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William and Adelaide’s marriage proved to be a happy one. Both King
and Queen were popular with the British public, and Adelaide even
more so, for her modesty and charitable nature. Curiously, Adelaide
was the only Georgian Queen to survive her husband, and, as Dowager
Queen, she lived well into the reign of Queen Victoria.
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was born on 13th August 1792, and was
the daughter of George, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and his
wife Luise Eleonore. Her hometown of Saxe-Meiningen was a
small German state, and the most liberal of the Saxon Duchies. As a
child, she was styled Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of
Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony. Not much is known about
Adelaide’s childhood, education and her life before marriage.
Adelaide’s marriage to the then Prince William came about as a
result of the tragedy that struck England in 1817. Princess
Charlotte, the only child of George, Prince of Wales,
died in childbirth, and all of a sudden there was no heir to the
throne. As The Prince of Wales was estranged from his
wife, it seemed unlikely that he would produce another heir.
This resulted in a mad scramble among the rest of King George’s
sons to marry and have children of their own.
At the time, Prince William was 52 years old, around 27 years older
than Adelaide. For the past twenty years, he had been living with
his mistress, Dorothea Jordan, which whom he had ten children with.
Due to the fact that they were born out of wedlock, the
FitzClarences, as they were known, had been barred from the line of
succession, and William had no choice but to marry legally in order
to secure the succession to the throne.
Truth is, Adelaide wasn’t William’s first choice as a prospective
bride. But, when the negotiations with another Princess fell
through, William went ahead and arranged to marry her. Adelaide
would prove to be an ideal wife, as William would soon come to
realise. Before the wedding, he wrote to his eldest son about
Adelaide, saying that: “She is doomed, poor dear innocent young
creature, to be my wife.”
Prince William and Princess Adelaide were married on the 11th of
July, 1818, in a joint ceremony at Kew Palace. They shared their
wedding celebrations with William’s younger brother, Edward, Duke
of Kent, who was marrying Victoria, the Dowager Princess
of Leiningen. The outcome of Edward and Victoria’s marriage,
though short lived, would produce an heir to the throne – Victoria
– who would go on to be the next Queen. William and Adelaide’s
marriage, on the other hand, would produce no surviving children,
but would be a happy one nevertheless.
As a wife, Adelaide was good natured and amiable, and devoted to
her husband. The pair moved to Hanover, where Adelaide
willingly accepted William’s illegitimate children as a
part of the family. William grew to be extremely fond of his wife,
and Adelaide even managed to improve his conduct – contemporaries
noted that, after his marriage, William stopped swearing, didn’t
drink as much, and behaved tactfully at important occasions.
A few months after their marriage, Adelaide fell pregnant. In 1819,
she gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named
Charlotte. Unfortunately, the baby did not live beyond a few hours.
Two years later, William and Adelaide had another daughter,
Elizabeth, who died when he was only four months old. In addition
to this, Adelaide suffered from a couple of miscarriages, and in
1822, she gave birth to two stillborn boys.
When King George IV took the throne in 1820, his heir presumptive
had been his younger brother Frederick, Duke of York. But when
Frederick predecesed his brother in 1827, William became first in
line to the throne. Upon the death of his brother, the King,
William ascended the throne as King William IV. He and Adelaide
were crowned at Westminster Abbey in 1831. One of William’s first
acts as King was to confer on Adelaide the Rangership of Bushy
Park, which allowed Adelaide to stay at Bushy House for the rest of
her life.
As Queen, Adelaide spent a large portion of her time dealing with
her charitable causes, and donated a large portion of her household
income to the less fortunate. She treated her niece, the young
Princess Victoria, with kindness, and included her in her
household. William had acknowledged Victoria as his heir
presumptive, and was very fond of her, despite his marked hostility
against her mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent.
Not only did the Duchess keep her daughter away from court, but she
also refused to acknowledge Adelaide’s precedence as Queen, and
never answered her letters. The King was hurt at this disrespect
towards his dear wife, and loudly proclaimed, in front of a
gathering of guests, that the Duchess was “incompetent to act with
propriety”, saying: “I have been grossly and continually
insulted by that person.” In fact, the King detested the Dowager
Duchess so much, that he was determined to continue to live until
Victoria had passed minority, to avoid a Regency by the Duchess and
her adviser, Sir John Conroy.
In 1837, both The Queen and The King fell seriously ill. While
Adelaide soon recovered, William’s condition only worsened, and
Adelaide spent ten days and ten nights by his bedside. He finally
died of heart failure on the morning of the 20th June. His niece
Victoria, who had turned 18 only a month before, was now the
Queen.
After her husband’s death, Adelaide left the court and moved
to Worcestershire. In 1840, she was named the Godmother of
Queen Victoria’s first child, Vicky. Adelaide continued to make
public appearances during her time as Dowager Queen. She was seen
in public for the last time in 1849, when she laid the foundation
stone of the church of St. John the Evangelist, the east window of
which is dedicated to her.
The Dowager Queen Adelaide died a natural death in 1849, twelve
years after King William. Among those at her funeral were Queen
Victoria, who was extremely fond of her late aunt and uncle,
despite their poor relationship with her mother. Although none of
Queen Adelaide’s children had survived infancy, she left behind a
lasting legacy in the Australian city of Adelaide, which was named
after her in 1836.
In her final letter, which was regarding her funeral arrangements,
Adelaide wrote: “I die in all humility. 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.”
In accordance with her wishes, Adelaide was buried beside her
husband at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor – there rests the last
wife of the Georgian Kings.
Photo credit: “Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen” by
Creator:John
Simpson – https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/queen-adelaide-17921849-75503.
Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.]]>
Edward, Duke of Kent, was William’s younger brother. Not his son.