Louise Lehzen
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Baroness Louise Lehzen (3 October 1784–9 September 1870) was the governess, and later adviser and companion to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Louise Lehzen was born in Coburg in Germany, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor. She was part of the household of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and served as nurse to Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the daughter of the Princess by her first husband, the Prince of Leiningen. Princess Victoria subsequently married the Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, who was, at the time, fourth in line for the British throne. The entire household was moved to England in 1819 so that the new Duchess of Kent's first child might be born there. This child was a girl, christened "Alexandrina Victoria" after her mother and her godfather, Tsar Alexander I of Russia; she would grow up to be Queen Victoria.
The Duke of Kent died quite suddenly in 1820, followed quickly by his father, King George III. Victoria's uncle, the Prince Regent, ascended the throne as George IV. Victoria was now third in line for the crown, after her uncles the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence, both of whom were well past middle age, and neither of whom had legitimate heirs. As the likely eventual heiress, Victoria had to be educated accordingly. Unfortunately for her, the Duchess of Kent was nearly bankrupt, having assumed all of her late husband's debts, and could not afford to engage a new governess. Feodora was now 14, and no longer required the services of a governess. This was how Louise Lehzen came to gain such remarkable ascendancy over the young princess. She became governess to Princess Victoria in 1824, and continued to care for and instruct Victoria even after the Duchess of Northumberland was formally appointed Governess. "Dear, good Lehzen" came to occupy a place in Victoria's heart that superseded all others, including her own mother, the Duchess of Kent.
The education Victoria received from this woman was rudimentary but solid. She learned to speak French, German, and English, had a good grasp of history and geography, and became well versed in religious matters. However, her education was almost entirely lacking in subjects suitable for a future monarch to study, such as classical literature, philosophy, and foreign affairs. Lehzen had little knowledge of these subjects.
In 1827, the Duke of York died, making the Duke of Clarence heir presumptive. George IV died in 1830, and was succeeded by his brother, who became King William IV. William formally recognised Victoria as his heir, and made Lehzen a Baroness of Hanover. At this time, the famous scene took place, in which Lehzen slipped a copy of the genealogy of the House of Hanover into one of the Princess's lesson books. After perusing it for some time, Victoria came to see that her father had been next in line after the King, and Queen Adelaide had no children. This was the first time Victoria came to realise the destiny that had been assumed by many since her birth; that she would be the next British queen. After a pause, Victoria is reported to have said "I will be good."
When Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, after the death of her uncle, King William IV, Lehzen was installed at Buckingham Palace as a sort of unofficial private secretary. At this point, Lehzen had totally replaced Victoria's mother both in influence and in affection; Lehzen's apartments adjoined the Queen's, while the Duchess of Kent was installed in a suite of rooms far removed from Victoria's. For the first few years of Victoria's reign, especially before her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840, Lehzen had a very strong influence on the Queen's outlook on both politics and personal matters, despite the fact that she did not overtly involve herself in state affairs.
The coming of Albert, the "Prince Consort", changed things. Albert was well-educated; he had just completed a tour of Europe, preceded by years at the University of Bonn. Victoria's court dismayed his puritan German sensibilities. He pointed out to Victoria the waste and inefficiency that surrounded her, but the care of the household was the special province of Baroness Lehzen, and Victoria defended her. Lehzen also intrigued against Albert, advising Victoria that she was the Queen, and Albert her mere consort: she had but to order, and he must obey. Lehzen, however, had calculated without Victoria's increasing love and almost pathetic devotion to her husband.
When Victoria's first child, the Princess Victoria, was born on November 22, 1840, Victoria trusted Lehzen to make the arrangements for the nursery staff. Lehzen put the nursery in the hands of a Mrs. Southey and Sir James Clark the Royal Physician, over Albert's objections that Clark was wholly unsuited to the post, having already discredited himself during the affair of Lady Flora Hastings, a year previously[1]. Baroness Lehzen was often found with the young princess, or gossiping with Southey, in a nursery that was kept unsuitably hot due to Southey's ailments. Eventually, the Princess Royal fell ill, but the incompetent Dr. Clark declared it was a minor colic and nothing to be concerned about. In fact, the young Princess Victoria became seriously ill. Albert, who was devoted to his first-born, confronted Victoria on the incompetence of the staff selected by the Baroness. There was a quarrel, after which Albert declared that he would leave the affair in her queenly hands, and be it on her head if the child died. After this argument, Victoria gave in to him, and ultimately dismissed Lehzen.
When Lehzen was dismissed from the court in 1842 she returned to her native Germany. She lived on the pension that Victoria sent her, and covered the walls of her house with any portraits of the Queen she could find or cut out of newspapers. She wrote to Victoria, who replied infrequently, and always regarded her as the daughter of her heart.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ In 1839 Lady Flora Hastings, unmarried, and a Tory maid of honor, was displaying a steadily increasing abdominal girth and was suspected by the gossipy ladies of the court, including the Queen, of having become illicitly pregnant. Clark was called upon to express his opinion on her condition, and announced Hastings was pregnant, when in fact she had what turned out to be a fatal abdominal tumour. His mistaken support for court slander of a guiltless woman, and her death in that year from a condition undiagnosed by him led to popular opprobrium.
