The Duchess of Kent: Part II. Widowhood

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Coburg, George III of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria, The Duchess of Kent, The Duke of Kent, The Prince Regent

Widowhood

The Duke of Kent died suddenly of pneumonia in January 1820, six days before his father, King George III. His widow the Duchess had little cause to remain in the United Kingdom, since she did not speak the language and had a palace at home in Coburg where she could live cheaply on the revenues of her first husband.

However, the British succession at this time was far from assured – of the three brothers older than Edward, the new king, George IV, and the Duke of York were both estranged from their wives, who were in any case past childbearing age. The third brother, the Duke of Clarence, had yet to produce any surviving children with his wife.

The Duchess of Kent decided that she would do better by gambling on her daughter’s accession than by living quietly in Coburg and, having inherited her second husband’s debts, sought support from the British government. After the death of Edward and his father, the young Princess Victoria was still only third in line for the throne, and Parliament was not inclined to support yet more impoverished royalty.

The provision made for the Duchess of Kent was mean: she resided in a suite of rooms in the dilapidated Kensington Palace, along with several other impoverished members of the royal family, and received little financial support from the Civil List, since Parliament had vivid memories of the late Duke’s extravagance. In practice, a main source of support for her was her brother, Leopold.

The latter had a huge income of fifty thousand pounds per annum for life, representing an annuity allotted to him by the British Parliament on his marriage to Princess Charlotte, which had made him seem likely to become in due course the consort of the monarch. Even after Charlotte’s death, Leopold’s annuity was not revoked by Parliament.

In 1831, with George IV dead and the new king William IV (formerly the Duke of Clarence) being over 60 without any surviving legitimate issue, and whose nearly 40-year-old wife was considered to be at the end of childbearing age, the young princess’s status as heir presumptive and the Duchess’s prospective place as regent led to major increases in British state income for the Kents. A contributing factor was Leopold’s designation as King of the Belgians, upon which he surrendered his British income.

March 16, 1861: Death of HRH The Duchess of Kent, Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Part I.

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March 16, 1861: Today is the 160th anniversary of the death of HRH The Duchess of Kent (born Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld), the mother of Queen Victoria, the sister of King Leopold I of the Belgians and the paternal aunt of her son-in-law Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

This will begin a multiple series on her life.

Victoire was born in Coburg on August 17, 1786 in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and was named Marie Louise Victoire. She was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. One of her brothers was Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and another brother, Leopold, future king of the Belgians, married, in 1816, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate daughter of the future King George IV, and heiress presumptive to the British throne.

First marriage:
On December 21, 1803 at Coburg, a young Victoire married (as his second wife) Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen (1763–1814). Victoire was a niece of his late wife, Henriette of Reuss-Ebersdorf, the youngest daughter of Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf, by his wife, Countess Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg. Henriette’s father, Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf, and Victoire’s mother, Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf, were siblings.

She bore him two further children:

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Emich (12 September 1804 – 13 November 1856); succeeded his father as third prince; married on 13 February 1829, Countess Maria von Klebelsberg zu Thumburg, and had issue.

Princess Anna Feodora Auguste Charlotte Wilhelmine of Leiningen (7 December 1807 – 23 September 1872); married in 1828, Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and had issue. She is an ancestor of various European royals, including Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Felipe VI of Spain, and Constantine II of Greece.

Regency
Emich Carl died at Amorbach on July 4, 1814, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Carl Friedrich. After the death of her first spouse, Victoire served as regent of the Principality of Leiningen during the minority of their son, Carl.

Second marriage
The death of Britain’s Pincess Charlotte of Wales, the wife of Victoire’s brother Leopold, in 1817, prompted a succession crisis. With Parliament offering them a financial incentive, three of Charlotte’s uncles, sons of George III, were prepared to marry. One of them, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820) proposed to Victoire and she accepted.

The couple were married on May 29, 1818 at Amorbach and on July 11, 1818 at Kew, a joint ceremony at which Edward’s brother, the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen.

Shortly after their marriage, the Kents moved to Germany, where the cost of living would be cheaper. Soon after, Victoire became pregnant, and the Duke and Duchess, determined to have their child born in England, raced back. Arriving at Dover on April 23,  1819, they moved into Kensington Palace, where Victoire gave birth to a daughter on May 24, 1819, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, later Queen Victoria. An efficient organiser, Sir John Conroy’s planning ensured the Kents’ speedy return to England in time for the birth of their first child.

May 24, 1819: Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

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Following the death of Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales, only child of the Prince Regent and his wife, Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in November 1817, the royal succession began to look uncertain. Princess Charlotte-Augusta had been the only legitimate grandchild of George III at the time. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife and had no other legitimate children.

Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales

Next in line after the Prince Regent was Prince Frederick the Duke of York and Albany. Prince Frederick had married his cousin, Princess Frederica-Charlotte of Prussia, the daughter of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia and Elisabeth-Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg at Charlottenburg, Berlin on September 29, 1791 and again on November 23, 1791 at Buckingham Palace. The marriage was not a happy one and the couple soon separated. Frederica retired to Oatlands, where she lived until her death in 1820.

Prince Frederick the Duke of York and Albany

King George III’s surviving daughters were all likely past 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.

However, it was not that simple. For the HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, providing for the succession was not his sole motivator in finding a wife. Even before he disposed of his mistress, the amiable Madame de Saint Laurent, the Duke of Kent had been secretly looking for a legitimate wife for financial reasons rather than dynastic reasons. The Duke of Kent knew that once he contracted a legitimate marriage he would be granted a steady income by Parliament. Princess Charlotte-Augusta was still alive at this time and he promised her, along with her consort, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, to furnish continuity for the throne of Hanover.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

The Duke of Kent also realized that in Hanover, where the Salic Law applied to the German kingdom, only male heirs could reign in Hanover, therefore, if Princess Charlotte-Augusta became Queen of the United Kingdom this would separate the personal union of the two countries and a secession of her oldest surviving childless uncles would, one after another, become the King of Hanover. The Duke of Kent envisioned that he would one day be the King of Hanover. For that he would need a Queen and an heir.

The Duke of Kent’s idea of a suitable bride was a wealthy woman with proper Royal Ancestry for an approved royal marriage. Because the Duke of Kent had been helpful to his niece, Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales, and her husband Prince Leopold, they were eager to match the Duke with Leopold’s younger sister the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent and Strathearn

The Duke agreed to visit the widowed Princess Victoria in Darmstadt, one of the larger cities close to the borders of Amorbach, after which he dispatched a lengthy letter expressing his affection and proposing marriage, believing she would make an appropriate Queen of Hanover. With the death of Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales, who died giving birth to a stillborn son in November 1817, the Duke of Kent realized that the succession to the British throne was now in jeopardy and this expediated his marriage to the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

In Coburg Germany, on May 29, 1818 at 9:30 in the evening the Dowager Princess of Leiningen (aged 32) was married in the Lutheran right to the Duke of Kent (aged 52) a man she had only met once before. The Duke was arrayed in his English field marshal’s uniform, while the Princess was resplendent in pale silk lace. Afterwards, the new Duchess of Kent wrote in her diary that she had hoped that in her second marriage she would find the happiness that she never found in the first.

Within four days after the wedding the Duke and Duchess of Kent left for England, and at Kew Palace on July 13, 1818 at four in the afternoon, they were married again this time in accordance to the Church of England. However, the ceremony was doubled for there was also two brides for the Prince Regent to give away. Not only was the Duke of Kent marrying Princess Victoria, Prince William, Duke of Clarence and the 25 year old Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (August 13, 1792 – December 2, 1849) [the daughter of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Luise-Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg] were united as well.

The Duchess of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent

Charles Manners-Sutton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated the ceremony, assisted by William Howley, Bishop of London, himself Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848. Since King George III was blind and incapacitated, fragile old Queen Charlotte, mother of both of the Dukes, was the chief celebrant at the wedding banquet.

Because of the Duke of Kent’s financial situation the newlyweds moved back to Germany. By November 18, 1818 the Duke of Kent sent a letter to the Prince Regent’s private secretary, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, indicating that the Duchess of Kent was pregnant and that the child was due in May the following year. The Duke of Kent believed it would be his duty to bring the Duchess back to England early in April so that the Royal birth could take place in England. The Duke also petitioned his brother the Prince Regent to allocate funds sufficient for the move and the care of his growing family.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent’s only child was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. The new Princess of Kent was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on June 24, 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. She was baptised Alexandrina after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina (or Georgiana), Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of Kent’s eldest brother, George, the Prince Regent.

Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent aged 16.

At birth, Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent, was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III: George, the Prince Regent (later George IV); Frederick, the Duke of York; William, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV); and Victoria’s father, Edward, the Duke of Kent. The Prince Regent had no surviving children, and the Duke of York had no children; further, both were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further legitimate children.

With Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent being fifth in line to the succession to the throne, her ascending the British throne was not assured. She could have been supplanted by a brother born to the Duke and Duchess of Kent, or any children from the union of the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. However, the Duke of Clarence’s legitimate daughters died as infants. The first of these was Princess Charlotte of Clarence, who was born and died on March 27, 1819, two months before Victoria was born.

Coronation portrait of Queen Victoria

Following the birth of Princess Alexandrina-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.

Death of the Duke of Kent

The Duke of Kent died of pneumonia on January 23, 1820 at Woolbrook Cottage, Sidmouth, and was interred in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. He died six days before his father, George III, and was succeeded by his eldest son as George IV. Alexandrina-Victoria was then third in line to the throne after her uncles the Dukes of York and Clarence.

The Duke Clarence’s second daughter was Princess Elizabeth of Clarence who lived for twelve weeks from December 10, 1820 to 4 March 1821 and, while Elizabeth lived, Alexandrina-Victoria was fourth in line. The Childless Duke of York died in 1827 which paved the way for Alexandrina-Victoria’s own succession after the reigns of her uncles, George IV (1820-1830) and William IV (1830-1837).

Official documents prepared on the first day of her reign described her as Alexandrina-Victoria, but the first name was withdrawn at her own wish and not used again, hence she became Queen Victoria for the entirety of her reign.

January 22, 1901: Death of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Empress of India.

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Empress of India, Frogmore, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Edward, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, The Duke of Kent, Victorian Era

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; May 24, 1819 – January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death. On May 1, 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III and Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. After both her father the Duke of Kent and his father, King George III, died within a week of one another in January 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father’s three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue (King George IV died 1830, Frederick, Duke of York died 1827, King William IV died 1837).

The United Kingdom was an established constitutional monarchy in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

In February of 1840 Queen Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe” and spreading haemophilia in European royalty. After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism in the United Kingdom temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

In July 1900, Victoria’s second son Alfred (“Affie”) died. “Oh, God! My poor darling Affie gone too”, she wrote in her journal. “It is a horrible year, nothing but sadness & horrors of one kind & another.”

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Rheumatism in her legs had rendered her lame, and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts. Through early January, she felt “weak and unwell”, and by mid-January she was “drowsy … dazed, [and] confused.” She died on Tuesday January 22, 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81. Her son and successor, King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, German Emperor Wilhelm II, were at her deathbed. Her favourite pet Pomeranian, Turi, was laid upon her deathbed as a last request.

On January 25, King Edward VII, Wilhelm II and her third son, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, helped lift her body into the coffin. Her funeral was held on Saturday 2 February 2, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.

With a reign of 63 years, seven months and two days, Victoria was the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning queen regnant in world history until her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II surpassed her on September 9, 2015. She was the last monarch of Britain from the House of Hanover. Her son and successor Edward VII belonged to her husband’s House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominio. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use —declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone.” The numeral VII was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had “been excluded from Scotland by battle”.

200th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom: May 24, 1819.

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Following the death of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales in November 1817, the only legitimate grandchild of George III at the time, 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.

However, it was not that simple. For the Duke of Kent providing for the succession was not his sole motivator in finding a wife. Even before he disposed of the amiable Madame de Saint Laurent, the Duke of Kent had been secretly looking for a legitimate wife for financial reasons rather than dynastic reasons. The Duke of Kent knew that once he contracted a legitimate marriage he would be granted a steady income by Parliament. Princess Charlotte was still alive at this time and he promised her, along with her consort, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, to furnish continuity for the throne of Hanover.

HRH The Duchess of Kent

The Duke of Kent also realized that in Hanover, where the Salic Law applied to the German kingdom, only male heirs could reign in Hanover, therefore, if Princess Charlotte became Queen of the United Kingdom this would separate the personal union of the two countries and a secession of her oldest surviving childless uncles would, one after another, become the King of Hanover. The Duke of Kent envisioned that he would one day be the King of Hanover. For that he would need a Queen and an heir.

