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THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
THE 
 EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS 
 IN PHOTOGRAVURE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 
 1913 
 
33D2.24- 
 .3 
 .E6 
 
 OOPTRIQHT, 1913, 
 
 bt dodd, mead and company . ,• 
 
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 y36-o 
 
 O'C(.A358405 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Memoirs of Royal personages form not the least 
 interesting part of the whole vast field of biog- 
 raphy, in spite of the fact that such memoirs differ 
 from the lives of most persons in a private station 
 because of the reticence and discretion which are 
 necessary, especially in regard to affairs of State 
 and pohtical characters. It is often not until a 
 whole generation has passed that it is possible to 
 publish a full biography of a member of a Royal 
 House, and in the meantime the exalted rank of 
 the subject operates both to enhance and to dimin- 
 ish the interest of the memoir. 
 
 This is also true in a modified degree of states- 
 men, of whom full and frank biographies are sel- 
 dom possible until their political associates and 
 rivals have alike disappeared from the scene. 
 This necessary delay is a test of the subject's great- 
 ness, for it has sometimes happened that by the 
 time a full memoir can be published the public in- 
 terest in the individual has waned. 
 
 By heredity, by training, by all the circum- 
 stances of their lives, Royal personages form a 
 caste apart ; and though their lot may seem to some 
 persons enviable, it is often not realised how great 
 are the sacrifices of happiness and contentment 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 which they are called upon to make as the inevit- 
 able consequence of their exalted position. 
 
 The Empress Frederick presents an extraordin- 
 ary example of what this exalted position may 
 bring in the way of both happiness and suffering. 
 Her life has the added interest that, quite apart 
 from her rank, she possessed an intensely vivid and 
 human personality. History furnishes examples 
 of many Royal personages who have been, so to 
 speak, crushed and stunted in their intellectual and 
 spiritual growth by the restraints of their position. 
 
 Not so the subject of this memoir. The Em- 
 press was a woman of remarkable moral and in- 
 tellectual qualities — indeed, it is not difficult to see 
 that, had she been born in a private station, she 
 would have attained certainly distinction, and very 
 possibly eminence, in some branch of art, letters, 
 or science. Her rank, far from crushing and 
 stunting her powers, had the effect of diffusing 
 her intellectual interests over many fields, and per- 
 haps laid her open to the charge of dilettanteism. 
 But such a charge cannot really be maintained in 
 view of the solid constructive work which she 
 achieved, both in the field of philanthropy and in 
 that of the application of art to industry. The ex- 
 acting mental discipline which she underwent at 
 the hands of her father, though it was in some 
 respects ill-advised as her life turned out, at any 
 rate supplied her with the habit of mental concen- 
 tration which enabled her to carry out those prac- 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 tical and lasting enterprises with which her name 
 in Germany should ever be associated. Her early 
 training disciplined her eager, natural enthusiasm 
 for all that was good and serviceable to humanity, 
 and directed it especially to the welfare of soldiers 
 and of women and children. She was "a doer of 
 the Word and not a hearer only." All through 
 her life one is perhaps most profoundly impressed 
 by her inexhaustible energy; her sense of the tre- 
 mendous importance and interest of life, of the 
 wonders of knowledge, of the delights of art and 
 literature, and of all that there is to do and to feel 
 and to think in the short years that are given us on 
 earth. 
 
 One of the greatest dangers to which Royal 
 personages are exposed by the circumstances of 
 their position is that of falling into an attitude 
 of gentle cynicism. Naturally they are often 
 brought into contact with the seamy side of human 
 nature, while at the same time they are not perhaps 
 so well acquainted with its better side, as are per- 
 sons of less exalted rank. That the cleverer 
 among them should take up an attitude of humor- 
 ous toleration of the whole human comedy is con- 
 sequently very natural. 
 
 It is no small testimony to the Empress 
 Frederick's moral greatness that, though she had 
 experiences in plenty of the bad side of human 
 nature, she was never tempted to relapse into such 
 an attitude. No one was ever less of a cynic. 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 She was full of intense passionate enthusiasms and 
 of a profound sympathy for the unfortunate, and 
 the disinherited of the earth. In her warm heart 
 there was no room for hatred or for contempt of 
 others, and she was equally mcapable of shrugging 
 her shoulders at the foibles and follies of poor 
 humanity. 
 
 This eagerness to be up and doing was, how- 
 ever, combined, as has been often seen in the his- 
 tory of mankind, with a touching faith in the power 
 of logic and reason. It was not exactly that the 
 Empress held too high an opinion of human nature, 
 but she undoubtedly showed too little appreciation 
 of human stupidity and, we must add, of human 
 malice. She had been brought up with kindly, 
 honourable, well-bred, and, on the whole, very in- 
 telligent people, and when she came into rough 
 collision with less agreeable qualities of human 
 nature, she suffered intensely. But she was not 
 soured as a less noble nature might have been; on 
 the contrary, she continued to the end of her life 
 always to believe the best of people, always to 
 assume that they are actuated by good motives, as 
 well as by reason and common-sense. She seems 
 to have missed the key to the oddities and the 
 vagaries, as well as to the baser qualities of human 
 nature, and therein lies, perhaps, the secret of the 
 tragedy of her life. 
 
 That tragedy, as we know, was greatly enhanced 
 by the singular blows of fate. Her rank had. 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 strangely enough, given her a marriage of love 
 and affection more real and more lasting than 
 often falls to the lot of private persons. But the 
 husband whom she adored, as well as two idolized 
 children, were taken from her. 
 
 It was her fate also to be constantly misunder- 
 stood ; to see the purity of her motives doubted and 
 her most innocent actions misconstrued. Owing 
 partly to the circumstances of her time, partly to 
 her own generous and warm-hearted but imprudent 
 impulsiveness, she failed to win the affection of her 
 adopted country as a whole, though she certainly 
 earned its respect and esteem. This was not the 
 least bitter trial of her life, for she was one of 
 those natures who have a craving for affection and 
 understanding sympathy; and the criticism and 
 even the hostihty with which she was regarded in 
 Germany were all the more painful to her in that 
 she could not in the least understand on what they 
 were based. 
 
 Perhaps she was too deeply convinced of the 
 superiority of England and of English institutions, 
 and made too little allowance for the sensitiveness 
 of a people who were then slowly emerging into 
 a national in place of a particularist consciousness. 
 At the same time it is certain that, however she had 
 comported herself, she could not have escaped 
 criticism of which she was no more than the osten- 
 sible object, and the real purpose of which is to be 
 found in the political cross-currents of the period. 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 In this memoir the attempt is made to draw a 
 true picture of this singularly engaging and gener- 
 ous personality, who played her part in great 
 affairs, and who suffered all reversals of fortune, 
 the anguish of bereavement, and the pain of cruel 
 disease, alike with miflinching courage and dignity. 
 
 The materials have been found, not only in many 
 works of history, biography, memoir and reminis- 
 cence, both German and English, some of which 
 are little known, especially to English readers, but 
 also in the recollection of persons who were 
 honoured with the Empress's friendship. The aim 
 of the writer has been, while avoiding such indis- 
 criminate laudation as really degrades the subject 
 of it, to draw a full-length portrait of one of the 
 noblest and most attractive characters in the long 
 history of the Royal Houses of Europe. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pedigree showing the Family Connections of the 
 
 Emperor and Empress Frederick xv 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I Childhood and Girlhood 1 
 
 II Betrothal v 23 
 
 III Opinion in Both Countries 36 
 
 IV Marriage 58 
 
 V Early Married Life 71 
 
 VI Birth op Prince William 100 
 
 VII Advice from England 115 
 
 VIII Death of the King of Prussia 133 
 
 IX First Relations with Bismarck .... 162 
 
 X The War op the Duchies 177 
 
 XI Home Life and Religion 198 
 
 XII The Austrian War: Work in the Hospitals . 210 
 
 XIII The Franco-German War 227 
 
 XIV Public and Private Activities 245 
 
 XV The Crown Prince's Regency 263 
 
 XVI Silver Wedding: The Crown Prince's Illness 279 
 
 XVII The Hundred Days' Reign 299 
 
 XVIII Early Widowhood: Fall of Bismarck . . .315 
 
 XIX The Planning of Friedrichshop: Visit to 
 
 Paris 329 
 
 XX Life at Friedrichshop 340 
 
 XXI Last Years 354j 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Empress Frederick Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal .... 8 
 
 The Princess Royal and the Infant Prince of Wales '32 
 
 The Princess Royal at the Time of Her Marriage . 64*' 
 
 The Crown Princess and Her First Child . . . .136 
 
 The Crown Princess at the Time of Her Silver Wed- 
 ding 280 
 
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THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 
 
 Before the birth of the Princess Royal in Novem- 
 ber 1840, no direct heir had been born to a reign- 
 ing British Sovereign for nearly eighty years. 
 The Prince Regent, afterwards George IV, was 
 born in 1762, two years after his father's accession, 
 and the death in childbirth of the Prince Regent's 
 daughter, Princess Charlotte, when she was only 
 twenty, was still vividly remembered. 
 
 Queen Victoria was now but little older than 
 Princess Charlotte, and the birth of her first child 
 was regarded with a certain anxiety by the nation. 
 It might prove to be the only child, and in that 
 event much would hang on the preservation of its 
 life. Those members of the "Old Royal Family" 
 who were next in succession were not popular, and 
 the little Princess Royal may truly be described 
 as having been the child of many prayers. 
 
 It was natural that Queen Victoria should have 
 recourse to Prince Albert's confidential adviser. 
 Baron Stockmar, the more so that he was a skilled 
 physician. Stockmar therefore came to London 
 early in November. Those were not the days of 
 trained nurses, but rather of the types immortal- 
 ised by Dickens, and it is interesting to find the 
 
2 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 shrewd old German, characteristically in advance 
 of his time, urging the Prince to be most careful 
 in the choice of a nurse, "for a man's education 
 begins the first day of his life, and a lucky choice 
 I regard as the greatest and finest gift we can 
 bestow on the expected stranger." 
 
 On November 13 the Court arrived at Bucking- 
 ham Palace, where on the 21st the Princess was 
 born. "For a moment only," the Queen says, 
 "was the Prince disappointed at its being a daugh- 
 ter and not a son." 
 
 The character of the monarchy in England has 
 changed so much, both absolutely and also rela- 
 tively to the people, that it is difficult for us to 
 realise the measure of prejudice and even contempt 
 which still subsisted before Queen Victoria had 
 had time to win the full confidence of her subjects. 
 It is not therefore really surprising that the little 
 Princess Royal should have been greeted on her 
 first appearance with a shower of caricatures, some 
 of them not remarkable for their refinement. 
 
 Still, a good deal of the rough humour lavished 
 on the Princess was kindly in its intention, though 
 sometimes there was a sting in the tail. For in- 
 stance, Melbourne, the Prime Minister, was shown 
 as nurse, proudly presenting the Princess Royal 
 to John Bull: "I hope the caudle is to your liking, 
 Mr. Bull. It must be quite a treat, for you have 
 not had any for a long time." John Bull replies: 
 "Well, to tell you the truth, Mother Melbourne, I 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 3 
 
 think the caudle the best of it, for I had hoped for 
 a boy." 
 
 Melbourne's fatherly devotion to the Queen was 
 indeed a piece of luck for the caricaturists of the 
 day. A cartoon entitled "Old Servants in New 
 Characters" shows him dressed as a nurse with the 
 infant Princess in his care; she is sitting in a tiny 
 carriage, with Lord John Russell as outrider. 
 
 It was arranged that the christening should take 
 place in London on February 10, the anniversary 
 of the Queen's marriage, the infant receiving the 
 names of Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise. Even 
 the christening of the Princess Royal inspired a 
 long satirical poem. One verse ran; 
 
 "This is the Bishop, so bold and intrepid, 
 A-making the water so nice and so tepid, 
 To christen the Baby, who's stated, no doubt, 
 Her objection to taking it 'cold without.' " 
 
 The sponsors were Prince Albert's brother, the 
 Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (represented in 
 his absence by the Duke of Wellington) , the King 
 of the Belgians, the Queen Dowager (Adelaide), 
 the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Kent, 
 and the Duke of Sussex. Lord Melbourne re- 
 marked of the Princess to the Queen next day: 
 "How she looked about her, quite conscious that 
 the stir was all about herself ! This is the time the 
 character is formed!" The Prime Minister would 
 have agreed with Stockmar's view that a man's 
 
4 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 education (and presumably also a woman's) begins 
 with the first day of life. 
 
 Prince Albert sent a vivid account of the cere- 
 mony to the venerable Dowager Duchess of Gotha : 
 
 "The christening went off very well. Your 
 little great-grandchild behaved with great pro- 
 priety, and like a Cliristian. She was awake, but 
 did not cry at all, and seemed to crow with im- 
 mense satisfaction at the lights and brilliant uni- 
 forms, for she is very intelligent and observing. 
 The ceremony took place at half -past six p. m., and 
 after it there was a dinner, and then we had some 
 instrumental music. The health of the little one 
 was drunk with great enthusiasm. The little girl 
 bears the Saxon Arms in the middle of the English, 
 which looks very pretty." 
 
 The Princess Royal, like her brothers and sis- 
 ters, led an ideal childhood. All through her later 
 life she often referred to the unclouded happiness 
 of these early years, and it comes out equally 
 clearly in the published correspondence of her sis- 
 ter. Princess Ahce. In this matter both Prince 
 Albert and Queen Victoria were in advance of 
 their time, and the Prince, especially, perceived, 
 what was not then at all generally believed, that 
 children could be made happy without being 
 spoiled. 
 
 Perhaps the most sensible decision of the parents 
 was that the Royal children should come in con- 
 tact as little as possible with the actual life of the 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 5 
 
 Court. Not that the tone of the Court was bad; 
 on the contrary, it was singularly high, but the 
 Queen and Prince Albert knew the subtle danger 
 of even innocent petting and flattery on young 
 and impressionable minds. 
 
 So it was that the Royal children had very little 
 to do with the Queen's ladies-in-waiting — indeed 
 they were only seen by them for a few moments 
 after dinner at dessert, or when driving out with 
 their parents. The Queen and the Prince en- 
 trusted the care of their sons and daughters exclu- 
 sively to persons who possessed their whole con- 
 fidence, and with whom they could be in constant 
 direct communication. Both were kept regularly 
 informed of the minutest details of what was being 
 done for their children, and as the princesses grew 
 older they had an English, a French, and a Ger- 
 man governess, who were, in their turn, responsible 
 to a lady superintendent. 
 
 It has been the custom of late to speak as if the 
 children of Queen Victoria had been over-educated 
 and over-stimulated. This was at least partly true 
 of their infancy, but if they had been really over- 
 educated, they would not have turned out as well 
 as they did later, nor would they have all delighted 
 in looking back with fond reminiscence to their 
 earliest years. 
 
 The Princess Royal was soon recognised by all 
 those about her as intellectually the flower of the 
 happy little flock. She was clever, self-willed, and 
 
6 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 high-spirited; learning everything that was put 
 before her with marvellous intelligence and rapidity. 
 Her dearest friend and companion was her sister, 
 the sweet-natured, pensive Princess Alice, who was 
 next in age, after the Prince of Wales, to herself. 
 The two lived for some years a life which was 
 exactly alike. They shared the same lessons, the 
 same amusements, the same interests; both had a 
 strong love of art and of drawing; both were, if 
 anything, over-sensitively alive to the claims of 
 duty and of patriotism. 
 
 Naturally the most detailed and accurate im- 
 pression of the Princess Royal's childhood is to be 
 derived from the correspondence of Sarah Lady 
 Lyttelton, who was appointed Governess to the 
 Royal children in April 1842. 
 
 This lady, who was then approaching her fifty- 
 fifth birthday, was the daughter of the second Earl 
 Spencer, and sister of that Lord Althorp who was 
 a member of Lord Grey's Reform Ministry, and 
 who played a notable part in politics rather by his 
 strength of character than by any commanding 
 abihty. Lady Sarah married the third Lord 
 Lyttelton in 1813. It is interesting to recall that 
 her son, afterwards the fourth Lord Lyttelton, 
 married Mrs. Gladstone's sister, ]Miss Glynne. 
 Sarah Lady Lyttelton was widowed in 1837 after 
 a singularly happy married life, and soon after- 
 wards Queen Victoria appointed her a lady-in- 
 waiting. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 7 
 
 When, some four years later, she was given the 
 responsible post of Governess to the Royal chil- 
 dren, she was already very well known to the 
 Queen and the Prince Consort, as well as to their 
 closest adviser. Lord Melbourne, for instance, 
 heartily approved the appointment, declaring that 
 no other person so well qualified could have been 
 selected. 
 
 The picture of the Princess Royal which her 
 guardian draws in these letters is one of an ex- 
 traordinarily winning though precocious child, and 
 if it seems to modern judgment that the precocity 
 was rather too much stimulated, it must be re- 
 membered that we are back in the 'forties, when 
 a scientific study of the psychology of infants was 
 not dreamed of. Moreover, it is abundantly evi- 
 dent that the little Princess had such a way with 
 her, "so innocent arch, so cunning simple," that 
 it must have required no ordinary resolution to 
 avoid spoiling her, while even the most scientific 
 modern expert would probably have found it very 
 hard to draw the line between over-stimulation and 
 proper encouragement of her remarkable intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 Lady Lyttelton had her first glimpse of the 
 Princess Royal in July 1841. She describes her 
 as a fine, fat, firm, fair. Royal-looking baby, "too 
 absurdly like the Queen." Her look was grave, 
 calm, and penetrating, and she surveyed the whole 
 company most composedly. She was shown at her 
 
8 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 carriage window to the populace ; and Lady Lyttel- 
 ton, noting the universal grin in all faces, declares 
 that the baby will soon have seen every set of teeth 
 in the kingdom! 
 
 Some months later she records that "the dear 
 Babekin is really going to be quite beautiful. Such 
 large smiling soft blue eyes, and quite a handsome 
 nose, and the prettiest mouth." The child early 
 acquired the appropriate pet name of "Pussy,'* 
 while she herself, finding Lady Lyttelton's name 
 too large a mouthful, simplified it to "Laddie." 
 
 It may be here recorded that an absurd rumour 
 had been circulated that the Princess Royal had 
 been born blind, and it was this and other foolish 
 gossip which first induced the Queen, at the sug- 
 gestion of Prince Albert, to issue an official Court 
 Circular, which has been continued ever since. 
 
 The Queen had the baby constantly with her, 
 and thought incessantly about her, with the result 
 that the child was perhaps rather over-watched and 
 over-doctored. She was fed on asses' milk, arrow- 
 root, and chicken broth, which were measured out 
 so carefully that Lady L)i;telton fancied she left 
 off" hungry. Lady Lyttelton, indeed, had some 
 experience of this dieting craze, for her brother, 
 Lord Althorp, at one time, when he had a terror 
 of getting fat, used to weigh out his own breakfast 
 every morning, and when he had consumed the tiny 
 allowance used to hasten out of the room lest he 
 should be led into temptation! 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE PRINCESS ROYAL 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 9 
 
 The little Princess was over-sensitive and affec- 
 tionate, and rather irritable in temper, and with 
 a prophetic eye Lady Lyttelton says that "it looks 
 like a pretty mind, only very unfit for roughing 
 it through a hard life, which hers may be." 
 
 After the birth of the Prince of Wales, Lady 
 Lyttelton gives us a passing, but sufficiently ter- 
 rible glimpse of the anxieties which Royal parents 
 must all suffer, more or less. She mentions that 
 threatening letters aimed directly at the children 
 were received, and though they were probably 
 written by mad people, nevertheless no protection 
 in the way of locks, guard-rooms, and intricate 
 passages was omitted for the defence of the Royal 
 nurseries; while the master key was never out of 
 Prince Albert's own keeping. 
 
 The Princess Royal spent her second birthday 
 at Walmar Castle, and she is described as being 
 "most funny all day," joining in the cheers and 
 asking to be lifted up to look at "the people," to 
 whom she bowed very actively whether they could 
 see her or not. 
 
 Perhaps one reason why she became, and re- 
 mained, so fond of France was that from infancy 
 she was placed in the charge of a French lady, 
 Madame Charlier. She was very advanced 
 through all her childhood, especially in music and 
 painting, yet she remained quite natural and simple 
 in all her ways. 
 
 She was only three years old when Prince Albert 
 
10 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 wrote to Stockmar: "The children in whose wel- 
 fare you take so kindly an interest are making most 
 favourable progress. The eldest, 'Pussy,' is now 
 quite a little personage. She speaks English and 
 French with great fluency and choice of phrase." 
 But to her parents she generally talked German. 
 
 "Our Pussette/' the Queen writes a few weeks 
 afterwards, "learns a verse of Lamartine by heart, 
 which ends with *L€ tableau se deroule a mes pieds.' 
 To show how well she understood this difficult line, 
 I must tell you the following bon-mot. When she 
 was riding on her pony, and looking at the cows 
 and sheep, she turned to INIadame Charlier, and 
 said : ' Voila le tableau qui se deroule a mes pieds !' 
 Is not this extraordinary for a child of three years?" 
 
 It is evident that the oral teaching of languages 
 had very sensibly preceded that of books, for when 
 the Princess is four years and three months old 
 we hear that she is getting on ver^^ well with her 
 lessons, "but much is still to be done before she 
 can read." 
 
 In spite of her accomplisliments, she was a very 
 natural human child, and could be naughty on 
 occasion. Lady Lyttelton records about this time 
 that the Princess, after an hour's naughtiness, 
 said she wished to speak to her; but instead of the 
 expected penitence, she delivered herself as fol- 
 lows: "I am very sorry. Laddie, but I mean to be 
 just as naughty next time" — a threat which was 
 followed by a long imprisonment. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 11 
 
 Perhaps the Princess Royal's happiest days 
 were spent at Osborne, where she began going at 
 the age of five. There the Royal children had a 
 cottage, built on the Swiss model, to themselves. 
 It comprised a dining-room, a kitchen, a store- 
 room, and a museum; and in it the Princesses were 
 encouraged to learn how to do household work, and 
 to direct the management of a small establishment. 
 When in their Swiss cottage, each princess was 
 allowed to choose her own occupation and to 
 enjoy a certain liberty; their parents used to be 
 invited there as guests at meals which the Prin- 
 cess Royal and Princess Alice had themselves pre- 
 pared. 
 
 Years later, when they had both married to 
 Germany, there were certain tunes which neither 
 the Princess Royal nor Princess Alice could hear 
 without tears rising to their eyes, so powerfully did 
 the recollection of the happy birthda3^s and holidays 
 they spent at Osborne remain with them. Not 
 long before her death Princess Alice wrote to her 
 mother: "What a joyous childhood we had, and 
 how greatly it was enhanced by dear sweet Papa, 
 and by all your kindness to us!" 
 
 Many happy days were also spent by the Prin- 
 cesses at Balmoral. In the Highlands the re- 
 straints of Court life were entirely thrown off, and 
 the Queen encouraged her daughters to come into 
 close contact with the poorer classes of their neigh- 
 bours, indeed everything in reason was done to 
 
12 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 arouse their sympathies for the needy and the suf- 
 fering. 
 
 The Princess Royal showed even in her early 
 childhood an astonishing power of vivid expression. 
 For example, when she was about five and a half, 
 she found mentioned in a history book the name of 
 an ancient poet called Wace. Lady Lyttelton 
 thereupon observed that she had never heard of 
 that poet till then, but the Princess insisted: 
 "Oh, yes, I daresay you did, only you have for- 
 gotten it. Reflechissez ! Go back to your young- 
 ness and you will soon remember." 
 
 That the child had a natural and instinctive 
 religious feeling is shown by another incident. 
 She had narrowly escaped serious injury from 
 treading on a large nail, and Lady Lyttelton ex- 
 plained to her that it had pleased God to save her 
 from great pain. Instantly the child said : "Shall 
 we kneel down?" 
 
 In October 1847 the Princess Royal had an 
 accident which might have been very serious. 
 
 The children were riding with their ponies when 
 the Princess was quietly thrown after a few yards 
 of cantering. She was not hurt, but the Prince 
 of Wales's pony ran away with him. Fortunately 
 he was strapped into the saddle, and, after one loud 
 cry for help, he showed no signs of fear, but 
 cleverly kept as tight hold of the reins as he could 
 pull. The Princess Royal was not at all fright- 
 ened herself until she saw her brother's danger. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 13 
 
 and then she screamed out: "Oh, can't they stop 
 him? Dear Bertie!" and burst into tears. For- 
 tunately all ended well, and the children went on 
 riding as fearlessly as ever. 
 
 In October 1848 the Royal children, crossing in 
 the yacht Fairy from Osborne on their way to 
 Windsor, witnessed a terrible accident — the sink- 
 ing of a boatload of people in a sudden squall. It 
 made a deep impression on all the children, and 
 the Princess Royal kept thinking of it all that 
 night. 
 
 It is about this time that Lady Lyttelton ob- 
 serves: "The Princess Royal might pass, if not 
 seen but only overheard, for a young lady of seven- 
 teen in whichever of her three languages she chose 
 to entertain the company." 
 
 Nearly a year afterwards, Lady Lyttelton notes 
 that "dear Princessey" had been now perfectly 
 good ever since they came to Osborne, and she 
 says that she continues to reflect and observe and 
 reason like a very superior person, and is as affec- 
 tionate as ever. 
 
 Again, in April 1849, she notes every moment 
 more and more "the blessed improvement of the 
 Princess Royal." "She is becoming capable of 
 self-control and principle and patience, and her 
 wonderful powers of head and heart continue. 
 She may turn out a most distinguished character." 
 And a few months later she notes that "the Prin- 
 cess Royal is so enormously improved in manner, 
 
14 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 in temper, and conduct — altogether as really to 
 give a bright promise of all good. Her talent and 
 brilliancy have naturally lost no ground: she may 
 turn out something remarkable." All the children 
 showed real kindness to the poor, visiting them and 
 beginning to understand what poverty is. 
 
 The Princess accompanied her parents and the 
 Prince of Wales on a visit to Ireland in August 
 1849, and afterwards went to Cherbourg, that 
 being her first visit to France. It was during that 
 stay at Cherbourg that the cure of a neighbouring 
 village gave the young English Princess a charm- 
 ing sketch done by one of his parishioners, a then 
 unknown artist named Jean Francois Millet. 
 
 The Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales 
 made their first oflScial appearance in London on 
 October 30, 1849, when they represented their 
 mother, who was suffering from chicken-pox, at 
 the opening of the new Coal Exchange. The scene 
 has been often described, notably by Miss Alcott, 
 the author of Little Women, who was however, 
 naturally more interested in the Prince than in his 
 sister. 
 
 Much to their delight, the children went from 
 Westminster to the City in the State barge rowed 
 by twenty-six watermen, and all London turned 
 out to greet them. They were very wisely not 
 allowed to attend the big public luncheon, but were 
 given their lunch in a private room. Lady Lyttel- 
 ton mentions that the gentleman who made the 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 15 
 
 arrangements was so overcome by his loyal feelings 
 at the sight of the children that he melted into tears 
 and had to retire! 
 
 In the summer before the Princess's tenth birth- 
 day, Lady Lyttelton records: "Princess Royal 
 standing by me to-day, as I was trying a few chords 
 on the pianoforte, was pleased and pensive like her 
 old self. 'I like chords, one can read them. They 
 make one sometimes gay, sometimes sad. It used 
 to be too much for me to like formerly.' " 
 
 The year 1851 was memorable in the Princess 
 Royal's life, for it was then that she jfirst met her 
 future husband. 
 
 It has been said that Prince Frederick William 
 of Prussia, who was twenty at the time, became 
 attracted to his future wife during this first visit 
 of his to the English Court, when he accompanied 
 his parents and his only sister to see the Great Ex- 
 hibition. But that is surely absurd, for the Prin- 
 cess, charming and clever as she was, was then only 
 a child. 
 
 Still the English Court was probably never seen 
 to greater advantage than during that year of 
 miracles, and it is clear that the young Prussian 
 Prince saw for the first time a Royal family lead- 
 ing a happy, natural life, full of affection and 
 kindness. Queen Victoria's children were healthy, 
 well-mannered, and devoted to their parents, and 
 the leader and head of the little band was the Prin- 
 cess Royal, full of eager interest in everything she 
 
16 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 was allowed to see and know, blessed with high 
 spirits and a keen sense of humour even then al- 
 ready well developed. She was adored by her 
 father, and encouraged in every way to "produce 
 herself," to use an expressive French phrase. 
 
 Prince Frederick William could not but note 
 the contrast between the young people whose 
 friendship he was making at Windsor, and the shy, 
 etiquette-ridden Royal children of the minor Ger- 
 man courts. Nor could he help contrasting this 
 delightful domestic scene with what he knew at 
 home. At Berlin he was in constant contact with 
 a Royal family profoundly disunited and un- 
 happy. Only three years before his first visit to 
 England he had stood at the palace window and 
 seen the first shot fired in the Revolution of 1848. 
 
 Although the Prince had a tenderly-loved sister, 
 he had spent a lonely, austere youth, for his par- 
 ents, though outwardly on good terms, were in no 
 sense united as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert 
 were united — indeed, it was an open secret that the 
 Prince of Prussia had only one love in his life, 
 Elise Radziwill. 
 
 Prince Frederick William's sister was only a 
 very little older than the Princess Royal. The two 
 princesses formed on this visit a friendship destined 
 never to be broken, and henceforth the Royal chil- 
 dren called the Prince and Princess of Prussia 
 "Uncle Prussia" and 'Aunt Prussia." 
 
 The Great Exhibition itself undoubtedly helped 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD IT 
 
 to strengthen Prince Frederick William's attrac- 
 tion to England. The palace of glass in Hyde 
 Park absorbed the minds and thoughts of the whole 
 Royal family, if only because all those who were 
 old enough to understand anything of public affairs 
 were aware that the success or failure of the enter- 
 prise would seriously affect the position of Prince 
 Albert in England. 
 
 The feeling among the Royal family is shown 
 by a passage in a letter of Queen Victoria to Lady 
 Lyttelton. Writing on May 1, the opening day 
 of the Exhibition, Her Majesty said: 
 
 "The proudest and happiest day of — as you 
 truly call it — my happy life. To see this great 
 conception of my beloved husband's mind — to see 
 this great thought and work, crowned with trium- 
 phant success in spite of difficulties and opposition 
 of every imaginable kind, and of every effort to 
 which jealousy and calumny could resort to cause 
 its failure, has been an immense happiness to us 
 both." 
 
 Prince Frederick William, thoughtful beyond 
 his years, and already under the spell of Prince 
 Albert's kindly and affectionate interest, began 
 to regard England as the model State, and took 
 most significant pains to make himself better ac- 
 quainted with her national life and polity. Even 
 on this comparatively short visit he found time to 
 make an excursion to the industrial North. 
 
 On his return to Bonn University his admiration 
 
18 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 for England by no means waned, and his English 
 tutor, Mr. Perry, gives us an interesting glimpse 
 of the thoroughness with which he set to work to 
 increase his knowledge: 
 
 "At the request of the Prince, I visited him 
 three times a week, and had the honour of superin- 
 tending his studies in English history and litera- 
 ture, in both of which he took special interest. 
 His love for England and his great veneration of 
 the Queen were most remarkable, and our inter- 
 course became very agreeable and confidential. 
 He manifested the keenest interest for all that I 
 was able to tell him of England's political and 
 social life, and when our more serious studies were 
 over, we amused ourselves by writing imaginary 
 letters to Ministers and leading members of Eng- 
 lish society." 
 
 It was in truth with England that Prince Fred- 
 erick William fell in love on this memorable visit, 
 not with the little Princess Royal, though he was 
 undoubtedly attracted, as all the people round her 
 were, by her winning charm and quick intelligence. 
 
 The idea of a marriage between the two had, 
 however, occurred to other people, as is shown by 
 the fact that in the following year the Princess of 
 Prussia desired to visit England with a view to 
 suggesting it. But the Prince's uncle. King Fred- 
 erick William IV, influenced by his pro-Russian 
 consort, did not look on the proposal with favour, 
 and it remained in abeyance, partly on account of 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 19 
 
 the Princess Royal's youth, partly owing to the 
 outbreak of the Crimean War. 
 
 The Crimean War made an immense impression 
 on the Princess Royal. For months the Queen, 
 the Prince, and the elder Royal children thought 
 and talked of nothing else. The children con- 
 tributed drawings to be sold for the benefit of the 
 war funds, and we know that the Princess's emo- 
 tions were deeplj?^ stirred by the thought of the 
 sufferings of the wounded and by the work of 
 Florence Nightingale, which was followed with 
 intense interest in the Royal circle. The Princess 
 in fact was able at a most impressionable age to 
 realise something of the horrors of war, and this 
 was destined, as we shall see, to bear rich fruit. 
 
 The war also led directly to the Princess's first 
 real sight of France. In August, 1855, the Prin- 
 cess Royal and the Prince of Wales accompanied 
 their parents on a State visit to the Emperor Na- 
 poleon III and the Empress Eugenie. 
 
 Of this visit a story was told at the time which 
 greatly delighted all the Royal families of the Con- 
 tinent. Much as Queen Victoria and Prince Al- 
 bert were respected for their solid virtues, their 
 artistic taste in matters of dress was considered to 
 be not always infallible. It was feared at the 
 French Court that the Princess Royal would be 
 dressed, not exactly unbecomingly, but in a style 
 which would by no means harmonise with Parisian 
 taste and Parisian surroundings. The question 
 
20 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 was how to beguile her parents into dressing the 
 child in a suitable manner. 
 
 In this difficulty someone suggested a really bril- 
 liant stratagem. The height and other measure- 
 ments of the Princess Royal were obtained, and a 
 doll of exactly corresponding size was procured, 
 provided with a large and exquisitely finished ward- 
 robe, and despatched to Buckingham Palace as an 
 Imperial gift to the Princess. The expected then 
 happened. Queen Victoria transferred most of 
 the doll's wardrobe to her daughter, with the result 
 that the Princess appeared at her best and every- 
 one was pleased. 
 
 The children stayed at the delightful country 
 palace of Saint Cloud, whence they drove in every 
 day to see the sights of Paris. They were not, of 
 course, present at evening entertainments, but an 
 exception was made on the occasion of the great 
 ball held in the Galeries des Glaces at Versailles, 
 when they supped with the Emperor and Empress. 
 They both became sincerely attached to the Em- 
 peror, who was himself very fond of children. In- 
 deed, his young guests enjoyed themselves so much 
 that, according to an oft-quoted story, the Prince 
 of Wales asked that his sister and himself might 
 stay on after their parents had gone home, "for 
 there are six more of us at home and they don't 
 want usr 
 
 As to their conduct, Prince Albert wrote to the 
 Duchess of Kent: "I am bound to praise the chil- 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD 21 
 
 dren greatly. They behaved extremely well, and 
 pleased everybody. The task was no easy one for 
 them, but they discharged it without embarrass- 
 ment and with natural simplicity." 
 
 This visit laid the foundation of that strong 
 affection and admiration for France and the 
 French which thenceforth characterised the Prin- 
 cess Royal. It was on this visit, too, that she con- 
 ceived her enthusiastic adoration of the Empress 
 Eugenie. Her character was now beginning to be 
 formed, and it is the key to the tragedy of her life, 
 for a cruel fate so ordered her future that, while 
 she was made to pay the full penalty for her fail- 
 ings, her many lovable and generous qualities 
 seemed often to find none but the most grudging 
 recognition. 
 
 During the whole of her life, the Princess Royal 
 had a peculiarity which only belongs to the gener- 
 ous-hearted and impulsive. She was apt to be 
 violently attracted, sometimes for very little reason, 
 to those she met, and then she would be proportion- 
 ately cast down if these new friends and acquaint- 
 ances did not turn out on fuller knowledge all that 
 she had expected them to be. Those who knew 
 her well are agreed in saying that she was not a 
 good judge of character. She was apt to see in 
 human beings what she expected to see, not what 
 was there. She not only liked some people at first 
 sight, but she haid an equally instinctive dislike of 
 others, and this was an even greater misfortune. 
 
22 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 for sometimes the prejudices she thus formed were 
 hard to eradicate. In this she was quite unlike 
 Queen Victoria, who, having once formed a wrong 
 impression, w^as capable of altering it entirely if 
 she was given good reason to change her mind. 
 
 As she grew up to womanhood, the Princess 
 Royal was very wisely allowed to make the ac- 
 quaintance of some of the brilliant men and women 
 of the day who were admitted to her parents* 
 friendship. One of these was the second Lord 
 Granville, the "Pussy" Granville who was after- 
 wards Foreign Minister in Mr. Gladstone's 
 Cabinets, and we may conclude this chapter with 
 a quotation which shows how he could count on 
 the young Princess's appreciation of a funny story. 
 
 Lord Granville, who went to St. Petersburg as 
 the head of the special British oNIission at the cor- 
 onation of the Tsar Alexander, wrote a long letter 
 to Queen Victoria, in which he requested the Queen 
 to convey his respectful remembrances to the Prin- 
 cess Royal; and he went on to advise the Princess, 
 when residing abroad, not to engage a Russian 
 maid: 'Lady Wodehouse found hers eating the 
 contents of a pot on her dressing-table, which hap- 
 pened to be castor-oil pomatum for the hairl" 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BETROTHAL 
 
 E\"EN in the days of her extreme youth, Queen 
 Victoria, owing to the fact that she was the reign- 
 ing Sovereign, had to know much that is generally 
 concealed from the young concerning the private 
 lives and careers of their relatives. This is made 
 abundantly clear in the extracts from her Majesty's 
 private diary which have already been published. 
 
 In these intimate records, written by the girl 
 Queen herself, we see that Lord Melbourne early 
 decided never to treat his Royal mistress as a 
 child. When she asked him a question he evidently 
 answered her truthfully; and she must have asked 
 him many questions concerning that group of 
 princes and princesses who, even then, were already 
 known as the "Old Royal Family." They were 
 Queen Victoria's own aunts and uncles; and over 
 those who were still living when she came to the 
 throne she possessed, as Sovereign, very peculiar 
 and extended powers. It was inevitable that they 
 should play a considerable part, if not in her life, 
 certainly in her imagination; and yet we hardly 
 ever find them mentioned in the work she directly 
 supervised and inspired' — the life of the Prince 
 Consort. Her fear, her contempt, her horror, of 
 
 S3 
 
24 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the way they had conducted their lives, her dread 
 lest even their innocent follies, and their sad trage- 
 dies of the heart, should be repeated in the lives of 
 her own sons and daughters, were perhaps only 
 revealed to trusted friends in her old age. 
 
 It may even be doubted if Queen Victoria ever 
 communicated to Prince Albert certain of the facts 
 which had necessarily to be made known to her. 
 Whether she did so or not, the course she very 
 early set herself to pursue — a course, be it remem- 
 bered, in which she persisted at a time when she 
 seemed to lack courage and energy to go on even 
 with life itself, that is during the years that im- 
 mediately succeeded the Prince Consort's death — 
 proved how determined she was to secure that the 
 lives of her children should be entirely different 
 from those of their great-uncles and great-aunts. 
 
 That her daughters, and later her grand-daugh- 
 ters, should marry early, and make marriages of 
 inclination; that her sons' wives should be chosen 
 among princesses young, charming, sympathetic, 
 and personally attractive to each prince concerned 
 — this was one of Queen Victoria's chief and most 
 anxious preoccupations. She may have tried to 
 guide inclination, she undoubtedly tried to arrange 
 suitable alliances, but in no single case did she ever 
 seriously oppose a marriage based on strong at- 
 traction. 
 
 In that matter Queen Victoria was a typical 
 Englishwoman. To her mind, a union between a 
 
BETROTHAL 25 
 
 young man and a young woman based on any other 
 foundation save strong mutual love and confidence, 
 was vile; and all through her life she wished 
 ardently to ensure that those marital blessings 
 which fall comparatively often on ordinary people, 
 but comparatively seldom on members of the Royal 
 caste, should be the lot of her immediate descend- 
 ants. 
 
 It was natural that the Queen, with that eager 
 enthusiasm which was so much a part of her char- 
 acter, especially in this still radiantly happy period 
 of her life, should have welcomed the thought of 
 a marriage between her eldest daughter and the 
 future King of Prussia. She had formed the most 
 favourable opinion of Prince Frederick William 
 during his brief sojourn in England in 1851. He 
 was a man of high and honourable character at a 
 time when such virtues were rare among the mar- 
 riageable princes of reigning families, and his par- 
 ents were regarded by the Queen and Prince Al- 
 bert as among their dearest and most intimate 
 friends. 
 
 The Prince of Prussia had spent some time in 
 England after the BerUn revolution of 1848, and 
 on parting from Madame Bunsen, the wife of the 
 Prussian Minister, he had exclaimed: "In no 
 other State or country could I have passed so well 
 the period of distress and anxiety through which 
 I have gone." During his stay he had become in- 
 timate with the Queen and Prince Albert — indeed, 
 
26 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the Queen, as was her way when she trusted and 
 admired, had grown to be warmly attached to him. 
 She regarded him as noble-minded, honest, and 
 cruelly wronged; and, what naturally endeared 
 him to her still more, he showed great confidence in 
 Prince Albert, apparently always accepting the 
 advice constantly tendered him by the Prince. 
 
 All through his life Prince Albert had seen a 
 vision of a Germany united under the leadership of 
 Prussia, and it was delightful to him to learn that 
 it was now open to him to enter into a close rela- 
 tionship with one whom he naturally believed 
 destined to play a supreme part in the regeneration 
 of his beloved fatherland. It is not generally 
 known that Prince All>ert had written a pamphlet 
 entitled "The German Question Explained," in 
 which he propounded a scheme for a federated 
 German Empire with an Emperor at the head. 
 This pamphlet must have been either privately 
 printed or withdrawn from circulation, for not even 
 Sir Theodore Martin, when writing the Prince's 
 life, could procure a copy. 
 
 This suggested marriage of the Princess Royal 
 opened out to her father the fair prospect of being 
 able to bring about by his counsel and assistance 
 the realisation of his disinterested ambitions for the 
 future welfare of Germany. The then King of 
 Prussia was already sick unto death; the Prince of 
 Prussia had now passed middle age; everything 
 pointed to the probabiHty that within a reasonable 
 
BETROTHAL 2T 
 
 time Prince Frederick William would become ruler 
 of Prussia and, incidentally, overlord of the Ger- 
 man peoples. 
 
 There is good authority for the truth of the now 
 famous story of "La Belle Alliance." 
 
 In 1852 the Princess of Prussia came to Eng- 
 land on a short visit to her aunt, Queen Adelaide. 
 The then Prussian Envoy, Baron von Bunsen, 
 while waiting to be received by the Princess, turned 
 over in her sitting-room some engravings which had 
 been sent by a print-seller; among them was that 
 of a painting of the farm-house at Waterloo named 
 by the Belgians, "La Belle Alliance." In the same 
 room was a portrait of the Princess Royal and one 
 of Prince Frederick William. The Baron placed 
 the two portraits side by side over the engraving, 
 and when the Princess entered the room, he silently 
 pointed out to her what he had done, and she saw 
 the two young faces above the words "La Belle 
 Alliance." "A rapid glance was exchanged, but 
 not a word was spoken," wrote Baron von Bunsen's 
 son many years after. 
 
 As for the young Prince himself, when the ques- 
 tion of his marriage had to be discussed, it was 
 natural that his first thought, as also, it is clear, 
 that of his mother, turned to England — to that 
 affectionately united Royal family who were the 
 envied model of all European Courts. The feel- 
 ing of that day is indicated by a curious caricature, 
 which was largely reproduced on the Continent. 
 
28 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 It shows a huge pair of scales. In one scale, high 
 in the air, stand huddled together the then reign- 
 ing sovereigns of Europe; in the other, touching 
 the ground, proudly alone, stands the slight figure 
 of Queen Victoria. Under the cartoon runs the 
 significant words, "Light Sovereigns." 
 
 England alone among the nations had had no 
 trouble worth speaking of in '48, and among the 
 Princesses and Queens of her day it was believed 
 that Queen Victoria alone possessed the faithful 
 love of her husband. 
 
 The greatest obstacle to the marriage, though 
 neither Queen Victoria nor Prince Albert sus- 
 pected it, was the King of Prussia himself. It is 
 plain that at no time did he favour the suggestion, 
 and that at last he yielded was in response to a 
 strong appeal made to him in person by the young 
 Prince. But, even so, the King desired the mat- 
 ter to be kept secret as long as possible. He did 
 not even tell his Queen, and his own immediate 
 circle and Household only heard of the betrothal 
 when it was being widely rumoured in the German 
 newspapers. 
 
 General von Gerlach came to the King one day 
 with a sheet of the Cologne Gazette and indignantly 
 complained of the "absurd reports that were being 
 spread about." It is said that the young Prince 
 was going on to England from Ostend for the 
 purpose of proposing for the hand of an English 
 Princess. The King laughed aloud, and observed: 
 
BETROTHAL 29 
 
 *'Well, yes, and it is really the case," to the amaze- 
 ment and consternation of von Gerlach. 
 
 While the matter was being thus discussed at 
 Berlin, the Princess Royal was kept in absolute 
 ignorance. But the Crimean War and the subse- 
 quent visit to France had quickened her sensibili- 
 ties, turned her from a child into a woman, and 
 made her in a measure ready for the event which 
 was about to occur. It should, however, be plainly 
 said — the more so because later historians have 
 blamed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the 
 matter — that neither of her parents was willing 
 even to consider the idea of any immediate be- 
 trothal. On the contrary, they wished that the two 
 young people should meet in an easy friendly 
 fashion, and thus have a real opportunity of becom- 
 ing well acquainted the one with the other. 
 
 Prince Frederick William of Prussia arrived at 
 Balmoral on September 14, 1855. He allowed 
 some days to elapse, and then, on the morning of 
 the 20th, he sought out Queen Victoria and laid 
 before her and Prince Albert his proposal of mar- 
 riage. That proposal the parents of the Princess 
 Royal accepted in principle, but they requested 
 him to say nothing to their daughter till after she 
 had been confirmed. It was their wish that, for 
 some months at any rate, the young Princess should 
 continue the simple yet full life of unconstrained 
 girlhood. It was therefore suggested that the 
 Prince should return in the following spring. The 
 
30 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Queen also stipulated that the marriage should not 
 take place till after the Princess Royal's seven- 
 teenth birthday. 
 
 After this interview with Prince Frederick Wil- 
 liam, Prince Albert wrote to Stockmar: 
 
 "I have been much pleased with him. His 
 prominent qualities are great thought, straight- 
 forwardness, frankness, and honesty. He appears 
 to be free from prejudices, and pre-eminently well- 
 intentioned; he speaks of himself as personally 
 greatly attracted by Vicky. That she will have no 
 objection to make I regard as probable." 
 
 Prince Albert wrote the following day to Lord 
 Clarendon, who was then Foreign Minister, in- 
 forming him that he might communicate the news 
 to the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, and to 
 no one else. "Pam" was pleased to approve, de- 
 claring that the marriage would be in the interest, 
 not only of the two countries, but of Europe in 
 general. 
 
 Queen Victoria did not fail to communicate the 
 interesting secret to her beloved imcle. King Leo- 
 pold, observing that her wishes on the subject of 
 the future marriage of her daughter had been re- 
 alised in the most gratifying and satisfactory man- 
 ner. Indeed, she spoke of the joy with which she 
 and Prince Albert for their part had accepted the 
 suitor, while she reiterated that "the child herself 
 is to know nothing till after her confirmation, which 
 is to take place next winter." 
 
BETROTHAL 31 
 
 The days went on, and a sincere effort was made 
 to keep what had taken place from the knowledge 
 of the young Princess. Letters of warm congratu- 
 lation arrived from Coblentz, as well as a very 
 cordial message from the King of Prussia. Prince 
 Frederick William's relations were quite at one with 
 the Queen and Prince Albert as to the propriety of 
 postponing the betrothal till after the Princess 
 Royal's confirmation. 
 
 But the plan so carefully made was not destined 
 to be carried out. The Prince was very much in 
 love, and, as the Emperor of the French truly ob- 
 served in a letter to Prince Albert: "On devine ceux 
 qui aiment." It was impossible to keep such a 
 secret, and one which so closely concerned herself, 
 from a girl as clever and mentally alive as the 
 Princess Royal. What happened is best told in 
 Queen Victoria's entry in her diary on Septem- 
 ber 29 : 
 
 "Our dear Victoria was this day engaged to 
 Prince Frederick William of Prussia, who had been 
 on a visit to us since the 14th. He had already 
 spoken to us, on the 20th, of his wishes ; but we were 
 uncertain, on account of her extreme youth, whether 
 he should speak to her himself, or wait till he came 
 back again. However, we felt it was better he 
 should do so, and during our ride up Craig-na-Ban 
 this afternoon, he picked a piece of white heather 
 (the emblem of 'good luck,') which he gave to her; 
 and this enabled him to make an allusion to his 
 
32 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 hopes and wishes as they rode down Glen Girnoch, 
 which led to this happy conclusion." 
 
 A few days later her father wrote to Stockmar: 
 "She manifested towards Fritz and ourselves the 
 most childlike simj^licity and candour. The young 
 people are ardently in love with one another, and 
 the purity, innocence, and unselfishness of the 
 young man have been on his part touching." To 
 Mr. Perry, his English tutor at Bonn, the Prince 
 declared that his engagement was not politics, nor 
 ambition, "It was my heart." 
 
 At the time of her engagement the Princess 
 Roj-al was not yet fifteen, and it was arranged that 
 the marriage should take place in two years and 
 three months. 
 
 In one respect the Princess was singularly for- 
 tunate. In the majority of Royal marriages, the 
 bride has not only to make her home in a country 
 where everything will be foreign to her, but she is 
 sometimes even ignorant of the language, manners, 
 and customs which she will have henceforth to adopt 
 as her own. 
 
 The Princess Royal, however, had to undergo 
 no such sudden initiation. To her Germany was 
 in truth a second fatherland, if only as the birth- 
 place of her beloved father. She had been as 
 familiar with the German as with the English 
 language from her birth, constantly writing long 
 letters to German relations and friends, and keep- 
 ing up — to give but one instance — a close cor- 
 
'^••^miA^: 
 
 THE PRINCESS ROYAL 
 AND THE INFANT PRINCE OF WALES 
 
BETROTHAL 33 
 
 respondence with her parents' trusted friend, 
 Baron Stockmar, who had for her the greatest af- 
 fection and admiration. 
 
 In a letter quoted in his memoirs Stockmar says : 
 "From her youth upwards I have been fond of her, 
 have always expected great things of her, and taken 
 all pains to be of service to her. I think her to be 
 exceptionally gifted in some things, even to the 
 point of genius." 
 
 This familiarity with the German language was 
 very well as a foundation, but Prince Albert con- 
 sidered that there was much to build on it. The 
 whole of the Princess's education was now arranged 
 solely with a view to the life she was to lead as wife 
 of the Prussian heir-presumptive. In addition to 
 giving her, for an hour every day, special instruc- 
 tion in German political and legal institutions and 
 sociology, Prince Albert made her henceforth his 
 intellectual companion, preparing her as if she was 
 destined to be a reigning sovereign rather than a 
 queen consort. Not only did he discuss with her 
 all current international questions, but he read her 
 the long political letters he received daily from 
 abroad, and discussed with her what he should write 
 in reply. 
 
 It was indeed a mental training which, particu- 
 larly in those 'fifties which now seem so remote 
 from us, would have been deemed only appropriate 
 for the cleverest of boys in a private station. But 
 Prince Albert had long known that his daughter 
 
34 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 was a good deal cleverer than most boys, and he was 
 really running no risks in subjecting her to this in- 
 telligent preparation for her high destiny. As 
 much as he could, he taught her himself, and such 
 teaching as was entrusted to others he supervised 
 with conscientious care. 
 
 In one of his letters to his future son-in-law, the 
 Prince wrote: "Vicky is learning many and various 
 things. She comes to me every evening from six to 
 seven, when I put her through a kind of general 
 catechising. In order to make her ideas clear, I 
 let her work out subjects for herself, which she 
 then brings to me for correction. She is at present 
 writing a short compendium of Roman history." 
 
 In order to give the Princess a clear picture of 
 German policy — or rather of German policy as 
 Prince Albert then hoped it would become, that' 
 is, broad and liberal in conception and aim — he set 
 her to translate a German pamphlet published at 
 Weimar. This essay by J. G. Droysen, entitled 
 **Karl August und die Deutsche Politik," would 
 be counted rather stiff reading even by experts. 
 But the Princess seems to have done her task ad- 
 mirably, and the proud father sent the manuscript 
 to Lord Clarendon, who was genuinely impressed 
 by the way it had been translated. He wrote back 
 to the Prince : 
 
 "In reading Droysen I felt that the motto of 
 Prussia should be semper eadem, and in thinking 
 of his translator I felt that she is destined to change 
 
BETROTHAL 35 
 
 that motto into the vigilando ascendimus of Wei- 
 mar." 
 
 The statesman added the further tribute to the 
 young translator: "The Princess's manner would 
 not be what it is if it were not the reflection of a 
 highly cultivated intellect, which, with a well- 
 trained imagination, leads to the saying and doing 
 of right things in right places." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 
 
 The Queen and Prince Albert, as we know, much 
 wished to keep the fact of the Princess's engage- 
 ment a secret from the pubhc. But rumour was 
 naturally busy with the visit of the Prussian Prince 
 to Balmoral, and on the day after his departure, 
 that is on October 3, there appeared in the Times 
 a leading article, in which the proposed alliance of 
 the Princess Royal was alluded to with anything 
 but approval — indeed, in Germany the article was 
 considered grossly insulting both to the King of 
 Prussia and to Germany. Prince Albert was very 
 much angered at the terms in which it was written, 
 which he described as "foolish and degrading to 
 this country." 
 
 But the article was really inspired by a con- 
 sciousness of the violent dislike of England enter- 
 tained by the Court of Prussia, and especially by 
 the camarilla surrounding the then sovereign and 
 his consort, and this was better realised by publi- 
 cists than by Royal circles in England. 
 
 Amazing as it may seem to us now, it is never- 
 theless abundantly clear that neither Queen Vic- 
 toria nor Prince Albert, well served as they were 
 in some respects by the faithful Stockmar, had any 
 idea of the real situation at the Prussian Court. 
 
 36 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 37 
 
 The extreme youth of their daughter made them 
 wish to postpone the marriage for a while, but there 
 is no hint in any of the many letters and documents 
 which have now come to light of the slightest fear 
 that she would lack a good reception in that new 
 country which she already loved as part of Prince 
 Albert's fatherland. On the contrary, the Prince 
 had evidently persuaded himself that his daughter's 
 marriage would be very popular in Germany — more 
 popular than it happened to be just then in EfUg- 
 land. Like most men of high, strong, narrow char- 
 acter, Prince Albert never allowed himself to per- 
 ceive what at the moment he did not wish to see. 
 
 This view is entirely borne out by the letters 
 which Prince Albert wrote then and later to the 
 Prince of Prussia. Even when addressing one who 
 was far older than himself, and already in the posi- 
 tion of a ruler, he alwa3^s assumed the attitude of 
 mentor rather than of adviser; and as one glances 
 over the immensely long epistles, dealing with a 
 state of things of which the writer could know but 
 very little, one wonders if the future Emperor Wil- 
 liam had the patience always to read them to the 
 very end. Even were there no other evidence ex- 
 isting, these letters remain to show how curiously 
 lacking Prince Albert was in that knowledge of ele- 
 mentary human nature which belongs to so many 
 commoner types of mind. 
 
 The Prince Consort's misapprehension is the 
 more extraordinary when we consider that his 
 
38 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 brother, Duke Ernest of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 
 judged the situation with accuracy. In a letter 
 pubhshed in his memoirs the Duke says: 
 
 "The family events at Balmoral and Stolzenfels 
 [King Frederick William IV was staying at Stol- 
 zenfels when he received the news of the engage- 
 ment of his nephew to the Princess Royal and of 
 his niece, Princess Louise, to the Prince Regent of 
 Baden] gave rise to all kinds of dissatisfaction in 
 many reactionary circles of the Prussian capital. 
 The more the Liberal papers of Germany ap- 
 plauded, the more disagreeably was the other side 
 affected by the unpopularity of the circumstances 
 which threatened to strengthen, at the Court of 
 Berlin, the influence of the Royal relations whose 
 sentiments were not regarded with favour. One of 
 the peculiarities of Frederick William IV was that, 
 with reference to his personal sympathies, he would 
 not submit to any coercion from those who were 
 familiar with politics and affairs of State, so that 
 the secret opponents had to beware of expressing 
 their displeasure at the new family connections." 
 
 As we have seen, the King of Prussia had kept 
 his own counsel in the affair of his nephew's en- 
 gagement, which he had only sanctioned in conse- 
 quence of Prince Frederick William's strong 
 personal appeal. His Queen was intensely pro- 
 Russian, and as a result of the Crimean War had 
 conceived a positive hatred for England and the 
 English. 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 39 
 
 As for the Princess of Prussia, afterwards the 
 Empress Augusta, she was a woman of the highest 
 cultivation, the old cultivation of Weimar and of 
 the French eighteenth century, but she had not 
 much influence in Berlin, where even then she was 
 said to be strongly inclined to Roman Catholicism. 
 The Prince of Prussia was himself not really popu- 
 lar. It was inevitable therefore, in all the circum- 
 stances, that the prospect of an English alliance 
 should become a fresh cause of contention and divi- 
 sion, in which the voices of disapproval decidedly 
 prevailed. 
 
 Even after the engagement had been actually 
 announced. Prince Frederick William told Lady 
 Bloomfield, the wife of the British Minister in Ber- 
 lin, that, though he was very much disappointed 
 that the Queen and Prince Albert wished the mar- 
 riage to be postponed as the Princess Royal was so 
 young, it was perhaps a good thing, for by that 
 time party spirit in Prussia would run less high. 
 The strength of that party spirit was ominously 
 shown on the occasion of the marriage of the 
 Prince's sister. Princess Louise, when the great no- 
 bility of Prussia ostentatiously absented themselves 
 from the festivities. 
 
 General von Gerlach, who as we have seen ex- 
 tracted from the King of Prussia that dry admission 
 that the rumours of the English engagement were 
 well-founded, drew also a more interesting com- 
 ment on the news from a very different personage. 
 
40 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Bismarck, who was already regarded as a man with 
 a future, and at the time held an important diplo- 
 matic post at the Diet at Frankfort, wrote to the 
 General on April 8, 1856, a commentary which was 
 in some ways extraordinarily prophetic: 
 
 "You ask me in your letter what I think of the 
 English marriage. I must separate the two words 
 to give you my opinion. The 'English' in it does 
 not please me, the 'marriage' may be quite good, 
 for the Princess has the reputation of a lady of brain 
 and heart. If the Princess can leave the English- 
 woman at home and become a Prussian, then she 
 may be a blessing to the countrj^ If our future 
 Queen on the Prussian throne remains the least bit 
 English, then I see our Court surrounded by Eng- 
 lish influence, and yet us, and the many other fu- 
 ture sons-in-law of her gi'acious INIajesty, receiving 
 no notice in England save when the Opposition in 
 Parliament runs down our Royal family and 
 country. On the other hand, with us, British in- 
 fluence will find a fruitful soil in the noted admira- 
 tion of the German '^lichael' for lords and guineas, 
 in the Anglomania of papers, sportsmen, country 
 gentlemen, &:c. Every Berliner feels exalted when 
 a real English jockey from Hart or Lichtwald 
 speaks to him and gives him an opportunity of 
 breaking the Queen's English on a wheel. What' 
 will it be like when the first lady in the land is an 
 Englishwoman ?" 
 
 Not less interesting in their way are the com- 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 41 
 
 ments which Prince Albert's brother, Duke Ernest, 
 made on his niece's betrothal : 
 
 "The Royal House of Prussia has long afforded 
 in its genealogical history a singular spectacle of 
 waverings between the West and East of Europe. 
 While family alliances between Orthodox Russia 
 and Catholic Austria were almost wholly excluded, 
 the Protestant faith did not at all prevent the Ho- 
 henzollerns from having a strong leaning towards 
 the family of the Tsars, and the connections which 
 were thus made undoubtedly exerted their influ- 
 ence upon Germany. The Crimean War may be 
 regarded as a political lesson on this concatenation 
 of circumstances. Was it not most extraordinary 
 that even before peace had been concluded with 
 Russia, the Royal House of Prussia was, in its 
 matrimonial aims, on the point of exhibiting a 
 marked tendency towards the West of Europe? 
 The union of a Prussian heir-apparent with a Prin- 
 cess of my House, with its numerous branches, was 
 an event which at the time unquestionably seemed 
 opposed to the Russian tradition. 
 
