BBC - History - William IV z William IV © William IV was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1830. He was known both as the 'Sailor King' and as 'Silly Billy'. His reign saw the passing of the Reform Act of 1832. William was born at Buckingham Palace in London on 21 August 1765. He was the third son of George III and Queen Charlotte and as such was not expected to succeed to the throne. At the age of 13 he began a career in the Royal Navy. He enjoyed his time at sea, seeing service in America and the West Indies and becoming admiral of the fleet in 1811. In 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence. From the early 1790s until 1811, William lived with his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordan. They had 10 children who took the surname Fitzclarence. In 1811, William's oldest brother George became prince regent (later George IV) when their father was declared insane.

The death of the prince regent's only daughter in 1818 resulted in a scramble among George's brothers to marry and produce heirs. The same year, William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. With the death of George III's second son, William became heir and then, with the death of George IV, king in June 1830. He was initially very popular. His insistence on a simple coronation contrasted with the extravagance of his brother's reign. William's reign was dominated by the Reform crisis. It began almost immediately when the Duke of Wellington's Tory government, which William supported, lost the general election in August 1830. The Whigs, led by Lord Grey, came to power intent on pushing through electoral reform against strong opposition in the Commons and the Lords. Another general election in 1831 gave the Whigs a majority in the Commons but the Lords continued to reject the Reform Bill. There was a political crisis during the winter of 1831-1832, with riots in some parts of the country.

The king eventually agreed to create enough new Whig peers to get the bill through the House of Lords, but the Lords, who had opposed it, backed down and it was passed. The 1832 Reform Act abolished some of the worst abuses of the electoral system and extended the franchise to the middle classes. William died on 20 June 1837, without surviving children. His niece Victoria succeeded him. William IV of the United Kingdom | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia William IV of the United Kingdom 204,344pages on William IV, painted by Sir Martin Archer Shee , 1833 Preceded by Military (Naval) Signature William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. William, the third son of George III and younger brother and successor to George IV , was the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain's House of Hanover .

He served in the Royal Navy in his youth and was, both during his reign and afterwards, nicknamed the "Sailor King". [1] [2] He served in North America and the Caribbean, but saw little actual fighting. Since his two older brothers died without leaving legitimate issue, he inherited the throne when he was 64 years old. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished in nearly all the British Empire , and the British electoral system refashioned by the Reform Act 1832 . Though William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, he was the last monarch to appoint a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament. Through his brother , the Viceroy of Hanover, he granted that kingdom a short-lived liberal constitution. At the time of his death, William had no surviving legitimate children but he was survived by eight of the ten illegitimate children he had by the actress Dorothea Jordan , with whom he cohabited for 20 years. William was succeeded in the United Kingdom by his niece, Victoria , and in Hanover by his brother, Ernest Augustus I .

Contents Edit William was born in the early hours of the morning on 21 August 1765 at Buckingham House, the third child and son of King George III and Queen Charlotte . [3] He had two elder brothers, George and Frederick , and was not expected to inherit the Crown. He was baptised in the Great Council Chamber of St James's Palace on 20 September 1765. His godparents were his paternal uncles, the Duke of Gloucester and Prince Henry (later Duke of Cumberland), and his paternal aunt, Princess Augusta , then Hereditary Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. [4] Prince William aged thirteen and his younger brother Edward in 1778 Most of his early life was spent at Richmond and Kew Palace , where he was educated by private tutors. [5] At the age of thirteen, he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman , [6] and was present at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780.

[7] His experiences in the navy seem to have been little different from those of other midshipmen (though a tutor accompanied him on board ship) doing his share of the cooking [8] and getting arrested with his shipmates after a drunken brawl on Gibraltar (he was hastily released when his identity became known). [9] He served in New York during the American War of Independence . While the prince was in America, George Washington approved a plot to kidnap him, writing "The spirit of enterprise so conspicuous in your plan for surprising in their quarters and bringing off the Prince William Henry and Admiral Digby merits applause; and you have my authority to make the attempt in any manner, and at such a time, as your judgment may direct. I am fully persuaded, that it is unnecessary to caution you against offering insult or indignity to the persons of the Prince or Admiral..." [10] [11] The plot did not come to fruition; the British heard of it and assigned guards to the prince, who had up till then walked around New York unescorted. [12] William became a Lieutenant in 1785 and Captain of HMS Pegasus the following year.

[13] In late 1786, he was stationed in the West Indies under Horatio Nelson , who wrote of William, "In his professional line, he is superior to two-thirds, I am sure, of the [Naval] list; and in attention to orders, and respect to his superior officer, I hardly know his equal." [14] The two were great friends, and dined together almost nightly. At Nelson's wedding, the prince insisted on giving the bride away. [15] He was given command of the frigate HMS Andromeda in 1788, and was promoted to Rear-Admiral in command of HMS Valiant the following year. [16] William sought to be made a duke like his elder brothers, and to receive a similar parliamentary grant, but his father was reluctant. To put pressure on him, William threatened to stand for the House of Commons for the constituency of Totnes in Devon.

Appalled at the prospect of his son making his case to the voters, George III created him Duke of Clarence and St Andrews and Earl of Munster on 16 May 1789, [17] supposedly saying, "I well know it is another vote added to the Opposition." [18] Although he allied himself publicly with the Whigs and his elder brothers (who were known for their conflict with their father), the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, William's record was inconsistent and, like many politicians of the time, cannot be certainly ascribed to a single party. [19] Service and politics Edit William in dress uniform painted by Sir Martin Archer Shee, c.1800 The newly created Duke ceased his active service in the Royal Navy in 1790. [20] When the United Kingdom declared war on France in 1793, he was anxious to serve his country and expected a command, but was not given a ship, perhaps at first because he had broken his arm by falling down some stairs drunk, but later because he gave a speech in the House of Lords opposing the war.

[21] The following year he spoke in favour of the war, expecting a command after his change of heart; none came, the Admiralty did not even reply to his request. [22] He did not lose hope of being appointed to an active post; but, when he was made an admiral in 1798, the rank was purely titular. [23] Despite repeated petitions, he was never given a command throughout the Napoleonic Wars . [24] In 1811, he was appointed to the honorary position of Admiral of the Fleet . In 1813, he came nearest to any actual fighting, when he visited the British troops fighting in the Low Countries. Watching the bombardment of Antwerp from a church steeple, he came under fire. A bullet pierced his coat. [25] Instead of serving at sea, he spent time in the House of Lords, where he spoke in opposition to the abolition of slavery, which although not legal in the United Kingdom still existed in the British colonies. Freedom would do the slaves little good, he argued.

