Father of Queen Victoria
The Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
KG KP GCB GCH PC (Edward Augustus; 2
November 1767 – 23 January 1820) was the fourth son of
King George III of the
United Kingdom and the father of Queen Victoria.
Prince Edward was created Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin on 23 April 1799[2]
and, a few weeks later, appointed a General and commander-in-chief of
British forces in North America,[3]
On 23 March 1802 he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar and nominally
retained that post until his death. The Duke of Kent was appointed
Field-Marshal of the Forces on 3 September 1805.[4]
He was the first member of the royal family to live in North
America for more than a short visit (1791–1800) and, in 1794,
the first prince to enter the United States (travelling to Boston on
foot from Lower Canada) after independence.
On June 27, 1792, Edward is credited with the first use of the
term "Canadian" to mean both French and English settlers in Upper
and Lower Canada. The Prince used the term in an effort to quell a
riot between the two groups at a polling station in Charlesbourg,
Lower Canada.[5]
Recently he has been styled the "Father of the Canadian Crown" for
his impact on the development of Canada.[6]
Following the death in November 1817 of Princess Charlotte
Augusta of Wales, the only legitimate grandchild of George III,
the royal succession began to look uncertain. The Prince Regent and
his younger brother Frederick, the Duke of
York, though married, were estranged from their wives and had
no surviving legitimate children. King George's surviving daughters
were all past likely childbearing age. The unmarried sons of King
George III, the Duke of Clarence
(later King William IV), the Duke of Kent, and the Duke of Cambridge,
all rushed to contract lawful marriages and provide an heir to the
throne. (The fifth son of King George III, the Duke of Cumberland, was already
married but had no living children at that time, whilst the
marriage of the sixth son, the Duke of Sussex, was
void because he had married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.)
For his part the Duke of Kent, aged 50, already considering
marriage and encouraged into this particular match with her
sister-in-law by his now-deceased niece Princess Charlotte, became
engaged to Princess Victoria
of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld[7]
(17 August 1786 – 16 March 1861) and the couple married on 29
May 1818 at Schloss Ehrenburg, Coburg, (Lutheran rite)
and again on 11 July 1818 at Kew
Palace, Kew, Surrey.[7]
A widow with two children, Princess Victoria of
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the daughter of Duke Franz
Friedrich of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and sister of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
husband of the recently deceased Princess Charlotte.
The new Duchess of Kent's first husband was Emich Carl, 2nd Prince
of Leiningen, with whom she had two children: a son Carl and a daughter
Feodora.
They had one child, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent (24 May
1819 – 22 January 1901), who became Queen
Victoria on 20 June 1837. The Duke took great pride in his
daughter, telling his friends to look at her well, for she would be
Queen of England[7]
and bringing the infant to a military review[when?],
to the outrage of the Prince Regent, who demanded to know what
place the child had there.
The Duke of Kent purchased a house of his own from Mrs Fitzherbert in 1801. Castle Hill Lodge on
Castlebar Hill Ealing[15]
was then placed in the hands of architect James Wyatt and more than £100,000 spent. Near
neighbours from 1815 to 1817 at Little Boston House were US envoy
and future US President John Quincy Adams and his English wife
Louisa. "We all went to church and heard a
charity sermon preached by a Dr Crane before the Duke of
Kent", wrote Adams in a diary entry from August
1815.[16]
Following the birth of Princess Victoria in May 1819, the Duke
and Duchess, concerned to manage the Duke's great debts, sought to
find a place where they could live inexpensively. After the coast
of Devon was recommended to them they leased from a
General Baynes, intending to remain incognito,
Woolbrook Cottage on the seaside by Sidmouth.
The Duke of Kent died of pneumonia on 23 January 1820 at
Woolbrook Cottage, Sidmouth,[7]
and was interred in St. George's
Chapel, Windsor Castle.[7]
He died only six days before his father, George III, and less than
a year after his daughter's birth.
He predeceased his father and his three elder brothers but, as
none of his elder brothers had any surviving legitimate children,
his daughter Victoria succeeded to the throne on the
death of her uncle King William IV in
1837.
In 1829 the Duke's former aide-de-camp purchased the unoccupied
Castle Hill Lodge from the Duchess in an attempt to reduce her
debts;[15]
the debts were finally discharged after Victoria took the throne
and paid them over time from her income.
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