What Victoria lacked in height, however, she made up for in determination, and she quickly made a favourable impression.Ħ Queen Victoria had nine children… but she hated being pregnant In her first meeting with her privy council just a few hours later, Victoria’s new ministers towered over her – at just 4ft 11, she had to be seated on a raised platform in order to be seen. Despite her young age she remained calm and had no need for the smelling salts her governess had prepared for her. This meant that Victoria, who was only 18 at the time, was now queen of England.Īlthough it came as a shock, Victoria took the news extremely stoically. At 6am on 20 June 1837, the young princess was woken from her bed to be informed that her uncle, King William IV, had died during the night. This is how Victoria recalled the moment that would change her life forever. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at twelve minutes past two this morning and consequently that I was Queen.” “I went into my sitting room (only in my dressing gown) alone and saw them. She retained a deep-seated hatred of John Conroy for manipulating her mother and imposing such rigid rules on her, later describing him as “demon incarnate”. Later in life, Victoria reflected that she “led a very unhappy life as a child… and did not know what a happy domestic life was”.
She was forbidden from ever being alone, or even walking down stairs without someone holding her hand. Right up until the time she became queen, Victoria was forced to share a bedroom with her mother. Along with a strict timetable of lessons to improve her moral and intellectual rigor, this suffocating regime dictated that the princess spent hardly any time with other children and was under constant adult supervision. The pair imposed a stifling code of discipline on the young Victoria, which came to be known as the ‘Kensington System’. Both he and the Duchess had a hostile relationship with Victoria’s uncle, King William, and consequently kept Victoria isolated from the royal court, even preventing her from attending her uncle’s coronation. Keen to establish himself as the power behind the throne in the event of a Regency (in which Victoria’s mother would rule with her if she acceded while still underage), Conroy sought to keep tight control of the princess. However, in many ways the palace proved a prison for the princess, and her childhood there was far from rosy.įollowing her father’s death from pneumonia when she was just eight months old, Victoria’s early life was dominated by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her ambitious adviser Sir John Conroy. Victoria spent her formative years at Kensington Palace. 2 Queen Victoria had an unhappy childhood
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