 "If we remember how at the end of the war 
 everyone looked upon my brother as the active 
 force against Russia, though at the beginning this 
 was by no means clear, the marriage of a Prussian 
 Prince who was destined to the succession with 
 a daughter of the Queen of England necessa- 
 rily possessed a decided political character. My 
 brother, however, loved his eldest daughter too well 
 
42 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 to be influenced entirely by political considerations 
 in respect of her marriage; and I often had an 
 opportunity of observing that the chief wish of his 
 heart for many years had been to see his favourite 
 child occupy some exalted position. With paternal 
 ambition, he was wont to picture to himself his 
 promising daughter, whose abilities had been early 
 developed, upon a lofty throne, but, more than all, 
 I know that he was anxious to make her also truly 
 happy. The Prince of Prussia, above all other 
 scions of reigning Houses, afforded the greatest 
 hopes for the future." 
 
 There was another Court at which the news of 
 the engagement was regarded with mixed feelings. 
 The Emperor Napoleon at first received the Anglo- 
 Prussian alliance almost with dismay. He feared 
 that, by strengthening Prussian influence, it would 
 have the effect of weakening, and possibly destroy- 
 ing, the French understanding with England. But 
 he allowed himself to be reassured by Lord Claren- 
 don, who declared that Queen Victoria's affection 
 for the House of Prussia was private and personal, 
 and had nothing to do with politics. Prince Fred- 
 erick William, returning by way of Paris as a suc- 
 cessful suitor, had brought the Emperor a letter 
 from the Queen, and to it Napoleon replied, rather 
 coldly : 
 
 "We like the Prince very much, and I do not 
 doubt that he will make the Princess happy, for 
 he seems to me to possess every characteristic 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 43 
 
 quality belonging to his age and rank. We en- 
 deavoured to make his stay here as pleasant as 
 possible, but I found his thoughts were always 
 either at Osborne or at Windsor." 
 
 It was on this visit of the Prince's that the Em- 
 press Eugenie made the following comments in a 
 letter to an intimate friend, which, in view of those 
 later events in which Moltke played so great a part, 
 possess a pathetic significance: 
 
 "The Prince is a tall, handsome man, almost a 
 head taller than the Emperor; he is slim and fair, 
 with a light yellow moustache — in fact, a Teuton 
 such as Tacitus described, chivalrously polite, and 
 not without a resemblance to Hamlet. His com- 
 panion, Herr von Moltke (or some such name), is 
 a man of few words, but nothing less than a 
 dreamer, always on the alert, and surprising one 
 by the most telling remarks. The Germans are 
 an imposing race. Louis says it is the race of the 
 future. Bah ! Nous n'en sommes pas encore la." 
 
 There was also a neighbouring sovereign to 
 whose opinion all those who appreciate the com- 
 plex dynastic relations of that period will be in- 
 clined to attach importance. This was the King 
 of the Belgians. 
 
 Though he was in no sense the noble, selfless 
 human being Queen Victoria took him to be. King 
 Leopold was nevertheless a very shrewd judge of 
 human nature, and had evidently seen enough of 
 the Princess Royal to note certain peculiarities in 
 
44 THE EMPRESS FREDEORICK 
 
 her character which had escaped the loving, partial 
 eyes of her parents. This is clearly shown in a let- 
 ter written by Queen Victoria in the December of 
 1856. In this letter there is a passage, prefaced by 
 "Now one word about Vicky," in which the Queen 
 protests that she has never seen her daughter take 
 any predilection to a person which was not motive 
 by a certain amiability, goodness, or distinction of 
 some kind or other. She goes on to say: "You 
 need be under no apprehension whatever on this 
 subject; and she has moreover great tact and esprit 
 de conduite." 
 
 This surely makes it clear that King Leopold 
 was aware of the sudden fancies which the Prin- 
 cess Roj'al, even at that early age, often showed 
 to those who attracted her, and that for no sufficient 
 reason. Probably in this case he was thinking of 
 the Princess Royal's passionate attachment to the 
 Empress Eugenie — an attachment which lasted all 
 through her youth, and which perhaps had more 
 justification for it than some other of her enthusi- 
 asms for individuals. 
 
 In England, at any rate at first, the news of the 
 engagement was received rather coldly, almost as 
 if it was a mesalliance, though the knowledge that 
 it was really a love-match did much to reconcile 
 public opinion. The following passage from a let- 
 ter written by Mr. Cobden, at this time the trium- 
 phant protagonist of the Anti-Corn Law League, 
 reflects as well as anything the general feeling 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 45 
 
 that the bridegroom was indeed "a lucky fellow": 
 "It is generally thought that the young Prince 
 Frederick William of Prussia is to be married to 
 our Princess Royal. I was dining tete-a-tete with 
 Mr. Buchanan, the American Minister, a few days 
 ago, who had dined the day before at the Queen's 
 table, and sat next to the Princess Royal. He 
 was in raptures about her, and said she was the 
 most charming girl he had ever met: 'All life and 
 spirit, full of frolic and fun, with an excellent head, 
 and a heart as hig as a mountain' — those were his 
 words. Another friend of mine. Colonel Fitz- 
 mayer, dined with the Queen last week, and, in 
 writing to me a description of the company, he says 
 that when the Princess Royal smiles, 'it makes one 
 feel as if additional light were thrown upon the 
 scene.' So I should judge that this said Prince is 
 a lucky fellow, and I trust he will make a good hus- 
 band. If not, although a man of peace, I shall 
 consider it a casus belli!'' 
 
 To the bride's parents, if not to herself and her 
 betrothed, the fact that the marriage negotiations 
 were not quite pleasantly conducted must have been 
 not only painful but astonishing. It was actually 
 suggested that the ceremony should take place in 
 Berlin, but Queen Victoria very properly scouted 
 the proposal, which was really in the circumstances 
 disagreeably like an insult. She wrote in her em- 
 phatic, italicising way to Lord Clarendon, the 
 Foreign Secretary: 
 
46 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 "The Queen never could consent to it, both for 
 public and private reasons, and the assumption of 
 its being too much for a Prince Royal of Prussia 
 to come over to marry the Princess Royal of Great 
 Britain IN England is too absurd, to say the least. 
 The Queen must say that there never was even the 
 shadow of a doubt on Prince Frederick William's 
 part as to where the marriage should take place, 
 and she suspects this to be the mere gossip of the 
 Berliners. Whatever may be the usual practice of 
 Prussian Princes, it is not every day that one mar- 
 ries the eldest daughter of the Queen of England. 
 The question therefore must be considered as settled 
 and closed." 
 
 In view of all this and of what was to befall the 
 Princess Royal in the land for which she even then 
 cherished so fond an affection, and of which she 
 had already formed so high an ideal, there is some- 
 thing intensely pathetic in the blindness of her 
 parents to the real conditions of her future life. 
 This blindness is shown with amazing clearness in 
 the sentence, certainly inspired and very likely writ- 
 ten by Queen Victoria herself, which concludes the 
 chapter, in Sir Theodore Martin's Life of the 
 Prince Consort^ dealing with the betrothal of the 
 Princess Royal: 
 
 "No consideration, public or private, would have 
 induced the Queen or himself [i.e., Prince Albert] 
 to imperil the happiness of their child by a marriage 
 in which she could not have found scope to prac- 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 47 
 
 tise the constitutional principles in which she had 
 been reared." 
 
 The idea that the Prussia of that day, or indeed 
 of any day, would have amiably afforded a foreign 
 princess scope to practise constitutional principles 
 of any sort seems extraordinary, and yet, as we 
 shall see, there was some little justification for it 
 at the time, though it was quickly swept away by 
 the course of events. 
 
 The confirmation of the Princess Royal took 
 place on March 20, 1856, in the private chapel at 
 Windsor Castle. The Princess was led in by her 
 father, followed by her godfather, the King of the 
 Belgians, who had come to England on purpose, 
 and the Royal children and most of the members 
 of the Royal family were present, as were also the 
 Ministers, the great officers of State, and many of 
 those whom Disraeli was wont to describe as the 
 "high nobility." 
 
 In fact, everything was done to make the rite a 
 State ceremony — a striking contrast to the more 
 recent practice by which the princes and princesses 
 of England have all been confirmed privately, in 
 the presence of their near relatives only. 
 
 The second Lord Granville, the statesman who 
 shared with the Princess Royal the flattering nick- 
 name of "Pussy," wrote to Lord Canning this lively 
 account of the confirmation. The inaudible Arch- 
 bishop was J. B. Sumner; his Lordship of Oxford 
 was the Samuel Wilber force, called by his enemies 
 
48 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 "Soapy Sam," who played a conspicuous part in 
 the Court and social life of the period: 
 
 "Had a slight spasm in bed; sent for Meryon. 
 It was well before he came. He desired me not 
 to go to Windsor for the confirmation of the Prin- 
 cess Royal. I went, and am none the worse; my 
 complexion beautiful. It was an interesting sight. 
 As Pam observed, 'Ah, ah! a touching ceremony; 
 ah, ah!' The King of the Belgians the same as I 
 remember him when I was a boy, and he used to 
 live for weeks at the Embassy, using my father's 
 horses, and boring my mother to death. The Prin- 
 cess Royal went through her part well. The Prin- 
 cess Alice cried violently. The Archbishop read 
 what seemed a dull address ; luckily it was inaudible. 
 The Bishop of Oxford rolled out a short prayer 
 with conscious superiority. Pam reminded Lord 
 Aberdeen of their being confirmed at Cambridge, 
 as if it was yesterday. I must go to bed, so excuse 
 haste and bad pens, as the sheep said to the farmer 
 when it jumped out of the fold." 
 
 There was certainly too much pomp about the 
 Princess Royal's confirmation for the taste of 
 another spectator, Princess INIary of Cambridge, 
 afterwards Duchess of Teck. She succeeds in 
 drawing in a few words a remarkably vivid picture 
 of what happened: 
 
 "The ceremony was very short (the service for 
 the day being omitted) and not solemn enough for 
 my feeling, although the anthems were fine and 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 49 
 
 well-chosen. It was followed by a great deal of 
 standing in the Green Drawing-room, where the 
 Queen held a kind of tournee in honour of the 
 Ministers, who had come down for the confirma- 
 tion; after which dear Victoria, who looked par- 
 ticularly nice, and was very much impressed with 
 the solemnity of the rite, received our presents on 
 the occasion, and about half -past one we sat down 
 to lunch en famille as usual." 
 
 It was on April 29, 1856, that the betrothal was 
 publicly announced on the conclusion of the Cri- 
 mean War, and in the following month the Prin- 
 cess appeared as a debutante at a Court ball at 
 Buckingham Palace. 
 
 This spring "Fritz of Prussia," as his future 
 father-in-law called him, came to pay a long visit 
 to his fiancee. It is curious that Queen Victoria, 
 in spite of her strong belief in love as the only 
 right foundation for an engagement, had by no 
 means the English notion of discreetly leaving the 
 young people a good deal alone together. On the 
 contrary, she seems to have entirely adopted the 
 Continental practice of chaperonage ; a passage in 
 a letter written by her to King Leopold shows that 
 she was always with them, and that she naturally 
 found it very boring, but she endured it because she 
 thought it was her duty. 
 
 Prince Frederick William was still in England 
 when in Jime the Princess Royal met with rather 
 a terrifying accident, which is worthy of mention 
 
50 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 because it showed how strong was her character 
 and how high her physical courage. 
 
 The Princess was sealing a letter at her writing- 
 table, when suddenly the seahng-wax flamed out 
 and the flames caught her muslin sleeve. Her 
 English governess, Miss Hildyard, was fortunately 
 seated close to her, and her music mistress, Mrs. 
 Anderson, was also in the room, giving Princess 
 Alice a lesson. They sprang at once to the Prin- 
 cess's assistance and beat out the flames with a 
 hearthrug; but not before her right arm had been 
 severely burned from below the elbow to the 
 shoulder. She showed the greatest self-possession 
 and presence of mind, her first w^ords being: "Send 
 for Papa, and do not tell Mamma till he has been 
 told." 
 
 The Princess Royal had a long engagement, 
 probably the longest that any lady of her rank has 
 had, at least in modern times, but the months as 
 they went by were fully occupied with her father's 
 sedulous preparation of her intellect, as well as with 
 the more frivolous preparations of her trousseau. 
 In May 1857 Parliament voted for the Princess 
 a dowry of £40,000 and an annuity of £4000 — sC 
 provision which does not now seem to have erred 
 on the side of generosity. But it must be remem- 
 bered that what economists call "the purchasing 
 power of the sovereign" was considerably greater 
 then than now, and to find the modem equivalent 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 51 
 
 of these sums one would have to add probably as 
 much as 25 per cent. 
 
 Prince Frederick William, attended by Count 
 Moltke, paid another visit to England in June, and 
 made his first public appearance with the Princess 
 at the Manchester Art Exhibition. The young 
 couple seem to have corresponded on quite the old- 
 fashioned voluminous scale. After the Prince had 
 gone home again in August, Moltke writes to his 
 wife that the Princess had written a letter of forty 
 pages to the Prince, and he adds the sarcastic com- 
 ment: "How the news must have accumulated!" 
 
 Whatever the aide-de-camp may have thought, 
 the Prince himself was certainly a happy lover in 
 his own characteristically serious way. We find 
 him a few months later writing to his French tutor, 
 the Swiss Pastor Godet, a long and moving letter, 
 in which he alludes very frankly to the difficulties 
 which even then surrounded his position. Then, 
 going on to speak of his coming marriage, he says : 
 
 "Yes, if you knew my betrothed you would, I am 
 sure, thoroughly understand my choice, and you 
 would realise that I am truly happy. I can but 
 bless and thank God to have given me the happiness 
 of finding in her everything which ensures the true 
 union of hearts, and repose and calm in home life, 
 for I do not care, as you know, for the world, 
 which I find empty and with very little happiness 
 in it." 
 
52 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 The seventeenth birthday of the Princess Royal, 
 the last she was to spend with her family before her 
 marriage, was saddened by the death of Queen Vic- 
 toria's half-brother, Prince Leiningen. The Royal 
 family were all extremely fond of him, especially 
 the Princess Royal, to whom he had ever shown 
 himself a most affectionate and kindly uncle. This 
 was the first time the Princess had come in close con- 
 tact with death, and it made the more impression 
 on her owing to the passionate grief which her 
 grandmother, the Duchess of Kent, showed at the 
 loss of her only son. 
 
 The wedding had now been fixed for January 25, 
 1858, and already in October the bride had taken 
 leave of those places in Balmoral which were dear 
 to her. Of this Prince Albert writes to the 
 widowed Duchess of Gotha : 
 
 "Vicky suffers from the feeling that all those 
 places she visits she must look upon for the last 
 time as her home. The Maid of Orleans with her 
 'Joan says to you an everlasting farewell,' often 
 comes into my mind." And in another letter: 
 "The departure from here will be heavy for all of 
 us, particularly for Vicky who is going away for 
 good, and the good Higliland people who love her 
 so much say: 'I suppose we shall never see you 
 again,' which naturally upsets her." 
 
 These rather sentimental farewells had been go- 
 ing on for a long time. Queen Victoria, in a letter 
 a fortnight before the wedding, says that her 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 53 
 
 daughter had had ever since January 1857 a suc- 
 cession of emotions and leave-takings which would 
 be most trying to anyone, but particularly so to so 
 young a girl with such powerful feelings. The 
 loving mother goes on to say that she is much im- 
 proved in self-control, and is so clever and sensible 
 that her parents can talk to her of anything. 
 
 Her other parent, in a letter to his grandmother, 
 spoke of the frightful gap which the separation for 
 ever of this dear daughter would make in the family 
 circle, and then, with his characteristic optimism, 
 he adds that in Germany people seem ready to wel- 
 come her with the greatest friendliness. 
 
 Here perhaps is the place to consider what sort 
 of a country was the "Germany" whither Prince 
 Albert was sending his cherished daughter as fu- 
 ture Queen. 
 
 To begin with, it was not yet "Germany" at all; 
 it was Prussia. We are well accustomed in the 
 twentieth century to regard Germany as one of the 
 Great Powers of Europe, with her enormous army 
 and her expanding navy and mercantile marine, 
 with all else for which the Fatherland stands in 
 science, letters, and industry. It is necessary, how- 
 ever, to realise that the Princess Royal's marriage 
 was to bring her to what was then a very different 
 country. Prussia was in fact not to be compared in 
 power, wealth, or security with the Princess's native 
 land. Including Silesia, Brandenburg, and West- 
 phaha, the country only had a population of some 
 
54 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 seventeen millions in 1858, or about that of England 
 alone. The revenue was comparatively insignifi- 
 cant, but the army numbered 160,000 officers and 
 men; the navy had 55 ships, 3500 officers and men, 
 and 265 gims; while the mercantile marine is given 
 as 826 ships of 268,000 tons. 
 
 The Germanic Confederation had superseded the 
 Confederation of the Rhine formed by Napoleon. 
 It included Austria, as well as Prussia and the vari- 
 ous German States, and by the nature of its consti- 
 tution it was weak where it should have been strong. 
 The jealousy felt by Austria for the hegemony of 
 Prussia among the smaller German States, and the 
 internal jealousies of those States among them- 
 selves, almost doomed the Confederation to 
 impotence. Indeed, the primary object of the 
 Confederation, namely, the maintenance of the ex- 
 ternal security of the States, was in constant dan- 
 ger, owing partly to the complicated regulations 
 for voting in the Diet, partly to a military system 
 which was full of compromises and certain to pro- 
 duce, on the outbreak of war, a maximum of con- 
 fusion and a minimum of efficiency. 
 
 The constitutional liberties of the individual 
 States had been gravely menaced by a series of 
 feudal decrees passed between 1830 and 1840; 
 while in 1850 the Confederation had actually sup- 
 pressed the constitution of Hesse-Cassel. In Prus- 
 sia itself the Manteuff el Ministry had been work- 
 ing, beneath the cloak of the constitutional reforms 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 55 
 
 granted in 1850, to establish a centralised police 
 State on the model of the French prefet system 
 combined with typical Prussian medi^evalism. 
 
 It was in 1847 that King Frederick William IV 
 uttered the famous words that he would never allow 
 a piece of written parchment to be placed, like a 
 second Providence, between God in heaven and his 
 country. Now the constitution of only two years 
 later did seem to be such a piece of written parch- 
 ment, but this was only in appearance, because it 
 did not settle by organic laws the crucial questions 
 of political liberty, but left them in practice to the 
 Chambers which it called into existence. The task 
 of Baron ManteufFel's Ministry, therefore, re- 
 solved itself into obtaining a sufficiently reactionary 
 Parliament which could be trusted to remove the 
 foundations of political liberty laid by the great 
 constitutional lawgiver, Stein, and his follower, 
 Hardenburg. 
 
 It was not till 1855, three years before the Prin- 
 cess Royal's marriage, that a thoroughly servile 
 Chamber was obtained. The two principal reforms 
 effected by Stein, namely, the localising of the ad- 
 ministration and the independence of officials, were 
 abohshed, and the administration was carefully 
 centralised on the French model, and the whole 
 official class was made dependent upon the Gov- 
 ernment. This latter object was effected by an 
 ingenious theory — that any opposition to a con- 
 stitutional Ministry which enjoyed the confidence 
 
56 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 of the sovereign became constructively an offence 
 against the Crown, and therefore punishable. 
 
 It is significant that it took five years before a 
 really servile Chamber was obtained, even by these 
 methods. The Prussian mediasvalists did not alto- 
 gether like the police supremacy established by the 
 ManteuiFel jMinistry; but, on the other hand, by 
 their alliance with the Ministry they had the satis- 
 faction of staving off certain reforms which they 
 especially dreaded, notably the equalisation of the 
 land tax, the removal of the rural police from the 
 control of the lord of the manor, and the liberal 
 organisation of the rural communes. Moreover, 
 they were given practical freedom to do what they 
 liked in ecclesiastical and educational administra- 
 tion. 
 
 It must be remembered that, while England has 
 had from time to time her medisevalists, they have, 
 on the whole, failed to make any real impression 
 on politics, and have exerted their influence only in 
 the province of religious belief and in that of art. 
 It was different in Prussia, where feudalism as a 
 practical system had a much longer life. 
 
 Numerous small States within the kingdom of 
 Prussia, with their feudal powers and rights, had 
 to be broken up by the Great Elector as a first 
 step towards a Prussian nationality. It was really 
 by continuing the Great Elector's work in this 
 respect that Stein had aroused that national move- 
 ment which eventually threw off the French yoke. 
 
OPINION IN BOTH COUNTRIES 57 
 
 But Frederick William III had set himself to re- 
 organise the provincial States on the basis of a strict 
 observance of their historical rights. This reorgan- 
 isation did not satisfy the medieevals because it 
 failed to provide any real check upon the bureau- 
 cratic character of the remaining part of the King's 
 administration. 
 
 At the time of the Princess Royal's marriage 
 there still survived an extraordinary number of 
 little States, each with its ruling family, and for the 
 most part as poor as they were proud. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 It is the universal testimony that at the time of 
 her wedding the Princess Royal was at the height 
 of her youthful beauty and charm. This is not 
 the mere flattery of courtiers, to whom all Royal 
 ladies are beautiful as a matter of course; it is 
 the opinion expressed by a multitude of observers 
 in contemporary private letters, diaries, and rem- 
 iniscences. And of all the descriptions of her 
 at this time in existence the most lifelike we owe 
 to a German lady of rank, one of the Princess's 
 future ladies-in-waiting. Countess Walpurga de 
 Hohenthal, who afterwards married Sir Augustus 
 Berkeley Paget, British Ambassador in Rome and 
 Vienna. This lady gives in her book of reminis- 
 cences, Scenes and Memories, this vivid vignette of 
 her Royal mistress as she looked just before her 
 marriage : 
 
 ''The Princess appeared extraordinarily young. 
 All the childish roundness still clung to her and 
 made her look shorter than she really was. She 
 was dressed in a fashion long disused on the Conti- 
 nent, in a plum-coloured silk dress fastened at the 
 back. Her hair was drawn off her forehead. Her 
 eyes were what struck me most; the iris was green 
 
 58 
 
MARRIAGE 59 
 
 like the sea on a sunny day, and the white had a 
 peculiar shimmer which gave them the fascination 
 that, together with a smile showing her small and 
 beautiful teeth, bewitched those who approached 
 her. The nose was unusually small and turned up 
 slightly, and the complexion was ruddy, perhaps 
 too much so for one thing, but it gave the idea of 
 perfect health and strength. The fault of the face 
 lay in the squareness of the lower features, and there 
 was even a look of determination about the chin, 
 but the very gentle and almost timid manner pre- 
 vented one realising this at first. The voice was 
 very delightful, never going up to high tones, but 
 lending a peculiar charm to the slight foreign ac- 
 cent with which the Princess spoke both English 
 and German." 
 
 As we have already seen. Queen Victoria felt 
 strongly that it was not every day that even a 
 future King married the daughter of a Queen of 
 England, and she was resolved to surround the 
 ceremony with all possible pomp and circumstance. 
 The reader may for the most part be spared the de- 
 tails of these functions. What is interesting to 
 us, looking back on that age which seems so remote 
 from our own, is the curious note of tearful senti- 
 ment, which some would now call by a harsher name, 
 yet mingled with high hopes and pathetic confidence 
 in the future. 
 
 The Court spent the early part of January 1858 
 at Windsor Castle, and on the 15th, the day of the 
 
60 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 departure for London, the Queen wrote in her 
 diary : 
 
 "Went to look at the rooms prepared for Vicky's 
 'Honeymoon.' Very pretty. It quite agitated me 
 to look at them. Poor, poor child! We took a 
 short walk with Vicky, who was dreadfully upset at 
 this real break in her life; the real separation 
 from her childhood! She slept for the last time 
 in the same room with Alice. Now all this is cut 
 off." 
 
 And we may quote, too, a characteristic passage 
 from a letter written to the Queen by her sister, 
 the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, with refer- 
 ence to another young Royal bride : 
 
 "Poor little wife now! I have quite the same 
 feeling as j^ou have on these dear j^oung creatures 
 entering the new life of duties, privations, and 
 trials, on their marrying so young. Alas ! the sweet 
 blossoms coming in contact with rude life and all 
 its realities so soon, are changed into mature and less 
 lovely persons, so painful to a mother's eye and feel- 
 ing; and yet we must be happy to see them fulfil 
 their Bestimmung (destiny) ; but it is a happiness 
 not unmixed with many a bitter drop of anguish 
 and pain." 
 
 By the 19th all the Royal guests had arrived in 
 London, among them the King of the Belgians 
 with his sons, the Prince and Princess of Prussia, 
 and Princes and Princesses in such numbers that 
 the accommodation of Puckingham Palace was 
 
MARRIAGE 61 
 
 taxed to the uttermost. "Such a house-full," says 
 the Queen in her diary. "Such bustle and excite- 
 ment!" Between eighty and ninety sat down to 
 dinner at the Royal table daily. "After dinner," 
 says the same record, "a party, and a very gay and 
 pretty dance. It was very animated, all the 
 Princes dancing." 
 
 The first of the public festivities was a per- 
 formance at Her Majesty's Theatre of Macbeth, 
 by Helen Faucit and Phelps, while Mr. and Mrs. 
 Keeley appeared in a farce. Tliis was the first 
 of four representations, organised at the Queen's 
 command in honour of the marriage, and each was 
 made the occasion of an extraordinary popular 
 demonstration. A great ball, at which over a 
 thousand guests were present, was given at the 
 Palace, and there was also a State performance of 
 Balfe's opera. The Rose of Castille. 
 
 Prince Frederick William arrived on January 
 23, and on the next day Queen Victoria writes : 
 
 "Poor dear Vicky's last unmarried day. An 
 eventful one, reminding me so much of mine. 
 After breakfast we arranged in the large drawing- 
 room the gifts (splendid ones) for Vicky in two 
 tables. Fritz's pearls are the largest I ever saw, 
 one row. On a third table were three fine cande- 
 labra, our gift to Fritz. Vicky was in ecstasies, 
 quite startled, and Fritz delighted." 
 
 More magnificent presents kept on arriving, and 
 the Queen goes on : 
 
62 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 "Very busy — interrupted and disturbed every 
 instant! Dear Vicky gave me a brooch (a very 
 pretty one) before Church with her hair; and, 
 clasping me in her arms, said : *I hope to be worthy 
 to be your child!'" At the end of the day the 
 Queen and Prince "accompanied Vicky to her room, 
 kissed her and gave her our blessing, and she was 
 much overcome. I pressed her in my arms, and she 
 clung to her truly adored papa with much tender- 
 ness." 
 
 Of the wedding itself Queen Victoria made her- 
 self the historian for all time, and we cannot do 
 better than quote her vividly emotional account of 
 the scene: 
 
 "Monday, January 25. — The second most event- 
 ful day in my life as regards feelings. I felt as if 
 I were being married over again myself, only much 
 more nervous, for I had not that blessed feeling 
 which I had then, which raises and supports one, of 
 giving myself up for life to him whom I loved and 
 worshipped — then and ever! Got up, and, while 
 dressing, dearest Vicky came to see me, looking 
 well and composed, and in a fine quiet frame of 
 mind. She had slept more soundly and better than 
 before. This relieved me greatly. Gave her a 
 pretty book called The Bridal Offering" 
 
 Before the procession started for the Chapel 
 Royal at St. James's Palace, the Queen and the 
 Princess were daguerreotyped together with Prince 
 Albert, but, says the Queen, "I trembled so, my 
 
MARRIAGE 63 
 
 likeness has come out indistinct." Her Majesty- 
 continues : 
 
 "Then came the time to go. The sun was shining 
 brightly; thousands had been out since very early, 
 shouting, bells ringing, &c. Albert and Uncle, in 
 Field Marshal's uniform, with batons, and the two 
 eldest boys went first. Then the three girls in pink 
 satin trimmed with Newport lace, Alice with a 
 wreath, and the two others with only bouquets in 
 their hair of cornflowers [the favourite flower of 
 Queen Louise of Prussia and of all her children and 
 descendants], and marguerites; next the four boys 
 in Highland dress. The flourish of trumpets and 
 cheering of thousands made my heart sink within 
 me. Vicky was in the carriage with me, sitting 
 opposite. At St. James's took her into a dress- 
 ing-room prettily arranged, where were Uncle, 
 Albert, and the eight bridesmaids, who looked 
 charming in white tulle, with wreaths and bouquets 
 of pink roses and white heather. 
 
 "Then the procession was formed, just as at my 
 marriage, only how small the old Royal family has 
 become! Mama last before me — then Lord Pal- 
 merston with the Sword of State — then Bertie and 
 iVlfred. I with the two little boys on either side 
 (which they say had a most touching efl'ect) and 
 the three girls behind. The effect was very solemn 
 and impressive as we passed through the rooms, 
 down the staircase, and across a covered-in court. 
 
 "The Chapel, though too small, looked extremely 
 
64 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 imposing and well, — full as it was of so many ele- 
 gantly-dressed ladies, uniforms, &c. The Arch- 
 bishop, &c. at the altar, and on either side of it the 
 Royal personages. Behind me Mama and the 
 Cambridges, the girls and little boys near me, and 
 opposite me the dear Princess of Prussia, and the 
 foreign Princes behind her. Bertie and Affie, not 
 far from the Princess, a little before the others. 
 
 "The drums and trumpets pla3^ed marches, and 
 the organ played others as the procession ap- 
 proached and entered. There was a pause be- 
 tween each, but not a very long one, and the effect 
 was thrilling and striking as you heard the music 
 gradually coming nearer and nearer. Fritz looked 
 pale and much agitated, but behaved with the 
 greatest self-possession, bowing to us, and then 
 kneeling down in a most devotional manner. Then 
 came the bride's procession and our darling Flower 
 looked very touching and lovety, with such an inno- 
 cent, confident, and serious expression, her veil 
 hanging back over her shoulders, walking between 
 her beloved father and dearest Uncle Leopold, 
 who had been at her christening and confirmation. 
 
 "My last fear of being overcome vanished on 
 seeing Vicky's quiet, calm, and composed manner. 
 It was beautiful to see her kneeling with Fritz, 
 their hands joined, and the train borne by eight 
 young ladies, who looked like a cloud of maidens 
 hovering round her, as they knelt near her. Dear- 
 est Albert took her by the hand to give her away. 
 
THE PRINCESS ROYAL 
 AT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE 
 
MARRIAGE 65 
 
 The music was very fine, the Archbishop very- 
 nervous; Fritz spoke very plainly. Vicky too. 
 The Archbishop omitted some of the passages." 
 
 Sarah Lady Lyttelton, too, noted the calm and 
 rather serious, though happy and loving, expres- 
 sion of the Princess's look and manner — "not a bit 
 of bridal missiness and flutter." 
 
 Another eye-witness of the scene supplies a 
 moving touch: "The light of happiness in the 
 eyes of the bride appealed to the most reserved 
 among the spectators, and an audible 'God bless 
 you!' passed from mouth to mouth along the line." 
 . The Queen's description proceeds: 
 
 "When the ceremony was over, we both em- 
 braced Vicky tenderly, but she shed not one tear, 
 and then she kissed her grandmama, and I Fritz. 
 She then went up to her new parents, and we 
 crossed over to the dear Prince and Princess [of 
 Prussia], who were both much moved, Albert 
 shaking hands with them, and I kissing both and 
 pressing their hands with a most happy feeling. 
 My heart was so full. Then the bride and bride- 
 groom left hand in hand, followed by the support- 
 ers, the 'Wedding March' by Mendelssohn being 
 played, and we all went up to the Throne Room 
 to sign the register. Here general congratula- 
 tions, shaking hands with all the relations. I felt 
 so moved, so overjoyed and relieved, that I could 
 have embraced everybody." 
 
 The young couple drove off to Windsor for a 
 
66 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 honeymoon of only two days, as was then the cus- 
 tom with Royal personages. 
 
 "We dined," says Queen Victoria, " en famille, 
 but I felt so lost without Vicky." In the evening, 
 however, there came a messenger from Windsor 
 with a letter from the bride, containing the news 
 that the Eton boys had dragged the carriage of the 
 Prince and Princess from the railway station to the 
 Castle, and that they had been welcomed by im- 
 mense crowds and with the greatest enthusiasm. 
 All London, too, was illuminated, and there were 
 great rejoicings in the streets. The Duke of Buc- 
 cleuch made it his business to mingle with the 
 humblest people in the crowds, and he afterwards 
 greatly pleased the Queen with his account of their 
 simple, hearty enthusiasm. 
 
 Of those two days at Windsor, the bride, thirty- 
 six years later, when she was already a widow, 
 spoke to her old friend, Bishop Boyd Carpenter. 
 She received the Bishop in the red brocade drawing- 
 room which overlooks the Long Walk, a room 
 which awakened memories: "We spent," she said, 
 "our honeymoon at Windsor. This room was one 
 of those we occupied. It was our private sitting- 
 room. I remember how we sat here — two young 
 innocent things — almost two shy to talk to one an- 
 other." 
 
 The Court moved to Windsor on the 27th, and 
 on the following day the bridegroom was invested 
 with the order of the Garter. On the 29th the 
 
MARRIAGE 67 
 
 Court returned to town, and in the evening the 
 Queen and Prince Albert, and the bridal pair, went 
 in state to Her Majesty's Theatre. The audience 
 demanded the National Anthem twice before and 
 once after the play, two additional verses appro- 
 priate to the occasion being added. Prince Fred- 
 erick William led his bride to the front of the 
 Royal box, and they stood to receive the acclama- 
 tions of the house. 
 
 On January 30 the Queen held a Drawing-room, 
 at which there were no presentations, "only con- 
 gratulations," and the Princess wore her wedding 
 dress and train. In the evening the eight brides- 
 maids, with their respective parents, came, but 
 though there were no young men, they all danced 
 till midnight. 
 
 The dreaded separation was fast approaching. 
 Those were days in which people of all classes 
 seemed to give freer play to their natural emotions 
 than they do now, and the actual parting at Buck- 
 ingham Palace may almost be described as agonis- 
 ing. "I think it will kill me to take leave of dear 
 Papa!" were the words of the Princess to her 
 mother. "A dreadful moment, and a dreadful 
 day," wrote the Queen. "Such sickness came over 
 me, real heartache, when I thought of our dearest 
 child being gone, and for so long" — all, all being 
 over! It began to snow before Vicky went, and 
 continued to do so without intermission all day. 
 At times I could be quite cheerful, but my tears be- 
 
68 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 gan to flow afresh frequently, and I could not go 
 near Vicky's corridor." 
 
 Even the less emotional but not less warm- 
 hearted Princess Mary of Cambridge writes in her 
 diary of February 2: 
 
 "A very gloomy, tearful day! At eleven-thirty 
 we drove to the palace to see poor dear Vicky off. 
 It was our intention to wait downstairs; but we 
 were sent for, and found dear Victoria [the Queen] 
 surrounded by a number of crying relations in the 
 Queen's Closet. It was a sad, a trying scene. We 
 all accompanied her to the carriage, and, after 
 bidding her adieu. Mamma and I hurried to one 
 of the front rooms to see her drive up the Mall." 
 
 There exists a private photograph, or rather a 
 daguerreotype, taken of the Princess Royal that 
 morning, her face unrecognisable, swollen with 
 tears. 
 
 It may be imagined how delighted the populace 
 were when they saw that, though it was snowing 
 hard, their Princess had chosen an open carriage 
 for her drive through the London she even then 
 loved so well and went on loving to the very end. 
 The route taken was through the INIall, Fleet 
 Street, Cheapside, and over London Bridge, and 
 in spite of the terrible weather enormous crowds 
 gathered to see the last of the bride. The stalwart 
 draymen of Barclay and Perkins's brewery shouted 
 out to the bridegroom in menacing tones, "Be kind 
 to her or we'll have her back!" 
 
MARRIAGE 69 
 
 The Princess was accompanied by her father and 
 her two elder brothers; and at Gravesend, where 
 the Royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, was wait- 
 ing to take her and her bridegroom across the 
 Channel, the scene was again most affecting. The 
 Prince Consort was deeply moved but he was deter- 
 mined to appear composed, and he kept his look 
 of serenity. Not so the Prince of Wales and 
 Prince Alfred; they wept openly, and their ex- 
 ample was followed by many, for there was some- 
 thing profoundly moving in this departure of the 
 Daughter of England — as Cobden had called her 
 — for a country of which the great majority of 
 Englishmen and Englishwomen at that time knew 
 little or nothing. 
 
 Perhaps the general feeling among the educated 
 classes of the England of that day is best reflected 
 in a leading article in the Times, which said : 
 
 "We only trust and pray that the policy of Eng- 
 land and of Prussia may never present any painful 
 alternatives to the Princess now about to leave our 
 shores; that she will never be called on to forget 
 the land of her birth, education, and religion; and 
 that, should the occasion ever occur, she may have 
 the wisdom to render what is due both to her new 
 and her old country. There is no European State 
 but what changes and is still susceptible of change, 
 nor is this change wholly by any internal law of 
 development. We influence one another. Eng- 
 land, indeed, has ever been jealous of foreign in- 
 
70 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 fluence, and she would be the last to repudiate the 
 honour of influencing her neighbours. For our 
 part, we are confident enough of our country to 
 think an English Princess a gain to a Prussian 
 Court, but not so confident to deny that we may 
 be mutually benefited, and Europe through us, by 
 a greater cordiality and better acquaintance than 
 has hitherto been between the two countries." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 EARLY MAERIED LIFE 
 
 The bridal journey to Berlin was in the nature 
 of a triumphal progress, and it was well that the 
 Prince and Princess were both young and full of 
 healthy vitality. At Brussels they were present 
 at a great Court ball given in their honour, but 
 early the next morning they were again on their 
 route, and all the way there were receptions, ad- 
 dresses of congratulations, &c., to be received and 
 answered. 
 
 It was probably at Brussels that the Princess 
 received a touching letter from her father, written 
 on the day after her departure from England : — 
 
 *'My heart was very full when yesterday you 
 leaned your forehead on my breast to give free vent 
 to your tears. I am not of a demonstrative nature, 
 and therefore you can hardly know how dear you 
 have always been to me, and what a void you have 
 left behind in my heart: yet not in my heart, for 
 there assuredly you will abide henceforth, as till 
 now you have done, but in my daily life, which is 
 evermore reminding my heart of your absence." 
 
 Three days later Prince Albert again wrote to 
 her: 
 
 "Thank God, everything apparently goes on to 
 
 71 
 
72 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 a wish, and you seem to gain 'golden opinions' in 
 your favour; which naturally gives us extreme 
 pleasure, both because we love you, and because 
 this touches our parental pride. But what has 
 given us most pleasure of all was the letter, so over- 
 flowing with affection, which you wrote while yet 
 on board the yacht. Poor child ! well did I feel the 
 bitterness of your sorrow, and would so fain have 
 soothed it. But, excepting my own sorrow, I had 
 nothing to give; and that would only have had the 
 effect of augmenting yours." 
 
 To Stockmar, whose son, Baron Ernest Stock- 
 mar, was appointed Treasurer to the Princess 
 Royal on her marriage, he wrote : 
 
 "Throughout all this agitated, serious and very 
 trying time, the good child has behaved quite ad- 
 mirably, and to the mingled admiration and sur- 
 prise of every one. She was so natural, so child- 
 like, so dignified and firm in her whole bearing and 
 demeanour, that one might well believe in a higher 
 inspiration. I shall not forget that your son has 
 proved himself in all ways extremely useful, and 
 takes and holds his ground, which, among the Ber- 
 liners, is no easy matter." 
 
 The progress to Berlin was, at any rate, by no 
 means dull; it was marked by plenty of incident, 
 sometimes not of a pleasant nature. For instance, 
 when the bridal pair were entertained at a great 
 Court banquet at Hanover, whether by malice, or 
 more probably by sheer stupidity, the feast was 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 73 
 
 spread on the very gold dinner-service which had 
 been a subject of dispute between Queen Victoria 
 and King Ernest, a dispute which had been decided 
 by the Enghsh law officers of the Crown in favour 
 of Hanover. The Princess Royal, who knew all 
 about the affair, felt deeply hurt, but she did not 
 allow this to be noticed except by her intimate 
 entourage. 
 
 In Magdeburg Cathedral the crowd became so 
 obstreperous in their eager desire to see the Prin- 
 cess that shreds of her gown, a dress of tartan vel- 
 vet, were actually torn off her back. 
 
 Just before Potsdam was reached, the famous 
 Field-Marshal Wrangel, who had played so great 
 a part in the Revolution of 1848, jumped into the 
 train. After he had complimented the Royal bride, 
 he sat down on a seat on which had been placed an 
 enormous apple-tart which had just been presented 
 to the Princess at Wittenberg, a town noted for 
 its pastry. Fortunately the old soldier took the 
 accident in good part, and joined in the hearty 
 laughter which accompanied the efforts of the 
 Princess and her ladies to clean his uniform. 
 
 The whole of the Prussian Royal family as- 
 sembled at Potsdam to greet the bride and bride- 
 groom, who made their State entry into Berlin on 
 February 8. It was a fine day, but the cold was 
 of an intensity never before experienced by the 
 Princess. Nevertheless, she and her ladies were 
 all in low Court dresses, and, by her express wish, 
 
74 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the windows of the State carriages were kept down, 
 so that the eager populace might be the better able 
 to see inside. 
 
 The drive lasted two hours and ended at the Old 
 Schloss, where the Prince and Princess found once 
 more the whole of the Prussian Royal family as- 
 sembled, headed by the then King and his Queen. 
 As the Queen embraced the bride, she observed 
 coldly: "Are you not frozen?" The Princess re- 
 plied with a smile; "I have only one warm place, 
 and that is my heart!" 
 
 It is a curious fact that on that night of the 
 State entry into Berlin, when every house, and 
 especially every palace and embassy, was brilliantly 
 illuminated, the English Legation alone remained 
 in darkness. This was simply because the gas 
 company had undertaken to do more than it could 
 accomplish, for gas had never been used for public 
 illumination in Berlin before that night. Still, the 
 circumstance was long remembered by the more 
 superstitious of the Berliners. 
 
 The youthful bride made a very favourable im- 
 pression on those who saw her on that first day 
 in Berlin. Her manner was singularly quiet and 
 self-possessed, and she found a kind and suitable 
 word to say to everyone. Yet, even so, feeling 
 ran so high in Prussian society, and especially at 
 the Court, that Lord and Lady Bloomfield, the 
 then English Minister and his wife, made a point 
 of avoiding the Princess Royal, so desirous were 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 75 
 
 they of giving no cause of offence to the King and 
 Queen. 
 
 Meanwhile, the loving parents in London were 
 kept busy in reading the accounts, which poured in 
 on them from every quarter, of their daughter's 
 reception in their new home. Thus, Queen Vic- 
 toria's sister, the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langen- 
 burg, writes from Berlin on February 17: 
 
 "You know of everything that is going on, and 
 how much she [the Princess Royal] is admired, 
 and deserves so to be. The enthusiasm and in- 
 terest shown are beyond everything. Never was 
 a Princess in this country received as she is. That 
 shows where the sympathies turn to, certainly not 
 towards the North Pole." 
 
 This was perhaps a little too couleur de rose, and 
 when Prince Frederick William telegi*aphed to his 
 parents-in-law, "The whole Royal family is en- 
 chanted with my wife," Prince Albert's dry com- 
 ment, in writing to his daughter, was that the tele- 
 graph must have been amazed at the message. 
 Nor did the anxious father fail to seize the oppor- 
 tunity for a little sermon. In this same letter, 
 dated February 11, he wi-ites to the Princess: 
 
 "You have now entered upon your new home, 
 and been received and welcomed on all sides with 
 the greatest friendship and cordiality. This kindly 
 and trustful advance of a whole nation towards an 
 entire stranger must have kindled and confirmed 
 within you the determination to show yourself in 
 
76 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 every way worthy of such feelings, and to recipro- 
 cate and requite them by the steadfast resolution 
 to dedicate the whole energies of your life to this 
 people of your new home. And you have received 
 from Heaven the happy task of effecting this ob- 
 ject by making your husband truly happy, and of 
 doing him at the same time the best service, by 
 aiding him to maintain and to increase the love of 
 his countrymen. 
 
 "That 3"ou have everywhere made so favourable 
 an impression has given intense happiness to me 
 as a father. Let me express my fullest admiration 
 of the way in which, possessed exclusively by the 
 duty which you had to fulfil, you have kept down 
 and overcome your own little personal troubles, 
 perhaps also many feelings of sorrow not yet 
 healed. This is the way to success, and the only 
 way. If you have succeeded in winning people's 
 hearts by friendliness, simplicity, and courtesy, the 
 secret lay in this, that you were not thinking of 
 yourself. Hold fast tliis mystic power; it is a 
 spark from Heaven." 
 
 Admirable advice in a sense, but unfortunately 
 too general to be of much service to the warm- 
 hearted, impulsive Princess, before whom lay so 
 many unsuspected pitfalls. Prince Albert be- 
 lieved, as he had said to his son-in-law, that his 
 daughter possessed "a man's head and a child's 
 heart," an allusion to the poet's words, "In wit a 
 man, simplicity a child." But Prussia was not 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 7T 
 
 Coburg, and even from Coburg Prince Albert had 
 now been away for nearly twenty years. He does 
 not appear at all to have appreciated either the 
 situation which now confronted the Princess Royal, 
 or how little adapted she was by her temperament 
 and her training to meet it. 
 
 In the Princess of Prussia (afterwards the Em- 
 press Augusta) her English daughter-in-law ever 
 had a true friend and ally, and during the forty 
 years which followed, the two ladies were on far 
 better terms than anyone could have expected, con- 
 sidering how entirelj^ different had been their up- 
 bringing and outlook on life. 
 
 For example. Princess Augusta had been taught 
 as a child to tenir cercle in the gardens of the Palace 
 at Weimar — that is to say, she had to make the 
 round of the bushes and trees, each of which repre- 
 sented for the moment a lady or gentlemen of the 
 Court, and say something pleasant and suitable to 
 each! In this curious but extremely practical 
 fashion was inculcated one of the most fundamen- 
 tally important duties of Royal personages, and 
 it may be suggested with all respect that the future 
 Empress Frederick would have benefited if she 
 had had some similar training. 
 
 The Princess who was to become Queen of 
 Prussia and the first German Empress had been 
 brought up at Goethe's knee. She belonged, in 
 an intellectual sense, to the eighteenth rather than 
 the nineteenth century. She knew French as well 
 
78 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 as she knew German — indeed, it is said that she 
 often thought in French, and perhaps her chief 
 friend, at the time of her son's marriage to the 
 Princess Royal, was Monsieur de Bacourt, the 
 French dijilomatist to whom the Duchesse de Dino's 
 diary-letters were for the most part addressed. 
 Among her intimates were many Catholics, and 
 for many years it was believed in Berlin that she 
 had been secretly received into the Roman Church. 
 As a young woman she was full of heart and 
 warmth of feeling, but she soon learnt, what her 
 daughter-in-law never succeeded in mastering, the 
 wisdom of circumspection and the painful necessity 
 for prudence. She early made up her mind to 
 remain on the whole in shadow. While never con- 
 cealing her point of view from those about her, she 
 yet never took any public part in the affairs of 
 State. 
 
 During the Crimean War, wh*en the ^whole of 
 the Prussian Court was pro-Russian, the Princess 
 of Prussia had been pro-English — a fact which 
 naturally endeared her to Queen Victoria, but 
 which had made her Prussian relatives very sore 
 and angry. When the Princess Royal arrived in 
 Berlin as the bride of the King of Prussia's heir- 
 presumptive, the Crimean War was already being 
 forgotten. Among the Liberals there was what 
 may be called a pro-English party, and the joyous 
 simplicity and youthful charm of the Princess 
 silenced criticism, at any rate for a time. 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 79 
 
 It must be remembered that the Princess Royal 
 had left a young Court. At the time of her mar- 
 riage her parents were still young people — she 
 made them grandparents when they were only 
 thirty-eight. But the Court in which she now be- 
 came an important personage was composed of 
 middle-aged men and women, with some very old 
 people. There was still living in the Court circle 
 a lady who was said to remember Frederick the 
 Great. This was the Countess Pauline Neale, who 
 had been one of Queen Louise's ladies-in-waiting. 
 She could recollect with vivid intensity every detail 
 and episode associated with Napoleon's treatment 
 of the King and Queen. 
 
 Of great age, too, was the gigantic Field-Mar- 
 shal Wrangel, who had actually carried the colours 
 of his regiment at the battle of Leipzig. 
 
 Another interesting personality in the Princess 
 Royal's new family circle was her husband's aunt. 
 Princess Charles, sister of the Princess of Prussia, 
 who afterwards became the gi-andmother of the 
 Duchess of Connaught. She still bore traces of 
 the wonderful beauty for which she had been famed 
 in the 'twenties, but was, of course, no longer a 
 young woman. 
 
 Not long after the Princess Royal's arrival in 
 Berlin, a German observer wrote to the Prince 
 Consort: "She sees more clearly and more cor- 
 rectly than many a man of commanding intellect, 
 because, while possessing an acute mind and the 
 
80 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 purest heart, she does not know the word *prej- 
 udice.' " 
 
 Less than a month after her marriage, on Feb- 
 ruary 17, the Prince Consort sent his daughter a 
 letter full of wise warning : 
 
 "Your festival time, if not your honeymoon, 
 comes to an end to-day; and on this I take leave 
 to congratulate you, unfeeling though it may 
 sound, for I wish you the necessary time and tran- 
 quillity to digest the many impressions you have 
 received, and which otherwise, like a wild revel, first 
 inflame, and then stupefj^ leaving a dull nerveless 
 lassitude behind. Your exertions, and the de- 
 mands which have been made upon j^ou, have been 
 quite immense; you have done your best, and have 
 won the hearts, or what is called the hearts, of all. 
 In the nature of things we may now expect a little 
 reaction. The public, just because it was raptur- 
 ous and enthusiastic, will now become minutely 
 critical and take you to pieces anatomically. This 
 is to be kept in view, although it need cause you no 
 uneasiness, for you have only followed your natural 
 bent, and have made no external demonstration 
 which did not answer to the truth of your inner 
 nature. It is only the man who presents an arti- 
 ficial demeanour to the world, who has to dread 
 being unmasked. 
 
 "Your place is that of your husband's wife, and 
 of vour mother's daughter. You will desire noth- 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 81 
 
 ing else, but you will also forego nothing of that 
 which you owe to your husband and to your mother. 
 Ultimately your mind will, from the over-excite- 
 ment, fall back to a little lassitude and sadness. 
 But this will make you feel a craving for activity, 
 and you have much to do, in studying your new 
 country, its tendencies and its people, and in over- 
 looking your household as a good housewife, with 
 punctuality, method, and vigilant care. To suc- 
 cess in the affairs of life, apportionment of time 
 is essential, and I hope you will make this your fi?'st 
 care, so that you may always have some time over 
 for the fulfilment of every duty." 
 
 Baron Stoclonar had also been watching the de- 
 tails of the Princess's reception in her new country 
 with anxious interest. He, too, saw the danger of 
 a reaction, and he ^vrote a letter to the Prince Con- 
 sort, in reply to Avhich the father, after commend- 
 ing the Princess's tact, said: 
 
 "The enthusiasm with which she seems to have 
 been everywhere received exceeds our utmost cal- 
 culations and hopes, and proves that the people ap- 
 proved the idea of this alliance, and have found 
 Vicky in herself answer to their expectations. It 
 is only now, indeed, the difficulties of her life will 
 begin, and after the excitement of the festivities 
 a certain melancholy will come over the poor child, 
 however happy she may feel with her husband. 
 With marriage, a new life has opened for her, and 
 
82 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 you would have marvelled at the sudden change and 
 development which even here became at once ap- 
 parent. 
 
 "We, that is, she and I, have, I think, remained, 
 and I believe will remain, the same to one another. 
 She continues to set great store by my advice and 
 my confidence ; I do not thrust them upon her, but 
 I am always ready to give them. During this time 
 of troubles she has written less to me, and com- 
 municated the details of her life, and what she is 
 doing, more to her mother. I had arranged this 
 with her, but I hold her promise to impart to me 
 faithfully the progress of her inner life, and on 
 the other hand have given her mine, to take a con- 
 stantly active part in fostering it. You may be 
 sure I will not fail in this, as I see in it merely the 
 fulfilment of a sacred duty. 
 
 "What you say about an early visit had already 
 been running in my head, and I will frankly ex- 
 plain what we think on this subject. Victoria and 
 I are both desirous to have a meeting with the 
 young couple, somewhere or other in the course of 
 the year, having moreover given them a promise 
 that we would. This could only be in the autumn. 
 A rendezvous on the Rhine — for example at Co- 
 blentz — would j^robably be the right thing. This 
 does not exclude a flying visit by myself alone, 
 which, if it is to be of any use, must be paid earlier 
 in the year. How and where we could see each' 
 other I have naturally weighed, and am myself 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 83 
 
 doubtful whether Berlin is the appropriate place 
 for me. I have therefore come to the conclusion 
 that I might go to Coburg, and give the young 
 people a rendezvous there." 
 
 The Princess Royal spent her first winter in 
 Berlin in the Old Schloss. The castle had not been 
 lived in for a considerable time, and to one accus- 
 tomed to the even then high standard of English 
 living and hygiene, it must have seemed almost 
 mediaeval in its lack of comfort, and of what the 
 Princess had been brought up to regard as the 
 bare necessities of life — light, warmth, and plenty 
 of hot water. 
 
 The young couple were allotted a suite of 
 splendidly decorated but very dark and gloomy 
 rooms ; and none of the passages or staircases were 
 heated. The Princess, who had always been en- 
 couraged to turn her quick mind to practical mat- 
 ters, and who delighted in creating and in making, 
 found her way blocked at every turn owing to the 
 fact that nothing could be done in the Old Schloss 
 without the direct permission of the King. Not 
 only was Frederick William IV in a very bad and 
 mentally peculiar state of health, but to him and to 
 his Queen any attempt to change or modify any- 
 thing in the ancient pile of buildings where his pred- 
 ecessor had lived savoured of sacrilege. To give 
 one instance. King Frederick William III had died 
 in the very suite of rooms allotted to the Prince and 
 Princess, and his children had piously preserved 
 
84 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the "death-chamber," as it was still called, in exactly 
 the same state as it was on the day of his death. 
 This room was situated next to the Princess's bou- 
 doir, and every time she went to her bedroom or 
 dressing-room she was obliged to pass through it. 
 
 The Old Schloss w^as widely believed to be 
 haunted, not only by the "White Lady" but by 
 other ghosts, and the door between the Princess 
 Royal's boudoir and the "death-chamber" would 
 sometimes open bj^ itself. One winter evening, the 
 Princess and one of her ladies were sitting together 
 in the boudoir. The lady, who was reading aloud, 
 raised her eyes and suddenly saw the door of the 
 death-chamber, which was covered, like the walls, 
 with blue silk, open noiselessly, as if pushed by an 
 invisible hand. She stopped reading abruptly. 
 The Princess asked nervously, "What's happened? 
 Do you see anything?" The lady answered, 
 "Nothing, ma'am," and, getting up, shut the door. 
 
 But it would be absurd to suppose that the Prin- 
 cess allowed the ungraciousness of the King and 
 the material discomforts which surrounded her at 
 this time to cloud the beginning of a singularly 
 happy married life. She threw herself with eager 
 zest into her husband's interests, and for the time 
 she seemed completely merged in him. Having 
 regard to the mental equipment and demands of the 
 Princess, it is obvious that she found in her husband 
 great intellectual gifts. The theory that the 
 Prince was wholly influenced by his wife, who took 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 85 
 
 the lead in all, cannot be maintained. He was nine 
 years older than the Princess, who was little more 
 than a child when they married, and his character 
 and outlook were formed long before. His uncle, 
 Duke Ernest, testifies on the contrary, to the in- 
 fluence which the Prince exerted over his wife. 
 
 It must, however, be acknowledged that Prince 
 Frederick William, especially in these early days, 
 agreed with the Princess in regarding England as 
 a perfect country with a perfect constitution. He 
 was deeply grateful to her for having left an 
 ideally happy home to become his wife, and his 
 entire devotion was shown in many ways. Indeed, 
 the only thing in which the Prince Frederick Wil- 
 liam of these days seems to have ever withstood the 
 Princess Royal was in his refusal to give up his 
 solitary evening walk in the streets of Berlin. The 
 Princess used to go to bed quite early, and then the 
 Prince would go out and walk about quite unat- 
 tended. 
 
 Years later, in reference to her domestic happi- 
 ness, the Empress wrote feelingly to a friend: 
 "The peace and blessed calm that I ever found in 
 my home, by the side of my beloved husband, when 
 powerful influences from outside were first distress- 
 ing me, are blessings which I cannot describe." 
 
 Some of the conditions of the Princess Royal's 
 new life were undoubtedly very irksome to her. 
 The tone of the Prussian Court in matters, not only 
 of religion and politics, but also of etiquette, was 
 
86 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 very much narrower than that of the Enghsh Court. 
 She seems to have found it impossible to guard her 
 tongue, to conceal her convictions, or to hold aloof 
 from political discussion. At "home," as she soon 
 very unwisely began to call England, she had been 
 used to say everything she thought from childhood 
 upwards, sure of not being misunderstood, and 
 reticence would have seemed to her mean, if not 
 absolutely dishonest. 
 
 But it is difficult to say when the Prussian re- 
 actionary party first became aware that in the bride 
 of Prince Frederick William they had a determined 
 and a brilliant opponent. It must, however, have 
 been fairly early, for it is on record that during that 
 first winter in Berlin "the very approach of a Tory 
 or a reactionary seemed to freeze her up." 
 
 Nor is it easy to see how much the Princess's 
 father, watching anxiously from England, knew of 
 this. She continued with unabated enthusiasm 
 those historical and literary studies to which the 
 Prince Consort had accustomed her, and she wrote 
 him a weekly letter, asking his advice on political 
 questions. She wrote to her mother daily, some- 
 times twice a day, but it was her father's influence 
 which really counted with her, and that remained 
 quite unimpaired. It is reasonable to suppose that 
 he attributed whatever seemed to annoy and dis- 
 tress her in Prussian public life to the still para- 
 mount influence of the dying King. But he evi- 
 dently did not at any time realise that, though 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 87 
 
 factious persons might be ready enough to use her 
 in their own interests, no one in Prussia really 
 wanted to see a Princess dabbling in politics at all. 
 Thus, we find the Prince writing to Stockmar in 
 March 1858: 
 
 "From Berlin the tenor of the news continues 
 excellent. Vicky appears to go on pleasing, and 
 being pleased. She is an extremely fortunate, 
 animating, and tranquillising element in that region 
 of conflict and indecision." 
 
 And again: 
 
 "Brunnow had reckoned upon Moustier from 
 Berlin, whom he would have had in his pocket, and 
 through him Walewski. Now he gets the Duke 
 of Malakoff ! He has not yet been able to realise 
 the position, and is by way of being extremely con- 
 fidential; it is he alone who has made Vicky's mar- 
 riage popular in Berlin, where it was at first very 
 unpopular, and he weeps tears of emotion when 
 he speaks of her!" 
 
 To the Princess herself he wrote also in March: 
 
 "You seem to have taken up your position with 
 much tact. The bandage has been torn from your 
 eyes all at once as regards all the greatest mysteries 
 of life, and you stand not only of a sudden before 
 them, but are called upon to deal with them, and 
 that too on the spur of the moment. 'Oh! It is 
 indeed most hard to be a man,' was the constant 
 cry of the old Wiirtemberg Minister, von Wangen- 
 heim, and he was right!" 
 
88 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 The Prince was generally philosophising, but 
 even so the following, written a few days later, 
 seems an extraordinary letter for any father to 
 write to a girl not much over seventeen: 
 
 "That you should sometimes be oppressed by 
 home-sickness is most natural. This feeling, which 
 I know right well, will be sure to increase with the 
 sadness which the reviving spring, and the quicken- 
 ing of all nature that comes with it, always develop 
 in the heart. It is a painful yearning, which may 
 exist quite independently of, and simultaneously 
 with, complete contentment and complete happi- 
 ness. I explain this hard-to-be-comprehended 
 mental phenomenon thus. The identity of the in- 
 dividual is, so to speak, interrupted; and a kind of 
 Dualism springs up by reason of this, that the I 
 ii'liich has been, with all its impressions, remem- 
 brances, experiences, feehngs, which were also those 
 of youth, is attached to a particular spot, with its 
 local and personal associations, and appears to what 
 may be called the new I like a vestment of the soul 
 which has been lost, from which nevertheless the 
 new I cannot disconnect itself, because its identity 
 is in fact continuous. Hence the painful struggle, 
 I might almost say the spasm, of the soul." 
 
