Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen (3 October 17849 September 1870), also known as Baroness Louise Lehzen, was the governess and later companion to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Born to a Lutheran pastor, in 1819 Lehzen entered the household of the Duke of Kent, fourth son of King George III. Five years later, Lehzen was appointed governess to his only child, Princess Alexandrina Victoria. The young princess became second-in-line to the British throne in 1827. Victoria's upbringing was dominated by the controlling Kensington System, implemented by the widowed Duchess of Kent and her comptroller Sir John Conroy. Lehzen was strongly protective of Victoria, and encouraged the princess to be strong, informed, and independent from the Duchess and Conroy's influence, causing friction within the household. Attempts to remove the governess were unsuccessful, as Lehzen had the support of Victoria's royal uncles. "Dear, good Lehzen" soon came to supersede all others – including her own mother – in Victoria's eyes. When Victoria became queen in 1837, Lehzen served as a sort of unofficial private secretary, enjoying apartments adjacent to Victoria. The queen's marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 led to significant changes in the royal household. Albert and Lehzen detested each other, and after an illness of the Princess Royal in 1841, Lehzen was dismissed. Her close relationship with the queen came to an end, although the two continued to correspond. Lehzen spent her final years in Hanover on a generous pension, dying in 1870. Lehzen was a major influence on Victoria's character, in particular giving her the strength of will to survive her troubled childhood and life as a young queen. Family and early life Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen was born in Hanover on 3 October 1784, the youngest of ten children born to the Lutheran pastor Joachim Friedrich Lehzen and his wife Melusine Palm. Forced by circumstances to work for her living since she was young, Lehzen was employed by an aristocratic German family von Marenholtz. She served as governess to the family's three daughters, and earned positive references. Based on these references, Lehzen became part of the household of Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent in December 1819. In that role, she held the position of governess to twelve-year-old Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the daughter of the princess from her first marriage. In her second marriage, Princess Victoria had married Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, who was,