
Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen (3 October 1784 – 9 September 1870) was the governess of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Biography[]
Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen was born in Hanover, Electorate of Hanover in 1784, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor. In 1819, she accompanied Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld into the household of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and she served as governess to the Duke's only child, the future Queen Victoria. Lehzen was strongly protective of the young Victoria against her overbearing mother and her comptroller John Conroy, and she became a motherly figure to the princess. She served as the Queen's unofficial private secretary from 1837 to 1841, when Prince Albert fired Lehzen due to her attempts to retain her influence over the Queen. Lehzen was generously pensioned while living in Hanover, and she died in 1870 at the age of 85.