Page:The Queens of England.djvu/589

 VICTORIA. 533 of motherhood has told for more. Victoria the Queen has molded the moral, religious and political character of her realm and age ; Victoria the mother has molded individual character for the world, for time, for eternity. So great is in- fluence. Before the reign of George III. and his Queen, Sophia Char- lotte of Mecklinburg, had become history, Destiny was scan- ning their fifteen sons and daughters in order to place the line of hereditary succession. Three sons were weighed in the bal- ance and found wanting. George IV. married Caroline of Brunswick and made her the most cruelly unhappy martyr in kingly annals. Her one child, Charlotte, Princess of Wales, was parted from the mother love and influence, and died soon after her marriage to Prince Leopold. Frederick, Duke of York, died while his brother George was still on the throne. The Dukes of Clarence and Kent were married at the same time. For the sake of the succession Parliament granted a sufficient amount to the sons of the king to encourage marriage. William married Adelaide of Meiningen, a woman of refine- ment, education and sweetness of disposition. Her two daughters died in infancy. Edward Duke of Kent married Princess Victoria, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, widow of Prince Leiningen, and sister of Prince Leopold, hus- band of Charlotte, Princess of Wales. Edward was the fourth son of George III., and his infant daughter, born May 24, 1819, was the one upon whom Destiny placed the honor of regal succession. The successive deaths of her father, three uncles, and three cousins, brought the Princess Alexandria Victoria to the throne on the 20th of June, 1837, less than one month after her majority. Victoria the Princess, aged twelve years, when told by her mother that she might some day be Queen of England, struck the keynote of the reign of Vic- toria Queen and Empress when she lifted up her dimpled hand and said, "I will be good." Later, when eighteen years had developed her into beautiful young womanhood, and she was aroused from early morning slumber to receive the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain, bringing their salu- tations to her as Queen of England, the dominant motive of her life sounded again, as she fell on her knees between them, say- ing, "I ask your prayers in my behalf." After presenting her- self on the balcony to the cheering crowds before Kensington Palace, she returned to her mother, her eyes and voice over-