affection. Conroy moved swiftly and effectively to prevent this. He insisted that Victoria could not be subjected to the tainted moral atmosphere at court where the new King’s ten bastard children were welcomed. Cleverly throwing a wedge between the new King and parliament, Conroy assured ministers that William IV had not long to live, that Queen Adelaide was barren, and that therefore immediate provision must be made for the minority of Queen Victoria. Unsurprisingly, the King was outraged and Queen Adelaide wounded by this salvo, and the chasm widened between Windsor and Kensington.
Conroy also launched a public relations campaign on behalf of the Duchess of Kent. His goal was, first, to make it impossible to separate Victoria from her mother or indeed to question the propriety of that lady’s custody of her child. Second, to establish that the duchess was the right and proper person to be appointed regent in the event of the Queen’s minority. Conroy succeeded brilliantly, and he and the duchess began to feel that they held all the trump cards.
In 1831 a panel of clerical dignitaries was invited to Kensington Palace to interview the Princess Victoria and evaluate her scholarly and spiritual progress. In their subsequent report, the bishops professed themselves de lightedwith the princess. Her Highness’s command of Scripture, religious history, geography, French, German, Latin grammar, arithmetic, and the history of England far surpassed that of other young persons of her age, they noted, and she was also very adept at drawing.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was also summoned to Kensington Palace for a private interview with the duchess. His Grace was charmed when Victoria’s mother confided in him how much she idolized her daughter and how often she doubted her own worthiness to educate such a precious child. She sent to the archbishop the glowing reports prepared by his ecclesiastical brethren. These were then consigned to the safety of the archives of Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s official residence, as further documentary evidence of the excellence of the Kensington System. In due course, parliament decreed that, in the event of a minority, the Duchess of Kent should be sole regent for her daughter Victoria.
On only one point did his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1830 question the Duchess of Kent’s education of her daughter. Had the Princess Victoria been told of her lofty destiny, the archbishop asked the duchess. With the King, George IV, visibly failing, surely this was now necessary. The duchess replied that the Princess Victoria had hitherto been carefully shielded from knowledge of her position in the line of succession, but that indeed she was now perhaps old enough to be told the truth.
And so, two months before her eleventh birthday, at the end of her usual lesson in English history, the Princess Victoria reopened her book to find inserted in it a newly updated genealogy of the English royal family. It showed that only her dying uncle George IV and her uncle William, Duke of Clarence, stood between her and the throne. The conversation went as follows:
V ICTORIA : I never saw that before.
L EHZEN : It was not thought necessary that you should, Princess.
V ICTORIA : I see I am nearer to the throne than I thought.
L EHZEN : So it is, Madam.
V ICTORIA (after some moments): Now, many a child would boast but they don’t know the difficulty; there is much splendour, but there is more responsibility! (Holding up the forefinger of her right hand and then putting her hand in Lehzen’s) I will be good!
For generations in England, the image of the young princess, suddenly and solemnly apprised of her illustrious destiny, raising what is always called her tiny finger and saying twice over “I will be good,” was a kind of folk legend.
Fighting Back
…
Y 1831, THE PRINCESS VICTORIA OF KENT WAS HEIR PRESUMPTIVE to her uncle William IV. All attempts by the King and Queen to produce a
Conroy also launched a public relations campaign on behalf of the Duchess of Kent. His goal was, first, to make it impossible to separate Victoria from her mother or indeed to question the propriety of that lady’s custody of her child. Second, to establish that the duchess was the right and proper person to be appointed regent in the event of the Queen’s minority. Conroy succeeded brilliantly, and he and the duchess began to feel that they held all the trump cards.
In 1831 a panel of clerical dignitaries was invited to Kensington Palace to interview the Princess Victoria and evaluate her scholarly and spiritual progress. In their subsequent report, the bishops professed themselves de lightedwith the princess. Her Highness’s command of Scripture, religious history, geography, French, German, Latin grammar, arithmetic, and the history of England far surpassed that of other young persons of her age, they noted, and she was also very adept at drawing.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was also summoned to Kensington Palace for a private interview with the duchess. His Grace was charmed when Victoria’s mother confided in him how much she idolized her daughter and how often she doubted her own worthiness to educate such a precious child. She sent to the archbishop the glowing reports prepared by his ecclesiastical brethren. These were then consigned to the safety of the archives of Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s official residence, as further documentary evidence of the excellence of the Kensington System. In due course, parliament decreed that, in the event of a minority, the Duchess of Kent should be sole regent for her daughter Victoria.
On only one point did his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1830 question the Duchess of Kent’s education of her daughter. Had the Princess Victoria been told of her lofty destiny, the archbishop asked the duchess. With the King, George IV, visibly failing, surely this was now necessary. The duchess replied that the Princess Victoria had hitherto been carefully shielded from knowledge of her position in the line of succession, but that indeed she was now perhaps old enough to be told the truth.
And so, two months before her eleventh birthday, at the end of her usual lesson in English history, the Princess Victoria reopened her book to find inserted in it a newly updated genealogy of the English royal family. It showed that only her dying uncle George IV and her uncle William, Duke of Clarence, stood between her and the throne. The conversation went as follows:
V ICTORIA : I never saw that before.
L EHZEN : It was not thought necessary that you should, Princess.
V ICTORIA : I see I am nearer to the throne than I thought.
L EHZEN : So it is, Madam.
V ICTORIA (after some moments): Now, many a child would boast but they don’t know the difficulty; there is much splendour, but there is more responsibility! (Holding up the forefinger of her right hand and then putting her hand in Lehzen’s) I will be good!
For generations in England, the image of the young princess, suddenly and solemnly apprised of her illustrious destiny, raising what is always called her tiny finger and saying twice over “I will be good,” was a kind of folk legend.
Fighting Back
…
Y 1831, THE PRINCESS VICTORIA OF KENT WAS HEIR PRESUMPTIVE to her uncle William IV. All attempts by the King and Queen to produce a
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