A ROYAL LADY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 124, 21 November 1925, Page 13

A ROYAL LADY

"THE SEA-KING'S DAUGHTER" A PAST NOBLY PLAYED. The Royal lady .whose demise is recorded in these columns to-day had grown into a place in public affection, which but increased with her days of sunshine, grew still greater in the days of her brief tenure of the Throne, and eventually brought her very close to. the people in the days of her bereavement, when her great sorrow was shared as 'deeply by the nation. Her active concern i"n ail good works marked the whole course of her life, and her death leaves vacant a niche in British public life which will remain'empty for all time. Over sixty years ago the Poet Laureate, Lord Tennyson, gave expression to the rejoicings of those distant days in lines that are even now familiar: Welcome her, thunders of fort and fleet! Welcome her, .thundering cheer of the street!- . Welcome her, all things. youthful and sweet, Scatter the blossom under her feet. . . . The sea-king's daughter as happy as fair, Blissful bride of a blissful heir, k - Bride of the heir of the kings' of the sea.' ....'■ Queen Alexandra's father and mother, the Prince and Princess Christian of Glucksburg, were people of very modest

estate, who rose .suddenly into prominence after the first Schleswig war, which was caused by Frederick Vll.'s grant of a constitution to the people of Denmark in 1848. Frederick had no direct heir, and in the negotiations that followed the war, Prince Christian was selected us his successor. After her father had been accepted as heir to the Throne of Denmark,- the family moved to Bernstorff Castle, not far from Copenhagen, which had belonged to the famous Struensee, the lover of George 111. 's ill-fated sister, Queen Caroline Matilda. It .was-a much more elegant home than the* one previously occupied, but-tlie Princess Christian still continued to supervise the details of the household and the training of her children. The Princess expected much of her daughters. She taught them to make their own clothes and instructed them in the art of housekeeping. In those days great store was set on deportment, and the young princess, who was to be called to such high estate, received severe training in this ' respect. For music she had a special talent, and she was deft with her needle. Punctuality was the rule of the establishment, and to conform to it was one of the Princess Alexandra's most difficult tasks. From Bernstorff to Marlborough House, and later, to Windsor Castle, was a change hardly paralleled in public or private life, and- it pleased the princess in later life to talk of her past and show people views of. her girlhood home. While the Princess Alexandra lived thus secluded in' a garden of dreams, the young heir to the Throne of England was facing a serious dilemma. There were only six ladies in Europe to whose hand he could aspire, and'most of them were rather of a forbidding age. English sentiment was averse to his union with the House of Prussia, so discreet messengers were sent forth to seek a lady fit to be the bride of England's future King. The Princess Alexandra was "discovered," and after the necessary negotiations had been carried out and "diplomacy had had its say. the young Prince Edward went to Copenhagen and met the lady who was to become his bride. Later there followed the voyage to England; Prince and Princess Christian of Denmark accompanying their daughter. The Koyal yacht went round to the Nore, lyin-jc off. Slieerness.. where large bonfires limited up the bench. On the morning of 7th March, J863, the yacht proceeded up the Thames, to be greeted by loud salutes from every fort, and the party landed at Oravesend. The wielding ceremony did not. eventuate tintiJ 10th March, when it was , solemnised with due formality and public rejoicing in St. George's Chapel (it Windsor. Much Iws and change happens in sixty years, and but few memories can be awakened and stirred by the news of Queen Alexandra's dmih, fox the', bund

