Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge’s early life
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge was born on 27 November 1833 in Hanover, Germany. She was one of the first royals to patronize a wide range of charities and was a first cousin of Queen Victoria. Mary Adelaide was the daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel. Her father was the seventh son of King George and Queen Charlotte. Mary Adelaide married Francis Duke of Teck, with whom she had four children. The Duke and Duchess of Teck’s daughter, Victoria Mary, commonly known as May, was the wife of George V and became known as Queen Mary Through her daughter, Mary Adelaide was the grandmother of the British kings Edward VIII and George VI. Mary Adelaide spent the early years of her life in Hanover, where her father acted as viceroy, in place of her uncles George IV and later William IV.
After the death of William IV in 1837, Mary Adelaide’s first cousin, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, ascended the throne. However, under Salic law, only patrilineal succession was allowed, and this prevented Victoria from also ascending the throne of Hanover, which instead passed to Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. Thus, the personal union between Britain and Hanover, which had existed for over a century, came to an end along with the arrangement of Hanover’s ruler living in England as the British monarch and using a viceroy to represent him in Hanover The Duke of Cumberland moved to Hanover as king and Mary Adelaide’s father, no longer needed in Hanover, returned to London with his family, setting up residence in Kensington Palace.
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge’s marriage
She married Prince Francis of Teck on 12 June 1866 at St Anne’s Church, Kew Surrey. The Duke and Duchess of Teck chose to reside in London. rather than abroad, mainly because Mary Adelaide received £5,000 per annum as a parliamentary annuity and carried out royal duties. Her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, also provided her with supplementary income. Requests to Queen Victoria for extra funds were generally refused; however, the Queen gave the Teck apartments at Kensington Palace. Despite the couple’s modest income, Mary Adelaide had expensive tastes and lived an extravagant life of parties, expensive food and clothes, and holidays abroad. In 1883, they were forced to live more cheaply abroad to reduce their debts. With their children, they traveled to Florence, Italy. and also stayed with relatives in Germany and Austria. Initially, they traveled under the names of the Count and Countess von Hohenstein. However, Mary Adelaide wished to travel in more style and reverted to her actual title, which commanded significantly more attention and better service. The Tecks returned from their self-imposed exile in 1885 and continued to live at Kensington Palace and White Lodge in Richmond Park. Mary Adelaide began devoting her life to charity, serving as patron to Barnardo and the other children’s charities. Mary Adelaide died on 27 October 1897 at White Lodge, following an emergency operation.