The Duke of Kent’s idea of a suitable bride was a wealthy woman with proper Royal Ancestry for an approved royal marriage. Because the Duke of Kent had been helpful to his niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, and her husband Prince Leopold, they were eager to match the Duke with Leopold’s younger sister the Dowager Princess of Leiningen. The Duke agreed to visit the widowed Princess Victoria in Darmstadt, one of the larger cities close to the borders of a Amorbach, after which he dispatched a lengthy letter expressing his affection and proposing marriage believing she would make an appropriate Queen of Hanover. With the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, who died giving birth to a stillborn son in November 1817, the Duke of Kent realized that the succession to the British throne was now in jeopardy and this expediated his marriage to the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

In Coburg Germany, on May 29, 1818 at 9:30 in the evening the Dowager Princess of Leiningen (aged 32) was married in the Lutheran rights to the Duke of Kent (aged 52) a man she had only met once before. The Duke was arrayed in his English field marshal’s uniform, while the Princess was resplendent in pale silk lace. Afterwards, the new Duchess of Kent wrote in her diary that she had hoped that in her second marriage she would find the happiness that she never found in the first.

Within four days after the wedding the Duke and Duchess of Kent left for England. And at Kew Palace on July 13, 1818 at four in the afternoon, they were married again this time in accordance to the Church of England. However, the ceremony was doubled for there was also two brides for the Prince Regent to give away. Not only was the Duke of Kent marrying Princess Victoria once again, Prince William, Duke of Clarence and the 25 year old Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (August 13, 1792 – December 2, 1849) [the daughter of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg] were united as well. The Archbishop Bishop of Canterbury officiated the ceremony assisted by the Bishop of London. Since King George III was blind and incapacitated, fragile old Queen Charlotte, mother of both of the Dukes, was the chief celebrant at the wedding banquet.

HRH The Duke of Kent

Because of the Duke of Kent’s financial situation the newlyweds moved back to Germany. By November 18, 1818 the Duke of Kent sent a letter to the Prince Regent’s private secretary, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, indicating that the Duchess of Kent was pregnant and that the child was due in May the following year. The Duke of Kent believed it would be his duty to bring the Duchess back to England early in April so that the Royal birth could take place in England. The Duke also petitioned his brother the Prince Regent to allocate funds sufficient for the move and the care of his growing family.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent’s only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on June 24, 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. She was baptised Alexandrina after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina (or Georgiana), Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of Kent’s eldest brother, George, the Prince Regent.

At birth, Alexandria-Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III: George, the Prince Regent (later George IV); Frederick, the Duke of York; William, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV); and Victoria’s father, Edward, the Duke of Kent. The Prince Regent had no surviving children, and the Duke of York had no children; further, both were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further legitimate children.

HM Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India.

With Alexandrina-Victoria being fifth in line to the succession to the throne, her ascending the British throne was not assured. She could have been supplanted by a brother born to the Duke and Duchess of Kent, or any children from the union of the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. However, the Duke of Clarence’s legitimate daughters died as infants. The first of these was Princess Charlotte, who was born and died on March 27, 1819, two months before Victoria was born. Victoria’s father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old. A week later her grandfather, George III died and was succeeded by his eldest son as George IV. Victoria was then third in line to the throne after York and Clarence. The Duke Clarence’s second daughter was Princess Elizabeth of Clarence who lived for twelve weeks from December 10, 1820 to 4 March 1821 and, while Elizabeth lived, Victoria was fourth in line. The Childless Duke of York died in 1827 which paved the way for Victoria’s own succession after her uncles, George IV and William IV.

Happy Birthday, Queen Victoria

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On this date 1819, birth of the future Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. She was christened HRH Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent and was the only child of HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III, and HSH Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18 upon the death of her uncle, King William IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King of Hanover. At this time since women were barred from the throne of Hanover, her uncle, HRH The Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale became King Ernst-August of Hanover.

In 1840 Queen Victoria married her first cousin HSH Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They had nine children and his death in 1861 put Queen Victoria in mourning for the rest of her life. She oversaw the British Empire at its zenith. In 1876 she was proclaimed Empress of India. She died on January 22, 1901 having reigned for 63 years and 216, the longest reigning British monarch. She was succeeded by her eldest son the Prince of Wales as King Edward VII of the united Kingdom of Great Britain.

