Louise Lehzen
Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen (born October 3, 1784 in Coburg , † September 9, 1870 in Bückeburg ), known as Baroness Louise Lehzen , was the governess , educator and later companion of the British Queen Victoria .
Life
Louise Clara Johanna Lehzen was born as the daughter of Pastor Joachim Friedrich Lehzen (1735 to 1800) from Lüchow . She was a member of the household of Princess Victoire von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld and the educator of her first daughter Feodora zu Leiningen from her marriage to the Prince of Leiningen. After his death, the Princess of Leiningen married the British Duke of Kent and Strathearn , the fourth-born son of King George III.Louise Lehzen moved to London with the Duchess of Kent and was appointed tutor to Princess Victoria, who was born in 1819. Eight months after the princess was born, the Duke of Kent died, leaving his widow with such a mountain of debt that she had to turn down the inheritance. In 1826 Louise Lehzen was made Baroness von Lehzen.
She became a confidante for the adolescent Princess Victoria, as tensions grew between the Duchess of Kent and her daughter. John Conroy , appointed administrator by the Duke of Kent, increasingly dominated the Duchess's household. He thought it likely that the marriages of the older duke brothers would not produce any descendants and that Princess Victoria would remain the only legitimate heir to the British royal throne. In view of the great age of William IV, the princess would ascend to the British throne at a time when she would still be immature. In this case, the Duchess of Kent would very likely be appointed regent in place of the still underage queen , giving John Conroy the opportunity to gain power and influence. To do this, however, it was necessary that the princess and her mother remained largely isolated from the royal court (so-called Kensington system ). This also meant that Louise Lehzen, who had meanwhile been appointed baroness, continued to be responsible for the education of the princess, even though she was insufficiently qualified to prepare for the role of monarch. Louise Lehzen's teaching was therefore limited to teaching languages. The subjects that were more important to Princess Victoria, such as constitutional law and economic policy, were largely omitted. The attempts to secure power by John Conroy culminated in an attempt to have the 17-year-old princess confirm in writing that she would appoint him as private secretary after her accession to the throne. When Princess Victoria refused to allow him to sign, both her mother and John Conroy put considerable pressure on the princess. During this time, the princess found support above all from her governess.
In 1837 Princess Victoria succeeded her uncle to the British throne. Louise Lehzen, as the closest confidante, took on the role of private secretary for the British Queen. She had more influence on the Queen than the Duchess of Kent. This only changed with the marriage of the British Queen to Albert von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha , who had been comprehensively prepared for the role of monarch by his uncle, Leopold I. There were repeated tensions between Baroness Lehzen and Prince Albert because the Baroness was not ready to cede her sphere of influence to the king consort. Only after the birth of the Princess Royal Victoria was Prince Albert able to make it clear to his wife that the Baroness was overwhelmed with the tasks entrusted to her. Baroness Lehzen was advised to retire into private life and on September 30, 1842, she left the English court for good. She returned to Germany and settled in Bückeburg . She died there in 1870 and was buried in the Jetenburg cemetery . A gravestone erected by order of Queen Victoria in neo-Gothic style reminds of Louise Lehzen to this day.
Queen Victoria wrote of Lehzen: "She was an admirable educator, and I adored her, although I was also afraid of her."
Movie
Louise Lehzen is also featured in several films about Queen Victoria. She played Greta Schröder in Queen Victoria (1937) and Sixty Glorious Years (1938). In the film Girl Years of a Queen (1954) she is played by Magda Schneider , in the British TV two-parter Victoria & Albert (2001) by Diana Rigg and in Young Victoria (2009) by Jeanette Hain .
literature
- Carolly Erickson: Queen Victoria. A biography . Piper, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-492-23286-8
- Karl Heinz Wocker: Queen Victoria. The story of an age . Heyne, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-453-55072-2
- Jürgen Lotz: Victoria . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-499-50627-0
- Alheidis von Rohr : Louise Lehzen. Queen Victoria's Hanoverian governess , Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter Volume 46, Hanover 1992
- Michaela Blankart, Siegfried Hirsch: Queen Victoria, The private album of her German educator Baroness Lehzen , The Private Album of Queen Victoria's German Governess Baroness Lehzen (Dtsch / Engl.)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Lotz: Victoria. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-499-50627-0 , p. 52
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lehzen, Louise |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lehzen, Johanna Clara Louise (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German governess; Educator and confidante of the British Queen Victoria |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 3, 1784 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Coburg , Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeld , Holy Roman Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 9, 1870 |
| Place of death | Buckeburg |