Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld | |||||
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Princess of Leiningen Duchess of Kent and Strathearn | |||||
Born | Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 17 August 1786 Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Holy Roman Empire | ||||
Died | 16 March 1861 Frogmore House, Windsor, Berkshire, England | (aged 74)||||
Burial | 25 March 1861
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Spouses | Emich Karl, Prince of Leiningen (m. 1803; died 1814) | ||||
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Father | Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld | ||||
Mother | Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf | ||||
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Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Marie Louise Victoire; 17 August 1786 – 16 March 1861), later Princess of Leiningen and subsequently Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, was a German princess and the mother of
Early life
Victoria was born in
Marriages
First marriage
On 21 December 1803 at
Regency
After the death of her first spouse, she served as regent of the Principality of Leiningen during the minority of their son, Carl.[1]
Second marriage
The death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the wife of Victoria's brother Leopold, in 1817, prompted a succession crisis. With Parliament offering them a financial incentive, three of Charlotte's uncles, sons of King George III, were prepared to marry. One of them, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, proposed to Victoria and she accepted.[4] The couple were married on 29 May 1818 at Amorbach and on 11 July 1818 at Kew, a joint ceremony at which Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, later King William IV, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Shortly after their marriage, the Kents moved to Germany, where the cost of living would be cheaper. Soon after, Victoria became pregnant, and the Duke and Duchess, determined to have their child born in England, raced back.[5][6] Arriving at Dover on 23 April 1819, they moved into Kensington Palace, where Victoria gave birth to a daughter on 24 May 1819, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, later Queen Victoria.[4] An efficient organiser, Sir John Conroy, ensured the Kents' speedy return to England in time for the birth of their first child.[7]
Widowhood
The Duke of Kent died suddenly of
The provision made for the Duchess of Kent was mean: she resided in a suite of rooms in the dilapidated
In 1831, with George IV dead and the new king William IV (formerly the Duke of Clarence) being over 60 without any surviving legitimate issue, and whose nearly 40-year-old wife was considered to be at the end of childbearing age, the young princess's status as heir presumptive and the Duchess's prospective place as regent led to major increases in British state income for the Kents. Parliament agreed an annuity for the Duchess and her daughter in August 1831.[9] A contributing factor was Leopold's designation as King of the Belgians, upon which he surrendered his British income.
Royal feud
Together in a hostile environment,
The Duchess of Kent was extremely protective, and raised Victoria largely isolated from other children under the so-called "Kensington System". The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable (including most of her father's family), and was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them.[16] The Duchess avoided the court because she was scandalised by the presence of King William's illegitimate children,[17] and perhaps prompted the emergence of Victorian morality by insisting that her daughter avoid any appearance of sexual impropriety.[18] Victoria shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play-hours with her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash.[19]
Perhaps because of Conroy's influence, the relationship between the Duchess's household and William IV soon soured, with the Duchess regarding the King as an oversexed oaf.
Both the King and Queen Adelaide were fond of their niece, but their attempts to forge a close relationship with the girl were frustrated by the conflict with the Duchess of Kent. The King, angered at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, took the opportunity at what proved to be his final birthday banquet in August 1836 to settle the score. Speaking to those assembled at the banquet, who included the Duchess and Princess Victoria, William expressed his hope that he would survive until Princess Victoria was 18 so that the Duchess of Kent would never be regent. He said,
I trust to God that my life may be spared for nine months longer ... I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the exercise of the Royal authority to the personal authority of that young lady, heiress presumptive to the Crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisers and is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the situation in which she would be placed.[28]
The breach between the Duchess and the King and Queen was never fully healed, but Victoria always viewed both of them with kindness.[29]
Conroy had high hopes for his patroness and himself: he envisaged Victoria succeeding the throne at a young age, thus needing a regency government, which, following the Regency Act 1830, would be headed by the princess's mother (who had already served in that capacity in Germany following the death of her first husband).[30] As the personal secretary of the Duchess, Conroy would be the veritable "power behind the throne". He had not counted on William IV surviving long enough for Victoria to come of age and be able to succeed to the throne as an adult and consequently, while cultivating her mother, had shown little consideration for Victoria. When the latter succeeded, Conroy risked having no influence over her. He tried to force Victoria to agree to make him her personal secretary once she succeeded, but this plan, too, backfired. Victoria resented her mother's support for Conroy's schemes and being pressured by her to sign a paper declaring Conroy her personal secretary. The result was that when Victoria became queen, she relegated the Duchess to separate accommodations, away from her own.[31]
Reconciliation
When the Queen's first child, the
Rumours of affairs
Historian A. N. Wilson suggests that Victoria's father could not have been the Duke of Kent for two reasons:
- The sudden appearance of hæmophilia in the descendants of Victoria. The illness did not exist in the royal family before.
- The supposed disappearance of porphyria from the descendants of Victoria. According to Wilson, the disease was prevalent in the royal family before Victoria but not afterwards.[33]
In practice, Wilson's first reason would have required the Duchess's lover to be
As for Wilson's second reason, there is evidence to suggest Victoria's daughter, Empress Frederick, suffered from porphyria,[41] and John Röhl's book, Purple Secret, documents evidence of porphyria in Empress Frederick's daughter Charlotte, and her granddaughter, Feodora.[42] Röhl also claims that Prince William of Gloucester was diagnosed with porphyria shortly before he died in a flying accident.[42] There is moreover no genetic evidence that the royal family ever had the disease: its diagnosis in George III's case (and others) has been questioned.[43]
Death
The Duchess died at 09:30 on 16 March 1861, aged 74 years, with her daughter Victoria at her side. The Queen was much affected by her mother's death. Through reading her mother's papers, Victoria discovered that her mother had loved her deeply;[44] she was heart-broken, and blamed Conroy and Lehzen for "wickedly" estranging her from her mother.[45] She is buried in the Duchess of Kent's Mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor Home Park, near to the royal residence Windsor Castle.[46]
Queen Victoria and Albert dedicated a window in the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park to her memory.[47]
Portrayal
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was portrayed by
Ancestry
Ancestors of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 3-593-37763-2, S. 20.
