Princess Louise’s engagement was made public in the spring, and though it aroused almost as much surprise as satisfaction among the general public, yet those who were really in a position to know regarded it as the most natural thing in the world. Lord Fife had for years been admitted to the close intimacy of the King’s family circle. His was the only bachelor’s house at which Queen Alexandra had ever been entertained, he had long been a frequent and welcome guest at Sandringham, and when he took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords, the King had paid him the rare honour of appearing as one of his introducers. Although rumours of the betrothal of the King’s eldest daughter to various foreign Princes had for some time been rife, His Majesty had made no secret of the special importance which he attached to her marriage, for at that time it appeared by no means impossible that the Princess herself or her children might one day sit on the British throne. In these circumstances a foreign marriage of the particular kind which then seemed intrinsically probable would have been frankly unpopular with the British people, who would have pictured themselves as being perhaps one day reduced to bringing back their Queen, now wholly Germanised, from some obscure Grand Duchy.
King Edward on this occasion showed once more his intuitive sympathy with the feelings of his future subjects, for the news of the Royal engagement was received with an absolutely unforced outburst of popular enthusiasm, the more so when it became known that it was entirely a love match.
The King and Queen Alexandra with their three daughters went to Windsor on 27th June and visited Queen Victoria, who formally gave her consent to the engagement. On the receipt of the news at Marlborough House the fact was at once communicated to the Household, and the Marquis of Salisbury, the Prime Minister, was also officially informed. The Earl of Fife was received by Queen Victoria the same evening at Windsor Castle. In the House of Commons a Message from the Queen formally announced the intended marriage, and the First Lord of the Treasury gave notice of a motion to grant a suitable provision for the Royal bride, though owing to the great wealth of the bridegroom this was perhaps less necessary than it had been on the occasion of other Royal marriages.
The Earl of Fife (Alexander William George Duff), Baron Skene of Skene, Viscount Macduff, and Baron Braco of Kilbryde, County Cavan, was the only son of James, fifth Earl of Fife, and of the Countess of Fife, who was Lady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth Hay, daughter of the Earl of Erroll. He was born on 10th November 1849, and was educated at Eton. He succeeded his father in the Scotch and Irish honours on 7th August 1879, and was created an Earl of the United Kingdom in 1885. He sat as Viscount Macduff in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1879 as Liberal member for Elgin and Nairn. Lord Fife, who is one of the largest landed proprietors in Scotland, owning extensive estates in Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen, was created Duke of Fife and Marquis of Macduff in the peerage of the United Kingdom, on his wedding day, 27th July, having declined to take the title of Duke of Inverness.
The Duke of Fife
From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co.
The wedding was celebrated in the Chapel at Buckingham Palace, in the presence of Queen Victoria, King Edward, and Queen Alexandra, with their sons and two younger daughters, the King of the Hellenes, the Crown Prince of Denmark, and the Grand Duke of Hesse.
The King of the Hellenes has always been one of the favourite brothers-in-law of the King, who, with Queen Alexandra, went to Athens in the autumn to attend the wedding of the Duke of Sparta and Princess Sophie of Germany.