[52], Though Victoria was now queen, as an unmarried young woman she was required by social convention to live with her mother, despite their differences over the Kensington System and her mother's continued reliance on Conroy. It was only with the help of loans from Edward’s friends and Adolphus that he was able to convey the entire Kent household and his stepchildren from Germany to England where they were installed in Kensington Palace. (His sailor brother William, with children to provide for, had been made Ranger of Bushy Park in 1797.) [209] She was the last monarch of Britain from the House of Hanover. [7] He died six days before his father, George III, and less than a year after his daughter's birth. 74–75, Hibbert, pp. Queen Victoria’s Father: Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn Born in Buckingham Palace, London, on November 2, 1767, Prince Edward was the fourth son of his parents – George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. During his time in Canada, he was given the title of Duke of Kent and Strathearn on 24 April 1799. [17], In 1790, while still in Geneva, the Duke took up with "Madame de Saint-Laurent" (born Thérèse-Bernardine Montgenet), the wife of a French colonel. The Prince, still at odds with his wife, was unlikely to have any more legitimate children and so all of a sudden his rather disastrous brothers became next up in the succession. Longford, pp. 280–281; St Aubyn, p. 304; Woodham-Smith, p. 391, Hibbert, p. 242; Longford, p. 281; Marshall, p. 117. In 1779, when Edward was 12, William departed Kew to begin a career in the Navy and it’s unlikely he much missed him. Hibbert, pp. [64] Her daughter, also named Victoria, was born on 21 November 1840. She much preferred the Marquess of Hartington, another statesman from the Liberal party which had just won the general election. Out of the 28 monarchies still in existence, Queen Victoria’s direct descendants currently sit on five thrones. In May that same year the Duke was promoted to the rank of general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America. Instead, he offered up “Alexandrina” in honor of her godfather, the Russian Tsar, and “Victoria” for her mother. As Sovereign, Victoria used the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. [104] The ensuing diplomatic crisis destabilised the government, and Palmerston resigned. Her freedom to choose which individual should occupy the premiership was increasingly restricted. In Geneva, he had two mistresses, Adelaide Dubus and Anne Moré. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Leopold arranged for Victoria's mother to invite her Coburg relatives to visit her in May 1836, with the purpose of introducing Victoria to Albert. Edward and his mistress, Julie St. Laurent, became close friends with the French Canadian family of Ignace-Michel-Louis-Antoine d'Irumberry de Salaberry; the Prince mentored all of the family's sons throughout their military careers. Unfortunately the passing moment was indicative of Edward’s character. He also fathered a child via a mistress, Adelaide Dubus, who died in childbirth. The Prime Minister at once became a powerful influence on the politically inexperienced Queen, who relied on him for advice. [224] In 1867, Walter Bagehot wrote that the monarch only retained "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn". Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen. Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, on 22 January 1901 after a reign which lasted almost 64 years, then the longest in British history. While Edward’s mother-in-law worried that he might be disappointed in his child’s gender, he was perfectly pleased with a girl, telling everyone who came to see her to “look at her well, for she will be Queen of England.”. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. [144], After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British East India Company, which had ruled much of India, was dissolved, and Britain's possessions and protectorates on the Indian subcontinent were formally incorporated into the British Empire. Peel became prime minister, and the ladies of the bedchamber most associated with the Whigs were replaced. I have a B.A. Edward proposed without having met her by letter. Bean was sentenced to 18 months in jail. "[197], Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The greatest stressor, however, was the health of George III, who had first shown signs of mental illness back in 1788. [141], On the last day of February 1872, two days after the thanksgiving service, 17-year-old Arthur O'Connor, a great-nephew of Irish MP Feargus O'Connor, waved an unloaded pistol at Victoria's open carriage just after she had arrived at Buckingham Palace. Her marriage to Prince Albert produced nine children between 1840 and 1857. This means Queen Elizabeth II had 86 aunts and uncles. "It is a horrible year, nothing but sadness & horrors of one kind & another. He was named for his father’s younger brother, the Duke of York, who died a few months earlier. 25, 44, Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, commander-in-chief of British forces in the Maritime Provinces of North America, Hereditary Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Ignace-Michel-Louis-Antoine d'Irumberry de Salaberry, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Ernest Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Countess Sophia Albertine of Erbach-Erbach, "Edward, Prince, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820)", http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/williams_william_fenwick_11E.html, Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family, Cottage Orné: Woolbrook cottage in May 2009, now the Royal Glen hotel, "Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn", Nathan Tidridge's "Prince Edward, Duke of Kent: Father of the Canadian Crown", Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, Alastair, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Ernest Augustus, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_Edward,_Duke_of_Kent_and_Strathearn&oldid=983064068, Peers of Great Britain created by George III, Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order, Grand Masters of the United Grand Lodge of England, Burials at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox military person with embed, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2014, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 13. When asked why, he responds that if he was not also invited than it must be because he was ill. [121] Her weight increased through comfort eating, which further reinforced her aversion to public appearances. [179][180][181] Her family and retainers were appalled, and accused Abdul Karim of spying for the Muslim Patriotic League, and biasing the Queen against the Hindus. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Princess Christiane Emilie of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, This page was last edited on 12 October 2020, at 01:18. Edward and Julie became lovers while both were living in Geneva, and by the time he moved to Quebec, he took her with him. She was respectable, reasonably attractive and her fertility was already proven – from her first marriage she boasted an 11-year-old son, Charles, and a 10-year-old daughter, Feodora. Her death in 1817 precipitated a succession crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent and his unmarried brothers to marry and have children. 265–267; St Aubyn, p. 318; Woodham-Smith, pp. That same year he joined the 7th Regiment of Foot, but when he left for England without leave he was sent to Quebec in disgrace. It was then that her Christian name of Alexandrina was given with her second name as Victoria. 32–33; Longford, pp. [95] Victoria complained to Russell that Palmerston sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without her knowledge, but Palmerston was retained in office and continued to act on his own initiative, despite her repeated remonstrances. In 1843 and 1845, she and Albert stayed with King Louis Philippe I at château d'Eu in Normandy; she was the first British or English monarch to visit a French monarch since the meeting of Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. She did not get her way. William, like Edward, had been living with a long-term mistress (and sired 10 bastards), while Augustus had entered an ill-advised marriage which had been annulled. [32], Victoria turned 18 on 24 May 1837, and a regency was avoided. [7] His parents were the reigning British monarch, George III, and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Victoria was deeply attached to her husband and she sank into depression after he died, aged 42, in 1861. [7], Following the death of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales in November 1817, the only legitimate grandchild of George III at the time, the royal succession began to look uncertain. A series of Acts broadened the social and economic base of the electorate. He died before she was a year old on 23 January 1820 at the age of 52 from pneumonia in Woolbrook Cottage. Victoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; 21 November 1840 – 5 August 1901) was German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III. Victoria was pleased when Gladstone resigned in 1885 after his budget was defeated. He returned to England in 1798, mistress in tow, and was made Duke of Kent in 1799. Near neighbours from 1815 to 1817 at Little Boston House were US envoy and future US President John Quincy Adams and his English wife Louisa. Victoria and her family travelled and were seen on an unprecedented scale, thanks to transport improvements and other technical changes such as the spread of newspapers and the invention of photography. Queen Victoria’s Father: Edward, Duke of Kent On February 10, 2018February 9, 2018 By RSB In The House of Hanover Of all of George III’s 15 children, only one managed to produce another sovereign – Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent.