Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Encyclopedia
Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline; 13 August 1792 – 2 December 1849) was the queen consort
of the United Kingdom
and of Hanover as spouse of William IV of the United Kingdom
. Adelaide
, the capital city of South Australia
, is named after her.
, Thuringia
, Germany
. Her father was George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Her mother was Luise Eleonore
, the daughter of Prince Christian of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was styled Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony from her birth until the Congress of Vienna, when the entire House of Wettin was raised to the style of Highness
.
Saxe-Meiningen
was a small state, covering about 423 square miles (1,095.6 km²). It was the most liberal German state and, unlike its neighbours, permitted a free press and criticism of the ruler.
was mad and, although still King in name, his heir-apparent and eldest son George
was Prince Regent. On 6 November 1817 the Prince Regent's only daughter, Princess Charlotte
, wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
(later King Leopold I of the Belgians) died in childbirth. Princess Charlotte was second in line to the throne: had she outlived her father and grandfather, she would have become Queen. With her death the King was left with twelve children and no legitimate grandchildren. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife, who was forty-nine years old, thus there was little likelihood that he would have any further legitimate children. To secure the line of succession, Prince William, Duke of Clarence
, and the other sons of George III sought quick marriages with the intent of producing offspring who could inherit the throne. William already had ten illegitimate children by the popular actress Dorothea Jordan, but they were obviously debarred from the succession.
Considerable allowances were likely to be voted by Parliament to any Royal Duke who married, and this acted as a further incentive for William to marry. Adelaide was a princess from an unimportant German state, but William had a limited choice of available princesses and, after deals with other candidates fell through, a marriage to Adelaide was arranged. The allowance proposed was slashed by Parliament, and the outraged Duke considered calling off the marriage. However, Adelaide seemed the ideal candidate: amiable, home-loving, and willing to accept William's illegitimate children as part of the family. The arrangement was settled and William wrote to his eldest son, "She is doomed, poor dear innocent young creature, to be my wife."
Adelaide married William in a double wedding with William's brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
, and his bride Victoria, Dowager Princess of Leiningen
, on 11 July 1818, at Kew Palace
in Surrey
, England
. They had only met for the first time about a week earlier, on 4 July at Grillon's Hotel in Bond Street
. Neither William nor Adelaide had been married before, and William was twenty-seven years her senior.
Despite these unromantic circumstances, the couple settled amicably in Hanover
(where the cost of living was much lower than in England), and by all accounts were devoted to each other throughout their marriage. Adelaide improved William's behaviour; he drank less, swore less and became more tactful. Observers thought them parsimonious, and their lifestyle simple, even boring. William eventually accepted the reduced increase in his allowance voted by Parliament.
On the Continent, Adelaide became pregnant, but in her seventh month of pregnancy, she caught pleurisy
and gave birth prematurely during the illness. Her daughter, Charlotte, lived only a few hours. Another pregnancy in the same year caused William to move the household to England so his future heir would be born on English soil, yet Adelaide miscarried at Calais
during the journey (5 September 1819). She became pregnant again, and a second daughter, Elizabeth, was born in December 1820. Elizabeth seemed strong but died aged only four months of "inflammation in the Bowels". Ultimately, William and Adelaide had no surviving children. Twin boys were stillborn on 8 April 1822, and a possible brief pregnancy may have occurred within the same year.
Princess Victoria of Kent came to be acknowledged as William's heir presumptive, as Adelaide had no further pregnancies. While there were rumours of pregnancies well into William's reign (dismissed by the King as "damned stuff"), they seem to have been without basis.
, William acceded to the throne. One of King William's first acts was to confer the Rangership of Bushy Park
(for thirty-three years held by himself) on Queen Adelaide. This act allowed Adelaide to remain at Bushy House
for her lifetime. The King and Adelaide were crowned
on 8 September 1831 at Westminster Abbey
. Adelaide was deeply religious and took the service very seriously. William despised the ceremony, and acted throughout, it is presumed deliberately, as if he was "a character in a comic opera", making a mockery of what he thought to be a ridiculous charade. Adelaide alone among those attending received any praise for her "dignity, repose and characteristic grace".
Adelaide was beloved by the British people for her piety, modesty, charity, and her tragic childbirth history. A large portion of her household income was given to charitable causes. She also treated the young Princess Victoria of Kent (William's heir presumptive and later Queen Victoria) with kindness, despite her own inability to produce an heir and the open hostility between William and Victoria's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent
. She refused to have women of questionable virtue attend her Court. Wrote Clerk of the Privy Council
Charles Greville
of her, "The Queen is a prude and refuses to have the ladies come décolletées to her parties. George the 4th, who liked ample expanses of that kind, would not let them be covered."
Adelaide attempted, perhaps unsuccessfully, to influence the King politically. She never spoke about politics in public; however, she was strongly Tory
. It is unclear how much of William's attitudes during the passage the Reform Act 1832
were due to her influence. The Press, the public and courtiers assumed that she was agitating behind the scenes against reform, but she was careful to be non-committal in public. As a result of her partiality, she became unpopular with reformers. Unbelievable rumours circulated that she was having an affair with her Lord Chamberlain
, the Tory Lord Howe
, but almost everyone at court knew that Adelaide was inflexibly pious and was always faithful to her husband. The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Grey
, had Lord Howe removed from Adelaide's household. Attempts to reinstate him after the Reform Bill had passed were not successful, as Lord Grey and Lord Howe could not come to an agreement as to how independent Howe could be of the government.
In October 1834 a great fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster
, which Adelaide considered divine retribution for the vagaries of reform. When the Whig ministry of Lord Melbourne
was dismissed by the King, The Times
newspaper blamed the Queen's influence, though she seems to have had very little to do with it. Influenced by her similarly reactionary brother-in-law, the Duke of Cumberland
, she did write to the King against reform of the Church of Ireland
.
Both William and Adelaide were fond of their niece, Princess Victoria of Kent, and wanted her to be closer to them. Their efforts were frustrated by Victoria's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent
. The Duchess refused to acknowledge Adelaide's precedence, left letters from Adelaide unanswered and commandeered space in the royal stables and apartments for her own use. The King, aggrieved at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, bluntly announced in the presence of Adelaide, the Duchess, Victoria and many guests, that the Duchess was "incompetent to act with propriety", that he had been "grossly and continually insulted by that person", and that he hoped to have the satisfaction of living beyond Victoria's age of majority, so that the Duchess of Kent would never be Regent. Everyone was aghast at the vehemence of the speech, and all three ladies were deeply upset. The breach between the Duchess and the King and Queen was never fully healed, but Victoria always viewed both of them with kindness.
in the early hours of the morning of 20 June 1837 at Windsor Castle
, where he was buried. The first queen dowager in over a century (Charles II's widow, Catherine of Braganza
, had died in 1705, and Mary of Modena
, wife of the deposed James II, died in 1718), Adelaide survived her husband by twelve years. After her husband's death, Queen Adelaide became a tenant of William Ward
and took up residence at the latter's newly purchased house, Witley Court
in Worcestershire
, from 1842 until 1846. She was a frequent visitor to Gopsall
Hall (now part of the crown estate
) in Leicestershire and many of the locals were very fond of her. On one occasion, when meeting the people in Measham
, the public were told to approach her by horse and carriage. One man was so desperate to meet Queen Adelaide that he approached her in a bathtub pulled by a mule. The Queen greeted him nevertheless.
She died during the reign of her niece Queen Victoria on 2 December 1849 of natural causes at Bentley Priory
in Middlesex
and was buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. She wrote instructions for her funeral during an illness in 1841 at Sudbury Hall
: "I die in all humility", she wrote, "we are alike before the throne of God, and I request therefore that my mortal remains be conveyed to the grave without pomp or state…to have as private and quiet a funeral as possible. I particularly desire not to be laid out in state…I die in peace and wish to be carried to the fount in peace, and free from the vanities and pomp of this world."
, founded during the brief reign of William IV. The capital city of Adelaide
was named after her at its founding in 1836; the Queen Adelaide Club for women is still active there, and a bronze statue of Queen Adelaide stands in the foyer of the Town Hall. There is a village named Queen Adelaide
in Cambridgeshire
. There are Adelaide Streets in Westminster
, Bradford
and Belfast
in the UK, Toronto
in Canada, Brisbane
in Queensland, Fremantle
in Western Australia, and Dun Laoghaire
in Ireland; there is also an Adelaide Avenue in Canberra; there is also an Adelaide Road and Adelaide Hospital
(now the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght) in Dublin, an Adelaide Terrace in East Perth, Western Australia
, and an Adelaide railway station in Belfast. Australia has two Adelaide Rivers, in the Northern Territory
and Tasmania, and an Adelaide Reef in Queensland. The town of Adelaide
(originally Fort Adelaide) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, as well as Sir Benjamin D'Urban's short-lived colony in the same area, Queen Adelaide Province
. Queen's Park, Brighton
is also named in her honour. The Citadel in Port Louis
, capital of the Republic of Mauritius
, is named Fort Adelaide for her, the building having been started during the reign of William in 1834. In 1832 Adelaide Township was surveyed in what became the western part of Middlesex County in Ontario. (Now part of the municipality of the Township of
Adelaide-Metcalfe). Asteroid
525 Adelaide is also named in her honour.
In honour of the Queen's many visits, several places in Leicestershire were named after Queen Adelaide. They include Queen Street in Measham and the Queen Adelaide Inn (now demolished) in Appleby Magna. There is also the Queen Adelaide Oak in Bradgate Park
(once home to Lady Jane Grey
), under which Queen Adelaide had picnicked on venison and crayfish from the estate.
Queen Victoria, who never forgot her aunt Adelaide's kindness to her, remembered her at the christening of her firstborn child, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise
.
in the 2009 film The Young Victoria
, as a kindly but practical counselor to the inexperienced queen. Delena Kidd
portrayed her in the 2001 television serial Victoria & Albert
.
are impaled
with her father's arms as Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The arms were Quarterly
of nineteen, 1st, Azure
, a lion barry Argent
and Gules
(Landgrave of Thuringia); 2nd, Gules, an escarbuncle Or
and a shield at the centre point Argent (Cleves
); 3rd, Or, a lion rampant Sable
(Meissen
); 4th, Or, a lion rampant Sable (Jülich
); 5th, Argent, a lion rampant Gules crowned Azure (Berg
); 6th, Azure, an eagle displayed Or (Palatinate of Saxony); 7th, Or, two pales
Azure (Landsberg
); 8th, Sable, an eagle displayed Or (Palatinate of Thuringia); 9th, Or, semé
of hearts Gules a lion rampant Sable crowned of the second (Orlamünde
); 10th, Argent, three bars Azure (Eisenberg
); 11th, Azure, a lion passant per fess
Or and Argent (Tonna in Gleichen
); 12th, Argent, a rose Gules barbed and seeded Proper (Burgraviate of Altenburg
); 13th, Gules plain (Sovereign rights); 14th, Argent, three beetles' pincers Gules (Engern); 15th, Or a fess chequy Gules and Argent (Marck); 16th, Per pale, dexter
, Gules, a column Argent crowned Or (Roemhild), sinister, Or, on a mount Vert, a cock Sable, wattled Gules (Hannenberg); 17th, Argent three chevronels Gules (Ravensberg); and over all an inescutcheon barry Or and Sable, a crown of rue (or a crancelin) in bend
Vert (Saxony
).
As the Duchess of Clarence she used the arms of her husband (the royal arms with a label
of three points Argent, the centre point bearing a cross Gules, the outer points each bearing an anchor Azure) impaled with those of her father, the whole surmounted by a coronet of a child of the sovereign.
|-
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Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and of Hanover as spouse of William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
. Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, the capital city of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, is named after her.
Early life
Adelaide was born on 13 August 1792 at MeiningenMeiningen
Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Her father was George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Her mother was Luise Eleonore
Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Princess Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was a German noblewoman. She was duchess and Regent of Saxe-Meiningen.-Family:...
, the daughter of Prince Christian of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was styled Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony from her birth until the Congress of Vienna, when the entire House of Wettin was raised to the style of Highness
Highness
Highness, often used with a possessive adjective , is an attribute referring to the rank of the dynasty in an address...
.
