"Mothers do not lose their daughters..."

Crown Princess to Queen Victoria

Berlin, January 28, 1877

Bernard of Meiningen will send his photograph very soon, one has been done on purpose for you but I think it very bad – and it does not show his nice, kind, frank expression, his fresh, healthy complexion and bright, white teeth, so rare in a German.  He has very fine eyes and a very good well-shaped mouth though it is large.  I am doing a head of him now but I get on very slowly and he is so extremely lively that it is quite a business to get him to sit still for one minute!  His birthday is on the 1^st of April, that will be Easter Sunday, and the day on which the betrothal shall be declared.  How kind of you it would be – if you have an engraving of dear Aunt Adelaide’s picture by Winterhalter to send him one on his birthday!  I am sure he would frame it and hang it up and prize it so highly.

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(Charlotte of Prussia and Bernard of Saxe-Meiningen.  Photo credit: The Esoteric Curiosa)

So let’s talk a bit about Bernard of Saxe-Meiningen – and, by extension, Victoria’s eldest granddaughter Charlotte.  Charlotte had a distinct knack for getting under the skin of most of her loved ones, particularly her British relatives.

Charlotte was eighteen months younger than Wilhelm, Vicky’s and Fritz’s eldest child.  Her birth in July 1860 was far easier than Wilhelm’s birth, which had nearly ended in tragedy for both Vicky and her son.  Although she was christened Victoria Elizabeth Augusta Charlotte, Charlotte was referred to by her final given name from birth.  Said name was used in honor of Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen – a Prussian princess who had married into the Saxe-Meiningen family and died at age 23.  Ironically, this other Princess Charlotte was to become the mother of Bernard – the future husband of Victoria’s granddaughter Charlotte. 

Bernard was the son of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and the aforementioned Charlotte of Prussia.  He was intelligent and had a particular interest in archeology, but was not much of a military man.  He had two somewhat vague ties to the British royal family already – his stepmother was Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the daughter of Victoria’s half-sister.  Bernard was also distantly related to Victoria’s aunt Adelaide, the queen consort of William IV, a relationship to which Vicky alludes above.

At just sixteen, Charlotte fell in love with 25-year-old Bernard, reportedly during a railroad excursion just outside of Berlin.  The couple became engaged at the end of 1876, evidently for some time before telling their families.  Vicky and Fritz were surprised to hear of engagement, and Fritz’s mother Augusta – to whom Charlotte was very close – was downright perturbed when she found out that she wasn’t in on the secret long before Vicky and Fritz found out.

The cat was out of the bag in January 1877.  Victoria’s response was rather lackluster, to say the least.  She was told of the engagement by a letter from Fritz to which she said she needed to “have a little breathing time” before she gave an official response.  The response from the rest of the family was mixed, as most thought Charlotte was either too young or could have done better.  Victoria did point out that Bernard was very sweet and affectionate to Charlotte, qualities which impressed her. 

The courtship between Charlotte and Bernard puzzled Vicky.  Whereas her own engagement had been one of open family celebration, Charlotte and Bernard were more private.   Vicky wrote to Victoria of her daughter’s correspondence with Bernard:

How differently the younger generation expects to be treated from what we were.  Fancy that Charlotte never tells me when she writes to Bernard or when he writes to her – they correspond daily almost, I believe, but he would be quite furious if I were only to ask, and she consider herself highly offended and very indignant if her letters were interfered with.  Fritz thinks this is all right for a German Engaged couple and says it ought to be so, but considering how young and how immature she is, I have my little doubts sometimes, and find it rather difficult to know what to do.  They resent the slightest restraint put upon them and Bernard thinks they ought to do just as they like.

For her support of Bernard’s affection toward Charlotte, Victoria put off a proposed visit of Bernard to Britain.  This upset Vicky, who never quite gave up the need to have her mother’s approval over most matters in life.  Vicky egged Victoria on with a few digs such as:

I am very sorry indeed that a little visit from Bernard would not suit you, as there will be no opportunity in the winter.  The thought of Charlotte’s marrying someone you do not know, is painful to me.  However, it is as you wish.

Victoria did relent and meet with Bernard in August 1877.  However, Vicky’s job didn’t go unnoticed.  Victoria shot back similarly snotty replies, telling Vicky that she was too busy for sudden trips and she had too many visitors to Osborne in the summer to accommodate further requests such as this.  Then she told Vicky what an enormous trial it would be as a mother compiling Charlotte’s trousseau.  Vicky actually enjoyed getting the trousseau together, but wisely told her mother how much she appreciated the love and care that went into creating Vicky’s own back in 1857. 

