T his May we celebrate the biggest of British bicentenaries; the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria on 24 May 1819. Although she arrived to relatively quiet fanfare at the time, the birth of this tiny princess would duly be considered the defining moment of the 19th century.
Victoria went on to rule a nation and an Empire of formidable wealth and influence, produced nine children (many of whom would marry into the ruling families of Europe), and oversaw cultural changes of such magnitude that the world would be changed forever by them. However, when we look specifically at the birth of this monumental figure, we see that it was an event beset by many of the same questions as the births of our own more ordinary ancestors – albeit with a royal twist.
Was the birth legitimate?
Whether or not a child was born within wedlock is a matter that, of course, has had many repercussions for our own family histories (particularly where matters of inheritance are concerned), but legitimacy mattered a hundred times more when the bloodline of the royal family was at stake.
When Victoria was born the British throne was desperately in need of a legitimate heir. Victoria’s grandfather George III (r1760-1820) was still monarch but, due to his poor mental health, his role was being carried out by his eldest son George, the Prince Regent (regent 1811-1820; George IV 1820-1830). The old king had had 15 children but remarkably, by 1819, not one of them had managed to produce a surviving, legitimate heir. George, had had one legitimate child, a daughter, Princess Charlotte, who had tragically died (along with her baby) during childbirth in 1817. The next of the king’s sons, Frederick, Duke of Prussia, was (unhappily) married and had no children. The third son was William (later William IV 1830-1837). With a couple of illegitimate children already under his belt, William had gone on to have 10 more progeny on the ‘wrong side of the sheets’ with the actress, Mrs Jordan. He then married a much younger woman, Princess Adelaide of Meiningen, with whom he had two daughters. Both died in infancy.
Old-fashioned birth of a modern monarch