Saxe-Meiningen
Saxe-Meiningen
The Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia....
was a small state, covering about 423 square miles (1,095.6 km²). It was the most liberal German state and, unlike its neighbours, permitted a free press and criticism of the ruler.
Marriage
By the end of 1811, King George IIIGeorge III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
was mad and, although still King in name, his heir-apparent and eldest son George
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
was Prince Regent. On 6 November 1817 the Prince Regent's only daughter, Princess Charlotte
Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales
Princess Charlotte of Wales was the only child of George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick...
, wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
(later King Leopold I of the Belgians) died in childbirth. Princess Charlotte was second in line to the throne: had she outlived her father and grandfather, she would have become Queen. With her death the King was left with twelve children and no legitimate grandchildren. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife, who was forty-nine years old, thus there was little likelihood that he would have any further legitimate children. To secure the line of succession, Prince William, Duke of Clarence
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
, and the other sons of George III sought quick marriages with the intent of producing offspring who could inherit the throne. William already had ten illegitimate children by the popular actress Dorothea Jordan, but they were obviously debarred from the succession.
Considerable allowances were likely to be voted by Parliament to any Royal Duke who married, and this acted as a further incentive for William to marry. Adelaide was a princess from an unimportant German state, but William had a limited choice of available princesses and, after deals with other candidates fell through, a marriage to Adelaide was arranged. The allowance proposed was slashed by Parliament, and the outraged Duke considered calling off the marriage. However, Adelaide seemed the ideal candidate: amiable, home-loving, and willing to accept William's illegitimate children as part of the family. The arrangement was settled and William wrote to his eldest son, "She is doomed, poor dear innocent young creature, to be my wife."
Adelaide married William in a double wedding with William's brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
The Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn was a member of the British Royal Family, the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria...
, and his bride Victoria, Dowager Princess of Leiningen
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
, on 11 July 1818, at Kew Palace
Kew Palace
Kew Palace is a British Royal Palace in Kew Gardens on the banks of the Thames up river from London. There have been at least four Palaces at Kew, and three have been known as Kew Palace; the first building may not have been known as Kew as no records survive other than the words of another...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. They had only met for the first time about a week earlier, on 4 July at Grillon's Hotel in Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...
. Neither William nor Adelaide had been married before, and William was twenty-seven years her senior.
Despite these unromantic circumstances, the couple settled amicably in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
(where the cost of living was much lower than in England), and by all accounts were devoted to each other throughout their marriage. Adelaide improved William's behaviour; he drank less, swore less and became more tactful. Observers thought them parsimonious, and their lifestyle simple, even boring. William eventually accepted the reduced increase in his allowance voted by Parliament.
On the Continent, Adelaide became pregnant, but in her seventh month of pregnancy, she caught pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
and gave birth prematurely during the illness. Her daughter, Charlotte, lived only a few hours. Another pregnancy in the same year caused William to move the household to England so his future heir would be born on English soil, yet Adelaide miscarried at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
during the journey (5 September 1819). She became pregnant again, and a second daughter, Elizabeth, was born in December 1820. Elizabeth seemed strong but died aged only four months of "inflammation in the Bowels". Ultimately, William and Adelaide had no surviving children. Twin boys were stillborn on 8 April 1822, and a possible brief pregnancy may have occurred within the same year.
Princess Victoria of Kent came to be acknowledged as William's heir presumptive, as Adelaide had no further pregnancies. While there were rumours of pregnancies well into William's reign (dismissed by the King as "damned stuff"), they seem to have been without basis.
Queen consort
At the time of their marriage, William was not heir-presumptive to the throne, but became so when his brother Frederick, Duke of York, died childless in 1827. Given the small likelihood of his older brothers producing heirs, and William's relative youth and good health, it had long been considered extremely likely that he would become King in due course. In 1830, on the death of his elder brother, George IVGeorge IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, William acceded to the throne. One of King William's first acts was to confer the Rangership of Bushy Park
Bushy Park
- External links :***...
(for thirty-three years held by himself) on Queen Adelaide. This act allowed Adelaide to remain at Bushy House
Bushy House
Bushy House is a former royal residence in Teddington in South West London, on the site of the National Physical Laboratory, overlooking Bushy Park....
for her lifetime. The King and Adelaide were crowned
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...
on 8 September 1831 at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. Adelaide was deeply religious and took the service very seriously. William despised the ceremony, and acted throughout, it is presumed deliberately, as if he was "a character in a comic opera", making a mockery of what he thought to be a ridiculous charade. Adelaide alone among those attending received any praise for her "dignity, repose and characteristic grace".
Adelaide was beloved by the British people for her piety, modesty, charity, and her tragic childbirth history. A large portion of her household income was given to charitable causes. She also treated the young Princess Victoria of Kent (William's heir presumptive and later Queen Victoria) with kindness, despite her own inability to produce an heir and the open hostility between William and Victoria's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
. She refused to have women of questionable virtue attend her Court. Wrote Clerk of the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
Charles Greville
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville was an English diarist and an amateur cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1819 to 1827...
of her, "The Queen is a prude and refuses to have the ladies come décolletées to her parties. George the 4th, who liked ample expanses of that kind, would not let them be covered."
Adelaide attempted, perhaps unsuccessfully, to influence the King politically. She never spoke about politics in public; however, she was strongly Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
. It is unclear how much of William's attitudes during the passage the Reform Act 1832
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...
were due to her influence. The Press, the public and courtiers assumed that she was agitating behind the scenes against reform, but she was careful to be non-committal in public. As a result of her partiality, she became unpopular with reformers. Unbelievable rumours circulated that she was having an affair with her Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
, the Tory Lord Howe
Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe
Richard William Penn Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe, GCH, PC was a British peer and courtier.Curzon was the third son of Hon...
, but almost everyone at court knew that Adelaide was inflexibly pious and was always faithful to her husband. The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...
, had Lord Howe removed from Adelaide's household. Attempts to reinstate him after the Reform Bill had passed were not successful, as Lord Grey and Lord Howe could not come to an agreement as to how independent Howe could be of the government.
In October 1834 a great fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
, which Adelaide considered divine retribution for the vagaries of reform. When the Whig ministry of Lord Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...
was dismissed by the King, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper blamed the Queen's influence, though she seems to have had very little to do with it. Influenced by her similarly reactionary brother-in-law, the Duke of Cumberland
Ernest Augustus I of Hanover
Ernest Augustus I was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death. He was the fifth son and eighth child of George III, who reigned in both the United Kingdom and Hanover...
, she did write to the King against reform of the Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
.
Both William and Adelaide were fond of their niece, Princess Victoria of Kent, and wanted her to be closer to them. Their efforts were frustrated by Victoria's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
. The Duchess refused to acknowledge Adelaide's precedence, left letters from Adelaide unanswered and commandeered space in the royal stables and apartments for her own use. The King, aggrieved at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, bluntly announced in the presence of Adelaide, the Duchess, Victoria and many guests, that the Duchess was "incompetent to act with propriety", that he had been "grossly and continually insulted by that person", and that he hoped to have the satisfaction of living beyond Victoria's age of majority, so that the Duchess of Kent would never be Regent. Everyone was aghast at the vehemence of the speech, and all three ladies were deeply upset. The breach between the Duchess and the King and Queen was never fully healed, but Victoria always viewed both of them with kindness.
Queen dowager
Queen Adelaide was dangerously ill in April 1837, at around the same time that she was present at her sister's deathbed in Meiningen, but she recovered. By June it became evident that the King was fatally ill himself. Adelaide stayed beside William's deathbed devotedly, not going to bed herself for more than ten days. William IV died from heart failureCongestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
in the early hours of the morning of 20 June 1837 at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
, where he was buried. The first queen dowager in over a century (Charles II's widow, Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza was a Portuguese infanta and queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles II.She married the king in 1662...
, had died in 1705, and Mary of Modena
Mary of Modena
Mary of Modena was Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of King James II and VII. A devout Catholic, Mary became, in 1673, the second wife of James, Duke of York, who later succeeded his older brother Charles II as King James II...
