Queen Victoria became queen because she was the next legitimate heir in the British royal line when her uncle, King William IV, died without surviving legitimate children on 20 June 1837, at which point she inherited the throne at the age of 18.

How did Queen Victoria become queen?

  • Victoria was the only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, who was the fourth son of King George III, which placed her in the line of succession after her uncles and any of their legitimate children.
  • King George IV and King William IV, her elder uncles, both failed to produce surviving legitimate heirs, so over time Victoria moved closer and closer to first place in the succession.
  • When King William IV died in the early hours of 20 June 1837, the crown passed directly to Victoria as his nearest legitimate heir, and she therefore became queen automatically under the laws of hereditary succession.

The morning she became queen

  • In the early morning at Kensington Palace, officials including the Lord Chamberlain came to inform the 18‑year‑old princess that King William IV had died and that she was now queen.
  • Victoria later recorded that she was woken around 6 a.m., received the news in her dressing gown, and was formally addressed as queen from that moment.
  • Later the same morning she met the Privy Council, where observers noted her calm and self‑possessed manner as she carried out her first duties as the new monarch.

Why Hanover got a different ruler

  • Before 1837, the same monarch ruled both the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Hanover, but Hanover followed Salic law, which barred women from inheriting the throne.
  • When Victoria became queen of the United Kingdom, the crown of Hanover therefore passed instead to her uncle Ernest Augustus, breaking the personal union between the two kingdoms.

TL;DR: Victoria was not originally “destined” to rule, but because her uncles had no surviving legitimate heirs, she became first in line; when King William IV died in June 1837, the 18‑year‑old Victoria automatically became queen under British succession law.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.