{"id":15174,"date":"2022-06-20T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=23096"},"modified":"2022-06-20T11:08:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T09:08:11","slug":"the-young-queen-victorias-struggle-to-gain-the-throne","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-young-queen-victorias-struggle-to-gain-the-throne\/","title":{"rendered":"The young Queen Victoria\u2019s struggle to gain the throne"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rachel Dinning\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 20 June 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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\u201cA woman on the throne of England \u2013 how ridiculous!\u201d\u00a0These words were uttered by Prince George of Cambridge, after he\u2019d been pushed far from the succession by his plump little cousin, Princess Victoria. And many at the time agreed with his assessment. Even worse, as the queen herself put it, \u201cI was the first person ever to bear the name Victoria\u201d. Astonishingly to us for whom the word \u2018Victorian\u2019 seems so categorically English, it was then regarded as an absurd, invented name. Still worse, it had a French origin, and France had been until only a few years back the country\u2019s great enemy. It might be compared to \u2018Kylia\u2019, if Australia had recently been at war with Britain.<\/p>\n

The little princess was further hampered by other matters: an unprepossessing appearance, shyness, a wilful temper, and, most of all, a greedy mother<\/a> who wished to use her daughter as a tool to power. But Victoria was also spirited, vibrant and determined, and, from a young age, determined to be queen.<\/p>\n

\u201cA pretty little Princess, as plump as a partridge,\u201d declared the Duke of Kent on the day his daughter was born, 24 May 1819. The arrival of Princess Victoria thrilled her father, but made little noise in the country. Kent was only fourth in line to the throne, after his brothers the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence. To the rest of the royal family, Victoria was merely the daughter of a minor brother, nothing more than a pawn to be eventually traded in marriage.<\/p>\n

The child later known as Queen Victoria<\/a> was born in the midst of a succession crisis. By the time George III<\/a>\u2019s five surviving daughters and seven sons were nudging middle age, in 1817, they had managed one legitimate heir, Princess Charlotte<\/a>, the daughter of the Prince Regent<\/a> (their illegitimate children would finally total 56). The English looked to Princess Charlotte as the hope for their country, in contrast to her debauched, spendthrift uncles and spinster aunts. When she became pregnant by her popular husband, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the people were delighted. But after 50 hours of labour, she produced a stillborn baby boy. Within hours, she had fallen into a fatal fever and died. The country was grief-stricken, and the politicians began panicking over the lack of an heir.<\/p>\n

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Thomas Woolnoth\u2019s engraving of Princess Victoria, when she was nine years old. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In the hope that parliament would pay off their huge debts, the dukes embarked on a race to marry and produce children. The Duke of Kent sent away his mistress of 20 years and set about courting Prince Leopold\u2019s sister, Victoire, Dowager Princess of Leiningen. Victoire was initially reluctant to relinquish her \u201cagreeable independent position\u201d, as she put it, to marry Kent, an indebted duke 20 years her senior, but Leopold pressed her into agreeing. Despite her doubts and his debts, the two were happy, and Victoire soon fell pregnant. \u201cMy brothers are not so strong as I am,\u201d the elated Duke postured. \u201cI have led a regular life, I shall outlive them all; the crown will come to me and my children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prince Regent was infuriated by his brother\u2019s success in producing a child and took his revenge by wrecking the christening. He allowed only a handful of guests and refused to allow the child to bear the names associated with queens such as Charlotte or Augusta, or indeed the feminised version of his own name, \u2018Georgiana\u2019. Instead, on the actual day, the Archbishop of Canterbury stood with the child over the font, waiting for the Prince Regent to inform him of her name. Finally, the Regent spat, \u201cGive her the mother\u2019s name\u201d. Her first name was Alexandrina, after the Tsar (even the Regent dared not anger the Russian ruler by refusing it), but she quickly became known by her middle name \u2013 Victoria.<\/p>\n\n