He had travelled widely and, in his eyes, the living standard among freemen in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland was worse than that among slaves in the West Indies. [26] His experience in the West Indies lent gravitas to his position, which was perceived as well-argued and just by some of his contemporaries. [27] Others thought it "shocking that so young a man, under no bias of interest, should be earnest in continuance of the slave trade". [28] In his speech to the House of Lords, the Duke insulted the leading abolitionist, saying "the proponents of the abolition are either fanatics or hypocrites, and in one of those classes I rank Mr. Wilberforce ". [29] On other issues he was more liberal, such as supporting moves to abolish penal laws against dissenting Christians . [30] He also opposed efforts to bar those found guilty of adultery from remarriage. [31] Relationships and marriage Edit From 1791, the Duke of Clarence lived for 20 years with an Irish actress, Dorothea Bland , better known by her stage name, Mrs.

Jordan, [20] the title "Mrs" being assumed at the start of her stage career to explain an inconvenient pregnancy [32] and "Jordan" because she had "crossed the water" from Ireland to Britain. [33] Mrs. Jordan in the Character of Hypolita, mezzotint by John Jones of London, 1791, after a painting by John Hoppner William was part of the first generation to grow to maturity under the Royal Marriages Act 1772 , which forbade descendants of George II from marrying unless they obtained the monarch's consent, or, if over the age of 25, giving twelve months' notice to the Privy Council. Several of George III's sons, including William, chose to cohabit with the women they loved, rather than seeking a wife. After all, the younger sons, including William, were not expected to figure in the succession, which was considered secure once the Prince of Wales married and had a daughter, Princess Charlotte . William appeared to enjoy the domesticity of his life with Mrs. Jordan. The Duke remarked to a friend, "Mrs. Jordan is a very good creature, very domestic and careful of her children.

To be sure she is absurd sometimes and has her humours. But there are such things more or less in all families." The couple, while living quietly, enjoyed entertaining, with Mrs. Jordan writing in late 1809: "We shall have a full and merry house this Christmas, 'tis what the dear Duke delights in." [34] The King, generally somewhat of a prude, was accepting of his son's relationship with the actress (though recommending that he halve her allowance) [35] and in 1797, created William Ranger of Bushy Park, which included a large residence, Bushy House , for William's growing family. [36] William used Bushy as his principal residence until he became king. [37] His London residence, Clarence House , was constructed to the designs of John Nash between 1825 and 1827. [38] The couple had ten illegitimate children, five sons and five daughters, nine of whom were named for William's siblings, and who were given the surname "FitzClarence". [39] [40] The affair lasted for twenty years before ending in 1811. Mrs.

Jordan at least had no doubt as to the reason for the break-up: "Money, money, my good friend, has, I am convinced made HIM at this moment the most wretched of men," adding, "With all his excellent qualities, his domestic virtues, his love for his lovely children, what must he not at this moment suffer?" [41] Mrs. Jordan was given a financial settlement of £4,400 (equal to £285,100 today) per year and custody of the daughters, on condition she did not resume the stage. When she did take up her acting career again, to repay debts incurred by her son-in-law (the husband of one of Mrs. Jordan's daughters from a previous relationship), the Duke took custody of the daughters and stopped paying the £1,500 (equal to £93,700 today) designated for their maintenance. With her career failing, she fled to France to escape her creditors, and died, impoverished, near Paris in 1816. [42] Before he met Mrs.

Jordan, William had an illegitimate son whose mother is unknown; the son, William Henry Courtenay, drowned off Madagascar in HMS Blenheim in February 1807. [43] Caroline von Linsingen, whose father was a general in the Hanoverian infantry, claimed to have had a son, Heinrich, by William in around 1790 but William was not in Hanover at the time that she claims and the story is considered implausible. [44] Adelaide Amelia Louisa Theresa Caroline of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen, portrait by Sir William Beechey , c.1831 Deeply in debt, the Duke made multiple attempts towards marrying a wealthy heiress, but his suits were unsuccessful. [45] However, when the Duke's niece, Princess Charlotte, the second-in-line to the British throne, died in childbirth in 1817, the King was left with twelve children, but no legitimate grandchildren. The race was on among the royal dukes to marry and produce an heir.

William had great advantages in this race—his two older brothers were both childless and estranged from their wives (who were both beyond childbearing age anyway) and William was the healthiest of the three. [46] If he lived long enough, he would almost certainly ascend the British and Hanoverian thrones, and have the opportunity to sire the next monarch. However, William's first choices to wed either met with the disapproval of his eldest brother, the Prince Regent, or turned him down. His younger brother, the Duke of Cambridge , was sent to Germany to scout out the available Protestant princesses; he came up with Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel , but her father Frederick declined the match. [47] Two months later, the Duke of Cambridge married her himself. Eventually, a princess was found who was amicable, home-loving, and was willing to accept, even enthusiastically welcome, William's nine surviving children, several of whom had not yet reached adulthood. [48] At Kew on 11 July 1818, [49] William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen , the daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen .

At 25, Adelaide was half William's age. The marriage, which lasted almost twenty years until William's death, was a happy one. The new Duchess took both William and his finances in hand. For their first year of marriage, the couple lived in economical fashion in Germany, and William's debts were soon on the way to being paid, especially since Parliament had voted him an increased allowance, which he reluctantly accepted after his requests to increase it further were refused. [50] William is not known to have had mistresses after his marriage. [16] [51] [52] The couple had two short-lived daughters and Adelaide suffered three miscarriages. [53] Despite this, false rumours that Adelaide was pregnant persisted into William's reign—he dismissed them as "damned stuff". [54] Lord High Admiral Edit Portrait of William, as Lord High Admiral, print by William James Ward, after Abraham Wivell 's painting, first published in 1827 William's elder brother, the Prince of Wales, had been Prince Regent since 1811 because of the mental illness of their father, George III.

In 1820, the King died, leaving the Crown to the Prince Regent, who became George IV . William was now second in the line of succession, preceded only by his brother, Frederick, Duke of York. Reformed since his marriage, William walked for hours, ate relatively frugally, and the only drink he imbibed in quantity was barley water flavoured with lemon. [55] Both of his older brothers were unhealthy, and it was considered only a matter of time before he became king. [56] When the Duke of York died in 1827, William, then more than 60 years old, became heir presumptive. Later that year, the incoming Prime Minister, George Canning , appointed William to the office of Lord High Admiral , which had been in commission (that is, exercised by a board rather than by a single individual) since 1709. While in office, the Duke had repeated conflicts with his Council, which was composed of Admiralty officers. Things finally came to a head in 1828 when the Lord High Admiral put to sea with a squadron of ships, leaving no word of where they were going, and remaining away for ten days.

