The Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom
Illustration from Queen Victoria by Richard Holmes, published in 1897 on Japanese paper by Boussod, Valadon & Co as a limited edition of 350. After Sir George Hayter (1792-1871). Info from wiki: Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (17 August 1786 – 16 March 1861), later Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, was a German princess and the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. The Duchess of Kent was extremely protective, and raised Victoria largely isolated from other children under the so-called "Kensington System". The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable (including most of her father's family), and was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them.[15] The Duchess avoided the court because she was scandalised by the presence of King William's illegitimate children,[16] and perhaps prompted the emergence of Victorian morality by insisting that her daughter avoid any appearance of sexual impropriety.[17] Victoria shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play-hours with her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash. The Duchess died at 09:30 on 16 March 1861 with her daughter Victoria at her side, aged 74 years. The Queen was much affected by her mother's death. Through reading her mother's papers, Victoria discovered that her mother had loved her deeply;[36] she was heart-broken, and blamed Conroy and Lehzen for "wickedly" estranging her from her mother
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Photo credit: © Historical Images Archive / Alamy / Afripics
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