When only 17-years-old she married her first husband, the childless     
          widower of her mother's youngest sister. No doubt this was not as good     
          a match as her sisters': Antoinette, who had married Duke Alexander of     
          Wurttemberg; and Juliane, who married the Russian Grand Duke               
          Constantine. But at least it was better than that of Sofie who, three      
          months later, married Count Emanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly.                 
             Eleven years later her husband died, leaving her a widow with a         
          son, Carl, and a daughter, Feodora. In 1816 her brother, Leopold,          
          married Charlotte, the daughter and heir of the British king George        
          IV. Leopold and Charlotte urged Charlotte's uncle, the Duke of Kent,       
          to visit Viktoria in Wald-Leiningen. This was not for the British          
          succession but for the Duke's need of an income which would be given       
          to him once married---and the thirty-year-old Viktoria needed a            
          husband.                                                                   
             Not in a hurry to press matters, the Duke was annoyed when his          
          courting became known. He quickly wrote to Leopold asking him to press     
          his sister to make up her mind. The Duke of Kent felt guilty about the     
          discarding of his mistress of many years but was happy when, on 25         
          January 1818, Viktoria accepted him. They married on 29 May 1818. In       
          the following year their daughter, the future Queen Victoria, was          
          born. But shortly after that she lost her second husband and would be      
          the Dowager Duchess of Kent for another forty-one years.                   
             Viktoria realised the importance of bringing Victoria up in England     
          as she was next in line for the throne. Her brother, Leopold, gave her     
          an allowance of 3,000 pounds a year, and, in 1825, the English             
          parliament gave her another annuity of 6,000 pounds. In 1830, the          
          Regency Act named the Duchess as regent in case Victoria would be a        
          minor when called to the throne.                                           
             The Duchess of Kent had tried to alienate Victoria from her uncle,      
          William IV, and then tried the same thing with this king's                 
          illegitimate children. The Duchess and William IV didn't like each         
          other and, at the king's birthday dinner, he publicly insulted the         
          Duchess, referring to her "evil advisers". The Duchess relied heavily      
          upon Sir John Conroy, who had been her deceased husband's equerry, and     
          allowed him to dominate her household. Conroy caused an open rift          
          between mother and daughter and, after Victoria's accession to the         
          throne, was generously pensioned off though completely disregarded.        
          The new Queen Victoria at first showed more affection for the              
          Dowager-Queen Adelaide than for her own mother. This was mainly due to     
          Viktoria having been dominated by Conroy.                                  
             After a while the Duchess required permission to see her daughter       
          but often received a note "Busy", declining a meeting. This made the       
          Duchess angry as she wanted to see her child, not the Queen. However,      
          Conroy remained with the Duchess which for a long period cooled the        
          relationship between mother and daughter. Victoria's behaviour towards     
          Conroy gave credence to the untrue story of Conroy having an affaire       
          with the Duchess of Kent.                                                  
             At the time of the birth of Leopold, the future Duke of Albany and      
          the Duchess of Kent's youngest grandson, haemophilia appeared in the       
          Royal family. Previously it had not existed in the House of Hannover,      
          nor in that of the Duchess's own family, so it was now presumed to         
          have been a spontaneous mutation in Queen Victoria's genes. Leopold        
          the generations following.                                                 
             In March 1861 she was operated on for an abscess on her arm and,        
          after a short period, it became clear her condition was desperate.         
          Queen Victoria and Prince Albert came to her and, during her last          
          night, Queen Victoria came in to her room several times to check on        
          her. However, the Duchess of Kent died early in the morning.               
             During her last years, mother and daughter had been much closer to      
          each other. Queen Victoria had a nervous breakdown when her mother         
          died, partly because she probably realized, when going through her         
          mother's papers, how much her mother had loved her. 
 

Source: Leo van de Pas