Royal Babies and Births

Arguably the most famous royal baby in Kensington's history was Queen Victoria, who was born in the palace. You can still visit the room where she was born. And she spent many of her childhood years at Kensington, actually not very happily. It was under the auspices of her very controlling mother, who set up something that was known as the Kensington System, which really controlled Victoria's every move. And she moved out of the palace pretty much as soon as she was able to. But she still remains the most famous sort of royal baby associated with it. History has really been dictated by the need for a male heir, because the laws of primogeniture dictated that the crown could only pass to the eldest male heir. So if there was no male heir, then that was considered a complete disaster. Because until very recently, until people like Elizabeth I and Victoria broke the mould, women were seen as completely inferior. And so all of the importance was placed on having a male child. So after Elizabeth's reign, you see a much greater warmth towards the idea of a female ruler. And then by the time of Victoria, people actively wanted a queen, because they'd had all these kind of lecherous old kings who they were thoroughly fed up of. So they were hoping to have a female ruler afterwards. The witnessing of the birth is, again, another tradition that continued right up until fairly recent times, when there'd have to be a member of government in the birthing chamber, which seems quite extraordinary and quite intrusive. But there was a very good reason for that. What happened was James II, who was a deeply unpopular king, he was very Roman Catholic in his outlook. His wife, Mary of Modena, went into her confinement. And there was the usual secrecy around that. And because nobody wanted an heir from this marriage, there was speculation that the baby that she gave birth to was actually smuggled in, and a replacement changeling was brought in, in a warming pan. And so their heir, their son, James, was known as the warming pan baby, and nobody believed that he was really the heir. And so to prevent this sort of scandal in future years, a member of the government always has to be in to check that the baby really is the result of the birthing.