Who is entitled to a Princess title?

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7th Duke of Buccleuch, Diana Spencer, Elector of Hanover, George I of Great Britain, John Montagu Douglas Scott, King George I of the Hellenes, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands., Princess Alice of Gloucester, Princess Diana, Princess Marina of Greece, Princess Mary of Teck, The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent

There has been a lot of discussion concerning who is entitled to call themselves a Princess followed by their first name in the British system. Many people get it wrong including the press, or shall I say, frequently the press. Many know by now, for example, that when Diana was Princess of Wales she was wrongly called Princess Diana by the media. Although she was a Princess of the United Kingdom via her marriage to HRH The Princes of Wales this did not entitle her to be called “Princess Diana” as that is reserved for British princesses born into the royal family. Princess Anne; The Princess Royal, Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York are prime examples. The correct title for Diana was, simply, HRH The Princess of Wales. The press, being sloppy, just called her Princess Diana, and they also sloppily call the Prince of Wales, simply Prince Charles. This may sound pedantic but the way to address royalty in the media is to call them by their correct styles and titles. For example it is correct to call Princess Beatrice of York “Princess Beatrice” because that is her correct title. It is not correct to call Princes Anne by her name in the press, it is correct to call her The Princess Royal

This system is unique to Britain among the existing monarchies in Europe. The German monarchies, when they existed, used the British system. Well, to be more honest it was Britain that adopted the German system of how they titled the wives of princes when George I of Great Britain, originally the Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick, came to the British throne in 1714. In places like Denmark and the Netherlands for example when a woman married into those royal families they are often created Princesses in their own right. For example when Marie Cavallier married HRH Prince Joachim of Denmark in 2008 she became Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat. When Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti married the Prince of Orange (king Willem-Alexander) in 2002 she was created a Princess of the Netherlands in her own right and was styled HRH Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau.

What is interesting to note is that even when foreign royals married into the British Royal family they were not entitled to be styled as if they were a British princess in their own right. For example, when Princess Alexandra of Denmark, a Danish Princess in her own right, married HRH The Prince of Wales (Prince Albert-Edward, future king Edward VII) in March of 1863 she ceased to be a Danish Princess and was only a British Princess by marriage and this did not allow her to be called Princess Alexandra. In other words, even though she was born a Princess in her own right, she was not born a British Princess in her own right, and she was in the same boat that Diana Spencer would be over a century later; only entitled to be called HRH The Princess of Wales. You know what? The press got it wrong back in the day, for they also called her Princess Alexandra.

There have been exceptions to when a member of the British royal family, who is not entitled to be called Princess and use their first names, has been allowed to stlye themselves as if they were born a British princess. One example is Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. She was born a Greek and Danish Princess the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (a son of King George I of the Hellenes) and his wife Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In November of 1934 Princess Marina married HRH The Duke of Kent (Prince George) the fourth son and fifth child of King George V and Princess Mary of Teck (Queen Mary).

Sadly, the Duke of Kent died in 1942 when the military plane he was riding in crashed in Scotland. His eldest son, Prince Edward became the current Duke of Kent. Marina remained styled as HRH The Duchess of Kent until her son’s marriage to Katherine Worsley in 1961. This meant that Katherine was now legally HRH The Duchess of Kent. This mean that Marina now had to be called something different. She could have chosen to be called HRH The Dowager Duchess of Kent but instead petitioned the Queen to allow herself to be called Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, despite not being born a British Princess. The queen did grant her this permission.

This seems to have set a precedence. In 1974 with the death of HRH The Duke of Gloucester (Prince Henry) son of King George V and Princess Mary of Teck (Queen Mary), his widow, Alice, daughter of John Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch, petitioned the queen to be allowed to style herself Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. This permission was also granted. The significant difference between the sister-in-laws Marina and Alice was that Marina was born a Greek and Danish Princess in her own right while Alice was never born a princess in her own right. Under the British system this did not matter, for to be called a Princess and to be allowed to use your first name is a right reserved only to those women born into the British royal family. All others must seek permission from the queen to do so.

Happy Birthday HRH Prince Michael of Kent!

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Buckingham Palace, HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, The Duke of Kent

Happy Birthday HRH Prince Michael of Kent!

(the spitting image of his grandfather, George V)