| Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen | |
|---|---|
| Queen (consort) of the United Kingdom and of Hanover (more...) | |
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| Portrait by Samuel Diez, c. 1830 | |
| Consort | 26 June 1830 – 20 June 1837 |
| Coronation | 8 September 1831 |
| Consort to | William IV |
| Issue | |
| Princess Charlotte of Clarence Princess Elizabeth of Clarence |
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| Full name | |
| Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline Amelia German: Adelheid Amalie Luise Therese Caroline |
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| Titles | |
| HM Queen Adelaide HM The Queen HRH The Duchess of Clarence HH Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen HSH Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen |
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| Royal house | House of Hanover House of Wettin |
| Father | Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen |
| Mother | Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg |
| Born | 13 August 1792 Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany |
| Died | 2 December 1849 (aged 57) Bentley Priory, Middlesex |
| Burial | St George's Chapel, Windsor |
Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (Adelaide Louise Theresa Caroline Amelia; later Queen Adelaide; 13 August 1792–2 December 1849) was the queen consort of William IV. Prior to becoming queen consort, she was known as Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Clarence.
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Early life
Adelaide was born on 13 August 1792 at Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany. Her father was Georg I Frederick Karl, 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.
Marriage
Adelaide married Prince William, Duke of Clarence, a son of George III, in a double marriage with William's brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and his bride, Victoria, the Dowager Princess of Leiningen on 11 July 1818, at Kew Palace in Surrey, England. It was the first marriage for both William and Adelaide. William was over twenty years her senior, and previously had illegitimate children by the popular actress Dorothy Jordan. The sixth of November 1817 saw the death, in childbirth, of the heir to the throne, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield (later King Léopold I of the Belgians). This prompted William and his brothers to secure the line of succession, thus marrying quickly late in life with the intent of producing heirs[1]. Another incentive on William's part was the likelihood of considerable allowances being voted by Parliament to both Duke and Duchess. Adelaide, on the other hand, had the likelihood that she would eventually become Queen--quite a step up for an aging (for the time) princess from an unimportant German state. Parliament, in fact, voted only a small increase to the couple, and the outraged Duke stated that he considered the marriage plans at an end. However, Adelaide sent word that she still desired to go through with the marriage. Despite these unromantic circumstances (the Duke refused the increase for three years, eventually accepting the accrued balance--a large increase was finally voted when the Duke became heir presumptive in 1827), 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.
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 IV, William acceded to the throne. He was crowned, and Adelaide was crowned as his queen consort, on 8 September 1831, at Westminster Abbey. 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 Duchess of Kent. Adelaide was strongly Tory, and attempted to influence the King politically. It is unclear how much of William's attitudes during the crisis over the struggles to pass the Reform Act of 1832 were due to her influence.
| Styles of Queen Adelaide |
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| Reference style | Her Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Namesakes
Queen's Park, Brighton was named after Queen Adelaide, as was the Australian city of Adelaide, capital of the state of South Australia. The city of Adelaide, in turn, was the eponym for Adelaide Avenue in Canberra; radiating out from Parliament House are major avenues each of which is oriented in the direction of a different state capital, and named after it. Adelaide Avenue is the location of The Lodge, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Australia. Adelaide Street in Toronto, Canada, is named in her honour. Queen Victoria, who never forgot her aunt Adelaide's kindness to her as a child, remembered her at the christening of her firstborn child, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise, later the Princess Royal.
Queen dowager
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. 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.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 13 August 1792 – 18 June 1815: Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony
- 18 June 1815 – 11 July 1818: Her Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony
- 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 (of the United Kingdom and of Hanover)
- 20 June 1837 – 2 December 1849: Her Majesty Queen (Dowager) Adelaide
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide is alternately cited as having four [2] and five [3] pregnancies; however, she suffered at least two miscarriages. | |||
| Princess Charlotte of Clarence | 21 March 1819 | 21 March 1819 | |
| 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 in Calais during the journey (5 September 1819). | |||
| Princess Elizabeth of Clarence | 10 December 1820 | 4 March 1821 | |
| William and Adelaide ultimately did not produce an heir to the throne. Twin boys were stillborn on 23 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, 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. | |||
External links
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Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Born: 13 August 1792 Died: 2 December 1849 |
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| Preceded by Caroline of Brunswick |
Queen-consort of the United Kingdom 1830 — 1837 |
Succeeded by Albert of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha (as Prince Consort) |
| Queen-consort of Hanover 1830 — 1837 |
Succeeded by Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz |
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| HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1936–1952) · Mary of Teck (1910–1936) · Alexandra of Denmark (1901–1910) · Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1840–1861) · Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1830–1837) · Caroline of Brunswick (1820–1821) · Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1761–1818) · Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1727–1760) · George of Denmark-Norway (1707–1708) |
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| 1st Generation | |
| 2nd Generation | |
| 3rd Generation | |
| 4th Generation |
Caroline, Queen of the United Kingdom · Frederica Charlotte, Duchess of York · Adelaide, Queen of the United Kingdom · Victoria, Duchess of Kent · Frederica, Queen of Hanover · Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge |
| 5th Generation | |
| 6th Generation | |
| 7th Generation | |
| 8th Generation |
Elizabeth, Queen Mother* · Alice, Duchess of Gloucester* · Marina, Duchess of Kent · Ortrud, Princess of Hanover · Monika, Princess of Hanover · Sophie, Princess George William of Hanover |
| 9th Generation | |
| 10th Generation | |
| Note: Queen Charlotte never was a British princess; she married George III after he became king *did not have a royal or noble title by birth |
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