Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen

After the years of dissolute, extravagant living of George IV, the quiet domestic life of his successor was a novelty , Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen wife of. William IV, brought a new air of respectability to the English court. When Adelaide came to England in 1818 she was faced not only with a husband of fifty-three with a bad reputation, rough seamans manners, dubious sanity, and no money, but also with ten Fitzclarences - Williams children by his former mistress, the actress Dorothea Jordan. .William Duke of Clarence had by no means led a blameless life before his marriage and had been looking for a wile for some time , to gain a government settlement to pay off his debts and to give England an heir to the throne after the death of the young Princess of Wales in 1817

The day after the wedding the Dukes eldest son,George. broke his leg and Adelaide spent her honeymoon at St. James's nursing him. Once her husband's debts were paid there was little money left and, after travelling inexpensively on the Continent, the couple lived quietly at Bushey, near Hampton Court. Here Adelaide gathered the younger Fitzclarences and, with her indisputable propriety, did much to make them acceptable in society. She welcomed her husband's sailor friends and even allowed him to keep part of the foremast of the Victory in their small dining-room. But the hoped for heir was lacking - both her daughters died in infancy.

On the death of the Duke of York in 1827 William became the Kings heir and gained appointment as Lord High Admiral - a post which he held for only a year, due to his stubborn refusal to take the Admiralty into his confidence. In June 1830 King George died and Adelaide found herself the first Queen of England to be crowned for some seventy years.

The first two years of William's reign were unprecedentedly violent. But the monarchy rode the storm, and those who knew Adelaide knew that her influence over the King was never political. The ladies of fashionable society who expected a new era of gaiety were disappointed - they had spurned Adelaide formerly for her open censure of their immorality; now they found themselves dropped from invitation lists and excluded from Household appointments. But at last provincial matrons dared introduce their daughters at court without fear of their corruption.

Agitation for the Reform Bill frightened the King; despite his proven liberal ideas, he dreaded extremes and did all in his power to override the reformers, though unsuccessfully. Adelaide was made the scapegoat by people and Press alike - and was described in one newspaper as " a nasty German frow ". Her carriage was mobbed and every day there was fresh criticism of her influence over the King Later in life however , she became patroness of many charities, a thrifty spender of the Privy Purse, and the enthusiastic promoter of England's textile industries.

In twenty years of marriage she turned him into a good, if not perfect, husband, preferring children's parties to his former long carousals with old sailors. It was at these children's parties - often held in the Brighton Pavilion - that the Christmas Tree made its first appearance in England, introduced from Germany by Queen Adelaide - and not by Prince Albert as is generally believed.

In June 1837 William IV died and Adelaide settled into a retiring widowhood. Ironically, when Queen Victoria was under attack in the early years of her reign, for her frivolity, it was Adelaide who was popular. It was not unusual "at public dinners to receive the Queen's health with solemn silence, while the succeeding toast of the Queen Dowager was the signal for long-continued cheers." Adelaide died in 1849