The search for Prince Waldemar

From Queen Victoria to the Crown Princess

January 31, 1863

I fear Prince W. of H. would not do for Mary, unless he were rich and had a pleasant disposition.  Tell me dear all about him.  Poor M. is so much to be pitied.

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When I found this letter, I thought it would be a good way to introduce Mary Adelaide of Cambridge and the long search for husband for her. However, when I began my research I reached an unexpected dead end – the identity of Mary’s proposed suitor.  Victoria refers to him as Prince W. of H. probably to preserve anonymity and prevent gossip from leaking out.  Roger Fulford, the historian who edited most of Victoria’s published correspondence with Vicky, refers to this prince in a footnote as “Prince Waldemar.”  That’s it – just Prince Waldemar.

So I started looking for a Prince Waldemar that lived around this time, mostly likely a German.  From the time Vicky left for Prussia, one of her chief unofficial duties was to check out prospective spouses for her family members among the zillions of German states, kingdoms, duchies, and principalities.  Mary was one of the people of whom Vicky was searching for a spouse. 

Victoria gives the initial “H” as a designator of where Waldemar was from.  If the mystery Waldemar was indeed German, my first thought was that he was from Hanover, Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Hohenzollern, or one of the many Hessian landgraviates that existed at that time.  I didn’t remember ever hearing about a Hanoverian named Waldemar, and the Hanoverian royal family at that time was rather small.  I wasn’t shocked when I came up empty while searching for a Hanoverian Waldemar.

So I searched Wikipedia for Prince Waldemar, thinking I’d run into a Hessian/Hohenzollern/Hohenlohe Waldemar.  There were indeed several German Waldemars and even a Danish one, but none who would have been alive or of marriageable age in 1863.  I then cross-checked against the German-language version of Wikipedia.  I know what you’re thinking – Emily, you don’t speak or read any German.  Well no, I don’t, but I can sometimes muddle my way through to find more information about someone who doesn’t have an entry in the English language Wikipedia.  Still no dice on Waldemar.

Then I headed on over to The Peerage.  The Peerage is wonderful in the fact that it has such a vast amount of information on thousands of people - including plenty of obscure German princes.  I did a search for the name Waldemar and when several dozen options came up I figured the Waldemar I needed was in there somewhere. 

I was wrong. I could not find a single Waldemar, German or otherwise, who would have been old enough to marry in 1863.  So this leads me to believe that a) Roger Fulford was smoking something when he came up with this, or b) our Prince Waldemar is still out there somewhere, and possibly someone reading this post knows who he is. 

So I’m going to undertake a very 21^st century method to try to solve this mystery.  I’m going to crowdsource all of you for a possible identity on this mystery Prince Waldemar.  My guess that he would have been born sometime in the 1820s or 1830s, given Mary’s age at the time this letter was written (she turned 30 in 1863).  He may have even been older, given that the net was cast far and wide to find someone suitable for Mary. 

If you know anything about this mysterious Prince Waldemar, please send me an email or leave a comment her or on the Your Daily Victoria Facebook page!