Alexandrina Victoria was born May 24, 1819, at Kensington Palace, London, to Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III, and Princess Marie Luise Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. She was christened a month after her birth and was named after her godfather, Tsar Alexander I, but was always called Victoria. Her parent’s marriage and her birth were the result of a succession crisis that arose near the end of the reign of George III upon the death of the only legitimate child of the Prince of Wales, (the future George IV and Prince Regent for his insane father). William, second in the line of succession, did not have any children who survived infancy.
