The Life of King Edward VII / with a sketch of the career of King George V

by J. Castell Hopkins

The Royal Marriage

Three years after the birth of the Heir to the British Throne, in one of the historic palaces of his family and country, there was born on December 1st, 1844, in a comparatively humble home at Copenhagen, the Princess Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louisa Julia of Denmark. The house was called a palace, her father was Heir to the Throne of Denmark, and became King Christian IX. on November 15th, 1863, but the mansion was, none the less, a quiet and unostentatious place, and the Prince a personage with hardly more resources or a larger revenue than many an English country gentleman.

Simplicity and domesticity were the guiding principles of the Princess Alexandra's education and training. Her mother, the late Queen Louise of Denmark, was beautiful, graceful and clever, and seems to have possessed that love of home which is more rare than even the striking combination of qualities just mentioned. She was passionately fond of music, while Prince Christian was fond of drawing, and these subjects, together with languages and needle-work and all the essentials of the most simple home work and management, were taught to the girls who were respectively to become Empress of Russia, Queen of Great Britain, and Duchess of Cumberland in after years.

As the years passed on the Princess Alexandra became probably the most beautiful girl in the Courts of Europe, and one of the least known outside a limited family circle. When hardly seventeen, and at a period in which the marriage of the young Prince of Wales was being seriously thought of by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he chanced to see a portrait of the Princess. There seems to be no doubt that it was purely by accident—unless the wise and far-seeing Prince Consort indirectly controlled the incident—and that the picture of the lovely young girl, smiling from out of simple surroundings and a simple costume, had an immediate effect. He kept the photograph, and a little later saw a miniature of the Princess at the home of a friend. In a surprisingly short time the Prince had heard that the original of the picture was "the most beautiful girl in Europe," and was on his way to Prussia to attend the military manœuvres of the season. The Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark happened to be travelling in the vicinity at the time.

THE PRINCE MEETS PRINCESS ALEXANDRA

On September 24th, 1861, the Prince of Wales and his party met the Danish Royal party in the Cathedral of Worms, and the former had a first glance at his future wife. Then followed a few days at the Castle of Heidelberg, where they were all guests together, and about which a note in Prince Albert's Diary of September 30th says that "the young people seem to have taken a warm liking for each other." Less than three months after this entry the writer had passed away, but the sad event only made the widowed Queen more anxious for her son's marriage. Further meetings occurred at the Princess Frederick's—the English Crown Princess—and elsewhere, and on September 9th, 1862, the betrothal took place; although it was not publicly announced until November 8th. The Prince was then just twenty-one and the Princess not yet eighteen, and it was understood that some months would elapse before the marriage. Meanwhile, in August, Queen Victoria had first met and been charmed by her future daughter-in-law at the Laacken Palace of the King of the Belgians. The Danish people were naturally delighted at the news, and, poor as they were in a national sense, they at once subscribed a total sum of £8,000 to constitute what was called the People's Dowry. This the Princess accepted with cordial thanks to the nation, but asked that a substantial portion of it be allotted to provide a dowry for six poor girls whose weddings should take place on the same day as her own.

THE COMING OF THE PRINCESS

Meantime the English people were expressing their pleasure at the news in various ways. The House of Commons voted the Prince of Wales a yearly income of £40,000 and his bride-to-be £10,000 for herself. Including the £40,000 from the Duchy of Cornwall this made a reasonable sum, while Sandringham and Marlborough House were allotted as Royal residences—requiring, however, much remodelling and improvement. Preparations of the most elaborate and splendid sort were made to welcome the lovely Danish Princess and into these arrangements the whole people seemed to throw themselves with mingled excitement and pleasure.

In the little Copenhagen palace this turmoil was hardly known; the preparations certainly were not comprehended; and the quiet family were preparing in the most simple way for the great occasion—not the least excitement of the moment being the fact of their all going to England together. The wedding day was fixed for the 10th of March, and a few days before this the Princess left Denmark for her new home; passing over carpets of flowers strewn in her way by pressing and cheering crowds of affectionate people; receiving addresses everywhere, and smiles and tears and good wishes from simple peasants, who had decorated even their hedgerows and who made the departure look like a triumphal procession. Then King Frederick VII., presented her with a necklace of diamonds and a facsimile of the Dagmar Cross—that precious relic of early days and of the first Christian Queen of Denmark.

The Princess arrived in the Thames on board the Victoria and Albert—which had been escorted from Flushing by a squadron of war-ships—on the morning of March 1st, and was welcomed at Gravesend by an outburst of enthusiasm which literally astounded her. A stately and formal reception she had, of course, anticipated but the splendour of what actually appeared, the elaborate character of the preparations, the surprising interest shewn by the people, were indeed revelations of the changed conditions into which the bride of the Heir Apparent had come. At Gravesend the dense crowds which lined the shores, or at least some portion of them, saw a sight which has been well described as pretty—"A timid girlish figure, dressed entirely in white, who appeared on the deck at her mother's side and then retiring to the cabin, was seen first at one window then at another, the bewildering face framed in a little white bonnet; the work of her own hands."