The University was formed when Owen's College in Manchester was granted a royal charter in 1880. University College Liverpool joined the University in 1884, followed by the Yorkshire College (in Leeds) in 1887.
However, the desires of Manchester and Liverpool to become independent city universities meant that the Victoria University was short-lived. Liverpool left the university in 1903 to become the University of Liverpool; Leeds, who didn't really want to leave, were granted their own royal charter in 1904 and became the University of Leeds and Manchester, the only remaining site, was renamed the Victoria University of Manchester.
Victoria, who was almost entirely of German descent (except from her ancestor Sophia of Hanover, who was a female-line granddaughter of James I), was the last monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth son of King George III and Queen Charlotte.
Victoria's personal life was marked by many personal tragedies, including the death of her son, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the fatal illness of her daughter, The Empress Friedrich, Queen Dowager of Prussia, and the death of two of her grandsons, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein.
Victoria's long reign witnessed an evolution in English politics and the expansion of the British Empire, as well as political and social reform on the continent.
The author notes that the Queen was terribly sullen and uninterested in the concerns of foreign affairs, since her husband died in December 1861, and the key years of the American Civil War occurred during this time of her mourning.
Topics that are covered in great detail include; the courtship of Albert and Victoria, their wedding on February 10, 1840, the birth of their first daughter, and the Queen's reaction to the Prince Consort's untimely death.
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