Adelaide was the eldest daughter of George, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Meiningen, and married the much older Prince William, Duke of Clarence (1765-1837), in 1818. The couple had not previously met but immediately took to each other, and it proved a very successful and happy marriage despite the disparity of age, although a childless one. Two daughters died in very early infancy, and there were later miscarriages, so William's only surviving offspring - whom Adelaide accepted - were his illegitimate children with his former mistress, Dorothea Jordan (1762-1816), known as the Fitzclarences. Adelaide was conservative, good-humoured, sensible and of simple tastes. She became Queen on her husband's accession as William IV in 1830, on the death of his elder brother George IV. After some political unpopularity preceding the Reform Act of 1832, she grew into a respected figure held in wide affection, including that of her niece, Victoria, who became queen in 1837. That year saw the death of Adelaide's mother, just before her husband's: both affected her own health and she spent much of her widowhood abroad, often in the Mediterranean for warmth. When she died (at Stanmore, Middlesex, 2 December 1849) she left requests for a simple burial with William at Frogmore and that naval seamen carry her body to the grave: both were complied with.