QUEEN CONSORTS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4407, 13 July 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

QUEEN CONSORTS

WOMEN OF-HIGH DEGBEE. (From the “Lady’s Eealm.”) Queen Alexandra has had such a unique record as the hesl-boloved and mo it popuJar Princess of Wales in English History that it would seem as though tne higher role of Queen Consort could add nocnmg to her fame, i’ordhe unprecedented period of thirty-eight years she hasi occupied a position of unusual importance and in. fluence even for the wife of the heir to the throne, arising from the circumstances of our late beloved Queen’s retirement from society, which caused the duties rightly pertaining'to the crown to devolve on the Prince and Princess of Wales. No queen consort has ever entered upon the responsibilities of the office -with such a perfect knowledge of the details of Court eti. quette. the usages of English society, or the‘life of the people. We feel, indeed, that she is p.r much the daughter of England as of Denmark f and her loving devotion “through all these long years to her august and revered mother-in-law particularly commends Qmvn Alexandra to the lovinir suffrages of the subjects of His Majesty King Edward VIT. it is so long since there was a Queen Consort in tins country mat it will take time ior matters to adjust themselves in tne public mind, and it may not be out ot place to give a brief consideration to those consorts who have belonged to the 'f lu use of Hanover. Paw people living to-day have any vivid recollection of J

THE GOOD QUEEN ADELAIDE—a lady estimable, but dull, and totally lacking in picturesqueness. So lar as her possibilities, went sue was, however, an excellent consort to William IV., succeeding to that position twelve years after her marriage. During the short period ot seven yeargi in'which she reigned as queen consort, Adelaide discharged her duties conscientiously, if not with distinction, and they must undoubtedly have been dia. tasteful to one of her quiet and retiring nature, unsupported by the hope of leaving a child to inherit her husband’s crown. In view of the latter circumstance, her kindness to the children of her husband’s for mer mistress, Mrs Jordan, was angelic; and be is said to the credit of the bluff sailorking that he proved a faithful and kind husband to Adelaide, forgetting her "gingerbread” complexion, weak eyes, and yol. low hair in admiration of her unselfishness, affectionate disposition, and sweetness of demeanour. To the present gen. eration the last queen consort is endeared for the 'love which she gave to the little Princess Victoria. “My children are dead,” she wrote, after the loss of her second child, to the Duchess of Kent, “but yours lives, and she is mine too,” She watched over the tiny Princess with ’a solicitude which wa« truly maternal, and as she grew into girlhood lost no opportune ity of presenting her to the people as the heir to the*throne.

.QUEEN VICTORIA was tenderly attached to the memory of lier aunt j Aclelaiae, and among her Guildhood's treasures in the China Room at Windsor Castle she had preserved a small china tea.service presented-to her when a child by Queen Adelaide, at that time Duchess'of Clarence. When her late Majesty ascended the throne, the Queen Dowager elected to live in absolute retirement at her country houses at Bushey Park and Cassiobury. Her quiet funeral at Wind, sor, with its three mourning coaches and small escort of -“cavalry, forms a remarkable contrast to the unparalelled pageant of the obsequies of Victoria. In one matter there “wag a similitude; ten sailors placed the coffin of Adelaide in the Royal vault; and, by an untoward event, resulting in a touching "and picturesque scene, it was the faithful bluejackets who recently drew the coffin of the great Queen to the precincts'of St. George’s Chapel. To pass backward in our review of the Royal consorts of the Hanoverian line, the good Adelaide -’was preceded by that unfortunate Caroline of Brunswick, the ignored wife and uncrowned queen of George IV., whose wrongs kept Court and country in a ferment. It is fruitless to surmise what kind of a oueen consort Caroline would ffiave made had fate been more pronitious to her. She was warm-hearted, a fend mother, had the faculty for gaining the goodwill of fho "neonle, and. with a harmier marriage, might have di-eharged the duties of her nosition creditably. Caroline’s aiumst mother-in-’aw, QUEEN CHARLOTTE,

