On the death of George IV in 1830, the young Victoria became next in line to the throne. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her ambitious adviser, Sir John Conroy, sought to protect and enhance their power by keeping Victoria under their control.
Their rigid set of rules became known as The Kensington System. Victoria was never allowed out of the sight of an adult – she was always supervised by her mother, one of her tutors, or her governess, Baroness Lehzen.
She was rarely allowed to meet other children, with the exception of Conroy’s daughters and her own half-sister, Feodora, who married and moved away from Kensington when Victoria was nine. Victoria even had to sleep in the same room as her mother until she became queen. Thinking back to these times Victoria recalled that she “led a very unhappy life as a child … and did not know what a happy domestic life was!”