Charlotte and Bernard married on February 18, 1878.  She was the first of Vicky’s children to marry, a full three years before her elder brother Wilhelm married.  The ceremonies included the civil marriage in Vicky’s and Fritz’s drawing room at the Kronprinzenpalais, followed by the religious services at the Royal Palace of Berlin.  As usual, Vicky found the long ceremonies “…very hot, very tiring, and almost too serious, solemn, and heavy for a wedding, but so it always is here.” 

Vicky was a bit more touching and wistful when she discussed getting Charlotte ready for her wedding night, and her daughter’s subsequent departure.  Vicky seemed to be feeling a bit of the pain that Victoria seemed to feel when her children married, as she wrote, “I have thought more of you – than ever in my life and more than of every one else!  Mothers do not lose their daughters if all love their Mothers as much as I do you. “

As for Bernard and Charlotte, the marriage was a relatively happy one that produced a daughter, Feodora.  Bernard became Duke of Saxe-Meiningen only for a short time before his position was abolished at the end of World War I.  Known for her troublemaking ways for her entire life, Charlotte took a delight in causing waves throughout Berlin society.  But that is a story for another day.

Your Daily Victoria is returning on January 28!

We had some unexpected things come up last week that caused a break in posting, but we will be back on Tuesday, January 28!  Thank you all for your support!

"...I enter upon it sadly..."

The following was an entry in the diary of Lord Edward Pelham-Clinton, Master of the Household for Queen Victoria. 

January 21, 1901

The Queen was very bad last night and hope almost given up, but there is a slight rally this morning.  The German Emperor, Prince of Wales, Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Duke of York with Sir Francis Knollys and Holford arrive about 11.15 a.m. from London.  I am at home all morning, feeling very seedy; walk to Osborne Cottage in afternoon.  At 5 p.m. bulletin says – ‘The slight improvement is maintained.’  Sir Robert Barlow M.D. arrives.  Royal dinner of (11).  Household dinner of (15).

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(Victoria's death notice in a special edition of the London Gazette.  Photo credit: historyvortex.org)

Lord Edward was with the family at Osborne in 1901 when Victoria began to show signs of failing.  This was unusual for a woman who had enjoyed largely good health for most of her long life.  Her final illness was thought to have begun with the death of her son Alfred from throat and tongue cancer in July 1900.

Alfred was Victoria’s third child to predecease her.  Alice had died of diphtheria in December 1878, on the seventeenth anniversary of Albert’s death.  Leopold had died in March 1884 after a lifetime of health problems stemming from his hemophilia and suspected epilepsy.  Victoria had also survived three of her sons-in-law and several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends, and long-time servants.  And, of course, she had survived her beloved Albert.  Victoria was now coming to the end of her own road.

But it was Alfred’s death that seemed to really make Victoria feel her own mortality.  Shortly after he died, she began complaining more about problems with her sleep, appetite (or lack thereof), and increased pain.  Her servants and attendants noticed Victoria looking thinner, older, and more tired.  Vicky’s continued decline due to cancer – she was now receiving several morphine injections daily just to keep functioning – made Victoria despair that she would soon outlive a fourth child.

“Another year has begun,” the Queen wrote in her journal on the first day of 1901, “and I am feeling so weak and unwell that I enter upon it sadly."  She was able to take short drives with her daughters Beatrice and Helena in the next few days, and on January 13 she was able to get some work done by dictated her work to Helena.  That day, Victoria wrote her last entry in the journal she’d been keeping for seventy years. 

By January 16, Victoria was hardly getting out of bed, although she kept declaring that she must get up and around.  Upon speaking it was clear that her speech and memory were distorted.  It is believed that the Queen had had a small stroke sometime that day or shortly before.  Victoria’s family was summoned.  Even Wilhelm, Vicky’s son and now the German Emperor, decided to make the trip to Britain upon hearing his grandmother had taken a turn for the worse.

Victoria was in and out of consciousness over the next week.  On January 19, a bulletin was issued to the public that announced her illness and break from official business for the time being.  During one of her more lucid moments, Victoria told Louise that she didn’t want to die quite yet, as she had a lot of work still yet to do.  She asked periodically for her dog Turi, and confused her doctor (Sir James Reid) for Bertie.  Beatrice’s son Leopold played his violin to soothe his grandmother’s nerves. 

Most of Wilhelm’s maternal relatives found him egotistical and tiresome; they dreaded his arrival, expected him to create drama at the most inopportune time.  But Wilhelm surprised his aunts, uncles, and cousins, declaring that he simply wanted to say goodbye to his grandmother.  He said he would stay out of Victoria’s room if he aunts and uncles wished, but on January 22, Bertie took his nephew in.  By coincidence, it was Wilhelm and Dr. Reid who were with Victoria when she died at around 6:30 PM that evening. 

