Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (August 13, 1792 - December 2, 1849) was the queen consort of King William IV of the United Kingdom.

Princess Adelheid Amalia Luisa Theresa Carolina, elder daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, she was born in Thuringia, Germany. Her mother, Louisa Eleonora, was the daughter of Prince Christian of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Adelheid (Anglicized to Adelaide) married HRH Prince William, Duke of Clarence, a son of George III of the United Kingdom, on July 13, 1818, at Kew Palace in Surrey, England. Her husband, who was more than twenty years her senior, already had many illegitimate children by the popular actress Dorothy Jordan, but had never been married before. It was largely the death in childbirth of the heir to the throne, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield (Leopold I of the Belgians) that had prompted the duke and his profligate bachelor brothers to marry so late in life, and so quickly, all of them anxious to provide a new heir. In the course of their marriage, Adelaide had five pregnancies, including twin sons, but only two of her children survived birth, both daughters, Charlotte and Elizabeth, only to die shortly afterwards.

At the time of their marriage, William was not heir to the throne, but became so when his brother, Frederick, Duke of York, died childless in 1827. In 1830, on the death of his elder brother, George IV, William acceded to the throne, and Adelaide was crowned along with him on September 8, 1831, at Westminster Abbey. As queen, she aroused none of the controversy of her immediate predecessor, and was beloved by the British people for her modesty as well as her tragic childbirth history. She survived her husband by only twelve years. She died at Bentley Priory in Middlesex and was buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor.