Catherine of Aragon’s marriage to Henry VIII declared invalid

The only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III) and German-born Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Victoria was born on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace. She was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 24 June 1819 and baptised Alexandrina after her godfather Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. 

At birth Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III. Victoria’s father died in January 1820 when Victoria was only a few months old and her grandfather died a week later. He was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV and when George IV died in 1830 with no surviving children, his next surviving brother, William IV, also with no surviving children, succeeded him as king and Victoria became heir presumptive. Victoria turned 18 on 24 May 1837, less than a month before King William IV died on 20 June, and Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom. 

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