 To the faithful Stockmar the Prince confided 
 his belief: 
 
 "As to Vick}^ unquestionably she will turn out 
 a very distinguished character, whom Prussia wiU 
 have cause to bless." 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 89 
 
 The Prince's cherished scheme of a visit to Co- 
 burg began to take shape, and he writes : 
 
 "My whole stay in Coburg can only be for six 
 days. To see you and Fritz together in a quiet 
 homely way without visits of ceremony, &c. — I dare 
 not picture it to myself too strongly. Talk it over 
 with Fritz, and let me know if I can count on you, 
 but do not let the plan get wind, otherwise people 
 will be paying us visits, and our meeting will lose 
 its pleasant private character." 
 
 Another letter, dated April 28, is interesting as 
 showing that the Prince was beginning to perceive 
 some of the difficulties in his daughter's path: 
 
 "What you are now living through, observing, 
 and doing, are the most important experiences, im- 
 pressions and acts of your life, for they are the first 
 of a life independent and responsible to itself. 
 That outside of and in close proximity to your true 
 and tranquillising happiness with dear Fritz your 
 path of life is not wholly smooth, I regard as a 
 most fortunate circumstance for you, inasmuch as 
 it forces you to exercise and strengthen the powers 
 of your mind." 
 
 Nothing that concerned her but was of moment 
 to her father: 
 
 "I am delighted to see by your letter that you 
 deliberate gravelj^- upon your budget, and I shall 
 be most happy to look through it, if you send it to 
 me ; this is the onty way to have a clear idea to one's 
 self of what one has, spends, and ought to spend. 
 
90 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 As this is a business of which I have had long and 
 frequent experience, I will give you one rule for 
 your guidance in it, namely, to set apart a consider- 
 able balance pour Vimprevu. This gentleman is 
 the costliest of guests in life, and we shall look very 
 blank if we have nothing to set before him." 
 
 During the first summer of their married life, the 
 Prince and Princess set up quite a modest estab- 
 lishment at the Castle of Babelsberg, and this made 
 the Princess very happy. 
 
 Seated on a declivity of a richly wooded hill, 
 about three miles from Potsdam, and looking down 
 upon a fine expanse of water, the little Castle of 
 Babelsberg commands a charming view of the sur- 
 rounding country. "Everything there," wrote 
 Queen Victoria on her first visit, "is very small, a 
 Gothic bijou, full of furniture, and flowers (creep- 
 ers), which they arrange very prettily round 
 screens, and lamps, and pictures. There are many 
 irregular turrets and towers and steps." 
 
 It was at Babelsberg that the Princess Royal 
 began to try and see something of the intellectual 
 and artistic world of Berlin. Neither the husband 
 nor the wife was under the dominion of the class 
 and caste prejudices which even now are so as- 
 tonishing a feature of German social life, and which 
 were then even more powerful and far-reaching. 
 That the Prince and Princess should appear actu- 
 ally to enjoy the society of mere painters and 
 writers and scientists, whether they occupied any 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 91 
 
 official positions or not, seemed extraordinary and 
 highly improper to the whole bureaucratic element 
 of Berlin, and must, we can well imagine, have 
 seriously offended the Prince's father. 
 
 It is easy to be wise after the event. No one 
 now can help seeing that it would have been the 
 truest wisdom for the young Princess to have 
 rigidly suppressed her natural tastes and intellec- 
 tual interests, and to have led a life of the narrowly 
 conventional character which Prussian princesses 
 were expected to lead. But she was incapable of 
 such self-suppression, which would have seemed to 
 her deceitful, and the mild cautions and hints at 
 prudence in her father's letters v/ere pathetically 
 inadequate to the needs of her critical position. 
 She was herself still quite unaware of how closely 
 she was being watched and criticised. "I am very 
 happy," she told a guest at one of the Court recep- 
 tions, "and I am intensely proud of belonging to 
 this country." 
 
 The more the Princess's social preferences 
 aroused the suspicion and indignation of the Court 
 world, the more popular she became with the 
 "intellectuals," unfortunately not a profitable ex- 
 change for her as she was then situated. We be- 
 come aware of this by a passage in the Reminis- 
 cences of Professor Schellbach, who had been 
 mathematical tutor to Prince Frederick William. 
 He writes: 
 
 "The first words which the Princess addressed to 
 
92 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 me with the greatest kindness were, *I love mathe- 
 matics, physics, and chemistry.' I was much 
 pleased, for I saw that the Prince must have given 
 her a pleasant account of me. Under the direction 
 of her highly cultivated father, who had himself 
 studied it. Princess Victoria had become acquainted 
 with natural science, and had even received her 
 first teaching from such famous men as Faraday 
 and Hoffman. Our beloved Princess soon re- 
 vealed her love for art and science, as well as her 
 pleasure in setting problems of her own. Her 
 Royal Highness at first tried to go on with her 
 studies in physics and mathematics under my di- 
 rection, but soon her artistic work took up the re- 
 mainder of time which the requirements of Court 
 life left to her." 
 
 Early in June Prince Albert carried out his plan 
 of visiting his daughter and son-in-law, but it was 
 at Babelsberg, not at Coburg, as he had hoped. 
 He was able to report to Queen Victoria: "The re- 
 lation between the young people is all that can be 
 desired. I have had long talks with them both, 
 singh^ and together, which gave me the greatest 
 satisfaction." 
 
 Prince Albert was, however, shocked to find the 
 King of Prussia in a terrible state : 
 
 "The King looks frightfully ill; he was very 
 cordial and friendly, and for the half hour he 
 stayed with us, did not once get confused, but com- 
 plained greatly about his state of health. He is 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 93 
 
 thin and fallen away over his whole body, with a 
 large stomach, his face grown quite small. He 
 made many attempts at joking in the old way, but 
 with a voice quite broken, and features full of pain. 
 'Wenn ich einmal fort bin, wieder fort bin/ he 
 said, grasping his forehead and striking it, 'then the 
 Queen must pay us a visit here, it will make me so 
 happy.' What he meant was, 'Wenn ich wieder 
 wohl bin.' 'It is so tedious,' he murmured; thus it 
 is plainly to be seen that he has not quite given up 
 all thought of getting better. The Prince's whole 
 aim is to be serviceable to his brother. He still 
 walks very lame, but looks well. I kept quietly in 
 the house all day with Vicky, who is very sensible 
 and good." 
 
 The Princess had special reasons for being "sen- 
 sible" at this time, for, to the great joy of the 
 Prussian Royal family, she was enceinte. 
 
 In August Queen Victoria and the Prince Con- 
 sort paid a visit of some length to their daughter. 
 The Queen herself describes the visit as "quite 
 private and unofficial," although she carried in her 
 train not only Lord Malmesbury, the Foreign Sec- 
 retary in Lord Derby's Government (which had 
 been formed in February), but also Lord Claren- 
 don, his predecessor, and Lord Granville, who had 
 been Lord President of the Council in Palmerston's 
 Government. 
 
 Prince Albert, at any rate, did not neglect the 
 opportunity of studying the political situation. 
 
94 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 He wrote to Stockmar a letter highly approving 
 the Prince of Prussia's political views, while his son- 
 in-law he described as firm in his constitutional 
 principles and despising the JManteuifel JNIinistry, 
 the members of which he met with obvious coolness. 
 
 The Berliners gave a hearty reception to Queen 
 Victoria and Prince Albert, and the Queen de- 
 clared to the Burgomaster of Berlin that she felt 
 exceedingly happy there, because she had realised 
 with what love and devotion everyone was attached 
 to the Royal house and to her daughter. 
 
 She was delighted with old Wrangel, whom she 
 calls a great character. "He was full of Vicky and 
 the marriage, and said she was an angel." There 
 was a great deal of sight-seeing, mitigated by 
 charming little gemutliUch family dinners, and a 
 grand review at Potsdam. 
 
 Prince Albert's birthday occurred during the 
 visit, and one of the Queen's presents to him was 
 "a paper-weight of Balmoral granite and deer's 
 teeth designed by Vicky." "Vicky gave her por- 
 trait, a small oil one by Hartmann, very like though 
 not flattered, and a drawing by herself. There 
 were two birthday cakes. Vicky had ordered one 
 with as many lights as Albert numbered years, 
 which is the Prussian custom." 
 
 Her jNIajesty notes with pleasure the arrival of 
 "our dear, excellent old friend Stockmar," whose 
 presence, however, by no means gave universal 
 satisfaction. Indeed, Sir Theodore Martin says 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 95 
 
 frankly that, although his visit was due solely to 
 his desire to meet the Queen and Prince Consort, 
 it was viewed with rancorous suspicion by the aris- 
 tocratic party, who held in abhorrence the man 
 whom they Ivnew to be the great advocate for the 
 establishment of constitutional government in 
 Germany. He was even accused of actively in- 
 triguing for the downfall of the ManteufFel Ad- 
 ministration, having, it was said, "brought in his 
 pocket, all cut and dry from England, the Ministry 
 of the new era." 
 
 Stockmar's views of what was needful to raise 
 Germany to her proper place among the nations 
 were unchanged, but age and infirmity had for 
 some time made him a mere looker-on. Neverthe- 
 less, it is probable that neither the Queen nor Prince 
 Albert in the least realised how inadvisable, in the 
 interests of the Princess Royal, was the old man's 
 visit. 
 
 It must not, however, be thought that the Prus- 
 sians were indifferent to the Princess Royal's sin- 
 gular personal charm. We have a most interesting 
 glimpse of this in a long letter written to Queen 
 Victoria by the beautiful and brilliant Duchess of 
 ]\Ianchester, herself a Hanoverian by birth, who 
 afterwards married the Duke of Devonshire and 
 for many years held a remarkable position in Eng- 
 lish society. 
 
 The Duchess relates how well the Princess Royal 
 was looking during the manoeuvres on the Rhine, 
 
96 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 and how much she seemed to be beloved, not only 
 by all those who knew her, but also by those who 
 had only seen and heard of her. 
 
 "The English could not helj) feeling proud of 
 the way the Prmcess Royal was spoken of, and 
 the high esteem she is held in. For one so young 
 it is a most flattering position, and certainly, as 
 the Princess's charm of manner and her kind un- 
 affected words had in that short time w^on her the 
 hearts of all the officers and strangers present, one 
 was not astonished at the praise the Prussians 
 themselves bestow on her Royal Highness. The 
 Prussian Royal Family is so large, and their opin- 
 ions politically and socially sometimes so different, 
 that it must have been very difficult indeed at first 
 for the Princess Royal, and people therefore can- 
 not praise enough the high principles, great discre- 
 tion, sound judgment, and cleverness her Royal 
 Highness has invariably displayed." 
 
 And the Duchess adds, on the authority of Field 
 IMarshal Wrangel, that the soldiers were particu- 
 larly delighted to see the Princess on horseback and 
 without a veil. 
 
 The Royal visit to Babelsberg came to an end 
 all too soon, and the leave-taking was tearful and 
 emotional in the extreme. Queen Victoria wrote 
 with natural feeling, "All would be comparatively 
 easy, were it not for the one thought that I cannot 
 be with her at the very critical moment when every 
 other mother goes to her child!" 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 97 
 
 In October of that first year of the Princess 
 Royal's married life, her father-in-law became 
 permanent Regent, owing to the continued mental 
 incapacity of King Frederick William IV. This 
 filled the young Princess with intense satisfaction, 
 which was increased when the new Prince Regent 
 declared it to be his intention strictly to adhere to 
 the letter and the spirit of the Constitution of 1850. 
 The great bulk of the nation rallied instantly round 
 him, and it seemed as if the gulf between the House 
 of Hohenzollern and the people of Prussia had been 
 suddenly bridged. The Manteuffel Ministry fell 
 in the following month, a general election produced 
 an enormous Liberal majority, and the hopes of the 
 Constitutionalists ran high. The Manteuffel Min- 
 istry was succeeded by one of which Prince Charles 
 Anthony of Hohenzollern was the President. 
 From this time forward Prince Frederick William 
 regularly attended the meetings of the Ministry, 
 and Privy Councillor Brunnemann was assigned 
 to him as a kind of secretary and channel of com- 
 munication on State affairs. 
 
 The Princess Royal imprudently expressed to 
 a gentleman of the Court her satisfaction at the 
 change in the political situation, and her words, 
 being repeated and exaggerated, gave great offence 
 to the Conservative party, which was also the party 
 of the King. The Princess's satisfaction was of 
 course shared by her father, who wrote to the sym- 
 pathetic Stockmar a letter showing no prevision of 
 
98 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 that great rock of Army administration on which 
 these high hopes were destined to he wrecked : 
 
 "The Regency seems now to have heen secured 
 for the Prince. We have only news of this at 
 present by telegrams from our children, but are 
 greatly delighted at this first step towards the 
 reduction to order of a miserable chaos. Will the 
 Prince have the courage to surround himself with 
 honourable and patriotic men? That is the ques- 
 tion, and what shape will the new Chamber take, 
 and what will its influence on him be?" 
 
 On November 20, 1858, Prince and Princess 
 Frederick William moved into the palace in Unter 
 den I^inden which was henceforth to be their resi- 
 dence in Berlin ; and on the following day, the Prin- 
 cess's eighteenth birthdaj^ there was a kind of 
 dedicatoiy service in the palace chapel, which was 
 attended by all the members of the Royal House. 
 
 This palace had been the scene of the happy 
 life of the Prince's grandfather. King Frederick 
 William III, and of Queen I^ouise. The intimate 
 and beautiful family life that had filled these rooms 
 was the best of omens for the young pair, and the 
 Princess Royal was delighted with her new home. 
 But the palace required to be brought up to modern 
 standards of comfort, and it was very difficult to 
 have the alterations apj^roved by the moody and 
 violent King. What he allowed on one day he took 
 back with hasty blame on the morrow. At last 
 Prince Frederick William obtained the Royal as- 
 
EARLY MARRIED LIFE 99 
 
 sent to those alterations which were absolutely ur- 
 gent, together with a grant of 350,000 thalers. 
 Among other improvements was added an eight- 
 cornered "Gedenkhalle" or "Memory-Hall," in 
 which were placed the numerous wedding presents 
 of the young pair, and to these, from time to time, 
 were added other rare and beautiful objects. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 
 
 On January 27, 1859, Berlin was on the tip-toe 
 of expectation. The custom is that 101 guns an- 
 nounce the birth of a Prince, and only twenty-one 
 that of a Princess, and as in Prussia the Salic Law 
 still obtains, it may easily be imagined with what 
 anxiety the Berliners counted the successive dis- 
 charges. There was indeed no need to wait for the 
 whole tale of the 101 guns, for the firing of the 
 twenty-second was enough to spread the glad news. 
 
 The story goes that when old Field-]Marshal 
 Wrangel, "Papa Wrangel" as the Berliners affec- 
 tionately called him, left the palace, the populace 
 crowded round him and demanded to know what 
 he could tell them. "Children," he answered, "all 
 is well! It is as fine and sturdy a recruit as one 
 could wish!" 
 
 It soon became known, however, that all had not 
 gone well with the young mother and her child. 
 There had been one of those unfortunate mishaps, 
 the exact truth of which it is always so difficult to 
 disentangle, but the following account, we believe, 
 represents w^hat actually happened: 
 
 It had been Queen Victoria's wish that the Prin- 
 cess should be attended in her confinement by Dr. 
 Martin, her English doctor, as well as the German 
 
 100 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 101 
 
 Court physicians. About eight o'clock in the 
 morning of January 27, one of the latter wrote to 
 his English colleague, asking him to come at once 
 to the Palace. But the servant to whom the letter 
 was entrusted, instead of taking it to Dr. Martin's 
 house, put it in the post, and it never reached him 
 till the afternoon. To that fact the Princess 
 Royal's friends always attributed the circumstances 
 which resulted in the weakness of the infant's left 
 arm. Be that as it may, both mother and baby 
 were for a time in imminent danger. No anaes- 
 thetic was administered, and the Princess with char- 
 acteristic courage looked up to her husband, who 
 held her in his arms the whole time, and asked him 
 to forgive her for being impatient. None of those 
 about her thought her strength would hold out, and 
 one of the German doctors actually said in her pres- 
 ence that he thought she would die, and her baby 
 too. But at last her ordeal came to an end, and to 
 her intense joy she was told that she had given birth 
 to a fine healthy boy. 
 
 The news of the birth of their first grandchild 
 was quickly flashed to the anxious parents at Wind- 
 sor. "A boy," ran the telegram, and Queen Vic- 
 toria characteristically replied, "Is it a fine boy?" 
 But it was not till the following day, so Prince 
 Albert told Stockmar, that the coin*ier brought "our 
 first information of the severe suffering which poor 
 Vicky had undergone, and of the great danger in 
 which the child's fife had hovered for a time." To 
 
102 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 King Leopold the Prince wrote, "The danger for 
 the child and the sufferings for the mother were 
 serious. Poor Fritz and the Prince and Princess 
 must have undergone terrible anxiety, as they had 
 no hope of the birth of a living child, and their joy 
 over a strong, healthy boy is therefore all the 
 greater." 
 
 On the evening of the baby's birth, the Prince 
 Regent, also a grandfather for the first time, held 
 a reception of which we have a vivid description 
 from the pen of the dramatist, Gustav zu Putlitz, 
 then a member of the Prussian Landtag, and after- 
 wards chamberlain to Princess Frederick William. 
 He says: 
 
 "It was like a great family festival. Everyone 
 hurried there with congratulations, and when the 
 young father, beaming with happiness, appeared, 
 the rejoicings increased. This delight is shared by 
 all classes of society, and is a testimony to the extent 
 of the popularity of the Prince and Princess." 
 
 Prince Frederick William received on January 
 29 the congratulations of the Prussian Chambers, 
 to which he made the following reply: 
 
 "I tliank you very heartily for the interest you 
 have shown in the joyful event, which is of such 
 consequence to my family and to the country. If 
 God sliould preserve my son's life, it shall be my 
 chief endeavour to bring him up in the opinions 
 and sentiments which bind me to the Fatherland. 
 It is nearly a year to-day since I told you how 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE AVILLIAM 103 
 
 deeply moved I was by the universal sympathy 
 which was exhibited towards me, as a young mar- 
 ried man, by the country as a whole. This sym- 
 pathy it was which made the Princess, my wife, 
 who had left her home to come to a new Father- 
 land, realise those ties of affection which have now, 
 owing to the birth of this son, become unbreakable. 
 May God therefore bless our efforts to bring up 
 our son to be worthy of the love which has been thus 
 early manifested towards him. The Princess, to 
 whom I was able to communicate your intention, 
 desires me to express her most sincere thanks." 
 
 The christening was fixed for March 5, but 
 neither of the parents of the Princess could be 
 present. "I don't think I ever felt so bitterly dis- 
 appointed," wrote the Queen to Uncle Leopold. 
 "It almost breaks my heart. And then it is an oc- 
 casion so gratifying to both nations and brings 
 them so much together that it is peculiarly mortify- 
 ing." However, the Queen consoled herself by do- 
 ing all she could to mark the importance of the 
 occasion. She sent a formal mission to represent 
 her and the Prince Consort at the christening, con- 
 sisting of Lord Raglan, the son of the victor of the 
 Alma, Inkerman, and Balaclava, and Captain 
 (afterwards Lord) de Ros, equerry to Prince Al- 
 bert. They were both old friends of the Princess, 
 to whom her father wrote: 
 
 "I was certain that the presence of Lord Raglan 
 and Captain de Ros would give you pleasure. 
 
104 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Ours will come when they return, and we can put 
 questions to them. ]My first will be: Has the 
 Princess gone out and does she begin to enjoy the 
 air, to which alone she can look for regaining 
 strength and health ? Or is she in the way to grow 
 weak and watery by being baked like a bit of pastry 
 in hot rooms? My second: Is she grown? I will 
 spare you my others. 
 
 "Your description of the Prince's kindness and 
 loving sympathy for you makes me very happy. 
 I love him dearly, and respect and value him, and 
 I am glad too, for his sake, that in you and my 
 little grandchild he has found ties of family happi- 
 ness which cannot fail to give him those domestic 
 tastes, in wliich alone in the long run life's true con- 
 tentment is to be found." 
 
 The baby Prince was duly christened on IVIarch 
 5, when he received the names of Frederick William 
 Victor Albert, and on the following day his parents 
 issued a touching expression of their gratitude for 
 the sympathy and congratulations they had received 
 from the public. In it they pledged themselves 
 afresh to bring up their son, with the help of God, 
 to the honour and service of the Fatherland. 
 
 After the special envoys had returned from 
 Berlin, the Prince writes to his daughter a letter 
 on the duties of motherhood, which was decidedly 
 candid for those rather prudish days: 
 
 "Lord Raglan's and Captain de Ros's news of 
 you have given me great pleasure. But I gather 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 105 
 
 from them that you look rather languid and ex- 
 hausted. Some sea air would be the right thing 
 for you; it is what does aU newly-made mothers 
 the most good when their 'campaign is over.' I 
 am, however, delighted to hear you have begun to 
 get into the air. Now pass on as soon as possible 
 to cold washing, shower baths, &c., so as to brace 
 the system again, and to restore elasticity to the 
 nerves and muscles. 
 
 "You are now eighteen years old, and you will 
 hold your own against many a buffet in life; still, 
 you will encounter many for which you were not 
 prepared and which you would fain have been 
 spared. You must arm yourself against these, like 
 Austria against the chance of war, otherwise you 
 will break down and drop into a sickly state, which 
 would be disastrous to yourself, and inflict a fright- 
 ful burden upon poor Fritz for life ; besides which, 
 it would unfit you for fulfilling aU the duties of your 
 station. 
 
 "In reference to having children, the French 
 proverb says: Le premier pour la sante, le second 
 pour la heaute, le troisieme gate tout. But Eng- 
 land proves that the last part of the saying is not 
 true, and health and beauty, those two great bless- 
 ings, are only injured where the wife does not make 
 zealous use of the intervals to repair the exhaus- 
 tion, undoubtedly great, of the body, and to 
 strengthen it both for what it has gone and what 
 it has to go through, and where also the intervals 
 
106 THE EMPRESS FREDEKICK 
 
 are not sufficiently long to leave the body the neces- 
 sary time to recruit." 
 
 The Princess had a favourable convalescence, 
 during which her active mind was troubled by an 
 article on Freemasonry. Her father, to whom of 
 course she turned for counsel, had never consented 
 to be initiated as a ISIason, though his sons, King 
 Edward and the Duke of Connaught, both became 
 enthusiastic members of the craft. The Princess 
 seems to have been troubled by the idea that her 
 husband's connection with the order — he had been 
 appointed patron of the INIasonic Lodges of Prus- 
 sia and head of the Grand Lodge in Berlin — would 
 in some way lessen the confidence between them. 
 Prince Albert endeavours to reassure her with a 
 paradox which she probably found quite unconvin- 
 cing: 
 
 "I will get Alice to read to me the article about 
 Freemasons. It is not likely to contain the whole 
 secret. The circumstance which provokes you only 
 into finding fault with the Order, namely that hus- 
 bands dare not communicate the secret of it to 
 their wives, is just one of its best features. If to 
 be able to be silent is one of the chief virtues of the 
 husband, then the test which puts him in opposi- 
 tion to that being towards whom he constantly 
 shows the gi-eatest weakness, is the hardest of all, 
 and therefore the most compendious of virtues, and 
 the wife should not only rejoice to see him capable 
 of withstanding such a test, but should take occa- 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 107 
 
 sion out of it to vie with him in virtue by taming the 
 inborn curiosity which she inherits from her mother 
 Eve. If the subject of the secret, moreover, be 
 nothing more important than an apron, then every 
 chance is given to virtue on both sides, without dis- 
 turbing the confidence of marriage, which ought to 
 be complete." 
 
 The baby Prince William thrived, in spite of 
 the defect in his left arm, which was shorter than 
 the other. We have some entertaining glimpses 
 of him, and of his parents' pride in him, in the 
 correspondence of Priscilla Lady Westmorland. 
 A German friend of hers, a lady of high rank, wrote 
 to Lady Westmorland when the Prince was only 
 about a week old: 
 
 "I must tell you of my wonderful good fortune 
 — I have actually seen this precious child in his 
 father's arms! You will ask me what this child 
 of so many prayers and wishes is like. They say 
 all babies are alike : I do not think so : this one has 
 a beautiful complexion, pink and wliite, and the 
 most lovely little hand ever seen ! The nose rather 
 large ; the eyes were shut, which was as well, as the 
 light was so strong. His happy father was hold- 
 ing him in his arms, and himself showed traces of 
 all he has gone through at the time. The child was 
 believed to be dead, so you may conceive the ecstasy 
 of everyone at his first cry." 
 
 Prince Frederick William was indeed, as this 
 lady put it, beside himself with joy. He delighted 
 
108 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 in showing his baby to his friends and loyal serv- 
 ants, calling him "mein Junge." 
 
 In the early summer of 1859 the Princess Royal 
 spent a happj?" holiday at Osborne, and her English 
 relatives and friends thought her extraordinarily 
 well and happy; it was also considered that she had 
 become much better looking. The Queen describes 
 her as "flourishing, and so well and gay," and as 
 "a most charming companion," while Prince Al- 
 bert tells Stockmar that "We found Vicky very 
 well, and looking blooming, somewhat grown, and 
 in excellent spirits. The short stay here will cer- 
 tainly be beneficial both to her health and spirits." 
 
 AVliile the Princess was in England, she was 
 asked by her parents if she w^ould make private in- 
 quiries as to any German princesses who might be 
 suited to become Princess of Wales, but the search 
 does not seem to have been successful. It was 
 then that Sir Augustus Paget, who had been for 
 two years British ^Minister in Copenhagen, spoke 
 to his fiancee, the Princess Royal's lady-in-waiting, 
 of Princess Alexandra. It was from this lady, 
 now Walpurga Lady Paget, that Queen Victoria 
 and the Prince Consort first heard of the beauty 
 and many endearing graces of the Danish princess. 
 So impressed were they by her account that it was 
 arranged that the Princess Royal should meet Prin- 
 cess Alexandra informally at Strelitz, in the palace 
 of the Grand Duchess of JNIecklenburg. 
 
 This meeting duly took place, and the Princess 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 109 
 
 Royal wrote most enthusiastically of the result of 
 their informal interview. It was directly owing to 
 this fact that it was settled that the Prince of Wales 
 and Princess Alexandra should meet, as if by 
 chance, in the cathedral of Spiers with a view to 
 making close acquaintance. 
 
 The birth of Prince William brought a consid- 
 erable change in the lives of his parents. Babels- 
 berg had become too small to make a convenient 
 summer home, and so the King granted them the 
 use of the New Palace at Potsdam, which is only 
 about half an hour's journej^ from Berlin. 
 
 This enormous rococo building with its two 
 hundred rooms was erected bj^ Frederick the Great 
 at the end of the Seven Years' War, in order to 
 show his enemies that he had plenty of money still 
 left with which to go to war again if necessary. 
 Prince Frederick William was very fond of the 
 New Palace, where he had himself been born, and 
 which was full of reminders of his great namesake. 
 Apparently the only thing he did not like about it 
 was its name, for it will be remembered that during 
 his brief reign he altered it to Friedrichskron. 
 
 Queen Victoria, on her visit to Babelsberg in 
 August, 1858, had gone to see the Palace, and she 
 describes it in her diary as "a splendid building 
 that reminded me much of Hampton Court — the 
 same colour, same style, same kind of garden, with 
 splendid orange trees which in the cool calm evening 
 sent out a dehcious smell. The Garten- Saal, one 
 
110 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 enormous hall, all in marble Avith incrustations of 
 stones, opening into a splendid room or gallery, re- 
 minded me of the Salle des Glaces at Versailles. 
 There is a theatre in the Palace, and many splendid 
 fetes have been given there. There are some rooms 
 done in silver, like those at Sans Souci and Pots- 
 dam, and all in verj^ rich Renaissance style. The 
 millions it must have cost! But none of these 
 palaces is wohnlich (liveable in). None like dear 
 Babelsberg!" 
 
 The Princess Royal was determined to make at 
 any rate her own rooms in the Palace tcoJmlich. 
 After the fashion of the period, she surrounded 
 herself with portraits of her relations, and with 
 paintings of her various beloved English homes. 
 There were endless souvenirs of her childhood 
 scattered about in her rooms — souvenirs of her 
 Christmases and of birthdays, little gifts presented 
 to her as a child and young girl by her grandmother! 
 by her "Aunt Gloucester," and by all those who had 
 surrounded her during the days of her happy youth. 
 
 It is curious to reflect that, twenty j^ears after 
 the Princess Royal first took up her residence 
 there, an English visitor was to write: "Without 
 Carlyle's Frederick the Greats Potsdam would be 
 a collection of mere dead walls enclosing a number 
 of costly objects. Illuminated by the book, each 
 room, each garden wall thrills with human interest." 
 But when the Princess Royal first went there to 
 make the New Palace her home for a part of each 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 111 
 
 year, it might much more truly have been described 
 as an arid and dusty waste, and that though it was 
 surrounded by many waters. The gardens were 
 very stiff, indeed ugly, but the Princess's active, 
 creative mind saw their possibilities, and under her 
 fostering hand and taste they were transformed and 
 made to yield the utmost of beauty and delight. 
 
 The New Palace henceforth became associated, 
 in the minds of all those who were truly attached 
 to the Princess, with all that was best and most 
 peaceful in her life. It was there that she was 
 able to set the example of that helpful and happy 
 country life which she had learned to value in Eng- 
 land, and it was not long before its simple domestic 
 character became known far and wide, and exer- 
 cised an influence the extent of which it is impossi- 
 ble to estimate. 
 
 The Prince and Princess had a farm at Born- 
 stedt, not far off, and there the Prince delighted 
 to become for the time a simple farmer, manag- 
 ing himself all the details of the crops and the 
 labourers, while the Princess occupied herself with 
 the poultry and her model dairy. It may, indeed, 
 be doubted whether the Prince and Princess found 
 the farm a very good investment financially, but 
 that was of small importance compared with the 
 spiritual refreshment which they derived from this 
 close periodical contact with the simple, natural 
 gifts of mother earth. 
 
 Among the neighbouring villagers, too, they 
 
112 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 found plenty of scope for the exercise of an intelli- 
 gent philantlu'opy, in gradually modifying the 
 primitive ideas then prevalent on sanitation, and in 
 caring for the children and the old people. The 
 Prince would himself sometimes teach in the village 
 schools. A pretty story is told that one daj^ when 
 he was questioning a class, he asked a little girl to 
 W'hat kingdom his watch-chain and a flower in his 
 button-hole respectively belonged, and when she 
 had answered correctly, he went on to ask, "To 
 what kingdom do I belong?" and the child replied, 
 "To the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 In June, 1859, the war between Austria and 
 the allied French and Sardinian armies, culminat- 
 ing in the defeat of the Austrians at Solferino, 
 brought natural anxieties to the Princess. The 
 Prince Regent, while declaring the neutrality of 
 Prussia, nevertheless ordered a mobilisation of the 
 Army for the protection of Germany, and Major- 
 General Prince Frederick William, commanding 
 the First Infantry Brigade of Guards, was ap- 
 pointed to the command of the First Infantry 
 Division of Guards. Though the Princess, thus 
 early in her married life, showed by her quietude 
 that she was a true soldier's wife, it was a great 
 relief to her when the threatened danger was over 
 and the mobilisation rescinded on the conclusion 
 of the Peace of ViUafranca in July. Prince Fred- 
 erick William's promotion to command a division 
 was then confirmed bv his father. 
 
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 113 
 
 The political situation, however, remained diffi- 
 cult, and Prince Albert and his daughter watched 
 it with anxious concern. The following passage 
 in a letter of his dated September is no doubt in re- 
 ply to some comments of hers on the position of 
 Prussia and Germany in view of the rising agita- 
 tion for unity in Italy : 
 
 "I am for Prussia's hegemony; still Germany is 
 for me first in importance, Prussia as Prussia second. 
 Prussia will become the chief if she stand at the 
 head of Germany: if she merely seek to drag Ger- 
 many down to herself, she will not herself ascend. 
 She must, therefore, be magnanimous, act as one 
 with the German nation in a self-sacrificing spirit, 
 prove that she is not bent on aggrandisement, and 
 then she will gain pre-eminence, and keep it," and 
 he goes on to point the moral in the sacrifices which 
 Sardinia had already made for the Italian idea. 
 
 In November the Princess Royal paid a visit to 
 England with her husband in time to celebrate the 
 Prince of Wales's birthday on the 9th, and Prince 
 Albert tells Stockmar: 
 
 "We find the Princess Royal looking extremely 
 well, and in the highest spirits, infinitely lively, lov- 
 ing, and mentally active. In knowledge of the 
 world, she has made great progTess." The visit 
 lasted till December 3, and Prince Albert wrote to 
 the Dowager Duchess of Coburg that Prince Fred- 
 erick William "has delighted us much. Vicky has 
 developed greatly of late, and yet remains quite a 
 
114 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 child; of such indeed is the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 And after his daughter had gone hack to Berhn, 
 the loving father wrote to her: 
 
 "Your dear visit has left upon us the most de- 
 lightful impression ; you were well, full of life and 
 freshness, and withal matured. I may therefore 
 yield to the feeling, sweetest of all to my heart as 
 your father, that you will be lastingly happy. In 
 this feeling I wait without apprehension for what 
 fate may bring." 
 
 On this visit to England the Princess did not 
 fail to see her old friend and ruler, Sarah Lady 
 Lyttelton, who records : 
 
 "The dear Princess came in, habited and hatted 
 and cockfeathered from her ride, looking very well 
 though in a very bad cold. She embraced me and 
 received me most kindly, and took me into her mag- 
 nificent sitting-room, where I spent almost an hour 
 with her, till she had to go and change her dress for 
 luncheon. She talked much of her baby and in- 
 quired after everybody belonging to me and seemed 
 as happy as ever." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 
 
 The year 1860 was on the whole a happy one for 
 the Princess Royal. It brought her a long visit 
 from her parents and the birth of her eldest 
 daughter, but on the other side of the account the 
 relations between her two countries, England and 
 Prussia, became perceptibly worse. 
 
 For the New Year her father sent her one of 
 his customary letters of sagacious counsel, in which 
 may be detected a certain note of uneasiness as to 
 the development of his daughter's powers of self- 
 control : 
 
 "You enter upon the New Year with hopes, 
 which God will surely graciously suffer to be ful- 
 filled, but you do also with good resolutions, whose 
 fulfilment lies within your own hand and must 
 necessarily contribute to your success, also happi- 
 ness, in this suffering and difficult world. Hold 
 firmly by these resolutions, and evermore cherish 
 the determination, with which comes also strength, 
 to exercise unlimited control over yourself, that the 
 moral law may govern and the propensity obey, — 
 the end and aim of all education and culture, as we 
 long ago discovered and reasoned out together." 
 
 It is remarkable that early in this year Prince 
 
 115 
 
116 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Frederick William appears to have been for a time 
 the centre of the hopes of the reactionary party. 
 The Junkers actually planned to bring about the 
 resignation of the Prince Regent, and to induce 
 Prince Frederick William to assume the supreme 
 power and govern without a constitution, which 
 formed the great obstacle to their military ambi- 
 tions. This scheme argued an extraordinary mis- 
 apprehension, not only of Prince Frederick Wil- 
 liam's honest, straightforward character, but also 
 of all his political ideals. He was, especially at this 
 period of his life, a pure Constitutionalist, with a 
 profound admiration for the free polity of Eng- 
 land, and it would be difficult to imagine any form 
 of government which would have seemed both to 
 him and to his wife more immoral, as well as more 
 certain to entail a counter-revolution, than a mili- 
 tary dictatorship. It is perhaps not without sig- 
 nificance that in IMarch a British warship was 
 launched at Portsmouth and was named Frederick 
 William by way of compliment to the husband of 
 the Princess Royal. 
 
 In June there was a parade at the Konigsberg 
 garrison, at which the Prince Regent said to his 
 son, "Fritz, I appoint you to the First Infantry 
 Regiment, the oldest Corps in the service," and 
 about a month afterwards the young commander 
 was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General. 
 
 The Princess Royal's eldest daughter was born 
 on July 24<, and was christened Victoria Augusta 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 117 
 
 Charlotte, being known as Princess Charlotte till 
 her marriage in 1878 to the Hereditary Prince of 
 Saxe-Meiningen. Queen Victoria records the 
 news of the baby's birth in her usual vivid style : 
 
 "Soon after we sat down to breakfast came a 
 telegram from Fritz — Vicky had got a daughter at 
 8.10, and both were well! What joy! Children 
 jumping about — eveiyone delighted^ — so thankful 
 and relieved." 
 
 Only the day before there had come a letter 
 from the Princess Royal containing the intelligence 
 that Prince Louis of Hesse was ardently desirous 
 of paying his addresses to Princess Alice, the Prin- 
 cess Royal's much-loved sister and companion 
 of her childhood. To this Prince Albert refers in 
 writing to his daughter: 
 
 "Only two words of hearty joy can I offer to 
 the dear newly-made mother, and these come from 
 an overflowing heart. The little daughter is a 
 kindly gift from heaven, that will (as I trust) pro- 
 cure for you many a happy hour in the days to 
 come. The telegraph speaks only of your doing 
 well ; may this be so in the fullest sense ! 
 
 "Upon the subject of your last interesting and 
 most important letter, I have replied to Fritz, who 
 will communicate to you as much of my answer as 
 is good for you under present circumstances. 
 Alice is very grateful for your love and kindness to 
 her, and the young man behaves in a manner truly 
 admirable." 
 
118 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 A few days later the anxious father writes to 
 the young mother one of his curious medical homi- 
 lies: 
 
 "I hope you are very quiet, and keep this well in 
 mind, that although you are well, and feel yourself 
 well, the body has to take on a new conformation, 
 and the nervous system a new life. Only rest of 
 brain, heart, and bodj', along with good nourish- 
 ment, and its assimilation by regular undisturbed 
 digestion, can restore the animal forces. My phy- 
 siological treatise should not bore you, for it is al- 
 ways good to keep the great principles in view, in 
 accordance with which we have to regulate our ac- 
 tions." 
 
 But it was not all physiological treatise that was 
 despatched from Osborne to Berlin. The Prince 
 has an amusing reference to the busy importance 
 with which the little Princess Beatrice, who was 
 then three and a quarter years old, regarded the 
 arrival of her first niece : 
 
 "The little girl must be a darling. Little 
 maidens are much prettier than boys. I advise her 
 to model herself after her Aunt Beatrice. That 
 excellent lady has now not a moment to spare. 'I 
 have no time,' she says, when she is asked for any- 
 thing, *I must write letters to my niece.' 
 
 "It will make you laugh, if I tell you that I 
 have christened a black mare Ayah (as black 
 nurse). I lately asked the groom what was the 
 horse's name, which I had forgotten. 'Haya,' was 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 119 
 
 the answer. 'What?' I asked. *We spell it Hay, 
 Why, Hay.' You should call your Westphalian 
 nurse, 'Hay, Why, Hay!' " 
 
 It had been arranged that the Queen and Prince 
 Albert should pay their visit to their daughter and 
 son-in-law at Coburg at the end of September. 
 By a most unfortunate chance there had occurred 
 about the middle of the month one of those "in- 
 cidents" which are sometimes, when mishandled by 
 officialdom and magnified by offended national 
 pride, allowed to exercise an influence ludicrously 
 disproportionate to their real triviality. The Mac- 
 donald affair, as it was called, at one moment 
 threatened to bring about a serious breach between 
 England and Prussia, and as it was unquestion- 
 ably one of the causes of the dislike and susj)icion 
 with which the Princess Royal was to be regarded 
 by a section of the Prussians, it is worth while to 
 record it in some detail. 
 
 A Scottish gentleman, a certain Captain Mac- 
 donald, had a dispute about a seat in a railway 
 carriage at Bonn. He knew no German, was 
 ignorant of Prussian law, and very likely behaved, 
 or was considered by the authorities to have be- 
 haved, in an autocratic manner. However that 
 may be, he was not only ejected from the carriage 
 but was committed to prison, where he remained 
 from September 12 to 18. On^he 18th he was 
 tried and fined twenty thalers and costs. The Eng- 
 lish residents at Bonn warmly espoused his cause, 
 
120 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 and Captain Macdonald seems, apart from the 
 original dispute, to have had reason to complain of 
 violence used to him and also of his treatment while 
 in prison. It was also particularly unfortunate 
 that at the trial the Staatsprocurator, or public 
 prosecutor, should have denounced the behaviour 
 when abroad of English people generally. "The 
 English residing and travelling," he said, "are no- 
 torious for the rudeness, impudence, and boorish 
 arrogance of their conduct." 
 
 This accusation, whether w^ell founded or not, 
 naturally seemed to English lawyers and the Eng- 
 lish public a piece of gratuitous irrelevance, in- 
 tended merely to excite prejudice against Captain 
 JNIacdonald. It is impossible now to apportion the 
 blame for the w^ay in which the incident was allowed 
 to embitter public opinion in both countries. The 
 affair dragged on for months — indeed, it was not 
 finally disjjosed of till the following May. There 
 were questions in Parliament, Lord Palmerston 
 was extremely angry, and an article in the Times 
 served to pour oil on the flame. 
 
 In the circumstances the incident inevitably 
 rather dashed the joy of the happy family party at 
 Coburg. The Queen conferred with Lord John 
 Russell, then Foreign Secretary, whom she had 
 brought with her, and she alludes in her journal to 
 "the ejection and imprisonment (unfairly, it seems) 
 of a Captain Macdonald, and the subsequent of- 
 fensive behaviour of the authorities. It has led 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 121 
 
 to ill blood, and much correspondence, but Lord 
 John is very reasonable about it, and not inclined 
 to do anything rash. These foreign governments 
 are very arbitrary and violent, and our people apt 
 to give offence, and to pay no regard to the laws 
 of the country." 
 
 The Queen and Prince Albert arrived at Coburg 
 on September 25, and the Princess Royal delighted 
 in visiting with her father the scenes of his boy- 
 hood. She went with the guns to a drive of wild 
 boars, and almost every day there was an expedi- 
 tion to some interesting place in all the relief of 
 incognito. One day Prince Albert had a narrow 
 escape. He was alone in an open carriage when 
 the horses ran away. With great presence of 
 mind, he jumped out, and happily got off with 
 nothing worse than a few cuts and bruises. Gustav 
 Freytag, the distinguished German novelist and 
 dramatist, was received, and the Queen records 
 that there was much conversation with him after 
 dinner. As we shall see later, Freytag was ad- 
 mitted to the confidence of the Princess Royal and 
 her husband, and he repaid their kindness in strange 
 fashion. 
 
 It was on this visit that the Queen saw her eldest 
 grandchild for the fii'st time. Writing on Sep- 
 tember 25, she says : 
 
 "Our darling grandchild was brought. Such a 
 little love! He came walking in at Mrs. Hobbs's 
 [his nurse's] hand, in a little white dress with black 
 
122 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 bows, and was so good. He is a fine, fat child, 
 with a beautiful white soft skin, very fine shoulders 
 and limbs, and a very dear face, like Vicky and 
 Fritz, and also Louise of Baden. He has Fritz's 
 eyes and Vicky's mouth, and very fair curly hair. 
 We felt so happy to see him at last!" 
 
 This was the beginning of an enduring friend- 
 ship between grandmother and grandson, and no 
 one with any historical imagination can help re- 
 calling the last scene of that friendship, when this 
 fine little boy, grown to be a mighty Emperor, 
 hastened to share the grief of the English people 
 at the death-bed of their great Queen. 
 
 The Queen was evidently much attracted by the 
 already characteristic energ\" of tlie little Prince, 
 for there are references to him all through her rec- 
 ords of this visit: 
 
 "Dear little William came to me as he does every 
 morning. He is such a darling, so intelligent.'* 
 "Dear little Wilhelm as usual with me before din- 
 ner — a darling child." "The dear little boy is so 
 intelligent and pretty, so good and affectionate." 
 "Had a last visit from dear Stockmar. Towards 
 the end of his stay, dear little William came in and 
 played about the room." "The darling little boy 
 with us for nearly an hour, running about so dearly 
 and merrily." "At Cologne our darling little Wil- 
 liam was brought into our carriage to bid good-bye. 
 I felt the parting deeply." 
 
 Prince Albert wrote to the Duchess of Kent: 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 123 
 
 *'Yoiir great-grandson is a very pretty, clever child 
 — a compound of both parents, just as it should be." 
 
 Mrs. Georgina Hobbs, the nurse mentioned 
 above, first vi^ent to Germany as a maid in the serv- 
 ice of the Princess Royal on her marriage, and was 
 afterwards promoted to be chief nurse to the Royal 
 children. Prince Wilham and his brother and sis- 
 ters were devotedly attached to "Hobbsy," as they 
 called her, and it was from "Hobbsy" that they 
 learnt English, for their parents always talked Ger- 
 man to one another. 
 
 The Princess Royal, perhaps naturally, preferred 
 to have her children's nursery arranged and con- 
 ducted on the English rather than on the German 
 model, but who can doubt that in this, as in other 
 matters of even less importance, she would have 
 done better to have studied the susceptibilities of her 
 adopted country? Indeed, Dr. Hinzpeter, who 
 was aftei*wards appointed the tutor of her sons, 
 bears witness that her nursery management be- 
 came a great subject of gossip among the Berlin- 
 ers, and stories were even current of corporal 
 punishment administered before the Court to 
 princes with dirty faces. It is true that Dr. Hinz- 
 peter describes these stories as mythical, but the 
 fact that they were circulated and believed helps 
 to account for the Princess's growing unpopular- 
 ity. 
 
 At this period Prince Albert was seriously dis- 
 turbed by the attacks which the Times was con- 
 
124 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 stantly making on Prussia and everything Prus- 
 sian. In an article in the Saturday Review, rec- 
 ommended by him to his daughter, it was said: 
 "The only reason the Times ever gives for its dis- 
 like of Prussia, is that the Prussian and English 
 Courts are connected by personal ties, and that 
 British independence demands that everything 
 proceeding from the Court should be watched with 
 the most jealous suspicion." 
 
 The Prince was honestly indifferent to the in- 
 sinuations against himself by which these attacks 
 were frequently pointed, but he was reasonably 
 anxious about the bad effect they would have in 
 Germany. Writing to his daughter on October 
 24, after his return to England, lie refers to the 
 Macdonald aifair, which had already become acute: 
 
 "What abominable articles the Times has 
 against Prussia! That of yesterday upon War- 
 saw and Schleinitz is positively too wicked. It is 
 tlie Bonn stoiy which continues to operate, and a 
 total estrangement between the two countries may 
 ensue, if a newspaper war be kept up for some 
 time between the two nations. Feelings, and not 
 arguments, constitute the basis for actions. An 
 embitterment of feeling between England and 
 Prussia would be a great misfortune, and yet they 
 are content in Berlin to make no move in the Bonn 
 affair." 
 
 It was only too true that the Prussian Govern- 
 ment was in no hurry to settle the JNIacdonald 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 125 
 
 aflTair. The bitterness which it engendered did not 
 die out till long after its formal termination in 
 May of the following year, and undoubtedly it 
 contributed far more than was suspected at the 
 time to increase the delicacy and difficulty of 
 the Princess Royal's position. It was actually 
 thought in Germany that she inspired the attacks 
 in the British Press. "This attitude of the Eng- 
 lish newspapers preys upon the Princess Royal's 
 spirits and materially affects her position in 
 Prussia," so wrote Lord Clarendon. 
 
 This autumn and winter Prince Albert, in spite 
 of many political and other anxieties and a sharp 
 attack of illness, faithfully continued to instruct 
 his daughter in the art of government. 
 
 It does not seem ever to have crossed his mind 
 that such instruction, though admirable in itself, 
 was ill-advised in view of his pupil's position. 
 The ideal woman in Prussia was then, and still is 
 to a large extent, one who, conscious of her intel- 
 lectual inferiority, contents herself with managing 
 her household and children. If this view obtained 
 with regard to women in private stations, much 
 more was it considered to be the duty of princesses 
 of the Royal House to abstain from any active 
 interest in public affairs. But either Prince Al- 
 bert did not appreciate this, or it is possible that 
 he thought his daughter to be freed by her excep- 
 tional ability from the ordinary restrictions and 
 limitations of her rank. There is yet a third possi- 
 
126 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 bility — that he did not altogether trust his son-in- 
 law's jDolitical judgment, and was anxious to give 
 him, in the troublous times that seemed impending, 
 an help-meet who could influence him in the right, 
 that is in the Coburg, direction. Whatever may 
 have been the reason, the Prince certainly con- 
 tinued to the end of his life to cultivate his daugh- 
 ter's knowledge and grasp of public affairs. 
 
 In December, 1800, the Prince Consort received 
 from Berlin a memorandum upon the advantages 
 of a law of ^linisterial responsibility. Its object 
 was to remove the apprehensions entertained in 
 high quarters at the Prussian Court as to the ex- 
 pediency of a measure of this kind. This memo- 
 randum was the work of the Princess Royal, and it 
 is easy to imagine what a storm of indignation 
 would have arisen in Prussia if by any accident 
 or indiscretion the knowledge that the Princess 
 had written such a paper had leaked out. 
 
 Still, it was undoubtedly an able piece of work. 
 Sir Theodore Martin says that it would have been 
 remarkable as the work of an experienced states- 
 man ; and, as the fruit of the liberal political views 
 in which the Prince had been at pains to train its 
 author, it must have filled his mind with the hap- 
 piest auguries for her fulfilment of the great career 
 which lay before her. "It would have delighted 
 your heart to read it," were his words in writing 
 to Baron Stockmar. 
 
 To his daughter he sent a long and flattering 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 127 
 
 reply beginning: "It is remarkably clear and 
 complete, and does you the greatest credit. I 
 agree with every word of it, and feel sure it must 
 convince everyone who is open to conviction from 
 sound logic, and prepared to follow what sound 
 logic dictates." 
 
 This pathetic faith in the potency of logic in 
 political affairs is hard to reconcile with the Prince 
 Consort's earlier and sounder dictum that feelings, 
 not arguments, constitute the basis for actions. It 
 is evident from the rest of the letter that the Prin- 
 cess had laid it down that the responsibility of his 
 advisers does not in fact impair the monarch's 
 dignity and importance, but is really for him the 
 best of safeguards. She had gone on to discuss 
 the proposition that the patriarchal relation in 
 which the monarchs of old were supposed to stand 
 towards their people was preferable to the consti- 
 tutional system which interposes the Minister be- 
 tween the sovereign and his subjects. Her 
 father's comments on this would have seemed to 
 many Prussians most heretical doctrine to be im- 
 parted to their future Queen. 
 
 The patriarchal relation, he says, is pretty much 
 like the idyllic life of the Arcadian shepherds — a 
 figure of speech, and not much more. It was the 
 fashionable phrase of an historical transition- 
 period. Monarchy in the days of Attila, of Char- 
 lemagne, of the Hohenstaufen, of the Austrian 
 Emperors, of Louis XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, 
 
128 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 &c., was as little like a patriarchal relation as any- 
 thing could be. On the contrary it was sover- 
 eignty based upon spoliation, war, murder, 
 oppression, and massacre. That relation was sedu- 
 lously developed in the small German States, 
 whose rulers were little more than great landed 
 proprietors, during a short period in the eighteenth 
 century, and was cherished out of a sentimental 
 feeling. It then gave way before the Voltairean 
 philosophy during the reigns of Frederick II, 
 Joseph II, Louis XVI, &c., was turned topsy- 
 turvy by the French Revolution, and finally ex- 
 tinguished in the military despotism of Napo- 
 leon. 
 
 The Prince went on to say that in the great war 
 of liberation the people and their princes stood 
 by one another in struggling for the establishment 
 of civic freedom, first against the foreign oppres- 
 sor, and then as citizens in their own country; and 
 the treaties of 1815, as well as the appeal to the 
 people in 1813, decreed constitutional government 
 in every countr3\ The charter was granted in 
 France, and special constitutions were promised 
 in all the States; even to Poland the promise of 
 one was made, although there, as well as in Prussia 
 and Austria, that promise w^as not kept. Then 
 came the Holy Alliance and introduced reaction 
 into Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, by dint 
 of sword and Congress (in 1817-1823). Once 
 more the patriarchal relation was fostered with 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 129 
 
 the sentimentalism of the Kotzebue school, and the 
 betrayed peoples were required to become good 
 children, because the Princes styled themselves 
 good fathers! The July Revolution, and all that 
 has taken place since then, sufficiently demonstrate 
 that the peoples neither will nor can play the part 
 of children. 
 
 As for the personal government of absolute 
 Sovereigns, Prince Albert declared that to be a 
 pure illusion. Nowhere does history present us 
 with such cases of government by Ministers and 
 favourites as in the most absolute monarchies, be- 
 cause nowhere can the Minister play so safe a 
 game. A Court cabal is the only thing he has 
 to fear, and he is well skilled in the ways by which 
 this is to be strangled. History is full of exam- 
 ples. Recent instances have occurred where the 
 personal discredit into which the Sovereign has 
 fallen makes the maintenance of the monarchy, not 
 as a form of government, but as an effective State 
 machine, all but impossible. Wlien, as in the case 
 of the King of Naples, this result has arisen, all 
 that people are able to say in defence is, "He was 
 surrounded by a bad set, he was badly advised, 
 he did not know the state the country was in." 
 To what purpose, then, is personal government, 
 if a man in his own person knows nothing and 
 learns nothing? 
 
 The Sovereign should give himself no trouble, 
 said the Prince in conclusion, about details, but 
 
130 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 exercise a broad and general supervision, and see 
 to the settlement of the jDrinciples on which action 
 is to be based. This he can, nay, must do, where 
 he has responsible JNIinisters, who are under the 
 necessity of obtaining his sanction to the system 
 which they pursue and intend to uphold in Parlia- 
 ment. This the personally ruling Sovereign can- 
 not do, because he is smothered in details, does 
 not see the wood for the trees, and has no occasion 
 to come to an agreement with his INIinisters about 
 principles and systems, which to both him and 
 them can only appear to be a great burden and 
 superfluous nuisance. 
 
 How these doctrines would have been regarded 
 by proba])ly the majority of Prussians appears 
 from another letter which the Prince wrote a fort- 
 night later. His daughter had sent him an article 
 from the Conservative Krenz-Zeitung, and on it 
 he comments: 
 
 "The article expresses in plain terms the view 
 that Monarch}! as an institution has for that party 
 a value only so long as it is based upon arbitrary 
 will; and so these people arrive at precisely the 
 same confession of faith as the Red democrats, by 
 reason of which a Republic is certain to prove 
 neither more nor less than an arbitrary despotism. 
 Freedom and order, which are set up as political 
 antitheses, are, on the contrary, in fact, synony- 
 mous, and the necessarv^ consequences of legality. 
 'The majesty of the law' is an idea which upon 
 
ADVICE FROM ENGLAND 131 
 
 the Continent is not yet comprehended, probably 
 because people cannot realise to themselves a dead 
 thing as the supreme power, and seek for ijersonal 
 power in government or people. And yet virtue 
 and morality are also dead things, which neverthe- 
 less have a prerogative and a vocation to govern 
 living men — divine laws, upon which our human 
 laws ought to be moulded." 
 
 Christmas brought the customary exchange of 
 loving gifts. Prince Louis of Hesse, now the be- 
 trothed of Princess Alice, joined the family circle 
 in England, and Prince Albert writes to his 
 daughter in Berlin: 
 
 "Oh! if you, with Fritz and the children, were 
 only with us! Louis was an accession. He is a 
 very dear good fellow, who pleases us better and 
 better daily. In my abstraction I call him 'Fritz.' 
 Your Fritz must not take it amiss, for it is only 
 the personification of a beloved, newly-bestowed, 
 full-grown son. 
 
 "But to return to the dear Christmas festival! 
 Your gifts which were there have caused the 
 highest delight, and those we have yet to expect 
 will be looked for with impatience. To the latter 
 belong Wilhelm's bust, Fritz's boar's head — for 
 which in the meantime I beg you will give the 
 lucky huntsman my hearty thanks. Wilhelm 
 shall be placed in the light you wish when he issues 
 (I hope unbroken) from his dusty box. The 
 album, which arrived yesterday morning, is very 
 
132 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 precious to us, as it enables us to live altogether 
 beside you^ — in imagination. 
 
 "Prejudice walking to and fro in flesh and blood 
 is my horror, and, alas, a phenomenon so common; 
 and people plume themselves so much upon their 
 prejudices, as signs of decision of character and 
 greatness of mind, nay of true patriotism; and all 
 the wliile they are simply the product of narrow- 
 ness of intellect and narrowness of heart." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DEATH OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA 
 
 On January 2, 1861, died the King of Prussia, 
 Frederick William IV, and his brother, the Prince 
 Regent, succeeded as William I. Prince Freder- 
 ick William became Crown Prince of Prussia, and 
 henceforth the Princess Royal was called, both in 
 England and in Germany, the Crown Princess. 
 
 In the Letters of Queen Victoria there is a most 
 impressive account, written by the Princess Royal, 
 and there published for the first time, of the death 
 of the King of Prussia. The event moved her 
 the more deeply because, not only was she present 
 at the death-bed, but it was really her first sight 
 of death. 
 
 The King had been ailing so long that those 
 about him had ceased to be specially anxious. On 
 Monday evening, December 31, the Prince and 
 Princess Frederick William were sitting at tea 
 with the Prince Regent and the Princess of 
 Prussia, when there was brought bad news from 
 San Souci, but still nothing to make them par- 
 ticularly uneasy. In the middle of the night, or 
 rather early next morning, they were called up 
 with the intelligence that all hope for the King 
 had been abandoned. 
 
 Without waiting for any kind of carriage, al- 
 
 133 
 
134 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 though, as the Princess notes, there were twelve 
 degrees of cold Reaumur, she and Prince Fred- 
 erick WiUiam hurried on foot to the Prince of 
 Prussia's palace. From thence they went in a 
 special train to Potsdam. There they found the 
 King dying, and the members of the Royal family 
 standing round watching the death struggle. The 
 painful scene went on till five the next afternoon, 
 when Prince Frederick William wisely sent the 
 Princess off to bed. At one o'clock in the morning 
 of January 2 they were again called, with the news 
 tliat tlie King had not many minutes more to live. 
 
 The letter in which all these facts are recorded 
 is a remarkable comjjosition, especially when it is 
 remembered that the writer was only twenty. 
 We may be sure that any thought of literary effect 
 was far from her, and yet no one, reading it now 
 after the lapse of so many years, can be insensible 
 to the poignancy of this simple, unstudied, almost 
 artless description of tlie scene in the death- 
 chamber — the dim lamp; the silence broken only 
 by the crackling of the fire and the death-rattle; 
 the Queen, Elizabeth, continually wiping the per- 
 spiration from the dying man's forehead. 
 
 But the letter also shows how really noble was 
 the new Cro\Mi Princess's outlook on life. She 
 speaks with the warmest affection of her parents- 
 in-law: "May God bless and preserve them, and 
 may theirs be a long and happy reign," and she 
 goes on to describe the King as he lay dead, peace- 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 135 
 
 ful and quiet like a sleeping child. She could 
 hardly bring herself to believe that this was really 
 death, "that which I had so often shuddered at and 
 felt afraid of"; there was nothing dreadful or ap- 
 palling, only a heavenly calm and peace. 
 
 The Crown Princess also speaks with deep feel- 
 ing for the Queen Dowager, who had never really 
 liked her, and who, as we know, had been in sym- 
 pathy so pro-Russian all through the Crimean 
 War. But this grief brought the two together as 
 perhaps nothing else could have done, and the 
 Princess says: "She was so kind to me, kinder 
 than she has ever been yet, and said I was like her 
 own child and a comfort to her." 
 
 Prince Albert was evidently greatly moved by 
 his daughter's letter. In his reply he reminds her 
 that in one of the most impressive experiences of 
 life she was now older than himself. "The more 
 frequently you look upon the body, the stronger 
 will be your conviction that yonder casing is not 
 the 7nan, yea, that it is scarcely conceivable how it 
 can have been. In seeing and observing the ap- 
 proach of death, as you have been called upon to 
 do, you have become older in experience than my- 
 self. I have never seen anyone die." To Stock- 
 mar the Prince wrote that "The Princess, now 
 Crown Princess, has in the late trying time at 
 Berlin again behaved quite admirably, and receives 
 on all sides the most entire recognition." 
 
 That same eventful January of 1861, the Prin- 
 
136 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 cess lost two firm and loyal friends in Lord 
 and Lady Bloomfield. She parted with them 
 with great regret, and presented to Lady Bloom- 
 field a bust of little Prince William done by her- 
 self. 
 
 At that time it must indeed have seemed to the 
 Crown Princess as if all her own and her husband's 
 hopes and aspirations for a full and useful public 
 life were about to be amply fulfilled. The new 
 King had not only always been an affectionate 
 father to his only son and heir, but he had also been 
 marked among the princes of his time for his 
 liberal opinions and English sympathies. 
 
 The third anniversary of the Crown Princess's 
 marriage came very soon after the death of the 
 old King, and writing on that day to her mother 
 she said: "Every time our dear wedding day re- 
 turns I feel so happy and thankful — and live every 
 moment of that blessed and never-to-be-forgotten 
 day over again in thought. I love to dwell on 
 every minute of the day; not a hope has been dis- 
 appointed, not an expectation that has not been 
 realised, and much more — that few can say — and 
 I am thankful as I ought to be." 
 
 Soon after the accession of William I, Herr 
 INIax Duncker was formally attached to the Crown 
 Prince as a channel of communication in State 
 matters. Duncker had been Professor of History 
 at the Universities of Halle and Tubingen, and 
 had also obtained some practical experience of 
 
THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FIRST CHILD 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 137 
 
 politics as a member of the Frankfort and Erfurt 
 Diet, and as a Prussian deputy. He had indeed 
 been chosen by Stockmar for the position of con- 
 fidential adviser to the Prince, with whom and with 
 the Princess he was already in favour; and he saw 
 in his new post an opportunity of sowing seed 
 which might one day spring up and bear fruit an 
 hundred-fold. 
 
 In March the death of the Duchess of Kent de- 
 prived the Crown Princess of a grandmother to 
 whom she had been very warmly attached, and with 
 whom was associated all the events of her happy 
 childhood and girlhood. 
 
 On receiving the unexpected news, for the 
 Duchess of Kent had only been really ill a few 
 hours, the Princess started for England, not 
 entirely with the approval of her father-in-law. 
 The Prince Consort, who in this matter of his 
 daughter's relations to her father-in-law always 
 showed exceptional tact, wrote and thanked the 
 King: "Her stay here has been a great comfort 
 and delight to us in our sorrow and bereavement, 
 and we are truly grateful for it." 
 
 The problem of the Schleswig-Holstein duchies 
 and the unfortunate Macdonald affair combined 
 to draw England and Prussia still further apart. 
 It is true that the latter was formally settled in 
 May, but the bad feeling it created was not ap- 
 peased. Lord Palmerston said in the House that 
 the conduct of the Prussian Government had been 
 
138 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 a blunder as well as a crime, while the Prussian 
 Foreign Minister (Baron von Schleinitz), then 
 on the eve of his retirement, retaliated with a stiff 
 rejoinder. 
 
 A leading article in the Times, backing up 
 Palmerston's view, is described by Prince Albert, 
 in a letter to Berlin, as "studiedly insulting." At 
 the same time the Prince saw clearly that Schlein- 
 itz had made a mistake in mixing up the JNIacdonald 
 affair with Ja haute politique. "In Germany the 
 idea of the State in the abstract is a thing divine; 
 here it means the freedom of the individual citizen." 
 And he goes on to say that the feeling in England 
 ought to teach Prussia that mere talk will not 
 do. 
 
 "Prussia has been always talking of being the 
 only natural and real ally of England, but since 
 1815 she has taken no part in any European ques- 
 tion. Prussia sets up a claim to stand at the head 
 of Germany, but she is not German in her con- 
 duct. The Zollverein was the only really German 
 action to which she can point. She leads German}', 
 not upon the path of liberty and constitutional 
 development, which Germany (Prussia included) 
 requires and desires. I can imagine that with the 
 high military pretensions to which she has laid 
 claim for the last forty-five years, she suffers under 
 an oppressive consciousness that her army is the 
 only one which during this long period has not been 
 called into action. I repeat, however, that a large, 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 139 
 
 liberal, generous policy is the preliminary condi- 
 tion for an alliance with England, for hegemony 
 in Germany, and for her military renown." 
 
 These were the views with which the Crown 
 Princess was steadily indoctrinated. It is possi- 
 ble that she found them a little too cool and impar- 
 tially objective for her patriotism, but if so, there 
 is no trace of such disagreement in Prince Albert's 
 correspondence. 
 
 It was fortunate that Prussian opinion was at 
 this time distracted by the thought of the coming 
 coronation of the new King. The ceremony raised 
 certain questions which, though nominally con- 
 cerned with mere ceremonial, possessed in reality 
 considerable importance from a constitutional 
 point of view. The principal question was 
 whether the oath of allegiance traditionally taken 
 by the estates of the realm was consistent with the 
 new constitutional law desired by the King. Ap- 
 parently the King wished the oath to be taken, but 
 was dissuaded by his Ministers, and it was decided 
 that his Majesty should simply be crowned at 
 Konigsberg in the presence of the Landtag. 
 
 In July, 1861, the Crown Prince, who had gone 
 with the Crown Princess to pay a visit to Queen 
 Victoria, wrote from Osborne a long and remark- 
 able letter to his father, a passage in which shows 
 how constantly he consulted his wife on questions 
 of high politics. 
 
 The Crown Prince begs the King not to regard 
 
140 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the coronation with repugnance on account of the 
 omission of the oath of allegiance. He describes 
 the act of assuming the crown as a despotic act, 
 and as solemn proof that the crown is not con- 
 ferred by any earthly power, in spite of the pre- 
 rogatives abandoned in 1848. He goes on to argue 
 that the ceremony will compel the Great Powers 
 to show deference to Prussia by sending ambassa- 
 dors, and that therefore it ought to take place in 
 Berlin. In this way it would exhibit the develop- 
 ment of Prussia. Frederick I, by being crowned 
 at Konigsberg, marked the beginning of a new era 
 for the State, but now a coronation at Berlin would 
 mark the new future which opened out for Prussia 
 as the defender of the united German territories. 
 The Crown Prince advised that the King and 
 Queen should go to Konigsberg before the corona- 
 tion in Berlin, either to receive the oath of alle- 
 giance or to hold a great reception, and then he 
 goes on: 
 
 "I have ventured, dear father, to express my 
 opinion quite frankly, though you may perhaps be 
 surprised by my strong inclination for the corona- 
 tion ceremony. The fact is simply tliat I have 
 often calmly discussed this \vith Vicky as the only 
 desirable conclusion, when I saw the increasing 
 difficulties arising in your mind with reference to 
 the oath of allegiance." 
 
 These opinions of the Crown Prince's, in which 
 his wife evidently concurred, would hardly have 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 141 
 
 been approved by Prince Albert. They show the 
 future Emperor Frederick in a new light — no 
 longer as the liberal constitutionalist, the firm ad- 
 mirer of England's free polity, but as the cham- 
 pion of the divine right of the HohenzoUerns, with 
 a splendid vision of a united Germany under the 
 mihtary protection of Prussia. At the same time 
 there is that qualifying sentence in which the 
 Crown Prince refers to the plan of a coronation at 
 Berlin almost as if he and his wife had been driven 
 to recommend it as the only solution of the King's 
 difficulties regarding the oath of allegiance. 
 
 The whole question becomes the more interest- 
 ing in the light of a remarkable piece of dynastic 
 history which was revealed for the first time at the 
 jubilee celebrations of the Emperor William II in 
 June, 1913, in an address by Professor Hintze at 
 the Berlin University. It seems that his Imperial 
 Majesty was informed, before his father's death 
 in 1888, that upon that event a sealed document 
 of high importance would be placed in his hands. 
 When he read it, he found that it was the political 
 testament of his great-uncle. King Frederick Wil- 
 liam IV of Prussia, brother of the Emperor who 
 made united Germany. 
 
 As its name implies, the paper contained King 
 Frederick William's advice to his successors on the 
 Throne of Prussia. Part at least of these counsels 
 was deemed to be possibly so seductive to Sover- 
 eigns of a certain temperament that the Emperor 
 
142 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 William II felt it his duty to commit the whole 
 paper to the flames. The Royal testator, who in- 
 herited from his mother, Queen Louise, an exceed- 
 ingly exalted idea of the rights of the Crown, rec- 
 ommended his successors to revoke the written Con- 
 stitution which he himself had granted his people. 
 But he had a high sense of the obligations of his 
 kingly word and of his Royal oath, and accordingly 
 he advised any of them who might take the step to 
 take it before he had sworn to observe the Con- 
 stitution at his coronation. 
 
 The Emperors William I and Frederick III 
 seem to have been content with ignoring the testa- 
 ment. It was left for their successor, William II, 
 fearful lest it might one day tempt some "young 
 and inexperienced ruler" into dangerous paths, to 
 destroy it. His api^rehensions were curiously 
 strong. He felt, he told Professor Hintz, as if he 
 had a barrel of gunpowder in his house, and he 
 knew no peace until he had got rid of the terrible 
 document. 
 
 We need not discuss here whether these appre- 
 hensions were well founded. What is of the 
 highest interest is the knowledge, thus come to 
 light after so many years, of this extraordinary 
 political testament. It had unquestionably been 
 read at this time, July, 1861, by the new King 
 William I, and it is equally certain that it had not 
 then been read by the Crown Prince and Crown 
 Princess. Probably the knowledge of the docu- 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 143 
 
 ment would have modified the views expressed in 
 the Crown Prince's letter from Osborne. In any 
 case, it seems so far to have influenced the new 
 King that he rejected his son's advice and adhered 
 to his decision in favour of a coronation at Konigs- 
 berg, which duly took place there with all suitable 
 pomp on October 18. 
 
 Among the very few published letters of the 
 Crown Princess is one wliich she wrote to her 
 mother describing the ceremony. She modestly 
 declares herself "a very bad hand at descriptions," 
 but no one who reads the letter now would possibly 
 agree with that. On the contrary, she shows the 
 same remarkably vivid and picturesque power of 
 narration of which we had an example in her ac- 
 count of the death-bed of King Frederick William 
 IV. 
 
 The fact that the day chosen for the coronation 
 was her husband's birthday gave the Crown Prin- 
 cess great pleasure, as also that an English artist, 
 INIr. George Housman Thomas, was commissioned 
 to paint a picture entitled "Homage of the Princess 
 Roj-al at the Coronation of the King of Prussia." 
 
 Lord Clarendon, who was the British SjDecial 
 Ambassador on the occasion, ^vriting to Queen 
 Victoria on the day after the coronation, observed 
 that "the great feature of the ceremony was the 
 manner in which the Princess Royal did homage 
 to the King. Lord Clarendon is at a loss for 
 words to describe to your Majesty the exquisite 
 
144 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 grace and the intense emotion with which her 
 Royal Higliness gave effect to her feeUngs on the 
 occasion. Many an older as well as younger man 
 than Lord Clarendon, who had not his interest in 
 the Princess Royal, were quite as unable as himself 
 to repress their emotion at that which was so touch- 
 ing, because so unaffected and sincere." 
 
 Lord Granville also wrote to Prince Albert, 
 "One of the most graceful and touching sights 
 ever seen was the Princess's salute of the King.'* 
 
 Lord Clarendon added in his letter to the Queen, 
 not very prudently: "If his Majesty had the 
 mind, the judgment, and the foresight of the Prin- 
 cess Royal, there would be nothing to fear, and the 
 example and influence of Prussia would soon be 
 marvelloush'^ developed. Lord Clarendon has had 
 the honour to hold a very long conversation with 
 her Royal Highness, and has been more than ever 
 astonished at the statesmanlihe and comprehensive 
 views which she takes of the policy of Prussia, both 
 internal and foreign, and of the duties of a Consti- 
 tutional King." 
 
 Unfortunately, Prussia was far from desiring 
 the wife of the Heir Apparent to entertain any 
 views, statesmanlike or other, on either domestic 
 or foreign policy. 
 
 Lord Clarendon also told the Queen that the 
 Princess was appreciated and beloved by all classes. 
 Every member of the Royal Family, he said, had 
 spoken of her to him in terms of admiration, and 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 145 
 
 through various channels he had had opportunities 
 of learning how strong was the feeling of educated 
 and enlightened people towards her. 
 
 There is significance in the English statesman's 
 reference to "educated and enlightened" people. 
 He must have been aware that the majority of 
 Prussians of that day were neither educated nor 
 enlightened in his sense of the words, and that the 
 Princess was really only appreciated by the small 
 intellectual group who were flattered by the recog- 
 nition which she and the Crown Prince bestowed 
 on them. But Lord Clarendon was perhaps dis- 
 posed to see everything en beau, for the Crown 
 Princess mentions that the King and Queen showed 
 a marked cordiality to him, contrasting with the 
 stiff etiquette observed in their reception of the 
 other Ambassadors. 
 
 To return to the Crown Princess's account of 
 the coronation. She contrives to give in compara- 
 tively few words an unforgettable picture of the 
 coup d'oeil in the chapel — the Knights of the Black 
 Eagle in their red velvet cloaks, the various colours 
 of the uniforms, and the diamonds and Court 
 dresses of the ladies, all harmonised by the sun 
 pouring in through the high windows. The Prin- 
 cess says that she herself was in gold with ermine 
 and white satin, while one of her ladies wore blue 
 and the other red velvet. "Dearest Fritz was 
 in a great state of emotion and excitement, as we 
 all were." The King looked so handsome and 
 
146 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 noble with the crown on, and the moment when he 
 put the crown on the Queen's head was so touch- 
 ing that there was hardly a dry eye in the chapel. 
 
 The Princess's keen sense of humour was stirred 
 by the large assemblage of princes and other nota- 
 bles. "Half Europe is here, and one sees the 
 funniest combinations in the world. It is like a 
 happy family shut up in a cage!" and she mentions 
 as an example the Italian Ambassador sitting close 
 to a Cardinal. There is also a young prince of 
 Hesse who nearly dies of fright and shyness among 
 so many people; he at once excites the sympathy 
 of the warm-hearted Princess, though she herself 
 had no experience of the agonies of shyness. 
 
 But the Princess was even more diverted by a 
 compliment which the King paid her: 
 
 "The King gave me a charming little locket for 
 his hair, and only think — what will sound most ex- 
 traordinary, absurd, and incredil)le to your ears — 
 made me second Chef of the 2nd Regiment of 
 Hussars! I laughed so much, because really I 
 thought it was a joke — it seemed so strange for 
 ladies; but the Regiments like particularly having 
 ladies for their Chefs! The Queen and the Queen 
 Dowager have Regiments, but I believe I am the 
 first Princess on whom such an honour is con- 
 ferred." 
 
 Possibly the Princess thought at first that she 
 was being appointed honorary cook to the regi- 
 ment! In anv case it is curious that she should 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 147 
 
 not have known of the custom of conferring such 
 distinctions on Royal ladies, which obtains in the 
 British Army as well as on the Continent. 
 
 We have no means of knowing how the Crown 
 Prince and Crown Princess regarded the new 
 King's declaration at Konigsberg — that declaration 
 which amounted to an explicit assertion of the di- 
 vine right of Kings. But in Queen Victoria's Let- 
 ters there is a curious revelation of the anxiety with 
 which Her Majesty regarded the constant attacks 
 of the Times on everything German, and particu- 
 larly everything Prussian. She even wrote to 
 Lord Palmerston about it, suggesting that he 
 might see his way to remonstrate with the con- 
 ductors of the journal. "Pam" did see his way, 
 and he got an entertaining answer from the great 
 Delane, then at the zenith of his power, which he 
 forwarded to her JNIajesty. The editor says that 
 he would not have intruded advice on the Prussians 
 during the splendid ceremonies of the coronation 
 "had not the King uttered those surprising anach- 
 ronisms upon the Divine Right." 
 
 We learn from a letter written by Lord Claren- 
 don to Queen Victoria that the Crown Princess 
 was much alarmed at the state of affairs in Berlin 
 at this time. The King saw democracy and revo- 
 lution in every symptom of opposition to his will. 
 His Ministers were mere clerks, content to regis- 
 ter his decrees, and there was no one from whom he 
 sought advice, or indeed who was capable or would 
 
148 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 have the moral courage to give it. The King 
 would never accept the consequences of represen- 
 tative government or allow it to be a reality, though 
 at the same time he would always religiously keep 
 his word and never overturn the institutions he 
 had sworn to maintain. Such was this experienced 
 statesman's diagnosis of the situation, arrived at 
 after an audience of the Crown Princess. 
 
 The Princess celebrated her twenty-first birth- 
 day on November 21, 1861. In the letter which 
 she received from her father, almost the last which 
 he was ever to write to her, one detects a pathetic 
 note, as if the Prince, wearied and out of health, 
 actually foresaw his approaching death and wished 
 to give her his parting counsel and blessing: 
 
 "May your life, which has begun beautifully, 
 expand still further to the good of others and the 
 contentment of your own mind! True inward 
 happiness is to be sought only in the internal con- 
 sciousness of effort systematically directed to good 
 and useful ends. Success indeed depends upon 
 the blessing which the JNIost High sees meet to 
 vouchsafe to our endeavours. May tliis success 
 not fail you, and may your outward life leave you 
 unhurt by the storms, to which the sad heart so 
 often looks forward with a shrinking dread! 
 Without the basis of health it is impossible to rear 
 anything stable. Therefore see that you spare 
 yourself now, so that at some future time you 
 may be able to do more." 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 149 
 
 The death of Prince Albert on December 14, 
 1861, at the age of forty- two, profoundly affected 
 the lives of both his widow, on her now lonely 
 throne, and his idolized daughter in Berlin. It is 
 evident from Queen Victoria's correspondence that 
 she was quite unprepared. Her letters to King 
 Leopold almost up to the last are full of the most 
 pathetic hopefulness, and she certainly wrote in 
 the same vein of cheery optimism to Berlin. The 
 blow fell therefore with all the more stunning 
 effect on both mother and daughter — indeed, it is 
 hard to say which of the two felt more utterly 
 ci'ushed and broken-hearted. 
 
 The Crown Princess, as we have seen, was much 
 more her father's child than is usual in family life 
 in any station. The tie between them was some- 
 thing deeper and stronger even than the natural 
 affection of parent and daughter; he had sedulously 
 formed her mind and tastes, and he had become the 
 one counsellor to whom she felt she could ever turn 
 in any perplexity or trouble, sure of his helpful 
 understanding and sjTnpathy. Very soon after 
 her marriage, in a letter to the Prince of Wales, 
 she dwelt on their father as the master and leader 
 ever to be respected: "You don't know," she 
 wrote, "how one longs for a word from him when 
 one is distant." 
 
 Nor did the Princess, like many daughters, allow 
 her marriage to weaken this tie ; indeed, the thought 
 of the physical distance between them seemed to 
 
150 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 bring them, if possible, spiritually nearer. For her 
 mother, the Princess felt the tenderest and most 
 filial affection, writing to her every day, sometimes 
 twice a day, about the little details of her personal 
 life. But though she and her father only wrote 
 to one another once a week, it was to him that she 
 poured out her full self, the total of her varied in- 
 terests in politics, literature, science, art, and phi- 
 losophy. The citations already made in the pre- 
 ceding pages from the Prince's letters to her show, 
 not only the many fields over which their corre- 
 spondence ranged, but also the singular charm of 
 their mutual confidence. It would be difficult to 
 find in history a more touching and beautiful ex- 
 ample of spiritual and intellectual communion be- 
 tween father and daughter. 
 
 And now this great solace and stay of the Prin- 
 cess's life is suddenly withdrawn from her, practi- 
 cally without any warning. If only she had 
 known, even suspected, that there was danger, how 
 she would have hurried to him! No one with any 
 imagination and human symj^ath}^ can think of it 
 without profound pit3\ 
 
 During the first weeks which followed the re- 
 ceipt of the telegram announcing his death the 
 Crown Princess fell into a silent, listless state, only 
 rousing herself to bursts of grief which were ter- 
 rible to witness. The simple religious faith to 
 which her mother turned could not, unfortunately, 
 bring her the same consolation. In her extremity 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 151 
 
 it was on her husband that she leaned. He was un- 
 tiringly patient and tender, though it must have 
 been most painful for him to be told that she felt 
 as if her life was over and she could never be happy 
 again. 
 
 It is surely true to say that in these difficult 
 days the Crown Prince revealed the essential no- 
 bility of his character quite as much as he did in the 
 great spectacular moments of his life — on the 
 stricken field and in the glory of conquest. Many 
 a husband would have shown a certain resentment 
 at his wife's absorption in her father, but it is clear 
 that the Crown Prince, far from feeling any such 
 petty jealousy, brought his wife the truest consola- 
 tion by understanding and himself sharing in her 
 sorrow. He knew what a really remarkable man 
 Prince Albert was, he had felt the charm of his 
 personality and of his intellectual gifts; and so we 
 find him looking back on this bereavement, in a 
 letter written some months later to his old tutor, 
 M. Godet: 
 
 "Our whole life is, if such a thing be possible, 
 increasing in happiness daily. All the tribulation, 
 all the bitterness, of my outside life, and of what 
 I may call my practical life, I am able to leave be- 
 hind me when I reach the door which leads to my 
 'home.' We had the great grief of losing my dear 
 father-in-law, the most intimate and tender friend 
 of my wife, and to me a true second father. It 
 came like a clap of thunder on our peaceful, happy 
 
152 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 life. We are now deprived of him whom we thought 
 would help to guide us during many many years, 
 and now the British Sovereign is bereft of her only 
 help, while Europe is deprived of one of her most 
 brilliant and most distinguished minds." 
 
 It may reasonably be doubted whether to the 
 Crown Princess the prolongation of her father's 
 life would have been of great service. We cannot 
 feel at all sure that in her critical relations with 
 Bismarck, for instance, his counsel would always 
 have been of the safest kind. He had not brought 
 her up to be the wife of an autocratic sovereign, 
 still less that of the wife of an Heir Apparent; she 
 was brouglit up as might have been a Prince of 
 Wales in a constitutional country. 
 
 By an unfortunate irony of fate, all those who 
 warmly and sincerely sympathised with the point 
 of view of the Prince Consort, and of herself and 
 the Crown Prince, were not Prussians; they were 
 — in the plu*ase then generally used — Coburgers. 
 This was pre-eminently the case with Stockmar, 
 and in a less degree with Bunsen and other Liberal 
 Germans. The mere fact that they were not Prus- 
 sians discounted any value their opinions might 
 otherwise have had, both with the then King of 
 Prussia and with those who surrounded him. 
 
 Fortunately for the Crown Princess, the course 
 of public events soon came to rouse her from her 
 apathy and grief. 
 
 Early in that same December which saw the 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 153 
 
 death of the Prince Consort, the Prussian elections 
 had resulted in large democratic gains, thus con- 
 siderably weakening the Ministry. In a memo- 
 randum addressed to the Crown Prince just before 
 he left for England to attend the funeral of his 
 father-in-law, Duncker prophesied the fall of the 
 Ministry, and for the first time suggested the plan 
 of calling Bismarck to office. In his reports dur- 
 ing the Ministerial crisis which followed, Duncker 
 warned both the Crown Prince and the Crown 
 Princess of the danger of trying to govern at one 
 time with the Liberals and at another with the 
 Conservatives. He advocated a Ministry com- 
 posed of business rather than party men, who 
 would know how to govern as Liberals on a Con- 
 servative basis; and he again urged that Bismarck 
 should be utilised to strengthen the Ministry. 
 
 The Crown Princess after her bereavement 
 seemed to cling the more closely to the ties which 
 bound her to the land of her birth and of her father's 
 adoption, and this, as we shall see later, provoked 
 a good deal of criticism in Berlin. She went to 
 England as often as she could, or perhaps it would 
 be truer to say as often as her father-in-law could 
 be induced to give his permission. 
 
 Her first visit after the Prince Consort's death 
 was in March, 1862. Princess Mary of Cambridge 
 went to Windsor especially to see her cousin. 
 She says: "We found her well, and better in 
 spirits than we expected." But it must have been 
 
154 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 a very sad and mournful time, for the Queen was 
 "rigid as stone, the picture of desolate misery"; 
 and everything reminded the Crown Princess of 
 the father she had lost. 
 
 In the following IMay, the Crown Prince, at the 
 special request of Queen Victoria, represented his 
 father at the Great Exhibition of 1862, but the 
 Crown Princess, much to her regret, could not ac- 
 company him. He had served as chairman of the 
 committee appointed to secure an adequate repre- 
 sentation of German arts and industries, and had 
 thus greatly promoted the success of the enter- 
 prise. 
 
 The Crown Princess, however, went to England 
 at the end of June to be present at the quiet wed- 
 ding of her favourite sister. Princess Alice, to 
 Prince Louis, afterwards Grand Duke of Hesse. 
 It was solemnised at Osborne on July 1. 
 
 On August 14, 1862, a second son. Prince 
 Henry, destined to be Germany's Sailor Prince, 
 was born. The choice of his name seems to have 
 troubled his grandmother. Queen Augusta. She 
 wrote to her son from Baden: "My dear Fritz, 
 your first letter moved me deeply, because of your 
 affectionate heart, and because of all the partic- 
 ulars it contained about our beloved Vicky. I 
 certainly anticipated that your son would be called 
 Albert, for that name, no matter whether it is more 
 or less German, really ought to be handed down as 
 a legacy from the never-to-be-forgotten grand- 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 155 
 
 father — and I believe that Queen Victoria ex- 
 pected it too." 
 
 As a matter of fact the baby was christened 
 Albert William Henry, but probably what Queen 
 Augusta meant was that he ought to have been 
 generally known as Prince Albert instead of Prince 
 Henry. 
 
 It might have been expected that the birth of 
 three healthy children, two of whom were boys, 
 would have, at least in a measure, disarmed the 
 hostility with which the Crown Princess was re- 
 garded by a powerful section in Prussia. But 
 these people were dissatisfied because the arrival 
 of the children naturally strengthened the position 
 of the Princess, and they also feared that the Princes 
 in the direct line of succession to the throne would 
 be brought up under English rather than Prussian 
 influence. 
 
 There was, it must be admitted, a certain justi- 
 fication for the belief that the Crown Princess had 
 never really ceased to be an Englishwoman. 
 
 In 1855 there had been presented to Prince Al- 
 bert a remarkable young Englishman who was 
 destined to play a considerable part in the life of the 
 Crown Princess. This was Robert Morier, al- 
 ready well and affectionately known to Baron 
 Stockmar, who even styled him his "adopted son." 
 It was natural that Prince Albert should take a 
 warm interest in the young man who came to him 
 with such credentials — indeed, Morier was quickly 
 
156 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 made to understand that the Prince wished him to 
 prepare himself in everj" way for diplomatic work 
 in Germany. And in January, 1858, at the time 
 of the Royal marriage. Prince Albert did every- 
 thing in his power to have Morier appointed at- 
 tache to the British Embassy in Berlin. 
 
 JNlorier had another good friend in the Princess 
 of Prussia, the Princess Royal's mother-in-law. 
 She had known, not only ]Morier but his distin- 
 guished father, for many years, and it was her per- 
 sonal wish, which she expressed to Lord Claren- 
 don, that the young man should be sent to Berlin 
 in order that he might be of use to her son and her 
 daughter-in-law. It need hardly be said that 
 INIorier was also on intimate terms with Ernest von 
 Stockmar, who at the same time was appointed 
 private secretary to the Princess. 
 
 Morier obtained the appointment, and it was the 
 beginning of a lifelong intimacy with Prince Fred- 
 erick William and the Princess Royal. He be- 
 came and remained one of their most trusted 
 friends and advisers, a fact which undoubtedly in- 
 jured his diplomatic career. When, many years 
 later, it was proposed that Sir Robert Morier, as he 
 had then become, should be appointed Ambassador 
 in Berlin, his name was the only one which was ab- 
 solutely vetoed by the then all-powerful Bismarck. 
 
 Probably because Morier had a remarkably 
 strong and original personality, he at once aroused 
 jealousy, dislike, and suspicion; he was even said 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 157 
 
 to influence the then dying King, as afterwards he 
 was supposed to influence King WilHam through 
 Queen Augusta, and the Crown Prince through 
 the Crown Princess. 
 
 When one now reads the very frank letters writ- 
 ten by Morier to English relations and friends, 
 one cannot help feeling an uncomfortable suspi- 
 cion that the contents of some of them may have 
 gone back to Germany, perhaps in exaggerated 
 and distorted versions, in spite of the great pre- 
 cautions taken to keep their contents secret. One 
 observation in one of his letters certainly leaked 
 out — namely, that his long experience of German 
 little statesmen had taught him that "like certain 
 plain middle-aged women, they delight in nothing 
 so much as to talk with pretended indignation of 
 attacks supposed to have been made upon their 
 virtue !" Such judgments, when barbed with a suf- 
 ficient measure of truth, are apt to rankle. 
 
 It must not be thought for a moment that Morier 
 was incorrect in his official relations in Berlin, but 
 his remarkable ability and strength of character 
 gave importance to his known Liberal and Con- 
 stitutional sympathies. Had he been a diploma- 
 tist of merely ordinary qualifications, there would 
 have been hardly need to mention him at all, but 
 as a matter of fact he was an important factor in 
 the complex situation of the Crown Prince and 
 Crown Princess at this period. 
 
 A passage in Theodor von Bernhardi's diary, 
 
158 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 written in Xovember, 1862, exhibits the feeling in 
 Berlin aroused by the Crown Princess's visits to 
 England : 
 
 "Conversation with Frau Duncker. I showed 
 myself very impatient and discontented over the 
 repeated long visits the Crown Princess made to 
 England. 'She has nothing to do there and noth- 
 ing to seek,' I exclaimed. Frau Duncker replied: 
 'The Crown Princess has her o\vn views and her 
 own will ; her views and resolutions are very quickly 
 formed — but when formed, there is nothing to be 
 done against them.' Further conversation showed 
 me that the Crown Princess cannot distinguish be- 
 tween our Three-thaler Diets and the English Par- 
 liament; that she thinks everything here must be 
 just as in England; the Government must ever be 
 by majority, the Ministry always chosen by the 
 majority — that she tries to force these views on 
 her husband, and that ^lax Duncker fights against 
 it as much as he can. INIax Duncker let me see 
 that he is ever trying to set this young couple 
 by the ears; their ideas cannot be acted upon 
 here." 
 
 The formation in the spring of a new Prussian 
 Cabinet composed entirely of Consers-atives placed 
 the Crown Prince in a considerable difficulty, be- 
 cause he had openly given his support to the late 
 Liberal INIinistry. Duncker's advice to him was 
 that he should absent himself for a time, and that he 
 should thereafter be present at the Ministerial coun- 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 159 
 
 cils ^vithout himself taking part in the discussions. 
 This advice was accepted, and when the Ministry 
 endeavoured to remove Duncker to an appointment 
 at Bonn University, the Crown Prince prevented 
 it by emphatically declaring that he did not wish 
 to lose his counsellor. 
 
 The events which followed, — the crisis on the 
 subject of military reforms, and the accession of 
 Bismarck to office, — were regarded by the Crown 
 Prince with something like dismay, but he was 
 disarmed by the King's threats of abdication. The 
 Crown Princess's secretary, the younger Stockmar, 
 in particular, strongly urged that the Crown Prince 
 should not intervene, as it was essential that he 
 should presei've his position removed from party 
 strife. 
 
 The Crown Prince saw the wisdom of this ad- 
 vice, and on October 15, 1862, he started with his 
 wife on a long visit to Italy. As the guests of the 
 Prince of Wales, they joined the English Royal 
 Yacht Osborne at Marseilles, and went to Sicily 
 and the coast of Africa, including Tunis, where 
 they visited the Bey at his castle, and the ruins of 
 Carthage. At Naples the Crown Princess en- 
 joyed herself particularly, sketching and taking 
 long walks and excursions in all the delights of 
 incognito. November 21, the Princess's twenty- 
 second birthday, w^as spent by her in Rome, where 
 the party made a long stay. After visiting other 
 Italian cities, the}" returned to Berlin by way of 
 
160 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Trieste and Vienna, having been away altogether 
 rather more than three months. 
 
 It was this tour which laid the foundation of 
 the great love for Italy and for Italian art which 
 henceforth was a marked characteristic of the 
 Crown Princess. 
 
 In the December of 1862 the Crown Prince and 
 Princess made a short stay in Vienna. The Ameri- 
 can historian, Motley, was visiting Austria at the 
 time, and it was characteristic of the Princess that 
 the only person, outside the Imperial family, 
 whom she desired to see was this brilliant writer. 
 He gives a charming account of the interview in a 
 letter to his mother: 
 
 "She is rather petit e, has a fresh young face 
 with pretty features, fine teeth, and a frank and 
 agreeable smile and an interested, earnest and in- 
 telligent manner. Nothing could be simpler or 
 more natural than her style, which I should say 
 was the perfection of good breeding." 
 
 The Cro\\7i Princess told ]Mr. Motley that she 
 had been reading Froude with gi-eat admiration, 
 and she was surprised to find that, though Motley 
 admired Froude and had a high opinion of him 
 as an historian, he had been by no means con- 
 verted to Froude's view of Henry VIII. "The 
 Princess was evidentty disposed to admire that 
 polygamous party, and was also a great admirer 
 of Queen Elizabeth. The Princess also spoke of 
 Carlyle's Frederick the Great, which she had just 
 
DEATH OF KING OF PRUSSIA 161 
 
 read, but we are not told whether she agreed with 
 Motley's view that Carlyle was a most immoral 
 writer, owing to his exaggerated reverence for 
 brute force, so often confounded by him with wis- 
 dom and genius. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FIRST RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 
 
 After the death of Prince Albert, the relations 
 between the Crown Princess and Bismarck be- 
 come of absorbing interest to the student both of 
 politics and of human nature. 
 
 Bismarck seems to have first met Prince Albert 
 in the summer of 1855, when Queen Victoria and 
 the Prince paid their state visit to Paris. In his 
 Reminiscences, Bismarck says that in the Prince's 
 manner to him there was a kind of "malevolent 
 curiosity," and he convinced himself — not so much 
 at the time as from subsequent events — that the 
 Prince regarded him as a reactionary party man, 
 who took up sides for Russia in order to further an 
 Absolutist and "Junker" policy. Bismarck goes 
 on to say that it was not to be wondered at that this 
 view of the Prince's and of the then partisans of 
 the Duke of Coburg descended to the Prince's 
 daughter. 
 
 "Even soon after her arrival in Germany, in 
 February, 1858, I became convinced, through 
 members of the Royal House and from my own 
 observations, that the Princess was prejudiced 
 against me personally. The fact did not surprise 
 me so much as the form in which her prejudice 
 
 16:3 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 163 
 
 against me had been expressed in the narrow fam- 
 ily circle — 'she did not trust me.' I was prepared 
 for antipathy on account of my alleged anti-Eng- 
 lish feelings and by reason of my refusal to obey 
 English influences ; but, from a conversation which 
 I had with the Princess after the war of 1866, 
 while sitting next to her at table, I was obliged to 
 conclude that she had subsequently allowed herself 
 to be influenced in her judgment of my character 
 by further-reaching calumnies. 
 
 "I was ambitious, she said, in a half -jesting tone, 
 to be a king or at least president of a republic. I 
 replied in the same semi- jocular tone that I was 
 personally spoilt for a Republican; that I had 
 grown up in the Royalist traditions of the family, 
 and had need of a monarchical institution for my 
 earthly well-being; I thanked God, however, I was 
 not destined to live like a king, constantly on show, 
 but to be until death the king's faithful subject. 
 I added that no guarantee could, however, be given 
 that this conviction of mine would be universally 
 inherited, and this not because Royalists would 
 give out, but because perhaps kings might. 'Pour 
 faire un civet, il faut un lievre, et pour faire une 
 monarchic, il faut un roi.' I could not answer for 
 it that, for want of such, the next generation might 
 not be Republican. I further remarked that, in 
 thus expressing myself, I was not free from anxi- 
 ety at the idea of a change in the occupancy of the 
 throne without a transference of the monarchical 
 
164 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 traditions to the successor. But the Princess 
 avoided every serious turn and kept up the jocular 
 tone, as amiable and entertaining as ever ; she rather 
 gave me the impression that she wished to tease a 
 political opponent. 
 
 "During the first years of my Ministry, I fre- 
 quently remarked in the course of similar conversa- 
 tion that the Princess took pleasure in provoking 
 my patriotic susceptibility by playful criticism of 
 persons and matters." 
 
 In this passage we have evidently a perfectly 
 frank expression of Bismarck's real feeling, and it 
 gives an extraordinarily vivid picture of these two 
 remarkable personalities, facing one another with 
 watchful, guarded, measuring glance, like two 
 duellists awaiting the signal for combat. 
 
 That Bismarck to a great extent misunderstood 
 the Princess is plain enough, and indeed it would 
 have been extraordinary if he had understood her, 
 so different was she from any normal type of| 
 German lady. But there is abundant evidence 
 that he did not underrate her intellectual ability, 
 though it must have been a perpetual astonishment 
 to him to find such mental powers in a woman, 
 and there were even moments when the aims 
 of the two, generally so wide apart, seemed actu- 
 ally to converge. It is curious to speculate how 
 different the course of history might have been if 
 the Princess had added to her other qualities that 
 tact, prudence, and power of judging human char- 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 165 
 
 acter, which were surely alone wanting to make 
 her one gf the most remarkable women who have 
 ever held her exalted rank. 
 
 The greatest injustice which Bismarck did the 
 Princess lay in his suspicion — to use a mild term 
 — of her German patriotism. The Prince Consort 
 had consistently pursued the ideal of a union of 
 the German States under the leadership of Prussia 
 as the champion of German Liberalism. Such a 
 new-born Germany might, or might not, have be- 
 come the ally of England, but the Prince Consort 
 must certainly be acquitted of any Machiavellian 
 designs for the benefit of his adopted country; the 
 supreme end he had in view was undoubtedly the 
 happiness and greatness of Germany, and both 
 his wife and his daughter knew and shared his aims. 
 
 From 1858 to 1861 the Prince Consort's influ- 
 ence in Prussian politics may almost be described 
 as paramount; but the happy relations between 
 England and Prussia were broken, partly by the 
 inability of King William to share the liberalism 
 of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which seemed 
 to him positively anti-monarchical, partly by anti- 
 Prussian feeling in England, and partly by the 
 claim of the Prussian Liberals to dictate to the 
 Crown on the question of army reorganisation. 
 
 Prince Albert did not live to see how completely 
 his hopes had been shattered, and his premature 
 death deprived his daughter of his counsel at the 
 very moment when Bismarck came into office in the 
 
166 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 full tide of Russophil reaction and Anglophobia. 
 
 It is difficult to realise, in view of later events, 
 how strong was the distrust which Bismarck in- 
 spired at the beginning of his accession to power. 
 It was known that he desired an alliance with Na- 
 poleon III, and it was even believed that he would 
 be capable of ceding German territory to France. 
 
 The trend of popular opinion was significantly 
 shown on jNIarch 17, 1863, when the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the Proclamation "To my People" was 
 celebrated, and the foundation-stone of a memo- 
 rial to Frederick AVilliam III was laid in Berlin. 
 
 Nothing that the authorities could do to give 
 distinction to the occasion was omitted. The 
 Crown Prince, who had just been appointed to a 
 high post on the staff, commanded the military 
 parade, and was present with his father at the 
 festivities in honour of the survivors of the War 
 of Liberation and the Knights of the Iron Cross. 
 The citizens of Berlin, however, were conspicuous 
 by their absence, and the jjopular feeling was ex- 
 pressed by the great writer, Freytag, who said in 
 an article in a Liberal newspaper: "All good 
 Prussians will pass this day quietly, seriously, and 
 will consider the means by which they may best 
 preserve the illustrious House of Hohenzollern for 
 the future welfare of the State." 
 
 The first real efforts made by Bismarck to 
 alienate the King from the Crown Prince and 
 Princess date from the year 1863, just when the 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 167 
 
 Princess was beginning to recover her spirits and 
 normal state of mental health. 
 
 "Every kind of caliminy was spread," wrote 
 Morier, "respecting the persons supposed to be the 
 Prince's friends. Spies were placed over him in 
 the shape of aides-de-camp and chamberlains ; con- 
 versations were distorted and imagined, till the 
 Dantzig episode brought matters to a climax, and 
 very nearly led to the transfer of the Prince to a 
 fortress." 
 
 This episode, a speech delivered by the Crown 
 Prince at Dantzig, possessed all the importance 
 that Morier attributes to it, and it must be admitted 
 that it was in the circumstances a highly imprudent 
 utterance, for it dragged the differences between 
 the Crown Prince and his father into the light of 
 day. 
 
 The speech was delivered to the municipality 
 of Dantzig on June 5, 1863. In it the Crown 
 Prince referred to the variance which had occurred 
 between the Government and the people, by which 
 he meant a new ordinance restricting the freedom 
 of the Press. This variance, he said, had occa- 
 sioned him no small degi'ee of surprise; and he 
 added : 
 
 "Of the proceedings which have brought it about 
 I know nothing. I was absent. I have had no 
 part in the deliberations which have produced this 
 result." 
 
 Although the Crown Prince went on to pay 
 
168 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 tribute to the noble and fatherly intentions and 
 magnanimous sentiments of the King, nevertheless 
 the speech naturally created a great sensation, not 
 only in Germany, but in other countries too. A 
 correspondence followed between the Prince and 
 his father, in which the former, while asking par- 
 don for his action, offered to resign all his offices. 
 Bismarck professes to have himself succeeded in 
 making peace between the two, quoting to the King 
 the text: "Deal tenderly with the boy Absalom," 
 and urging that it was not advisable to make his 
 Heir Apparent a martyr. 
 
 Bismarck's own account of the circumstances 
 which led up to the speech is significant for its em- 
 phasis on the dates. He says that the Royal ordi- 
 nance on the subject of the Press appeared on June 
 1 ; that on June 2 the Crown Princess followed the 
 Prince to Graudenz ; and that on June 4 the Prince 
 wrote to the King expressing disapproval of the 
 decree, complaining that he had not been sum- 
 moned to the councils in which the step had been 
 discussed, and enlarging on his view of his position 
 as Heir Apparent. This obviously suggests, with- 
 out exactly saying so in plain words, that the 
 Crown Prince's speech on June 5 was inspired by 
 his wife. But behind both the Crown Prince and 
 the Crown Princess, Bismarck thought that he de- 
 tected the hand of IMorier. And yet it is on record 
 that Morier had not seen the Crown Prince or had 
 any kind of communication with him at the time. 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 169 
 
 before, or after, the Dantzig episode; in fact, it is 
 quite clear, from letters Morier wrote to Ernest 
 von Stockmar, that both he and his German cor- 
 respondent sincerely regretted the Crown Prince's 
 action. 
 
 The Crown Princess, however, seemed doomed 
 to be associated with this unlucky speech. Not 
 long after the affair was apparently settled, a 
 remarkable and obviously inspired statement ap- 
 peared in the Times to the following effect: 
 
 "While travelling on military duty the Prince 
 allowed himself to assume an attitude antagonistic 
 to the policy of the Sovereign, and to call in ques- 
 tion his measures. The least that he could do to 
 atone for this grave offence was to retract his state- 
 ments. This the King demanded of him by letter, 
 adding that, if he refused, he would be deprived of 
 his honours and offices. The Prince, in concert, 
 it is said, with her Royal Highness the Princess, 
 met this demand with a firm answer. He refused 
 to retract anything, offered to resign his honours 
 and commands, and craved leave to withdraw with 
 his wife and family to some place where he would 
 be free from suspicion of the least connection with 
 the affairs of State. 
 
 "This letter is described as a remarkable per- 
 formance, and it is added that the Prince is to be 
 congratulated on having a consort who not only 
 shares his liberal views, but is also able to render 
 him so much assistance in a momentous and critical 
 
170 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 juncture. It is not easy to conceive a more diffi- 
 cult position than that of the princely pair placed, 
 without a single adviser, between a self-willed 
 Sovereign and a mischievous Cabinet on the one 
 hand, and an incensed people on the other." 
 
 Naturally this version of the affair, with its open 
 reference to the influence of the Crown Princess, 
 aroused fresh excitement. Ernest von Stockmar, 
 the private secretary of the Crown Princess, was 
 said to have communicated the substance of the 
 statement to the Times. Who really did so has 
 never been revealed. 
 
 The unfortunate Stockmar, in any case, knew 
 nothing of the matter; he would have given much 
 to find out who was responsible. Indeed, this new 
 complication to an already painful and suspicious 
 affair so distressed Stockmar that he fell ill, and 
 had to resign his position as secretary to the Cro^vn 
 Princess. This was for her a real misfortune, as 
 even the most spiteful and prejudiced of her critics 
 could not accuse the old Baron's son and pupil of 
 being anything but a sound and patriotic German. 
 
 Bismarck was good enough to accept the Crown 
 Prince's assertion tliat the statement was inserted 
 in the Times entirely without his cognizance, and 
 he thought it was inspired by Geff cken ; in fact, he 
 attributed it to the same quarter to which, as 
 he believed, the Crown Prince owed the bent of his 
 political views, namely, the school of writers who 
 extolled the English constitution as a model to be 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 171 
 
 imitated by other nations, without thoroughly com- 
 prehending it. 
 
 What wonder, then, observed Bismarck, that 
 the Crown Princess and her mother overlooked 
 that peculiar character of the Prussian State which 
 renders its administration by means of shifting 
 Parliamentary groups a sheer impossibility? The 
 party of progress were then daily anticipating vic- 
 tory in their struggle with prerogative, and natu- 
 rally took every opportunity to place the situation 
 "in the light best calculated to influence female 
 minds." 
 
 In the following August, Bismarck says, the 
 Crown Prince visited him at Gastein, and there, 
 "less under the sway of English influences," "used 
 the unreserved language of one who sees that he 
 has done wrong and seeks to excuse himself on the 
 score of the influences under which he had lain." 
 
 This attitude, however, if it was ever really 
 adopted, was certainly short-lived. A fresh difl'er- 
 ence broke out between the Crown Prince and the 
 King on the subject of the former's attendance at 
 Cabinet Councils, alid on this point the Crown 
 Prince undoubtedly held firm. Bismarck prints 
 his marginal notes on a memorandum sent by the 
 Crown Prince to his father. In these notes the 
 whole constitutional position of the Crown Prince 
 is discussed, but we are here only concerned with 
 the following references to the Crown Princess: 
 
 "Especially necessary is it that the intermediary 
 
172 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 advisers, with whose aid alone his Roj^al Highness 
 can be authorised to busy himself with the consid- 
 eration of pending affairs of State, should be ad- 
 herents, not of the Opposition, but of the Govern- 
 ment, or at least impartial critics without intimate 
 relations with the Opposition in the Diet or the 
 Press. The question of discretion is that which 
 presents most difficulty, especially in regard to our 
 foreign relations, and must continue to do so until 
 his Royal Highness, and her Royal Highness the 
 Crown Princess, have fully realised that in ruling 
 Houses the nearest of kin may yet be aliens, and 
 of necessity, and as in duty bound, represent other 
 interests than the Prussian. It is hard that a 
 frontier line should also be the line of demarcation 
 between the interests of mother and daughter, of 
 brother and sister; but to forget the fact is always 
 perilous to the State." 
 
 In the autumn of 1863 Queen Victoria was stay- 
 ing at Coburg. She sent for IMorier and had a 
 long talk with him on the growing difficulties which 
 seemed to encompass the Crown Prince and Prin- 
 cess. The fact that Morier ventured to hint that 
 any appearance of interference on the part of Eng- 
 land would be very prejudicial to the interests of 
 their Royal Highnesses, and that a suspicion that 
 the Crown Prince was being prompted from over 
 the water would materially diminish in the eyes 
 of the Liberal party the value of his opposition, 
 shows that there was something, even then, to be 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 173 
 
 said for the feeling which Bismarck so sedulously 
 fostered. 
 
 During the summer of 1863, the Crown Princess 
 accompanied her husband on a long tour of mili- 
 tary inspections in the provinces of Prussia and 
 Pomerania, and her Royal Highness performed the 
 ceremony of naming a warship, the Vineta, at 
 Dantzig. 
 
 This tour caused a good deal of discomfort to 
 the Crown Prince and Princess, for in most of 
 the towns they visited the municipal authorities 
 ostentatiously refrained from celebrating the occa- 
 sion; on the other hand, the populace as a rule re- 
 ceived the Royal pair with abundant loyalty. 
 
 We have a curious glimpse of the sort of im- 
 pression made in East Prussia by the Crown Prin- 
 cess in a private letter written by a member of the 
 Progressive party, who afterwards became a confi- 
 dential friend of the Crown Prince. This gentle- 
 man says that everyone was pleased with the Crown 
 Princess, for she showed that she had a mind of her 
 own. She informed a certain official that she read 
 the Volkszeitung, the National-zeitung, and the 
 Times every day, and that she agreed entirely with 
 those newspapers — in the circumstances an amaz- 
 ingly imprudent statement. It was, indeed, such 
 a shock to the official that it reduced him to blank 
 silence. 
 
 The breach between the Crown and Parliament 
 was not the only question with which Prussia was 
 
174 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 troubled at this time. The summer of 1863 was 
 also marked by the attempt of Austria to take the 
 solution of the German question into her o^vn hands 
 by initiating a scheme for reforming the Federal 
 Constitution. 
 
 The Emperor Francis Joseph invited the Princes 
 and the free cities of Germany to a conference at 
 Frankfort to discuss the reorganisation of the Ger- 
 manic Confederation. King William was inclined 
 to accept this proposal, but Bismarck held other 
 views; and a further invitation from the Emperor 
 that the King should send the Crown Prince to the 
 Congress of Princes, was also declined. 
 
 Nevertheless the Congress was held, and there 
 was also held a sort of family gathering of what 
 Bismarck would have designated "the Coburgers" 
 at Coburg. Queen Victoria was there, and in 
 August the Crown Princess joined her, quickly fol- 
 lowed by the Crown Prince. 
 
 Lord Granville, who was a close observer of the 
 complicated intrigues of the Congress, wrote to 
 Lord Stanley of Alderley: "The Princess Royal 
 is very Prussian on this Confederation question." 
 
 The Crown Prince's views on the subject were 
 expressed in a letter which he sent to his wife's 
 uncle, Duke Ernest, early in September. From 
 this letter it seems clear that, whereas at first he 
 had been inclined to favour the Austrian move, he 
 altered his views when Austria showed her hand 
 by demanding from the Congress a simple vote of 
 
RELATIONS WITH BISMARCK 175 
 
 assent or dissent to her project of reform. He 
 mentioned that he had asked the King for permis- 
 sion to be absent from the meetings of the Cabinet, 
 and indeed he paid with his family a long visit to 
 Italy. 
 
 From Italy the Crown Prince and Princess pro- 
 ceeded to England, and that, with visits to Brus- 
 sels and Karlsruhe, took up the rest of the year. 
 
 It must not, however, be thought that during 
 this absence from Germany the Crown Prince and 
 Princess ceased to take an interest in politics; on 
 the contrary, they followed with the closest atten- 
 tion, what was indeed a serious constitutional crisis 
 in the autumn of 1863. 
 
 In October, after they had started for Italy, 
 the Crown Prince wrote to Bismarck: 
 
 "I hope that, to use your own words, your efforts 
 in the present difficult position of the constitu- 
 tional life of our country may be successful, and 
 may accomplish that which you yourself describe 
 as the urgent and essential understanding with the 
 national representatives. I am following the 
 course of events with the deepest interest." 
 
 The constitutional crisis turned on the rejection, 
 b}^ the Upper House and the Crown, of the Budget 
 which had been adopted by the Lower House. 
 The King, as advised by Bismarck, was for govern- 
 ing without a constitution, but the Crown Prince, 
 with his strong predisposition in favour of the Eng- 
 lish constitutional system, which had by this time 
 
176 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 been developed by Queen Victoria, could not help 
 regarding his father's attitude as jeopardising the 
 security of the Crown. 
 
 The CroTVTi Prince's position was particularly 
 difficult because he was appealed to by all parties 
 — ^by the Liberals, who looked forward to the day 
 when he would be King of Prussia as perhaps not 
 very far distant ; and by the Conservatives, who ad- 
 jured him to support the Government on dynastic 
 grounds. 
 
 Of the tvvo parties, the Liberals appeared to 
 have the best of it, for the prolonged absence of the 
 Crown Prince and Crown Princess was naturally 
 interpreted in Germany as indicating, if not their 
 sympathy with the Liberal party, at any rate their 
 dislike of the existing Government. 
 
 But events were shaping themselves in such a 
 way that the Dantzig aif air, with all that had led 
 up to it and had followed it, was soon to be forgot- 
 ten in a crisis of much greater moment, and one 
 which brought to the Crown Prince his baptism of 
 fire. 
 
 It was during the visit of the Crown Prince and 
 his family to England that King Frederick VII of 
 Denmark, the last of his dynastjs died, and the 
 question of the succession to the Duchies of Schles- 
 wig-Holstein immediately became acute. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE WAS OF THE DUCHIES 
 
 Palmerston is reported to have said on one occa- 
 sion, that there had been only three men in Europe 
 who really understood the Schleswig-Holstein 
 question. One of them was himself — and he had 
 forgotten it; the second man was dead; and the 
 third was in a mad-house. 
 
 But the members of the Royal Houses of Eng- 
 land, Prussia, and Denmark considered that, with- 
 out being either jurists or diplomatists by profes- 
 sion, they understood the question quite well enough 
 to take different sides with ardent enthusiasm. 
 The question came, in fact, like a dividing sword, 
 and not for the first time it brought war in its train 
 between Prussia and Denmark. The British 
 Royal family was placed by its intimate ties with 
 both combatants — the Prince of Wales had married 
 Princess Alexandra of Denmark in March, 1863 — 
 in a position of peculiar delicacy, which was not 
 rendered easier by the fact that public opinion in 
 England warmly espoused the cause of Denmark. 
 
 If it was not easy for Queen Victoria and her 
 advisers to steer a prudent course, the position of 
 the Crown Princess in Berlin was even more diffi- 
 cult. She met the crisis with her customary cour- 
 age, and she applied to its solution the teachings 
 
 177 
 
178 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 of that constitutional liberalism which she had im- 
 bibed from her father. 
 
 The Princess felt very strongly that the honour 
 as well as the interest of Prussia — or perhaps one 
 should say her interest as well as her honour — re- 
 quired the nation to play an unselfish part, and to 
 seek indemnity in the moral prestige to be derived 
 from the settlement of this ancient racial feud. 
 As future Queen of Prussia, the Princess ^^^shed to 
 see the interests of the Crown identified with the 
 constitutional rights of the people; she desired to 
 see the inliabitants of the duchies once more con- 
 tented, loyal subjects of Duke Frederick of Schles- 
 wig-Holstein. It was not her fault, nor was it 
 within her knowledge, that the solution which Bis- 
 marck even then contemplated, and which he was 
 ultimately able to carry out, belonged to a wholly 
 different order of ideas. 
 
 It is necessarj^ in a brief retrospect, to show 
 how this question of the duchies had become like 
 an open sore, poisoning the relations between Den- 
 mark and Prussia. Perhaps the most fertile cause 
 of trouble lay in the fact that Schleswig and Hol- 
 stein, though grouped together by historical cir- 
 cumstances, were each very different in the char- 
 acter of its population and their real or supposed 
 rights. 
 
 We need not go back further than 1846, when 
 King Christian of Denmark declared the right of 
 the Crown to Schleswig-Holstein. His son and 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 179 
 
 successor, Frederick VII, on his accession in Janu- 
 ary, 1848, proclaimed a new constitution uniting 
 the duchies more closely with Denmark. This step 
 caused an insurrection and the foundation of a pro- 
 visional government. Prussia thereupon came to 
 the help of the duchies and defeated the Danes near 
 Dannawerke. After a fruitless attempt at inter- 
 vention by the Powers, hostilities were renewed, 
 and in April, 1849, the Danes were victorious over 
 the Holsteiners and Germans. There was further 
 fighting and further diplomacy, until in July, 
 1850, the integrity of Denmark was guaranteed 
 by England, France, Prussia, and Sweden. This 
 was quickly followed by the defeat of the Schles- 
 wig-Holsteiners by the Danes at the battle of Id- 
 stedt. Early in the following year the Stadholders 
 of Schleswig-Holstein issued a proclamation plac- 
 ing the rights of the country under the protection 
 of the Germanic Confederation. 
 
 This led to the Treaty of London of 1852, by 
 which the possession of the duchies was assured 
 to Denmark conditionally on the preservation of 
 their independence and the rights of the German 
 population in them. Now, Holstein belonged to 
 the Germanic Confederation, but the treaty stipu- 
 lated that Schleswig was not to be separated from 
 Holstein, though it was a point of honour with 
 Denmark not to give up Schleswig. 
 
 The natural successor of King Frederick VII 
 in the duchies was his kinsman, Duke Christian 
 
180 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 of Sonderburg-Augustenburg, who, in May, 1852, 
 resigned his hereditary claim in return for a sum 
 of two and a half million thalers. This settlement 
 might have been excellent but for two facts — first 
 that it had not received the assent of the Germanic 
 Confederation; and secondly, that Duke Christian's 
 two sons violently objected to it — indeed, the elder 
 son, the Hereditary Prince Frederick, made a 
 formal declaration of his rights of succession. 
 Moreover, it must be admitted that Denmark 
 showed a cynical disregard of the conditions in the 
 Treaty of London respecting the independence of 
 the duchies and the rights of their German popula- 
 tion. The Schleswig Assembly complained and 
 protested, and even petitioned the Prussian Cham- 
 ber of Deputies, who actually promised aid to the 
 duchies. 
 
 At last the crisis came in March, 1863, when 
 the King of Denmark granted to Holstein a new 
 and independent constitution, but annexed Schles- 
 wig which did not belong to the Germanic Con- 
 federation. Thereupon the Confederation invited 
 Denmark to withdraw this constitution. So far 
 from doing so, however, the Danish Parliament 
 proceeded to ratify it only two days before the 
 death of King Frederick VII, whose successor. 
 King Christian IX, was forced on his accession, 
 owing to a menacing uprising of popular feeling 
 in Denmark, to sign the new constitution annexing 
 Schleswig. 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 181 
 
 The glove was thus thrown down for Germany 
 to pick up; the Hereditary Prince Frederick as- 
 sumed by proclamation the government of the 
 duchies, and appealed to the Germanic Confedera- 
 tion for the support of his rights. The majority 
 of the German Governments sided with him, 
 especially the Grand Duke Frederick of Baden, 
 brother-in-law of the Crown Prince; while the 
 Lower House in Prussia declared by a large ma- 
 jority that the honour and interest of Germany 
 demanded the recognition and active support of the 
 Hereditary Prince. It will be evident from what 
 has been said above that Prussia had plausible and 
 even sound reasons for her intervention, the chief 
 of which was the popular feehng prevailing in 
 Schleswig. 
 
 Now, it so happened that the Crown Prince and 
 Princess had a strong personal as well as political 
 interest in the question of duchies. The Crown 
 Prince and the Hereditary Prince Frederick were 
 old friends. They had first met as fellow-students 
 at the University of Bonn. The Hereditary 
 Prince had afterwards served in the Fii'st Regi- 
 ment of the Prussian Guards, he had been often at 
 the Prussian Court, and the Crown Prince was the 
 godfather of one of his children. Naturally, there- 
 fore, the Crown Prince and Princess were favour- 
 able to his claims. 
 
