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Death of the Duke of Kent - Presenting the commons’ address of condolence to the Duchess at Kensington Palace

Death of the Duke of Kent - Presenting the commons’ address of condolence to the Duchess at Kensington Palace.jpg Distant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IVDistant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IVDistant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IVDistant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IVDistant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IVDistant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IVDistant View of Windsor CastleThumbnailsWilliam IV

But the unusually severe winter of 1819-20 induced the Duke and Duchess to visit Sidmouth, for the sake of the mild climate of Southern Devonshire. At Salisbury Cathedral, to which he made an excursion during the frosty weather, the Duke caught a slight cold, which, after his return to Sidmouth, became serious, owing, it would seem, to neglect and imprudence. According to the medical custom of those days, the patient was copiously bled, and not improbably owed his death to the exhaustion thus occasioned. He expired on the 23rd of January, 1820, in his fifty-third year; and so small were his means that he left the Duchess and the Princess totally devoid of maintenance. Such was the statement made long afterwards by Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who was with his sister during the days of her trial and bereavement. Soon after the fatal event, the Prince accompanied the widowed lady to London, where addresses of condolence were voted by both Houses of Parliament. The address of the Commons was presented by Lords Morpeth and Clive, when the Duchess of Kent appeared with the infant Princess in her arms.