He had spoken in the House of Lords in favour of Catholic Emancipation, and had shown himself interested in the abolition of slavery and in popular education.

His tastes were literary, and towards the end of his life he had even manifested a strong sympathy for socialistic theories.
At the time of the death of the Princess Charlotte, 6th November 1817, the married sons of King George III.

were without legitimate children, and the surviving daughters were either unmarried or childless.
Alliances were accordingly arranged for the three unmarried Royal Dukes, and in the course of the year 1818 the Dukes of Cambridge, Kent, and Clarence led their brides to the altar.
[Pageheading: THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT] The Duchess of Kent (1786-1861), Victoria Mary Louisa, was a daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

She was the widow of Emich Charles, Prince of Leiningen,[1] whom she had married in 1803, and who had died in 1814, leaving a son and a daughter by her.
[Footnote 1: _Leiningen_, a mediatised princely House of Germany, dating back to 1096.

In 1779 the head of one of the branches into which it had become divided, the Count of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Hardenburg, was raised to the rank of a prince of the Empire, but the Peace of Luneville (1801) deprived him of his ancient possessions, extending about 232 miles on the left bank of the Rhine.