 There is now no doubt that Bismarck had some 
 time before resolved in principle on the annexation 
 
182 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 of the duchies, but of course he did not show his 
 hand until it suited him, and above all he studiously 
 concealed his plans from the Crown Prince. In- 
 deed, the Crown Prince's personal relations with 
 Bismarck were at this time practically suspended, 
 if only because he happened at the time to be in 
 England, where, however, the prevailing sympathy 
 with Denmark did not influence him or the Crown 
 Princess. In a letter written to Duncker from 
 Windsor in December the Prince says that he 
 has "daily defended the cause of my dear friend 
 Duke Frederick, well backed up by my wife, who 
 exhibits warm and absolutely German feelings in 
 a most moving degree." 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess would certainly 
 have recoiled with horror from Bismarck's secret 
 design of annexing the duchies. How little they 
 understood the Minister's plans is curiously shown 
 in the letter of the Crown Prince just referred to. 
 He took the view that Prussia ought at once to 
 occupy the duchies in order to establish the Hered- 
 itary Prince there. Bismarck, he says, hated the 
 Augustenburg family and considered the national 
 aspirations of Germany as revolutionary, desiring 
 on the contrary to maintain the Treaty of London 
 and strengthen Denmark. The Crown Prince in 
 fact thought that Bismarck had been too late, and 
 that his policy was opposed to the proper assertion 
 of Prussia's position. 
 
 Events now moved fast. The troops of the 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 183 
 
 Germanic Confederation expelled the Danish 
 troops from Holstein, and the Hereditary Prince 
 was proclaimed throughout the duchy. The Au- 
 gustenburg party, who were aware of the hostility 
 of Bismarck to their candidate, endeavoured to win 
 over the King of Prussia through the medium of 
 the Crown Prince; but ultimately, aided no doubt 
 by certain imprudences on the part of the Hered- 
 itary Prince, Bismarck had his way. Both Austria 
 and Prussia separated from the majority of the 
 Diet, demanding that the King of Denmark should 
 annul the new constitution annexing Schleswig, al- 
 ready mentioned, and announced that they would 
 jointly manage the affairs of the two duchies. 
 
 In January, 1864, Austria and Prussia issued 
 an ultimatum to Denmark, and in February began 
 the war, which was somewhat euphemistically de- 
 scribed as "undertaken by Austria and Prussia to 
 protect the ancient rights of the German province 
 of Schleswig-Holstein, in danger of extinction 
 from Denmark." 
 
 It was considered essential in Berlin that a Prus- 
 sian officer should be in command of the allied 
 troops, and this could only be effected by calling 
 on the venerable Field-Marshal von Wrangel, as 
 he alone was of superior rank to the officer at the 
 head of the Austrian forces. 
 
 Von Wrangel, therefore, although he was much 
 too old and eccentric for such responsibility, took 
 the supreme command in right of his rank, but the 
 
184 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Crown Prince was attached to his staff, with 
 the understanding that he was to prevent the aged 
 Field-Marshal from coming to any unfortunate 
 decisions. Events showed that this was extremely 
 necessary — indeed, nothing could have been more 
 useful than the Crown Prince's tact in dealing with 
 the rivalries among the divisional commanders, and 
 also in altering the extraordinary, and sometimes 
 positively insane, orders given by von Wrangel 
 himself. As a rule the Crown Prince was able to 
 persuade the old man to make the necessary alter- 
 ations, but there were occasions on which he was 
 compelled, on his own responsibility, either to sup- 
 press an order altogether or in some other way to 
 prevent it from being carried out. 
 
 The English Royal family were deeply divided 
 in their sympathies in this war, but the Crown 
 Princess, as her husband had written to Duncker, 
 was wholly German in her feelings. She wrote 
 to her uncle in Coburn: "For the first time 
 in my life I regret not being a young man and not 
 to be able to take the field against the Danes," and 
 there is reason to believe that it was her influence 
 which decided Queen Victoria to restrain the belli- 
 cose Palmerston, who would have liked England 
 to support Denmark by force of arms. 
 
 In these circumstances it seems all the more 
 monstrous that Bismarck's friends actually charged 
 the Crown Princess with betraying the secrets of 
 the Prussian Government to the English Ministers. 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 185 
 
 Her complaints to the King only received as an- 
 swer that the whole thing was nonsense, and that 
 she should not treat it seriously. But the fact that 
 the slanderers were never punished caused these 
 calumnies to be long repeated, and even in part be- 
 lieved. 
 
 By the side of the Crown Prince and Princess 
 there stood, in Bismarck's estimation, Queen Au- 
 gusta, who had ever been the energetic champion 
 of the Coburg doctrine of a liberated and united 
 Germany under the leadership of Prussia. In his 
 profound disbelief in Liberalism, Bismarck played 
 the obvious game of raising the cry of foreign dic- 
 tation. By means of his instruments in the Press 
 and elsewhere, he set himself to exhibit England 
 as at all times seeking to influence Germany for 
 her own ends and often against German interests, 
 for promoting her own security and the extension 
 of her power, "lately through women, daughters 
 and friends of Queen Victoria." 
 
 This campaign was only too successful, and it 
 must soon have become obvious, both to Queen 
 Victoria and to her daughter, that the unification 
 of Germany by means of Prussian Liberalism was 
 not in the range of practical politics. At the 
 same time Bismarck risked a great deal. Nothing 
 would have more completely upset his plans than 
 a war with England over the duchies, and, as we 
 have said, he was saved from that danger largely 
 owing to the fact that Queen Victoria was influ- 
 
186 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 enced by the Crown Princess to withstand the 
 chauvinism of her Ministers. 
 
 Throughout the campaign of 1864, the Crown 
 Prince won the deep affection of the troops, not 
 only by himself sharing their hardships, but also 
 by his constant kindness and care for their comfort. 
 Though he showed himself a true soldier and even 
 a strategist of no small ability, the Crown Prince 
 had no illusions about the horrors of war, which 
 he now saw for the first time. He was deeply 
 moved by the terrible sights he witnessed on the 
 field of battle and in the hospitals. After the vic- 
 tory at Diippel in April, he would have been glad 
 if an armistice had been concluded, and he wrote 
 to Duncker: "You will understand how heavily 
 my long absence weighs on me, for j^ou know what 
 a happy home I have waiting for me." 
 
 He had not long to wait, however, for on May 
 18 the supreme command was transferred from 
 Field-Marshal von Wrangel to Prince Frederick 
 Charles, the "Red Prince," and so the Crown 
 Prince's mission came to an end. He joined the 
 Crown Princess at Hamburg. She had originally 
 meant to proceed as far as Schleswig in order to do 
 what she could for the wounded in the hospitals, 
 but, in obedience to urgent advice, she did not go 
 further than Hamburg. The Crown Prince's 
 journey thither, covered with all the laurels of suc- 
 cessful warfare, was a triumphal progress. 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 187 
 
 As this campaign was the Crown Prince's bap- 
 tism of fire, so to the Crown Princess it was a 
 revelation and a call to action. On the occasion 
 of the King of Prussia's birthday in March, the 
 Crown Prince and Princess had presented him 
 with a sum of money as the nucleus of a fund for 
 helping the families of soldiers who had fallen or 
 been disabled in war, and on the eve of the battle 
 of Diippel the Crown Prince drew up an appeal on 
 behalf of this institution, which afterwards bore his 
 name. 
 
 But the war with Denmark revealed an even 
 greater need than that of the care of the soldiers' 
 wives and families. The Crown Princess saw with 
 surprise and horror that the medical service of the 
 troops in the field was practically non-existent. 
 She remembered the achievements of Florence 
 Nightingale in the Crimean War, and, though she 
 was at the time herself more or less disabled, she 
 undertook the heavy task of organising some sort 
 of an army nursing corps. For this work, so ap- 
 propriate for a soldier's wife, she was admirably 
 fitted. Indeed, the War of the Duchies gave the 
 Princess for the first time real scope for the exer- 
 cise of her remarkable powers of organisation. 
 
 The Crown Princess, however, does not seem to 
 have grown more prudent as time went on. There 
 is a curious revelation in Bernhardi's diary in May, 
 1864, of her unfortunate habit of praising England 
 
188 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 to the disadvantage of Prussia. Says Bernhardi: 
 "After dinner conversation with the Crown Prin- 
 cess. She asked after England; supposed that I 
 had enjoyed England very much; once there, one 
 always longed to go back. I said: 'Yes, life is 
 full in England.' She said with a very peculiar 
 expression: 'Yes, one misses that here.' I thought 
 to myself, however, that only the material interests 
 are greater and more far-reaching than with us; 
 in manj^ ways life is richer here than there." 
 
 Fighting, with intervals of diplomatic action, 
 went on after the Crown Prince's return from the 
 front, until peace was signed at Vienna on October 
 30. By this instrument the King of Denmark sur- 
 rendered the duchies to the allies, and agreed to a 
 rectification of the frontier and the payment of a 
 considerable war indemnity* It was understood 
 that Schleswig and Holstein were to be made inde- 
 pendent, but diiferences of opinion arose between 
 Austria and Prussia on this point, which led ulti- 
 mately to the dissolution of the Germanic Confed- 
 eration and the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. 
 
 Delightful glimpses of the family life led in the 
 summer of 1864 by the Crown Prince and Princess, 
 and of her musical, literary, and artistic tastes, are 
 given in letters written by Gustav Putlitz, the 
 dramatist, to his wife. Putlitz was at this time 
 chamberlain to the Crown Princess. His letters 
 are too long and detailed to be quoted in full, but 
 the following extracts will give a good idea of how 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 189 
 
 deeply impressed this distinguished writer was with 
 the vivid, eager personality of the Princess: 
 
 "June 26. — I passed a most delightful hour yes- 
 terday in this way. As I was going through the 
 drawing-room, I found the Crown Princess with 
 Countess Hedwig Briihl, the former looking for 
 the words of a song of Goethe's, which she remem- 
 bered in part, while Hedwig played the air. I 
 found the song in Goethe for them. Thereupon we 
 had a most interesting conversation about books. 
 The Crown Princess is wonderfully well read; she 
 has absolutely read everything, and knows it all 
 more or less by heart. She showed us a reproduc- 
 tion of a drawing she had done in aid of the Crown 
 Prince's Fund. It is a memorial of the victory at 
 Diippel, and represents four soldiers, each belong- 
 ing to a different arm of the service. The first is 
 shown before the attack in the morning; the second 
 is waving the flag at noon; the third, wounded, is 
 listening to a hymn in the afternoon; while the 
 fourth, victorious with a laurel wreath, stands in 
 the evening at an open grave. The last is ex- 
 tremely natural and impressive, without any 
 sentimentality. The conception shows real 
 genius, and it is carried out most artistically. 
 This youthful princess is more cultivated than any 
 other woman I know of her age, and she has such 
 charming manners, which put people entirely at 
 their ease in spite of etiquette. She is not allowed 
 to ride, and so she is accustomed to drive out daily 
 
190 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 for several hours, and practises pistol-shooting. 
 In fact she possesses a wonderful mental and phys- 
 ical energy." 
 
 "June 27 (after dinner) . — This morning the 
 Crown Princess sent for me in the garden. I do 
 not know what she is not devoted to — art, music, 
 literature, the army, the navy, hunting, riding. On 
 leaving she went down the mountain on foot, and 
 I went with her through woods soaked with rain. 
 She took out of her pocket the last issue of the 
 Grenzboten, and gave it to me. It is amazing that 
 she remembers everything she reads, and she de- 
 bates history like a historian, with admirable judg- 
 ment and firmness. After dinner she sang Eng- 
 lish and Spanish songs with a charming voice and 
 correct expression." 
 
 "June 29. — After breakfast we went for a four 
 hours' drive. The Crown Princess wanted every 
 variety of wild flower we could find, and she knew 
 the Latin, English, and German names of each 
 kind. Every time we stopped she got out of the 
 carriage and picked a flower which her sharp eye 
 had detected, and which was not in the bouquet." 
 
 The party moved to Stettin, and Putlitz de- 
 scribes how the Crown Princess beguiled the jour- 
 ney with a constant stream of brilliant conversa- 
 tion on politics, literature, and art, as well as on 
 more frivolous subjects. 
 
 When they arrived at headquarters and found 
 the Crown Prince, she saw that everything was 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 191 
 
 in disorder, and immediately, with characteristic 
 energy, she began directing the rearrangement of 
 furniture and the hanging of pictures. She her- 
 self was going on to Potsdam, but she was deter- 
 mined that her husband should be as comfortable 
 as possible at Stettin. Says Putlitz: 
 
 "Furniture was put in its place, pictures were 
 hung, wall-paper selected — all the things having 
 been brought from Berlin. Afterwards we went 
 all over the house with the architect, and the Crown 
 Princess issued her orders in the most practical 
 and business-like way. Then we drove out and 
 bought more furniture, and the things required 
 for the Prince's washstand and writing-table. All 
 the things were suitable, and chosen with care. 
 We had an interesting conversation about Eng- 
 lish literature and drama. I am kept in perpetual 
 astonishment by her natural behaviour, so many- 
 sided, and full of judgment and sense." 
 
 When they arrived at the New Palace, Putlitz 
 happened to say that he had never seen more of 
 it than the room where people wrote their names 
 in the visitors' book. At once the Princess showed 
 him all over it. 
 
 He draws a charming picture of a tea-party at 
 the Palace. The young mistress, wearing a sim- 
 ple black woollen dress, sat at a spinning-wheel, 
 and as she span she sang snatches of all kinds of 
 songs, accompanied by one of her ladies. Not 
 far oif, a chamberlain was reading poems by 
 
192 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Geibel, or prompting others by Goethe and Heine 
 which were recited by the Princess. 
 
 Putlitz cannot help recalHng historical memories 
 of the palace which was built by Frederick the 
 Great in ridicule of Austria and France; which 
 had seen the curious entertainments of his succes- 
 sor; had been decorated by Frederick William III 
 in the stiff fashion of his day; had been opened by 
 Frederick William IV to an intellectual and artis- 
 tic audience at representations of Antigone and A' 
 Midsummer Night's Dream; "and was now the 
 home of modern cultivation freed from formality." 
 
 The Princess, indeed, wanted a sort of history 
 of the New Palace to be written, and she consulted 
 Putlitz about it. A few days later they discussed 
 Frederick William III and Queen Louise, how 
 the latter was always idealised, and how the former 
 had become popular in spite of his roughness. 
 
 In his delightful book. My Beminiscences, Lord 
 Ronald Gower gives a most interesting account 
 of a visit which he paid in this summer of 1864 to 
 the Crown Prince and Princess, "two of the kind- 
 est and most amiable of Royalties," as he calls 
 them. They met Lord Ronald and his mother at 
 the station, in defiance of Royal etiquette, and took 
 them off to the New Palace : 
 
 "We dined at two p. m. and w^e had to dress in 
 our evening things for this repast. It took place 
 upstairs in a corner room, with the walls of blue 
 silk, fringed with gold lace. The Princess very 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 193 
 
 smalrt, in a magenta-coloured gown with pearls 
 and lace. The Crown Prince in his plain uniform, 
 with only a star or two, which he always wears. 
 *It is a custom,' he said, 'and looks so very offi- 
 cered.' After dinner we went to the Crown Prin- 
 cess's sitting-room; the furniture there is covered 
 with Gobelins tapestry^ — a gift of the Empress 
 Eugenie." 
 
 Here Lord Ronald found some of the Princess's 
 own paintings, including those lately finished, 
 representing Prussian soldiers, his account of which 
 it may be interesting to compare with that of Put- 
 litz: 
 
 "One of these paintings was of a warrior hold- 
 ing a flag, inscribed Es lebe der Konig. The 
 second a soldier looking upward. He has been 
 wounded, and he wears a bandage across his brow; 
 a sunset sky for a background. This is inscribed 
 Nun danket alle Gott. The third is another sol- 
 dier looking down on a newly-made grave. Of 
 these three I thought the second by far the best. 
 There was another painting, also by the Princess, 
 representing the Entombment." 
 
 The visitors were taken out driving: "We 
 could judge of the popularity of our hosts, for 
 everyone that we passed stopped to bow to them, 
 and those who were in carriages stood up in them 
 to salute as the Prince and Princess passed by." 
 
 The arrangements about meals seem extraor- 
 dinary to modern taste. Lord Ronald says: 
 
194 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 "Tea was served at ten in the evening in one of 
 the rooms on the ground floor of the Palace. They 
 call it the Apollo Room, I believe. It was a curi- 
 ous meal, beginning with tea and cake, followed 
 by meat, veal, and jellies, and two plates of sour 
 cream. For this repast one was not expected to 
 don one's evening apparel a second time." 
 
 The visitors breakfasted upstairs with the Crown 
 Prince and Princess and their children, in a room 
 lined with pale blue silk framed in silver — not, 
 perhaps, the best possible background for "the 
 Princess in her favourite pink-coloured dress." 
 Then, "the Princess showed us her private garden, 
 and here she picked a clove, which she gave me 
 with her own little hand." 
 
 Lord Ronald mentions the children with ap- 
 proval, but Putlitz, whose visit was much longer, 
 got to know them really well: 
 
 "Jiihj 2. — The Royal children are very charm- 
 ing and well trained. The Crown Princess is strict 
 with them, which is very praiseworthy in so young 
 a mother, who is relieved by her rank of the duty 
 of taking an active part in their education, for 
 which she has not the time. People will indeed 
 be surprised at this talented and cultured nature, 
 when once her will has full scope." 
 
 The children on their side seem to have taken 
 to Putlitz with enthusiasm. He gave the boys 
 rides on his head, and he records with pride that 
 "they came running from quite a long way off 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 195 
 
 when they caught sight of me." He also records 
 an accident — little Prince William being thrown 
 from his pony — which must have reminded the 
 mother of that day at Windsor when she was so 
 distressed at a similar though more dangerous mis- 
 hap to her brother, the Prince of Wales. 
 
 One morning after breakfast, says Putlitz, he 
 met the Crown Prince and Princess on the terrace, 
 "both full of almost infantile gaiety." Soon after- 
 wards the children appeared. Prince William 
 was riding his pony, when his hat fell off and hit 
 the pony between its ears; the animal reared, and 
 the Prince was thrown off on his back. Both par- 
 ents remained quite calm, and apparently took no 
 notice; whereupon the Prince mounted again and 
 went on riding. It is not difficult to imagine the 
 mother's pang of terror beneath that outward 
 calmness. Well may Putlitz praise the sensible 
 upbringing of the children, which made them per- 
 fectly natural, well-behaved, and obedient. 
 
 But it is the remarkable personality of the Crown 
 Princess which chiefly interests this literary man 
 turned courtier. One moment she is instructing 
 him to write to a poet and thank him for a copy 
 of verses ; at another she is arranging a picnic party 
 in her own little garden near the Palace. Some- 
 one, generally Putlitz himself, reads aloud after 
 tea, and if the poem or story is pathetic the Crown 
 Princess is moved to tears. At other times they 
 have music, generally glees, followed by good talk 
 
196 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 on literature or on contemporary politics and per- 
 sonages, about whom both the Crown Prince and 
 the Princess speak with a candour which astonishes 
 Putlitz. He cannot praise enough this delight- 
 fully informal, unaffected, and yet exquisitely 
 cultivated and intellectual family life: 
 
 "Here one feels absolutely secure from intrigue, 
 and only meets with frankness and clear intelli- 
 gence. All evil designs must necessarily fail in 
 the end before such qualities." 
 
 The dramatist felt also the great charm of the 
 Crown Prince's personality. He says that the two 
 natures of husband and wife are each a perfect 
 complement of the other, and each exercises on the 
 other an unmistakably happy influence. It is at 
 the same time significant that, while emphasizing 
 the perfect harmony of the marriage, he does not 
 hesitate to say that the Crown Prince, notwithstand- 
 ing the more brilliant qualities of the Princess, still 
 preserves his simple and natural attitude and his 
 undeniable influence. 
 
 And when the time comes to say good-bye, Put- 
 litz sums up his experiences to his wife: "I have 
 been entertained by a most highly dowered Prin- 
 cess and a most marv ellous woman, full of intel- 
 lect, energy, culture, kindness, and benevolence." 
 
 On September 11, 1864, a third son was born, 
 Prince Sigismund. This little Prince was des- 
 tined to have but a brief life. He was born the 
 child of peace, the Emperor Francis Joseph be- 
 
THE WAR OF THE DUCHIES 197 
 
 coming his godfather, but he died almost on the 
 very day that Prussia drew the sword against 
 Austria in the war of 1866. 
 
 That same autumn the Crown Princess paid 
 her first visit to Darmstadt, to stay with her best 
 loved sister. Princess AHce. The latter wrote to 
 Queen Victoria a charming account of the visit, in 
 which she said: "I always admire Vicky's under- 
 standing and brightness each time I see her again. 
 She is so well, and in such good looks as I have 
 not seen her for long. The baby is a love and is 
 very pretty." 
 
 In October the Crown Prince and Princess, 
 with their four children, started for La Farraz, 
 in Switzerland. They left immediately after the 
 birthday of the Crown Prince, which day was also 
 that of the baptism of Prince Sigismund. The 
 Prince wrote just before leaving Potsdam to an 
 intimate friend: 
 
 "The older I grow, the more I come to know 
 of human beings, the more I thank God for having 
 given me a wife like mine. What happiness it is 
 to leave behind one all one's anxieties and all the 
 troubles of this life, to be alone with those we love! 
 I trust that God will preserve our peace and 
 domestic happiness. I ask for nothing else." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 HOME LIFE AND EELIGION 
 
 The successful campaign against Denmark had 
 drawn all German hearts together. Neither the 
 Crown Prince nor the Crown Princess had ever 
 been unpopular with the army, who felt really 
 honoured by that honorary colonelcy which had so 
 much amused the Princess. The Danish War 
 greatly increased their popularity, and the year 
 that followed was probably one of the happiest of 
 their lives. They adored their children, who were 
 being thoroughly well brought up, and, with the 
 one paramount exception of the Prince Consort's 
 death, no great bereavement had cast its shadow 
 over their family circle. 
 
 The Crown Princess had early determined in 
 her social life to consider neither party spirit nor 
 high official position ; she preferred to gather round 
 her a remarkable society of interesting and dis- 
 tinguished people, — scholars, theologians, archae- 
 ologists and explorers, artists, and men of letters. 
 She was always passionately fond of music, and 
 many a young performer ow^ed his or her first in- 
 troduction to the public at the winter concerts 
 which she organised, while no British painter or 
 writer of eminence ever came to Berlin without 
 receiving an invitation to the New Palace. 
 
 198 
 
HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 199 
 
 One of the most striking testimonies to the 
 Crown Princess's intellectual interests is to be 
 found in a letter written to Charles Darwin, in 
 January, 1865, by Sir Charles Lyell. The great 
 geologist says that he had had, 
 
 "An animated conversation on Darwinism with 
 the Princess Royal, who is a worthy daughter of 
 her father, in the reading of good books and think- 
 ing of what she reads. She was very much au fait 
 at the Origin and Huxley's book, the Antiquity, 
 &c. &c., and with the Pfahlbauten Museums which 
 she lately saw in Switzerland. She said that, after 
 twice reading you, she could not see her way as to 
 the origin of four things; namely, the world, 
 species, man, or the black and white races. Did 
 one of the latter come from the other, or both from 
 some common stock? And she asked me what I 
 was doing, and I explained that, in re-casting the 
 Principles, I had to give up the independent crea- 
 tion of each species. She said she fully under- 
 stood my difficulty, for after your book 'the old 
 opinions had received a shake from which they 
 never would recover.' " 
 
 It may seem an intrusion on what should be 
 sacred ground to touch on the religious belief of 
 the Crown Princess, but it is a subject on which 
 there have been a certain number of misstate- 
 ments, and it may therefore be well to set forth 
 plainly the material facts. 
 
 The present generation perhaps hardly realises 
 
200 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 what a period ot intellectual ferment had set in 
 just at the time when the Princess's mind was most 
 eagerly absorbing all that she could read and hear 
 on the subject of religion and philosophy. She 
 was twenty when Essays and Reviews appeared: 
 she was twenty-two when Colenso published his 
 book on the Pentateuch: twenty-three when Re- 
 nan's Vie de Jesii appeared: twenty-four when 
 Strauss's shorter Lehen Jesu was published: and 
 in one year from the time in her life at which we 
 have now arrived Ecce Homo was to appear. 
 Most important of all, Darwin had published his 
 Origin of Species in 1859, when the Princess was 
 nineteen, and it is evident from Sir Charles Lyell's 
 letter that she had not only read but understood 
 that epoch-making book. Of all the giants of 
 those days Darwin alone remains a giant ; the lapse 
 of time, as well as the work of other scholars and 
 thinkers, has reduced the intellec1:ual stature of 
 those other writers whose work seemed of such 
 crucial importance when the Princess was a young 
 woman. 
 
 It was indeed a period when many thought that 
 the old sound, even impregnable, position of Chris- 
 tianity had been not only undermined but over- 
 thrown. Strauss, for example, honestly believed 
 that he had entirely destroyed the historical credi- 
 bility of the four Gospels. The Princess herself 
 came to Germany at a moment when the Tiibingen 
 schools were the intellectual leaders, and Strauss 
 
HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 201 
 
 was their prophet, and the training which she had 
 undergone under the superintendence of her father 
 had prepared her to sympathise rather with the 
 attack than with the defence. It is easy now to 
 see that orthodoxy was not then very fortunate in 
 its champions, and that the overwhehning weight 
 of the scholarship and intellectual strength of the 
 time belonged to the advanced thinkers. More- 
 over, it must be remembered that much of the 
 religion of that day was mere lip-service, a conven- 
 tional orthodoxy which, while it resisted investiga- 
 tion and inquiry on the one hand, failed to bear 
 practical fruit in conduct and life. 
 
 Only a few months after the Princess had ar- 
 rived in Prussia as a bride, the then Prince Regent, 
 her father-in-law, made a speech which attracted 
 great attention, not only in Germany but in 
 Europe generally. In it he said it could not be 
 denied that in the Lutheran Church, the established 
 church of Prussia, an orthodoxy had grown up 
 which was not consistent with the basic principles 
 of the church, and the church, in consequence, had 
 dissemblers among its adherents. All hypocrisy, 
 the Prince continued — and he defined hypocrisy as 
 ecclesiastical matters which are utilised for selfish 
 purposes — ought to be exposed wherever possible. 
 It was in the whole conduct of the individual that 
 real religion was exhibited, and that must always 
 be distinguished from external religious appearance 
 and show. 
 
202 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 When such language could be used from the 
 very steps of the throne, it may be imagined how 
 great was the intellectual ferment in which every- 
 one who thought and read at all was necessarily 
 involved. Naturally the eager, impulsive Prin- 
 cess, with the intellectual courage and sincerity 
 which her father had implanted in her, could not 
 stand aloof. But if, at this time of her life, she 
 seemed to abandon the old orthodox positions, it is 
 not less true to say, that, while paying the penalty at 
 the time in unhappiness and spiritual disquiet, she 
 ultimately reaped the reward of an even firmer 
 faith. She came to see, indeed, that the deepest 
 religious convictions are not the fruit of philosoph- 
 ical speculation or of textual criticism, but of ex- 
 perience. 
 
 In the years that followed, the Princess was 
 destined to be a near spectator of great events — of 
 the progress and ultimate triumph of Bismarck's 
 policy of blood and iron; while in her own home 
 she suffered the bitter pain of the death of her chil- 
 dren, of sister, of brother. Even what seemed 
 surely the cro^vning tragedy of her husband's brief 
 reign and swift end was not all. That cruel mal- 
 ady, the origin of which still defies research, and 
 which often, as in her case, kills slowly with linger- 
 ing torture, seized upon her in her stricken widow- 
 hood. 
 
 Yet the successive ordeals through which she 
 passed seemed but to strengthen her grasp upon 
 
 I 
 
HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 203 
 
 the realities of life, and the Christian faith took on 
 for her a new meaning and became the rock to which 
 alone she clung. She left a most striking expres- 
 sion of her religious belief, written in the summer 
 of 1884, at a time when she had no prevision of the 
 fiery trials which were still in store for her. Long 
 as the passage is, it is worth quoting in full: 
 
 "When people are puzzled with Christianity (or 
 their acceptance of it), I am reminded of a discus- 
 sion between an Englisliman and an advanced radi- 
 cal of the Continent (a politician). The latter 
 said, 'England will become a republic as time ad- 
 vances.' The Englishman answered, 'I do not see 
 why she should. We enjoy all the advantages a 
 republic could give us (and a few more) , and none 
 of its disadvantages.' Does not this conversation 
 supply us with a fit comparison when one hears. 
 The days of creeds are gone by, &c.? I say 'No.' 
 You can be a good Christian and a Philosopher 
 and a Sage, &c. The eternal truths on which 
 Christianity rests are true for ever and for all ; the 
 forms they take are endless ; their modes of expres- 
 sion vary. It is so living a thing that it will grow 
 and expand and unfold its depths to those who 
 know how to seek for them. 
 
 "To the thinking, the hoard of traditions, of 
 legends and doctrines, which have gathered around 
 it in the course of centuries remain precious and 
 sacred, to be loved and venerated as garbs in which 
 the vivifying, underlying truths were clad, and be- 
 
204 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 yond which many an eye has never been able to 
 penetrate. It would be wrong, and cruel, and 
 dangerous to disturb them; but meanwhile the 
 number of men who soar above the earth-born 
 smallness of outward things continues to increase, 
 and the words in which they clothe their souls' con- 
 ception of Christianity are valuable to mankind; 
 they are in advance of the rest of human beings, 
 and can be teachers and leaders by their goodness 
 and their wisdom. So were the Prophets and the 
 Apostles in their day, and so are all great writers, 
 poets, and thinkers. That the Church of England 
 should now possess so many of these men is a 
 blessing for the nation, and the best proof that the 
 mission of the Church on earth has not come to an 
 end." 
 
 Side by side with this we may quote some lines 
 which brought the Empress Frederick comfort in 
 her last hours of suffering: 
 
 "All are stairs 
 Of the illimitable House of God. 
 . . . And men as men 
 Can reach no higher than the Son of God. 
 The perfect Head and Pattern of Mankind. 
 The time is short, and this sufficeth us 
 To live and die by; and in Him again 
 We see the same first starry attribute, 
 'Perfect through suffering,' our salvation's seal, 
 Set in the front of His humanity. 
 For God has other words for other worlds, 
 But for this world the word of God is Christ." 
 
HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 205 
 
 We must now take up again the thread of the 
 Crown Princess's life, when, unshadowed by any 
 sense of impending doom, she was absorbed in her 
 husband and children and in her intellectual and 
 artistic pursuits. 
 
 Early in the year 1865 the Crown Princess had 
 the joy of welcoming her sister. Princess Alice, 
 on a visit to Berlin. Princess Alice wrote to the 
 Queen; "Vicky is so dear, so loving! I feel it 
 does me good. There is the reflection of Papa's 
 great mind in her. He loved her so much and was 
 so proud of her;" and she adds a vivid little picture 
 of the baby: "Sigismund is the greatest darling 
 I have ever seeni — so wonderfully strong and ad- 
 vanced for his age — ^with such fine colour, always 
 laughing, and so lively he nearly jumps out of our 
 arms." 
 
 It was a great pleasure to the Crown Princess 
 when her husband was appointed to the curious 
 office of Protector of Public Museums. Thence- 
 forward they both took a very active part in the 
 management of these institutions, and it was owing 
 to their efforts that the Old Museum has but few 
 rivals in Europe in completeness and arrangement. 
 
 Prussia was then very backward in the practical 
 application of art to industry, but the Crown Prin- 
 cess, who had seen how much her father had 
 achieved in this direction in England, was deter- 
 mined to do all she could to secure a similar im- 
 provement in her adopted country. Early in 1865 
 
206 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 she caused a memorandum to be drawn up setting 
 forth the necessity of founding a School of Ap- 
 plied Art on the model of similar institutions in 
 England. The movement thus started by the 
 Crown Princess led eventually to the foundation 
 of the iVIuseum of Industrial Art at Berlin, which 
 is connected with the School of Applied Art. 
 
 It was largely due to the active support and in- 
 terest of the Crown Prince and Princess that ap- 
 plied art not only found a home in Prussia, but in 
 the course of time reached so high a pitch of ex- 
 cellence that other countries are now fain to learn 
 from Germany. The Crown Prince and Princess, 
 also, both suggested and themselves supervised the 
 collection and arrangement of an exhibition of 
 artistic objects in the Royal Armoury at Ber- 
 lin. This, by showing Prussian craftsmen what 
 had already been done, greatly promoted the 
 development of applied art. 
 
 But all was not sunshine during this peaceful, 
 happy year, for during its course the Crown Prin- 
 cess lost the constant support and loyal help of 
 Robert Morier. Although the whole of his diplo- 
 matic career had been given up to Germany, al- 
 though he had devoted himself entirely to the study 
 of the political, social, and commercial conditions, 
 and of the relations between Prussia and England, 
 it was arranged that he should be transferred to 
 Athens. 
 
 Morier parted with the Crown Prince and Prin- 
 
HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 207 
 
 cess on December 15, and it is on record that the 
 Princess wept bitterly on saying good-bye to him. 
 Bismarck and his followers were proportionately 
 delighted at getting rid of him. But their joy 
 was premature, for the Athens appointment fell 
 through, and Morier was finally transferred to 
 Darmstadt as Charge d' Affaires, a change due to 
 the personal intervention of Queen Victoria. 
 
 It must be remembered that Bismarck generally 
 looked at things from a personal point of view. 
 He had found by experience the value of secret 
 agents, of whom he made constant use, and so he 
 believed that every one whom he disliked, whom he 
 feared, whom he wished to conciliate, made use of 
 them too. To his mind Robert Morier was a secret 
 agent, and it was his great desire to isolate the 
 Crown Prince and Princess from everyone who did 
 not belong directly to his own party. 
 
 While at Darmstadt Morier remained in touch 
 with the Crown Prince and Princess, and it was he 
 who advised the selection of Dr. Hinzpeter as tutor 
 to their eldest son, afterwards the Emperor Wil- 
 liam II. Dr. Hinzpeter, who had been a friend 
 of Morier for some time, was an authority on 
 national economy and social reform, as well as a 
 man of the highest personal character. 
 
 In the summer of 1865 Frau Putlitz and her 
 husband were the guests of the Crown Prince and 
 Princess at Potsdam. This time it is the wife who 
 records her impressions in a series of letters to her 
 
208 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 sister. She was quite as fervent an admirer of the 
 Crown Princess as Putlitz was, and her letters 
 really supplement and complete his letters, for they 
 supply the feminine point of view. 
 
 Frau Putlitz was perhaps most impressed by the 
 Crown Princess's versatility — the ease with which 
 she could turn from a gay and smiling talk about 
 bulbs, for instance, to the serious discussion of the 
 profoundest subjects of philosophy. Naturally, 
 this feminine observer notes the Princess's style of 
 dressing, which she greatly admires as being both 
 simple and perfect. "There is," she says, "a charm 
 about her whole presence which it is impossible to 
 describe." Pier way of speaking, too, was fasci- 
 nating, and though she declared that her German 
 had an English accent, Frau Putlitz found it 
 delightfully soft. Shakespeare the Princess fre- 
 quently quoted, and one morning she read long 
 passages with an expression which was warmly ap- 
 proved by the dramatist, Putlitz himself, who 
 miglit be allowed to be a good judge. Frau Put- 
 litz thought that the special charm of the Princess 
 consisted in her entire simplicity and naturalness, 
 which was exemplified in her never uttering banal, 
 used-up phrases. 
 
 Of the children we have some glimpses; they are 
 described as perfectly charming and very lively. 
 The Princess told Frau Putlitz how anxious she 
 was to have Prince William educated away from 
 home with other boys of his own age, and this in- 
 
HOME LIFE AND RELIGION 209 
 
 tention, as we know, she afterwards carried out in 
 the case of hoth Prince William and Prince Henry. 
 Little Prince Sigismund is pronounced to be really 
 a delightful child. The Princess spoke with deep 
 feeling of her father, whom she scarcely mentioned 
 without tears, and she brought out all her souvenirs 
 of him which she kept with loving care. 
 
 We are also shown the Princess among her books 
 and pictures, the Princess singing old Scottish 
 ballads and English hymns, the Princess painting 
 flower-pieces, and above all the Princess as a gar- 
 dener. Frau Putlitz compares the neatness of the 
 Princess's own little garden, laid out by herself, 
 to that of a little jewel-box. Enormous straw- 
 berries grew on beds of white moss under the beech 
 hedges, and a gigantic lily brought by the Crown 
 Prince from Hamburg was exhibited with pride. 
 Frau Putlitz was surprised at the Princess's prac- 
 tical knowledge of horticulture, and the thorough- 
 ness with which she set about it. 
 
 These are not, to be sure, matters of great im- 
 portance in themselves, but it is interesting to see 
 how completely the charm of the Princess's person- 
 ality fascinated both husband and wife, who were 
 by no means ordinary observers. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE AUSTRIAN WAR: WORK IN THE HOSPITALS 
 
 We come now to the outbreak of the war with 
 Austria, which arose directly out of the war with 
 Denmark, and which, as we now look back upon 
 it, seems to fall naturally into its place as part of 
 Bismarck's politique de tongue haleine for the uni- 
 fication of Germany. 
 
 The Royal personages of his time were to Bis- 
 marck only pawns in the great game on which he 
 was ever engaged. It is impossible to read his 
 life and other literary remains without being struck 
 by the contempt which he entertained for at any 
 rate the great majority of those belonging to the 
 Royal caste, though the management of them 
 sometimes tried all his powers. It is significant 
 that at one moment Bismarck had practically made 
 up his mind to espouse the cause of the Prince 
 whom he habitually called "the Augustenburger" 
 in the Elbe duchies, and it was only after a pro- 
 longed interview with the Prince himself that he 
 changed his mind, finding him to be, from his point 
 of view, quite impracticable. 
 
 As a rule, however, those Royal personages 
 whom Bismarck looked upon as pawns were actu- 
 ally not only content but proud of the position; 
 
 210 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 211 
 
 the capital exceptions were of course the Crown 
 Prince and Princess, who steadily resented and 
 fought — sometimes successfully — against Bis- 
 marck's efforts to relegate them to a position in 
 which they would not count at all. 
 
 It is curious to observe how Bismarck always 
 managed to turn to account even circumstances 
 which seemed at first sight most prejudicial to his 
 designs. Thus in June 1865 the Budget, which 
 included the payment of the bill for the Danish 
 War, was rejected by the Liberal Deputies in the 
 Chamber, but it was this which enabled Bismarck 
 to take the plunge and govern without the consti- 
 tution. 
 
 This rejection of the Budget was followed by 
 the Convention of Gastein in August, by which 
 Austria was to have the temporary government of 
 Holstein, and Prussia that of Schleswig. Such 
 an arrangement contained no element of perma- 
 nence, and was indeed an obvious step on the way 
 towards annexation. To the hereditary claims of 
 "the Augustenburger," which the Crown Prince 
 had most loyally continued to support, it dealt a 
 fatal blow, and it is particularly interesting to note 
 that Bismarck implored the King to keep the nego- 
 tiations which led up to the Convention absolutely 
 secret from the Crown Prince. He frankly told 
 his sovereign that if a hint should reach Queen 
 Victoria, the suspicions of the Emperor Francis 
 Joseph would be aroused, and the whole negotia- 
 
212 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 tions would fail, and he added, "Behind such 
 failure there lies an inevitable war with Austria." 
 
 The secret was duly kept from the Crown Prince ; 
 he received the news of the Convention with amaze- 
 ment, and it served to increase — if that was possi- 
 ble — ^his detestation of Bismarck's policy. 
 
 The year 1866 therefore began with the gloom- 
 iest prospects from the point of view held by the 
 Crown Prince and Princess. The Chambers were 
 opened, but quickly prorogued, and Prussia openly 
 prepared for war. Bismarck saw that the moment 
 was most favourable, for Austria was in want of 
 money, and was also beset with domestic difficulties 
 in Hungary, while he himself had already prac- 
 tically an-anged for the support of Italy. Aus- 
 tria was thus driven to demand the demobilisation 
 of Prussia, and this was supported in the Federal 
 Diet by Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, 
 and other States. Thereupon, on June 14, 
 Prussia declared the Germanic Confederation dis- 
 solved, and war began on the 18th. 
 
 We have become so much accustomed to the con- 
 ception of a united Germany that it seems now 
 extraordinary that in this war Prussia, with the 
 Northern States, should have been ranged against, 
 not only Austria, but Hanover and Hesse-Cassel, 
 with Saxony and Bavaria. 
 
 It thus fell out that the Crown Princess and her 
 sister. Princess Alice, were on opposite sides — a 
 singular penalty which Royal personages are liable 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 213 
 
 to pay for the privileges of their rank. The cir- 
 cumstance naturally increased the maternal anx- 
 iety of Queen Victoria. There is no doubt that 
 she believed that Austria would win, and when the 
 result proved that she was wrong, her distrust of 
 Bismarck was increased, not by his success, but 
 by the use which he made of it. 
 
 Princess Alice's correspondence with her mother 
 reveals how much she was affected by the prospect 
 of this civil war, as she calls it. There are con- 
 stant references to "poor Vicky and Fritz." On 
 the eve of the outbreak she told her mother that 
 her husband. Prince Louis of Hesse, intended to 
 go to Berlin for a day just to see Fritz and explain 
 how circumstances now forced him to draw his 
 sword against the Prussians in the service of his 
 own country. 
 
 We have already noted the extent to which the 
 Crown Prince was excluded at this time from State 
 policy, but as far as he possibly could, even up to 
 the eleventh hour, he continued to oppose the idea 
 of war. The moment, however, that the die was 
 cast and war was declared, he became the simple 
 soldier, intent only on his military duties and ar- 
 dently desiring a victory for Prussia. 
 
 The Crown Princess's second daughter was born 
 on April 12, and was christened Frederica Amelia 
 WiUielmina Victoria. 
 
 In May, the Prussian Army was divided into 
 three Corps, of which the second was placed under 
 
214 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the command of the Crown Prince, who was also 
 appointed Military Governor of Silesia during the 
 mobilisation. 
 
 Immediately after the christening of the little 
 Princess, the Crown Prince joined his staff at 
 Breslau. But he left under the most mournful 
 auspices. Just before his departure the baby 
 Prince Sigismund, whom Princess Alice had de- 
 scribed as "that beautiful boy, the joy and pride of 
 his parents," fell suddenly ill, and, what seemed 
 particularly cruel and unnecessary, even the doctor 
 in attendance on the sick child had to leave for the 
 front. 
 
 There is a very sad reference to the illness of her 
 little nephew in a letter written by Princess Alice 
 on June 15: "The serious illness of poor littlei 
 Sigismund in the midst of all these troubles is 
 really dreadful for poor Vicky and Fritz, they are 
 so fond of that merry little child." 
 
 Prince Sigismund's disease was at first difficult 
 to diagnose. As a matter of fact it was menin- 
 gitis, and very soon it became clear that there was 
 no hope. On June 19 the child died, at the very 
 moment when his father was addressing his troops 
 at Niesse, and the Crown Princess found herself 
 alone, without anj^one near or dear to her to share 
 her bitter grief in this, the second great loss of her 
 life. 
 
 Queen Augusta journeyed to the front to tell 
 her son of his bereavement. He, however, more 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 215 
 
 fortunate than the Crown Princess, had much to 
 absorb every moment of his time and thoughts. 
 But after the war was over, in a speech made to 
 the Municipality of Berlin, the Crown Prince al- 
 luded briefly to his loss. "It was a heavy trial to 
 be separated from my wife and my dying boy. It 
 was a sacrifice which I offered to my country." 
 
 In the Reminiscences of Diplomatic Life pub- 
 lished by Lady Macdonell, widow of Sir Hugh 
 Macdonell, a fact is revealed which shows how the 
 mother's heart must have hungered for Prince 
 Sigismund. 
 
 Lady Macdonell became on terms of consider- 
 able intimacy with the Crown Princess, who was 
 evidently impressed by her sympathetic nature. 
 One day, when they were going down a corridor 
 in the New Palace, the Princess suddenly unlocked 
 a door, and in the room to which the locked door 
 gave access was preserved surely one of the strang- 
 est and most pathetic forms of consolation to which 
 a bereaved mother ever had recourse. Lady Mac- 
 donell writes: 
 
 "I saw a cradle, and in it a baby boy, beautiful 
 to look upon, but it was only the waxen image of 
 the former occupant, the little Prince Wenceslau 
 [a mistake for Sigismund], who had died when the 
 Crown Prince went to the war of 1866. How 
 pathetic it was to note the silver rattle and ball 
 lying as though flung aside by the little hand, the 
 toys which had amused his baby mind arranged all 
 
216 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 about the cradle, his little shoes waiting, always 
 waiting — at the side." 
 
 When, five years later. Prince and Princess 
 Charles of Roumania lost their only child, Princess 
 Marie, at the age of three and a half, the Crown 
 Prince wrote a letter of condolence to Prince 
 Charles, who was Prince Sigismund's godfather, in 
 which he said: 
 
 "May the grace of God give 5 ou strength to 
 bear the hopeless grief, the weight of which we 
 know from our own knowledge! In imagination 
 I place myself in your attitude of mind, and realise 
 that you must both be benumbed with sorrow at 
 seeing your sweet child dead before you, knowing 
 that you can never again see a light in her dear 
 eyes, never again a smile on her face! Certainly 
 it is hard to say: 'Thy will be done!' I put this 
 text on the tomb of my son Sigismund, your god- 
 child, because I know of no other consolation; and 
 yet I cannot overcome that pain to-day, though 
 many years have already gone by, and though God 
 has given me a large family. Time does un- 
 doubtedly blunt the keenest edge of a parentis 
 anguish, but it does not take away the weight of 
 sorrow which goes with one for the rest of one's 
 life. That my wife is united with me in these sym- 
 pathetic thoughts you know." 
 
 The course of the war of 1866 is well known, 
 and there is no need to trace it in detail. The 
 operations of the Crown Prince with the Second, 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 217 
 
 or Silesian, Army exercised a crucial influence on 
 the whole campaign. Field-Marshal Count von 
 Blumenthal, who, as Chief of the Staff, saw the 
 whole of the operations, bears testimony to the 
 brilliant strategic dispositions of the Crown Prince, 
 which were particularly exhibited in the defeat of 
 the Austrians at Nachod and the subsequent 
 engagements. Von Blumenthal notes that the 
 Crown Prince possessed, not only an extraordinary 
 power of self-control and coolness, but also, what 
 is not always found even in the greatest military 
 leaders an instinctive perception of how much he 
 could leave to subordinates, while himself keeping a 
 firm hand on the general course of action. The 
 soldiers themselves adored him, for he always 
 managed to find time to visit the wounded in the 
 field hospitals, as well as to encourage by his in- 
 spiring utterances the troops in line. 
 
 The manner in which the Crown Prince effected 
 a junction with Prince Frederick Charles and the 
 First Army was most masterly; he came up ex- 
 actly at the right moment and at the right place. 
 Unfortunately, as generally happens, politics inter- 
 vened, and the Crown Prince was prevented from 
 following up the victories with as much energy as 
 he desired — indeed, it seemed to him that there 
 was a conspiracy to tie his hands and control his 
 movements. He even dropped a hint in the sym- 
 pathetic ear of von Blumenthal that if this treat- 
 ment continued he would ask the King to relieve 
 
218 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 him of his command. Happily this was not neces- 
 sary. The King himself assumed the supreme com- 
 mand on July 1, and two days later there came the 
 crowning mercy of Koniggratz, or Sadowa, when 
 the Austrians, under Benedek, were totally de- 
 feated. It was for his services at this great battle 
 that the Crown Prince was decorated with the Or- 
 der "Pour le Merite." 
 
 Of Bismarck's exertions in this war, an English 
 observer who was with the Prussian Army has left 
 the following striking picture: 
 
 "Bismarck believes in himself and fully so. He 
 believes he was called on to do a certain work, and 
 that he is quite able to accomplish it. His power 
 of endurance is very great. He often sits up night 
 after night working hard. During this campaign 
 he has never slept more than three hours out of the 
 twenty-four: this is less than the great Napoleon, 
 who under similar circumstances took four hours' 
 sleep. But constantly continued work has had an 
 effect upon him : his face is seamed all over, he has 
 dark lines under his eyes, and the eyes themselves 
 are bloodshot. He looks hke a man who is knocked 
 up by overwork, and yet he is gay and jovial, pleas- 
 ant and cheery. What surprised me most was his 
 thorough openness in conversation. Without the 
 least reserve he spoke of his intentions, of the future 
 of Prussia and of Germany. For an hour and a 
 half he thus went on. His resolve is indomitable, 
 and he also feels certain of going through the work 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 219 
 
 before him. The King is of course a mere tool in 
 his hands ; but it shows his great skill and dexterity 
 in turning such an instrument to serve his purpose. 
 I do not think him Liberal in the sense that you or 
 I are Liberal. There is no doubt but what he 
 thinks best he will enforce, and that what he does 
 is, he believes, for the good and glory of Prussia.'* 
 
 Further Prussian victories followed, and the ne- 
 gotiations for peace exhibited a curious rearrange- 
 ment of the three personalities concerned. 
 
 Bismarck was strongly in favour of concluding 
 peace very much on the terms offered by Austria, 
 partly because he feared French intervention, and 
 partly because he saw the imprudence of pressing 
 home her defeat so deeply upon Austria as to leave 
 her with a burning desire for revenge. He wanted 
 to look forward, in the diplomacy of the future, to 
 a friendly Austria. The King, however, could not 
 bear to sacrifice, as it seemed to him, the result of 
 the expenditure of so much blood and treasure, and 
 he wished to follow up the Prussian victories, with- 
 out having any very clear idea of what further 
 gains could thereby be made. 
 
 In these circumstances it was the Crown Prince 
 who came forward as the mediator between the 
 King and his Minister; it was the Crown Prince 
 who supported Bismarck against his father. What 
 really clinched the matter with the King was Bis- 
 marck's threat to resign. At the critical Council 
 of War there was a dramatic scene. The King 
 
220 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 turned to the Crown Prince and said, "You speak, 
 in the name of the future;" and when he found 
 that his son agreed with Bismarck he gave in, and 
 consented, as he himself described it, to bite into the 
 sour apple. 
 
 Nevertheless, the terms of peace were not at 
 all bad for Prussia. Her great object, namely, the 
 dissolution of the Germanic Confederation, was 
 secured; she obtained a considerable accession of 
 territory, including Schleswig and Holstein, Han- 
 over, the Electorate of Hesse, and other territories, 
 which covered more than 1300 square miles, with a 
 population of over four millions. Moreover, in 
 August, 1866, on the invitation of the King of 
 Prussia, the Northern States of Germany con- 
 cluded a treaty of alliance, offensive and defen- 
 sive. Thus was established the North-German 
 Confederation, which was joined by Saxony in the 
 following October, and formed an important step 
 on the way to a united German Empire. Alto- 
 gether the Confederation consisted of twenty-two 
 States, and the first meeting of the Deputies was 
 held at Berlin on February 24, 1867. 
 
 It was suggested that the Crown Prince should 
 become Governor-General of Hanover, thus newly 
 annexed to Prussia. It was thought that this plan 
 w^ould to a great extent console Hanover for losing 
 her status as a kingdom, especially as the Crown 
 Princess was closely related to the dispossessed 
 monarch, King George V. The Crown Prince, 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 221 
 
 however, insisted on arrangements which would 
 have made Hanover altogether too independent to 
 be agreeable to Bismarck, and so the idea was not 
 carried out. 
 
 On the close of the war of 1866, the Crown 
 Prince and Princess proceeded to Haringsdorf, a 
 little village on the shores of the Baltic, to which 
 the Princess and her children had been sent on ac- 
 count of the cholera, which was then very prev- 
 alent in Potsdam. 
 
 While there the Princess still busied herself with 
 plans for the care of the wounded in the war. She 
 had already assigned a great part of the palace at 
 Potsdam for the nursing of wounded officers, and 
 a little later on she proceeded with her husband on 
 a long visit to Silesia. There they greatly im- 
 proved the organisation of the war hospital at 
 Hirschberg. Everything was under their personal 
 supervision, and, thanks to their energy and kindly 
 encouragement, the work was undoubtedly much 
 more efficiently done than it would otherwise have 
 been. 
 
 The Crown Prince had ridden with his father 
 over the stricken field of K6niggi*atz, doing what 
 thej^ could to succour the wounded and the djdng. 
 How deeply the horrors of war had been impressed 
 on the Prince's mind is shown by the words he 
 wrote in his diary on the night of the battle : "He 
 who causes war with a stroke of the pen knows not 
 what he is calling up from Hades." 
 
222 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 As for the Crown Princess, though she had been 
 spared the sight of the worst horrors, she had never- 
 theless seen enough to enable her, with her eager, 
 imaginative sympathy, to share in the fullest de- 
 gree her husband's intense feeling. She never felt 
 she could do enough to mitigate the sufferings of 
 the soldiers, both on the battlefield and afterw^ards 
 in the weary months of convalescence in hospital. 
 This autumn she organised an enormous bazaar at 
 the New Palace in aid of the wounded, to which 
 contributions came from all over the world. The 
 Crown Prince himself went round collecting money 
 for the soldiers, and the whole enterprise brought 
 in a large sum for the fund. 
 
 The years that followed up to the outbreak of the 
 war with France were not very eventful. 
 
 At the beginning of 1867, the Crown Prince 
 and Princess stayed a while at Dover, where they 
 met Princess Alice and her husband, who went 
 back with them to stay for a few weeks in Berlin. 
 They afterwards went together to Paris, at the 
 invitation of the Emperor and Empress of the 
 French, in order to visit the great International 
 Exhibition then being held there. The Crown 
 Prince had served as president of the Prussian 
 Committee for the Exhibition. Their stay in 
 France gave great pleasure to the Crown Princess ; 
 the two sisters visited many philanthropic centres, 
 and made an exhaustive survey of French art. It 
 was on this visit to Paris that the Crown Princess 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 223 
 
 first conceived the idea of the School of Design in 
 Berlin which now bears her name, for she was 
 greatly impressed by the imaginative fertility of the 
 Parisian craftsmen, and by the perfection of their 
 work. 
 
 The Crown Princess left Paris before her hus- 
 band. Princess Alice wrote to her mother on June 
 9: "Dear Vicky is gone. She was so low the last 
 days, and dislikes going to parties so much just 
 now, that she was longing to get home. The King 
 [of Prussia] wished them both to stop, but only 
 Fritz remained. How sad these days will be for 
 her, poor love ! She was in such good looks ; every 
 one here is charmed with her." 
 
 The Crown Prince had induced his father to visit 
 the Exhibition, and the King, who brought Bis- 
 marck with him, had a magnificent reception from 
 the Imperial Court. The Crown Prince and 
 Princess did not abate their interest in politics, and 
 they certainly shared Bismarck's view at this time 
 that an arrangement with France was in every way 
 desirable in order to avert war and to consolidate 
 the gains of 1866. 
 
 In the autumn a terrible scarcity, almost amount- 
 ing to famine, in East Prussia afforded a fresh op- 
 portunity for the practical sympathy of the Crown 
 Prince and Princess. Together they organised a 
 relief fund and relief works by which the sufferings 
 of the population were much mitigated. 
 
 It was on February 10, 1868, the anniversary 
 
224 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 of Queen Victoria's wedding, and of the Crown 
 Princess's christening, that another son was born, 
 who seemed sent to fill the terrible gap which the 
 death of Prince Sigismund had made two years be- 
 fore. The child was christened on the King of 
 Prussia's seventy-first birthday, at Berlin, receiving 
 the names of Joachim Frederick Ernest Waldemar. 
 The Princess's fourth son was a beautiful and 
 clever child, and his death, which was to follow when 
 he was only eleven years old, was perhaps the deep- 
 est grief that fell on his parents. It is significant 
 that when the Emperor Frederick chose his last 
 resting-place, he desired to lie by the side of this 
 child. 
 
 In the spring of 1868 the Crown Prince paid 
 a visit to Italy in return for the visit paid to Berlin 
 by Prince Humbert the year before. The Crown 
 Princess did not go with him, but she followed with 
 deep interest and pleasure the accounts of his re- 
 ception, which were remarkably enthusiastic, and 
 also politically useful, for it prevented the accession 
 to power of a jMinistry hostile to Prussia. 
 
 In 1869 the Crown Princess received a long visit 
 from Princess Alice at Potsdam, and the two sisters 
 spent their mother's birthday. May 24, together. 
 Princess Alice spoke in a letter to Queen Victoria 
 of the delightful life "with dear Vicky, so quiet 
 and pleasant, which reminds me in many things of 
 our Hfe in England in former happy days, and so 
 
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 225 
 
 much that we had Vicky has copied for her chil- 
 dren. Yet we both always say to each other that 
 no children were so happy, and so spoiled with all 
 the enjoyments and comforts children can wish for, 
 as we were." Again, on June 19, "Vicky was very 
 low yesterday; she has been so for the last week, 
 and she told me much of what an awful time she 
 went through in 1866 when dear Siggie [Sigis- 
 mund] died. The little chapel is very peaceful and 
 cheerful and full of flowers. We go there en pas- 
 sant nearly daily, and it seems to give dear Vicky 
 pleasure to go there." 
 
 The two sisters spent a happy time together at 
 Cannes in the late autumn of 1869, while their re- 
 spective husbands were abroad. The Crown 
 Prince, with Prince Louis of Hesse, visited Vienna, 
 Athens, Constantinople, and the Holy Land, and 
 went on thence to Port Said for the opening of the 
 Suez Canal. In Jerusalem the Crown Prince took 
 formal possession in the name of his father of the 
 ruined convent of St. John, ceded by the Sultan 
 for the erection of a German Protestant Church. 
 The two Princes joined their wives at Cannes 
 shortly before Christmas. 
 
 On their way home the Crown Prince and Prin- 
 cess spent a week in Paris, staying at an hotel. 
 The Crown Princess was surprised to see how 
 changed the Emperor Napoleon was since they had 
 seen him last. She thought him ailing and de- 
 
226 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 jected. In the course of conversation, the Em- 
 peror mentioned that he had a new Minister, a cer- 
 tain M, Ollivier. 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess returned to Ber- 
 lin on the morning of the New Year, 1870. The 
 next time the Crown Prince met Napoleon III was 
 on the morning after the capitulation of Sedan. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 
 
 The year 1870 opened with no premonition of the 
 tremendous events it was to bring forth. 
 
 Princess Victoria had been born on the eve of 
 the Austrian War in 1866, and now, on the eve 
 of this yet greater struggle, on June 14, 1870, the 
 Crown Princess gave birth to her third daughter, 
 Princess Sophia Dorothea Ulrica Alice, who was 
 destined to become Queen of the Hellenes. The 
 candidature of Prince Leopold of HohenzoUern- 
 Sigmaringen for the throne of Spain was announced 
 on July 4, and after fruitless attempts at inter- 
 vention by the Crown Princess's old friend, Lord 
 Granville, then the British Foreign Minister, war 
 was declared between France and Prussia on July 
 15. 
 
 At the time of the little Princess's christening, 
 which took place at the New Palace on July 25, 
 there were few present at the ceremony who were 
 not under orders for the front, and most of the 
 men were already in their campaigning uniform. 
 Emotion, anxiety, and excitement made the even 
 then old King William feel unequal to the task 
 of holding his little granddaughter at the bap- 
 tismal font according to his wont, and this duty 
 
 227 
 
228 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 was performed for him by Queen Augusta. The 
 fact that the Kings of Wiirtemberg and Bavaria 
 were the child's godfathers marked the decision of 
 those States, with Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, to 
 throw in their lot with Prussia in the war, as the 
 deputies of the North-German Confederation had 
 also done. 
 
 The christening was one of special splendour 
 and solemnity, the two outstanding figures in the 
 congregation being Bismarck, in his uniform of 
 major of dragoons, and Field-Marshal Wrangel, 
 now in his eighty-ninth year. Among the guests 
 at the christening were Lord Ronald Gower and 
 "Billy" Russell, the famous war correspondent. 
 Two or three days before, they had been received 
 by the Crown Princess at the New Palace, and 
 Lord Ronald writes: "The Princess expressed 
 almost terror at the idea of the war, and was 
 deeply affected at the sufferings it must bring 
 with it. She feared the brutality of Bazaine and 
 his soldiers, should they invade Germany." 
 
 After the christening, King William and Queen 
 Augusta held a kind of informal court in the curi- 
 ous hall known as the Hall of the Shells, full of 
 memories of Frederick the Great. Early the next 
 morning the Crown Prince slipped away out of the 
 palace to spare his wife the agony of parting. 
 
 Even at such a moment as this, the Crown Prin- 
 cess's private and personal anxieties were embit- 
 tered by circumstances which she was unable to 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 229 
 
 modify or affect. Although England was not only 
 ignorant, but was to remain, like the rest of the 
 world, in ignorance for many years, of the falsi- 
 fication of the famous Ems telegram, sympathy 
 with Germany as the supposed injured party in 
 the quarrel was by no means universal. 
 
