Albert, Prince Consort

Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha married his first cousin Victoria on 10 February 1840, when he was twenty and she was Queen of the British Empire. The role of consort gave him no power, and at first he chafed against the ceremonial void. Gradually he carved out influence: running the Queen's household and estates, championing educational reform and the worldwide abolition of slavery, and orchestrating the Great Exhibition of 1851, which became a landmark success. He nudged Victoria toward constitutional balance, urging her to shed partisanship in parliament, though he clashed with Foreign Secretary Palmerston over interventionist policy. They had nine children. He died on 14 December 1861, and Victoria sank into mourning so total she wore black until her own death forty years later.