was Queen Consort of England for the period 01 Arty-seven years—a record unprecedented in the history of the monarchy. She entered upon her reign as the girlbride of the youthful George 111., bore him a family ox iilteen children, whom she reared with exemplary care, but only, in several instances, to reap sorrow and disappointment. To the domestic virtues Queen Charlotte united considerable dignity of character, and as a young woman was elegant and attractive, though having no pretension to beauty. The skill with which she played upon the spinet has become historic. Sho did not spare herself in the matter of Court functions, often holding two Drawing-rooms a week vat the Queen’s House (afterwards transformed into Buckingham Palace), in addition to the big 'Drawing-rooms at St. James s Palace'. Queen Charlotte’s dress on state occasion® was sumptuous. She loved jewels and old lace »nd some portion of her treasures descended to her illustrious granddaughter. Victoria. No queen con. sort tried harder than Chalotta to be a model wife and an exemnlnrv queen: but she never at a.nv time attained to popularitv. and in h-r later years revived the abuse of the I,on don ‘Vmbs. We sue rhe inflexible old ~oman leffinv down tbe vlasa of ber sedan ebair a- sbe waa'bemg carr-f'-i +0 one of her last Drewing-mome s' St. James's Palace, and with the wo-da. "J am above aeventv -ears of ane. I have , ' M n -none than u„lf n oentin— On-en of "F-”-land, and T ne-or was bis°°d bv la, mnV. V.fnroi” insulting crowd to fall back. Son.e onn-oiatmn wan afforded THE VENERABLE QUEEN in the auspicious marriage of her -son the Duke of Rent to the Princess of Leimngen, which was celebrated in her sick chamber in the old palace at. Hew; but sho did not live to see the offspring of that marriage in the birth of our late Sovereign Lady, which took place six months after Queen Charlotte had passed away. In Caroline of Anspach, wife of George 11.,-we have a popular Princess of Wales, who created the role of queen consort, and maintained it to the end of her life with ability and distinction. Caroline Vas witty, beautiful and clever—too clever to allow her somewhat "dull spouse to suspect it. The one inconceivable thing about her was her never.f ailing love for the King--a man mean and contemptible in many respects, and Vastly her inferior in everything. As one looks-at his portrait in Kensington Palace (so daringly faithful in its reproduction of his coarse -lineaments that it is astonishing the painter escaped the Tower), one is amazed that the brilliant Caroline chose -him for a husband in preference to the more attractive suitors who sought her hand. It was her woman’s whim, and there ’is no evidence that she ever regretted her choice. Caroline was undoubtedly THE MOST POWERFUL QUEEN consort of modem times. During. the King’s long absences in Hanover, though she was careful to appear to be living in semi-retirement at Kensington -Palace or Hampton Court, she virtually ruled the country through Sir Robert Walpole, the Minister whom her sagacity had commended to tne King’s commence. She disdained to air her marital grievances, -and by her dignified-demeanour and silent tongue did much for the security of her husband’s thone and’the peace of the country. To her shrewdness and-her intellectual grasp of mind Caroline added social charm and a bright intelligence -which Aade her Court popular with the beauties and wits of the day, forming an argeeable contrast to the -dull Court of the first George. Though like her husband, of German birth, she affected English, ways and manners, and during the ten-years) of her reign as

queen consort played a very important part in popularising the Hanoverian dynasty, of which, indeed, she was -virtually the first queen.

aopine .Dorothea, the uncrowned queen oi George j.., -was never seen on mese snores, and to her husband's subjects was only cue mysterious prisoner oi .xniaeu. Since cue publication by lur-tv ilkius of his "Dove ci an Cucrowneu Queen,"' new readings have been given to vae life of dopnie borothoa, and, despite the incriminaiing love lecteis, mere is shown a beauty ana cuarin of personality which, had been more lavourabie, might have made her a very popular queen consort. She would at least have brought to St. James’s giace, beauty and vivacity, and a delicacy of feeiing which would have‘minimised the disgust with the new dynasty created by the boorishne-.B and sensuality of the King. The sixty three years of the glorious reign of Victoria have well-nigh obliterated ■'from our mindo the doings of the monarchs of the past; and, although she can have no real successor in power and influence, her glorious record has so ennobled the name of “Queen” that for years to conic wo shall give to it a reverence and distinction not before accorded.