Kensington System

The Kensington System is the term applied by historians to the strict and elaborate set of rules designed by Victoria, Duchess of Kent, along with her attendant, Sir John Conroy, concerning the upbringing of the Duchess's daughter, the future Queen Victoria. It is named after Kensington Palace in London, where they resided prior to Queen Victoria's accession to the throne.

Application

The System was aimed at rendering the young Princess Victoria weak and dependent and thus unlikely to adhere to her other relatives in the House of Hanover against her mother and Conroy. The young Victoria was never allowed to be apart from her mother, her tutor or her governesses (Baroness Lehzen and the Duchess of Northumberland). She was kept isolated from other children, and her mother and Conroy strictly monitored and recorded her every action and entirely controlled whom she was allowed to meet.

Victoria had only two playmates during her adolescence: her half-sister, Princess Feodora of Leiningen, and Conroy's daughter, Victoire. Only occasional trips were made outside the palace grounds; two visits to Claremont to see her uncle Leopold I of Belgium greatly influenced Victoria's opinion on the System. When it became clear that Victoria would inherit the throne, her keepers tried to induce Victoria to appoint Conroy her personal secretary and treasurer via a long series of threats and browbeating, to no avail.