How Did Queen Victoria’s Childhood Impact Her Reign?

Queen Victoria is as well known for leading the second longest reign in England, as she is for her iron will. Her childhood, however, was a lonely one of solitude, dominated by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and Sir John Conroy who wished to “help” Victoria, while also securing their own places as powerful players in the empire.

Rules are not unusual for a child, but it can go too far, such as the elaborate rules and guidelines of the Kensington System the future Queen Victoria had to live by. Victorie, the Duchess of Kent, was Queen Victoria’s mother. She and Sir John Conroy were the creators of the rule system. It was their intention to make the future Queen feeble, with no mind of her own. Then she would require the Duchess of Kent and Conroy to help her rule, even if she had aged into majority where she would not need an official Regent.

These rules kept her in isolation, with no playmates her age, aside from her half-sister and Conroy’s daughter. She was never allowed to be separate from her mother, and only had a few trips outside of Kensington Palace. With no outside influence, they hoped she would not be able to comprehend their manipulation.

The system was written down by Carl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen in A Complete History of the Policy Followed at Kensington, Under Sir John Conroy’s Guidence. Considering Victoria would later cut ties with them it seems that she did not agree with the system.

Queen Victoria’s Mother: Victorie’s Background 

It is difficult to understand how Victoria’s strict, isolated childhood could come from her own mother. This was not Victorie’s first marriage, and Victoria wasn’t her first daughter. Princess Victorie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was a German princess born on August 17, 1786. Her background is important because when she would eventually marry Victoria’s father she did not know any English, nor did she have any other ties to the country. She was not well liked by many in the English court, although part of that was influenced by her relationship with Conroy.

Victorie first married Emich Carl, the Prince of Leiningen in 1803 and had two children with him, Prince Carl and Princess Feodora. Only eleven years after marrying the prince, he died, leaving her as regent of Leiningen while her son was still very young.

She married the Duke of Kent when it became clear to the crown that there was an issue with succession due to some untimely deaths of Princess Charlotte and her unborn son and the estrangement of others in line to the throne from their wives. They had Victoria, their only child before the duke later died, possibly from pneumonia.

The isolation and the early tours scheduled in her teen years by her mother and Conroy helped to build Victoria’s popularity. At that point, her uncles and the rest of the monarchy had not been very popular. The death of Princess Charlotte, who was a favorite of the public, was a huge blow.

Both George IV and William IV faced issues involving the scandals of their marriage, their public decorum, and extraordinary spending habits. Queen Victoria’s sensible, stoical approach was a sharp contrast to these behaviors. The Victorian Era, named after the Queen, is often pictured or stereotyped as prudish. According to Britannica, “respectable middle-class women in particular were proud of how little they knew about their own bodies and childbirth.” Queen Victoria is also known for wearing a white wedding dress, which in the West is considered symbolic of purity, and had a loving marriage to Prince Albert that was not characterized by extramarital affairs. Conroy claimed that Victoria became, “the Nation’s Hope.”

However, no matter how Conroy tried to spin that the system was intended to keep the future queen safe and popular, the main act seemed to be dominance over the young woman, making her weak-willed and more apt to listen to him and his mother as they “guided” her through running England. This seemed to have the opposite effect on her reign however, as she became well known for her strength, iron will, and steady resolve.

The Duchess of Kent and Conroy

Victoria’s life started under the influence of Conroy and the Duchess of Kent, but this is certainly not where it ended. Her dislike of them and how they treated her as a child and young lady led her to eventually banish them from her life altogether. Conroy was dismissed from Victoria’s household the moment she became Queen at the young age of 18. Although he had a pension and baronetcy, he died in debt in 1842, only 5 years after Victoria became Queen. Meanwhile, Victoria’s mother, the Duchess, was banished from Victoria’s accommodations, a huge shift as for her childhood she had been required to share a bed with her mother. This estrangement would last until her first grandchild was born.