 It is true that on the morrow of the declaration 
 of war the Times described it as "unjust but pre- 
 meditated — the greatest national crime that we have 
 had the pain of recording since the days of the first 
 French Revolution." Nevertheless, France by no 
 means, lacked sympathisers in England — indeed 
 Crown Princess was much distressed at the way in 
 which her native country interpreted the obligation 
 of neutrality. The Prussian Government consid- 
 ered that the exportation of coal and arms to France 
 was a breach of neutrality ; and the attitude of Eng- 
 land during the Danish War was still remembered 
 and resented in Germany. 
 
 Bismarck, with what Europe has now become 
 aware was gross hypocrisy, observed to Lord Au- 
 gustus Loftus, the British Ambassador in Berlin, 
 that "Great Britain should have forbidden France 
 to enter on war. She was in a position to do so, 
 and her interests and those of Europe demanded it 
 of her," a sufficiently cynical observation on the part 
 of a man who, as we now know, had himself forced 
 on the conflict at the eleventh hour. 
 
 To Queen Victoria the Crown Princess con- 
 fided her troubles: "The English are more hated 
 
230 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 at this moment than the French, and Lord Gran- 
 ville more than Benedetti. Of course, cela a re- 
 jailli on my poor innocent head. I have fought 
 many a battle about Lord Granville, indignant at 
 hearing my old friend so attacked, but all parties 
 agree in making him out French. I picked a quar- 
 rel about it on the day of the cliristening, tired and 
 miserable as I was. I sent for Bismarck up into 
 my room on purpose to say my say about Lord 
 Granville, but he would not believe me, and said 
 with a smile, 'But his acts prove it/ Many other 
 people have told me the same. Lord A. Loftus 
 knows it quite well. Fritz, of course, does not be- 
 lieve it, but I think the King and Queen do." 
 
 Meanwhile, France was complaining bitterly of 
 Lord Granville's "cold, very cold" attitude. Then 
 suddenly, on July 25, the Times published a draft 
 secret treaty which had been proposed by the Em- 
 peror Napoleon to Prussia in 1866. The terms 
 were — (1) that the Emperor should recognise 
 Prussia's acquisitions in the late war; (2) the King 
 of Prussia should promise to facilitate the acquisi- 
 tion of Luxemberg by France; (3) the Emperor 
 should not oppose a federal union of the Northern 
 and Southern German States, excluding Austria; 
 (4) the King of Prussia, in case the Emperor 
 should enter and conquer Belgium, should support 
 him in arms against any opposing Power; and (5) 
 France and Prussia should enter into an offensive 
 and defensive alliance. 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 231 
 
 This disclosure caused an enormous sensation, 
 and Queen Victoria was much shocked at the ap- 
 parent revelation of French greed and duplicity. 
 Writing to the Queen, the Crown Princess ob- 
 served: "Count Bismarck may say the wildest 
 things, but he never acts in a foolish way," — an 
 interesting pronouncement when one remembers 
 how keen had been and was to be the struggle be- 
 tween these two powerful and determined natures. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Bismarck did not hesitate 
 to admit that the document was authentic, but he 
 insisted that he had never seriously entertained the 
 proposal, which came entirely from the Emperor. 
 Not long afterwards, on the day of the battle of 
 Worth, the game of "revelations" was taken up 
 by General Turr, who disclosed proposals made by 
 Bismarck in 1866 and 1867 for the annexation of 
 Luxemberg and Belgium by France. 
 
 But already all such recriminations and discus- 
 sions seemed merely of academic interest; already 
 everything was swept from the mind of the Crown 
 Princess save the necessity for hard work and intel- 
 ligent organisation. With an ardour natural to her 
 generous and sympathetic temperament she tlirew 
 herself into everything that could mitigate the suf- 
 ferings and promote the welfare of both combatants 
 and non-combatants. Prussia's two former wars 
 had given her an amount of experience which she 
 was now able to turn to the best account. Spon- 
 taneously, without any advice or prompting from 
 
232 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 others, she wrote the following letter to the whole 
 German world, her desire being to touch the hearts, 
 not only of those Germans at home, but also of those 
 who had settled overseas, in America and elsewhere : 
 
 "Once more has Germany called her sons to take 
 arms for her most sacred possessions, her honour, 
 and her independence. A foe, whom we have not 
 molested, begrudges us the fruits of our victories, 
 the development of our national industries by our 
 peaceful labour. Insulted and injured in all that 
 is most dear to them, our German people — for they 
 it is who are our army — have grasped their well- 
 tried arms, and have gone forth to protect hearth, 
 and home, and family. For months past, thou- 
 sands of women and children have been deprived of 
 their bread-winners. We cannot cure the sickness 
 of their hearts, but at least we can try to preserve 
 them from bodily want. During the last war, 
 which was brought to so speedy, and so fortunate, 
 a conclusion, Germans in every quarter of the globe 
 responded nobly when called upon to prove their 
 love of Fatherland by helping to relieve the suffer- 
 ing. I..et us join hands once more, and prove that 
 we are able and willing to succour the families of 
 those brave men who are ready to sacrifice life and 
 limb for us! Let us give freely, promptly, that 
 the men who are fighting for our sacred rights may 
 go into battle with the comforting assurance that at 
 least the destinies of those who are dearest to them 
 are confided to faithful hands. 
 
 "Victoria Crown Princess.*' 
 
 This eloquent appeal met with the splendid re- 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 233 
 
 sponse which it deserved, and although practically 
 every German Princess of the time took a more 
 or less active part in the care of the wounded and 
 of the famihes of the soldiers, it was soon reaHsed 
 that the Crown Princess was the master mind to 
 whom all must look for their orders. 
 
 Queen Augusta supervised the ambulance and 
 hospital services in Berlin, while the Crown Prin- 
 cess moved to Homburg and started on the organ- 
 isation of a series of field-lazareths, being most 
 efficiently helped in her labours by her sister, 
 Princess Alice, who herself organised and actively 
 supervised four field hospitals in Darmstadt itself. 
 
 The Crown Princess began by turning the old 
 military barracks at Homburg into a hospital, the 
 existing hospital being set aside for the use of 
 wounded French prisoners. She also built at her 
 own expense two magnificent wards, and they — 
 doubtless partly because they were new buildings 
 — showed far more satisfactory results in lower 
 death-rate and shorter convalescence than did the 
 wards in any other of the German military hos- 
 pitals. 
 
 The Victoria Barrack, as the new wards were 
 called, was built of wood on a brick foundation. 
 In addition to the wards, the building contained a 
 good store-room, lined with glass cupboards, in 
 which was kept a quantity of old linen which Queen 
 Victoria had sent for the wounded. Each ward 
 contained twenty-four beds. A feature which the 
 
234 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 German doctors and nurses regarded with decidedly 
 mixed feelings was a system of ventilation which 
 enabled the whole building to be opened from end 
 to end when required. 
 
 By the Crown Princess's orders, the very simplest 
 and plainest appliances compatible with health and 
 comfort were used. Thus the necessary furniture 
 was all of varnished deal. By her wish, too, a great 
 effort was made to give a bright and homelike ap- 
 pearance to each ward, and this, like the special 
 ventilation, was quite a new idea to both German 
 patients and German doctors. In the corners of 
 each ward stood large evergreen shrubs, and on 
 every table were placed cut flowers in glasses. 
 Whenever the Crown Princess received a personal 
 gift of flowers, she immediately sent it off to the 
 hospital, often bringing a bouquet and arranging it 
 herself. Nothing in the Victoria Barrack was used 
 which could conceal any dirt; for instance, the 
 crockery was white and the glass plain. 
 
 The Crown Princess attended the military hos- 
 pitals daily. She went through every ward, and 
 spoke to every patient; and she was quite as regu- 
 lar in her attendance on the wards containing the 
 French prisoners as she was on those where the 
 German soldiers lay. In this way she came into 
 personal association w^th ordinary people of a class 
 of whom Princesses see as a rule little or nothing. 
 With many of the soldiers who were then tended 
 under her supervision and care she kept in touch 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 235 
 
 long after the war was ended — indeed, she was al- 
 ways eager to help in after life any of those whom 
 she had known at Homburg, or who had fought un- 
 der her husband's orders. 
 
 But the Crown Princess did far more than the 
 work associated with her name at Homburg. It 
 was owing to her promptness and her energy that 
 a long line of military hospitals was rapidly organ- 
 ised along the whole of the Rhine Valley. 
 
 At the end of the campaign of 1866 the Crown 
 Prince and Princess had founded the National In- 
 stitution for Disabled Soldiers, and by the special 
 order of the King it was given the name of the Vic- 
 toria Institution, because the Crown Princess had 
 suggested and instigated its creation. At the close 
 of 1871, this Institution, again at her suggestion, 
 was placed upon a wider footing, and applied to the 
 whole of Germany instead of only to Prussia. 
 
 There is no need here to describe the course of 
 the war itself. A vast literature, both technical 
 and general, has grown up round it, and there are 
 many people by no means yet old who remember 
 vividly that immense and sanguinary struggle. To 
 the Crown Prince was assigned the command of 
 the Third Army, in which nearly every State of 
 both North and South Germany was represented, 
 including the Bavarian Corps and the Divisions of 
 Wiirtemberg and Baden. Once more the Prince 
 proved his fitness for high command, perhaps most 
 notably at the battle of Worth, when his admirable 
 
236 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 dispositions and his unhesitating resolve that even 
 the last man must if necessary be staked were the 
 main causes of the victory. Yet the Crown Prince 
 said to the great German writer, Freytag, who was 
 with him in this early part of the war: 
 
 "I hate this slaughter. I have never desired the 
 honours of war, and would gladly have left such 
 glory to others. Nevertheless, it is my hard fate 
 to go from battlefield to battlefield, from one war to 
 another, before ascending the throne of my ances- 
 tors." 
 
 INIuch as he hated war, the Crown Prince never 
 hesitated, as weak commanders have always done, 
 to pay the necessary price of victory in human 
 lives. Among the troops, "Unser Fritz," as they 
 called him, quickly became extraordinarily popular 
 — indeed, their devotion to their leader formed a 
 strong and politically useful link between men who 
 had actually fought against one another so recently 
 as the Austrian War. 
 
 Throughout the campaign, the Crown Prince 
 and Princess corresponded daih\ The siege of 
 Paris had begun on September 15, and the Crown 
 Prince was at Versailles on his birthday, on Octo- 
 ber 18, almost the first birthday he had spent away 
 from his wife since their marriage. When he woke 
 in the morning he found on his table a small pocket- 
 pistol, and a housewife, filled with articles for daily 
 use, from the Crown Princess. 
 
 There is a very interesting glimpse of the Crown 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 237 
 
 Princess in December 1870, that is, during the mid- 
 dle of the war, in Prince Hohenlohe's Memoirs. 
 He was asked to lunch with her, and they had a long 
 talk about public affairs. The Princess was very 
 dissatisfied concerning the proposed Convention 
 with Bavaria, and it seemed to the statesman that 
 both she and Princess Alice were enthusiastic for 
 the idea of a united Empire without any exception, 
 and that neither sister liked the proposal of federa- 
 tion. The Crown Princess listened attentively, 
 however, to Hohenlohe's defence of the special na- 
 ture and justification of the Bavarian claims, but 
 it is evident that she agreed with her husband on the 
 question of coercing the Bavarians, if it should be 
 necessary. 
 
 The two sisters were together as much as was 
 possible during those terrible months of hard work 
 and anxiety. Princess Alice spent half of the De- 
 cember of 1870 in Berlin, and wrote to her mother: 
 "It is a great comfort to be with dear Vicky. We 
 spend the evenings alone together, talking or writ- 
 ing our letters. It is nearly five months since Louis 
 left, and we lead such single existences that a sister 
 is inexpressibly dear when all closer intercourse is 
 so wanting!" 
 
 On Christmas Eve there arrived at the house at 
 Versailles where the Crown Prince was then living 
 a huge chest, and he asked his hostess and her fam- 
 ily to share his Christmas cake, "for," said he, "this 
 cake was baked by my wife, and you will much 
 
238 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 oblige me by tasting it." He then chatted to them 
 about the Christmas festival in his own happy 
 household, and translated the letters of the Crown 
 Princess and of his two elder children. Long aft- 
 erwards this lady wrote to a friend a letter which 
 has since been published: 
 
 "In those fateful days w^e learnt to know the good 
 and open heart of the late Emperor. We were for- 
 tunate indeed to be under the protection of that 
 stately and friendly gentleman, who appeared to 
 us, as we now think of him, to have been a good 
 genius who warded off mischief from our house- 
 hold." 
 
 The Crown Princess w^as accused of having in- 
 terfered to prevent the bombardment of Paris. 
 Thus Busch writes on December 24, 1870: 
 
 "Bucher told us at lunch he had heard from 
 Berlin that the Queen and the Crown Princess had 
 become very unpopular, owing to their interven- 
 tion on behalf of Paris; and that the Princess, in 
 the course of a conversation with Putbus, struck 
 the table and exclaimed: 'For all that, Paris shall 
 not be bombarded!' " 
 
 As a matter of fact, though both JNIoltke and the 
 Crown Prince considered that the right tactics 
 would be to starve out Paris by a strict investment, 
 the bombardment, which was urged by Bismarck 
 for pobtical reasons, was delayed, not by any slack- 
 ness on the part of the Third Army, but simply 
 by insufficient preparation of the siege-train in Ber- 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 239 
 
 lin. The Crown Princess suffered bitterly from 
 Bismarck. She knew well that he was indispensa- 
 ble, the man of the hour, but he would never trust 
 her. He often held back important political news 
 from the Crown Prince for fear it should leak out 
 through the Crown Princess to England. In this 
 he did her an injustice so gross that it could not be 
 atoned for by his own tardy acknowledgment of 
 the fact in Thoughts and Remembrances. 
 
 On January 25, 1871, we learn from Busch that 
 Bismarck said of the English who wanted to send 
 a gunboat up the Seine to remove the English fam- 
 ilies there : 
 
 "They merely want to ascertain if we have laid 
 down torpedoes and then to let the French ships 
 follow them. What swine ! They are full of vex- 
 ation and envy because we have fought great bat- 
 tles here — and won them. They cannot bear to 
 think that shabby little Prussia should prosper so. 
 The Prussians are a people whd should merely ex- 
 ist in order to carry on war for them in their pay. 
 This is the view taken by all the upper classes in 
 England. They have never been well disposed 
 towards us, and have always done their utmost to 
 immure us. The Crown Princess herself is an in- 
 carnation of this way of thinking. She is full of 
 her own great condescension in marrying into our 
 country. I remember her once telling me that two 
 or three merchant families in Liverpool had more 
 silver-plate than the entire Prussian nobility. 
 
240 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 'Yes,' I replied, 'that is possibly true, your Royal 
 Highness, but we value ourselves for other things 
 besides silver.' " 
 
 After the capitulation of Sedan, the Crown 
 Prince issued from Rheims an appeal for the 
 wounded soldiers and the relatives of the killed and 
 wounded. In it he spoke of his happiness in com- 
 manding in the field an army in which Prussians 
 fought side by side with Bavarians, Wiirtem- 
 bergers, and men of Baden, and declared that the 
 war had created one German Army and had also 
 unified the nation. 
 
 Later on, when the German armies sat down 
 before Paris, the Crown Prince allotted some of 
 the large rooms of the Palace of Versailles for a 
 hospital, and himself supervised the arrangements. 
 All through the war, indeed, he showed the keenest 
 interest in the hospital service, and was constant in 
 his visits to the wounded soldiers. Here we may 
 trace the influence of his wife, who eagerly awaited 
 all tliat he could tell her in his letters about poor 
 men to whom her woman's heart went out with such 
 ardent sympathy. The Crown Prince took pains 
 to supply the patients with interesting reading, and 
 at his suggestion the editor of a Berlin Liberal 
 paper sent many hundreds of copies of it daily to 
 the military hospitals. This, however, was not ap- 
 proved at headquarters, and an order was actually 
 issued by von Roon, forbidding the distribution of 
 the paper. 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 241 
 
 Such incidents illustrate the difficulties with 
 which both the Crown Prince and the Princess had 
 to contend. The presence at Versailles, not only 
 of the King and Bismarck, but of a cohort of Ger- 
 man princes with their retinues, as well as numerous 
 diplomatists, Ministers, and other official person- 
 ages, did not make the Crown Prince's position 
 easier. He had been raised after the fall of Metz 
 to the highest rank in the army, that of General 
 Field-Marshal, the j^romotion being communicated 
 to him in a letter from his father bearing grateful 
 testimony to his brilliant successes in the field, nota- 
 bly the strategic advance by which he covered the 
 left of the main army and enabled it to overcome 
 Bazaine's forces. But tliis elevation in rank does 
 not appear to have been of much practical value to 
 him. 
 
 Naturally both the Crown Prince and the Crown 
 Princess took the keenest interest in the question 
 of the Imperial title. 
 
 By the end of November, 1870, Baden, Hesse- 
 Darmstadt, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria had all 
 joined the North- German Confederation by treaty. 
 Early in December, the King of Bavaria, in a letter 
 to the King of Saxony which was really written by 
 Bismarck, nominated the King of Prussia as 
 Emperor of Germany, and the North-German 
 Parliament, after voting large supplies for the con- 
 tinuance of the war, adopted by an overwhelming 
 majority an address requesting the King to become 
 
242 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Emperor. His brother and predecessor had re- 
 fused the Imperial crown proffered him by the 
 Frankfort Parhament, on the ground that the 
 legal title was insufficient, but now that the dignity 
 was tendered by the Sovereigns and the people of 
 Germany, it was not possible for the King to refuse. 
 
 Neither the King himself, however, nor the older 
 Prussian nobility liked the change, which, it was 
 feared, might transform the almost parsimonious 
 austerity of the Prussian Court into something like 
 the pomp and extravagance with which other sov- 
 ereigns had surrounded themselves. Bismarck, 
 who considered all such matters as titles and heral- 
 dic pomp to be only important because they in- 
 fluence men's minds, was disposed to agree with his 
 Sovereign's feelings, but it was the corner-stone 
 of his policy to conciliate the South German States. 
 
 To the Crown Prince, on the other hand, with 
 his strongly idealistic nature and his highly devel- 
 oped historical imagination, the conception of the 
 Empire won by the sword made an irresistible ap- 
 peal. He was readj^ to see in it a revival of the 
 old Empire, by which the King of Prussia should 
 be, not first among his peers, but the overlord of all 
 Germany. 
 
 It is significant, however, that King William, 
 was proclaimed, in the Hall of Mirrors at Ver- 
 sailles, not Emperor of Germany, but German Em- 
 peror. This was on January 18, 1871, the anni- 
 versary of the day on which the first King of 
 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 243 
 
 Prussia had crowned himself at Konigsberg. The 
 Crown Prince supervised all the arrangements for 
 the ceremony, and it was his idea to form a kind of 
 trophy of the colours of the regiments which had 
 won glory at Worth and Weissenburg, Mars-la- 
 Tour, Gravelotte, and Sedan. Before this trophy 
 the King pronounced the establishment of the Ger- 
 man Empire. On the same day by Imperial 
 rescript the new Emperor conferred on the Crown 
 Prince and on his successors as heir apparent the 
 title of Imperial Highness. 
 
 The preliminaries of peace were not signed till 
 February 26, and we have, in a letter written two 
 days later by his friend, Herr Abeken, an interest- 
 ing glimpse of the feelings with which the Crown 
 Prince regarded these great events, and also the 
 reliance which he placed on the aid of his wife. 
 The Crown Prince told Abeken that he was fully 
 conscious of the tremendous responsibility now in- 
 cumbent on him. It was thrice as great as that 
 which lay on him as Crown Prince of Prussia, but 
 he did not shrink from it. God had already given 
 him a blessed help and support in his wife, by whose 
 assistance he hoped to fulfil his great work. 
 
 The Crown Prince had the satisfaction of leaving 
 behind him in France as friendly feelings towards 
 him personally as could well be entertained by the 
 vanquished for a victorious foe. He had distin- 
 guished himself among the German leaders by his 
 moderation in victory, by his stern repression of 
 
244 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 excesses, and by his chivalrous tributes to the 
 bravery of his enemies. 
 
 The Crown Princess, absorbed in her labours 
 among the suffering soldiers, was scarcely aware 
 at the time of the venomous feelings still cherished 
 against her in Prussia, and it was with an exultant 
 heart — as "German" as her most captious and sus- 
 picious critics could have wished — that she wel- 
 comed the conclusion of the great conflict. 
 
 Berlin was reached on March 17, 1871, though 
 no official reception then took place, the Royal 
 carriage in which the new Emperor and the Crown 
 Prince were to be seen side by side, could only pro- 
 ceed at foot's pace through the dense masses who 
 crowded the streets. 
 
 Later, in response to the call of the great crowd 
 who thronged about his palace, a window opened, 
 and the Crown Prince was seen in the midst of his 
 family beside the Crown Princess, with his youngest 
 child, the little Princess who had been born at the 
 beginning of the war in his arms. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ACTIVITIES 
 
 When the great struggle was over at last and 
 peace was declared, the Crown Princess had a 
 pleasant opportunity of exercising the generosity 
 and delicacy which formed perhaps the most not- 
 able part of her many-sided and impulsive char- 
 acter. 
 
 M. Thiers had sent to Berlin as French Ambas- 
 sador the Comte de Gontaut Biron. Although 
 allied by birth to several great German families, 
 M. de Gontaut, as he was generally styled, found 
 his position in Berlin a very painful one. France 
 lay in the dust at the feet of the only real con- 
 queror she had ever known. The whole of the 
 huge war indemnity had not yet been paid off, and 
 French territory was not yet free from the foot 
 of the invader. There were also all kinds of com- 
 paratively unimportant, yet vexatious and an- 
 noying, outstanding points which still awaited 
 settlement, and till these were arranged Germany 
 refused to give up certain prisoners confined in 
 German fortresses. 
 
 Moreover, Bismarck, though outwardly concilia- 
 tory and courteous, did not seek to spare the French 
 Ambassador as a more generous and sensitive foe 
 would have done. M. de Gontaut was actually 
 
 245 
 
246 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 expected to be present at each of the splendid Court 
 and military fetes which were then being given 
 to celebrate the foundation of the new German 
 Empire for the victorious return of the Prussian 
 Army to the capital. 
 
 From the very beginning of his difficult task, the 
 Ambassador found firm and kind friends in the 
 Crown Prince and Princess. On the occasion of 
 his first audience the Crown Princess came forward 
 with kindly, eager words, telling him that she and 
 her husband had just read with the greatest 
 pleasure the memoirs of his grandmother, that 
 Duchess de Gontaut who, as Gouvernante of the 
 Royal children, played so great a part in the Revo- 
 lution, and later, in the Restoration. The Prin- 
 cess went on to speak of her intense satisfaction 
 and relief at the declaration of peace and she con- 
 cluded with the words: "We know that you have 
 made a great sacrifice in coming to Berlin ; and we 
 will do everything in our power to make your task 
 less painful." 
 
 When ]M. de Gontaut was later joined by his 
 daughter, the Crown Princess did all she could to 
 make the daily life of this young French lady as 
 agreeable as was possible in the circumstances, and 
 in this she had the warm sympathy and assistance 
 of the Empress Augusta, who, as we know, had 
 many old and affectionate links with the Legitimist 
 world to which the Ambassador belonged. 
 
 The Crown Princess's youngest child, who after- 
 
ACTIVITIES 247 
 
 wards married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, 
 was born on April 22, 1872, and was christened 
 Margaret Beatrice Feodora — Margaret after the 
 Queen of Italy, whom the child's parents both re- 
 garded with warm affection. 
 
 Queen Margherita came to Berlin for the cere- 
 mony, and a great fete was given at the New Pal- 
 ace. It was more like an English garden party 
 than anything previously known at the Prussian 
 Court, but the Crown Princess had a way of 
 making her own precedents. She caused invita- 
 tions to be sent, not only to the nobility and the 
 hosts of officials who had a prescriptive right to 
 be present at such a function, but also to persons 
 who were merely distinguished for their literary, 
 artistic, or scientific achievements. 
 
 The months which followed ushered in a peace- 
 ful period of happiness and rest for the Princess. 
 Her magnificent work during the war had won her 
 warm friends and admirers in every class, but of 
 more moment to her than her own personal poJDu- 
 larity was that enjoyed by the Crown Prince, whose 
 relations with the military party now became much 
 pleasanter in consequence of his achievements in 
 the field and the enthusiastic devotion felt for him: 
 throughout the army. 
 
 Unfortunately for the Crown Prince and Prin- 
 cess, Bismarck's position had been even more radi- 
 cally transformed by the war, and the Minister's 
 domination over his already aging sovereign grew 
 
248 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 more and more obvious. It was an open secret 
 that the Emperor and his heir differed on many 
 important questions, and the gulf between them 
 was sedulously widened by Bismarck's jealous 
 prejudice against the Crown Prince. Incidents 
 that would have been in ordinary circumstances too 
 slight to mention now revealed, even to strangers, 
 the friction which was symptomatic of deeper dis- 
 agreement. 
 
 The Crown Prince, as we have seen, set much 
 store by the new Imperial honours which the war 
 had brought to his House, and he was always very 
 punctilious in speaking of his father as "Emperor" 
 and of his mother as "Empress." The Emperor, 
 however, habitually still spoke of himself as "King" 
 and of the Empress as "Queen." The story goes 
 that on one occasion the Emperor, addressing some 
 lady in the presence of his son, observed that it was 
 extraordinarily mild for the time of year, and that 
 "the Queen" had brought him some spring flowers 
 which she had picked out of doors that morning. 
 The Crown Prince answered, "Yes, so the Empress 
 told me." "I did not know you had already seen 
 the Queen to-day," remarked his father. 
 
 The experiences she had just gone through had 
 shown the Crown Princess the inadequacy of the 
 existing hospital organisation in Germany. From 
 her point of view, and from that of the English 
 ladies who had rendered her such great assistance 
 in creating — it was nothing less — the Army Nurs- 
 
ACTIVITIES 249 
 
 ing Service, a more scientific training for nurses 
 was evidently the first necessity; and in securing 
 this she was particularly helped by Miss Lees, 
 afterwards Mrs. Dacre Craven, who had been a 
 friend and associate of Miss Nightingale. 
 
 In 1867 the Crown Princess had drawn up a 
 memorandum in which she laid it down that the 
 best nurses would prove to be those who would 
 combine the obedience of the Catholic Sisterhoods 
 with a more scientific and comprehensive training. 
 The Kaiserwerth Institution, where Florence 
 Nightingale had gained valuable experience, did 
 not give a sufficiently scientific education, and she 
 came to the conclusion that a nursing school must 
 be established in Berlin, where ladies, who should 
 be given a distinguishing dress and badge, should 
 be trained. The outbreak of the war of 1870 in- 
 terrupted this scheme, but now that the pressing 
 emergency was over, the Princess returned to her 
 old scheme, the fundamental principle of which 
 was that it should be carried out by educated and 
 refined gentlewomen, preferably orphans. They 
 were to have a three years' theoretical and practi- 
 cal course, followed by a course of monthly nursing, 
 and were to pass an examination to test their pro- 
 ficiency. 
 
 In the face of strong opposition, both on the 
 part of the medical profession and of the middle 
 classes in Germany, the Princess organised this 
 society of trained lady nurses, who tended the sick 
 
250 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 poor in their own homes. The society began in a 
 very quiet, humble way, but now you could not find 
 a German, man or woman, who would not admit 
 that this was a splendid addition to the philan- 
 thropic institutions of the country. The Princess 
 also founded a society for sending the sick children 
 of poor parents out of the larger towns into the 
 country or to the seaside. 
 
 It need hardly be pointed out that in each of 
 these cases the Crown Princess copied peculiarly 
 British institutions, and this no doubt was partly 
 why they aroused such indignant opposition. 
 
 All through her life one of the Princess's mental 
 peculiarities was that of thinking it impossible that 
 any reasoning human being could object to any- 
 thing that was obviously in itself a good and wise 
 measure. To oppose a scheme simply because the 
 idea of it had first originated in England or in 
 France was something that she could not under- 
 stand, so far removed was she from certain little- 
 nesses of human nature, as well as from the domin- 
 ion of national and racial prejudice. 
 
 The Crown Princess, and in this also she was 
 w^armly supported by her husband's approval and 
 sympathy, wished the new Empire to bestow more 
 recognition on those Germans who had attained 
 distinction in the arts of peace rather than of war. 
 Encouraged by the knowledge that her work dur- 
 ing the country's wars had at last won a measure 
 of national understanding and gratitude, she again 
 
ACTIVITIES 251 
 
 did every thing in her power to break down the old 
 Prussian Court barrier between the "born" and the 
 "not born." But, as might have been predicted, 
 the Princess's efforts were fairly successful as re- 
 gards the latter, though not as regards the former. 
 
 To German women of all classes, the Princess's 
 interest in science seemed both eccentric and un- 
 feminine. She had attended, when still a very 
 young woman, some lectures given in Berlin by 
 the great chemist, Hoffmann, who dedicated to 
 her, in later years, his book. Remembrances of Past 
 Friends — a compliment which pleased and touched 
 her very much. 
 
 Her practical love of art was also regarded as 
 uncalled for in a Royal lady and indeed unnatural 
 in the mother of a large young family. She had 
 a studio built in the palace, where she worked under 
 the teaching of Professor Hagen, and she also 
 studied under von Angeli. She was fond of visit- 
 ing the studios of Berlin painters, particularly of 
 the two Begas, of Oscar the painter, and Reinhold 
 the sculptor, where she sometimes made studies as 
 a student, and where she sometimes was herself the 
 study. She and her husband were always great 
 friends of the various artists. Among the names 
 that recur constantly in this connection are those 
 of Anton von Werner, to one of whose children the 
 Crown Prince was godfather, and Georg Bleibtreu. 
 
 The New Palace in Berlin was nicknamed "The 
 Palace of the Medicis," because of the enthusiastic 
 
252 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 encouragement which its owners always gave to 
 what they believed to be genius, or even talent. 
 The Crown Princess not only entertained persons 
 of distinction in art and literature, but, what was 
 less easily forgiven her, any foreign scientists and 
 artists of eminence who came to Berlin, were eag- 
 erly invited by her, generally to informal tea- 
 parties. 
 
 But in time even the Princess realised that it was 
 hopeless to try to blend the two elements. Un- 
 fortunately, she never took the trouble to hide her 
 preference for people who interested and amused 
 her to those who were merely "hoffahige." The 
 Prussian nobility were amazed and affronted that 
 a Prussian princess should esteem so lightly the 
 possession of numerous quarterings, and it was a 
 bitter grievance that their future sovereign and his 
 consort actually preferred the society of painters 
 and musicians and similar persons whom they re- 
 garded as nobodies. 
 
 At the same time, she was alwaj'S on cordial and 
 pleasant terms with diplomatists, who as a rule 
 combine the advantages of good birth with intelli- 
 gence and culture and the most delightful of pro- 
 fessions. For many years of her life her greatest 
 personal friends were Lord Ampthill (at the time 
 Lord Odo Russell) and his wife, a daughter of 
 that Lord Clarendon who had expressed so high 
 an admiration of the Princess Royal's mental gifts. 
 
 But perhaps the Crown Princess most surprised 
 
ACTIVITIES 253 
 
 and offended her husband's future subjects by her 
 pro-Jewish attitude. In this she showed extraor- 
 dinary courage and breadth of view. For ex- 
 ample, she accepted the patronage of the Auerbach 
 schools for the education of Jewish orphans, and 
 that at a time when the whole of Berlin, from the 
 great official world to the humblest tradesman, was 
 taking part in the Judenhetze. 
 
 The Crown Princess was indeed, as we have seen, 
 extremely broad-minded in matters of religion. 
 She heartily despised the type of mind which at- 
 tacks Jews as Jews, or Catholics as Catholics. She 
 showed this in March, 1873, when she spoke 
 strongly to Prince Hohenlohe about the hostile 
 policy the Prussian Government was then pursu- 
 ing towards his church. She observed that in her 
 opinion those called upon to govern should in- 
 fluence the education of the people, as that of itself 
 would make them independent of the hierarchy, 
 and she added: "I count upon the intelligence of 
 the people; that is the great power." But Hohen- 
 lohe drily answered: "A much greater power is 
 human stupidity, of which we must take account 
 in our calculations before everything." 
 
 What we should call the middle classes were in- 
 censed by certain other activities of the future Em- 
 press. From the very first the Crown Princess 
 had been ardently desirous of improving the posi- 
 tion of the women of her adopted country. But 
 the German woman of that day was quite content 
 
254 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 with the place she then held, both in the public 
 esteem and in the consideration of her menfolk; 
 the fact that in youth she was surrounded with an 
 atmosphere of sentimental adoration made up, in 
 her opinion, for the way she was treated in old age 
 and in middle age. 
 
 Even so, the efforts made by the Crown Princess 
 in time bore fruit. They comprised the Victoria 
 Lyceum, founded in June, 1869, but placed — and 
 here one reluctantly perceives a certain want of 
 tact on the part of the foundress — under the direc- 
 tion of an English lady. There were also, under 
 the special jDatronage of the Crown Princess, Frau- 
 lein Letze's school for girls of the upper classes, 
 and the Letteverein. Other educational establish- 
 ments which owed much to her sympathy and direct 
 encouragement were the Victoria and Frederick 
 William Institute, and the Pestalozzi-Froebel 
 House, and these are only a few of the educational 
 establishments in which she took an active and per- 
 sonal interest. Perhaps the most admirable of 
 them all was the Victoria Fortbildung-schule, 
 which gave girls the means of continuing their edu- 
 cation after they had left school. 
 
 In another matter concerning the education of 
 women the Cro'vvTi Princess was violently opposed 
 to German public opinion. She was a firm be- 
 liever in the value of gymnastic exercises and out- 
 door games for girls, and that at a time when they 
 were practically unknown in Prussia. The first 
 
ACTIVITIES 255 
 
 lawn-tennis net ever seen in Germany was put up 
 in the grounds of the New Palace at Potsdam, and 
 she was unceasing in her efforts to introduce gym- 
 nasiums into girls' schools. 
 
 In the winter of 1872, the Crown Prince fell ill 
 of an internal inflammation, and though the critical 
 period was soon over, he took a long time to recover 
 his strength. Margaretha von Poschinger repro- 
 duces in her life of him an extraordinary utterance 
 said by the Rheinische Kurier to have been made 
 by the Crown Prince to his wife at this time: 
 
 "The doctors say that my illness is dangerous. 
 As my father is old, and Prince William is still a 
 minor, you may not improbably be called upon to 
 act temporarily as Regent. You must promise 
 me to do nothing without Prince Bismarck, whose 
 policy has lifted our House to a power and great- 
 ness of which we could not have dreamed." 
 
 The interest of this is considerable if we could 
 be sure that it was authentic, and not simply what 
 the newspaper wished the public to believe that the 
 Crown Prince had said. It may well be that Bis- 
 marck, who was in the habit of providing for every 
 contingency, was alarmed by the Crown Prince's 
 illness, and desired to consolidate his own position 
 in the event of the Crown Princess becoming Re- 
 gent. 
 
 After a long convalescence at Wiesbaden the 
 Crown Prince returned with his wife to Berlin in 
 the spring of 1873. In the summer they went to 
 
256 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Vienna for the International Exhibition, and while 
 there they called, quite without ceremony, on von 
 Angeli, the painter. The Crown Princess invited 
 him to come to Potsdam to paint her husband's por- 
 trait; he accepted the commission, and it was the 
 beginning of a long friendship. 
 
 Von Angeli speaks with enthusiasm of the sim- 
 ple and charming home life of the Crown Prince 
 and Princess, who often entertained him. He 
 notes that, while there was much talk of a literary, 
 artistic, and scientific kind, politics and military 
 matters were never referred to. For the Crown 
 Princess the painter had the highest admiration — 
 indeed, he says she was gifted with every adorn- 
 ment of mind and heart. She made such progress 
 in painting that von Angeli declares himself proud 
 to call himself her instructor. The Crown Prince 
 took a keen interest in his wife's success, and was 
 himself encouraged to begin working, both in char- 
 coal and in colour. 
 
 As regarded the relations between England and 
 Germany, the Crown Princess had an increasingly 
 difficult part to play during the years that imme- 
 diately succeeded the war. France and Germany 
 — the former with far more reason — both con- 
 sidered that they had been badly treated by Great 
 Britain during the conflict. Prince Bismarck 
 either was, or pretended to be, watchful and appre- 
 hensive of the state of feeling in France, and 
 Moltke, following his lead, spoke at a State ban- 
 
ACTIVITIES 25T 
 
 quet as if war might again be forced on Germany 
 by France. 
 
 Urged, as Bismarck and his friends believed, by 
 the Crown Princess, but really by the advice of 
 Lord Granville, Queen Victoria, in 1874, made a 
 personal appeal to the German Emperor. In her 
 letter, after observing that England's sympathies 
 would be with Germany in any difference with 
 France, she added the significant qualification, 
 "unless there was an appearance on the part of 
 Germany of an intention to avail herself of her 
 greatly superior force to crush a beaten foe." 
 
 In reviewing the life of the Empress Frederick 
 as a whole, it must never be forgotten that the 
 Emperor William was not expected to reach, as 
 in fact he did, an extraordinary old age. After 
 the Franco-Prussian War, everyone of any intelli- 
 gence, from Bismarck downwards, attached great 
 importance to the Crown Princess's views and 
 feelings; they believed that she had established a 
 commanding influence over her husband, and that 
 the moment he succeeded to the throne she would 
 be the real ruler. Accordingly, the further inter- 
 vention of Queen Victoria in 1875, when a German 
 attack on France appeared imminent, was the 
 crowning offence of the "British petticoats." 
 
 Queen Victoria, as is well known, wrote a per- 
 sonal letter to the Tsar, who responded by going 
 himself to Berlin. The "British petticoats," it is 
 true, had resented what appeared to be the act of 
 
258 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 aggression of France before the falsification of the 
 Ems despatch had been revealed, but they were 
 angered by Bismarck's conspiracy with Russia in 
 denouncing the Black Sea Treaty; and his opposi- 
 tion to a law of Ministerial responsibility, which 
 might have given the new Empire a constitutional 
 basis, showed the impossibility of any real political 
 sympathy between the Minister and the Princess 
 who had been trained in the school of Prince Al- 
 bert. 
 
 The consequence of Queen Victoria's successful 
 intervention was indeed far-reaching. The ten 
 years which followed were probably the most 
 anxious of Bismarck's whole life. France, by the 
 prompt payment of the Indemnity and in other 
 ways, had shown a most disquieting power of re- 
 vival after the war. In addition, the understand- 
 ing with Russia, which was the pivot of Bismarck's 
 foreign policy, having been broken in his hands, 
 he was obliged to recast his policy from the founda- 
 tions; and, though he succeeded in his immediate 
 aims of separating England and France on the 
 one hand, and France and Russia on the other, his 
 resentment against the Crown Princess and her 
 mother as the origin of all his troubles burned all 
 the more fiercely. 
 
 After each quarrel — for quarrels there were — 
 between the all-powerful JNIinister and his future 
 sovereign, a peace, or rather a truce, was generally 
 patched up, and Bismarck would be invited to some 
 
ACTIVITIES 259 
 
 kind of festivity at the Crown Prince's palace. A 
 shrewd observer has recorded that on such occa- 
 sions his manner to the Crown Princess was always 
 courteous, but to the Crown Prince he was often 
 curt to the verge of insolence. 
 
 So intense was the feeling aroused among Bis- 
 marck and his followers, that the Crown Prince 
 and Princess found life in Berlin almost intoler- 
 able, and they began spending a considerable por- 
 tion of each year abroad. 
 
 The many philanthropic, social, and political 
 interests of the Crown Princess were never allowed 
 to interfere with her family life and duties. Very 
 soon after the war, both she and the Crown Prince 
 began to give much anxious thought to the edu- 
 cation and training of their eldest son. We have 
 a significant glimpse of how the question moved 
 the conscientious father in a passage in the Crown 
 Prince's diary written on January 27, 1871, while 
 he was still in the field : 
 
 "To-day is my son William's thirteenth birth- 
 day. It is enough to frighten one to think what 
 hopes already fill the head of this boy, and how 
 we are responsible for the direction which we may 
 give to his education; this education encounters 
 so many difficulties owing to family considerations 
 and the circumstances of the Berlin Court." 
 
 The Crown Princess was the victim of much 
 malevolent and ignorant criticism when it was 
 realised that the old traditions were to be broken 
 
260 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 in some important particulars. The civil element 
 was to be at least of equal importance as the mili- 
 tary in the training of Prince William, and he and 
 Prince Henry were sent to the ordinary "gym- 
 nasium," or public school as we should call it, at 
 Cassel, a little town in the old Duchy of Hesse, 
 which the parents deliberately chose because it was 
 some distance from Berlin. The sanction of the 
 Emperor William had to be obtained for this plan, 
 and though he gave it there can be little doubt that 
 he really disapproved. 
 
 This "magnanimous resolve, heretofore un- 
 exampled in the annals of our reigning families," 
 was indeed regarded with mixed feelings by the 
 country generally. It was not, as was supposed 
 by many, an English idea to send their heir to the 
 throne to an ordinary school. The Prince of 
 Wales had not been educated at all on those lines, 
 and there was certainly no precedent in the Royal 
 House of Prussia. The plan was not without 
 risks, but on the whole it succeeded admirably. By 
 the special wish of the parents, the two princes 
 were treated just like other boys; they were ad- 
 dressed as "you," and were called "Prince Wil- 
 liam" and "Prince Henry." "No one," said an 
 English newspaper correspondent, "seeing these 
 two simple, kindly-looking lads in their plain mili- 
 tary frocks, sitting on a form at the Cassel Gym- 
 nasium among the other pupils, would have guessed 
 that they were the two young Imperial Princes." 
 
ACTIVITIES 261 
 
 The Princes had one privilege accorded them; 
 they lived with their tutor, Dr. Hinzpeter, but this 
 circumstance certainly did nothing to reconcile 
 Bismarck to the plan. 
 
 Bismarck gives a significant account of his meet- 
 ing with Hinzpeter at a time when public opinion 
 was busy with the Polish question, and the Alven- 
 sleben Convention aroused the indignation of the 
 Liberals in the Diet. Hinzpeter was introduced 
 to Bismarck at a gathering at the Crown Prince's. 
 "As he was in daily communication with the Royal- 
 ties, and gave himself out to be a man of Conser- 
 vative opinions, I ventured upon a conversation 
 with him, in which I set forth my views of the 
 Polish question, in the expectation that he would 
 now and again find opportunity of giving ex- 
 pression to it." Some days later Hinzpeter wrote 
 to Bismarck that the Crown Princess had asked to 
 know the subject of their long conversation. He 
 had recounted it all to her, and had then reduced it 
 to writing, and he sent Bismarck the memorandum 
 with the request that he would examine it, and make 
 any needful corrections. This was really courting 
 a snub, which Bismarck hastened to administer, 
 flatly refusing Hinzpeter's request. 
 
 The Princess's Enghsh ideas prevailed in the 
 physical education of her children, and in her care 
 to occupy them with such innocent pursuits as 
 gardening. But the mother's desire that her eldest 
 son should not be too much under the glamour of 
 
262 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 military glory was defeated, partly by the boy's 
 own firmness of character, partly by the events of 
 history. The three great wars which culminated 
 in the foundation of the German Empire — the 
 Danish, the Austrian, and the French — covered 
 the period of his boyhood, and his earliest recol- 
 lections of his father were of a great soldier going 
 forth to win the laurels of victory over the succes- 
 sive enemies of his countr}\ The young prince in 
 fact spent most of his impressionable years in the 
 full influence of that hero-worship for Frederick 
 the Great which formed the strongest link between 
 the father and the son, though it is plain that each 
 admired his great forebear for different reasons. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE CROWN prince's REGENCY 
 
 In the January of 1874 the Crown Princess went 
 to Russia to be present at the marriage of her 
 brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, with the Grand 
 Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. Unhke most Royal 
 personages, many of whom regard such functions 
 as weddings as duties to be endured, the Crown 
 Princess thoroughljT- enjoyed the experience. The 
 Emperor Alexander was charmed with her clever- 
 ness and enthusiasm, and gave her a ruby bracelet, 
 which she was fond of wearing to the end of her 
 life. 
 
 The Princess had the pleasure of entertaining 
 the Prince and Princess of Wales on their way 
 home from St. Petersburg. It was the first time 
 the Princess of Wales had appeared at the Prus- 
 sian Court since the War of the Duchies, and her 
 wonderful beauty and charm of manner greatly 
 impressed all those who were brought in contact 
 with her. 
 
 The Crown Princess gave a splendid fancy 
 dress ball at the New Palace in February, 1874. 
 To some who were present it recalled the costume 
 ball given by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert 
 at Buckingham Palace nearly thirty years before. 
 The Crown Princess, who was devoted to Italy 
 
 263 
 
264 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 and to Italian art, decided that the entertainment 
 should be known as the Venetian Fete. She her- 
 self wore a replica of the dress in which Leonora 
 Conzaga was painted by Titian. Later there was 
 painted by von Angeli a portrait of the Crown 
 Princess in this dress. 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess spent the spring 
 of 1875 in Italy, including a long stay in Venice. 
 There they entertained the painter Anton von 
 Werner, who has left an enthusiastic account of 
 their visit. 
 
 He records that the Princess drew and painted 
 with real industry, now sketching the unequalled 
 treasures of the past, now studying the effects of 
 light or shade on the canals or in the square of St. 
 Mark's. The painter was astonished, not only at 
 the Princess's powers of technique, but also at her 
 artistic sympathy and feeling. She seemed to 
 know intuitively what would make a fine sketch. 
 On the evening of her departure, he says, this artist 
 Princess carried away with her an unforgettable 
 picture. The Grand Canal was covered with a 
 fleet of gondolas, each lighted with torches, while 
 the full moon shed her radiance over the noble 
 palaces and the Rialto Bridge. 
 
 Von Werner adds that the Princess, in spite of 
 the many claims on her time, had since that time 
 persevered in all her artistic studies, and he par- 
 ticularly mentions von Angeli, Wilberg, Lutteroth 
 and Albert Hertel, as painters who helped and in- 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 265 
 
 spired her. She did life-sized portraits of her chil- 
 dren. Prince William and the Hereditary Princess 
 of Saxe-Meiningen, in addition to numerous pencil 
 and water-colour sketches of really remarkable 
 artistic merit. 
 
 In the October of that year the Crown Prince, 
 in a long letter to his old friend, Prince Charles 
 of Roumania, mentions that the Princess is more 
 industrious and successful than ever in painting 
 and drawing, and does marvels in the way of por- 
 traits. He also describes how his wife led her Hus- 
 sar regiment past the King. She did it, he says, 
 magnificently, and looked extremely well in her 
 simple yet becoming uniform. 
 
 The Crown Princess was of great assistance to 
 her husband in his scheme of adding a Royal 
 Mausoleum to the Berlin Cathedral, which should 
 be a kind of Pantheon of the House of Hohen- 
 zollern. There were to be statues of all the Elec- 
 toral Princes and Kings, with inscriptions relating 
 the history and exploits of each. This involved a 
 great deal of historical research, of which the 
 Princess took her share, as also in the composition 
 of the more detailed historical memoirs or character 
 sketches of his ancestors to which the Crown Prince 
 also devoted himself. 
 
 A visit to Scheveningen in 1876 enabled the 
 Crown Princess to study, much to her delight, the 
 historical and artistic treasures of the old cities of 
 Holland. 
 
266 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 It will be remembered that the Crown Princess, 
 many years before, had had scruples about 'her 
 husband's association with Freemasonry. She was 
 perhaps reassured by a speech which he delivered 
 in July, 1876, when Prince Frederick of the Neth- 
 erlands celebrated his sixtieth anniversary as 
 Grand Master. Freemasonry, he declared, aimed 
 at love, freedom, and tolerance, without regard 
 to national divisions, and he hoped it might be 
 victorious in the struggle for intellect and liberty. 
 This speech is particularly interesting because, 
 only two years before, the Crown Prince had re- 
 signed his office in Grand Lodge in Berlin owing to 
 the opposition he encountered in striving to carry 
 out certain reforms in the craft. 
 
 1877 was an eventful year in the Prussian Im- 
 perial family. In February, Prince William re- 
 ceived his commission in the Foot Guards; Prin- 
 cess Charlotte was betrothed to the Heredi- 
 tary Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen; and 
 Prince Henry made his formal entry into the 
 Navy. 
 
 In April of this year it became known that Bis- 
 marck had made one of his not infrequent threats 
 to resign, and Bucher wrote to Busch to tell him 
 the news: "It is not a question of leave of absence," 
 he said, "but a peremptory demand to be allowed 
 to retire. The reason: Augusta, who influences 
 her aging consort, and conspires with Victoria 
 (the Crown Princess)." 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 26T 
 
 The year 1878 opened brightly for the Crown 
 Princess, for in February her eldest daughter, 
 Princess Charlotte, was married to Prince Bern- 
 hard of Saxe-Meiningen. Prince Bismarck, how- 
 ever, excused himself from appearing at the cere- 
 mony on the pretext of ill-health. 
 
 It was at this marriage, the first of the Crown 
 Princess's family weddings, that her brother, the 
 Duke of Connaught, made the acquaintance of his 
 future wife. 
 
 In the month of May came the attempted assas- 
 sination of the Emperor by a youth called Hodel. 
 The Emperor then had a marvellous escape, but 
 on June 2, which happened to be a Sunday, the 
 aged Sovereign was driving down Unter den 
 Linden when, from an upper window of an inn 
 called "The Three Ravens," Nobeling, a Socialist, 
 fired two charges of buckshot into the Emperor's 
 head and shoulders. Violent haemorrhage set in, 
 and for some hours it was said, first, that he was 
 dead, and secondly, that if not dead he could not 
 survive the day. 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess were then in 
 England, and the news reached them at Hatfield, 
 where they were staying with Lord and Lady 
 Salisbury. Within a very short time of the re- 
 ceipt of the telegram, they started for Berlin, find- 
 ing on their arrival that the Emperor had recov- 
 ered sufficiently to sign an order conferring the 
 Regency on the Crown Prince. 
 
268 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 The Regency was hardly more than titular, for 
 the old Emperor stipulated that his son was only 
 to "represent" him, and that the government was 
 to be carried on as before in accordance with the 
 Emperor's known views. As to that, Bismarck 
 had his own ideas, and he succeeded in overcoming 
 the Crown Prince's natural hesitation at accepting 
 such a position. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was an extraordinarily sudden 
 and dramatic change in the whole position of the 
 Crown Prince and Princess. In the first place it 
 absolutely put an end to the plan, which had been 
 seriously discussed and on the whole approved by 
 Bismarck, that the Crown Prince should become 
 Governor-General or Lieutenant-Governor of Al- 
 sace-Lorraine. Obviously this scheme was no 
 longer practical. The Emperor was old and his 
 wound was serious ; the accession of his son seemed 
 imminent. 
 
 It is curious to recall that, so far back as Janu- 
 ary, 1862, Queen Augusta, speaking to Prince 
 Hohenlohe, had obser\^ed: "The King and I are 
 old people: we can hardly hope to do more than 
 work for the future. But I wish we could look 
 forward to a happier state of things for our son." 
 She was destined to live thirty years longer, and to 
 survive the son to whom she ever proved herself 
 a loyal and devoted mother, while her husband, 
 whom even then she described as old, was destined 
 to live more than another quarter of a century — 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 269 
 
 almost as long, in fact, as the son who succeeded 
 him for so tragically brief a reign. 
 
 But now, in 1878, it seemed as if the Crown 
 Prince, even in the unlikely event of his father's 
 recovery from his wound, must become virtual 
 ruler of the German Empire. 
 
 A very few days, however, made it clear that 
 Bismarck was determined to allow the new Regent 
 as little authority as possible beyond that conferred 
 by the signing of State documents, and that he 
 was to have no practical influence on foreign poli- 
 tics. But fortune, then as always, seemed to single 
 out Bismarck for special favour, for in the all- 
 important matter of Russo-German relations the 
 Crown Prince was far easier to manage, in so far 
 as any management of him was necessary, than the 
 old Emperor, who was fondly attached to his 
 nephew, the Tsar Alexander II. 
 
 Those months, during which the Crown Prince 
 exercised in theory a power which he certainly did 
 not possess in reality, were among the most trying 
 of all the trying months the Crown Princess ever 
 passed through, the more so that the Berhn Con- 
 gress, which she and the Prince had gone to Eng- 
 land to avoid, opened on June 13. Among those 
 who sojourned in Berlin during those eventful 
 days, and whose presence must have been a pleas- 
 ure to the Princess, were Lord and Lady Salisbury. 
 
 But during the Congress the Crown Prince and 
 Princess kept rigidly apart from even its social 
 
270 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 functions, the only exception being that the Crown 
 Prince gave an official dinner in the King's name 
 to the plenipotentiaries. The Crown Princess 
 stayed out at Potsdam, while the Empress refused 
 to appear in any official way; she treated her son 
 entirely as if he were already Emperor. 
 
 Most serious was the sharp division caused be- 
 tween the father and son by the decisions of the 
 Congress. The Crown Prince, who had a life 
 long dislike and suspicion of Russia and of Rus- 
 sian state-craft, was supposed to have favoured 
 England, and the old Emperor, to the very end of 
 his life, considered that Germany had not done 
 as well at the Congress as she should have done. 
 He ascribed the fact — probably most unfairly — 
 to the Crown Prince instead of to Bismarck. 
 
 Meanwhile, all kinds of gossip were rife as to 
 the Crown Princess's efforts to influence her hus- 
 band, for by the public at large the Regent was 
 regarded as all-powerful. 
 
 To give an example of how the Princess was 
 misunderstood and misjudged; when Hodel at- 
 tacked the Emperor, the latter declared that he 
 did not wish the full severity of the law to be ex- 
 ercised. But when Nobeling's far more serious 
 attempt at assassination followed, public opinion 
 demanded that Hodel should be condemned to 
 death. The Crown Prince, as Regent, had to sign 
 the death warrant, and it became known that he 
 had told a personal friend how very painful it was 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 271 
 
 to him to sign it. It was widely believed that this 
 over-scrupulousness, for so the good Berliners 
 considered it, was due to the influence of the Crown 
 Princess ; yet as a matter of fact she had been, from 
 the first, of opinion that Hodel, who had certainly 
 meant to kill his Sovereign, should be executed. 
 
 In spite, however, of Bismarck's determination 
 to make him a cypher, the Crown Prince did not 
 allow himself to be put wholly in the background. 
 To the Minister's great annoyance, he opened a per- 
 sonal correspondence with the new Pope, Leo 
 XIII, in the hope of putting an end to the Kultur- 
 kampf. Though at the time it did not seem as 
 though the Prince had succeeded, it laid the founda- 
 tions for the ultimate solution of the problem. 
 
 The Regent also appointed a certain Dr. Fried- 
 berg, a distinguished Jewish jurist, who belonged 
 to the Liberal party, to a very high judicial post. 
 Curiously enough, this was the only appointment 
 the Crown Prince made which was not afterwards 
 revoked. The Emperor William I retained Fried- 
 berg, but refused to bestow on him the Black Eagle 
 even after he had served for nine years in office. 
 Ten years later, when the Emperor Frederick was 
 on his way home from San Remo after his father's 
 death, he received a Ministerial delegation at Leip- 
 zig, and, on seeing Friedberg, he took the Black 
 Eagle from his own neck and placed it about that 
 of his old friend. 
 
 By the end of the year, the Emperor was quite 
 
2T2 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 himself again. On a certain memorable evening 
 in December, he appeared at the Opera and was 
 the object of an extraordinary popular demonstra- 
 tion. The next day he wrote an open letter to the 
 Crown Prince, thanking him in the warmest terms 
 for the way in which he had fulfilled his duties as 
 Regent. 
 
 It was rumoured at the time — it is difficult to 
 know with what truth — that the Crown Princess 
 would have liked, after the recovery of her father- 
 in-law, that a special post should be created for her 
 husband. But, on his side, the Crown Prince said 
 to an English friend that he had no wish to find 
 himself the fifth wheel of the coach, and that he 
 hated having only a semblance of authority. 
 
 During that visit to England which was so sud- 
 denly interrupted by Nobeling's attempt on the 
 Emperor, Mr. Goschen, the statesman whom 
 Lord Randolph Churchill afterwards "forgot" at 
 the time of his dramatic resignation, was asked to 
 arrange a meeting between the Crown Prince and 
 Princess and George Eliot. The novelist thus de- 
 scribes the party in a letter to a friend: 
 
 "The Royalties did themselves much credit. 
 The Crown Prince is really a grand-looking man, 
 whose name you would ask for with expectation 
 if you imagined him no royalty. He is like a 
 grand antique bust — cordial and simple in manners 
 withal, shaking hands, and insisting that t should 
 let him know when next we came to Berlin, just 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 273 
 
 as if he had been a Professor Gruppe, living au 
 troisieme. She is equally good-natured and un- 
 pretending, liking best to talk of nursing soldiers, 
 and of what her father's estate was in literature. 
 We had a picked party to dinnei'^ — the Dean of 
 Westminster, the Bishop of Peterborough, Lord 
 and Lady Ripon, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Kinglake, 
 Froude, Mrs. Ponsonby (Lord Grey's grand- 
 daughter), and two or three more 'illustrations'; 
 then a small detachment coming in after dinner. 
 It was really an interesting occasion." 
 
 This was the kind of party which the Crown 
 Princess thoroughly enjoyed, though even then her 
 shyness always struck those who met her for the 
 first time. On this occasion she opened her con- 
 versation with George Eliot by saying, "You know 
 my sister Louise?" — and George Eliot's comment 
 is "just as any other slightly embarrassed mortal 
 might have done." 
 
 On December 14, the anniversary of the Prince 
 Consort's death, the Crown Princess suffered 
 another, and a hardly less terrible bereavement. 
 
 Her beloved sister. Princess Alice, Grand 
 Duchess of Hesse, after losing one child from diph- 
 theria and devotedly nursing her husband and her 
 other children, herself fell a victim to the malady, 
 the treatment of which was not then so well 
 understood as it is now. The sisters had been 
 fondly attached to one another from childhood, 
 and after Princess Alice's marriage the tie was 
 
274 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK , 
 
 drawn even closer. They had been inseparable 
 during the Franco-Prussian War, and for many 
 years the happiest days spent each year by the 
 Crown Princess were those when she was able to 
 pay a flying visit to the Grand Duchess, or when 
 the Grand Duchess was able to spend a few days 
 at Berlin or Potsdam. 
 
 But there was yet another and an even more 
 bitter sorrow in store for the Crown Princess. In 
 March, 1879, her third son. Prince Waldemar, 
 died in his eleventh j^ear. He was a clever, affec- 
 tionate, merry-hearted boy, and would have been 
 his mother's favourite child, if she had allowed 
 herself to make differences between her children. 
 Like the Princess herself, he had been intellectu- 
 ally far in advance of his years, and he had had as 
 tutor a distinguished professor, Herr Delbriick, 
 who succeeded Treitschke in the Chair of History 
 at the Berlin University, and afterwards plaj^ed a 
 considerable part in German thought and even in 
 German politics. 
 
 It is shockhig to have to record an example of 
 the prejudice which was even then still felt in cer- 
 tain circles in Germany against the bereaved 
 Crown Princess. A minister of the sect who called 
 themselves the Orthodox Protestants, when he 
 heard of the death of the young Prince, observed 
 that he hoped it was a trial sent by God to humili- 
 ate her hard heart. This monstrous utterance 
 must have found its way into print, or to the ears 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 275 
 
 of some singularly ill-advised human being, for the 
 Princess came to know of it, and in her then state 
 of anguish it gave her more pain than perhaps even 
 the minister himself would have wished to inflict. 
 
 It was natural that the mother's heart should 
 at this moment turn with keen anxiety to her son, 
 Prince Henr\% who was then serving abroad in a 
 German warship. She imagined him in the midst 
 of all sorts of perils, and she begged the Emperor 
 to allow him to return home at once. But the 
 Sovereign, though expressing kindly sympathy, 
 was obliged, in view of the rigid rules of the serv- 
 ice, to refuse her petition, and the Princess had to 
 bear as best she could this addition to her burden. 
 
