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The Story of the People of England in the Nineteenth Century
The Story of the People of England in the Nineteenth Century Author:Justin McCarthy General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1899 Original Publisher: G. P. Putnam's sons Subjects: Great Britain History / Europe / Great Britain History / Europe / Ireland Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the ... more »General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III QUEEN VICTORIA WILLIAM IV. had only breathed his last word and given his last sigh when the messengers started from Windsor to Kensington Palace to announce the event to his successor, and to summon a new Sovereign to the throne. William was the third son of George III., and had left no children to inherit the crown. The next heir to the throne was the daughter of his brother, the Duke of Kent, who was George III.'s fourth son. This young Princess, Alexandrina Victoria, was born at Kensington Palace, on the 24th of May, 1819, and was, therefore, little more than eighteen years of age. Her father died a very few months after her birth, and the young Princess was brought up under the care of her mother. That mother fulfilled her duty most faithfully to her child. The young Princess was not only well educated as far as mere teaching would go, but she was brought up to be courageous, self-reliant, prudent, and economical. It had been well understood for a long time that she must, in the ordinary course of events, succeed to the throne, and every care was taken that her intellect and herheart should be fitted, as far as education could fit them, for the duties of the place to which she was to be called. A very pretty description has been given by an eye-witness, Miss Wynn, of the manner in which the young Queen received the first news of her accession to the throne. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain had the official duty of making known to the Pr...« less