The King, through the Prime Minister, by now Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , requested his resignation; the Duke of Clarence complied. [51] Despite the difficulties the Duke experienced, he did considerable good as Lord High Admiral. He abolished the cat o' nine tails for most offences other than mutiny , attempted to improve the standard of naval gunnery and required regular reports of the condition and preparedness of each ship. He commissioned the first steam warship and advocated more. [57] Holding the office permitted William to make mistakes and learn from them—a process that might have been far more costly had he not learnt before becoming King that he should act only with the advice of his councillors. [51] [58] William spent the remaining time during his brother's reign in the House of Lords. He supported the Catholic Emancipation Bill against the opposition of his younger brother, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland , describing the latter's position on the Bill as "infamous", to the Duke of Cumberland's outrage. [59] George IV's health was increasingly bad; it was obvious by early 1830 that he was near death.

The King took his leave of his younger brother at the end of May, stating, "God's will be done. I have injured no man. It will all rest on you then." [60] William's genuine affection for his older brother could not mask his rising anticipation that he would soon be king. [59] [61] Reign Edit When George IV died on 26 June 1830 without surviving legitimate issue, the Duke of Clarence succeeded him as William IV. Aged 64, he was the oldest person ever to assume the British throne. [62] Unlike his extravagant brother, William was unassuming, discouraging pomp and ceremony. In contrast to George IV, who tended to spend most of his time in Windsor Castle , William was known, especially early in his reign, to walk, unaccompanied, through London or Brighton. Until the Reform Crisis eroded his standing, he was very popular among the people, who saw him as more approachable and down-to-earth than his brother. [63] The King immediately proved himself a conscientious worker.

The King's first Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, stated that he had done more business with King William in ten minutes than he had with George IV in as many days. [64] Lord Brougham described him as an excellent man of business, asking enough questions to help him understand the matter—whereas George IV feared to ask questions lest he display his ignorance and George III would ask too many and then not wait for a response. [65] The King did his best to endear himself to the people. Charlotte Williams-Wynn wrote shortly after his accession: "Hitherto the King has been indefatigable in his efforts to make himself popular, and do good natured and amiable things in every possible instance." [66] Emily Eden noted: "He is an immense improvement on the last unforgiving animal, who died growling sulkily in his den at Windsor. This man at least wishes to make everybody happy, and everything he has done has been benevolent." [67] William dismissed his brother's French chefs and German band, replacing them with English ones to public approval. He gave much of George IV's painting collection to the nation, and reduced the royal stud.

George IV had begun an extensive (and expensive) renovation of Buckingham Palace; his brother refused to reside there, and twice tried to give the palace away, once to the Army as a barracks, and once to Parliament after the Houses of Parliament burned down in 1834. [68] His informality could be startling: When in residence at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, King William used to send to the hotels for a list of their guests and invite anyone whom he knew to dinner, urging guests not to "bother about clothes. The Queen does nothing but embroider flowers after dinner." [69] Upon taking the throne, William did not forget his nine surviving illegitimate children, creating his eldest son Earl of Munster and granting the other children the precedence of a younger son (or daughter) of a marquess. Despite this, his children importuned for greater opportunities, disgusting elements of the press who reported that the "impudence and rapacity of the FitzJordans is unexampled". [70] The relationship between William and his sons "was punctuated by a series of savage and, for the King at least, painful quarrels" over money and honours.

[71] His daughters, on the other hand, proved an ornament to his court, as, "They are all, you know, pretty and lively, and make society in a way that real princesses could not." [72] Reform crisis Edit At the time, the death of the monarch required fresh elections and, in the general election of 1830, Wellington's Tories lost ground to the Whigs under Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey , though the Tories still had the largest number of seats. With the Tories bitterly divided, Wellington was defeated in the House of Commons in November, and Lord Grey formed a government. Lord Grey pledged to reform the electoral system, which had seen few changes since the fifteenth century. The inequities in the system were great; for example, large towns such as Manchester and Birmingham elected no members (though they were part of county constituencies), while small boroughs—known as rotten or pocket boroughs —such as Old Sarum with just seven voters, elected two members of Parliament each.

Often, the rotten boroughs were controlled by great aristocrats, whose nominees were invariably elected by the constituents—who were, most often, their tenants—especially since the secret ballot was not yet used in Parliamentary elections. Landowners who controlled seats were even able to sell them to prospective candidates. [73] Political cartoon supporting the Reform Act; King William sits above the clouds, surrounded by Whig politicians, below Britannia and the British Lion cause the Tories to flee. When the House of Commons defeated the First Reform Bill in 1831, Lord Grey's ministry urged William to dissolve Parliament, which would lead to a new general election. At first, William hesitated to exercise his prerogative to dissolve Parliament because elections had just been held the year before and the country was in a state of high excitement which might boil over into violence. He was, however, irritated by the conduct of the Opposition, which announced its intention to move the passage of an Address, or resolution, in the House of Lords, against dissolution. Regarding the Opposition's motion as an attack on his prerogative, and at the urgent request of Lord Grey and his ministers, William IV prepared to go in person to the House of Lords and prorogue Parliament.

[74] The monarch's arrival would stop all debate and prevent passage of the Address. [75] When initially told that his horses could not be ready at such short notice, William is supposed to have said, "Then I will go in a hackney cab!" [75] Coach and horses were assembled quickly and William immediately proceeded to Parliament. Said The Times of the scene before William's arrival, "It is utterly impossible to describe the scene ... The violent tones and gestures of noble Lords ... astonished the spectators, and affected the ladies who were present with visible alarm." [76] Lord Londonderry brandished a whip, threatening to thrash the Government supporters, and was held back by four of his colleagues. William hastily put on the crown, entered the Chamber, and dissolved Parliament. [77] This forced new elections for the House of Commons, which yielded a great victory for the reformers. But although the House of Commons was clearly in favour of parliamentary reform, the House of Lords remained implacably opposed to it. [78] The crisis saw a brief interlude for the celebration of the King's Coronation on 8 September 1831.

At first, the King wished to dispense with the coronation entirely, feeling that his wearing the crown while proroguing Parliament answered any need. [79] He was persuaded otherwise by traditionalists. He refused, however, to celebrate the coronation in the expensive way his brother had—the 1821 coronation had cost £240,000, of which £16,000 was merely to hire the jewels. At William's instructions, the Privy Council budgeted less than £30,000 for the coronation. [80] When traditionalist Tories threatened to boycott what they called the " Half Crown -nation", [81] the King retorted that they should go ahead, and that he anticipated "greater convenience of room and less heat". [82] After the rejection of the Second Reform Bill by the Upper House in October 1831, agitation for reform grew across the country; demonstrations grew violent in so-called "Reform Riots". In the face of popular excitement, the Grey ministry refused to accept defeat in the House of Lords, and re-introduced the Bill, which still faced difficulties in the House of Lords.

Frustrated by the Lords' recalcitrance, Grey suggested that the King create a sufficient number of new peers to ensure the passage of the Reform Bill. The King objected—though he had the power to create an unlimited number of peers, he had already created 22 new peers in his Coronation Honours. [83] William reluctantly agreed to the creation of the number of peers sufficient "to secure the success of the bill". [84] However, the King, citing the difficulties with a permanent expansion of the Peerage, told Grey that the creations must be restricted as much as possible to the eldest sons and collateral heirs of existing peers, so that the created peerages would eventually be absorbed as subsidiary titles. This time, the Lords did not reject the bill outright, but began preparing to change its basic character through amendments. Grey and his fellow ministers decided to resign if the King did not agree to an immediate and large creation to force the bill through in its entirety. [85] The King refused, and accepted their resignations. The King attempted to restore the Duke of Wellington to office, but Wellington had insufficient support to form a ministry and the King's popularity sank to an all-time low.

Mud was slung at his carriage and he was publicly hissed. The King agreed to reappoint Grey's ministry, and to create new peers if the House of Lords continued to pose difficulties. Concerned by the threat of the creations, most of the bill's opponents abstained and the Reform Act 1832 was passed. The mob blamed William's actions on the influence of his wife and brother, and his popularity recovered. [86] Foreign policy Edit William distrusted foreigners, particularly anyone French, [87] which he acknowledged as a "prejudice". [88] He also felt strongly that Britain should not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, which brought him into conflict with the interventionist Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston . [89] William supported Belgian independence and, after unacceptable Dutch and French candidates were put forward, favoured Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , the widower of his niece, Charlotte, as a candidate for the newly created Belgian throne. [90] Though he had a reputation for tactlessness and buffoonery, William could be shrewd and diplomatic.

He foresaw that the potential construction of a canal at Suez would make good relations with Egypt vital to Britain. [91] Later in his reign, he flattered the American ambassador at a dinner by announcing that he regretted not being "born a free, independent American, so much did he respect that nation, which had given birth to George Washington, the greatest man that ever lived". [92] By exercising his personal charm, William assisted in the repair of Anglo-American relations, which had been so deeply damaged during the reign of his father. [93] King of Hanover Edit William never visited Hanover as its king . His brother, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge , acted as viceroy there throughout William's reign as he had throughout George IV's reign. Public perception in Germany was that Britain dictated Hanoverian policy. This was not the case. In 1832, Metternich introduced laws that curbed fledging liberal movements in Germany. Britain's Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston opposed this, and sought William's influence to cause the Hanoverian government to take the same position. The Hanoverian government instead agreed with Metternich, much to Palmerston's dismay, and William declined to intervene.

The conflict between William and Palmerston over Hanover was renewed the following year when Metternich called a conference of the German states, to be held in Vienna, and Palmerston wanted Hanover to decline the invitation. Instead, the Viceroy accepted, backed fully by William. [94] In 1833, William signed a new constitution for Hanover, which empowered the middle class, gave limited power to the lower classes, and expanded the role of the parliament of Hanover. The constitution was revoked after William's death by the new king, William's brother, Ernest Augustus . Later life Edit Portrait of King William IV by Sir David Wilkie in 1837 For the remainder of his reign, William interfered actively in politics only once, in 1834, when he became the last British sovereign to choose a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament. In 1834, the ministry was facing increasing unpopularity and Lord Grey retired; the Home Secretary, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne , replaced him. Lord Melbourne retained most Cabinet members, and his ministry retained an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons.

Some members of the Government, however, were anathema to the King, and increasingly left-wing policies concerned him. The previous year Grey had already pushed through a bill reforming the Protestant Church of Ireland. The Church collected tithes throughout Ireland, supported multiple bishoprics and was wealthy. However, barely an eighth of the Irish population belonged to the Church of Ireland. In some parishes, there were no Church of Ireland members at all, but there was still a priest paid for by tithes collected from the local Catholics and Presbyterians, leading to charges that idle priests were living in luxury at the expense of the Irish living at the level of subsistence. Grey's bill had reduced the number of bishoprics by half, abolished some of the sinecures and overhauled the tithe system. Further measures to appropriate the surplus revenues of the Church of Ireland were mooted by the more radical members of the Government, including Lord John Russell . [95] The King had an especial dislike for Russell, calling him "a dangerous little Radical." [96] Half-Crown of William IV, 1836.

The inscription reads GULIELMUS IIII D(EI) G(RATIA) BRITANNIAR(UM) REX F(IDEI) D(EFENSOR) (William IV by the Grace of God King of the Britons, Defender of the Faith) William IV drawn by his daughter Sophia de L'Isle and Dudley in early 1837 In November 1834, the Leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Charles Spencer, Viscount Althorp , inherited a peerage, thus removing him from the House of Commons to the Lords. Melbourne had to appoint a new Commons leader and a new Chancellor (who by long custom, must be drawn from the Commons), but the only candidate that Melbourne felt suitable to replace Althorp as Commons leader was Lord John Russell, whom William (and many others) found unacceptable due to his Radical politics. William claimed that the ministry had been weakened beyond repair and used the removal of Lord Althorp—who had previously indicated that he would retire from politics upon becoming a peer [97] —as the pretext for the dismissal of the entire ministry.