 At this time the Crown Princess's relations with 
 Bismarck had undergone some improvement. On 
 February 23, 1879, Bismarck gave to Busch a 
 most unflattering picture of the old Emperor, but 
 he described the Crown Princess as unaffected and 
 sincere, like her husband, "w^hich her mother-in- 
 law is not." He observed that it was only family 
 considerations (the Coburger and the Augusten- 
 burger more than the uncle in Hanover) that made 
 the Crown Princess troublesome, formerly more so 
 than at present. *'But she is honourable and has 
 no pretensions." 
 
 It was thought that the Crown Princess was 
 sadly in need of mental change and refreshment 
 after the two terrible blows which had deprived 
 her of her child and of her sister. She, therefore. 
 
276 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 went to stay in Rome incognito during the April 
 of 1880, being only attended by a lady-in-waiting 
 and her "chambellan." To those of her EngHsh 
 friends whom she happened to meet she spoke con- 
 stantly of her dead son, saying that he had been 
 the most promising of her children, and that she 
 felt as if she could never be resigned to her loss. 
 In answer to a kindly suggestion that she had so 
 many duties to perform that she would soon be 
 taken out of herself, she said: "Ah, yes, there is 
 much to do and one cannot sit down with one's 
 sorrow, but the mother who has lost her child carries 
 a heavy heart all her life." 
 
 During her stay in Rome, the Princess spent 
 almost the whole of each day in the picture gal- 
 leries, and in the evening she generally dined with 
 some of her English friends and members of the 
 diplomatic corps. As was always her wont, she 
 managed to see all the more interesting strangers 
 who were just then in Rome, many being asked to 
 meet her at the British Embassy. One night, 
 when Lady Paget asked her whom she would like 
 to meet, she answered instantly: "Cardinal Howard 
 and Mr. Story" (the American sculptor). The 
 Princess, however, could not stay as long in Rome 
 as she would have liked, for she had to hurry back 
 to be present at the Emperor's golden wedding 
 festivities. 
 
 Fortunately for the Crown Princess, there came 
 other thoughts to distract her from her grief. 
 
THE CROWN PRINCE'S REGENCY 277 
 
 She welcomed her first grandchild, the Hereditary 
 Princess of Saxe-Meiningen giving birth to a 
 daughter, and in April, 1880, her eldest son Prince 
 William was betrothed to Princess Victoria of the 
 House of Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg, an 
 alliance entirely approved by his parents. The 
 Crown Prince, in a letter to Prince Charles of 
 Roumania, said that it was really a love-match, 
 and that the young Princess possessed remarkable 
 gifts of heart, mind, and character, as well as a 
 certain gracious dignity. It was also felt that the 
 marriage would be a sort of compensation to the 
 Augustenburg family for the loss of the Elbe 
 Duchies. 
 
 In September, 1880, the Crown Princess had 
 the joy of welcoming back Prince Henry from his 
 voyage round the world, and the marriage of Prince 
 William took place in February, 1881, amid uni- 
 versal rejoicings. 
 
 The Crown Princess's influence on the artistic 
 life of Germany was shown by a Httle incident 
 connected with her eldest son's marriage. On the 
 occasion of the wedding the town of Berlin deco- 
 rated the streets in a particularly original and 
 beautiful way, and other Prussian towns gave the 
 young people as a wedding present a really artis- 
 tic table service. The Crown Prince exclaimed: 
 "And whom have we to thank that such things 
 can be done by us in Germany to-day? Not least 
 my wife!" 
 
278 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 In the following March, when the Crown Prince 
 was in Russia attending the funeral of Alexander 
 II, who had been assassinated by Nihilists, the 
 Princess received an anonymous threatening letter, 
 informing her that her husband would also fall a 
 victim to the Nihilists in the next few hours. She 
 was in a dreadful state of agitation until reassur- 
 ing telegrams arrived. 
 
 A son was born to Prince and Princess William 
 on May 6, 1882, and the old Emperor WiHiam 
 telegraphed to the Crown Prince: "Praise and 
 thanks to God! Four generations of Kings liv- 
 ing! What a rare event! May God shield the 
 mother and child!" 
 
 In November of the same year, the Crown Prin- 
 cess had a curious conversation with Prince Ho- 
 henlohe, w^ho thus records it: 
 
 "It may be that Christian consolation does not 
 suffice one, but it is better to keep this to oneself 
 and think it over. Plato's dialogues and the an- 
 cient tragedies she finds very consolatory. Much 
 that she said was true. But she is too incautious 
 and hasty in her verdicts upon things which are, 
 after all, worthy of reverence." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SILVER \vedding: the crown prince's illness 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess now looked for- 
 ward to celebrating their silver wedding on Janu- 
 ary 25, 1883. 
 
 The festivities were rather dashed by the sudden 
 death, only four days before, of Prince Charles of 
 Prussia, the Emperor's brother. The old Prince 
 had never liked his English niece, and it was whis- 
 pered in the diplomatic world that he had much pre- 
 ferred to die before rather than after the celebra- 
 tions in which she was to be so conspicuous a figure ! 
 
 Preparations for commemorating the anniver- 
 sary with due honour had been made for fully a 
 year before, and money was being collected for 
 various presentations, when it was intimated that 
 the Crown Prince and Princess wished the subscrip- 
 tions to be devoted to public and philanthropic ob- 
 jects. This made a great impression, and the cen- 
 tral committee raised the large sum of £42,000, 
 mostly in quite small contributions. It was pre- 
 sented to the Prince and Princess on February 16, 
 with the request that it should be used for chari- 
 table purposes chosen by their Imperial Highnesses. 
 
 The money was accordingly distributed among 
 the various charities with which the Crown Prince 
 
 279 
 
280 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 and Princess were connected, and some of which 
 they had themselves founded — such as the work- 
 men's colonies for reclaiming the unemployed and 
 finding temporary occupation for them; institu- 
 tions for the technical and practical education of 
 working men in their leisure hours; the promotion 
 of health in the home; the Victoria School for the 
 training of nurses; and the Victoria Foundation 
 for the training of young girls in domestic and in- 
 dustrial work. The city of Berlin had a separate 
 fund, which reached the round sum of £10,000, and 
 of this £5900 was spent on building a nursing in- 
 stitute. 
 
 The death of Prince Charles caused the post- 
 ponement of the festivities to the end of February, 
 when they were held in what we should call "full 
 State." The Prince of Wales represented Queen 
 Victoria, and the Emperor Francis Joseph also 
 sent his heir apparent. 
 
 The principal ceremony was both impressive and 
 artistic, and there we can trace the influence of the 
 Crown Princess. It consisted in a representation 
 of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, arranged by the 
 artists of Berlin. The Crown Prince, in the uni- 
 form of the Queen's Cuirassiers, and the Crown 
 Princess in white satin and silver lace, led the mag- 
 nificent procession, in which all the Royal person- 
 ages took part. After the Crown Prince and 
 Princess had taken their seats between the Em- 
 peror and Empress, a dramatic representation of 
 
BY KIND PERMISSION OF 
 
 H ANIFSTAENGEL 
 
 THE CROWN PRINCESS 
 AT THE TIME OF HER SI LVER WEDDING 
 
SILVER WEDDING 281 
 
 the Court of Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, with 
 its picturesque troubadours, was given, followed 
 by the Elizabethan Pageant. Then came what 
 was perhaps the most interesting scene of all — a 
 large assemblage dressed to represent the great 
 painters of the Renaissance in Italy, Germany, and 
 the Netherlands, who advanced, one by one, and did 
 obeisance to the Crown Prince and Princess as pa- 
 trons of the arts. 
 
 In May, 1883, the Princess paid a private visit 
 to Paris. She only stayed three days, but during 
 those three days undertook more intelligent sight- 
 seeing than most women of her then age would 
 have found possible. She was entertained at 
 luncheon by Lord Lyons, and at dinner at Saint 
 Germain by Prince Hohenlohe, who in his diary 
 rather ungi'aciously observes: "Royal excursions 
 with Royal personages are not exactly among the 
 pleasant things of life." 
 
 During this visit the Princess said to a French 
 friend that one of the lives she would have liked 
 to lead would have been that of a little bourgeoise 
 of the Rue Saint Denis, going on high-days and 
 holidays to the Theatre Fran^ais. 
 
 The Crown Princess was now able to carry out 
 her cherished project of building an English church 
 dedicated to St. George in Berlin, largely with the 
 £5700 which was contributed in England for the 
 silver wedding celebrations. The wisdom of this 
 employment of the money subscribed may perhaps 
 
282 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 be doubted, for it can only have confirmed the idea 
 prevailing in some quarters that the Princess re- 
 mained, and would always remain, an English- 
 woman in all her feelings and sympathies. How- 
 ever, the laying of the foundation-stone, which the 
 Crown Princess performed herself in the spring 
 of 1884, was carried out with considerable cere- 
 mony. 
 
 The Crown Prince made a speech on the occa- 
 sion, in which he recalled that King Frederick 
 William IV had assigned one of the rooms in the 
 palace of Monbijou to the use of the English con- 
 gregation, and that the King's brother, the then 
 Emperor, actuated by the same feelings, had 
 granted the land on which the church was to be 
 built. The Crown Princess took the keenest in- 
 terest in the building, and followed the carrying 
 out of the architect's plans in every detail. 
 
 After the death of Field-lNIarshal Baron von 
 ManteufFel, Stadhalter of Alsace-Lorraine, it was 
 suggested that the Crown Prince might be his 
 successor, but the old Emperor refused to consider 
 the notion, while being willing to consider the ap- 
 pointment of the young Prince William. It is said 
 that the Crown Princess herself went to her father- 
 in-law and begged him not to put so great an af- 
 front on her husband. The post was, therefore, 
 conferred on Prince Hohenlohe. 
 
 In the November of 1885, Matthew Arnold paid 
 a visit to Germany in order to obtain information 
 
SILVER WEDDING 283 
 
 as to the German system of education. The Crown 
 Princess was keenly interested in the inquiries he 
 was making. With her usual energj^^ she went to 
 considerable personal trouble in order to help him, 
 and she arranged, among other things, that Mr. 
 Arnold should make a short stay on Count Redern's 
 property, in the Mark of Brandenburg. 
 
 In one of his letters Arnold gives a charming 
 account of a soiree at the New Palace: "The 
 Crown Princess came round the circle, and I kissed 
 her hand, as everyone here does when she holds it 
 out. She talked to me a long time, and said I 
 must come and see her quietly, comfortably." A 
 few days later he dined at the palace, the only 
 other guest being Hoffmann, the great chemist. 
 Arnold sat next the Crown Princess, who "talked 
 I may say all dinner. She is very able and well- 
 informed." 
 
 A day or two later came a message asking him 
 to tea with the Crown Princess: "She was full of 
 the Eastern question, as all of them here are; it 
 is of so much importance to them. She talked, 
 too, about Bismarck, Lord Ampthill, the Em- 
 peror, the Empress, the Queen, the Church, Eng- 
 lish politics, the German nation, everything and 
 everybody indeed, except the Crown Prince and 
 herself." 
 
 Mr. Arnold was very anxious to meet "the great 
 Reichs-Kanzler" himself, but this was not easy, 
 as the great man was reputed to be almost inac- 
 
284 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 cessible : but the Crown Princess herself wrote and 
 asked Bismarck to receive her compatriot. 
 
 Matthew Arnold was struck by the lack in Ber- 
 lin of what certainly exists in London and Paris, 
 namely, an agreeable, cultivated society consisting 
 mainly of upper middle-class elements. He ob- 
 served that in Berlin there was, in addition to the 
 Court, only groups of functionaries, of soldiers, 
 and of professors. 
 
 As may be gathered from much that has al- 
 ready appeared in this volume, the Crown Princess 
 was ever pathetically anxious that England and 
 Germany should be on the most friendly terms of 
 confidence and affection. Consequently she went 
 through some days of considerable anxiety, in the 
 spring and early summer of 1884, over the "inci- 
 den" of Angra Pequena. When Lord Granville 
 decided to recognise German sovereignty in this 
 territory, the Cro^\^l Princess was quite as pleased 
 in her May as Bismarck was. Lord Ampthill, in 
 a letter to Lord Granville, observes: "The Crown 
 Princess, who dined with us last night, was beyond 
 measure happy at the general contentment and al- 
 tered tone of the Press." 
 
 This Lord Ampthill, the Lord Odo Russell of 
 former days, was a valued friend of the Crown 
 Princess. She was always, naturally, on terms of 
 friendship with her mother's representative in Ber- 
 lin, but Lord Ampthill's appointment had given 
 her special satisfaction. The Ambassador's pre- 
 
SILVER WEDDING 285 
 
 mature death in 1884 was a great grief to the Prin- 
 cess, and the day after his death the Crown Prince 
 himself came to the villa, where Lord and Lady 
 Ampthill had lived near Sans Souci, to lay a wreath 
 on the coffin. 
 
 The health of the old Emperor now began to 
 give occasion for anxiety. He had been born on 
 March 22, 1797, and when he reached his eighty- 
 seventh birthday in 1884, it seemed as if his course 
 was almost run. In the circumstances the Crown 
 Prince and Princess could scarcely help anticipat- 
 ing the time when, as it then seemed, the great 
 powers and responsibilities of the throne would be 
 theirs. But it is certainly true to say that the feel- 
 ing of duty was paramount in their minds, and that 
 nothing was further from their thoughts than to 
 covet the Imperial purple for its own sake. They 
 regarded it as the symbol of all that they were de- 
 termined to do for the welfare and happiness of 
 the people. 
 
 Even if they had been bhnd to the apparently 
 immediate consequences of the old Emperor's fail- 
 ing health, they would have been enlightened by 
 the altered demeanour of Prince Bismarck. He 
 showed clear signs of a desire to cultivate better 
 relations with the Heir Apparent and his family, 
 and he even attended an evening party given by 
 the Crown Princess on the occasion of her birth- 
 day. 
 
 Not long afterwards, early in 1885, the Crown 
 
286 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Prince sounded Bismarck as to whether, in the 
 event of the Emperor's death, he would remain in 
 office. The astute Chancellor said that he would, 
 subject to two conditions, namely, that there should 
 be no foreign influences in State policy, and that 
 there should be no Parliamentary government; it 
 is said that the Crown Prince assented with an elo- 
 quent gesture. 
 
 The real tragedy of the Crown Princess's life 
 surely lies in these years of waiting. She could 
 not — assuredly she did not — for a moment wish 
 that the old Emperor should die. She had nursed 
 him devotedly during the long illness caused by 
 Nobeling's attempted assassination, and it is a sig- 
 nificant fact that she alone had been able to per- 
 suade the stern old soldier to leave his hard camp 
 bed for a soft invalid couch. She knew as well as 
 anyone the Emperor's noble quahties, and she cher- 
 ished for him a warm and filial affection. 
 
 Yet it was patent, especially to all those who 
 shared the strong political and constitutional 
 opinions of the Crown Princess, that the aged 
 Sovereign had outlived his usefulness to his coun- 
 try. She could not help being conscious that in 
 her husband, and in herself, too, there lay capaci- 
 ties of national service of which William I and his 
 consort had never dreamed. 
 
 If the word "disappointment" is used of the 
 Crown Princess's long-deferred hopes, it was in no 
 sense the baulking of any commonplace ambition. 
 
SILVER WEDDING 287 
 
 The tragedy lay in the failure of the pure and 
 single-hearted dedication of her husband and her- 
 self to bettering the lot of those vast, silent millions 
 on whose pains and toil the pomp of thrones and 
 empires, the exquisite refinements of civilisation, 
 the discoveries of science, and the delights of art 
 and literature, seemed to her to be all ultimately 
 based. 
 
 The sympathies of one of the most warm- 
 hearted women who ever lived were thus continu- 
 ally torn and divided, for, while it seemed to her 
 loyal nature an act of treachery to look forward to 
 the old Emperor's death, she was continually being 
 reminded, by the demeanour of those about her, 
 that that event, which would so entirely transform 
 her position, was expected almost daily. 
 
 In the midst of this subtle mental and spiritual 
 conflict, the Crown Princess was struck by yet 
 another arrow from the quiver of fate, inflicting 
 an anguish of anxiety which even her bitterest ene- 
 mies would surely have wished her to be spared. 
 
 In April, 1886, the Crown Prince sufl*ered from 
 a severe attack of measles, which probably left 
 him in a weakened state, as this disease is apt to 
 do when it attacks a man over fifty. However, he 
 was thought to have recovered sufficiently to visit 
 the King and Queen of Italy on the Riviera in the 
 autumn, and it was there, while out driving, that 
 the Prince caught a severe cold, which brought on 
 an aff*ection of the throat. 
 
288 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 The Princess herself undertook, with great ef- 
 ficiency, the chief responsibility of nursing the pa- 
 tient. But the throat affection did not yield to 
 treatment, and the terrible suspicion that it might 
 never so yield must often have assailed the Princess, 
 even in these early months of her husband's illness. 
 But she did not betray the anxiety gnawing at her 
 heart; on the contrary, she showed throughout a 
 gallant optimism which, as we now look back on it, 
 seems intensely pathetic. 
 
 It was the more necessary that the Princess 
 should never for a moment relax her cheerfulness, 
 because the patient himself soon began to suffer 
 from periods of deep depression. To one friend 
 he even said that his time had already passed away, 
 and the future belonged to his son; to another he 
 declared that he had become an old man and stood 
 with one foot in the grave. 
 
 On the Emperor William's ninetieth birthday, 
 March 22, 1887, the sailor son of the Crown Prin- 
 cess, Prince Henry of Prussia, was formally be- 
 trothed to his cousin, his mother's favourite niece, 
 Princess Irene of Hesse. 
 
 During the festivities given in honour of the 
 event, it began to be whispered among the guests 
 that the Crown Prince's throat affection was more 
 serious than had as yet been acknowledged. But 
 it is said that the word "cancer" was only first men- 
 tioned in connection with the case when, in defer- 
 ence to the highest medical advice of Berlin, he was 
 
SILVER WEDDING 289 
 
 sent to Ems to be treated for "a bad cold with 
 bronchial complications following on measles." 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess, with their fam- 
 ily, went to Ems in the middle of April and spent 
 a month there. Not only did this bring no im- 
 provement, but the patient became perceptibly 
 worse. He was brought back to Berlin, and a con- 
 sultation of the most eminent medical experts, in- 
 cluding Bergmann, Gerhardt, and Wagener, was 
 held, as the result of which a growth in the throat 
 of a malignant character was diagnosed. 
 
 Bismarck in his Reminiscences contradicts two 
 curious stories which are worth notice, if only for 
 the reason that they have obtained a certain amount 
 of currency, and one of them is even to be found in 
 an English work on the Emperor William II. 
 
 The first of these stories is that, after his return 
 from Ems, the Crown Prince signed a document 
 in which, in the event of his surviving his father, 
 he renounced his succession to the throne in favour 
 of his eldest son. There is not, says Bismarck, a 
 shadow of truth in this story. 
 
 The other statement is that any heir to the Prus- 
 sian throne who suffers from an incurable physical 
 complaint is, by the HohenzoUern family law, ex- 
 cluded from the succession. The importance of 
 this provision, if it reallj^ existed, is obvious; and, 
 at the period we have now reached, when the phys- 
 ical state of the Crown Prince became a subject 
 of intense public interest, it obtained wide currency 
 
290 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 and no small amount of credit. If, on a strict in- 
 terpretation of such a rule, the Crown Prince was 
 excluded from the succession, it might have been 
 argued that his eldest son was also incapable of 
 succeeding, owing to the weakened state of his arm. 
 But Bismarck declares categorically that the Ho- 
 henzollern family law contains no provision on the 
 matter at all, any more than does the text of the 
 Prussian constitution. 
 
 Bismarck goes on to say that the doctors who 
 were treating the Crown Prince resolved at the end 
 of JNIay to carry out the removal of the larynx im- 
 der an anaesthetic without having informed the 
 Prince of their intention. The Chancellor, how- 
 ever, immediately raised objections; required that 
 they should not proceed without the consent of the 
 Prince ; and, further, that as they were dealing with 
 the successor to the throne, the consent of the head 
 of the dynasty should also be obtained. The old 
 Emperor, therefore, after being informed of the 
 circimistances by Bismarck, forbade the doctors to 
 carry out the operation without the consent of the 
 Crown Prince. 
 
 It must be remembered, in considering the diag- 
 nosis of the German experts, that laryngology was 
 at that time almost in its infancy, and it was natural 
 that the Crown Princess should have clung desper- 
 ately to the belief that a mistake had been made. 
 Indeed, it is said that Professor Bergmann himself 
 advised that the opinion of some other eminent 
 
SILVER WEDDING 291 
 
 throat specialist should be obtained before it was 
 decided to have recourse to surgical interference. 
 
 This was the position when the eminent Eng- 
 lish throat specialist, Dr. (afterwards Sir) Morell 
 Mackenzie was summoned. There is no need here 
 to go over in detail the painful controversy which 
 was engendered by this step, and which was em- 
 bittered, not only by thorny questions of profes- 
 sional etiquette, but also by irrelevant political pas- 
 sions. Our purpose is rather to state the princi- 
 pal facts, and leave the reader to form his own con- 
 clusions. 
 
 The Crown Princess was widely believed to have 
 insisted that the English specialist should be called 
 in simply because of her English prejudices, and 
 this was considered an affront to the medical pro- 
 fession in Germany. As a matter of fact a list 
 of the most eminent throat specialists in Europe 
 was drawn up. One was a Frenchman, another a 
 Viennese, and the third was Morell Mackenzie. 
 The Frenchman was discarded for political rea- 
 sons, the Viennese for other reasons, and it was a 
 consensus of political and medical opinion which 
 led to the choice of the English specialist. 
 
 On JNIay 20, 1887, Dr. Morell Mackenzie ar- 
 rived in Berlin. The German physicians informed 
 him that they believed they had to deal with a can- 
 cer, but they desired his diagnosis. Mackenzie 
 performed more than one small operation to serve 
 as a basis for a microscopic examination, which 
 
292 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 was entrusted to Professor Virchow, probably the 
 greatest physiologist then living. It was Virchow 
 who reported, to the exultant relief and joy of the 
 Crown Princess, that, while he found a certain 
 thickening of the membrane, he had "discovered 
 nothing to excite suspicions of a wider and graver 
 disease." 
 
 Henceforth there was a party in Berlin who were 
 convinced that the growth, if growth it was, in the 
 Crown Prince's throat was benign. But it may 
 serve as an illustration of the passions which the 
 whole affair aroused when it is stated that there 
 were many who asserted that Virchow had been 
 deliberately deceived, and that the English special- 
 ist had refrained from submitting to him those por- 
 tions of the membrane which would have clearly 
 shown the presence of malignant disease. It was 
 this monstrous accusation which chiefly served to in- 
 flame the controversy on both sides. 
 
 Virchow's report greatly relieved the anxieties 
 of the Cro^vn Prince and Princess at the time, and, 
 relying on it implicitly, they went to England with 
 their daughters in the middle of June for three 
 months. They stayed at first on the healthy heights 
 of Norwood, in the south of London, going later to 
 Scotland and the Isle of Wight. 
 
 While at Norwood they saw many distinguished 
 English people, though even then the Prince was 
 prohibited from uttering a word above his breath. 
 Those who met the Prince at this time were pain- 
 
SILVER WEDDING 293 
 
 fully struck by his appearance. He was much 
 thinner, but the Princess, who, being always with 
 him, did not notice the gradual change which had 
 come over him, was full of hope. Indeed, she 
 found time to continue her interest in social work. 
 She was present at a gathering held in Drapers' 
 Hall to promote the training of women teachers, 
 and her old friend Lord Granville made a charm- 
 ing little speech about her yputh. 
 
 The Crown Prince was present with his wife 
 at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and it is still 
 remembered how great an impression was made on 
 the London populace by his knightly figure in his 
 white Cuirassier uniform, flis was the central and 
 by far the most magnificent presence, like some 
 paladin of mediaeval chivalry, in the mounted es- 
 cort of princes which surrounded the venerable 
 Sovereign on her way to and from Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 During their stay in Scotland, the Crown Prince 
 was asked by a gentleman to name his steam launch. 
 He chose the name The White Heather, showing 
 how his thoughts travelled back to the day, nearly 
 thirty years before, when he had gathered on a 
 Scotch mountain the symbolic sprig of white 
 heather to give to the Princess Royal. 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess returned to 
 Germany in the middle of September, and pro- 
 ceeded to Toblach, in the Tyrol. But the climate 
 there was considered too chilly, and the patient 
 
294 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 was moved to Venice at the end of the month. It 
 was from Venice that the Prince wrote to an old 
 friend a pathetic letter full of hope, in which he 
 said that the real trouble was now overcome, and 
 that it was only necessary to avoid speaking and 
 catching cold. Early in October the Prince was 
 again moved to Baveno, on Lake Maggiore, and 
 at the beginning of November to the Villa Zirio, 
 at San Remo. From San Remo the Princess tele- 
 graphed for Dr. Morell ^lackenzie, who arrived 
 on November 5. 
 
 The Villa Zirio was a comfortable house stand- 
 ing in its own grounds. The first floor, which con- 
 sisted of two suites of large rooms, was occupied 
 by the Crown Prince and Princess. On this floor 
 were also the rooms of the Princess's lady-in-wait- 
 ing. Countess von Bruschl. The second floor was 
 assigned to the three young princesses and the rest 
 of the suite. 
 
 Unfortunately, owing to the great curiosity and 
 anxiety felt all over Europe as to the progress of 
 the Crown Prince's illness, the little Italian town 
 was filled with newspaper representatives, their 
 headquarters being a large hotel opposite the Villa 
 Zirio. In fact, during the winter of 1887-8, all 
 the world was watching the race between the two 
 lives — that of the ninety-year-old Emperor, and 
 that of his son, already stricken with a mortal dis- 
 ease, on whom so many fair hopes rested. 
 
 The Crown Prince and Princess owed a great 
 
SILVER WEDDING 295 
 
 deal, at this troubled period of their lives, to the 
 devotion and vigilant loyalty of their friend and 
 servant. Count Theodor Seckendorff, whose official 
 position in the Crown Princess's Household was 
 that of "chambellan." 
 
 Seckendorff was once well described by an Eng- 
 lish friend as "the Baldassare Castiglione of the 
 present day." He was, indeed, "the perfect cour- 
 tier." His father, a distinguished diplomatist, had 
 been attached to the Prussian Legation in London, 
 and so the Count knew England and the English 
 intimately. Indeed, he had obtained leave to ac- 
 company Lord Napier of Magdala on the Abys- 
 sinian campaign, and he was also with that distin- 
 guished commander on the North- West frontier 
 of India. Afterwards he was on the staff of the 
 Crown Prince in the Franco-German War, and 
 was chosen by the latter to be one of the officers 
 to escort Napoleon III to Wilhelmshohe. There- 
 after the Count's relationship with the Crown 
 Prince and Princess became even closer. 
 
 A man of fine literary and artistic taste, and a 
 really good artist, Count Seckendorff spoke Eng- 
 lish, Italian, and French with ease and distinction, 
 and he retained — what few men and women seem 
 able to retain in the world of Courts — a great sim- 
 phcity of manner and absolute sincerity of nature. 
 While patriotically devoted to his own country, he 
 was also a true lover of England, and he always 
 did everything that lay in his power to ease the 
 
296 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 often strained relations between the two nations. 
 After the death of the Empress Frederick, Count 
 SeekendoriF continued in faithful and kindly touch 
 with her native country. He organised the Loan 
 Exhibition of British Art in Berlin as late as 1908, 
 and his premature death, two years later, caused 
 much sorrow to a large circle of attached friends in 
 both London and Berlin. 
 
 To return to the life at San Remo; in a letter 
 written about this time the Crown Princess says: 
 
 "We are passing through a time of heavy trial, 
 but the knowledge that the nation has not forgotten 
 us, and that it hopes and sympathises with us, is a 
 perpetual source of comfort. If it be God's will, 
 this confidence will remain the Crown Prince's most 
 valued future possession, and be the greatest help 
 to him in achieving his noble ideals. Who can 
 tell how many day/s may yet be granted to him? 
 But when we see him so virile and fresh, we can 
 only trust to the strength of his constitution and 
 believe that his health will not fail him in carrying 
 out his duties, though even in the happiest circum- 
 stances he will have to economise his strength and 
 use his voice as little as possible." 
 
 From San Remo, too, the Crown Prince wrote 
 to his beloved French tutor a touching letter, in 
 which occurs the following passage: 
 
 "As to the life we are leading here, it could not 
 be more intimate and more gemiitUch. First of 
 all, my wife nurses me as might a true Sister of 
 
SILVER WEDDING 297 
 
 Charity, with a calm and knowledge truly admir- 
 able. Our daughters surround us with their loving 
 tenderness, and the Riviera is a delightful climate 
 and does us much good." 
 
 Even then, the Crown Princess had not given 
 up hope. Her husband still looked in good health ; 
 he slept well, and his appetite was excellent. 
 
 On December 1, the Princess herself wrote to 
 M. Godet: 
 
 "We are profoundly touched by the many proofs 
 of sympathy which reach us from all sides. I can- 
 not help feeling that it must make you very happy 
 to know that all the care you took, in old days, in 
 developing that pure and noble soul, has now 
 brought to him these universal tributes of respect 
 and confidence." 
 
 Alas, even then the Prince had heard from the 
 physicians his sentence of death, which he received 
 with the same stoicism he had shown on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 Christmas came, and was celebrated with char- 
 acteristic kindliness by the Prince, who arranged 
 magnificent gifts for his wife and the little circle 
 of intimate friends at San Remo. But his health 
 steadily declined, and a sudden operation had to 
 be performed early in January. 
 
 Meanwhile the aged Emperor had caught a chill 
 in the severe Berlin winter. His magnificent con- 
 stitution was already enfeebled by age, and to his 
 physical weakness were now added the distress and 
 
298 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 anxiety caused by the news from San Remo, which 
 became continually more and more disquieting. 
 The end soon came, and the stout old soldier sank 
 and died on March 9, 1888, less than a fortnight 
 before his ninety-second birthday. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 
 
 On the morning of March 9, 1888, the Crown 
 Prince was walking in the gardens of the Villa 
 Zirio, when a telegram was brought to him. He 
 took it up with languid interest, but when he read 
 the address, "To His Imperial Majesty the Em- 
 peror Frederick William," there was no need to 
 open the envelope, and it is said that his habitual 
 self-control deserted him, and he burst into tears. 
 
 A pathetic, and yet in its way a magnificent, 
 scene followed in the great drawing-room on the 
 ground floor of the villa. The Households of the 
 new Emperor and Empress had assembled there 
 and stood in a circle waiting. . . . 
 
 Suddenly the Emperor appeared, and we have 
 the following striking description from one who 
 claims to have been a witness of what occurred: 
 
 "He had become handsome again, as in the 
 radiant days of his youth. His beard, with a few 
 silver streaks, glowed in the brilliant light cast by 
 the chandelier. Tall and well built, he dominated 
 the entire company. His blue eyes were slightly 
 misty. His delicate complexion, now heightened 
 with a little colour, seemed to show the real tran- 
 quillity which had taken possession of his soul ; and 
 
 299 
 
300 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 his mouth with the red hps had now that fascinating 
 smile which characterised him. With a firm step 
 he walked straight to a small table in the middle 
 of the drawing-room and wrote — for the tube in 
 his throat prevented him from speaking — a few 
 lines, which he signed. An officer read out the 
 paper aloud^ — it was the announcement of the death 
 of the Emperor William I and of his ow^n accession 
 as Frederick III. The Emperor then walked 
 towards the Empress, made a long and reverent 
 bow, paying full homage to his wife's devotion, 
 and with a grave and tender gesture passed round 
 her neck the Ribbon of the Black Eagle." 
 
 It is also recorded that the Emperor walked up 
 to Dr. Morell Mackenzie and, after shaking him 
 warmly by the hand, wrote for him the following 
 words: *T thank you for having made me live 
 long enough to recompense the valiant courage of 
 my wife." 
 
 The Emperor Frederick, with the Empress and 
 their daughters, set out for Berlin on March 10, 
 making what was then the swiftest journey in the 
 records of Continental travel. The only interrup- 
 tion, and that was very short, was to enable the 
 Emperor to receive the greetings of his old friend. 
 King Humbert of Italy, who had himself travelled 
 by forced marches for the purpose. 
 
 Amid a terrible storm of sleet and snow, on the 
 night of March 11, the Imperial party entered 
 Berhn. 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 301 
 
 Those who then saw the Emperor, whatever 
 their political predilections, were amazed at his 
 look of health and strength. For months past a 
 thick veil of secrecy had been drawn over the life 
 at the Villa Zirio. Naturally, therefore, rumour 
 had had it all her own way, and in Germany the 
 general pessimism was undoubtedly fostered 
 by the medical profession. They had persuaded 
 themselves that the Emperor was already in 
 articulo mortis, and the Empress was openly cen- 
 sured for bringing him back at all. It was even 
 beheved by many that he might very well die on 
 the journey owing to the sudden transition from 
 the warm, equable climate of San Remo to the 
 biting cold of Berlin. 
 
 The one certain fact which had been published 
 was that he had undergone the operation. of trache- 
 otomy, and that he could not speak owing to the 
 tube in his throat. But, apart from that, to the 
 general astonishment, the Emperor was, or seemed 
 to be, not very different from his normal condi- 
 tion. At once he took up the reins of power, 
 granting audiences, and dealing for many hours 
 every day with State affairs. 
 
 Though the joy with which the friends of the 
 new Emperor and Empress hailed their accession 
 was dashed by the thought of how brief must be 
 the new reign, yet it is abundantly evident that 
 no such idea occurred to the Empress herself, and 
 
302 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 that very fact seems to enhance the poignancy of 
 the whole tragedy. 
 
 At the beginning of the Emperor Frederick's 
 reign, a distinguished German wrote to a friend: 
 "The Empress, as you have rightly judged, is 
 making her way among the people. However 
 brief her tenure of power will be, the more will 
 the public at large perceive the truly astounding 
 richness and resource, the practised leadership, and 
 the affectionate disposition of that rare creature. 
 She is indefatigable, and gives a fresh indication 
 of the grand aims she has in view each day." 
 
 It is significant to note how all those who knew 
 the Empress even slightly welcomed the fact of 
 the Emperor's accession. Thus Mrs. Augustus 
 Craven: "Somehow I hope the present Emperor 
 will live. Anyhow I am thankful that he is still 
 alive, and that she is Empress of Germany, also 
 that perhaps after all the very great deal there is 
 in her is not to be lost for Germany and for 
 Europe." 
 
 The feeling in the Court and political world is 
 clearly shown in the memoirs of Prince Hohen- 
 lohe. He was received by the Empress a week 
 after her return to Berlin, and he says that he 
 found her unchanged; "her frank and cheerful 
 manner filled me with astonishment." 
 
 Three days later Prince Hohenlohe noted in his 
 diary that already officials were complaining of 
 the interference of the Empress in public business. 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 303 
 
 Botticher told him that she had induced the Em- 
 peror to refuse his signature to the Anti- Socialist 
 Bill, and that he had only given way after Bismarck 
 had explained the matter to the Empress. The 
 Minister added that the Emperor had little power 
 of resistance to the influence of the Empress, and 
 that she, again, was under the influence of "cer- 
 tain advanced ladies." If the Emperor's illness, 
 he went on, was of long duration, all kinds of things 
 might happen, but if the Emperor were well, or 
 should become so, the influence of the Empress 
 would diminish. 
 
 A few days later Prince Hohenlohe was him- 
 self able to judge how far this was true about the 
 Empress, for he went out to call on his Sovereign 
 at Charlottenburg, and found him with his wife. 
 The Empress excused her presence by pleading 
 the necessity of supporting the Emperor during 
 the audience. The whole of the conversation had 
 to be carried on, so far as the Emperor was con- 
 cerned, by means of writing-tablets. Hohenlohe 
 observed that the Emperor would benefit by the 
 amount of work he had to do, at which the Sover- 
 eign nodded approvingly. At the end of the in- 
 terview : 
 
 "The Emperor placed his hand on my shoulder 
 and smiled sadly, so that I could hardly restrain 
 my tears. He gave me the impression of a martyr ; 
 and, indeed, no martyrdom in the world is com- 
 parable with this slow death. Everyone who 
 
304 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 comes near him is full of admiration for liis cour- 
 ageous and quiet resignation to a fate which is in- 
 evitable, and which he fully realises." 
 
 But it is plain that the Empress had not yet 
 resigned herself to consider his death as in any 
 way imminent. Later in the same month, Hohen- 
 lohe had an audience of the Empress, and during 
 their conversation she said something which made 
 it clear to her old friend that she still entertained 
 illusions as to her husband's real condition — in- 
 deed, he was himself so shaken by what she said 
 that he wrote in his diary: "It is perhaps possi- 
 ble that the illness will be of long duration. The 
 expectation of a speedy end has not yet been con- 
 firmed." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the accession of the 
 Emperor Frederick was expected in not a few 
 quarters to mean the almost immediate fall of Bis- 
 marck, but this expectation left out of account 
 various important factors of the situation. Both 
 the new Emperor and his Empress, though, as we 
 have seen, they profoundly disapproved of Bis- 
 marck's policy as a whole, nevertheless fully 
 realised the Chancellor's patriotism and the un- 
 paralleled services which he had been able to render 
 to the German people. Bismarck, in his own ac- 
 count of his relations with the Emperor, recalls 
 that they began as far back as 1848, when Prince 
 Frederick William was only seventeen, and he 
 had since received from him various proofs of per- 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 305 
 
 sonal confidence, notably on the occasion of the 
 Dantzig episode in 1863. This confidence was, 
 Bismarck declares, quite independent of political 
 principles and differences of opinion, and though 
 many attempts to shake it were made from inter- 
 ested quarters, they had no permanent success. 
 
 Later Bismarck also asserted roundly that the 
 Emperor Frederick made it easy for him, by his 
 amiabihty and confidence, to transfer to him the 
 affection he had cherished for his father. He was 
 both more open than his father had been to the 
 constitutional idea of Ministerial responsibiUty, 
 and also less hampered by family traditions in ad- 
 justing himself to political necessities. And Bis- 
 marck goes on to state that "all assertions of last- 
 ing discord in our relations are unfounded." 
 
 On the subject of the Crown Princess's influence 
 Bismarck said: 
 
 "I could not assume that his wife had the same 
 kindly feeling for me ; her natural innate sympathy 
 for her home had, from the beginning, shown itself 
 in the attempt to turn the weight of Prusso-Ger- 
 man influence in the groupings of European power 
 into the scale of her native land; and she never 
 ceased to regard England as her country. In the 
 differences of interest between the two Asiatic 
 Powers, England and Russia, she wished to see the 
 German power applied in the interests of England 
 if it came to a breach. This difference of opinion, 
 which rested on the difference of nationality, 
 
306 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 caused many a discussion between her Royal High- 
 ness and me on the Eastern question, including 
 the Battenberg question. Her influence on her 
 husband was at all times great, and it increased 
 with years, to culminate at the time when he was 
 Emperor. She also, how^ever, shared with him 
 the conviction that in the interests of the dynasty 
 it was necessary that I should be maintained in 
 office at the change of reign." 
 
 It is interesting here to recall that on August 
 31, 1870, after the battle of Beaumont, Busch ob- 
 tained from Bismarck the following opinion of the 
 then Crown Prince: 
 
 "He will be reasonable later on, and allow his 
 INIinisters to govern more, and not put himself too 
 much forward, and in general he will get rid of 
 many bad habits that render old gentlemen of his 
 trade sometimes rather troublesome. [It is to be 
 feared that this uncomplimentary allusion is to the 
 old Emperor.] For the rest, he is unaffected and 
 straightforward; but he does not care to work 
 much, and is quite happy if he has plenty of money 
 and amusements, and if the newspapers praise 
 him." 
 
 A very superficial judgment of the Emperor 
 Frederick, and the suggestion that he was too fond 
 of money is particularly gratuitous. As a matter 
 of fact, only the year before his accession, in 1887, 
 a certain Frenchman, Ballardin by name, died, 
 leaving the whole of his fortune, valued at several 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 307 
 
 million francs, to the then Crown Prince. M. Bal- 
 lardin appeared to have been so embittered by 
 disputes with the French authorities that he deter- 
 mined to show his hatred and contempt for his na- 
 tive country by the novel method of bequeathing 
 his property to the German Crown Prince, who, 
 however, absolutely refused to accept even the 
 smallest portion of the legacy. That is certainly 
 not the action of a man who could be accused of a 
 love of money. 
 
 It may here be stated, on this subject of money, 
 that when the Emperor Frederick succeeded to the 
 throne, there was in the hands of Baron Kohn, 
 the private banker of the old Emperor William, 
 a sum of fifty-four million marks (.£2,700,000), 
 which was bequeathed to the Emperor Frederick 
 as a kind of family treasure, to be controlled by the 
 head of the House of Hohenzollern for the time 
 being. When the Emperor Frederick died, how- 
 ever, it was found that the great bulk of this money 
 had been invested abroad by his orders in the name 
 of his widow; her uncle, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg- 
 Gotha, and her cousin. King Leopold of Belgium, 
 being the trustees. It is even asserted that the 
 late Prince Stolberg resigned at the time his office 
 of Minister of the Imperial Household in conse- 
 quence of what he considered the diversion of this 
 sum of money from the Hohenzollern family. 
 According to another version, however, only a por- 
 tion of this money became the absolute property of 
 
308 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the Empress, the remainder being hers for life, 
 with power of appointment among her younger 
 children. 
 
 To return to Busch; he also obtained from Bis- 
 marck a curious anecdote of the Empress: 
 
 "I took the hberty to ask further what sort of 
 woman the Crown Princess was, and whether she 
 had much influence over her husband. 'I think 
 not,' the Count said; 'and as to her intelligence, 
 she is a clever woman; clever in a womanly way. 
 She is not able to disguise her feelings, or at least 
 not always. I have cost her many tears, and she 
 could not conceal how angry she was with me after 
 the annexations (that is to say of Schleswig and 
 Hanover). She could hardly bear the sight of 
 me, but that feeling has now somewhat subsided. 
 She once asked me to bring her a glass of water, 
 and as I handed it to her she said to a lady-in-wait- 
 ing who sat near and whose name I forget, 'He 
 has cost me as many tears as there is water in this 
 glass.' But that is all over now." 
 
 This incident about the glass of water evidently 
 much imj)ressed Bismarck, for he told it to Busch 
 again some months later, when he said of the Crown 
 Princess, "She is in general a very clever person, 
 and really agreeable in her way, but she should not 
 interfere in politics." 
 
 The Empress's relations with Bismarck after 
 her husband's accession were more pleasant than 
 they had ever been before. The Emperor natu- 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 309 
 
 rally leaned upon his wife, and her influence per- 
 haps appeared greater than it was. But, whatever 
 its precise extent, Bismarck, with his intensely prac- 
 tical mind, saw that it was at any rate a factor in 
 the situation, and he made use of it accordingly. 
 It was, indeed, as natural for him to cultivate her 
 good will now, as it was for him a little later to 
 heap contumely and insult on her head. Such con- 
 duct was utterly incomprehensible to the Empress, 
 with her upright, loyal nature ; she would have suf- 
 fered less from the Chancellor had she been able 
 to find the key to both his greatness and his little- 
 ness. 
 
 But, even at this time, when Bismarck had the 
 strongest reasons for conciliating the Empress, 
 there was one question, that of the Battenberg mar- 
 riage, on which he felt compelled to do battle with 
 her, and in which he vanquished her in fair fight. 
 
 The Empress, different as she was in many re- 
 spects from her mother, was absolutely at one with 
 Queen Victoria in her views of everything which 
 should regulate family life. Thus, she was as 
 firm a believer in the importance of securing happy 
 marriages for her sons and daughters as the 
 Queen had proved herself to be. That the union 
 of two human beings should be guided by State 
 considerations was to her abhorrent. She had wel- 
 comed with eager delight her niece. Princess Irene 
 of Hesse, as a daughter-in-law; she knew that the 
 latter's sister, Princess Victoria, had formed a 
 
310 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 happy marriage with Prince Louis of Battenberg. 
 Now it was Prince Louis's brother, Alexander of 
 Bulgaria, who had been from boyhood a favourite 
 with her sister, Princess Alice, whom the Empress 
 desired to see married to her second daughter. 
 Princess Victoria. The alliance had been mooted 
 some four years before, but was then considered, by 
 Bismarck especially, as quite out of the question, if 
 only because the hero of Slivnitza had earned the 
 intense hostility of the Tsar Alexander. 
 
 In July, 1885, Bismarck told Hohenlohe that, 
 whereas the Emperor and the Crown Prince were 
 in favour of the marriage of Princess Victoria with 
 the King of Portugal, the Cro^vn Princess and 
 the young Princess herself preferred the Prince of 
 Bulgaria, and that there was "great skirmishing" 
 going on over the business. 
 
 JNIore than a year later, in October, 1886, the 
 old Emperor himself spoke to Hohenlohe of the 
 matter, and with some bitterness, declaring that 
 the Crown Princess and Princess Victoria still en- 
 tertained the idea of this alliance. He said he 
 had questioned the Crown Prince, who had denied 
 it, and he further observed that in politics his son 
 was ruled by his wife. 
 
 In 1888 the Empress still desired the marriage 
 because she believed that the affections of her 
 daughter were seriously engaged. But, changed 
 as were all the conditions of her own and the new 
 Emperor's life, she at once found arrayed against 
 
 I 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 311 
 
 her the same powerful influences as before, with the 
 addition of that of her eldest son, the new Crown 
 Prince. The diiFerence of opinion in the Imperial 
 family became known to the whole of Europe, and 
 was very frankly discussed in the English and Con- 
 tinental Press. Matters seemed at a deadlock. 
 On the one side were ranged the Empress and all 
 those Royal personages who by kinship or marriage 
 were connected with the Battenberg family; on the 
 other were the Crown Prince, Bismarck, and, it 
 was whispered, the Emperor Frederick himself, 
 who had a great dislike to any marriage that' 
 savoured of a mesalliance. 
 
 This was the position when Queen Victoria ar- 
 rived at Charlottenburg to visit her stricken son-in- 
 law. Bismarck, with his usual unerring eye for the 
 potentialities of a situation, seized the opportunity. 
 He sought an audience of the Queen, and suc- 
 ceeded in convincing her by his arguments that the 
 Battenberg alliance was really extremely inad- 
 visable. Not until she found her mother ranged 
 among the opponents of the marriage did the Em- 
 press yield, and consent, to use her own phrase, 
 "to sacrifice her daughter's happiness on the altar 
 of the Fatherland." 
 
 We have a slightly different, and probably less 
 accurate, account of the termination of the affair 
 in Hohenlohe's journal of May 17, 1888: 
 
 "The Empress had said that in the end it would 
 be no misfortune if Bismarck did retire. This was 
 
312 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 at once retailed to him, whereupon the newspaper 
 war. Malet reported to Queen Victoria at Flor- 
 ence that it was very disadvantageous for English 
 interests that the Queen should appear to interest 
 herself in the Battenberg match. It would be 
 well, more particularly in view of her impending 
 visit to Berlin, to prevent people from thinking 
 she favoured the marriage. The English Minis- 
 try also concurred in this. Thereupon Queen Vic- 
 toria wrote a severe letter to her daughter, the 
 Empress; and during her stay also she expounded 
 her views in an energetic fashion, which produced 
 unhappy and tearful scenes. The relations be- 
 tween Queen Victoria and the Imperial Chancellor 
 have shaped very well. They were enchanted with 
 each other." 
 
 The Empress's belief that she had been fight- 
 ing for her daughter's happiness added a special 
 bitterness to her defeat at the hands of Bismarck. 
 It may, however, be stated that the day came when 
 the Empress Frederick acknowledged that she had 
 been mistaken, at least to some extent, in the quali- 
 ties which she had attributed to Alexander of Bat- 
 tenberg, and she lived to see her daughter make a 
 happier marriage than the Battenberg alliance 
 would probably have ever been. 
 
 Not the least pathetic feature of the Hundred 
 Day's reign was the gallant persistence of the 
 Empress in fulfilling the duties of her new station. 
 She only held one Court, and one who was present 
 
THE HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN 313 
 
 has left a vivid description of the strange scene: 
 
 "The Empress was dressed in the deepest mourn- 
 ing, indeed wrapped in black from head to foot, 
 her face hidden by a crape veil, while a long pro- 
 cession of women likewise veiled in crape filed past 
 the throne, their black gowns high in the neck and 
 skirts banded with crape a quarter of a yard wide, 
 while long folds of double crape fell upon the floor 
 in guise of Court trains." 
 
 On May 24, the marriage of Prince Henry, the 
 second son of the Emperor and Empress, to his 
 cousin. Princess Irene of Hesse, was celebrated 
 at Charlottenburg. It was a bright and happy 
 day in the midst of sadness, and everything was 
 done to surround the ceremony with brilliance. 
 
 Death was now drawing very near to the doomed 
 Emperor. On June 1 he was conveyed by boat 
 from Charlottenburg to the New Palace, where he 
 had been born, where he had spent the happiest 
 days of his married life, and the name of which he 
 now changed to "Friedrichskron." But he was not 
 allowed to die in peace ; his last days were disturbed 
 by what is known as the Puttkamer incident. 
 
 Puttkamer, a typical Bismarckian, had been 
 Minister of the Interior for seven years. In his 
 official announcement of the old Emperor's death, 
 he had actually made no allusion to the new Em- 
 peror; the latter in consequence insisted on the 
 Minister's retirement as the condition of his sign- 
 ing the Bill prolonging the life of the Reichstag 
 
314 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 to five years. Puttkamer's resignation was ga- 
 zetted on June 11, and on the same evening Prince 
 Bismarck gave a dinner at which the fallen Min- 
 ister was the guest of honour. 
 
 The Emperor Frederick died at Friedrichskron 
 on June 15. The first message written by the 
 widowed Empress was to the aged Empress 
 Augusta : 
 
 *'She whose one pride and happiness it was to 
 be the wife of your son grieves with you, afflicted 
 mother. No mother ever had so good a son. Be 
 proud and strong in your sorrow." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 EARLY widowhood: THE FALL OF BISMARCK 
 
 It is said that one of the last acts of the dying Em- 
 peror was to place Bismarck's hand in that of the 
 Empress as a token of reconciliation. But there 
 was no reconciliation. On the contrary, the Em- 
 peror Frederick was no sooner dead, than Bis- 
 marck once more became all-powerful, and ruth- 
 lessly he used his power. 
 
 The accession of the young Emperor William 
 was followed by an astounding outburst of violence 
 against the Empress Frederick on the part of Bis- 
 marck's tools, his agents in the Press and else- 
 where — ^indeed, the Empress once told an intimate 
 friend that no humiliation and pain which could be 
 inflicted on her had been spared her. 
 
 The first humiliation took a strange and terrible 
 form; a cordon of soldiers was drawn round the 
 New Palace, when the Emperor Frederick was 
 known to be dying, in order that no secret docu- 
 ments might be removed without the knowledge of 
 the new Emperor. 
 
 The Empress, aware that this was the work of 
 Bismarck, requested an interview with him, but 
 Bismarck replied that he had no time, as he was so 
 fully occupied with his master, the new Emperor. 
 
 315 
 
816 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 As a matter of fact, everything at the New Palace 
 which the late Emperor or the Empress Frederick 
 considered to be important had been placed out of 
 Bismarck's reach. For a considerable time these 
 private papers were entrusted to the care of a per- 
 son in the Empress's confidence, who resided out- 
 side the country, ultimately they were sent back 
 to Germany. 
 
 Unfortunately not all the late Emperor's papers 
 had been so carefully guarded, and, to the anguish 
 of his widow, his memory became involved in acute, 
 and it maj^ even be said degrading, controversy. 
 
 In the well-known review, the Deutsche Rund- 
 schau, Dr. GefFcken, a Liberal publicist who had 
 been honoured by the Emperor Frederick's friend- 
 ship, published extracts from the diary of the late 
 Sovereign. They were designed to defend his 
 memory against his traducers, and in particular 
 to prove that it was he who suggested the united 
 German Empire. It seems that the diaries were 
 found locked up at the Villa Zirio, and it was 
 stated that they were given, or at least shown, by 
 the Emperor Frederick to Baron von Roggenbach, 
 the Baden statesman. 
 
 Bismarck at first affected to believe, and appar- 
 ently he succeeded in persuading the Emperor Wil- 
 liam, that the published extracts were forgeries. 
 The offending number of the review was accord- 
 ingly suppressed, and Geffcken was arrested on 
 September 29 on a charge of high treason. He 
 
EARLY WIDOWHOOD 317 
 
 was acquitted of criminal intention in the follow- 
 ing January, and in the interval the Cologne 
 Gazette charged Sir Robert Morier, then British 
 Ambassador in St. Petersburg, with having given 
 information to Marshal Bazaine of the movements 
 of the Prussian forces in 1870. Fortunately 
 JVIorier was able to produce convincing documen- 
 tary evidence of his innocence, but it was generally 
 felt that this monstrous attack on the Empress 
 Frederick's old friend was really directed against 
 the Empress herself. 
 
 The Empress behaved with the greatest dignity 
 and self-restraint during this time of bitter perse- 
 cution, and in the many diaries and memoirs of the 
 period we can find but one reference which reveals 
 how she really felt. This reference is in Sir Hor- 
 ace Rumbold's Recollections. He tells of the 
 deep feeling with which the Empress spoke of the 
 suffering she had passed through and the wrongs 
 she had endured. "She spoke of them with an ex- 
 ceeding bitterness, emphasising what she said with 
 clenched hands and betraying an emotion which 
 suddenly gained me, and more than explained the 
 Queen's well-known reference to her as her 'dear 
 persecuted daughter.' " 
 
 It may be asked why the young Emperor Wil- 
 liam did not intervene to protect his mother from 
 the hostility of his Chancellor. Unfortunately 
 there is no doubt that at this time there was an 
 estrangement between mother and son. Years 
 
318 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 before, Bismarck had taken precautions to prevent 
 the heir presumptive to the throne from imbibing 
 the hberal principles of both his parents, and had 
 caused him to spend the impressionable years of 
 early manhood entirely under the influence of his 
 grandfather, the old Emperor, and the military 
 glories of the new Empire. Bismarck no doubt 
 thought that he had obtained a complete ascend- 
 ancy over his new master. It was significant that 
 whereas on his accession the Emperor Frederick 
 had addressed his first message to the nation at 
 large through the Chancellor, the Emperor Wil- 
 liam addressed his first messages to the Army and 
 Navy, the civilians having to wait a day or two 
 for their recognition. Another indication of the 
 character of the new regime was aflTorded by the 
 Emperor William's reversal of his father's decision 
 to name the New Palace, Friedrichskron. 
 
 These and other incidents show how the Em- 
 peror began his reign under the domination of Bis- 
 marck, but it is pleasant to record that the estrange- 
 ment from his mother, which the old Chancellor 
 undoubtedly fostered, was not of long duration. 
 
 It is curious how seldom, among the many 
 studies, criticisms, and estimates of the Emperor 
 William II, we find his extraordinary versatility 
 attributed to the influence of heredity; and yet 
 it is easy to see now that the Empress Frederick 
 ought to have enjoyed much greater popularity in 
 Germany than she did as a matter of fact enjoy 
 
EARLY WIDOWHOOD 319 
 
 at any time, if only because she was the mother of 
 such a son. 
 
 We can best perhaps reaHse the remarkable 
 qualities which the Empress brought into the House 
 of Hohenzollern by comparing her eldest son with 
 his predecessors on the throne. King Frederick 
 William IV had a mind which appeared incapable 
 of appreciating matters of greater importance than 
 the etiquette of Courts and the prescriptions of 
 mediseval heraldry. As we know, during the last 
 years of his life his intellect was clouded much in 
 the same way as was that of King George III of 
 England. King Frederick's brother and succes- 
 sor, the old Emperor William, possessed remarka- 
 ble strength of character combined with little 
 capacity or intellect, as Bismarck very frankly ex- 
 plained, both to his creature, Busch, and in other 
 recorded expressions of opinion. As for the Em- 
 peror William's father, the ill-fated Frederick, it 
 was no doubt from him that the son derived that 
 dash of romantic idealism characteristic of both 
 monarchs. 
 
 But undoubtedly William II was always much 
 more the son of his mother than of his father, 
 which seems, indeed, to be the rule in families of 
 less exalted rank. We have seen how the Empress 
 really received from her father the training of a 
 man, and, it may be added, of an extremely versa- 
 tile man. If fate had compelled her eldest son 
 to earn his own living in a private station, it is 
 
320 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 extraordinary to think of the number of professions 
 in any one of which he could have attained a com- 
 petence, if not indeed high distinction. From his 
 mother, rather than from his father, he inherited 
 a great appetite for work and an extraordinary 
 aptitude for detail; and he showed himself at dif- 
 ferent times to have had in him the making, not 
 only of a soldier and a sailor, but of a musician, a 
 poet, an artist, a preacher, and an orator. 
 
 Compare this with his grandfather, the old Em- 
 peror, who, if he had not been born in the purple, 
 could only have been a soldier, and not, it must be 
 added, one who could have held very high com- 
 mands. Compare him again with his father; the 
 Emperor Frederick, if he had not been born in 
 the purple, though he certainly showed greater mili- 
 tary capacity than the old Emperor, nevertheless 
 would probably not have been happy or successful 
 in any private station other than that of a great 
 moral teacher. 
 
 The Emperor William's affinitj^ to his mother 
 in character, temperament, and accomplishments 
 becomes the more striking the more it is investi- 
 gated. He shared with her a certain impulsive- 
 ness, a deficiency in what is ordinarily called tact, 
 which really amounts to a constitutional inability 
 to appreciate the effect which a particular word or 
 action will necessarily have on other people. This, 
 which seems a negative quality, is really a positive 
 one, interwoven with a high courage and a con- 
 
EARLY WIDOWHOOD 321 
 
 tempt for the mean little dictates of conventional 
 prudence, which have always commanded the ad- 
 miration of generous minds. This remarkable 
 similarity between mother and son assuredly fur- 
 nishes the key to the somewhat complex question of 
 their relationships at different periods. They 
 were in fact too much alike for their relations to be 
 always harmonious. 
 
 The widowed Empress did not owe all her un- 
 happiness to Bismarck alone. In 1889 Gustav 
 Freytag published a volume of Reminiscences of 
 the Emperor Frederick which attracted a great 
 amount of attention, more perhaps than they in- 
 trinsically deserved. But Freytag's position 
 among German writers as novelist, poet, drama- 
 tist, and historian, was so great that everything he 
 wrote had its importance, and in addition to that 
 it was known that he had at one time been admitted 
 to the confidence of the then Crown Prince, whose 
 political Liberalism he appeared to share. 
 
 Freytag was a Silesian by birth, and this no 
 doubt did him no harm with the Emperor Fred- 
 erick, who was warmly attached to Silesia, and de- 
 lighted in the graphic pictures of life in that 
 province which Freytag drew in his novels. The 
 Empress made Freytag's acquaintance in the early 
 years of her married life — indeed, the first German 
 novel which she read with her husband was Frey- 
 tag's Soil und Hahen. The novelist had been pre- 
 sented to the Prince Consort by his patron, Duke 
 
322 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Ernest of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and it was natural 
 in all the circumstances that the Crown Princess 
 and her husband should have shown the great writer 
 marked signs of favour. 
 
 It is all the more extraordinary, therefore, that 
 in his Reminiscences Freytag should have drawn 
 such a picture of the Emperor Frederick as must 
 have deeply distressed his then newly-made widow. 
 It was a picture which she herself knew to be in- 
 accurate, and which indeed could only gratify the 
 personal hostility of Bismarck and his adherents. 
 There is no need to linger long over this picture, 
 but it demands some notice because it, so to speak, 
 gathers together in a convenient form the principal 
 features of what may be called the Bismarckian 
 view of both the Empress and her husband. 
 
 It has been said that Freytag apparently shared 
 the Crown Prince's Liberalism, but he was also 
 steeped in Prussian particularism, and it was this 
 that brought him to his almost blind admiration 
 of Bismarck, and rendered him incapable of ap- 
 preciating the political conceptions of the Em- 
 peror Frederick. Freytag, indeed, was a bad 
 judge of character, the presentation of which was 
 his weak point as a novelist. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the fact that 
 the Crown Prince invited Freytag to accompany 
 him with the Third Army in the Franco-German 
 War, and the Reminiscences terminate soon after 
 the battle of Sedan. After 1870 the CrowTi Prince 
 
EARLY WIDOWHOOD 323 
 
 hardly ever saw Freytag, and never with any real 
 intimacy; yet on this slender foundation of knowl- 
 edge the novelist revived, under the specious cloak 
 of affection, some of the worst charges of the Rep- 
 tile Press, and of the insulting commentary which 
 Bismarck published on the late Emperor's diary. 
 