All of Victoria’s surviving children and children-in-law (save Vicky, ill in Germany) were nearby when she died.  Arthur and Christian of Schleswig-Holstein were the last to arrive, but got there just before Victoria passed away.  But not everyone got there on time - Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and her husband Louis of Battenberg arrived at Osborne just after the Queen had passed on. 

A reign of 63 years and seven months, an entire era, and the life of a lady who had seen a great deal in her long life had come to an end.

Please return tomorrow to read the second half of this entry covering Victoria's funeral and the aftermath.

Bergamasco and the 1870s beauty bandwagon

From Queen Victoria to the Crown Princess

Osborne, January 20, 1874

Pray be photographed by Bergamasco who has done all those lovely photos of Marie.  Pray ask Alix to be done too. I think Alix does not dress her hair to advantage just now.  Too high and pointed and close at the sides for her small head.  The present fashion with a frizzle and fringe in front is frightful.

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Today’s letter was written to Vicky shortly after this one, while the Crown Princely couple were still preparing to head to St. Petersburg for Affie’s and Marie’s wedding.  It is the first real mention of the distinctive look of 1870s fashion, a look that which Alexandra was probably best known.  Following the full-skirts and the severe hairstyles of the 1840s-1860s, the look of the 1870s emphasized a tall, narrow look.  Tall, slim Alexandra was probably the best person to lead this look, and with her prominence in London society, it is no wonder that she became a style icon of the time. 

Alexandra quickly adapted her center-part hairstyle to the manner that Victoria mentions – her “poodle” look, as some call it – to create even more height and narrowness.  Women’s hair was typically pulled back into a high, tight knot or chignon, sometimes with large or small curls cascading down the back.  The top of the hair was often a carpet of small curls.  False hair was often used to create bulk, or to create the effect of curled bangs in the front.  Alexandra’s sister-in-law Beatrice eventually became so dependent on her false fringe (bangs) that when a fire destroyed much of her clothing in the 1880s (including the fringe), Beatrice insisted on wearing a hat during a meeting with the insurance company. 

While dresses certainly had their embellishments, flounce and width were held to a minimum – except in the back of course, where bustles started to become more prominent.  Corsets had been used as a part of women’s costume for ages, but in the 1870s the emphasis incredibly small waist begins to be seen, giving corsets a more expanded role in a woman’s look.   Unfortunately for Alexandra, a lower-cut neck also came into vogue.  Alexandra had long gone to great lengths to conceal a large scar on her neck, but now she began to do this with large chokers of diamonds and pearls.  Wealthy women went wild to try to emulate the “dripping with diamonds” look. 

Charles Bergamasco, the photographer whom Victoria speaks of in the letter, was an Italian man who moved to St. Petersburg in the 1840s.  Originally an actor, he became fascinated by the daguerrotypes of the 1850s and began studying the process.  He photographed several members of the Russian Imperial family during his time in St. Petersburg.

Bergamasco did indeed photograph Alexandra in this exact style (however, it is unclear whether or not Bergamasco photographed Alexandra on her trip to Russia, or at another time).  In the picture below, Alexandra wears a choker, a high up-do, and a jacket with very narrow sleeves nicely showcasing the look of the time:

(Alexandra, as photographed by Bergamasco sometime in the 1870s.  Photo credit: National Portrait Gallery)

Bergamasco also photographed Maria several times, just as Victoria claims.  The photographs of Maria are indeed quite lovely, portraying Maria as young and innocent in an almost romantic way.  However, these were done before Maria began to embrace the style her sister in law was starting to make famous:

(Young and innocent Maria in court dress.  Photo credit: gogmsite.net)

The dress and hairstyle that accentuated Alexandra’s willowy looks did nothing for Maria, with her rounder face and curvier features (not a Bergamasco photograph):

(Maria, who should have probably forgone the false fringe.  Photo credit: jcosmas.com)

Victoria was evidently charmed all the more charmed by Bergamasco’s pictures of Alexandra, and she invited the photographer to Britain in 1877 to photograph several members of the royal family, including herself.  Victoria clearly did not approve of the 1870s dress and hairstyles, wearing her standard utilitarian widow’s digs.  It seems as though Bergamasco wasn’t inclined to add any life to the photograph either if Victoria wasn’t even going to try:

(Victoria probably paid Bergamasco some serious cash for this photograph.  Yeah, I know.  Photo credit: National Portrait Gallery)

Alexandra kept up the high and tight look for most of the rest of her life, pausing only to add more height, curl, and jewels to her look.  In fact, by the time she became queen in 1901, one wonders if she could have crawled out the back of some of her fanciest get-ups without anyone noticing?

(The coronation outfit, wearing Alexandra.  Photo credit: Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor)