Queen Victoria's Childhood & Siblings

Queen Victoria's Childhood and Siblings Recently, I visited Kensington Palace in London, where Queen Victoria was born and raised. Let's explore the rooms where she spent her troubled youth, examine the harsh Kensington system under which she was reared, discover a few of her childhood joys, and learn what transformed her into a queen. We'll also get to know her two half-siblings, Carl and Feodora, who are so often forgotten by history. We'll find out what sort of relationship they had with their royal little sister, and what became of them. Victoria's story really begins two years before her birth, for she never would have been were it not for the tragic death of another princess. Charlotte of Wales was the only child born of the miserable marriage between George, Prince of Wales, and Caroline of Brunswick. She grew up to be a beautiful, moderate, and popular princess, in contrast to her widely loathed father. At 20, she wed Prince Leopold of Saxe-Colberg-Salfeld, and they were the Will and Kate of their day. But the future came crashing down in 1817, when Charlotte died in an agonizing childbirth at just 21. Her son was stillborn. And now there were no heirs to the throne in the next generation. George III was still technically king, but he had completely succumbed to mental illness. He and his wife, Queen Charlotte, had produced 15 children. They should have secured the succession with a large crop of grandchildren. But their sons had all taken up with mistresses, and most of their daughters were over 40 and still single. An uncertain succession usually meant war. In a panic, Parliament bribed the middle-aged princes to dump their mistresses, marry foreign princesses, and get cracking on producing an heir. A popular poem of the time quipped, Hot and hard each royal pair Are at it hunting for the heir. The eldest two eligible princes, William, Duke of Clarence, and Edward, Duke of Kent, married two German princesses in a double wedding in the drawing room at Kew Palace. William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Mainenen, and Edward, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Colberg-Salfeld. Edward, now 50, had been with his mistress, Julie Saint-Laurent, for 28 years. There is no official record of the couple having any children, though a number of families in Canada, where they lived for many years, claim descent from the prince. Princess Victoria was 31, a bit old for a bride in those days, but she had already been widowed by the Prince of Leiningen and given birth to two children, Carl and Feodora. Her proven fertility was a big plus. The newlyweds lived first in Germany, where it was less expensive. But 10 months after the wedding, the duchess was ready to give birth, and they raced back to London. Edward wanted to ensure that his heir was born on English soil, so that there would be no question about its eligibility to inherit the throne. He had never gotten along with his bullying elder brother, George, who was now the prince regent and holding the family purse strings. George reluctantly gave the couple rooms in dilapidated Kensington Palace. On the 24th of May, 1819, Duchess Victoria gave birth to a daughter in this very room. The child's sex was a slight disappointment, but no mind, surely brothers would follow. The infant princess was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, here in the cupola room at Kensington Palace. The happy family scene quickly devolved into an argument. The parents proposed to name their bundle of joy Georgiana Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta, but the prince regent, ever argumentative, objected. Georgiana was supposed to be in his honor, but if his name came before the name honoring Tsar Alexander I of Russia, the baby's godfather, then he would be insulted. And if the names were swapped, then George would be insulted. He pulled his name out, and he outright refused to have the baby christened after his own recently deceased daughter Charlotte. Plus, he said Augusta, which honored their sister, was too pretentious. After driving the duchess to tears, the regent finally spat out that the baby should be named after her mother. So the princess was christened Alexandrina Victoria. She was known primarily as Alexandrina during her childhood, but to keep things less confusing, I'll just call her Victoria. Prince Edward took great pride in his daughter, telling friends to look at her well, for she would one day be a queen. The family settled into their apartment at Kensington. The palace was divided into grace and favor apartments for a number of the prince's siblings. These weren't cramped city apartments like we think of today, but lavish affairs with multiple drawing rooms, bedrooms, their own kitchens, and accommodations for servants. The palace is in the heart of London, but as it is surrounded by gardens, it has the palatial privacy of a country estate, aside from the thousands of tourists who came and went even in the 19th century. Even today, several members of the royal family call Kensington Palace home. Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, Prince William and Princess Catherine, and Prince Harry and Meghan have all lived here. Despite living on grace and favor, Prince Edward wanted the very best for his family. He spent $2,000, about $120,000 today, furnishing the apartments, with luxurious carpets, furniture, and all the latest mod cons. He was a kind stepfather to Carl and Feodora. He even gave his stepdaughter a beautiful gold ring with her name spelled out in precious stones. Florite, Emerald, Opal, Diamond, Opal, Ruby, and Amethyst. Carl had been born in 1804. He was 10 when his father died and he became Prince of Leiningen. He was 14 when his mother remarried and moved to England. As a boy and a sovereign prince, Carl needed to be well-educated. He spent most of his youth at boarding school in Switzerland and wasn't especially close to his much younger sister Victoria. Feodora was born in 1807. She was named after her mother's sister, Julianne, who took the orthodox name Anna Feodrovna upon her marriage to a Russian Grand Duke. Feodora was described as a charming little clown who already shows grace in every movement of her small body. She was 12 when Victoria was born and she lived at home. The two sisters, though separated by age, grew up devoted to one another. When Victoria was just 8 months old, her father died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 52. Six days later, King George III died and the prince regent became King George IV. Duchess Victoria was in a tight spot. She was now twice widowed and a single mother of three. Rather than a fortune and palaces, she had inherited only debts from Prince Edward. The royal coffers were hoarded by George IV for his ruinous extravagance and the civil list was stretched thin by many other spin-thrift princes. Parliament was not inclined to support yet another impoverished princess, even if she might be the future queen. The Duchess could have taken her children back to Coburg. There she had a palace of her own and could live cheaply on inheritance from her first husband. But if her youngest child should succeed to the British throne, she could attain much higher things. She decided to remain in Britain and gamble on Victoria. And her wager seemed increasingly likely to pay off. At birth, the princess was fifth in line to the throne and it was not yet inevitable that she would become queen. Her father and three of his older brothers were ahead of her. William still had a young wife. If Adelaide had a healthy child, it would outrank Victoria. Just two months before her birth, Adelaide had delivered a daughter named Charlotte, but she was born prematurely and only lived a few hours. Adelaide suffered a miscarriage and in 1820 she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Elizabeth. She seemed strong at first, but at just three months old, she died of an inflammation of the bowels. Stillborn twins followed. After these tragedies, Adelaide and William stopped trying for more children. When Victoria's father and grandfather died, she moved up to third in line. And with her father gone, there was no chance of a baby brother displacing her. When she was seven, her uncle Prince Frederick died. Now only one person stood between Victoria and the throne, her uncle William. According to a popular story, the young princess was shown a family tree by her governess. She allowed the clever princess to work things out for herself. Victoria supposedly remarked, I see I am nearer the throne than I thought. I will be good. There was one person behind Victoria in the line of succession who posed a serious threat, her uncle Ernst Augustus. He was a known scoundrel who had gotten away with stabbing his valet to death, and there were rumors that his wife Frederica had murdered her first husband. The duchess learned that Ernst Augustus was spreading rumors that Princess Victoria was sickly and unlikely to live. The prince insinuated that soon he and his own son George, born just three days after Victoria, would soon move up in the succession. The duchess began to fear, not unreasonably, that Ernst Augustus was plotting to assassinate her little girl. As she couldn't trust her in-laws, her only confidant and primary financial benefactor was her brother, Leopold. He was the widower of Princess Charlotte of Wales. When they married and he looked to be the future consort, Parliament granted him a massive allowance of £50,000 a year for life, about £3 million today, which was not revoked upon Charlotte's death. The duchess and Leopold wrote each other often, But he was far away in Germany. The duchess needed support closer to home, so she turned to the man her husband had trusted to run their household, their comptroller John Conroy. He was an Irish ex-soldier and was confident where she was not. She came to depend on him. There were rumors that they were lovers. Some even speculate that Conroy was Victoria's real father. I have a video exploring this theory. But Victoria did closely resemble Prince Edward, and most agree she was his child. For better or worse, mostly worse, Conroy was the primary male figure in Victoria's childhood. He and the paranoid duchess devised a perversely overprotective child-rearing regime known as the Kensington System. Little Victoria was never allowed to be alone or speak to anyone without her mother or governess present. She was secluded from other children and from her paternal relatives, especially from her wicked uncle Ernst Augustus. She slept in her mother's bedroom until she was 18. She wasn't even allowed to go up or down stairs without holding someone's hand. But I must admit, the stairs here at Kensington Palace are quite steep. The motivations for the Kensington System were threefold. One, to keep Victoria safe. The nation had fallen into misery upon the death of Princess Charlotte, and no one wanted to see the hope for the future of the monarchy take a tumble down the stairs. Two, to keep her from being associated in the public's mind with her unpopular uncles and keep her own reputation untarnished. The last and most pervasive reason was that Conroy wanted to keep the future queen under his control. If he could break her will and raise her to be loyal to him, then he would be the true ruler of the nation. Many factors of the Kensington System, which seem abusive today, were actually standard practice for rearing 19th century children. For instance, she had prickly holly pinned to the front of her dress. Similar measures were used to improve the posture of many children. And she was fed only bland food like boiled meat and milk pudding. But the prevailing belief was the children's digestion was too easily excitable, and feeding them anything flavorful might cause serious illness. She was only allowed to see a handful of carefully selected children, which included Conroy's daughters, Jane and Victoire. Once, the princess haughtily told her playmate, I may call you Jane, but you may not call me Victoria. The girls played with early jigsaw puzzles, called dissected prints, made card houses, played dress-up as nuns and Turks, and rode a pony called Isabel. By this time, her older brother Karl had gone to study law at the University of Göttingen. He did occasionally visit his mother and sisters in England. He was inspired by British architecture and had his private residence, Wadleiningen Castle, built to resemble Britain's neo-Gothic structures. At 25, Karl married a Bohemian countess, Marie von Klebersberg, settled in Germany and had two sons, Ernst and Edward, who may have been named after his kind stepfather. Theodora, who was affectionately called Fetty, spent much more of her time with her younger sister. Louise Letzen was brought from Germany as Theodora's governess, and when Victoria turned five, Letzen took up her education as well. Adolescent Theodora found the confines of Kensington Palace, and her mother's controlling nature stifling. She wrote that her only happy time was driving out of the palace with Victoria and Letzen, when she could speak and look as she liked. When Victoria was seven and Theodora 19, the family were invited to a banquet at Buckingham Palace. The girls had a marvelous time. Victoria proved herself a born diplomat. When her uncle asked her to choose the music for the orchestra, she requested God Save the King. Pretty Theodora also made an impression on the king, who had recently become single again following the death of his long-estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick. Victoria wrote in her diary, My sister was a great attraction. Many thought the king might marry her. The Duchess and Conroy were alarmed that if the king did wed Theodora, and she had a child, then Victoria would never be queen. True, the Duchess would still have been the mother of a queen, but only a queen consort. She would miss out on her chance to be regent, and Conroy would have no political power. They found Theodora a husband as quickly as possible to get her out of the king's gaze. She wed Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, at Kensington Palace, and nine-year-old Victoria was a bridesmaid. Theodora later wrote, I always see you, dearest little girl, going round with your basket presenting favors. Theodora moved to Germany with her groom. When she kissed and hugged her baby sister goodbye, they both wept. Theodora and Ernst had a happy marriage. They moved into the large and uncomfortable medieval Langenburg Castle. There they had three sons and three daughters. But Theodora and Victoria continued to ride each other for the rest of their lives. Without her beloved big sister, Victoria was more isolated than ever, and her mother and Conroy kicked the Kensington system into high gear. They belittled the princess and made her question her own intelligence and abilities. Victoria came to rely on her dear King Charles Spaniel, Dash, for companionship. She also had a collection of 132 dolls and elaborate dollhouses and miniature stage sets, which would have been a dream come true for any child. She and Letzen made doll clothes fashioned after the fantastical costumes they saw on frequent trips to the ballet and opera. These outings were a bright spot in her life, as was Letzen, Victoria's one ally against the Kensington system. She was the one the princess turned to when it was all too much, and she helped her stay strong in the face of the Duchess and Conroy's domineering and manipulation. Letzen educated Victoria in dance, music, French, German, Latin, and history. For the subjects she was less versed in, economics, geography, mathematics, and politics, she brought in a tutor, Dr. Davies. He was also given the task of helping Victoria sound more English. As her mother spoke mostly German and Letzen had a strong accent, the future queen often got her W's and V's confused. Victoria received a much better education than most aristocratic girls of her time. Unusually for the time, Letzen did not use corporal punishment when her pupil misbehaved. She felt that her charge was getting enough abuse elsewhere. Conroy was quick to sack other members of the staff who got too close to Victoria, but he couldn't get rid of Letzen as she was there at the personal request of Prince Leopold. He did treat her terribly in the hopes that she would quit, but she never did, and she stuck by Victoria. George IV was concerned that his niece was surrounded by commoners, but as he couldn't get his own servants into the Duchess's house, he created Letzen a baroness. To cope with her stressful home life, Victoria developed a rich inner life. From an early age, she kept a diary and filled hundreds of volumes with her thoughts, feelings, and daily activities throughout her life. She wrote that her childhood was desperately unhappy and lonely. She had a rich imagination and talent for drawing. She wrote and illustrated stories and painted whimsical paper dolls. Victoria's mother wasn't all bad. She had charm and warmth and loved her children dearly. She was tasked with the heavy responsibility of raising a future queen, and she was in a foreign country and did not speak the language. Conroy was also good at belittling her and making her feel she was a terrible mother, thus she was all the more dependent on him. In 1830, when Victoria was 11, her uncle George died, and her uncle William became king. This meant Victoria was heir presumptive. Throughout her early teens, Conroy took her on tours across the country, dubbed by the press, Con-Royal Progresses. She met aristocrats, waved to local people, and opened factories and bridges. It was all a clever PR move to get the people excited about the future queen. This was quite a thrill for the young girl who had rarely left her isolated palace, but the grueling schedule was exhausting. Victoria begged to have time off, but was ignored. She ended up in bed with a dangerously high fever. Conroy took the opportunity to try and bully the sick girl into signing papers, naming him as her personal secretary, and ensuring that her mother would be her regent until she was 21, rather than 18. Despite her weakened state, 16-year-old Victoria held strong and refused. On Victoria's 17th birthday, her mother threw her a lavish ball in this drawing room. The duchess invited her daughter's favorite musicians to perform, and fireworks lit up the sky above Kensington. The dancing went on until four in the morning. Among the many handsome, young, and eligible dukes and princes who came to waltz with the future queen were two princes of the Netherlands, brothers Willem and Alexander. King William IV was pushing for a political match with the younger brother, Alexander, an heir to a foreign kingdom wouldn't do for a future queen regnant, as he would have to split his time between nations, and their children might inherit both thrones and force an inconvenient national merger. But a second son was ideal. However, Victoria was unimpressed with Alexander, and wrote in her diary that he was very plain. She was more intrigued by the younger of another set of brothers. Victoria was standing on this staircase when she met her first cousins, Ernst and Albert. They had arrived from Saxe-Coburg at the request of their mutual uncle, Leopold, who had recently been elected the first king of the new nation of Belgium. Victoria wrote in her diary of the birthday ball, After supper I danced with dear Albert. And she wrote to her uncle Leopold, thanking him for sending the handsome, charming and delightful Prince Albert. King William IV was exceedingly fond of his niece, and wanted to see her at court more often. Conroy outright refused because of, quote, all those bastards. Many of William's ten illegitimate children had moved into the palace. Still, the Duchess could not refuse to bring her daughter to court for the king's birthday in 1836. The Duchess, feeling the heir to the throne deserved the best, helped herself to a large suite of rooms. This was the final straw. The king berated the Duchess at the banquet in front of the entire court, shouting, I trust to God that my life may be spared for nine months longer. I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the royal authority to that young lady, not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisors and is herself incompetent to act with propriety. William offered Victoria her own allowance, with which she could set up her own household independent from her mother. But the incensed Duchess demanded that her daughter refuse. William did manage to live past Victoria's 18th birthday. Now that she was an adult, she would no longer need a regent, who would have been her mother, with Conroy pulling the strings. On the 24th of May, 1837, the king threw her an 18th birthday party. He was too ill to attend, so Victoria was permitted to sit on his throne. William lasted another month. On the 20th of June, Victoria was awoken in the early hours and told to come to her sitting room. There she met the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Cunningham. They informed Victoria that her uncle had died, and that she was now queen. Victoria's first order was that she be given one hour alone. She instructed, My mother is not to presume to come to me when she likes. I will call for her. The Privy Council, Prime Minister, and Great Lords all came to Kensington and filled this room to get a glimpse at their mysterious new queen. They were impressed with the young woman's poise and command. The Duke of Wellington recorded that Victoria not only filled the chair, she filled the room. The Kensington system, which was meant to break her will and make her dependent on others, had actually made her into an unbreakable queen. Eighteen-year-old Victoria moved out of her unhappy childhood home and into Buckingham Palace. There she enjoyed dances and parties and made friends with the ladies of her choosing. She dropped the name Alexandrina and went by Victoria instead. Perhaps she was tired of hearing her long derided name and wanted a fresh start. She kept her mother at arm's length. After her coronation, she kissed Letzen, but only shook her mother's hand. She invited her sister Theodora to visit from Germany and attend the celebration. Conroy was never welcomed in the queen's presence again. He was later found to have been robbing the Duchess blind. At 20, Victoria invited her handsome cousin, Albert, to visit, and she proposed to him. He did a lot to repair the relationship between mother and daughter. When the Duchess died in 1861, Victoria, who was less angsty and had now seen the struggles of parenting from both sides, mourned her deeply. She also kept in touch with her siblings. Karl served in the Bavarian army as a lieutenant general. He became president of the Bavarian Reichsrat, or senate. He also headed a society to promote German immigration to Texas. In 1848, revolutions broke out across Europe. Karl, who was a well-known liberal and reformer, was appointed prime minister of revolutionary Germany. His close relationship to the British queen was also seen as an advantage. But in just one month, he resigned because of a dispute over the Schleswig-Holstein region. In 1856, Karl suffered from epiplexy and died at 52. Theodora was by his side. Victoria wrote that she would miss his joyous voice, laugh, and delightful company. Theodora visited her sister often, and Victoria was happy to fund her trips. Theodora also offered her sister parenting advice. Victoria, likely influenced by her own mother, tended towards strictness and high expectations for her own offspring. But Theodora counseled her to be more lenient and gentle. Whenever Victoria's nine children were fed up with their mama, they wrote to Aunt Fetty, as she was one of the few people who could persuade the queen. Victoria named her youngest daughter, Beatrice Theodora, in her honor. The sisters were widowed within a year of each other. When Victoria lost Albert, she begged her sister to move to the UK and live with her. But Theodora gently declined, saying that she liked her independence and wanted to remain near her own children in Germany. In 1872, Theodora's youngest daughter died of scarlet fever at 32. Theodora was inconsolable. She died later that year at 62, probably of cancer. Queen Victoria was heartbroken and mourned the loss of her last family member and link with her childhood. Want even more tea on history? Check out the History Tea Time Podcast. If you enjoyed this video, please like, subscribe, comment your thoughts, and check out my other royal history videos. If you really want to help, please consider supporting me on Patreon. A link is in the description. Thank you for watching!