Château d'Eu, 8th September 1845.
My dear Peel,—We left Antwerp very early yesterday morning, and anchored for a few hours off Flushing.22 We passing down the Channel during the night, and as the weather was perfectly bright and fine, found ourselves off Tréport before nine o'clock this morning. The King came off to the yacht, and took the Queen in his barge to land. I need not say how joyfully she was received by all the Royal Family.
Although I shall have opportunities, both this evening and to-morrow morning, of speaking again with the King and Guizot, I have already discussed several subjects with each of them; and as the Queen particularly desires to send a messenger this evening, I will give you some notion of what has passed between us.
THE SPANISH MARRIAGESI think the marriage of the Queen of Spain is the subject on which the greatest interest is felt at this moment. It was the first introduced, both by the King and Guizot, and treated by both in the same manner. They said, that having promised to support the King of Naples, they were bound not to abandon the Count de Trapani, so long as there was a chance of his being successful in his suit. I said in answer to their desire, that we would assist this arrangement, that we had no objection to Count Trapani, and that we would take no part against him; but unless it should be the decided wish of the Spanish Government and people, we could give no support to the marriage, as we were honestly of opinion that it was not desired in Spain, and that we saw nothing in the proposal to call for our support under these circumstances. Both the King and Guizot said they had no objection to the Duke of Saville23 (Don Enrique), and that if it should be found that Count Trapani was impossible, they would willingly support him.
With respect to the Infanta, they both declared in the most positive and explicit manner, that until the Queen was married and had children, they should consider the Infanta precisely as her sister, and that any marriage with a French Prince would be entirely out of the question. The King said he did not wish that his son should have the prospect of being on the throne of Spain; but that if the Queen had children, by whom the succession would be secured, he did not engage to preclude himself from the possibility of profiting by the great inheritance which the Infanta would bring his son. All this, however, was uncertain, and would require time at all events to accomplish; for I distinctly understood, that it was not only a marriage and a child, but children, that were necessary to secure the succession.
I thought this was as much as we could desire at present, and that the policy of a marriage with a French Prince might safely be left to be considered whenever the contingency contemplated should arrive. Many things may happen, both in France and Spain, in the course of a few years to affect this question in a manner not now apparent.
Aberdeen.
Footnote 22: Parliament was prorogued on the 9th of August, and the Queen and Prince sailed in the evening for Antwerp in the Royal yacht. Sir Theodore Martin gives a very full description of the visit to Coburg. The Queen was especially delighted with the Rosenau and Reinhardtsbrunn. On the morning of the 8th of September the yacht, which had left the Scheldt on the previous evening, arrived at Tréport, and a second visit was paid to the King and Queen of the French at the Château d'Eu.
Footnote 23: Younger son of Don Francisco de Paula, and first cousin to Queen Isabella, both through his father and his mother.