Queen Elizabeth II’s great-grandmother has been unfairly maligned
The children of King George III’s failure to produce legitimate heirs contributed to a succession crisis. When the only legitimate grandchild of the King and the presumptive heir to the throne, Princess Charlotte, died unexpectedly in childbirth, her uncles went on a marrying spree in an attempt to produce an heir to ensure the Hanoverian dynasty. Suddenly, an influx of grandchildren were produced, with the senior heir becoming Queen Victoria.
Products of the Hanoverian baby boom included the children of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge: George, Augusta and Mary Adelaide. As Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent, was older than Adolphus, Victoria superseded her male cousin. King William IV intended for George to marry Victoria to keep the throne in the Hanoverian male line. However, Victoria’s maternal uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium, pushed Victoria to marry her maternal cousin Albert. Victoria chose Albert. After his failed cousin courtship, George took after his Hanoverian uncles, electing to forgo an arranged marriage. George married in contravention to the Royal Marriage Act to an actress, after they produced a slew of illegitimate children, an act that infuriated his cousin Victoria.
His sister Augusta did not make the same mistake as her brother. She was duly arranged to…
