Courtship and Marriage.

New Zealand Mail, 21 June 1887, Page 3 (Supplement)

Courtship and Marriage.

CHAPTER 111.

IT is seldom that there is any romance in the lovemaking of royal personages. It seems to be accepted that the hearts of princesses and princes are constructed of more tractable materials than the hearts of people in the humbler walks of life, and too frequently natural inclinations are stifled, the only considerations permitted to enter into the calculations of match-making statesmen being those of national polity. The love-making of the Queen was an exception to the rule. In her case for once “ the course of royal true love did run smooth,” and she married the object of her affections. So to unfold the royal romance. The Queen’s uncle, King Leopold, had a nephew, Prince Albert, the second son of the Duke of SaxeCoburg Gotha. The Prince was three months younger than the heiress of England, and from the earliest youth of the little Princess and her future husband there had been a tacit understanding between the Duchess of Kent and her brother that a marriage between the cousins would be desirable. A close correspondence was for years kept up between the Duchess of Kent and the Dowager Duchess of SaxeCoburg Gotha, under whose charge the little Albert was, and the nursery gossip of Kensington and Rosenau was constantly being exchanged. In a letter from the boy’s grandmother to the Duchess of Kent, written in 1821. the following remark occurs—“ Little Alberinchen. with his large blue eyes and dimpled cheeks, is bewitching, forward and quick as a weasel. He can already say everything ; ” and later on in the same year the fond old grandmother wrote —“ The little tellow is the pendant of the pretty cousin (the Princess Victoria). Very handsome, but too slight for a boy ; lively, very funny, all good nature, and lull of mischief.” Under the most beneficent influences the future Prince Consort of England passed from childhood into boyhood. He was characterised by great force of character, yet a charming gentleness and benevolence of disposition. Quick at his studies he surpassed all boys of his age in the extent of his learning. His education was of a general character. Sir Theodore Martin tells us that it included history, geography, mathematics, philosophy, religion, Latin, and the modern European languages, relieved by the study of music and drawing. He was also from childhood fond of natural history, and the collections of himself and his brother Ernest formed the nucleus of the “ Ernest-Albert Museum,” now a great attraction to students of natural history at Coburg. Writing of the young Prince’s disposition, Count Mensdorff says : —“ It was only what he thought unjust or dishonest that could make him angry. Thus I recollect that one day, when the children, Albert, Ernest, Ferdinand, Augustine, Alexander, myself and a few other boys were playing at the Rosenau, and some of us were to storm an old ruined tower on the side of the castle which the others were to defend, one of us suggested that there was a place at the back by which we could get in without being seen, and thus capture it without difficulty. Albert declared that ‘ this would be most unbecoming in a Saxon knight, who should always attack the enemy in front ’ ; and so we fought for the tower so honestly and vigorously, that Albert, by mistake, for I was on his side, gave me a blow upon the nose, of which I still bear the mark. I need not say how sorry he was for the wound he had given me.”

In 1836 the succession of the Princess Victoria was no longer in doubt, and King Leopold thought that as his nephew and niece were approaching a marriageable age, he should do something towards bringing about the consummation of his hopes. “ His own opinion,” writes the author of the “ Life of Prince Consort,” “was that no prince was so truly qualified to make his niece happy as her cousin Albert, or to fulfil so worthily the difficulties of the Consort to an English Queen. But he loved the Princess too well, and was too deeply conscious of the immense responsibility of such a choice, to act with precipitation, or upon his own judgment merely, which the bias of natural affection, no less than of family feeling, might insensibly have warped.” He therefore took counsel of his friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar. The Baron was a man of rare integrity and acuteness of observation. Lord Palmerston, frequently cynical and never a kindly critic, said of him, “ I have come in my life across only one absolutely disinterested man—Stockmar.” The Baron already knew and took a great interest in the Princess Victoria, and as he had had opportunities of judging the character of Prince Albert, he was in a position to give his Royal master the required information. Writing to the King in 1836 he says, “ Albert is a fine young fellow, well grown for his age, with agreeable and valuable qualities, and who, if things go well, may in a few years turn out a strong handsome man of a kindly, simple, yet dignified demeanour. Externally therefore, he possesses all that pleases the sex, and at all times and in all circumstances must please. It may prove, too, a lucky circumstance that even now he has something of an English look. . . . He is said to be circumspect, discreet, and, even now, cautious.”

