A TRAGIC PRINCESS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3434, 2 September 1929, Page 2

A TRAGIC PRINCESS.

Few people will continue to envy the lives of royalty after reading “My

Memoirs,” by Princess Anctoria of Prussia, written by herself in English, whicib has just beteu pubilisbed. Princess Victoria, it will be remembered, is a sister ef the ex-Kaiser and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and her recent marriage to M. Alexander Zoubkoff provided a good deal of “copy” for the newspapers. Her life story, beginning with the pomps of the Imperial German Court and concluding, as it seems, in straightened circumstances, is one long series of disappointments and is not without a deep note of tragedy. As a child the Princess suffered under severe discipline. “When we dined with our parent, S i or grandparents, ” she writes, “there was an extremely strict etiquette to be foil-ow-ed. We bad to -sit stiffly upright at meats, never to relax or lean back, and, of course, never to have elbows on the table. AVe were not even allowto speak at meals- without permission, or unless we were first addressed . . . We wlere newer allowed to sit clown in the presence of o-nr parents, and we had to kiss their hand's, on bidding them ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good night.’ It is little wonder, then, that -she declares, “Freedom in youth fits- yon better for the world, whereas an Imperial Court is a. very, narrow little world, pleasant, protected, but very much a world on its own.’/

When we first meet the’ future German Emperor, and now the ex-Kaiser, in these entertaining yet tragic memoirs he is being caned by Inis tutor! As a youth lie seems to have been highly strung and nervous, and on h,i.s wedding-day came to bis sister in qualms, frightened that there might be some hitch in, the ceremony : “IMI be with you,” I told him, trying to persuade him that all would he well. Looking back on it all, it seems strange and sad to think of that morning, and to remember that this agitated young man, was the man whom the world has so cruelly denounced as the wicked contriver of a war to destroy civilisation, this man who- was a,s nervous on hiis wedding-day as a child.

In time, however, William IT. seems to have gained courage he ha.s always -been in. mortal dread of catching a cold. Here is a family glimpse;— / One dav after mv brother became

Emperor, he beard a great noise coming from the nursery. On inquiring, be found liis eldest son. the Crown Prince, boxing the ears of his younger brothers. Being asked what this behaviour meant the Crown Prime answered arrogantly : “I was teaching them that

I was the Crown Prince.” “Then i’ll teach you that I am the Emperor”, said the Kaiser.

.At the christening of the Crown Prince an amusing incident occurred, it was the custom in the Herman Koval

Family for the eldest unmarried princess to-carry the new-horn child to the

altar on a cushion decked with ribbons. On Hie christening of the Crown Prince that duty devolved on Princess Victoria;—

Carrying the precious burden, I had to curtsy low before my grandfather, the Emperor William, who was one of the child’s godfathers. As can well he imagined, the curtsying was by no means easy with the cushion and my brother’s first horn in my arms. Moreover, my grandfather could not hold the infant during the whole christening, so lie was given over to me again. Then it was that the baby awoke and decided to cry in the midst of the numerous relatives who had forgathered to do him honor. The only expedient I could think of was to slip my little linger from my glove and put the fin ger into his month. It pacified him immediately and caused the whole family gathering to smile benignly. The first great tragedy of Princess Victoria’s life was that of her propos ed marriage to Prince Alexander oi Battenherg. The Prince was only 17 years of age at the time, hut desper ately in love. The Prince and she were not only strongly attached to one another, hut their engagement was fully approved of by Princess Victoria’s parents. The politicians, however, thought otherwise, and thanks to tin 4 - machinations of Bismarck and William (not yet Crown Prince) the marriage "over took place. They considered .it against German interests, and 'so strongly did Bismarck feel about it that he wrote to the Emperor declaring that if the marriage took place he would resign. I was 22 when niy engagement was broken off. Eor years everything had centred round it. Now I had to resume my life again, turning my back entirely on the past! But this one comfort I took with me: My marriage had been forbidden solely because it was considered to he against German interests, and in early life I had learnt that a royal princess must lie prepared to sacrifice all for her Fatherland..

In lively contrast there is an amusing story of a visit* paid by Princess Victoria to her grandmother. Queen Victoria, in 1888:—

The Queen was- holding one of her Courts, hut, as we were in, deep mourning for uiy father, neither my mother nor my sisters nor I could be present Wo looked on. however, through a chink of a door which was close to the throne, where grandmamma, was seated. Suddenly, to our horror, one of the lad,ies-in-waitin,g standing behind grand,mamma caught her veil and pulled the royal diadem right off. The Queen, whose temper wa,s often: ruffled on these occasions, only smiled, and continued bowing as if nothing had happened, the whiff-, the diadem was hastily replaced. The incident gave me quite a shock, and I. was certain that grandmamma must have felt very much annoyed, though uohody hut ourselves seemed to have noticed. Grandmamma afterwards sent for me to come to her dressing-room, and laughingly said.- “My dear, did you see what happened? Wa.sn’t it terribly unfortunate?’' Mamma and T told her Majesty that it had passed quite unnoticed' and •she was very much reassured on hearing this.

(lie war came to Princess Victoria as a profound shock. She was happily married to Prince Adolf of Schauin-burg-T.ippc. who was in die in uniform, and it meant the shattering of her connections with England, which she regarded ( her mother' was ■ English) as her home. “I wonder if the world realises,’' she asks, “what it means to be a royal princess at the time of a war like (lie last one?" It, is not of course, of material privations that’she is thinking, but of the tragedy of terrible estrangements from those whom one has held dear.

I hit an even greater tragedy was in store for the Princess with'the devolution. when, in November, BPS (he revolutionaries attempted to loot the Palace at, Wittenberg. The Princess, a brave widow, would not leave, “I am not going to run away like a coward and desert my home,” she declared to her gentleman-in-waiting. And so she remained, master of the situation in her own home, though a captive. With the Republic, however, (he Princess

was plunged in comparative poverty, hut even here she could he calm and philosophic about it all, “Never!lie-

loss, 1 ’ she writes, “1 quite enjoy tra elliny in trains, which very convenieitly start just before my park gates. . . . A charming change when times had improved for me was to go to the cinema and see really first-class thus. I find them extremely enjoyable, and have always felt their importance was too -little appreciate' until recently. Herr Stahl, one of the proprietors of a large cinema near my heme, has had • the kindness to make me a present of a permanent entrance card.” Two years ago Princess Victoria married for the second ■ time Alexander Zoubkoff, whom she describes : s “a Russian gentleman.” In her diaiy she has recorded the growth of heir romance with this remarkable young man; “He related to me that he was wearing a borrowed suit of clothing at oar first meeting. He was also penniless. i admire his frankness.” Again, a few weeks later, she writes: ‘‘How lo j tins week has been, but be will be her II to-day. Sascha is coming to tea. How® excited I am at the thought of him again, i have missed him a deal. And then the proposal Zoubkoff: “Am overjoyed. 1 have, oi course, accepted. AVhal will one’s' i. lation-s say about our marriage? Rut I shall overstep all barriers r ! itles, money, everything may go hut i will keep our happiness.”