, wife of the deposed James II, died in 1718), Adelaide survived her husband by twelve years. After her husband's death, Queen Adelaide became a tenant of William Ward
William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley
William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley , known as The Lord Ward from 1835 to 1860, was a British landowner and benefactor.-Background and education:...
and took up residence at the latter's newly purchased house, Witley Court
Witley Court
Witley Court in Worcestershire, England is a Grade 1 listed building and was once one of the great houses of the Midlands, but today it is a spectacular ruin after being devastated by fire in 1937. It was built by Thomas Foley in 1655 on the site of a former manor house near Great Witley...
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
, from 1842 until 1846. She was a frequent visitor to Gopsall
Gopsall
Gopsall is an area of Crown Estate land in North West Leicestershire, England. It is located between the villages of Appleby Magna, Shackerstone, Twycross and Snarestone....
Hall (now part of the crown estate
Crown Estate
In the United Kingdom, the Crown Estate is a property portfolio owned by the Crown. Although still belonging to the monarch and inherent with the accession of the throne, it is no longer the private property of the reigning monarch and cannot be sold by him/her, nor do the revenues from it belong...
) in Leicestershire and many of the locals were very fond of her. On one occasion, when meeting the people in Measham
Measham
Measham is a village in Leicestershire, near the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border, located just off the A42 just south of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and within the National Forest...
, the public were told to approach her by horse and carriage. One man was so desperate to meet Queen Adelaide that he approached her in a bathtub pulled by a mule. The Queen greeted him nevertheless.
She died during the reign of her niece Queen Victoria on 2 December 1849 of natural causes at Bentley Priory
RAF Bentley Priory
RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It was famous as the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and the Second World War. The RAF Bentley Priory site includes a Grade II* listed Officers' Mess and Italian...
in Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
and was buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. She wrote instructions for her funeral during an illness in 1841 at Sudbury Hall
Sudbury Hall
Sudbury Hall is a country house in Sudbury, Derbyshire, England.Sudbury Hall is one the country's finest Restoration mansions and has Grade I listed building status....
: "I die in all humility", she wrote, "we are alike before the throne of God, and I request therefore that my mortal remains be conveyed to the grave without pomp or state…to have as private and quiet a funeral as possible. I particularly desire not to be laid out in state…I die in peace and wish to be carried to the fount in peace, and free from the vanities and pomp of this world."
Legacy
Queen Adelaide's name is probably best remembered in the Australian state of South AustraliaSouth Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, founded during the brief reign of William IV. The capital city of Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
was named after her at its founding in 1836; the Queen Adelaide Club for women is still active there, and a bronze statue of Queen Adelaide stands in the foyer of the Town Hall. There is a village named Queen Adelaide
Queen Adelaide, Cambridgeshire
Queen Adelaide, Cambridgeshire, England, is a hamlet in the Fens about northeast of Ely. The River Great Ouse passes through it.Close to the village is the junction of the Fen, Breckland and Ely to Peterborough railway lines...
in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
. There are Adelaide Streets in Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
and Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
in the UK, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
in Canada, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
in Queensland, Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
in Western Australia, and Dun Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
in Ireland; there is also an Adelaide Avenue in Canberra; there is also an Adelaide Road and Adelaide Hospital
Adelaide Hospital
The Adelaide Hospital was a general and teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland until it became part of the new Tallaght Hospital in 1998.-History:...
(now the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght) in Dublin, an Adelaide Terrace in East Perth, Western Australia
East Perth, Western Australia
East Perth is an inner suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located next to the Perth CBD.Primarily an industrial area in the early twentieth century, it was the location of the East Perth gas works, East Perth Power Station , the East Perth railway yard, and East Perth engine sheds.A considerable...
, and an Adelaide railway station in Belfast. Australia has two Adelaide Rivers, in the Northern Territory
Adelaide River, Northern Territory
Adelaide River is a town where the Stuart Highway crosses the Adelaide River in the Northern Territory of Australia, upstream of the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains Important Bird Area. At the 2006 census, Adelaide River had a population of 190...
and Tasmania, and an Adelaide Reef in Queensland. The town of Adelaide
Adelaide, Eastern Cape
Adelaide is a town and area in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Population 12,000 . Adelaide is situated near the Great Winterberg Mountain range...
