Editing Queen Victoria (section)

=== Birth and ancestry ===
{{Multiple image
| align             = left
| image1            = Sir William Beechey (1753-1839) - Victoria, Duchess of Kent, (1786-1861) with Princess Victoria, (1819-1901) - RCIN 407169 - Royal Collection.jpg
| caption1          = Victoria as a child with her mother, after [[William Beechey]]
| direction         = vertical
| image2            = Denning, Stephen Poyntz - Princess Victoria aged Four - Google Art Project.jpg
| caption2          = Portrait by [[Stephen Poyntz Denning]], 1823
}}

Victoria's father was [[Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn]], the fourth son of [[King George&nbsp;III]] and [[Queen Charlotte]]. Until 1817, King George's only legitimate grandchild was Edward's niece [[Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796–1817)|Princess Charlotte of Wales]], the daughter of [[George, Prince Regent]] (who would become George IV). Princess Charlotte's death in 1817 precipitated a [[succession crisis]] that brought pressure on Prince Edward and his unmarried brothers to marry and have children. In 1818, the Duke of Kent married [[Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld]], a widowed German princess with two children—[[Carl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen|Carl]] (1804–1856) and [[Princess Feodora of Leiningen|Feodora]] (1807–1872)—by her first marriage to [[Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen]]. Her brother [[Leopold I of Belgium|Leopold]] was Princess Charlotte's widower and later the first [[king of Belgium]]. The Duke and Duchess of Kent's only child, Victoria was born at 4:15&nbsp;a.m. on Monday, 24 May 1819 at [[Kensington Palace]] in London.<ref>Hibbert, pp. 3–12; Strachey, pp. 1–17; Woodham-Smith, pp. 15–29</ref>

Victoria was christened privately by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Charles Manners-Sutton]], on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace.{{Efn|Her godparents were Tsar [[Alexander I of Russia]] (represented by her uncle [[Frederick, Duke of York]]), her uncle [[George, Prince Regent]], her aunt [[Queen Charlotte of Württemberg]] (represented by Victoria's aunt [[Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom|Princess Augusta]]) and Victoria's maternal grandmother the [[Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf|Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld]] (represented by Victoria's aunt [[Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh]]).}} She was baptised ''Alexandrina'' after one of her godparents, Tsar [[Alexander I of Russia]], and ''Victoria'', after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina (or Georgiana), Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Prince Regent.<ref>Hibbert, pp. 12–13; Longford, p. 23; Woodham-Smith, pp. 34–35</ref>

At birth, Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George&nbsp;III: George, Prince Regent (later George&nbsp;IV); [[Frederick, Duke of York]]; [[William, Duke of Clarence]] (later William&nbsp;IV); and Victoria's father, Edward, Duke of Kent.<ref>Longford, p. 24</ref> Prince George had no surviving children, and Prince Frederick had no children; further, both were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further legitimate children. William married in 1818, in a joint ceremony with his brother Edward, but both of William's legitimate daughters died as infants. The first of these was Princess Charlotte, who was born and died on 27 March 1819, two months before Victoria was born. Victoria's father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old. A week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son as George&nbsp;IV. Victoria was then third in line to the throne after Frederick and William. She was fourth in line while William's second daughter, [[Princess Elizabeth of Clarence|Princess Elizabeth]], lived, from 10 December 1820 to 4&nbsp;March 1821.<ref>Worsley, p. 41.</ref>