Impoverished and desperate<\/h3>\n

By December, Kent had accepted his debts were insurmountable and moved his family to a cheaper house in Sidmouth, on the Devon coast. It was a bitter winter, and in early January, after returning from one of his outdoor walks soaked to the bone, the Duke took to his bed with a chill. Within days, he was severely ill, and died on 23 January, holding his wife\u2019s hand. \u201cShe kills all her husbands,\u201d sniped the wife of the Russian ambassador. Victoria was just eight months old.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old Duchess was impoverished and desperate. Her brother Leopold persuaded the begrudging Prince Regent to allow her rooms in Kensington Palace and she took with her John Conroy, a handsome Irishman who had been equerry to the Duke. In the chaos after the Duke\u2019s death, he had inveigled himself into the Duchess\u2019s absolute confidence and became the de-facto ruler of her household.<\/p>\n

On 29 January 1820, the day that the Duchess arrived at the palace, the poor mad King George finally died. The Prince Regent finally became King George IV<\/a>. After the Dukes of York and Clarence, baby Victoria was next in line to the throne.<\/p>\n

Kensington Palace<\/a> was then cold, gloomy and shabby \u2013 and the life Victoria led there was little better. The Duchess and John Conroy were absolutely united in a quest to make Victoria their slave. Both were convinced that Victoria would become queen and their dearest hope was that she would ascend as a minor, so the Duchess could be Regent and gather power and riches for herself and her dear friend. If, however, she succeeded after the age of 18, they wished to ensure that she would give up all power to them. And so they instigated the \u2018Kensington System<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Victoria\u2019s mother, the Duchess of Kent, c1830\u201340. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The Kensington System was a cruel regime of bullying and, most of all, surveillance. Victoria was not allowed to be alone for a second. She slept in her mother\u2019s room every night, and a nurse or governess stood guard over her until her mother retired to bed. Her every cough, every word and even choice of dress was faithfully reported to John Conroy. She was kept away from her father\u2019s family, and isolated from all children, apart from Conroy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The Duchess was also terrified of reports that the Duke of Cumberland, who would have been the next brother in line to the throne, wished to kill the little girl. Certainly, Cumberland spread rumours that Victoria was too sickly to rule and tried to find ways of pushing her out of the succession \u2013 and it is not impossible that he might have wanted her dead. Whatever his intentions, Victoria\u2019s food<\/a> was tasted before every meal, and she was not allowed to walk downstairs without holding somebody\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

Victoria felt her confined situation keenly. \u201cI led a very unhappy childhood\u201d, she lamented. She declared that her only \u201chappy time\u201d had been driving out with her half-sister Feodora<\/a> and her governess, for \u201cthen I could speak or look as I liked\u201d.<\/p>\n

‘I led a very unhappy childhood’, Victoria lamented <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>

As Victoria grew up, the Duchess redoubled her attempts to control her, and to show herself off as the power behind the throne. For time proved her right: Kent\u2019s elder brothers did remain childless. The Duke of Clarence and his much younger wife had a girl, Charlotte, in 1819, but she lived only a few hours. In late December 1820, they had another girl, Elizabeth, to the despair of the Duchess of Kent. But by the following March, Elizabeth had died. To the Duchess\u2019s delight, there were no more children.<\/p>\n

Just after Victoria turned 11, King George died and the 64\u2011year-old Duke of Clarence ascended the throne as King William IV. Victoria was now heir, and the Duchess decided to parade her to the country as the future queen \u2013 with herself and Conroy by the Princess\u2019s side. On 1 August 1832, she, the 13-year-old Victoria, and the Conroys set off on the first of their journeys: a three-month tour to Wales, via the Midlands and Cheshire.<\/p>\n

Victoria hated the tour. She detested being surrounded by Conroys, the early starts, and the endless dinners and receptions with dull adults. On 24 September 1832, she confessed to her \u2018Good Behaviour Book\u2019 that she had been \u201cVERY VERY VERY VERY HORRIBLY NAUGHTY!!!!\u201d, underlining each word four times. Yet despite her complaints and the King\u2019s fury at the Duchess\u2019s presumption, the tours continued: to the south coast and the Isle of Wight, and the Midlands and the North, as well as including sporadic visits to seaside resorts and aristocratic houses throughout the year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the politicians voiced their opinion that Victoria was just too ridiculous a name for a ruler. Indeed, the King tried to force the Duchess to agree to change it to Elizabeth or Charlotte. Initially, she agreed. Finally, however, she refused, wishing that her daughter would bear her name. It is odd to think now that if she had relented, the Victorian age would never have existed. Instead, we would talk about \u2018Elizabethan morality\u2019 \u2013 which hardly has the same ring.<\/p>\n