Queen Adelaide and the Catholic godchild snafu

Queen Victoria to Queen Adelaide

Claremont, 15th January 1843

I am at a loss to comprehend, my dear Aunt, what you mean by saying that you refused being godmother to Thesy's first child, as I had sanctioned your doing so. I never remember even talking to you on the subject, but only heard from Mamma that you had refused doing so—which I was surprised at. I therefore felt no hesitation in accepting the offer of Thesy, particularly as I am already godmother to one of the children of Prince Esterhazy's daughter. I am grieved, dearest Aunt, that this occurrence should annoy you, but I can assure you that I do not remember ever having spoken to you on the subject at all.     

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(The Queen Dowager had a bone to pick with her niece over the possibility of a Catholic godchild.  Photo credit: BBC)

Victoria’s relationship with her aunt, Queen Dowager Adelaide, was typically very warm and affectionate.  Their letters generally dealt with family matters and memories of Victoria’s younger days.  However, in an exchange in mid-January 1843, Adelaide has no qualms about taking offense to an action of Victoria’s involving one of Adelaide’s family members.  In her reply above, Victoria snaps back at her aunt claiming she had no part the in action in question. 

Therese (Thesy) of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, the wife of Friedrich Karl I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst and a distant cousin of Queen Adelaide, had her first child (Nikolaus) in 1841.  According to Adelaide, she was asked by the family to be a godmother to the baby.  Adelaide claims that Victoria was shocked and horrified that her aunt would act as a godmother to a Roman Catholic child, which evidently convinced Adelaide to decline the offer.  When Thesy’s second child Viktor was born in December 1842, Victoria was asked to stand godmother to the child – an offer she accepted.  Victoria claims in this letter that she had no knowledge of Adelaide’s earlier offer. 

Over the course of her long life, Queen Victoria was godmother to countless children.  Most, like Thesy’s son, were named some version of Victoria and/or Albert.  From almost the start of her reign, Victoria began receiving requests to serve as a godparent for notable children all over the world.  At the time of her death in 1901, Victoria had served as godmother to a West African woman, a Maori man, and a Hawaiian man.   Like her European godchildren, most of Victoria’s godchildren from other parts of the world were also royal or noble. 

Victoria’s letter comes at the beginning of a period of increased immigration of Catholics to Britain as well as tolerance toward Catholics in general.  Along with some French Catholics who had left their country following the Revolution, a large number of Irish were also settling in the United Kingdom Although the height of the Great Irish Famine would not come for another couple of years, poverty and crop failure were still widespread in Ireland in early 1843, causing people to move abroad in search of work.  The Oxford Movement, a push to reclaim for Anglicans some of the practices and beliefs shed after the Reformation, ended with several of its followers converting to Catholicism completely.  For the first time since the Tudor Era Catholicism was enjoying a bit of a revival in the United Kingdom.

Although her dissenters often labeled her as a secret Catholic, Victoria was not only the head of but was also a devout follower of the Church of England. On one hand, she supported a Public Worship Bill proposing to do away with several of the Church of England liturgical practices (confessional being one of these) resembling those of the Catholic Church.  She also refused to consider Catholic spouses for any of her children and grandchildren.  We’ve spoken beforeabout her refusal to accept Helene of Orleans as a bride for her grandson Eddyunless Helene converted.  In the late 1850s, Victoria also lamented that Pedro V of Portugal could not be considered for her daughter Alice due to his religion, despite the fact that she thought Pedro would make a great match for Alice.

On the other hand, in 1882 the American Catholic Quarterly Review named Victoria as “the first Protestant sovereign who has never shown any Protestant prejudice.”  Victoria was particularly sensitive to anti-Catholic sentiment, writing in her journal in 1850, “I cannot bear to hear the violent abuse of the Catholic religion, which is so painful and so cruel towards the many innocent and good Roman Catholics.”  Victoria did support the Charitable Bequests Act of 1844, an act that enabled Catholics to will money and personal items to the Church.  She also suppressed the Guy Fawkes Day prayer against “our cruel Popish enemies who delight in blood” in 1856.   At least one of Victoria’s grandchildren, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, had a Catholic godmother, former Empress Eugenie of France.  Victoria had in turn had served as godmother for Eugenie’s son, Napoleon Eugene. 

We will probably never know whether or not Victoria raised an objection to her aunt’s offer based on the family’s faith.  We do know, however, that Victoria expressed constantly conflicting views on the Catholic faith throughout her life.  And we know that she could sometimes be quite determined to later argue otherwise when the subject of her initial requests were quite clear.  But Adelaide and Victoria do not appear to have stayed angry at one another for long.  By Valentine’s Day 1843 Adelaide sent a letter to Victoria praising the latter’s happy home life and family.  The correspondence between aunt and niece continued until Adelaide’s death in 1849, an event mourned sincerely by Victoria and her family.