With Lord Melbourne gone, William chose to entrust power to a Tory, Sir Robert Peel . Since Peel was then in Italy, the Duke of Wellington was provisionally appointed Prime Minister. [98] When Peel returned and assumed leadership of the ministry for himself, he saw the impossibility of governing because of the Whig majority in the House of Commons. Consequently, Parliament was dissolved to force fresh elections. Although the Tories won more seats than in the previous election, they were still in the minority. Peel remained in office for a few months, but resigned after a series of parliamentary defeats. Lord Melbourne was restored to the Prime Minister's office, remaining there for the rest of William's reign, and the King was forced to accept Russell as Commons leader. [99] The King had a mixed relationship with Lord Melbourne. Melbourne's government mooted more ideas to introduce greater democracy, such as the devolution of powers to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada , which greatly alarmed the King, who feared it would eventually lead to the loss of the colony. [100] At first, the King bitterly opposed these proposals. William exclaimed to Lord Gosford , Governor General-designate of Canada: "Mind what you are about in Canada ...

mind me, my Lord, the Cabinet is not my Cabinet; they had better take care or by God, I will have them impeached." [101] When William's son Augustus FitzClarence enquired of his father whether the King would be entertaining during Ascot week , William gloomily replied, "I cannot give any dinners without inviting the ministers, and I would rather see the devil than any one of them in my house." [102] Nevertheless, William approved the Cabinet's recommendations for reform. [103] Despite his disagreements with Lord Melbourne, the King wrote warmly to congratulate the Prime Minister when he triumphed in the adultery case brought against him concerning Lady Caroline Norton —he had refused to permit Melbourne to resign when the case was first brought. [104] The King and Prime Minister eventually found a modus vivendi; Melbourne applying tact and firmness when called for; while William realised that his First Minister was far less radical in his politics than the King had feared. [102] Both the King and Queen were fond of their niece, Princess Victoria of Kent .

Their attempts to forge a close relationship with the girl were frustrated by the conflict between the King and the Duchess of Kent , the young princess's widowed mother. The King, angered at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, took the opportunity at what proved to be his final birthday banquet in August 1836 to settle the score. Speaking to those assembled at the banquet, who included the Duchess and Princess Victoria, William expressed his hope that he would survive until Princess Victoria was 18 so that the Duchess of Kent would never be regent. He said, "I trust to God that my life may be spared for nine months longer ... I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the exercise of the Royal authority to the personal authority of that young lady, heiress presumptive to the Crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisers and is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the situation in which she would be placed." [105] The speech was so shocking that Victoria burst into tears, while her mother sat in silence and was only with difficulty persuaded not to leave immediately after dinner (the two left the next day).

William's outburst undoubtedly contributed to Victoria's tempered view of him as "a good old man, though eccentric and singular". [106] William survived, though mortally ill, to the month after Victoria's coming of age. "Poor old man!", Victoria wrote as he was dying, "I feel sorry for him; he was always personally kind to me." [107] William was "very much shaken and affected" by the death of his eldest daughter, Sophia, Lady de L'Isle, in childbirth in April 1837. [108] A watercolour sketch made by her during her later pregnancy in early 1837 shows his frailty then. William and his eldest son, George, Earl of Munster, were estranged at the time, but William hoped that a letter of condolence from Munster signalled a reconciliation. His hopes were not fulfilled and Munster, still thinking he had not been given sufficient money or patronage, remained bitter to the end. [109] Queen Adelaide attended the dying William devotedly, not going to bed herself for more than ten days.

[110] William IV died in the early hours of the morning of 20 June 1837 at Windsor Castle , where he was buried. As he had no living legitimate issue, the Crown of the United Kingdom passed to Princess Victoria of Kent, the only child of Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent , George III's fourth son. Under Salic Law, a woman could not rule Hanover, and so the Hanoverian Crown went to George III's fifth son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland . William's death thus ended the personal union of Britain and Hanover, which had persisted since 1714. The main beneficiaries of his will were his eight surviving children by Mrs. Jordan. [51] Although William IV is not the direct ancestor of the later monarchs of the United Kingdom, he has many notable descendants through his illegitimate family with Mrs. Jordan, including Prime Minister David Cameron, [111] TV presenter Adam Hart-Davis , author and statesman Duff Cooper , [112] and the first Duke of Fife , who married Queen Victoria's granddaughter Louise .

Legacy Edit A statue of William IV in Göttingen, Germany William's reign was short, but eventful. The ascendancy of the House of Commons and the corresponding decline of the House of Lords were marked by the Reform Crisis, during which the threat of flooding the Upper House with peers was used effectively for the first time by a ministry. The weakening of the House of Lords continued during the nineteenth century, and culminated during the twentieth century with the passage of the Parliament Act 1911 . The same threat which had been used during the Reform Crisis—the threat to flood the House of Lords by creating several new peers—was used to procure its passage. The reduction in the influence of the Crown was clearly indicated by the events of William's reign, especially the dismissal of the Melbourne ministry. The crisis relating to Melbourne's dismissal also indicated the reduction in the King's influence with the people. During the reign of George III, the King could have dismissed one ministry, appointed another, dissolved Parliament, and expected the people to vote in favour of the new administration.

Such was the result of a dissolution in 1784, after the dismissal of the Fox-North Coalition , and 1807, after the dismissal of William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville . But when William IV dismissed the Melbourne ministry, the Tories under Sir Robert Peel were not able to win the ensuing elections. The King's ability to influence the opinion of the people, and therefore national policy, had been reduced. None of William's successors has attempted to remove a government or appoint another against the wishes of Parliament. William understood that as a constitutional monarch he was powerless to act against the opinion of Parliament. He said, "I have my view of things, and I tell them to my ministers. If they do not adopt them, I cannot help it. I have done my duty." [113] During his reign great reforms were enacted by Parliament including the Factory Act, preventing child labour, the Abolition Act, emancipating slaves in the colonies, and the Poor Law, standardising provision for the destitute. [16] He attracted criticism from reformers, who felt that reform did not go far enough, and from reactionaries, who felt that reform went too far.

The modern interpretation is that he failed to satisfy either political extreme by trying to find compromise between two bitterly opposed factions, but in the process proved himself more capable as a constitutional monarch than many had supposed. [114] [115] Titles, styles, honours and arms 21 August 1765 – 16 May 1789: His Royal Highness The Prince William Henry 16 May 1789 – 26 June 1830: His Royal Highness The Duke of Clarence and St Andrews 26 June 1830 – 20 June 1837: His Majesty The King William's official style as King of the United Kingdom was "William the Fourth, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith". He was the first king of the United Kingdom named William, though there were three previous kings of England called William and two of Scotland.

His style in Hanover was "William the Fourth, by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, etc., and also King of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, etc." Honours Edit As a son of the sovereign, William was granted the use of the royal arms (without the electoral inescutcheon in the Hanoverian quarter ) in 1781, differenced by a label of three points argent , the centre point bearing a cross gules , the outer points each bearing an anchor azure . [116] In 1801 his arms altered with the royal arms, however the marks of difference remained the same.

As king his arms were those of his two kingdoms, the United Kingdom and Hanover, superimposed: Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or ( for England ); II Or a lion rampant rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules ( for Scotland ); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent ( for Ireland ); overall an escutcheon tierced per pale and per chevron (for Hanover), I Gules two lions passant guardant Or (for Brunswick), II Or a semy of hearts Gules a lion rampant Azure (for Lüneburg), III Gules a horse courant Argent ( for Westphalia ), overall an inescutcheon Gules charged with the crown of Charlemagne Or, the whole escutcheon surmounted by a crown.