(originally Fort Adelaide) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, as well as Sir Benjamin D'Urban's short-lived colony in the same area, Queen Adelaide Province
British Kaffraria
British Kaffraria was a British colony/subordinate administrative entity in present-day South Africa, consisting of the districts now known as King Williams Town and East London.The term Kaffraria stems from the word "Kaffir"...
. Queen's Park, Brighton
Queen's Park, Brighton
Queen's Park is an administrative ward and a public park in Brighton, England.The area lies to the east of the centre of Brighton, north of Kemptown and south-east of Hanover. It is largely made up of Victorian terraced houses, with a smaller number of detached and semi-detached houses...
is also named in her honour. The Citadel in Port Louis
Port Louis
-Economy:The economy is dominated by its port, which handles Mauritius' international trade. The port was founded by the French who preferred Port Louis as the City is shielded by the Port Louis/Moka mountain range. It is the largest container handling facility in the Indian Ocean and can...
, capital of the Republic of Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, is named Fort Adelaide for her, the building having been started during the reign of William in 1834. In 1832 Adelaide Township was surveyed in what became the western part of Middlesex County in Ontario. (Now part of the municipality of the Township of
Adelaide-Metcalfe). Asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
525 Adelaide is also named in her honour.
In honour of the Queen's many visits, several places in Leicestershire were named after Queen Adelaide. They include Queen Street in Measham and the Queen Adelaide Inn (now demolished) in Appleby Magna. There is also the Queen Adelaide Oak in Bradgate Park
Bradgate Park
Bradgate Park is a public park in Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, England, just northwest of Leicester. It covers 850 acres . The park lies between the villages of Newtown Linford, Anstey, Cropston, Woodhouse Eaves and Swithland. The River Lin runs through the park, flowing into Cropston...
(once home to Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...
), under which Queen Adelaide had picnicked on venison and crayfish from the estate.
Queen Victoria, who never forgot her aunt Adelaide's kindness to her, remembered her at the christening of her firstborn child, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise
Victoria, Princess Royal
The Princess Victoria, Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert. She was created Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in 1841. She became German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III...
.
Cultural depictions
Queen Adelaide was played by Harriet WalterHarriet Walter
Dame Harriet Mary Walter, DBE is a British actress.-Personal life:She is the niece of renowned British actor Sir Christopher Lee, as the daughter of his elder sister Xandra Lee. On her father's side she is a great-great-great-granddaughter of John Walter, founder of The TimesShe was educated at...
in the 2009 film The Young Victoria
The Young Victoria
The Young Victoria is a 2009 period drama film based on the early life and reign of Queen Victoria, and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by screenwriter Julian Fellowes. Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Sarah, Duchess of...
, as a kindly but practical counselor to the inexperienced queen. Delena Kidd
Delena Kidd
Delena Kidd is an English actress who has appeared in numerous United Kingdom television productions since the late 1950s. In recent years she is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Queen Adelaide in Victoria & Albert....
portrayed her in the 2001 television serial Victoria & Albert
Victoria & Albert (TV serial)
Victoria & Albert is a 2001 British-US historical television serial. It focused on the early life and marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The series starred Victoria Hamilton as Victoria, Jonathan Firth as Prince Albert and Peter Ustinov as King William IV. It was directed by John Ermant....
.
Titles and styles
- 13 August 1792 – 18 June 1815: Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
- 18 June 1815 – 11 July 1818: Her Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
- 11 July 1818 – 26 June 1830: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Clarence and St Andrews
- 26 June 1830 – 20 June 1837: Her Majesty The Queen
- 20 June 1837 – 2 December 1849: Her Majesty Queen Adelaide
Arms
The Royal coat of arms of the United KingdomRoyal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...
are impaled
Impalement (heraldry)
In heraldry, impalement is the combination of two coats of arms side-by-side in one shield or escutcheon to denote union, most often that of a husband and wife, but also for ecclesiastical use...
with her father's arms as Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The arms were Quarterly
Quartering (heraldry)
Quartering in heraldry is a method of joining several different coats of arms together in one shield by dividing the shield into equal parts and placing different coats of arms in each division....
of nineteen, 1st, Azure
Azure
In heraldry, azure is the tincture with the colour blue, and belongs to the class of tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation....
, a lion barry Argent
Argent
In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...
and Gules
Gules
In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....
