A queen at the bottom of a beer glass

The sign for the Queen Adelaide, London, SW18 - it's one of a handful of pubs in England that bear the name of this former Queen Consort

It's estimated that around 50 million pints of beer are at risk of going off as the UK's pubs remain shut. They were asked to bolt their doors as lockdown measures were introduced to try and stop the spread of coronavirus. Some of that beer is getting old in pubs bearing the name of a largely forgotten but really rather admirable queen consort. Ten or so pubs bear rejoice in the name of Queen Adelaide, a quiet princess who turned a drinking duke into a popular and successful king.

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was born on August 13th 1792 in Meiningen and chosen as a bride by William, Duke of Clarence when she was twenty six years old.  He was on the look out for a wife after the death of his eldest brother's only legitimate child and he and his unmarried brothers headed off to the continent to find suitable girls to be possible queen consorts.  William was most likely to be king - he was the third son of George III but the brother between Billy and the heir to the throne was already married with no children so the crown was likely to head William's way.  And that meant he got first pick and he chose Adelaide, it's thought because she was calm, quiet and quite well behaved.  Given the trouble that the heir, the Prince Regent, had had with his strong willed wife it was hardly surprising that the man most likely to be monarch went for a quite type.

Another sign for another Queen Adelaide pub in London

Perhaps appropriately for a woman who ended up gracing the signs of so many pubs in England, Adelaide's first meeting with her king was in the bar of a hotel.  It's not quite as seedy as it sounds - the bar was the Grillon in London and there were plenty of chaperones.  Neither hated the other at first sight so they married the following week and seemed to have been content, perhaps even happy, despite a twenty seven year age gap.

It looks nothing like her but this rather cross, dark haired governess from a gothic novel is apparently the woman who was queen of England for seven years

None of Adelaide's children lived very long and by the time she became queen consort, they had all died and she was unlikely to have any more.  King William and his consort proved to be hugely popular and the queen remained an influence after his reign, helping their young niece Victoria establish herself on the throne.