Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1792 – 1849) was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and of Hanover as spouse of William IV of the United Kingdom. William IV was King of the United Kingdom and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. The third son of George III, William succeeded his elder brother George IV, as the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain’s House of Hanover.
Adelaide was beloved by the British people for her piety, modesty, charity, and her tragic childbirth history. A large portion of her household income was given to charitable causes. She also treated the young Princess Victoria of Kent (William’s heir presumptive and later Queen Victoria) with kindness, despite her own inability to produce an heir and the open hostility between William and Victoria’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent.
She died during the reign of her niece on 2 December 1849 of natural causes at Bentley Priory in Middlesex and was buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is named after her
Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) by John Cochran, after Fanny Corbaux stipple engraving, 1820s-1830s. © National Portrait Gallery, London via
Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) by Thomas Goff Lupton, after Sir William Beechey, mezzotint, published 1834 © National Portrait Gallery, London via
Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) by Samuel William Reynolds, published by Martin Colnaghi, after Sir William Beechey, mezzotint, published September 1831 © National Portrait Gallery, London via
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