(Landgrave of Thuringia); 2nd, Gules, an escarbuncle Or
Or (heraldry)
In heraldry, Or is the tincture of gold and, together with argent , belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". In engravings and line drawings, it may be represented using a field of evenly spaced dots...
and a shield at the centre point Argent (Cleves
Duchy of Cleves
The Duchy of Cleves was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the town of Wesel, bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west...
); 3rd, Or, a lion rampant Sable
Sable
The sable is a species of marten which inhabits forest environments, primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaidō in Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia...
(Meissen
Meissen
Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...
); 4th, Or, a lion rampant Sable (Jülich
Jülich
Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...
); 5th, Argent, a lion rampant Gules crowned Azure (Berg
Berg (state)
Berg was a state – originally a county, later a duchy – in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed from the early 12th to the 19th centuries.-Ascent:...
); 6th, Azure, an eagle displayed Or (Palatinate of Saxony); 7th, Or, two pales
Pale (heraldry)
A pale is a term used in heraldic blazon and vexillology to describe a charge on a coat of arms , that takes the form of a band running vertically down the center of the shield. Writers broadly agree that the width of the pale ranges from about one-fifth to about one-third of the width of the...
Azure (Landsberg
Margraviate of Landsberg
The Margraviate of Landsberg was a march of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the 12th to the 14th century. It was named after Landsberg Castle in present-day Saxony-Anhalt...
); 8th, Sable, an eagle displayed Or (Palatinate of Thuringia); 9th, Or, semé
Seme
Seme may refer to:*Seme Border, a settlement in Nigeria on the border with Benin*Seme , a Maasai term for a type of lion hunting knife*Seme , Japanese martial arts term meaning to attack...
of hearts Gules a lion rampant Sable crowned of the second (Orlamünde
Orlamünde
Orlamünde is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Saale and Orla, 17 km south of Jena. It was the centre of a county, often united to Weimar, in the Early Middle Ages....
); 10th, Argent, three bars Azure (Eisenberg
Eisenberg, Thuringia
Eisenberg is a town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district Saale-Holzland.Neighboring municipalities are Jena and Gera . West of Eisenberg runs the motorway A 9 from Berlin to Munich...
); 11th, Azure, a lion passant per fess
Fess
In heraldry, a fess or fesse is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the centre of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by a fess or other ordinary, ranging from one-fifth to one-third...
Or and Argent (Tonna in Gleichen
Tonna, Germany
Tonna is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany....
); 12th, Argent, a rose Gules barbed and seeded Proper (Burgraviate of Altenburg
Altenburg
Altenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...
); 13th, Gules plain (Sovereign rights); 14th, Argent, three beetles' pincers Gules (Engern); 15th, Or a fess chequy Gules and Argent (Marck); 16th, Per pale, dexter
Dexter
Dexter is a Latin adjective meaning "on the right hand side, skillful, fortunate, favourable, proper, fitting".Dexter may also refer to:...
, Gules, a column Argent crowned Or (Roemhild), sinister, Or, on a mount Vert, a cock Sable, wattled Gules (Hannenberg); 17th, Argent three chevronels Gules (Ravensberg); and over all an inescutcheon barry Or and Sable, a crown of rue (or a crancelin) in bend
Bend (heraldry)
In heraldry, a bend is a coloured band running from the upper right corner of the shield to the lower left . Writers differ in how much of the field they say it covers, ranging from one-fifth up to one-third...
Vert (Saxony
Coat of arms of Saxony
-See also:*Royal Arms of England*Coat of arms of Portugal*Coat of arms of Belgium*Coat of arms of Bulgaria...
).
As the Duchess of Clarence she used the arms of her husband (the royal arms with a label
Label (heraldry)
In heraldry, a label is a charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung. It is usually a mark of difference, but has sometimes been borne simply as a charge in its own right....
of three points Argent, the centre point bearing a cross Gules, the outer points each bearing an anchor Azure) impaled with those of her father, the whole surmounted by a coronet of a child of the sovereign.
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Charlotte of Clarence | 21 March 1819 | 21 March 1819 | |
| Princess Elizabeth of Clarence | 10 December 1820 | 4 March 1821 | |
Ancestry
External links
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