Queen Adelaide was the Queen Consort of King William IV who reigned from 26 June 1830. Adelaide was German, born on 13 Aug 1792, as Her Serene Highness Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Her father was Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and her mother was Luise Eleonore, daughter of Prince Christian, of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She married William on 13 July 1818 and did not expect to be Queen as he was the third son of King George III, after the Prince Regent and the Duke of York. William had been living with Dorothea Jordan with whom he had 10 children but they were illegitimate and he needed a legitimate heir.
It was while the 9th Lancers were quartered at Hounslow and Hampton Court that they had contact with the King and Queen Consort, escorting them to ceremonies in 1830. At the parade in Hyde Park on 22 July 1830 the officers were presented to the royal couple by the Earl of Rosslyn. The next day the King was ‘pleased to direct’ that in future the regiment should assume the title of the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers, to be thus called after His Royal Consort, Queen Adelaide. Her monogram A R reversed and interlaced was to be borne on the regimental buttons and appointments. In 1832 two cream coloured colts from the Royal Stud were presented to the regiment for use in their band. Also in 1832 Queen Adelaide donated 50 pounds to the regiment’s Benevolent Fund.
Sadly all Adelaide’s pregnancies ended in infant mortality or miscarriage. They married a week after having met each other for the first time. He was 53 and she was only 26. She was a calming influence on ‘Silly Billy’ and accepted his children well enough. She was popular with the British people for her piety, modesty and charitable work. Her virtuous attitude to life may have been a strong influence on Princess Victoria who acceded to the throne when William died in 1837. It was a bad year for her as her mother died and she herself was dangerously ill in April. In June she stayed by William’s sickbed for 10 days solidly until his death.
Adelaide, now Queen Dowager, survived her husband for 12 years during which time she suffered poor health and moved around to find a cure. She stayed in Malta where she financed the building of a Protestant Church, and Madeira where she paid for a road from Ribeiro Seco to Camara de Lobos. She never visited Australia but the city of Adelaide was named after her during the reign of William IV, in 1836. The Queen Dowager died on 2 December 1849, at Bentley Priory in Middlesex. She was buried at St George’s Chapel, Windsor with a low-key funeral in line with her wish to ‘be conveyed to the grave without pomp or state…free from the vanities and pomp of this world.’ The portrait of her wearing ermine is by Sir Martin Archer Shee, painted in 1836 and now in the Royal Collection.
