. Instead, the Queen went to Ireland for the first time since 1861, in part to acknowledge the contribution of Irish regiments to the South African war.<ref>Hibbert, pp. 437–438; Longford, pp. 554–555; St Aubyn, p. 555</ref>

[[File:Queen Victoria by Heinrich von Angeli.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait by [[Heinrich von Angeli]], 1899]]

In July 1900, Victoria's second son, Alfred ("Affie"), died. "Oh, God! My poor darling Affie gone too", she wrote in her journal. "It is a horrible year, nothing but sadness & horrors of one kind & another."<ref>Longford, p. 558</ref>

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. [[Rheumatism]] in her legs had rendered her disabled, and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts.<ref>Hibbert, pp. 464–466, 488–489; Strachey, p. 308; Waller, p. 442</ref> Through early January, she felt "weak and unwell",<ref>Victoria's journal, 1&nbsp;January 1901, quoted in Hibbert, p. 492; Longford, p. 559 and St Aubyn, p. 592</ref> and by mid-January she was "drowsy{{nbsp}}[...] dazed, [and] confused".<ref>Her personal physician [[Sir James Reid, 1st Baronet]], quoted in Hibbert, p. 492</ref> Her [[Queen Victoria's pets|favourite pet]] [[Pomeranian (dog)|Pomeranian]], Turi, was laid on her bed as a last request.<ref name="ABC">{{Citation |last=Rappaport |first=Helen |title=Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion |date=2003 |pages=34–39 |chapter=Animals |publisher=Abc-Clio |isbn=978-1-85109-355-7}}</ref> She died aged 81 on 22 January 1901, at half past six in the evening, in the presence of her eldest son, Albert Edward, and grandson Wilhelm II. Albert Edward immediately succeeded as Edward VII.<ref>Longford, pp. 561–562; St Aubyn, p. 598</ref>
[[File:Proclamation - Day of mourning in Toronto for Queen Victoria February 2, 1901.jpg|thumb|upright|Poster proclaiming a day of mourning in [[Toronto]] on the day of Victoria's funeral]]

In 1897, Victoria had written instructions for [[Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria|her funeral]], which was to be military as befitting a soldier's daughter and the head of the army,<ref name="odnb" /> and white instead of black.<ref>Hibbert, p. 497; Longford, p. 563</ref> On 25 January, Edward VII and Wilhelm II, together with Prince Arthur, helped lift her body into the coffin.<ref>St Aubyn, p. 598</ref> She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil.<ref>Longford, p. 563</ref> An array of mementos commemorating her extended family, friends and servants were laid in the coffin with her, at her request, by her physician and dressers. One of Albert's dressing gowns was placed by her side, with a plaster cast of his hand, while a lock of John Brown's hair, along with a picture of him, was placed in her left hand concealed from the view of the family by a carefully positioned bunch of flowers.<ref name="odnb" /><ref>Hibbert, p. 498</ref> Items of [[Victorian jewellery|jewellery]] placed on Victoria included the wedding ring of Brown's mother, which Brown gave Victoria in 1883.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB |title=Victoria (1819–1901) |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36652 |orig-date=2004 |date=October 2009 |edition=online |author-link1=Colin Matthew |last1=Matthew |first1=H. C. G. |last2=Reynolds |first2=K. D. |mode=cs2}}</ref> Her funeral was held on Saturday 2 February, in [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]], and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in the [[Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore]], at [[Windsor Great Park]].<ref>Longford, p. 565; St Aubyn, p. 600</ref>

With a reign of 63 years, seven months, and two days, Victoria was the [[List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign|longest-reigning British monarch]] and the [[List of longest-reigning monarchs|longest-reigning]] [[queen regnant]] in world history, until her great-great-granddaughter [[Elizabeth II]] surpassed her on 9 September 2015.<ref>{{Citation |last=Gander |first=Kashmira |title=Queen Elizabeth II to become Britain's longest reigning monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria |date=26 August 2015 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/queen-elizabeth-ii-to-become-britains-longest-reigning-monarch-surpassing-queen-victoria-10473729.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |place=London |access-date=9 September 2015 |archive-date=19 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919003603/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/queen-elizabeth-ii-to-become-britains-longest-reigning-monarch-surpassing-queen-victoria-10473729.html |url-status=live}}</ref> She was the last monarch of Britain from the [[House of Hanover]]; her son Edward VII belonged to her husband's [[House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]].<ref>{{citation |last=Weir |first=Alison |year=1996 |author-link=Alison Weir (historian) |title=Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy |edition=Revised |location=London |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-7126-7448-5 |page=317}}</ref>