The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-07
EARLY YEARS
THE THRONE NOT DEEMED NEAR
WHEN SHE WAS BORN.
She Spoke French, German and En-
with Ease When Six Years Old.
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
On June q, Victoria, Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland and Empress of India,
will have reigned sixty years Only two
British sovereigns have had reigns APP
preaching hers in length-George III her
grandfather, whose reign, commonly COM
puted at sixty years, lacked nine months
of that period and Henry III, who reigned
fifty-five years In the history of Europe
there is recorded only one longer reign,
that of Louis XIV, who nominally reigned
seventy-two years. She has outlived all
the peers that held their titles when she
assembled the throne in 1887, except the
Earl of Darnley. who was then ten years
Old and Earl Nelson, who was fourteen.
Mr.. Gladstone is one of the half dozen sur
Viving members of Parliament who sat in
that year. She has seen five Dukes of Nor
folk succeed each other, and six Arch
bishops of York, and has outlived every
duke and duchess and every marquis and
marchioness who bore the title in 1887. She
has seen France successfully governed by
one king, one emperor, and six presidents,
and she has seen seventeen presidents in
office in the United States
The story of her life up to the time of her
marriage contains episodes perhaps not
generally known which are more interest
ing in some respects than more familiar
subsequent events. When she was born
in Kensington Place on May a. 1919 there
seemed no great probability that Victoria
would ever become Queen of England. Her
father the Duke of Kent, was the fourth
son of George III. The second son, the
Duke of York, was still alive, and the third
son, the Duke of Clarence, who succeeded
George " had a daughter and was con-
sidered liable to have other children, as his
wife was still young. This daughter died
in infancy, and the death of the Duke of
York, in 1927, without children, made Vic
liam ". Her nearness to the throne was
first made known to her when she was
about twelve years old, by showing her the
royal genealogical table. She was warned
at the same time that her uncle William
~ might yet have an heir. In the procla-
nation of her accession to the throne six
years later this contingency was provided
for by a clause in which the rights of a
pcsthumous child to William " were pro-
tected.
HER BAPTISMAL NAME.
The Queen was baptized Alexandrina Vic
toria She was so designated in the ac-
cession proclamation and contemporaneous
state papers. but her signing herself simply
Victoria caused the other name to be
dropped almost Immediately. The name
Alexandria, after one of her sponsors the
Emperor Alexander of Russia, was given
her by her uncle, George ~, then Prince
Regent. She was named Victoria after her
mother.
She was the first member of the English
royal family to be vaccinated. No end of
stories are told of her childhood which IL
lustrate goodness of heart, if not brilliancy.
When told that her succession to the
throne would be barred if her Aunt Ade-
laide, William Tvs wife had children, she
IF so 1 would not be disappointed, for
/ know by the love Aunt Adelaide bears me
how fond she is of children"
Although proved by her after life not to
be brilliant, the Queen is represented as
quite an infant phenomenon when six years
old. She is said to have spoken French,
as well as German and English, the tongues
of her mother and father, to have had some
knowledge of Italian, and to have been
able to read Vigil and Horace with ease.
She had also begun Greek and knew some
thing of music and mathematics, as well
as of drawing.
On the Duke of Clarence becoming King
in 1890 the contingency of Victoria's ac-
cession to the throne before she was eigh-
teen, the epoch of her majority, was pro-
Vlded for by the establishment of a regen-
cy with her mother as regent, assisted
by d council drawn from the royal family
and the ministers of state. The sum of
&l0U0O q year was then voted for the prin-
cess maintenance, in addition to an am
nual grant of $4,000 made when she was
four years old. The Duchess of Kent, who
had entire control of her daughter after
the death of the duke in 1920 made herself
obnoxious to William ~, apparently, by Sc
Guiding Victoria from royal functions, ana
Greville tells Of a public exhibition of regal
resentment which took place at the cele-
bration of the Kings birthday at Windsor
Castle on Aug. y, 1886. The Duchess of
Kent sat at the Kings side at the dinner
in honor of the occasion When his health
was drunk he IS said to have made this
speech in reply:
Il trust in God that my life may be spared
for nine months longer after " luch period,
in the event OF my death, no regency would
take place / should then have the salts
faction of leaving the royal authority to
the personal exercise of that young lady
(pointing TO the prinCess), the heress pre-
sumptive of the crown. and not in the
hands of person now near me who is sur
rounded by evil advisers and who is her
self incompetent to act with propriety in
the station in which she would be placed
L have no hesitation in saying that
have been insulted-srossly and continual
ly insulted-by that person; but l am de-
termined TO endure no longer a course Of
behavior so disrespectful to me. Among
other things l have particularly TO COM
plain Of the manner in which that young
lady has been kept away from my court
she has been repeatedly kept away from
my drawing rooms. at which she ought
always 10 have been present; but / am
fully resolved that this shall not happen
again. / would have her know that | am
King, | am determined to make my author
ity respected, and for the future | shall
insist and command that the princess do
upon all occasions appear at my court, as
1t is her duty TO do.
BECOMES QUEEN.
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