[117] 1000+ images about Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen~Wife of William IV on Pinterest | Duke, Posts and South australia Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom & of Hanover (13 Aug 1792 - 2 Dec 1849) - She was the wife of King William IV of the United Kingdom and aunt to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. See More The Wives of the Georgian Kings: Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen – Royal Central Book Review: An illustrated introduction to The Tudors by Gareth Russell Of all the Georgian Kings, William IV was the only one not to use the regnal name George. In fact, it is his wife who had a name that is better remembered today, one that she lent to an Australian city. Here is a glimpse at the life of the last wife of a Georgian King – Queen Adelaide. Queen Adelaide in 1832 William and Adelaide’s marriage proved to be a happy one. Both King and Queen were popular with the British public, and Adelaide even more so, for her modesty and charitable nature.

Curiously, Adelaide was the only Georgian Queen to survive her husband, and, as Dowager Queen, she lived well into the reign of Queen Victoria. Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was born on 13th August 1792, and was the daughter of George, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and his wife Luise Eleonore. Her hometown of Saxe-Meiningen was a small German state, and the most liberal of the Saxon Duchies. As a child, she was styled Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony. Not much is known about Adelaide’s childhood, education and her life before marriage. Adelaide’s marriage to the then Prince William came about as a result of the tragedy that struck England in 1817. Princess Charlotte, the only child of George, Prince of Wales, died in childbirth, and all of a sudden there was no heir to the throne. As The Prince of Wales was estranged from his wife, it seemed unlikely that he would produce another heir. This resulted in a mad scramble among the rest of King George’s sons to marry and have children of their own.

At the time, Prince William was 52 years old, around 27 years older than Adelaide. For the past twenty years, he had been living with his mistress, Dorothea Jordan, which whom he had ten children with. Due to the fact that they were born out of wedlock, the FitzClarences, as they were known, had been barred from the line of succession, and William had no choice but to marry legally in order to secure the succession to the throne. Truth is, Adelaide wasn’t William’s first choice as a prospective bride. But, when the negotiations with another Princess fell through, William went ahead and arranged to marry her. Adelaide would prove to be an ideal wife, as William would soon come to realise. Before the wedding, he wrote to his eldest son about Adelaide, saying that: “She is doomed, poor dear innocent young creature, to be my wife.” Prince William and Princess Adelaide were married on the 11th of July, 1818, in a joint ceremony at Kew Palace. They shared their wedding celebrations with William’s younger brother, Edward, Duke of Kent, who was marrying Victoria, the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

The outcome of Edward and Victoria’s marriage, though short lived, would produce an heir to the throne – Victoria – who would go on to be the next Queen. William and Adelaide’s marriage, on the other hand, would produce no surviving children, but would be a happy one nevertheless. As a wife, Adelaide was good natured and amiable, and devoted to her husband. The pair moved to Hanover, where Adelaide willingly accepted William’s illegitimate children as a part of the family. William grew to be extremely fond of his wife, and Adelaide even managed to improve his conduct – contemporaries noted that, after his marriage, William stopped swearing, didn’t drink as much, and behaved tactfully at important occasions. A few months after their marriage, Adelaide fell pregnant. In 1819, she gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named Charlotte. Unfortunately, the baby did not live beyond a few hours. Two years later, William and Adelaide had another daughter, Elizabeth, who died when he was only four months old. In addition to this, Adelaide suffered from a couple of miscarriages, and in 1822, she gave birth to two stillborn boys.

When King George IV took the throne in 1820, his heir presumptive had been his younger brother Frederick, Duke of York. But when Frederick predecesed his brother in 1827, William became first in line to the throne. Upon the death of his brother, the King, William ascended the throne as King William IV. He and Adelaide were crowned at Westminster Abbey in 1831. One of William’s first acts as King was to confer on Adelaide the Rangership of Bushy Park, which allowed Adelaide to stay at Bushy House for the rest of her life. As Queen, Adelaide spent a large portion of her time dealing with her charitable causes, and donated a large portion of her household income to the less fortunate. She treated her niece, the young Princess Victoria, with kindness, and included her in her household. William had acknowledged Victoria as his heir presumptive, and was very fond of her, despite his marked hostility against her mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent. Not only did the Duchess keep her daughter away from court, but she also refused to acknowledge Adelaide’s precedence as Queen, and never answered her letters.

The King was hurt at this disrespect towards his dear wife, and loudly proclaimed, in front of a gathering of guests, that the Duchess was “incompetent to act with propriety”, saying: “I have been grossly and continually insulted by that person.” In fact, the King detested the Dowager Duchess so much, that he was determined to continue to live until Victoria had passed minority, to avoid a Regency by the Duchess and her adviser, Sir John Conroy. In 1837, both The Queen and The King fell seriously ill. While Adelaide soon recovered, William’s condition only worsened, and Adelaide spent ten days and ten nights by his bedside. He finally died of heart failure on the morning of the 20th June. His niece Victoria, who had turned 18 only a month before, was now the Queen. After her husband’s death, Adelaide left the court and moved to Worcestershire. In 1840, she was named the Godmother of Queen Victoria’s first child, Vicky. Adelaide continued to make public appearances during her time as Dowager Queen.

She was seen in public for the last time in 1849, when she laid the foundation stone of the church of St. John the Evangelist, the east window of which is dedicated to her. The Dowager Queen Adelaide died a natural death in 1849, twelve years after King William. Among those at her funeral were Queen Victoria, who was extremely fond of her late aunt and uncle, despite their poor relationship with her mother. Although none of Queen Adelaide’s children had survived infancy, she left behind a lasting legacy in the Australian city of Adelaide, which was named after her in 1836. In her final letter, which was regarding her funeral arrangements, Adelaide wrote: “I die in all humility. We are alike before the throne of God, and I request therefore that my mortal remains be conveyed to the grave without pomp or state…to have as private and quiet a funeral as possible. I particularly desire not to be laid out in state…I die in peace and wish to be carried to the fount in peace, and free from the vanities and pomp of this world.” In accordance with her wishes, Adelaide was buried beside her husband at St.

