Queen Victoria (1819-1901)


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By all accounts, after reconciling with Victoria after Vicky was born, she was quite the doting grandmother. At least in her last years she would have been closest to Alice who nursed her.
 
Albert, Victoria's husband, was, after all, blood nephew to the Duchess of Kent. There's evidence, cited in Elizabeth Longford's book on Queen Victoria, that he deprecated the estrangement and to a large extent blamed it on the influence of Baroness Lehzen, Victoria's beloved governess.

Although he recognised the support Lehzen had given Victoria during her embattled younger years, but he was determined that she should be retired off. There was a real battle of wills between Albert and Victoria in the first years of their married life, but Albert won. Lehzen was retired back to Germany with a pension and the Duchess of Kent was placed in what Albert regarded as her rightful position in the life of the Royal family.
 
The Wikipedia article on Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld expressed: When the Queen's first child, the Princess Royal, was born, the Duchess of Kent unexpectedly found herself welcomed back into Victoria's inner circle.
Is this then a FALSE statement?

My research would suggest it was more when Princess Victoria herself became a mother. Albert tried to bring about a rapproachment but other than major family occasions they were still estranged until Victoria became a grandmother herself and realised what he mother had been missing with her children.
 
Queen Victoria became a grandmother in January 1859 when Crown Princess Vicky's first child, the future Wilhelm II, was born in Germany. Neither she nor Albert saw their grandson for some time (at Coburg on a summer visit in 1859 and from July to September 1861 in England.) There was therefore no regular grandmotherly fussing about to be done on the Queen's side.

The Duchess of Kent died in March 1861, while Wilhelm was still only two and Charlotte a baby. Vicky was expecting her third child when her father lay dying in the December of 1861, so it's not as though her mother was experiencing the daily company of hordes of grandchildren and enjoying the sensation, before the Duchess's death.

Yes, Victoria probably did harbour some resentment for years over Sir John Conroy and the 'Kensington System' of her youth. Yes, she did almost have a nervous breakdown early in 1861 (after the Duchess's death) about how badly she had treated her mother in those early years after she had come to the throne. There was obviously enormous guilt there.

However, with Albert's guidance and when her own family was growing in the 1840's, she and her mother did try to patch their relationship up and the Duchess did become part of her daughter's family, to all intents and purposes. She wasn't barred from family life at all.

As John Van Der Kiste states in 'Queen Victoria's children.' (Pages 40-41) ' 'Grandma Kent' as the children called her, had been loved and respected by all the family since Albert's tireless peacemaking efforts soon after their marriage, and since the removal of Lehzen and Conroy from the royal household.'
 
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Curryong, Thank you for including the fact that Queen Victoria's children referred to Duchess Victoria as Grandma Kent.
 
Is Victoria wearing the coronet in the picture posted, as stated? It doesn't appear so?
 
I doubt if he actually did. I believe this is something from the nonsencial script of VIctoria
 
There were a few ridiculous rumours about in 1836/37 that the scar-faced Duke of Cumberland, who had a sinister reputation, wanted to grab the throne, kill Victoria or put her in the Tower, but I doubt they were taken seriously. He was considered by some to be capable of anything as he had several scandals in his past.
 
I doubt if he actually did. I believe this is something from the nonsencial script of VIctoria

This is actually a real story. He spread rumours but he also wanted to push for salic law to bar her due to her gender.

He really wanted to be King of the UK as well as King of Hannover. He never really accepted that she had a better claim and hoped that something would happen.
 
Victoria sure had a loving bunch of uncles. George refused her a royal name, she got alexandrine in spite of him because of her godfather. Ernst tried to take her throne. Frederick died when she was small and Adolphus seems to have been quiet on the matter though his son not so much it seems. But George would serve as godfather to Alfred, and his daughter Mary would eventually marry George V. William seemed fond, or at least wished to keep her out of the grips of her mother who he detested and held on till she was eighteen so she could rule. He was opposite of George and actually tried to make her take a British royal name.

Not shocking Uncle Augustus, duke of Sussex was her favourite uncle. He gave her away on her wedding and she seemed very fond of him. He served as godfather to her first child Victoria.
 
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Countessmeout, Thank you for mentioning that Prince Augustus was Victoria's favorite uncle. I know she got along well with Uncle Leopold. Perhaps it was best that he did not give his niece away in marriage.
 
I would suspect that Augustus was her favourite paternal uncle, and Leopold her favourite maternal one - I think Leopold likely would have won out between the two.

Augustus being a British Royal and Leopold being a German/Belgian one likely contributed to Augustus being the one to give her away.
 
This is actually a real story. He spread rumours but he also wanted to push for salic law to bar her due to her gender.

He really wanted to be King of the UK as well as King of Hannover. He never really accepted that she had a better claim and hoped that something would happen.

Was there high support for female succession when George IV and William IV did not have any legitimate sons?
 
:previous: we have to remember Victoria wasn't the first female heir. Her cousin Charlotte was. Her uncles likely felt the same about her inheriting as they did of Victoria. But what is known, Charlotte was well loved by the people of the U.K. She was extremely popular by all accounts, people came out to see her. She was deeply mourned by not only the people but her father when she died. She was very close as well to her grandfather, something she and the current queen have in common. She was educated by her father and grandfathers request and was seen as heir from an early age as her parents didn't reunite.

When William was king, his daughters dead, he and his wife were both very fond of Victoria. They would have played a bigger role in raising her and preparing her to rule, but the duchess of Kent limited that. Her and William never got along and she was said to have insulted the queen. Adelaide would serve with Augustus as god parents to Vicky, who had Adelaide as a middle name.

It seems uncle Augustus was the fun uncle or something. To be noted he was the favourite of both Charlotte and Victoria among the British uncles. He did help Charlotte when her father basically had her under house arrest in her courting years, to lessen the tight reins on her.
 
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By this point there had already been 4 Queen Regents on the throne. So it wasn't like when Matilda was overlooked for Stephen. There was already precedence for a female monarch.


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There was precedence certainly, but that doesn't mean it was any more popular in some circles. As we see even on our site, there are people even today who would rather see a man inherit. Certainly at least among the common people there was more acceptance.
 
:previous:

If I am not mistaken, the queens regnant of England and Scotland succeeded to the throne when the dynasty was extinct in male line or the male line heirs were excluded from the succession, but Charlotte and Victoria had uncles.
 
Charlotte and Victoria were children of older brothers so there has to be no children left before it goes to the next brother. It like when George VI, the throne went to his eldest child (Elizabeth) not his next brother (Duke of Gloucester).


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Was there high support for female succession when George IV and William IV did not have any legitimate sons?

There was no real issue with Victoria being the heiress presumptive. William certainly saw her in that role and wanted her to be more at court as a result but her mother didn't want her to associate with her Hannover relatives all that much.

The consequence in some ways was that the Duke of Cumberland, not a nice man by any stretch of the imagination, could promote certain ideas about her due to his own desires and jealousies but there was no real call for Victoria to be passed over - except by the Duke himself. In the wider society and parliament itself.
 
There was no real issue with Victoria being the heiress presumptive. William certainly saw her in that role and wanted her to be more at court as a result but her mother didn't want her to associate with her Hannover relatives all that much.

The consequence in some ways was that the Duke of Cumberland, not a nice man by any stretch of the imagination, could promote certain ideas about her due to his own desires and jealousies but there was no real call for Victoria to be passed over - except by the Duke himself. In the wider society and parliament itself.

Thank you. :flowers:
 
Queen Victoria must have had dozens of bloomers that were quietly disposed of after her death. There are regular sales of these huge garments over the years. People still pay good money for them.
 
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