Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (17 August 1786 – 16 March 1861) was a German princess and the wife of Prince Emich Karl of Leiningen and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and the mother of Queen Victoria.
Biography[]
Marie Louise Victoire von Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was born in Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Holy Roman Empire in 1786, the daughter of Duke Francis of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf and the brother of Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Leopold I of Belgium. She was first married to Prince Emich Karl of Leiningen from 1803 to 1814, serving as regent of the Principality of Leiningen on behalf of her son Prince Karl of Leiningen until her remarriage to King George III's fourth son Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn in 1818. Her second husband died in 1820, but she produced an heir, the future Queen Victoria. Princess Victoria was an oppressive mother, effectively imprisoning her daughter in Kensington Palace and ruling her with the help of her comptroller John Conroy, with whom she may have had an illicit affair. The young Victoria successfully resisted Conroy's urges to have her name her mother as regent should she inherit the throne while underaged, and she had a chilly relationship with her mother between her coronation in 1837 and the dismissal of Lehzen by Prince Albert, who persuaded her to reconcile with her mother. The Duchess died in 1861 at the age of 74.