George’s Chapel, Windsor – there rests the last wife of the Georgian Kings. Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen : Map (The Full Wiki) , Germany . Her father was George I, 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 . Saxe-Meiningen was a small state, covering about . It was the most liberal German state and, unlike its neighbours, permitted a free press and criticism of the ruler. Marriage By the end of 1811, King George III was mad and, although still King in name, his heir and eldest son, George , was Prince Regent. On 6 November 1817 the Prince Regent's only daughter, Princess Charlotte , wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (later King Leopold I of the Belgians) died in childbirth.

Princess Charlotte was second in line to the throne: had she outlived her father and grandfather, she would have become Queen. With her death the King was left with twelve children, and no legitimate grandchildren. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife, who was forty-nine years old. Thus, there was little likelihood that he would have any further legitimate children. To secure the line of succession, Prince William, Duke of Clarence and the other sons of George III sought quick marriages with the intent of producing offspring who could inherit the throne. William already had ten illegitimate children by the popular actress Dorothea Jordan but they were obviously debarred from the succession. Considerable allowances were likely to be voted by Parliament to any Royal Duke who married, and this acted as a further incentive for William to marry. Adelaide was a princess from an unimportant German state, but William had a limited choice of available princesses and, after deals with other candidates fell through, a marriage to Adelaide was arranged. The allowance proposed was slashed by Parliament, and the outraged Duke considered calling off the marriage. However, Adelaide seemed the ideal candidate: amiable, home-loving, and willing to accept William's illegitimate children as part of the family.

The arrangement was settled and William wrote to his eldest son, "She is doomed, poor dear innocent young creature, to be my wife." . They had only met for the first time about a week earlier, on 4 July at Grillon's Hotel in Bond Street . Neither William nor Adelaide had been married before, and William was twenty-seven years her senior. Despite these unromantic circumstances, 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. Adelaide improved William's behaviour; he drank less, swore less and became more tactful. Observers thought them parsimonious, and their lifestyle simple, even boring. William eventually accepted the reduced increase in his allowance voted by Parliament. On the Continent, Adelaide became pregnant but in her seventh month of pregnancy, she caught pleurisy and during the illness she gave birth prematurely. Her daughter, Charlotte, lived only a few hours. 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 at Calais during the journey (5 September 1819).

She became pregnant again, and a second daughter, Elizabeth, was born in December 1820. Elizabeth seemed strong but died aged only four months of "inflammation in the Bowels". Ultimately, William and Adelaide had no surviving children. Twin boys were stillborn on 8 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. 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.

One of King William's first acts was to confer the Rangership of Bushy Park (for thirty-three years held by himself) on Queen Adelaide. This act would allow Adelaide to remain at Bushy House for her lifetime. The King was crowned , and Adelaide was crowned as his queen consort, on 8 September 1831, at Westminster Abbey . Adelaide was deeply religious and took the service very seriously. William despised the ceremony, and acted throughout, it is presumed deliberately, as if he was "a character in a comic opera", making a mockery of what he thought to be a ridiculous charade. Adelaide alone among those attending received any praise for her "dignity, repose and characteristic grace". 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 Dowager Duchess of Kent . She refused to have women of questionable virtue attend her Court.

Wrote Clerk of the Privy Council Charles Greville of her, "The Queen is a prude and refuses to have the ladies come décolletées to her parties. George the 4th, who liked ample expanses of that kind, would not let them be covered." Adelaide attempted, perhaps unsuccessfully, to influence the King politically. She never spoke about politics in public, however, she was strongly Tory . It is unclear how much of William's attitudes during the passage the Reform Act 1832 were due to her influence. The Press, the public and courtiers assumed that she was agitating behind the scenes against reform, but she was careful to be non-committal in public. As a result of her partiality, she became unpopular with reformers. Unbelievable rumours circulated that she was having an affair with her Lord Chamberlain , the Tory Lord Howe , but almost everyone at court knew that Adelaide was inflexibly pious and was always faithful to her husband. The Whig Prime Minister, Lord Grey , had Lord Howe removed from Adelaide's household.

Attempts to reinstate him after the Reform Bill had passed were not successful as Lord Grey and Lord Howe could not come to an agreement as to how independent Howe could be of the government. In October 1834 a great fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster , which Adelaide considered divine retribution for the vagaries of reform. When the Whig ministry of Lord Melbourne was dismissed by the King, The Times newspaper blamed the Queen's influence, though she seems to have had very little to do with it. Influenced by her similarly reactionary brother-in-law, the Duke of Cumberland , she did write to the King against reform of the Church of Ireland . Both William and Adelaide were fond of their niece, Princess Victoria of Kent , and wanted her to be closer to them. Their efforts were frustrated by Victoria's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent . The Duchess refused to acknowledge Adelaide's precedence, left letters from Adelaide unanswered and commandeered space in the royal stables and apartments for her own use.

The King, aggrieved at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, bluntly announced in the presence of Adelaide, the Duchess, Victoria and many guests, that the Duchess was "incompetent to act with propriety", that he had been "grossly and continually insulted by that person", and that he hoped to have the satisfaction of living beyond Victoria's age of majority, so that the Duchess of Kent would never be Regent. Everyone was aghast at the vehemence of the speech, and all three ladies were deeply upset. The breach between the Duchess and the King and Queen was never fully healed, but Victoria always viewed both of them with kindness. Queen dowager Queen Adelaide was dangerously ill in April 1837, at around the same time that she was present at her sister's deathbed in Meiningen but she recovered. By June it became evident that the King was fatally ill himself. Adelaide stayed beside William's deathbed devotedly, not going to bed herself for more than ten days. William IV died from heart failure in the early hours of the morning of 20 June 1837 at Windsor Castle , where he was buried.

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. After her husband's death, Queen Adelaide became a tenant of William Ward and took up residence at the latter's newly purchased house, Witley Court in Worcestershire from 1842 until 1846. She was a frequent visitor to Gopsall Hall (now part of the crown estate ) in Leicestershire and many of the locals were very fond of her. On one occasion, when meeting the people in Measham the public were told to approach her by horse and carriage. One man was so desperate to meet Queen Adelaide that he approached her in a bath-tub pulled by a mule. The queen greeted him nevertheless. She died during the reign of her niece Queen Victoria , on 2 December 1849 of natural causes at Bentley Priory and was buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor .

She wrote instructions for her funeral during an illness in 1841 at Sudbury Hall : "I die in all humility", she wrote, "we are alike before the throne of God, and I request therefore that my mortal remains be conveyed to the grave without pomp or state…to have as private and quiet a funeral as possible. I particularly desire not to be laid out in state…I die in peace and wish to be carried to the fount in peace, and free from the vanities and pomp of this world." Legacy Queen Adelaide's name is probably best remembered in the Australian state of South Australia , founded during the brief reign of William IV. The capital city of Adelaide was named after her at its founding in 1836; the Queen Adelaide Club for women is still active there, and a bronze statue of Queen Adelaide stands in the foyer of the Town Hall. There are Adelaide Streets in Westminster in Western Australia, and Dun Laoghaire in Ireland; there is also an Adelaide Road and Adelaide Hospital (now the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght) in Dublin and an Adelaide railway station in Belfast. Australia has two Adelaide Rivers, in the Northern Territory and Tasmania, and an Adelaide Reef in Queensland.

The town of Adelaide (originally Fort Adelaide) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and Queen's Park, Brighton are also named in her honour. The Citadel in Port Louis , capital of the Republic of Mauritius , is named Fort Adelaide for her, the building having been started during the reign of William in 1834.In honour of the Queen's many visits, several places in Leicestershire were named after Queen Adelaide, they include Queen Street in Measham and the Queen Adelaide Inn (now demolished) in Appleby Magna. There is also the Queen Adelaide Oak in Bradgate Park (once home to Lady Jane Grey ). Under the oak Queen Adelaide pickined on Venison and Crawfish from the estate. Queen Victoria, who never forgot her aunt Adelaide's kindness to her, remembered her at the christening of her firstborn child, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise .

Titles, styles, honours and arms Titles and styles Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom | Unofficial Royalty Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom by Susan Flantzer Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Photo Credit – Wikipedia On November 6, 1817, a great tragedy struck the British Royal Family. Twenty-one year old Princess Charlotte , the only child of George, Prince of Wales, died after delivering a stillborn son. At the time of her death, Charlotte, who was second in line to the throne, was the only legitimate grandchild of King George III, despite the fact that thirteen of his fifteen children were still alive. Her death left no legitimate heir in the second generation, and prompted the aging sons of King George III to begin a frantic search for brides to provide for the succession. One of the sons was William, Duke of Clarence (the future King William IV) . William had never married, but had lived for 20 years with actress Dorothea Jordan . Together they had ten illegitimate children , all of whom used the surname FitzClarence.

William and Dorothea had separated in 1811 and Dorothea received a yearly allowance and the custody of their daughters, while William received the custody of their sons. There was a stipulation that Dorothea not return to acting to retain the allowance and the custody of her daughters. However, she did return to acting to help a son-in-law with a debt. William then got custody of their remaining daughters and Dorothea lost her allowance. She moved to France to escape creditors and died in poverty in 1816. Soon after the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, negotiations began for the marriage of William to Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen and the engagement was announced on April 19, 1818. William was 52 and Adelaide was 25. Adelaide Louisa Theresa Caroline Amelia (in German Adelheid Luise Therese Karoline Amalie) was born in the Elisabethenburg Palace in Meiningen (now in Germany) on August 13, 1792.

She was the elder daughter and first child of George I, reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Princess Louise Eleanore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg . Adelaide’s father died when she was 11 years old and she, along with her younger siblings Ida and Bernhard , who became the reigning duke, were carefully raised by their mother and received an excellent education. Adelaide and her mother traveled to England for her wedding and arrived in London on July 4, 1818. They stayed at Grillon’s Hotel where they were visited an hour after their arrival by the Prince Regent (the future King George IV) and William, who met his bride for the first time. William and Adelaide were married on July 14, 1818 at Kew Palace in the presence of an ailing Queen Charlotte who died in November of the same year. It was a double wedding as William’s brother Edward, Duke of Kent and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who had married in May at Coburg, were remarried by the Anglican rite at the same time. Despite the age difference, William and Adelaide’s marriage was a happy one.

Adelaide was a good influence on William keeping his eating, drinking, and behavior in line. She was also a kind stepmother to the six children of William and Dorothea Jordan who were still at home. Adelaide loved children, but was destined not to have one of her own. Her first child was born prematurely on March 27, 1819 as a result of Adelaide being ill with pleurisy. The baby girl was baptized Charlotte Augusta Louisa and died the same day. Adelaide suffered a miscarriage on September 5, 1819. On December 19, 1820, Adelaide gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth Georgiana Adelaide , six weeks prematurely. Princess Elizabeth, who had been healthy despite being premature, died 12 weeks later on March 4, 1821 of the then inoperable condition of a strangulated hernia. Twin boys were stillborn on April 23, 1822. A child of William and Adelaide would have succeeded to the throne as William’s two elder brothers (George IV and Frederick, Duke of York) had no surviving children.

Adelaide wrote to her widowed sister-in-law the Duchess of Kent, “My children are dead, but your child lives, and she is mine too.” That child was Queen Victoria. Adelaide had close and loving relationships with her stepchildren and step grandchildren, with her brother and sister’s children, and with William’s nieces and nephews, the future Queen Victoria and the Cambridge children. Queen Victoria used the name Adelaide in honor of her aunt when she gave birth to her first child Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise and Adelaide was one of the godparents. Recumbent effigy of Princess Elizabeth of Clarence in the Grand Corridor of Windsor Castle, Photo Credit – Wikipedia William succeeded to the throne when his brother King George IV died on June 26, 1830 and both William and Adelaide were crowned on September 8, 1831. During William’s reign, Adelaide was admired by the British people and helped her husband with the proper etiquette and often covered many of his gaffes. Both William and Adelaide were very fond of their niece Princess Victoria of Kent who was the heiress presumptive and wanted to be closer to her. However, the Duchess of Kent did not allow this.

In addition, she was rude to Queen Adelaide by refusing to recognize the Queen’s precedence, ignoring her letters, and taking space in royal stables and apartments for her own use. At a dinner, in front of Queen Adelaide, the Duchess of Kent, Princess Victoria of Kent and many guests, King William announced that the Duchess of Kent did not know how to behave and he was insulted by her behavior. He furthered said that he hoped he did not die until Victoria was 18 so that the Duchess would not serve as Regent. The King, Queen, and Duchess never fully reconciled, but Victoria always viewed the King and Queen with kindness. King William IV and Queen Adelaide, Photo Credit – Wikipedia King William IV died of heart failure on June 20, 1837 at Windsor Castle and Victoria had turned 18 on May 24. Adelaide had stayed at her husband’s side for three weeks, not sleeping in her bed for the last 10 days. Adelaide was the first Queen Dowager in more than a century, the last one being Catherine of Braganza, King Charles II’s widow.

She survived William by 12 years, dying on December 2, 1849 at the age of 57. She was buried after a simple funeral in accordance with her wishes in the Royal Tomb House beneath St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle where her husband had been buried.

Question: Which Hanoverian King was married to Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen?
Answer: William IV