Despite his good opinion of the prince, Stockmar urged that it was indispensable that no claim on the Prince’s behalf for the hand of his cousin should be preferred, unless an impression from personal acquaintance should first have been produced. In accordance w r ith Stockmar’s advice, the Duke of Coburg, accompanied by Princes Ernest and Albert, paid a month’s visit to England in May, 1836. Mutual esteem seems to have existed between the Princess Victoria and Prince Albert from their first meeting, though at first they were kept in ignorance of the washes of their elders regarding their destiny. Simultaneously with the Ducal party leaving England to return home, King Leopold informed the Princess Victoria of his personal wishes, and a letter from the Princess to her good uncle shows that she was favourably disposed to the match desired by the King. She says, “ I have now to beg of you, dearest uncle, to take care of the health of one now so dear to me, and to take him under your special protection. I hope and trust that all will go prosperously and well on this subject now of so much importance to me.” Everything therefore so far had gone well. The Prince, still kept in ignorance of his prospects, resumed his studies, special attention being given to subjects likely to be of use to him in his future career as the consort of a Queen. On the Queen’s ascension to the throne he wrote her a letter of congratulation, but there does not appear to be the merest suspicion of sentiment in the epistle. It was not until the end of 1838 that the project of marriage was brought explicitly before him. The Queen had, however, objected to the idea of marriage for three or four years to come, the principal reason being that she herself was too young, while the Prince's knowledge of English was yet imperfect, and it was important that this defect should be remedied, and that he should have a wider experience, more practical habits of observation, and more self-reliance than it was possible he could up to that time have acquired. The foregoing is the substance of a letter sent by the Queen to King Leopold on January. 1838. Eighteen months later His Majesty oi Belgium again urged the matter of the marriage on the Queen, but the maiden was still coy and desired delay, though she wrote her uncle that “ site never had any idea, if she married at all, of anyone else.” In October of the same year Prince Albert again visited England. He was now a well-grown young man, and as handsome as Prince Charming in the fairy tale, and he took the heart of the coy young Queen, who had laid herself out for four years additional maidenhood, by storm. On the third day of the Prince's visit she wrote to her uncle Leopold “ Albert’s beauty is most striking, and he is most amiable and unaffected, • in short, very fascinating,” On the 15th of that happy month the momentous question was " popped,” and the Queen's feelings may be best judged by a letter she wrote on that day to Baron Stockmar, to whom she had only a few weeks before determinedly expressed her intention not to marry. There is a naive/e in the letter which will make it especially charming to young lady readers “Windsor Castle, 15 October, 1539. I do feel so guilty, I know not how to begin my letter, but I think the news it will contain will be sufficient to ensure your forgiveness. Albert has completely won my heart, and all was settled between us this morning." ... I feel certain he will make me very happy. I wish I could say I felt certain ot my making him happy, but I shall do my best.” And so happily ended this little royal romance. King Leopold wrote to his neice that he could now say with aged Simeon, “ I-ord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.” The Queen having apprised her people through thi medium of her Privy Council of her intention to marry.

like all other expectant brides, she “ named the day,” which was February ioth of the following year. The match was well received by the people of the kingdom, and Parliament granted an allowance of to the Prince, who spent the greater part of his year of engagement in Germany. On his return to marry the Queen he was received with enthusiastic loyalty, and eager crowds shouting and cheering followed him wherever he went.

The Royal wedding took place on February ioth. 1840. England went mad with excitement and loyalty. Twenty-two miles of spectators lined the route of the young couple to the church. “ Our reception,” the Queen wrote afterwards, “was most enthusiastic, hearty, and gratifying in every way, the people quite deafening us with their cheers, horsemen, etc., going along with us.” Regarding the Queen’s demeanour, Lady Lyttelton, who was one of the ladies in waiting, writes: “The Queen’s look and manner were very pleasing, her eyes much swollen with tears, but great happiness in her countenance, and her look of confidence and comforl at the Prince when they walked away as man and wife was very pleasing to see. I understand she is in extremely high spirits since. Such a new thing for her to dare' to be unguarded in conversing with anybody, and, with her frank and fearless nature, the restraints she has hitherto been under from one reason or another with everybody must have been most painful.”