He was persuaded to permit his sister-in-law and niece to reside in apartments in Kensington Palace, and it was there that the princess spent her childhood.

The king invited them to Windsor for the first time when Victoria was six she retained a strong memory of the event, and recalled in 1872 that the king had taken her by the hand, saying ' Give me your little paw' ( Letters, 1st ser., 1.16). The duchess of Kent made something of a virtue of necessity, keeping Victoria away from the court even when relations defrosted slightly, thus ensuring that the public would not see Victoria as infected by the dissolute regime of the late Hanoverian monarchy. Even when it became clear that Victoria was likely to inherit the throne, George showed little interest in the family it was her half-sister, Feodore, who caught his attention (and was for a time spoken of as a possible bride for the aged king). The king would not even help to relieve their disastrous finances, leaving them to the care of Prince Leopold, until parliament in 1825 made an annual grant to the princess as heir presumptive. George IV initially refused to modify his dislike of Kent's widow he did not regard Victoria as his eventual heir, for the duke of Clarence seemed likely to pre-empt her claim by producing a legitimate child. His advice reinforced the duchess's difficulties with the rest of the royal family, and they isolated Victoria from the morally contaminated court of her ' wicked uncles'. Conroy harboured great ambitions for himself and his family, and viewed the little princess as his route to power and influence. Not a very wise woman (and widely regarded as a stupid foreigner), the duchess was greatly under the influence of the controller of her household and former equerry to the duke, Sir John Conroy, first baronet. The duchess of Kent shared her late husband's conviction that their daughter would one day become queen, and was determined that she should be brought up as an English princess. Under his will Alexandrina Victoria, now fourth in line to the throne, was left to the sole guardianship of her mother. Determined to stay in England because he was convinced that his daughter would inherit the throne, Kent took his family to a house in Sidmouth, Devon there, most unexpectedly, he died on 23 January 1820, less than a week before his father. By December 1819 deteriorating relations with the regent and ever-increasing debts led Kent to leave London, and the court. Tension between Kent and his eldest brother spilled over at the infant's baptism on 24 June 1819, when at the last moment the prince regent as godfather refused to allow her to be named Victoire Georgiana Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta after her mother and godparents, but he eventually agreed to Alexandrina Victoria (after her godfather, the tsar of Russia, and her mother). Relationships between the duke and duchess of Kent and the court of King George IV determined the character of the princess's early years. Unsubstantiated rumours that Victoria was not her father's child surface periodically. Charlotte's death in 1817 had precipitated the efforts to produce a new heir for the throne. Among the duchess's brothers were Ernest, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who was the father of the future prince consort, and the future king of the Belgians Leopold I (1790вЂ“1865), who had been the husband of Princess Charlotte of Wales. His wife was a young widow: born Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1786вЂ“1861), she had married the prince of Leiningen, with whom she had two children, Prince Charles and Princess Feodore, before his death in 1814. She was the only legitimate child of the fourth son of King George III, Edward, duke of Kent (1767вЂ“1820), who in 1818 had abandoned Julie de St Laurent, his mistress of many years, in order to join his brothers in the attempt to provide an heir to the throne. Victoria ( 1819вЂ“1901), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and empress of India, was born on at Kensington Palace, London. The Royal Collection В© 2004 HM Queen Elizabeth II The queen and the later Victorian constitution.Salisbury, Rosebery, and the late Victorian state.Victoria rampant: the second Gladstone ministry.Crown imperial: the second Disraeli ministry.Ending seclusion: the first Gladstone ministry.Family affairs, affairs of state, 1861вЂ“1868.Mourning practices: seclusion and memorials.The high Victorian decade: war and rebellion.'A place of one's own': Osborne and Balmoral.Family values and the bourgeois monarchy.Learning to be queen: Lady Flora and the bedchamber crisis.

Victoria 2 how to become a monarchy