- ^ Urbach, Karina, "Victoire" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 26 (2017), pp. 810–811
- ^ Chambers, pp. 164–167.
- ^ a b c Longford 2004a
- ^ Hibbert 2000, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Gill 2009, p. 34.
- ^ a b c d Longford 2004b.
- ^ Chambers, p. 164.
- ^ "House of Lords Journal Volume 63: 31 August 1831 Pages 954–955". British History Online. HMSO. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
- ^ Vallone 2001, p. 63.
- ^ a b Hough 1996, p. 20.
- ^ Gill 2009, p. 47.
- ^ Hibbert, p. 27; Longford, pp. 35–38, 118–119; St Aubyn, pp. 21–22; Woodham-Smith, pp. 70–72. The rumours were false in the opinion of these biographers.
- ^ Williams 2010, pp. 211–12.
- ^ Hibbert 2001, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Hibbert, pp. 27–28; Waller, pp. 341–342; Woodham-Smith, pp. 63–65
- ^ Hibbert, pp. 32–33; Longford, pp. 38–39, 55; Marshall, p. 19
- ISBN 0-316-11459-6, pp. 133–136
- ^ Waller, pp. 338–341; Woodham-Smith, pp. 68–69, 91
- ISBN 0-7394-2025-9.
- ^ Williams 2010, p. 226.
- ^ Williams 2010, p. 227.
- ^ Hibbert 2001, p. 33.
- ^ Rappaport 2003, p. 101.
- ^ Williams 2010, pp. 218–20.
- ^ Barrow 1831, p. 242.
- ^ Vallone 2001, p. 72.
- ^ Somerset, p. 209.
- ^ Allen, p.225
- ^ Hibbert, p. 31; St Aubyn, p. 26; Woodham-Smith, p. 81
- ^ Gill 2009, pp. 75–76.
- ^ Packard, p. 85
- ISBN 0-09-179421-8, page 25
- ^ a b Packard, Jerrold (1973). Victoria's Daughters. New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 43–44
- ^ "Hemophilia B (Factor IX)". National Hemophilia Foundation. 2006. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
- ^ McKusick, Victor A. (1965). "The Royal Hemophilia". Scientific American. Vol. 213. p. 91.
- ISBN 0-00-255020-2.
- ISBN 0-00-255511-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4251-6810-0.
- ^ "An Interview with Dr. Helen Rappaport". National Bleeding Disorders Foundation. 29 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ Rappaport 2003, p. 394.
- ^ ISBN 0-593-04148-8
- PMID 21877427.
- ^ Hibbert, p. 267; Longford, pp. 118, 290; St Aubyn, p. 319; Woodham-Smith, p. 412
- ^ Hibbert, p. 267; Marshall, p. 152; Woodham-Smith, p. 412
- ^ "Royal Burials in the Chapel since 1805". College of St George - Windsor Castle. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-300-07079-8.
- ^ "'Victoria & Albert' brings royal couple to life". Telegraph Herald. Knight Ridder. 21 October 2001. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
- ^ Mary Kunz Goldman (21 August 2010). "'The Young Victoria': Royal romance story is beautifully filmed and acted – Gusto". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
- ^ Doran, Sarah (28 August 2016). "Meet the cast of Victoria". Radio Times. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "Meet the cast of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story". Radio Times. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
Bibliography
- Allen, W. Gore (1960). King William IV. London: Cresset Press
- Barrow, John Henry (1831). The Mirror of Parliament for the Preliminary Portion of First Session of the Ninth Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland. London: William Clowes.
- Chambers, James (2007). Charlotte and Leopold. London: Old Street Publishing. ISBN 978-1-905847-23-5.
- Gill, Gillian (2009). We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals. New York: Ballatine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-52001-2.
- ISBN 0-00-638843-4.
- ISBN 978-0-306-81085-5.
- Hough, Richard (1996). Victoria and Albert. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-30385-3.
- ISBN 0-297-17001-5
- Longford, Elizabeth (2004a). "Edward, Prince, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8526. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- required.) (subscription required)
- Marshall, Dorothy (1972) The Life and Times of Queen Victoria, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0-297-83166-6[1992 reprint]
- Packard, Gerrold (1973). Victoria's Daughters. New York: St. Martin's Press
- Rappaport, Helen (2003). Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. ISBN 978-1-85109-355-7.
- Somerset, Anne (1980). The Life and Times of William IV. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-297-83225-6.
- St Aubyn, Giles (1991) Queen Victoria: A Portrait, London: Sinclair-Stevenson, ISBN 1-85619-086-2
- Vallone, Lynne (2001). Becoming Victoria. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08950-9.
- Waller, Maureen (2006) Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England, London: John Murray, ISBN 0-7195-6628-2
- ISBN 978-0-345-46195-7.
- ISBN 0-241-02200-2