Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen

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Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (Adelheid Amalie Luise Theresa Carolin) ( 13 August 1792 - 2 December 1849 ) later Queen Adelaide was the Queen consort of King William IV of the United Kingdom. Prior to becoming Queen, she was known as The Duchess of Clarence

1 Early life
2 Marriage
3 Queen
4 Titles
5 External links

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Early life

Adelaide was born on 13 August, 1792 at Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany. Her father was George I, the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Her mother was Louisa Eleonora, the daughter of Prince Christian of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was styled as a Princess of Saxe-Meiningen from her birth.

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Marriage

Adelaide married Prince William, Duke of Clarence, a son of King George III, on 13 July, 1818, at Kew Palace in Surrey, England. Her husband, who was more than twenty years her senior, already had illegitimate children by the popular actress Dorothy Jordan, but had never been married before. It was largely the death in childbirth of the heir to the throne, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield (later King Léopold I of the Belgians) that had prompted the duke and his profligate bachelor brothers to marry so late in life, and so quickly, all of them anxious to provide a new heir.

In the course of their marriage, Adelaide had four pregnancies, including twin sons, but only two of her children survived birth:

Both daughters died in infancy, leaving the couple with no surviving children.

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Queen

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At the time of their marriage, William was not heir to the throne, but became so when his brother, Frederick, Duke of York, died childless in 1827. In 1830, on the death of his elder brother, George IV, William acceded to the throne, and Adelaide was crowned along with him on September 8, 1831, at Westminster Abbey. As queen, she aroused none of the controversy of her immediate predecessor, and was beloved by the British people for her modesty as well as her tragic childbirth history. She survived her husband by only twelve years. She died at Bentley Priory in Middlesex and was buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

The city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia, was named in her honour.

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