who raised queen victoria?
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
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 Victoria 's youngest son , Leopold , was affected by the blood @-@ clotting disease haemophilia B and two of her five daughters , Alice and Beatrice , were carriers . Royal haemophiliacs descended from Victoria included her great @-@ grandsons , Tsarevich Alexei of Russia , Alfonso , Prince of Asturias , and Infante Gonzalo of Spain . The presence of the disease in Victoria 's descendants , but not in her ancestors , led to modern speculation that her true father was not the Duke of Kent but a haemophiliac . There is no documentary evidence of a haemophiliac in connection with Victoria 's mother , and as male carriers always suffer the disease , even if such a man had existed he would have been seriously ill . It is more likely that the mutation arose spontaneously because Victoria 's father was over 50 at the time of her conception and haemophilia arises more frequently in the children of older fathers . Spontaneous mutations account for about a third of cases . 

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 During Victoria 's lifetime and after her death in 1901 , there have been rumours that Conroy or someone else , and not the Duke of Kent , was her biological father . Historians have continued to debate the accuracy and validity of these claims . In his 2003 work The Victorians , biographer A. N. Wilson suggests that Victoria was not actually descended from George III because several of her descendants had haemophilia , which was unknown among her recognised ancestors . Haemophilia is a genetic disease that impairs the body 's ability to control blood clotting , which is used to stop bleeding when a blood vessel is broken ; it is carried in the female line but the symptoms manifest mostly in males . Wilson proposes that the Duchess of Kent took a lover ( not necessarily Conroy ) to ensure that a Coburg would sit on the British throne . 

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 Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward , Duke of Kent and Strathearn , the fourth son of King George III . Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820 , and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German @-@ born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe @-@ Coburg @-@ Saalfeld . She inherited the throne aged 18 , after her father 's three elder brothers had all died , leaving no surviving legitimate children . The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy , in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power . Privately , Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments ; publicly , she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality . 

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 Haemophilia B has been known to arise spontaneously in the children of older fathers , and Victoria 's father was fifty @-@ one when she was born . Nicholas Wright Gillham proposes that the haemophilia mutation could have first occurred with either Victoria or the Duke of Kent . Gillian Gill and her son Christopher , an infectious disease specialist , also view a genetic mutation as the most likely possibility ; Gillian Gill writes that " a few historians in recent years have found it seductive " to doubt Victoria 's stated paternity because a random mutation is " an unexciting solution " . Helen Rappaport concurs , remarking that " the best and most logical " explanation is that haemophilia first appeared in Victoria as a mutation . 

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 There is evidence that some of Victoria 's descendants did have mild porphyria , most notably Princess Feodora of Saxe @-@ Meiningen . This disease may have affected her grandfather , George III and this could give credence to Victoria 's legitimate birth . There is more reliable documentation that one of her great @-@ great @-@ grandsons , Prince William of Gloucester , was diagnosed with the disease shortly before his death when his aircraft crashed during an air race . Concrete evidence on the origins of the disease and paternity of Victoria could be achieved with a DNA test of her or her parents ' remains , but no such study has been sanctioned by the Royal Family . 
