A royal baby was born 199 years ago at Kensington Palace. Her father was the fourth son of George III, the Duke of Kent, her mother was Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Yesterday morning I stood in the room where she was born. At birth the child was fifth in line to the throne and, after her father died in 1820 when she was not yet a year old, her mother ensured that she led a sheltered childhood. She shared her mother’s bedroom and had private tutors. This portrait of her aged four is strangely prophetic of how she would look much later in her long life.
William IV died in 1837 and, aged 18, Victoria became Queen. She wrote in her diary: “I was awoke at 6 o’clock by Mamma, who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen.” Later that morning she addressed her Privy Council in the Red Saloon at Kensington Palace.
It is not an especially large room so they must have been crowded. The portrait takes one liberty: she wore black in mourning but that would have made her blend in too much with her councillors. I saw these rooms on a private tour of the palace accorded to members of the Friends of Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens. We saw Victoria Revealed and Diana: Her Fashion Story. Details of both exhibitions are here.
As I left the Press were gathering to report on the birth of another royal baby. If I were a betting man I’d have a punt on Victoria, 200 years after Queen Victoria was born at the palace, Each Way with Diana. I don’t fancy Albert.
