For a long time the Queen’s popularity had been decreasing, and open disloyalty was shown with the beginning of the Lady Flora Hastings scandal. Victoria herself did not help matters, for after the political crisis she became even more exclusive in her invitations. She had arranged a ball and a great concert for the middle of May, just after the political tempest, and from all accounts they seem to have been very dull amusements, or so said the Tories, none of whom were invited who could possibly be left out. The Queen herself, however, was in good spirits, possibly more than pleased at having retained her Ministers.
The Bedchamber Crisis drew from the King of Hanover a little moan over the ruin of England: “Alas! how fallen is she since the last ten years!... May Providence be merciful to her, and save her, is my most earnest prayer!”
During the spring of 1839, while Victoria was harassed by the two most disturbing troubles of her young womanhood, she was also being urged from various quarters to settle her domestic affairs by marriage, and indeed from the beginning of 1836 curiosity had made tongues busy on the matter of her choice. Perhaps it is true that with the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, for it seemed always then that the young men from Germany or Denmark or Russia came a-courting, or, to put it more diplomatically, came on a visit to England. Then, too, if there were any amorous lunatics about they generally seemed to turn up at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.
Actual suggestions concerning marriage were made before Victoria became Queen, for in the spring of 1837 Lord William Russell, then our representative in Berlin, wrote as follows to the Duchess of Kent.
“Madam,—Would it be agreeable to your Royal Highness that Prince Adelbert of Prussia, the son of Prince William, should place himself on the list of those who pretend to the hand of H.R.H. the Princess Victoria?
“Your consent, Madam, would give great satisfaction to the Court of Berlin.”
The Duchess acknowledged the receipt, and then indulged in a little eulogy of herself, for she continued: “The undoubted confidence placed in me by the country, being the only parent since the Restoration who has had the uncontrolled power in bringing up the heir of the Throne, imposes on me duties of no ordinary character. Therefore, I could not, compatibly with those I owe my child, the King, and the country, give your Lordship the answer you desire; the application should go to the King. But if I know my duty to the King, I know also my maternal ones, and I will candidly tell your Lordship that I am of opinion that the Princess should not marry till she is much older. I will also add that, in the choice of the person to share her great destiny, I have but one wish—that her happiness and the interest of the country be realised in it.”
I wonder how the Duchess liked the hint of a rebuke in Russell’s answer:—
“On informing Prince Wittgenstein (Minister of the Royal House in Berlin) that your maternal feelings led you to think the Princess Victoria too young to marry, he said that the King of Prussia would, on learning your opinion, object to Prince Adelbert’s projected visit to England. I beg to observe to Your Royal Highness that it was only proposed to admit Prince Adelbert to the list of suitors for the hand of Princess Victoria, to which he was to win his claim by his character and personal attractions.”
Von Bülow suggested that a young Prince of Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck-Glücksburg might find favour with Queen Victoria, but surely the territorial miscellany added to his name would have been sufficient to frighten any girl. There was a rumour that the Duc de Nemours intended to enter the lists, and there was much talk when Duke Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha projected another visit to England with his son Augustus. In the spring of 1839 the Tsarevitch of Russia arrived with the Grand Duke, and many of the newspapers began their little gossipings as to the good and evil of such an alliance. This report was later said to be without foundation, one paper adding to its repudiation the hope that when the Queen should be tempted to forego following the example of Queen Elizabeth, perhaps the Orange flower would be placed near her heart as well as on her head. “God grant it may be so!” This being an allusion to the visit at the same time of Prince William, the younger son of the King of the Netherlands.