in 1832 At the time of their marriage, William was not heir-presumptive to the throne, but became so when his brother
Frederick, Duke of York, died childless in 1827. Given the small likelihood of his older brothers producing heirs, and William's relative youth and good health, it had long been considered extremely likely that he would become king in due course. In 1830, on the death of his elder brother,
George IV, William acceded to the throne.
He and Adelaide were crowned on 8 September 1831 at
Westminster Abbey. William despised the ceremony and acted throughout, it is presumed deliberately, as if he was "a character in a comic opera", making a mockery of what he thought to be a ridiculous charade. In contrast, Adelaide took the service very seriously and, among those attending, received praise for her "dignity, repose and characteristic grace". One of King William's first acts was to confer the Rangership of
Bushy Park (for 33 years held by himself) on Queen Adelaide, which allowed her to remain at
Bushy House for her lifetime. In 1831 a dower annuity of £100,000 was set by Parliament to provide for her in the event of her husband predeceasing her. A large portion of her household income was given to several charitable causes. She refused to have women of questionable virtue attend her Court; the Clerk of the
Privy Council,
Charles Greville, wrote, "The Queen is a prude and refuses to have the ladies come
décolletées to her parties. George the 4th, who liked ample expanses of that kind, would not let them be covered." In any case, Adelaide was beloved by the British people for her piety, modesty, charity, and her tragic childbirth history. '' by Sir
Martin Archer Shee, 1836 Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent (later
Queen Victoria) came to be acknowledged as William's heir presumptive, as Adelaide had no further pregnancies. While there were rumours of pregnancies well into William's reign (dismissed by the King as "damned stuff"), they seem to have been without basis. Adelaide treated the young Princess Victoria with kindness, despite her inability to produce an heir and the open hostility between her husband and Victoria's mother,
the Dowager Duchess of Kent. She and her husband were fond of their niece and wanted her to be closer to them, but their efforts were frustrated by the Duchess of Kent, who refused to acknowledge Adelaide's precedence, left letters from Adelaide unanswered, and commandeered space in the royal stables and apartments for her use. William, aggrieved at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, bluntly announced in the presence of Adelaide, the Duchess, Victoria, and many guests, that the Duchess was "incompetent to act with propriety", that he had been "grossly and continually insulted by that person", and that he hoped to have the satisfaction of living beyond Victoria's age of majority so that the Duchess of Kent would never be regent. Everyone was aghast at the vehemence of the speech, and all three ladies were deeply upset. The breach between the Duchess and the King and Queen was never fully healed, but Victoria always viewed both of them with kindness. Adelaide attempted, perhaps unsuccessfully, to influence William politically. She never spoke about politics in public; however, she was strongly
Tory. It is unclear how much of his attitudes during the passage of the
Reform Act 1832 were due to her influence. The Press, the public, and courtiers assumed that she was agitating behind the scenes against reform, but she was careful to be non-committal in public. As a result of her alleged partiality, she became unpopular with reformers. False rumours circulated that she was having an affair with her
Lord Chamberlain, the Tory
Lord Howe, but almost everyone at court knew that Adelaide was inflexibly pious and was always faithful to her husband. The Whig prime minister,
Lord Grey, had Lord Howe removed from Adelaide's household, and the attempts to reinstate him after the Reform Bill had passed were not successful, as Lord Grey could not agree as to how independent Howe could be of the government. In October 1834, a great fire destroyed much of the
Palace of Westminster, which Adelaide considered divine retribution for the vagaries of reform. When the King dismissed the Whig ministry of
Lord Melbourne,
The Times newspaper blamed the Queen's influence, though she seems to have had very little to do with it. Influenced by her similarly reactionary brother-in-law, the
Duke of Cumberland, however, she did write to her husband against reform of the
Church of Ireland. ==Queen dowager (1837–1849)==