On May 24, 1837, Princess Alexandrina Victoria woke to birdsong. The moment she opened her eyes, she ran into the next room, where many gifts had been piled up. It was her eighteenth birthday, and these were only some of the more valuable presents; the many more gifts from the public had been placed with the Duchess of Kent, Marie Louise Victoria.
The Duchess wrote a long letter on behalf of her daughter, Alexandra Victoria. It mentioned that the princess associated with people from every class of British society, which was a disgrace to the royal family, and went on at length about religion and the powers granted to the monarch by the constitution. William IV gave his niece a gilded grand piano made by Érard, whose pianos had been used by Chopin, Friedrich List, Mendelssohn, and Wagner. The princess immediately began to play, just as she would play music with Prince Albert many years later.
Yet that was not the only "surprise" the king had prepared for the princess. Not long after she happily celebrated her birthday, he wrote to the Duchess of Kent, demanding that his niece establish her own household. The Duchess of Kent flatly refused this demand "in terms of the utmost displeasure." William IV told the princess that he would grant her ten thousand Pound sterling a year to help her live apart from her mother.
In an ordinary family, it was perfectly normal for a mother to be reluctant to see her grown daughter leave home. But within the royal family, it carried another meaning. Ignoring her mother's objections, the princess accepted William IV's proposal. Soon afterward, however, news arrived that William IV's health had worsened, and the plan came to nothing.
Hanover had been elevated from an electorate to a kingdom after the