The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1: 1837-1843 | Page 8

her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, and lived
in England. There were also two unmarried daughters, the Princesses
Augusta and Sophia, living in England.]
The Duke of Sussex was in sympathy with many Liberal movements,

and supported the removal of religious disabilities, the abolition of the
Corn Laws, and Parliamentary Reform.
The Duke of Cambridge was a moderate Tory, and the most
conciliatory of all the princes. But for more than twenty years he took
little part in English politics, as he was occupied with his duties as
Regent of Hanover, where he did much by prudent reforms to retain the
allegiance of the Hanoverians. On his return to England he resumed the
position of a peacemaker, supporting philanthropic movements, and
being a generous patron of art and letters. He was recognised as
"emphatically the connecting link between the Crown and the people."
Another member of the Royal Family was the Duke of Gloucester,
nephew and son-in-law of George III.; he was more interested in
philanthropic movements than in politics, but was a moderate
Conservative, who favoured Catholic Emancipation but was opposed to
Parliamentary Reform.
Thus we have the spectacle of seven Royal princes, of whom two
succeeded to the Throne, all or nearly all avowed politicians of decided
convictions, throwing the weight of their influence and social position
for the most part on the side of the Tory party, and believing it to be
rather their duty to hold and express strong political opinions than to
adopt the moderating and conciliatory attitude in matters of
government that is now understood to be the true function of the Royal
House.
[Pageheading: INDEPENDENCE OF THE QUEEN]
The Queen, after her accession, always showed great respect and
affection for her uncles, but they were not able to exercise any
influence over her character or opinions.
This was partly due to the fact that from an early age she had imbibed a
respect for liberal views from her uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians,
to whom she was devoted from her earliest childhood, and for whom
she entertained feelings of the deepest admiration, affection, and
confidence; but still more was it due to the fact that, from the very first,
the Queen instinctively formed an independent judgment on any

question that concerned her; and though she was undoubtedly
influenced in her decisions by her affectionate reliance on her chosen
advisers, yet those advisers were always deliberately and shrewdly
selected, and their opinions were in no case allowed to do more than
modify her own penetrating and clear-sighted judgment.
CHAPTER II
MEMOIR OF QUEEN VICTORIA'S EARLY YEARS
ALEXANDRINA VICTORIA, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and
Empress of India, was born on Monday, 24th May 1819, at Kensington
Palace.
Her father, Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820), the
fourth son of George III., was a man of decided character, kindly, pious,
punctual, with a strict sense of duty and enlightened ideas. He was a
devoted soldier, and, as Queen Victoria once said, "was proud of his
profession, and I was always taught to consider myself a soldier's
child." He had a wide military experience, having served at Gibraltar,
in Canada, and in the West Indies. He had been mentioned in
despatches, but was said to be over-strict in matters of unimportant
detail. His active career was brought to an end in 1802, when he had
been sent to Gibraltar to restore order in a mutinous garrison. Order had
been restored, but the Duke was recalled under allegations of having
exercised undue severity, and the investigation which he demanded was
refused him, though he was afterwards made a Field-Marshal.
He was a man of advanced Liberal ideas. He had spoken in the House
of Lords in favour of Catholic Emancipation, and had shown himself
interested in the abolition of slavery and in popular education. His
tastes were literary, and towards the end of his life he had even
manifested a strong sympathy for socialistic theories.
At the time of the death of the Princess Charlotte, 6th November 1817,
the married sons of King George III. were without legitimate children,
and the surviving daughters were either unmarried or childless.
Alliances were accordingly arranged for the three unmarried Royal

Dukes, and in the course of the year 1818 the Dukes of Cambridge,
Kent, and Clarence led their brides to the altar.
[Pageheading: THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT]
The Duchess of Kent (1786-1861), Victoria Mary Louisa, was a
daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She was the
widow of Emich Charles, Prince of Leiningen,[1] whom she had
married in 1803, and who had died in 1814, leaving a son and a
daughter by her.
[Footnote 1: Leiningen, a mediatised princely House of Germany,
dating back to 1096. In 1779 the head of one of the branches into which
it