From Queen Victoria to the Crown Princess
Osborne, January 16, 1878
We liked the young Crown Prince of Austria very much. He is so simple and unaffected and yet so
well informed with such charming manners.
***********
(Prince Leopold and Prince Rudolf around the time of their lost weekend two months in Europe. Photo credits: findagrave.com [Leopold] and Wikipedia [Rudolf])
If Victoria knew what Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria,
had in store for his future, she may not have written these words to
Vicky. But today’s entry won’t be a
discussion of the Mayerling Incident - this is
something that Rudolf did – perhaps enabled is a better word – that hit closer
to home. It is an incident of which
Victoria may not have even had knowledge.
But it is certainly something that her son Leopold would never forget.
Rudolf included a trip to Osborne on his extended visit in
Britain in 1877 and 1878. He had spent
some time touring the country and learning what he could about the British
government in preparation for his expected future role in Austria. The family enjoyed Rudolf’s company, and he
made another visit to Windsor the following month. Rudolf was just twenty at this time, and
Leopold was not quite 25 at this time.
The two men hit it off, and when Leopold saw Rudolf off from Windsor,
they made plans to meet up in Paris.
Even during his time at Oxford, Victoria had kept a very
tight leash on Leopold, believing his delicate health precluded him from any
semblance of a normal life. After he had
left Oxford, Leopold began traveling as much as he could. Victoria permitted this, but only if he was
sufficiently accompanied by an appropriate chaperone. Apparently Victoria was so charmed by Rudolf
(indeed, her cousin Mary Adelaide of Teck kidded around with the Austrian
ambassador that Victoria was a bit in love with Rudolf but wouldn’t propose
marriage) that she believed Leopold was safe in Rudolf’s hands. To be certain, Victoria also sent Robert
Collins on the trip. Collins was Leopold’s former tutor, but now something of a
caretaker for the prince.
Besides being roughly the same age, Rudolf and Leopold had a
lot in common: both were highly intelligent, with a deep interest in politics,
liberal views, and with curiosity and energy to burn. Leopold and Rudolf spent some time with
French president Patrice de MacMahon at Élysée Palace. Leopold was careful to tell his mother that Rudolf was eager for a
Austro-Hungarian/British alliance, which is why the two were spending so much
time together. He even passed on the
news from Rudolf that the Austrian ambassador was untrustworthy and was in bed
with the Russians.
Leopold’s
brothers Bertie and Alfred were known to take part in the Parisian social
scene. Both brothers were also known to
have horrified their mother upon news of their first sexual trysts – Bertie
with actress/courtesan Nellie Clifden in 1861, and Alfred with a Maltese woman
a few years later. It is likely that the
very sheltered Leopold may have explored all of the pleasures of Paris for the
first time on this trip, although unlike his brothers, it doesn’t seem as
though Victoria knew about it.
By this time,
Rudolf had had about the expected amount of sexual experience of a young
aristocratic man of his day and age.
Leopold, due to his illness and his mother’s fears for his safety, had
had little to none. Collins, who was
very sympathetic to Leopold’s frustrations with his mother, could have said something
to Victoria about Leopold’s behavior, but he chose not to. He was treading a very fine line still being
on Victoria’s payroll, but he had become more of a confidante to Leopold than a
superior.
After spending
a few days together, Leopold said good-bye to Rudolf on his way back to
Austria. Gleeful of his newfound freedoms,
Leopold continued onto Nice, which just “so happened” to be in the middle of
carnival season. Collins made some
half-hearted apologies to the Queen for hitting the town during prime party
season, and for Leopold revealing his identity despite Victoria’s insistence
that he travel strictly incognito.
Leopold
continued the party train to Corsica, Naples, Milan, and Turin. He climbed Mount Vesuvius and toured the
ruins of Pompeii. Leopold avoided Rome,
knowing that neither he nor Collins could explain their way out of that
detour. Enjoying his Mediterranean
vacation so much, Leopold made plans to buy Bertie’s yacht, but Victoria vetoed
the idea. While staying near Lake Como,
Leopold breezily wrote to his mother that he intended to blow off his expected
trip with her to Balmoral in the spring.
To put it
mildly, Victoria hit the roof. She wrote
the British ambassador in Paris indicating that if he were to see Leopold that
he should immediately be sent home. She
warned her other children that should Leopold turn up in London, they were not
to receive him. Bertie, also sympathetic
for Leopold’s plight, tried to intervene but was firmly rebuffed.
Leopold stuck
to his word. He returned to Paris, where
he spent another two weeks bumbling about the city. He also paid a visit to the King of Hanover
(who coincidentally died a few days after Leopold’s visit), and had a
flirtation with the King’s daughter Frederica.
Although a romance never came about, Leopold and Frederica did form a
very close friendship that was to last the rest of Leopold’s short life. By July, Leopold had finally returned to
Windsor.
After attending
Oxford, Leopold’s European joyride was the biggest step he’d taken in escaping
his mother’s loving but suffocating overprotection. Over the next couple of years, Leopold toured
Canada and the United States with his sister Louise, snuck off on another
clandestine trip to Paris, and searched high and low for a wife who would
accept his health problems. After
several near misses and a lot of heartache, Leopold became engaged to Helena of
Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1881. They
married the following year.
Although
Leopold and Helena had a very happy (yet brief) marriage, it seems as though he
didn’t tell her quite everything. During
a bout of illness while his wife was pregnant with their first child, Leopold
wrote a hasty will that included something of a warning for Helena. He wrote:
Darling, please let Lord Brooke
(later the 5th Earl of Warwick, a close friend
of Leopold) look through all my papers alone – and he may destroy as
he likes – you will not, my angel, think this want of confidence – But darling,
I have told you I was not a Saint before we married, though I do not think I
ever went far astray – and you will understand that there [are] some things I
would sooner you did not see.
While his
mother was never in agonies over his behavior, it seems as though Leopold had
some skeletons in his closet after all.
Was Leopold a patron of Parisian brothels like his brothers? Did he have dalliances with a lady in every
port during his springtime of freedom?
We’ll probably never know. But
there’s a good chance some of those skeletons came from that joyride in Paris
with Rudolf way back in 1878.
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