Princess
Alice to Queen Victoria
February
5, 1872
It
is a great pleasure to have dear Arthur here. He is so amiable, civil, and
nice, and takes interest in all he sees, and is so pleasant to have in the
house. His visit will be very short, as he gives up two days to go to Baden.
We
gave small suppers on two evenings for Arthur, and yesterday evening a
celebrated most excellent violinist played quite as well as Joachim: a friend
of his, and a pupil of Spohr's. This afternoon he is going to play some of Bach's
celebrated sonatas with and to me. Arthur enjoys music very much, and keeps up
his playing.
There
is a dance at Uncle Alexander's tonight, on Wednesday a Court ball, and on
Friday one at my parents-in-law. I can't stand the heat at all of an evening,
and the rooms are very hot. Louis, who has an awful cold, took Arthur to see
the barracks, as all military things give him pleasure.
***************
Arthur
is one of Victoria’s children whom we’ve discussed very little up until
now. Ironically, with the exception of
maybe Beatrice, Arthur was Victoria’s favorite child. Arthur was the godson of Arthur, Duke of
Wellington, the hero of the Battle of Waterloo.
The younger Arthur was born on the Duke’s birthday in 1850, and was thus
given his name. Arthur wanted to join
the army almost from birth; he graduated from the Royal Military College in
1868 and began a lengthy career in the army that took him around the
world. Arthur was the first son of
Victoria’s not to break her heart by carrying on an affair with a common woman
– or, rather, Arthur conducted his private life much more discretely than his
brothers had done.
But
at this time, in early 1872, Arthur was looking for a wife. He left Britain for Berlin on January 15,
1872, for a trip to Germany where he was to see several princesses. Arthur traveled first to Berlin to stay with
Vicky and Fritz, and later moved to Alice’s home in Darmstadt. Victoria was evidently very concerned about
Arthur’s appearance on this trip; she wrote to Vicky on January 17 (the day
Arthur arrived in Berlin), pleading with her daughter and Fritz to get Arthur
to fix his hair. Evidently Victoria
didn’t like how Arthur was styling it at the moment, for she sent instructions
to “get him to change that frightful division down the middle, and those
monstrous stick-ups.” I wonder if
Victoria told Arthur to change into clean underwear before he left just in case
he was in an accident.
With
all of his fine qualities, Arthur apparently couldn’t be trusted to go to
Germany without a keeper (much as Leopold
had a few years later). His old tutor,
Major Howard Elphinstone, accompanied him.
The trip was precluded by lectures from Victoria on how he must always
put duty before pleasure, avoid bad influences, stay away from low-born women, and
to not – under any circumstances – go to Italy.
But in the summer of 1871, Arthur threw a party that included several
aristocratic guests. No one questionable
attended, but a tent caught fire and attracted some attention. Victoria also caught word of Arthur’s name
becoming linked with a few aristocratic women.
This made Victoria decide that Arthur needed to find a wife post-haste.
There
were several princesses who were of age or were within a few years of being of
marriageable age in 1872. There were a
handful of Prussian princesses from a cadet branch whom Vicky thought were
nice. There were also two Hanoverian
princesses who were available – second cousins, but acceptable as a royal
spouse. In addition, princesses of
Saxe-Altenburg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin were
possibilities. Victoria sought to make a
German marriage for Arthur if at all possible, as she believed this is what
Albert would have wanted for his children.
The
trip did not get off to a good start. Arthur’s
train collided with another train near Hanover; no one was injured, but his
arrival in Berlin was delayed by two hours.
After his arrival, Vicky and Fritz provided wholesome entertainment for
Arthur during his visit. They took him
on a quick tour of Potsdam, went shooting with Fritz, and attended an event
given by the Prussian army. Vicky
soothed Victoria’s nerves by telling her that Arthur had made an excellent
impression on everyone he met, and that his hair was not unbecoming in her
opinion.
Meanwhile,
Vicky invited several aristocratic and noble girls to tea at her home; they
were not there to meet Arthur, but to be inspected by Elphinstone to pass onto
the Queen. Mary of Prussia, a daughter
of Fritz’s cousin Frederick Charles was in attendance; although Elphinstone did
not have much of an opinion about her, Victoria believed she was a leading
candidate as Arthur’s bride. A dance
followed in which more princesses were invited, but none of them seemed to make
much of an impression on Arthur.
Arthur
then made the trip to Darmstadt to more or less repeat the visit with
Alice. Again Arthur was delighted at
the Hessian military tour he took with Louis, and he enjoyed his side trip to
the resort town of Baden-Baden. But none
of the princesses he met in Darmstadt did much for Arthur, just as they had
failed to impress him in Berlin. He
returned home at the end of February.
One
princess had apparently made an impression on Arthur years before and had never
left his mind. Arthur first met Thyra of
Denmark when her sister Alexandra married Bertie in 1863. During the wedding festivities, Arthur and
Thyra had gotten to know one another a bit, and she ended up with a card or
letter from him. Thyra apparently still
had the card or letter and counted it among her most prized possessions. Victoria was surprised (and a little
dismayed) that Thyra had come to mind again after so many good German
princesses had been presented to Arthur.
But Victoria was touched by Thyra’s sentimentality with the letter, and
wrote to the Queen of Denmark (Thyra’s mother) to inquire about the possibility
of a visit.
Alexandra
was delighted by Arthur’s interest in Thyra and wrote to her mother in support
of readying Thyra for a possible meeting.
There was one concern – Thyra was not only recovering from a bout of
typhoid and looked quite ill, but she had also recently given birth to an
illegitimate child, the product of an affair with a Danish cavalryman. It’s doubtful that Victoria knew about the
child, but there was probably some concern that she would have to be told if
Thyra were to seriously be considered as a bride for Arthur.
After
presenting Arthur with more German princesses (like Helene of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, whom Arthur was eager to meet at Affie’s wedding), Victoria was warming to the idea of having a second Danish
daughter-in-law. Arthur made the trip to
Denmark in 1873, made in the guise of being a witness of the coronation of the
King of Sweden in Norway. Arthur did
visit but did not propose to Thyra as expected, angering the Queen of
Denmark. When Victoria wrote to tell the
Queen that Arthur wanted to visit Thyra again, the Danish Queen took her time
in replying. By the time she did,
Victoria and Arthur had both moved on. A
second Danish marriage within Victoria’s family was now out of the question.
As
it happened, Arthur did not marry until 1878, when he married Louise Margaret,
a sister of the aforementioned Mary of Prussia.
This pleased Victoria, who likely would have had difficulties
permanently resigning herself to another Danish daughter-in-law. Despite Thyra’s fragile reputation, she too
found a royal spouse in 1878 when she married Ernst Augustus, the crown prince
of the defunct Hanoverian throne.
And
what did Arthur do in those intervening years between the German visit and his
marriage? Stay tuned to find out.
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