of survivors, who lined the streels of London when tho "Sea Kins"9 daughter" first-arrived, must of necessity be small,-especially in this land far dista/it from tl.c scenes of her first triumphs and difficulties. People in those, days 'were curiously dressed, soldiers wore strange uniforms, and, except for railway trains, only horse-drawn vehicles were to be seen. . Lord I'almerston .was Prime Minister of England, and much that is now common-place was then comparatively novel. Although there has been continual change the name of the late Queen Alexandra is as revered and beloved today as it was in the days of her early married life, or even during the few short years when ehe occupied the throne with Edward the Peacemaker. Nobly she has played her part these many years. Her first "drawing-room" was held at St James's Palace, immediately after her marriage, and, with perfect dignity and ease, she did the correct thing in the midst of strangers in a strange land. She arrived at Sandringliam as the "squire's" bride, and it was at the little village-church that she partook of her first English Communion on the Easter Day following her marriIn the Condon season- which succeeded, she began her wonderful reign at MarLborough House, as Princess of Wales, leading society in the place of the sorrowing Queen "Victoria, whose husband, the Prince Consort, had only recently .died, and performing innumerable public duties with tact and charm, and always ready to respond to the call of the' suffering and needy. Even as the Queen Mother, she retained much of that beauty and charm that characterised so richly her earlier, years. She had exercised a profound, influence upon English society and. national life during a long period, when, as Princess of Wales, she was a prominent-figure, and her power became even greater when, with Edward VII., she ascended the Throne to reign there for a brief but, epochal nine years. Queen Victoria died on 22nd January,, ]901,; and, with King Edward VII., his loyal consort assisted in the opening of fteir first Parliament on 14th February, 1901. It was not.until after a period of mourning- for Queen .■ Victoria that the actual crowning ceremony took place on 9tli August, 1902, after having been postponed from June lowing to trie King'i illness. The Royal couple visited Ireland in; 1903" and 1904, where they met with a rousing reception, though ths Lord Mayor'of Dublin, backed up by his aldermen,,refused to present a memorial to the visitors. With her lloyal husband, Queen. Alexandra "did much to bring about a better feeling between the nations of Europe and England. Feeling was already running high between Britain and Germany in 1909, a state of affairs:which was to burst into.flame five years later, and King Edward'and his Queen • visited the German Kaiser at Berlin in ah attempt to dispel the war clouds.- The" vijit' proved how power ful was the influence, and how great the personality of the Royal pair in international amity. The clouds disappeared for the time being, but th« King who was most instrumental in keeping the peace died on 6th May, 1910, leaving Queen Alexandra to face her loneliness for a further fifteen years before she too faced ' the Grim Reaper. ' . Fjve children were born of the marriage. The Duke of Clarence, Queen Alexandra's' first-born, was the idol of the British-people, and great thingi wore expected from him from his birth on Bth January, 1864, but when 28 years of age he died after a shoit illness. The second and only surviving son is the present King, George V. There were three daughters—Princess Royal, Duchess of Fife, born on 20th February, 1867; Princess Victoria, - born 6th July, ; 1868; and Princess Maud, born on 26th November, 1869,' married to King Haakon VII., of Norway. Queen Alexandra had two sisters and three brothers. The three Princesses were considered the ■ most beautiful of all the Royal ladies of Europe sixty yeirs ago, and each married into high estate. The Princess Dagmar (Marie) married the.Tsnr, Alexander 111. of Russia; and the Princess Thyra married the Duke of Cumberland, who is descended from the Kings of Hanover. Queen Alexandra* eldest brother married a daughter of Charles XV. of Sweden; another brother, George, became King of the Hellenes in 1863; and the remaining brother married the daughter of Robert, Due de Cbartres. With his wife, often called "the aunt of all Europe," King Christian was related to nearly all the European Sovereigns half a century ago. One of the things that most deeply touched the Queen Mother immediately after the death of King Edward was trie innumerable letters written by people in all walks of Jife,, expressing a fear lest she should take up her residence in Denmark. It was in answer to these —fur too many to be answered individually—that there was issued the, official announcement that the tQueen Mother would ever look-upon England as her home. The promise has been nobly kept. Queen Alexandra did not retire from the world with her grief. Her interest in everything of moment to the British people became, if anything, mor» strong and more intense. And when the war came, all that she did for th« wounded arid prisoners, all her car» for the wives and children of those fighting in Europe, brought her, if that wer» possible, an even deeper measure of lov» and veneration. ' ;

Since the death of her husband she had lived in partial retirement at Marlborough House, and it was only the dark years of the war that caused her return again into the public eye, when she did not spare her energies. Since the war sTie had devoted herself to carjng for hospitals and other welfare institutions, and Alexandra Day, instituted in 1912, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of her residence in England, has had as its objective the raising of funds for beneficent purposes. In days to come there will probably ba written some intimate, revealing study of. the woman herself that will detail the great part she has played during the mighty epoch through which she. has held such high position. It should be a biography that will make much of her living personality when, as devoted wife and loving mother, she created a beautiful home life around her. Grand-child-ren and great grandchildren brightened her. later years, but for all that she spared much of her time for public benefactions. Having passed the evening of her life, after its days of regal triumph, interspersed with personal sorrows, Queen Alexandra lives in our hearts as the- Queen Mother, the last link between the difficult present and a rapidly dimming past.