 The principal charge for our purposes here is that 
 the Crown Prince was subjected to foreign influ- 
 ence, and was entirely dominated by his wife. In 
 eiFect Freytag suggests that through the Crown 
 Princess, Princess Alice, and other members of 
 the English Royal family, important secrets of 
 German military movements reached the French 
 commanders. "Both the Empress Frederick and 
 Princess Alice," he says, "wrote to their august 
 mother and the family in London, and what 
 crossed the North Sea could be sent to France 
 again in letters a few hours later. It is therefore 
 not unnatural that the French learned by way of 
 England a variety of news about our army which 
 with greater propriety would have remained con- 
 cealed." 
 
 Such a charge is incapable of complete disproof, 
 but at any rate it is obvious that Freytag could 
 know nothing of the contents, either of the Crown 
 Prince's letters to his wife, who was at that time 
 working day and night in the German hospitals, or 
 of the letters of the Crown Princess and her sister 
 to their relations in England. Yet he describes 
 Princess Alice as "at heart during the whole of 
 
324 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the war a brave German woman," which is a plain 
 insinuation that the Crown Princess had not her 
 whole heart in the success of the German arms. 
 The whole plan of denigrement is the more subtle, 
 for rreji;ag professes the most ardent admiration 
 for the ability of the Crown Princess, her rich 
 natural gifts, and her keen soaring intellect. At 
 the same time he says : 
 
 "The Crown Prince's love for her was the high- 
 est and holiest passion of his life, and filled his 
 whole existence; she was the lady of his youth, the 
 confidante of all his thoughts, his trusted counsel- 
 lor whenever she was so inclined. Arrangements 
 of the garden, decorations of the house, education 
 of the children, judgments of men and things, were 
 in every respect regulated by him in accordance 
 with her thoughts and wishes. It is perfectly in- 
 telligible that so complete an ascendancy of the wife 
 over the husband, who was destined to be the fu- 
 ture ruler of Prussia, threatened to occasion diffi- 
 culties and conflicts, which, perhaps, would be 
 greater for the woman than the man — greater 
 for the wife who led and inspired the husband 
 whose guidance she ought to have accepted." 
 
 Here again we see the limitations of Freytag's 
 undoubtedly great intellect, as well as his instinc- 
 tive German middle-class conception of woman's 
 sphere. To the North-German the idea of woman 
 as a comrade, as being even approximately on a 
 level with her husband, was then, and is still to a 
 
EARLY WIDOWHOOD 325 
 
 great extent, inconceivable. In that view of 
 matrimony the wife is really a chattel, or at best 
 a respected housekeeper. 
 
 It may be asked, how could Freytag have sup- 
 posed that the Emperor Frederick would have sub- 
 mitted to such domination on the part of his wife? 
 The answer is that Freytag's conception of the 
 emperor's character was hopelessly erroneous. He 
 is obliged to confirm his title to be considered the 
 originator of the idea of a German Empire, but he 
 attributes it to a mere love of pomp and ceremony, 
 a passion for Court millinery. The plain truth is 
 that few monarchs have been simpler in their per- 
 sonal tastes than the Emperor Frederick; the eti- 
 quette, the monotony, and the restraint of Court 
 life bored him, and he was never so happy as when 
 he could escape to the congenial society of savants, 
 artists, and writers. It is certainly true that his 
 imaginative and poetical gifts induced him to try 
 to infuse some elements of dignity and meaning 
 into the routine of Court ceremonial, but that he 
 cared for such ceremonial in itself, or attached to 
 it any greater value than that of symbolism, is 
 frankly absurd. 
 
 Freytag even accuses the Crown Prince of having 
 been ready to risk civil war in order that he might 
 secure the creation of the Imperial dignity after 
 the Franco-German War. This is based on a mis- 
 apprehension of the Prince's discussions with Bis- 
 marck at Versailles. The Crown Prince believed 
 
326 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 that force would be unnecessary, and that the South 
 German States would accept the Constitution pro- 
 claimed by the majority of the Princes assembled 
 at Versailles. It is possible that he would have 
 advocated compulsion if Bavaria and Wiirtemberg 
 had thrown themselves into the arms of Austria, 
 but he well knew that that contingency was in the 
 last degree improbable. 
 
 Early in 1889 the Empress Frederick suffered 
 another bereavement which, though not of course 
 to be compared with many which she had endured, 
 nevertheless added perceptibly to her state of 
 melancholy and depression. This was the death 
 of the venerable Empress Augusta, which broke a 
 much valued link with the happy past. From 
 those days in the early fifties when that highly- 
 bred and highly-cultivated Princess had become 
 "Aunt Prussia" to the Royal children at Windsor, 
 and even more after the marriage of the Princess 
 Royal, she had remained a loyal and most kindly 
 and affectionate friend to her daughter-in-law. 
 The two Royal ladies looked upon life from widely 
 different angles, and the elder must often have dis- 
 approved of the way in which the younger inter- 
 preted her duty. But the Empress Augusta never 
 faltered in her admiration and affection for one 
 who was so entirely unlike herself, and in these 
 latter days the death of the Emperor Frederick had 
 brought them, if possible, even more closely to- 
 gether. 
 
EARLY WIDOWHOOD 327 
 
 The dramatic fall of Bismarck — the "Dropping 
 the Pilot" of Sir John Tenniel's memorable car- 
 toon in Punch — occurred in March, 1890. It could 
 hardly have been regretted by the Empress Fred- 
 erick, but she was far too magnanimous, and we 
 may add too well aware of Bismarck's incompara- 
 ble services to the Empire, to regard the event as 
 in any sense a personal triumph for herself. 
 
 What is truly astonishing, in view of all that 
 had passed, is that the fallen Minister should have 
 turned to her for sympathy, and should even, ac- 
 cording to some authorities, have begged her to 
 exert on his behalf her now growing influence with 
 her son. It is said that she then reminded him that 
 his past treatment of her had deprived her of any 
 power of helping him now, but such an answer does 
 not accord with what we know of the Empress's 
 whole character. She was surely incapable at such 
 a moment of adding anything to the humiliation 
 of her old enemy. Besides, Professor Nippold 
 speaks of Bismarck's having himself written: 
 "Her influence over her husband was very great 
 at any time, and became greater with the years, to 
 culminate at the time when he was Emperor. But 
 also in her was the conviction that my position close 
 to the throne was in the interest of the dynasty." 
 
 There are, indeed, difl*erent versions of what took 
 place in the now famous interview between Bis- 
 marck and the Empress Frederick. It is quite 
 possible that she regarded the Minister's dismissal 
 
328 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 from office as an imprudent and even dangerous 
 step. However that may be, Prince Hohenlohe 
 declares that Bismarck did not entreat the Empress 
 to intercede for him with the Emperor; he merely 
 said, w^hen the Empress asked if she could do any- 
 thing for him, "I ask only for sympathy." But he 
 certainly did ask to be received by her in audience, 
 although he must have vividly remembered the in- 
 solent message which he had sent her immediately 
 after the Emperor Frederick's death, when she had 
 requested him to come to her. 
 
 A year later, at Homburg, Prince Hohenlohe 
 and the Empress Frederick had a long conversa- 
 tion over the Bismarck affair. She said she was 
 not at all surprised at his dismissal, that "Bis- 
 marck was of a combative nature and would never 
 cease to fight. He could do nothing else." She 
 talked of previous incidents, of Bismarck's ground- 
 less distrust of her, and of the Empress Augusta, 
 and expressed the opinion "that we had only to 
 thank the old Emperor's quiet gentleness for any 
 success of Bismarck's. He was a very dangerous 
 opponent, but not a Republican. He was too 
 Prussian for that. But the Brandenburg-Prus- 
 sian noble was determined to rule, though it were 
 with the King." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF: 
 VISIT TO PARIS 
 
 The Empress's relations with her son improved 
 after the fall of Bismarck. She was particularly 
 touched by the many tributes which he paid to his 
 father's memory, and she now felt encouraged to 
 try and build up again the fragments of her tragic- 
 ally broken life. 
 
 The Emperor William had placed at his mother's 
 disposal the palace in Unter den Linden in Berlin 
 where the Emperor and Empress Frederick lived 
 while they w^ere Crown Prince and Princess, as 
 well as the Charlottenhof at Potsdam, and the 
 Schloss at Homburg. 
 
 Charlottenhof is in the Royal grounds at Pots- 
 dam, at some distance from the New Palace. It 
 was built by Frederick William IV in 1826, in imi- 
 tation of a Pompeian villa, and in the grounds are 
 fountains, statues, and bronzes which were brought 
 from Herculaneum and Pompeii. 
 
 As to Homburg, the Empress had always been 
 very fond of the place; she had often spent part 
 of the summer at the old Schloss, and she valued its 
 associations with the daughter of another British 
 Sovereign, for the delightful gardens to which 
 Thackeray refers in The Four Georges were laid 
 
 329 
 
330 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 out by the Landgravine Elizabeth, daughter of 
 George III. 
 
 When the Empress Frederick decided to build 
 a house after her own heart, it was to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Homburg that her thoughts naturally 
 turned. Perhaps another reason which governed 
 the choice of that neighbourhood was the fact that 
 the widowed Empress's beloved brother, King Ed- 
 ward, was so fond of the place, and for many years 
 went there each year. 
 
 Some account of Friedrichshof will be not only 
 interesting but really necessary for our purpose, 
 for this noble castle and estate at Cronberg in the 
 Taunus mountains were so entirely the creation of 
 the Empress's own mind and taste that they throw 
 a strong light on her personality and character. 
 
 Her Majesty was able to build Friedrichshof 
 out of the large sum, estimated at nearly a quarter 
 of a million, which she had inherited from an inti- 
 mate friend, the Duchess of Galliera, within a few 
 months of the Emperor's death. 
 
 In the days when as Crown Princess she was 
 living at the old castle at Homburg, the Empress 
 had once visited Cronberg. 
 
 After the tragic events of 1888 her Majesty 
 longed to have a place of her own where she could 
 occupy her mind in building and improving. The 
 Empress remembered the visit to Cronberg, and 
 as the inquiries she caused to be made as to its 
 climate, soil, and so on, proved satisfactory, she 
 
PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF 331 
 
 decided on the purchase without delay. The 
 owner was one Dr. Steibel, son-in-law of Mr. 
 Reiss, a Manchester manufacturer who built the 
 short line of railway connecting Frankfort with 
 Cronberg. The property consisted of a villa and 
 a few acres, but, as some neighbouring properties 
 were bought up, the estate was enlarged to some 
 250 acres. Fortunately the pine forests surround- 
 ing the estate were communal property. 
 
 The Empress resolved that Friedrichshof should 
 be primarily a memorial to her husband, a sort of 
 model domus regalis, as was shown by the pathetic 
 inscription on the porch, "Friderici Memorise." 
 
 The first thing to do was to make roads, and 
 this, with draining, building, and planting, occu- 
 pied fully four years, from 1889 to 1893. 
 
 The villa of Dr. Steibel was practically demol- 
 ished, and in its place rose a stately mansion in the 
 style of the early sixteenth century. There are 
 many examples of this style, which marks the 
 period of transition from Gothic to Renaissance, 
 to be found along the Rhine and throughout Hesse 
 and Nassau. The schloss itself and the stables, 
 which are in the style of a Rhenish or Hessian 
 farmhouse, as well as the out-buildings, were all 
 designed by Herr Ihne, a famous Berlin architect; 
 but the Empress herself personally superintended 
 the carrying out of all his plans. 
 
 The Empress's first idea was to call the place 
 Friedrichsruh, but it was pointed out that name 
 
332 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 might cause confusion with Prince Bismarck's 
 estate in the north of Prussia. The name Fried- 
 richshof was then suggested by Princess Victoria, 
 and finally adopted. 
 
 The improved relations between the Emperor 
 William and his mother were exhibited early in 
 1891. He was desirous of testing the real feel- 
 ing of the Paris populace towards Germany, and 
 so with his sanction, possibly even at his direct 
 request, the Empress Frederick went to Paris. 
 
 If her visit had been a success, there is no doubt 
 that the Emperor would have next proposed to 
 visit Paris himself, as he had long been keenly 
 desirous of doing. But the memories of the 
 Franco-Prussian AVar were more lasting than the 
 Emperor imagined, and his mother's mission, so 
 far as it was intended to improve Franco-German 
 relations, was a failure. 
 
 It was on February 19, 1891, that the Empress 
 Frederick arrived in Paris. Her visit, though not 
 technically of an official character, could not be 
 called incognito, as she and her daughter, Princess 
 Margaret, attended by a considerable suite, stayed 
 at the German Embassy. 
 
 The general surprise in Paris was so marked 
 that a comm unique was issued to the French Press. 
 In this it was pointed out that the Empress, hav- 
 ing consented to accept the position of patroness 
 of an art exhibition about to be opened in Berlin, 
 had asked some notable French artists to contribute 
 
PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF 333 
 
 paintings. A number of these, notably M. Bou- 
 guereau and M. Detaille, had accepted, and she 
 had felt bound to come to Paris and thank them 
 personally. 
 
 It was erroneously said, not only in the French 
 but also in the German papers, that this was the 
 first visit the Empress had paid to Paris since the 
 Franco-Prussian War. This was not the case. 
 She had been there three times, but on the previous 
 occasions she had stayed at the Hotel Bristol, and 
 had travelled in real incognito. 
 
 The first three or four days of her stay, what- 
 ever the public thought of the reason assigned for 
 it, passed oiF well. The Empress visited a con- 
 siderable number of studios and picture galleries, 
 and she also made large purchases in some of the 
 curiosity-shops for which Paris has always been 
 famous. The German Ambassador gave a dinner 
 party each evening in honour of his august guest, 
 and many members of the Diplomatic Corps, not- 
 ably Lord and Lady Lytton, were asked to meet 
 her. 
 
 Meanwhile, the German Press, which had been 
 kept beforehand completely in the dark as to the 
 visit, was now devoting to it a great deal of not 
 very kindly attention. It was hinted that the 
 young Emperor wished to effect a thorough recon- 
 ciliation with France, and with this idea in view 
 had asked his mother to tdter le terrain. These 
 hints aroused the susceptibilities of the Boulangist 
 
334 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 party. Much ill-feeling had been awakened by 
 the arbitrary suppression of the Ligue des Patri- 
 otes, and long before the Empress's visit a huge 
 protest meeting had been arranged. The meeting 
 was held, and inflammatory speeches were delivered 
 in favour of "la Revanche," but no insult of any 
 sort was levelled at the Imperial visitor. In fact 
 the Empress later testified to the perfect courtesy 
 which she had received from every class of French- 
 man and Frenchwoman. 
 
 It suddenly became known that twice — once 
 alone with the German ambassador, and then, on 
 another day, attended by a large suite — the Em- 
 press had driven out from Paris to view the ruins 
 of the Palace of Saint Cloud, believed by the 
 French to have been wantonly destroyed by the 
 Prussians in 1870. The Empress also visited Ver- 
 sailles and the neighbouring battlefields. 
 
 The news of these excursions aroused very bitter 
 feelings among many otherwise sober and sensible 
 Parisians, to whom the memories of I'Annee Ter- 
 rible, and especially of the Prussian occupation of 
 Versailles, were still painfully vivid. Their in- 
 dignation was intensified when it became known 
 that some ill-advised Government official had di- 
 rected that a laurel wreath placed at the foot of 
 the monument to Henri Regnault, the greatest 
 French painter of his generation, who was killed at 
 Buzenval, in the last desperate sortie from Paris, 
 
PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF 335 
 
 should be removed on the occasion of the visit of 
 the Empress to the Ministry of Fine Arts. 
 
 This was indeed pouring oil on the fire ! It was 
 rumoured that this special act of tactless stupidity 
 would be the subject of an interpellation in the 
 Chamber. The depth of feeling aroused is illus- 
 trated by one fact, which did not, however, find its 
 way into the Press. All those painters who had 
 accepted the Empress's invitation to exhibit at Ber- 
 lin received each morning, till their acceptances 
 were withdrawn, the following macabre visiting- 
 card: 
 
 "HENRI REGNAULT, 
 "69® battalion de marche, 4® campagnie, 
 
 "BUZENVAL." 
 
 Meanwhile, the less responsible section of the 
 Paris Press had also added fuel to the flame by 
 such headings as "Insultes aux Fran^ais" — "Visites 
 Imperiales a Saint Cloud et a Versailles," &c. 
 
 The French Government reluctantly informed 
 the German Ambassador that it would be advisable 
 that the Empress, who had already prolonged her 
 visit for several days longer than had at first been 
 arranged, should leave Paris. On February 26 
 the following note was sent to the Press: "The 
 Empress Frederick will leave Paris to-morrow 
 morning for London at 11:30 via Calais." As a 
 matter of fact, the Imperial party left for London 
 
336 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the next day by the ten o'clock express via Bou- 
 logne. 
 
 But the "incident" was by no means over. The 
 French artists who had accepted the invitation to 
 exhibit their works at Berlin all withdrew their ac- 
 ceptances, and as a result the German Press burst 
 forth into most violent and coarse abuse of France 
 and of the French. Indeed, it looked at one mo- 
 ment as if nothing could prevent the two nations 
 from rushing at each other's throats. 
 
 The Empress was greatly distressed, and it is 
 on record that she wrote to her son a long private 
 letter, pointing out that she had been personally 
 very well received, and indeed most courteously 
 treated, during her stay in Paris. 
 
 It is clear that in France all parties, and even 
 those members of the Diplomatic Corps who were 
 personally attached to the Empress, regretted, if 
 they did not blame, her imprudence, for what had 
 finally lighted the tinder was the expedition to 
 Versailles. With all her love of French Art and 
 her sympathy with the French "intellectuals" — 
 her great admiration for Renan was well known — 
 the Empress Frederick had always taken on the 
 whole what may be called the German view of 
 the French character — that is, she regarded the 
 French as gay, frivolous, and lacking in ballast 
 and in the deeper qualities of humanity. If they 
 had been what their Imperial guest believed them 
 to be, the nation as a whole would have shrugged 
 
PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF 337 
 
 its shoulders and diplomatically remained silent, 
 however froissee it might have been at such lack 
 of tact on the part of a great personage. 
 
 Some months later the Empress spoke of the 
 matter to English friends with deep regret, but 
 still with a curious lack of understanding. She 
 even mentioned the subject to the then French 
 Ambassador in London, M. Waddington, eagerly- 
 telling him that she had experienced nothing but 
 respect and even sympathy during the first part 
 of her visit, and expressing her astonishment and 
 distress at the feeling her visit to Versailles and the 
 battlefields round Paris had provoked. She had 
 brought herself by then to share Queen Victoria's 
 view, namely, that the whole thing had been a more 
 or less histrionic demonstration against the French 
 Government. 
 
 It showed, however, the Empress's largeness of 
 mind that during this same visit to England which 
 followed her hasty departure from France she 
 spoke with the warmest admiration of the verse of 
 Paul Deroulede, the great chauvinist leader of the 
 Revanche party. 
 
 This was the last intervention of the Empress 
 Frederick in public aif airs. 
 
 In the following year the Empress had the grief 
 of losing a very old friend in the person of Lord 
 Arthur Russell. Of these three gifted brothers, 
 who were at once so alike and so different, she said 
 pathetically: "The chief charm of the two others 
 
338 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 to me used to be that they were Lord Odo's 
 brothers, until I came to know them well and to 
 appreciate each other for his own sake." 
 
 There burst forth, late in the year 1892, a most 
 extraordinary scandal, in which the Empress Fred- 
 erick, although the affair was almost ostentatiously 
 unconnected with her, could not but be deeply in- 
 terested. 
 
 Various members of the Imperial family, as 
 well as members of their Households, began to be 
 assailed with scurrilous anonymous letters, which 
 not only contained shrewd and well-aimed abuse 
 of each individual, but which also revealed all sorts 
 of shameful secrets to those from whom they had 
 been sedulously hidden. Long-buried family 
 skeletons were dragged out into the light of day, 
 and no one was spared. Indeed, the greatest suf- 
 ferers were those most closely clustered round 
 about the throne. There was, however, one ex- 
 ception. The widowed Empress was neither at- 
 tacked nor even mentioned, and the attempt was 
 evidently made, by the writer or writers of these 
 extraordinary communications, to respect, as far 
 as was possible, the feelings and prejudices of the 
 Emperor's mother. 
 
 Nothing was left undone to discover the per- 
 petrators of this most evil and incomprehensible 
 practical joke, if practical joke it was. At first it 
 was supposed that the letters emanated from two 
 people, presumed to be husband and wife, but soon 
 
PLANNING OF FRIEDRICHSHOF 339 
 
 it became clear to thoughtful investigators, and 
 these comprised all the more intelligent members 
 of the Berlin Court world, that many more than 
 two or even three persons must be implicated in 
 the conspiracy. Indeed, the Empress Frederick 
 is said to have observed to a friend that she felt 
 sure that many of those who had at first been vic- 
 tims had now become aggressors, and that practi- 
 cally everybody was taking the opportunity of 
 slinging mud by way of revenge for real or fancied 
 injuries. 
 
 This is not the place to deal with the long and 
 complicated story of what came to be known as 
 the anonymous letter scandal. No really satisfac- 
 tory conclusion was ever attained. Even now 
 German opinion, notably among those chiefly con- 
 cerned with the exhaustive investigation which took 
 place by the Emperor's conmiand, is hopelessly 
 divided. The affair ended in the imprisonment — - 
 unjust as it turned out — of a high Court official, in 
 a fatal duel, and in many tragi-comedies. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 
 
 It was not in the Empress Frederick's nature ever 
 to be idle, and she was particularly fond of plan- 
 ning and arranging palaces and gardens. 
 
 For a long time the building of Friedrichshof 
 kept her happy and contented. She took up her 
 residence at Homburg and drove over there every 
 day, being on the friendliest terms, not only with 
 the architect and builder, but also with the masons 
 and the other workmen. 
 
 One might say that the Empress watched the 
 laying of nearly every stone, and she must have 
 felt sorry when the work was done. Still, there 
 was plenty of occupation left for her, when the 
 building was finished, in superintending the fur- 
 nishing and other arrangements. At this time 
 she showed not the least sign of failing health or 
 strength — indeed, for her age she was remarkably 
 strong and even robust. 
 
 There is no need to enlarge upon the details of 
 the drawing-rooms and other apartments of the 
 castle, but some of the pictures and sculpture were 
 of particular interest. For instance, there were 
 many curious portraits of British Honoveiran 
 Sovereigns; a sketch, by Titian, of the Emperor 
 
 340 . 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 341 
 
 Charles V of Germany; a fine portrait of Freder- 
 ick the Great; and many busts and statues of the 
 Empress's relatives, including a beautiful marble 
 bust of her son, little Prince Waldemar. 
 
 The fireplace in the library deserves mention, 
 being of Istrian stone in the Venetian style — in- 
 deed, all through the castle the fireplaces were of 
 remarkable artistic beauty. Thus, that in the 
 great dining-room was of marble supported on col- 
 umns, and surmounted by a bust of the Emperor 
 Frederick. 
 
 In the library was placed a replica of the altar- 
 piece in Cologne Cathedral, representing the 
 Adorations of the Magi. The bookcases, running 
 nearly all round the room, contained the Empress's 
 collection of some thirty years. One case was de- 
 voted entirely to books dedicated to her, and the 
 authors of many of them had been admitted to her 
 personal friendship. Another section contained 
 all the books written on the subject of the English 
 Royal family, and many of these were gifts with 
 inscriptions in Queen Victoria's large, clear hand- 
 writing. 
 
 Every book in the library had been examined by 
 the Empress, and many of them had been read and 
 re-read. This was notably the case in the section 
 devoted to political economy, a subject in which 
 she was intensely interested. Here were to be 
 seen all the works of Jeremy Bentham, a gift from 
 Dean Stanley; here, too, were kept the Empress's 
 
342 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 marvellous collection of autographs, begun when 
 she was twelve years old, and containing the hand- 
 writing, not only of practically all the Royal per- 
 sonages of Europe, but also of statesmen, artists, 
 and literary and scientific men, who had all made 
 their mark in their several callings. 
 
 The Empress was indeed a collector. Her pos- 
 sessions afforded her intense pleasure; to use her 
 own expressive phrase: "One loves one's own 
 things so much ; one strokes them with one's eyes." 
 
 There was arranged in glass cases her collection 
 of coins and medals, which contained some particu- 
 larly fine and rare examples from the Branden- 
 burg-Prussian, English, French, and Vatican 
 mints. One case was devoted to a numismatic 
 portrait-gallery of her own relations. 
 
 Her collection of photographs, each properly 
 titled, took up 300 portfolios. When going over 
 these the Empress would wax enthusiastic over the 
 views of the places where she had herself stayed, 
 particularly those in Italy, such as Rapallo, S. Mar- 
 gherita, Baveno, and Portofino. A favourite city 
 of hers was Triest, of which she seemed to know 
 every stock and stone. 
 
 In the library, too, there was much to recall the 
 Emperor Frederick. Every word that her hus- 
 band had ever written, however trivial, the Empress 
 carefully preserved. All his marginal notes were 
 treated with fixative, and one of her chief cares 
 when sending any books to institutions was to make 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 343 
 
 sure that there was nothing written in her hus- 
 band's own hand in them. 
 
 The Empress was fond of collecting curiosities, 
 — bits of old oak, old sculpture, and silver — and 
 she amused herself from time to time in bargaining 
 for these things in cottages and dealers' shops. 
 Nor was she superior to the familiar pride of the 
 collector in displaying her treasures afterwards 
 and explaining what bargains she had secured. 
 The Empress, especially as a young woman, did not 
 care very much for reading, though she was fond 
 of being read aloud to, as are most Royal person- 
 ages. She was, however, passionately interested 
 in books, and it is recorded that in her tenth year 
 she spent all her pocket-money on them. As she 
 grew older, she read more, but she read in order to 
 instruct herself rather than for pleasure. As a 
 matter of course she always read all those books 
 published in her native country which made any 
 stir, whether they were memoirs, books of explora- 
 tion, essays, or novels. 
 
 At half -past ten every morning (Sundays ex- 
 cepted) the Empress went into her library to work. 
 She was an extremely rapid reader, and if her in- 
 tellectual interests — science, theology, philosophy, 
 history, literature, archaeology, art, economics, 
 hygiene — may have seemed too discursive there is 
 abundant evidence to acquit her of dilettanteism. 
 She possessed in all these different branches a solid 
 foundation of knowledge, which enabled her to un- 
 
344 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 derstand and appreciate the discussions of experts. 
 Like her brother, King Edward, she possessed in a 
 high degree the truly Royal gift of assimilating 
 knowledge from conversation, and she had been so 
 well "grounded," so to speak, that whenever she 
 talked with a specialist in any subject she knew 
 just what questions to ask. 
 
 When reading a book, the Empress almost al- 
 ways made notes in the margin. This is interest- 
 ing as showing how restlessly alive, and in a sense 
 over-stimulated, her brain must always have been. 
 It is perhaps a fortunate thing during her long ill- 
 ness, for even then she never felt any wish to be 
 idle, or to sit alone and think of herself. 
 
 In the grounds of Friedrichshof her Majesty 
 was able to indulge to the full her love of garden- 
 ing. Not only did she know the Latin names of 
 every plant and flower, but she was a really prac- 
 tical gardener, able to design landscape schemes. 
 
 The rosery, for instance, was her creation. 
 About half an acre in extent, it resembled the rosery 
 at Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate. It sloped 
 gently upwards, divided into numerous little ter- 
 races, bearing double rows of half-standard roses, 
 and it was bounded partly by a creeper-clad wall, 
 and partly by trelliswork over which roses were 
 trained. In the flower-beds of her ordinary garden 
 her Majesty showed her strong preference for old- 
 fashioned English flowers — indeed, throughout she 
 evidently aimed at reproducing the mingled beauty 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 345 
 
 and repose so characteristic of English gardens. 
 All kinds of trees, too, she planted, and many have 
 the added interest of an iron tablet recording that 
 it was planted by some Royal or distinguished 
 visitor. 
 
 The Empress certainly had no lack of occupation 
 and interest at Cronberg. She had always been 
 fascinated by restoration and excavation work, and 
 fortunately Cronberg possessed both an old castle 
 and an old church, which she eagerly set herself to 
 preserve for future generations. At the old Burg 
 she found many ancient remains, such as arrow- 
 heads, keys, &c., and, most important of all, several 
 Gothic iron "Ofenplatten." She was interested 
 in every detail. Once she spent a long time hunt- 
 ing for a passage-way which she knew must be 
 there because of the "pechnaze," or slit in the wall 
 through which boiling lead used to be poured in 
 medigeval sieges. When out riding she always 
 kept a keen look-out for survivals of the past. 
 Thus she was much interested in the iron crosses to 
 be found in the Taunus, and she proposed to draw 
 all the diiFerent kinds and publish a book about 
 them. 
 
 To the restoration of Cronberg Church the Em- 
 press devoted an immense amount of personal 
 trouble. Two Ministers and some important offi- 
 cials had to be approached before the order from 
 the Cabinet was obtained granting the necessary 
 financial help. When it was at last issued, the 
 
346 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Empress herself brought it to Cronberg, and, ar- 
 riving there in the evening, carried it the first thing 
 in the morning to the pastor. Hardly a nail was 
 put in the church without her knowledge. She 
 studied and re-studied for months the details of 
 windows, doors, hinges, &c. Her delight was i^reat 
 when under the whitewash she discovered some 
 frescoes of the fifteenth century. 
 
 A tablet was put up in the choir setting forth 
 what the Empress had done for the restoration of 
 the church, but here the truly modest nature of the 
 woman showed itself. She had the tablet removed 
 from the choir, and refixed in a place high up 
 where it is practically unseen. 
 
 It is pleasant to look back on these comparatively 
 happy years at Friedrichshof. The Empress as 
 a rule dressed very simply in black. Her only 
 jewellery were two gold rings, one with a sapphire 
 and two diamonds, and the other a smooth ruby, 
 while a miniature of the Emperor Frederick hung 
 round her neck. She was up early every morning. 
 She liked to see everything bright and gleaming in 
 the Castle, and not a speck of dust was allowed. 
 At eight o'clock it was her habit to go out riding 
 for two hours. She was an excellent horsewoman 
 and full of daring; even when nearing sixty she still 
 jumped difficult ditches and obstacles, and she al- 
 ways rode young and spirited animals. Once she 
 was pushed against a wall by a frisky horse, and 
 later she had the more serious accident which some 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 347 
 
 think brought about her final illness. But even in 
 the worst weather she never gave up her morning 
 ride. 
 
 During her widowhood the Empress had at last 
 the joy of knowing that she was really loved and 
 understood by her neighbours, both gentle and 
 simple. She was regarded at Cronberg much as 
 Queen Victoria was regarded in the neighbourhood 
 of Balmoral. She made herself acquainted with 
 practically the whole population, not only with the 
 poor, on whom she was able to shower intelligent 
 gifts and much practical good advice, but also with 
 that difficult intermediate class who, all the world 
 over, generally remain out of touch with the great 
 house of the village. 
 
 People of this class dwelt in little chalets which 
 began to spring up over that health}^ and beautiful 
 neighbourhood, but even their thorny pride was 
 not proof against the Empress's friendliness, in 
 which there was never any touch of condescension 
 or patronage. There were not a few artists living 
 in the neighbourhood, and with some of these the 
 Empress was on specially intimate terms. She 
 was fond of dropping in and finding them at work. 
 The Empress was full of quaint conceits and ideas ; 
 thus, when she was going to see an artist or any- 
 one in whom she took a special interest, she liked 
 to choose his birthday for the visit. Her energy 
 was extraordinary. One observer who saw a great 
 deal of her in her widowhood declares that she used 
 
348 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 to go upstairs and downstairs like a young girl, 
 and when she greeted the company assembled at 
 table every compulsion of etiquette seemed to be 
 instantly removed. 
 
 Naturally Cronberg benefited by her great 
 knowledge of hygiene. To the elaborately 
 equipped hospital which she founded there, she gave 
 the most punctilious care. She often cut her roses 
 herself and took them to the sick. The Empress 
 also built a poorhouse, a Victoria school, and a li- 
 brary for the people, and she arranged the Victoria 
 and Kaiser Friedrich public park. She hated leav- 
 ing Cronberg every autumn: "The departure is 
 dreadful to me," she said on one occasion: "when 
 I am travelling I feel like a mussel without its 
 shell." 
 
 Professor Nippold, in his book on the first two 
 German Emperors, has drawn a very sympathetic 
 and understanding picture of the Empress Fred- 
 erick. 
 
 Slie had, he says, a most cheerful temperament, 
 and a rapid eye for the humorous, in spite of so 
 many terrible blows of fate. She always saw 
 everything from the good side and quickly forgave 
 people their faults; no one was allowed to speak 
 ill of anyone in her presence. She was often mis- 
 understood and unjustly accused, and when she 
 saw things written against her in the papers she 
 was terribly wounded. For instance, it was said 
 that she had prevented the building of a tower on 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 349 
 
 the "Altkonig" for the public to enjoy the view, 
 but the fact was that she had never heard anything 
 about the proposal. Sometimes she could hardly 
 be restrained from answering some of these base 
 accusations. She was also accused of parsimony, 
 and her income was enormously exaggerated. 
 The claims on her purse were innumerable. She 
 had forty-two philanthropic institutions which she 
 had to help, and in one year there were thirty-seven 
 bazaars, to each of which she had to send gifts. Al- 
 together her expenses were enormously heavy. 
 
 When the Empress is blamed for being a 
 thorough Englishwoman, let it be said at once, ex- 
 claims Professor Nippold, that everything good 
 and praiseworthy in England she tried to introduce 
 into her own adopted country. She was always 
 vexed and pained when things were said against 
 England, more especially in the case of England's 
 colonies. "The English," she would say, "arrange 
 everj^thing in the Colonies most beautifully, — 
 roads, railways, post, telegraphs, hospitals, schools, 
 and police, and then everyone, to whichever nation 
 he belongs, can trade undisturbed. And I cannot 
 think that for that England should be thanked in 
 such an evil way!" Many people regarded it as 
 an injustice to Germany that she should have had 
 such warm sympathies with England. She was 
 through and through an Englishwoman, if not by 
 descent, yet by every impression received in child- 
 hood and by education. 
 
350 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 The professor goes on to express the opinion 
 that no Englishman or Englishwoman, of what- 
 ever age, ever gives up his or her nationality and 
 love of country, in whatever circumstances they 
 may find themselves, "a contrast to so many Ger- 
 mans, who are far less faithful to their nationality. 
 The Empress Frederick, as eldest child of Queen 
 Victoria of England, had the title of Princess 
 Royal, and she could not help feeling herself the 
 first princess of a wonderful Empire of very old 
 culture, and this proud feeling never left her." 
 1 This estimate and defence of the Empress is 
 particularly valuable as coming from a man of 
 shrewd intelligence and observation, who was him- 
 self a German. 
 
 On another occasion Nippold wTote of the Em- 
 press with clear insight: "One thing this distin- 
 guished woman never understood — to hide her 
 feelings. She never posed ; everything w^as sincere 
 in her in the true sense of the word." 
 
 In her will the Empress left Professor Nippold 
 a letter-weight, which she had used every day, as 
 a souvenir of a conversation they had had one even- 
 ing in her study. This letter-weight, which always 
 lay on her table, was composed of an old Roman 
 bronze — a broken Sphinx figure — on a marble slab. 
 A ring bound this figure to the slab, and the in- 
 scription engraved was: "This stone was picked 
 up by H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth on the walk of 
 Frogmore, 1808." 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 351 
 
 Professor Nippold goes on to say that while the 
 Empress was talking to him one evening a tele- 
 gram arrived which obviously had to do with the 
 crisis which led to the Greco-Turkish War. As 
 Nippold saw that she was much preoccupied with 
 the telegram and had to think of the answer, and 
 yet did not want to send him away, he delicately 
 asked to be allowed to wait and look at the pic- 
 tures. When the Empress resumed the conversa- 
 tion, the professor asked about a picture which 
 hung in the study. She named the different fig- 
 ures in the group, among them being that young 
 Princess Elizabeth who had found the stone. 
 
 That she should have left Nippold the letter- 
 weight showed, as he truly says, the wonderful 
 memory and kindly attention in which consists la 
 politesse des Princes. 
 
 The Princess Elizabeth married one of the last 
 Counts of Hesse-Homburg. Since then a monu- 
 ment to that Royal house has been erected in Hom- 
 burg, and in the Emperor's speech at the unveiling 
 on August 17, 1906, occurred these words: "I 
 commemorate the Landgrafin Elizabeth, a daugh- 
 ter of George III of England. She was a real 
 mother to this country and worked and cared for 
 her adopted fatherland. The Homburgers to this 
 day think of her with real thankfulness and rever- 
 ence." 
 
 Professor Nippold gives a characteristic letter 
 which he received from the Empress, evidently on 
 
352 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the subject of those historical studies of the House 
 of Hohenzollern to which, as we have already men- 
 tioned, the Emperor Frederick at one time devoted 
 himself with ardour. The letter is so interesting, 
 especially in the views which it expresses on the 
 subject of royal biography, that to quote it in full 
 needs no apology: 
 
 "Deae Professor, — Many thanks for sending 
 the separate pages from the Deutsche Revue of 
 February, and for your excellent report, which has 
 so much in it that does my heart good. You mean 
 well and truly, not only as regards history, but 
 also with the noble men who now lie in their graves, 
 and whose deeds and influence should be properly 
 appreciated in wide circles and through the proper 
 medium. 
 
 "The work grows, however, even as you work 
 upon it; the subject becomes more and more im- 
 portant, and one should ask oneself whether the 
 time has come thus to lift the veil. Would it not 
 be wiser and more cautious to close these papers 
 for the Revue, and then to continue your labours, 
 so that later a book could appear for which we 
 could utilise this material, but not lightly or too 
 soon? The letter of which you send me a copy — 
 from our Kaiser Freidrich Wilhelm IV — should 
 not, for instance, appear without the letter from 
 my father, but that would arouse a fearful storm 
 of discussion. In the pohtical world there is so 
 
LIFE AT FRIEDRICHSHOF 353 
 
 much tinder ready that one must do all one can to 
 avoid bringing in anything exciting. 
 
 "As long as Bismarck is alive, it is very diffi- 
 cult! Also these things affect my mother, so that 
 I should like very much to have a serious talk with 
 you before the publication continues in the 
 Deutsche Revue. Professor Ranke has handled 
 the life of Freidrich Wilhelm IV as the Court here 
 wished it to be treated. Similar books have now 
 appeared, with authorisation, with regard to the 
 Kaiser Wilhelm, and in Weimar, I believe, some- 
 one is writing a book on the Kaiserin Augusta. 
 AH these writers, however, are strictly conservative 
 and orthodox in religion (therefore one-sided), 
 and of all those currents which flowed into the lives 
 of the dead, no word is spoken, in the sense that I 
 mean. It is impossible thus to omit and yet give 
 the public a true picture of the persons, of their 
 time, and of the parts they played. You will 
 see for yourself the consequences of such publica- 
 tion. You have more experience than I, and per- 
 haps you can reassure me." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 LAST YEAKS 
 
 During the last years of her life, the Empress 
 Frederick paid repeated visits to England, where 
 she had many attached friends. 
 
 She much enjoyed a visit to the Bishop of Ripon 
 in 1895, when she was able to study the wood carv- 
 ing in the cathedral, as well as Fountains Abbey 
 and other places of historical interest. It was 
 characteristic of her that only a few moments be- 
 fore she left Ripon, while she was actually waiting 
 for the carriage to take her to the station, she ex- 
 claimed, "How much I should like to paint this 
 view!" Drawing materials and a paint-box were 
 brought her; she sat down, and in a few minutes 
 produced a charming sketch of the cathedral amid 
 fields and trees. 
 
 As an artist the Empress was undoubtedly far 
 more than a mere amateur, especially in sculpture. 
 It is said that on one occasion, having given a 
 commission to the famous German sculptor, 
 Uphues, for a colossal statue of the Emperor 
 Frederick, she visited his studio one day when he 
 was at work on the clay model. This did not seem 
 to her to promise a good likeness, and she there- 
 upon set to work on the clay herself, and in about 
 
 354 
 
LAST YEARS 355 
 
 half an hour she quite transformed the model, so 
 that when it was carried out in marble it became 
 universally recognised as the best presentment in 
 existence of the Emperor's features. Uphues also 
 made a bust of the Empress herself, which was set 
 up in 1902 on the Kaiser Friedrich Promenade at 
 Homburg. 
 
 The Empress had first met the Boyd Carpenters 
 in 1866, soon after the death of Prince Sigismund. 
 She happened to hear a sermon from the then 
 Canon Boyd Carpenter which brought her much 
 comfort, and the acquaintance then begun devel- 
 oped into warm friendship. 
 
 The Bishop had a gi-eat admiration for the Em- 
 press's sympathetic alacrity of mind. "She had 
 wide range," he writes, "and quick intellectual sym- 
 pathies ; she understood a passing allusion ; she fol- 
 lowed the track of thought ; there were no irritating 
 delays; there were no vacant incoherences in an 
 observation, which show that the thread has been 
 lost. She had read; she had thought; she had 
 travelled; she had observed; she had mixed with 
 many of the foremost minds of the time; she had 
 taken practical part in many great and humane 
 enterprises. Consequexitly her range was large, 
 and her mental equipment was well furnished and 
 ready for use. Conversation with her could never 
 become insipid." 
 
 The Empress always did everything she could 
 to improve Anglo-German relations, and the feeling 
 
356 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 aroused by the famous telegram which her son 
 sent to President Kruger in January, 1896, keenly 
 distressed her. She wrote to her old friend Sir 
 Mountstuart Grant Duff: 
 
 "But even this most sad episode between our two 
 countries has not shaken my faith in our old opin- 
 ions that there are many, many higher interests in 
 conmion, why we should get on together and be 
 of use to each other in helping on civilisation and 
 progress. I trust that a good understanding will 
 outlive hatred and jealousy." 
 
 And again: "When I think of my father and 
 of all his friends and of our friends, it appears to 
 me almost ludicrous that Germany and England 
 should be enemies." 
 
 In 1897 the Empress Frederick took part in 
 the Diamond Jubilee, driving in the procession with 
 Princess Henry of Battenberg. The sight of the 
 two widowed sisters, who had put aside their grief 
 to join in that great day of national rejoicing, 
 deeply touched many of the spectators. The Em- 
 press herself wrote of this occasion in which she 
 "gladly and thankfully joined with proud heart": 
 
 "The weight of lonely, hidden grief often feels 
 heaviest when all surroundings are in such con- 
 trast. And yet the heart of man is so made that 
 many feelings find room in it together; so grati- 
 tude and thankfulness mingle with memories so 
 sad that they can never lose their bitterness." 
 
 Madame Waddington, the wife of that old 
 
LAST YEARS 357 
 
 Rugby and Cambridge man who filled with such 
 distinction the post of French Ambassador in Lon- 
 don, has left a record of a conversation she had with 
 the Empress in August, 1897. Madame Wad- 
 dington, who was an American by birth, was struck 
 by a question the Empress asked her, namely, 
 whether she did not find it difficult to settle down 
 in France after having lived ten years in London — 
 "the great centre of the world." Madame Wad- 
 dington replied that she was not at all to be pitied 
 for living in Paris, that her son was a Frenchman, 
 and all his interests were in France. She adds: 
 "Au fond, notwithstanding all the years she has 
 lived in Germany, the Empress is absolutely Eng- 
 lish still in her heart." 
 
 They had some talk about Wagner, and Madame 
 Waddington informed the Empress that there was 
 a difficulty as to the performance of Die Meister- 
 singer at the Grand Opera owing to the fact that 
 Frau Wagner considered the choruses too difficult 
 to translate or to sing with the true spirit in any 
 language but German. The Empress replied: 
 
 "She is quite right; it is one of the most difficult 
 of Wagner's operas, and essentially German in 
 plot and structure. It scarcely bears translation 
 in English, and in French would be impossible; 
 — neither is the music in my mind at all suited to 
 the French character. The mj-ihical legends of 
 the Cycle would appeal more to the French, I think, 
 than the ordinary German life." 
 
358 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 The Empress was a real connoisseur in music, 
 of which she had a wide knowledge, though her 
 skill as a performer was considered to be inferior 
 to that of Queen Victoria. 
 
 Like her mother, the Empress Frederick was a 
 great letter-writer. She wrote in a mixture of 
 German and English, choosing the most telling 
 expressions, and she was in constant communica- 
 tion with various distinguished Englishmen for 
 years. To them she sent long and very frank let- 
 ters about everything that interested her, especially 
 foreign politics. 
 
 As has been already indicated in this book, the 
 Empress was in the habit of showing far more 
 clearly than most Royal personages allow them- 
 selves to do, exactly what she felt about those whom 
 she met even for the first or second time. This 
 found either an answering antagonism or a re- 
 ciprocal liking in those with whom she was brought 
 in contact. 
 
 Many of the distinguished men whom she heart- 
 ily admired speak of her, and that in their most 
 secret letters and diaries, with an admiration ap- 
 proaching enthusiasm. But now and again comes 
 a discordant note. Such may be found in Mr. G. 
 W. Smalley's Anglo-American Memories. 
 
 The old journalist describes her in a way which 
 gives a far from pleasant impression of the Em- 
 press towards the end of her life. He was pre- 
 sented to her by the then Prince of Wales at Hom- 
 
LAST YEARS 359 
 
 burg, and the first thing he noticed was that, though 
 she was very like Queen Victoria, her manner was 
 less simple and therefore had less authority. He 
 also criticises her dress, and observes that both the 
 late Queen and her eldest daughter "showed an in- 
 difference to the art of personal adornment." 
 
 Mr. Smalley admits that the Empress has a 
 much greater vivacity than the Queen, but he 
 thinks that this vivacity becomes restless, and that 
 her mind can never be in repose. He says drily 
 that, from her marriage and down to the day of 
 the Emperor Frederick's death, she had lived in a 
 dream-world of her own creation, her belief being 
 so strong, her conviction that she knew what was 
 best for those about her so complete, that the facts 
 had to adjust themselves as best they could to that 
 belief and that conviction. 
 
 As was the Empress's way when a stranger, and 
 especially a foreigner, was presented to her, she at 
 once began to talk of Mr. Smalley's country and 
 of what she supposed would interest him. Instead 
 of allowing him to say what he thought, she plunged 
 directly into American topics, especially comment- 
 ing on what she supposed to be the position of 
 women in the United States. It soon became 
 clear, or so he thought, that she had a correspond- 
 ent in Chicago from whom she had derived her 
 impressions. "She talked with clearness, with en- 
 ergy and almost apostolic fervour, the voice pene- 
 trating rather than melodious." 
 
360 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 Mr. Smalley said to himself that all that she 
 asserted might be true of Chicago, but of what 
 else was it true? And he was evidently much 
 nettled that she generalised from the "Windy City" 
 to the rest of the United States. 
 
 Instead of seeing, as probably most women 
 would have seen, that she was speaking to an au- 
 ditor who was fast becoming prejudiced, the Em- 
 press continued to unburden herself in the frankest, 
 freest way to this journalist whom she had never 
 met before. She even seems to have touched on 
 politics, on Anglo-German relations, on the in- 
 ternal affairs of Germany: 
 
 "Never for a moment did this dreamer's talk stop 
 or grow sluggish. Carlyle summed up IVIacaulay 
 in the phrase 'Flow on, thou shining river' ; he might 
 in a sardonic mood have done the same to this Prin- 
 cess." 
 
 It was an illuminating interview, declares Mr. 
 Smalley, throwing light on events to come as well 
 as on those of the past, and he goes on to explain 
 that multitudes of Germans shared Bismarck's dis- 
 trust of the Crown Princess, and believed that she 
 wanted to Anglicise Germany. He reiterates what 
 has so often been said — that she told all-comers that 
 what Germany needed was Parliamentary govern- 
 ment as it was understood and practised in Eng- 
 land. In little things as in great she made no 
 secret for her preference for what was English over 
 what was German: 
 
LAST YEARS 361 
 
 "Judgment was not her strong point, nor was 
 tact; if I am to say what was her strong point, I 
 suppose it would be sincerity. Her gifts of mind 
 were dazzling rather than sound; impulse was not 
 always under control. Her animosities once roused 
 never slept, as Prince Bismarck well knew." 
 
 Seldom has a more prejudiced view of the Em- 
 press been given to the world, but it is interesting 
 as showing how she sometimes impressed those who 
 had been fascinated by the Bismarck legend when 
 they were brought into passing contact with her 
 eager, enthusiastic mind. 
 
 To a fall from her horse at Cronberg in the 
 autumn of 1898 may be traced the beginning of that 
 merciless disease which ultimately killed her. 
 
 It was a bad accident. The horse reared and the 
 Empress fell on the wrong side on her head with 
 her feet under the horse and her habit still clinging 
 to the saddle. Her head was much bruised, and 
 her right hand was injured and trodden on by the 
 horse. She was not at all frightened, indeed she 
 took it very calmly, observing: 
 
 "I have ridden for fifty years, and it is natural 
 that an accident must come sooner or later. But 
 I shall ride to-morrow. I'm going to try and paint 
 and write some letters in spite of my hand." 
 
 But her injuries did not yield to treatment, and 
 very soon began the long martyrdom of pain which 
 she bore for more than two years with the same 
 stoic fortitude which the Emperor Frederick had 
 
362 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 shown. The disease was undoubtedly cancer, and 
 it is suggested that it had been gathering force for 
 quite a number of years. However that may be, 
 it was certainly known in 1900 that a cure was im- 
 possible. 
 
 The most terrible feature of these last months 
 was the severe pain which seized her at intervals. 
 It was characteristic, both of her courage and of her 
 kindly nature, that during these attacks she would 
 not see even the members of her family, to whom 
 the sight of her sufferings would have been so dis- 
 tressing. But in the intervals she occupied her- 
 self with conversation, or one of her ladies would 
 read aloud to her, and she even painted a little. 
 Her son, the Emj^eror, was constant in his atten- 
 tions, coming over almost daily from Homburg, 
 but even he was only allowed to remain with her a 
 few minutes at a time. 
 
 Physically the patient had suffered a great 
 change. Her cheeks, which had been round and 
 apparently in the bloom of health, gradually be- 
 came thin and sunken, and her face assumed that 
 curious transparent paleness which is the unmis- 
 takable sign of approaching death. 
 
 It is said that when the Empress received the 
 news of Queen Victoria's death, in January, 1901, 
 she said to those about her: "I wish I were dead 
 too." But for more than six months longer she 
 bore with extraordinary fortitude the chronic suf- 
 fering which the most able physicians were unable 
 
LAST YEARS 363 
 
 to relieve. Her consideration for those around her 
 was constant. On one occasion, in a spasm of 
 agony, she cried out loudly and seized the nurse's 
 hand; then at once apologised: "I am so sorry, I 
 am afraid I hurt you." The nurse said afterwards, 
 *'I have only been with the Empress for a week, but 
 already she has filled me with higher ideals, and I 
 am going back resolved to be a better nurse than 
 ever." 
 
 As long as it was possible, the Empress con- 
 tinued her painting and drawing; and to the very 
 end she was especially happy when she was able 
 to work with some practical object in view, such 
 as the laying out of a new rose-garden or suggest- 
 ing alterations in architectural plans. Her great- 
 est pleasure — and she was intensely susceptible to 
 happiness even during the last six sad months^ — 
 was a visit from her eldest brother. When she 
 was expecting King Edward, she supervised closely 
 every little arrangement made for his comfort and 
 convenience, and while doing so she would be 
 wheeled in her bath-chair about the rooms he was 
 to occupy. 
 
 She felt most deeply the attacks which were then 
 being made in Germany on England, and even on 
 King Edward, at the time of the Boer War. An 
 article in the VossiscJie Zeitung, which observed 
 that such attacks on a constitutional Sovereign were 
 unworthy of a gi'eat nation, gave her much satis- 
 faction. 
 
364 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 King Edward paid his last visit to his sister at 
 Cronberg in February, 1901. A contemporary 
 chronicler notes that everything was arranged to 
 show that the visit was meant for the Empress 
 Frederick and not for her son. This was doubt- 
 less by the wish of the Emperor himself, for, though 
 he did all due honour to his uncle, meeting him at 
 Frankfort and conducting him across the lovely 
 Taunus Valley, to the very door of Friedrichshof, 
 he took leave of King Edward at the threshold, so 
 that the brother and sister might be alone at their 
 first meeting. 
 
 Among the last English visitors received by the 
 Empress at Friedrichshof were her old friends, the 
 Boyd Carpenters. This was in May, 1901. 
 
 They found her on their arrival lying on a couch 
 in her beautiful garden, and the Bishop was struck 
 by her likeness to Queen Victoria — a likeness en- 
 hanced by the black dress and by the form of hat 
 which she wore. The Empress rejoiced in the 
 spring and in the colour which was spreading every- 
 where through her garden. She still took a prac- 
 tical interest in everything concerning the beauti- 
 ful home she had created. The Bishop gives one 
 instance : the great blue face of the clock, the tower 
 of which dominated Friedrichshof, needed re-paint- 
 ing. Before she decided what exact tint should be 
 used, she caused slips of paper giving different 
 shades of blue to be held up against the face of the 
 clock. Then she made up her mind. 
 
LAST YEARS 365 
 
 Once, as they passed through the flower garden 
 together, she quoted to the Bishop the words, "The 
 effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much." 
 Another time, looking round at the beauty of the 
 trees she had planted, she said, "I feel like Moses 
 on Pisgah, looking at the land of promise which I 
 must not enter." 
 
 When parting from Mrs. Boyd Carpenter, for 
 whom she had a great regard, the Empress gave 
 her a bracelet of her own, one she had often worn 
 and with which she had affectionate associations. 
 
 To the Bishop she gave a seal which had belonged 
 to Queen Victoria, and which had been in the room 
 when the Queen died. It commemorated a picnic 
 in Scotland, in which the Queen, the Prince Con- 
 sort, and Princess Alice had shared. The seal, 
 mounted in silver and set in Aberdeen granite, was 
 a cairngorm found by Prince Albert and Princess 
 Alice on that day. 
 
 The Bishop remained with her a moment at the 
 very last, and she said to him, "When I am gone I 
 want you to read the English Burial Service over 
 me." And then she characteristically explained to 
 him exactly what would have to be done to make 
 this possible. When the end came three months 
 later, thanks to the prompt acquiescence of the Em- 
 peror, his mother's wishes were carried out. 
 
 The Empress became much worse at the begin- 
 ning of August, and, by the wish of her son. Canon 
 Teignmouth- Shore was telegi'aphed for. He ar- 
 
366 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 rived at Friedrichshof on August 5, and in the 
 presence of the Emperor and the Empress's 
 daughters the Canon knelt down and offered some 
 prayers from the Office for the Visitation of the 
 Sick. The whole sad scene, he says, was quite over- 
 powering and far too sacred for him to describe. 
 "The dying Empress was at first slightly conscious, 
 and I could see a gentle movement of her lips as 
 we said the Lord's Prayer." 
 
 Towards six o'clock in the evening the Canon 
 was again summoned to the sick-room. "The 
 sweet noble soul was just passing away. I said 
 a few prayers at the bedside, concluding with the 
 first two verses of that exquisite poem, 'Now the 
 labourer's task is o'er.' " 
 
 A butterfly flew into the room and hovered for 
 awhile over the dying Empress, and when she had 
 breathed her last it spread its wings and flew out 
 into the free air again. 
 
 The Emperor desired Canon Teignmouth- Shore 
 to arrange with Dr. Boyd Carpenter for a private 
 funeral service to be held at Friedrichshof. 
 
 On the following Sunday the Canon preached a 
 funeral sermon in the English church at Homburg. 
 In it he made a statement with regard to her Maj- 
 esty's religious views which deserves quotation: 
 
 "The religious conceptions which inspired and 
 guided this life, alike in its humblest and in its 
 loftiest spheres of action, were, as I believe, neither 
 crude nor complex nor dogmatic; they were clear 
 
LAST YEARS 367 
 
 and simple and broad — an absolute faith in the 
 Fatherhood of God, and in the Brotherhood and 
 redeeming love of Him who died that we might 
 live." 
 
 The Lutheran funeral service, which was held 
 in the parish church of Cronberg, was most impress- 
 ive in its simplicity. At one point of the service 
 the Crown Prince and three of his young brothers 
 rose from their seats, and, having put on their 
 helmets, drew their swords and took their places 
 at each corner of the coffin of their grandmother, 
 where they remained until the end of the service. 
 
 This old church, which, as we know, the Empress 
 had herself restored, dates back to the middle of 
 the fifteenth century. On the organ, which is of 
 exquisite tone, Mendelsshon often played when he 
 visited the Taunus. 
 
 Perhaps the most touching of all the hundreds 
 of wreaths sent for the funeral was one of simple 
 heather which had been made by the Emperor's 
 younger children. Attached to it was a sheet of 
 black-edged paper on which they had all written 
 their names in large childish characters. 
 
 The Empress was buried beside her husband and 
 her son Waldemar in the Friedenskirche at Pots- 
 dam, and the sarcophagus over her tomb is by her 
 artist friend, Begas. 
 
 Of memorials to her, there is the bust at Hom- 
 burg already mentioned. In the English church 
 at Homburg, where she attended divine service for 
 
368 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 the first time after the death of her husband, is a 
 memorial consisting of four reHefs, placed in the 
 spandrels of the arches in the aisle, representing 
 the four Evangelists. A striking statue of the 
 Empress in coronation robes by Gerth was unveiled 
 by the Emperor Wilham in October, 1903. It is 
 opposite the statue of her husband in the open space 
 outside the Brandenburg gate at Berlin. 
 
 So lived, and so died, this most gifted and gener- 
 ous lady, who was rendered illustrious, not by the 
 symbols of her Imperial station, but by her many 
 winning qualities of heart and intellect. 
 
 We cannot do better than quote in conclusion 
 from the remarkable tributes which were paid to 
 her memory by the late Lord Salisbury and the late 
 Lord Spencer. 
 
 Lord Salisbury, who was then Prime Minister, 
 in moving an address of condolence with King Ed- 
 ward in the House of Lords, summed up in mas- 
 terly fashion both the beauty and the tragedy of 
 the Empress's life: 
 
 "When the then Princess Royal left these 
 shores, there was no person, either of contemporary 
 experience or in history, before whom a brighter 
 prospect extended itself in life, and all that could 
 make it desirable spread itself before her. She 
 had a devoted husband, himself one of the noblest 
 characters of his generation, who probably centred 
 in himself more admiration than any man in his 
 rank or in any rank. She had every prospect of 
 
LAST YEARS 369 
 
 becoming the Consort of the Emperor — an abso- 
 lute emperor — of the greatest of the Continental 
 Powers. She had every hope that she would share 
 fully in his illustrious position, and in no small de- 
 gree in the powers that he wielded. This was be- 
 fore her for nearly thirty years, and in that time 
 she had all the enjoyments which were derived from 
 her own great abilities, her own splendid artistic 
 talents, and from the powers which she exercised 
 over the artistic, aesthetic, and intellectual life of 
 Germany. She occupied an unexampled position. 
 Then suddenly came the blow, first on her husband 
 and then on herself. By that fell disease — which 
 probably is the most formidable of all to which flesh 
 is heir — her dream of happiness, of usefulness, and 
 glory was suddenly cut short. The blow, in strik- 
 ing her husband, struck herself in even greater de- 
 gree; and she felt — she could not but feel — how 
 deeply she shared in all the disappointments, all 
 the sufferings, that attached themselves to his his- 
 tory. When he had been Emperor only a few 
 weeks, he died, and then she spent her life in retire- 
 ment. Her health failed, and she, too, fell under 
 the same blow, passing through years of suffering, 
 with the sympathy of all connected with her and all 
 those who knew her. She was deeply valued in 
 this country by those who knew her, and they were 
 very many. She had an artistic and intellectual 
 charm of no common order; she spread her power 
 over all who came within her reach ; and her gradual 
 
370 THE EMPRESS FREDERICK 
 
 disappearance from the scene was watched with the 
 deepest sorrow and sympathy by numbers in her 
 own country and in this." 
 
 The motion was seconded on behalf of the Op- 
 position by Lord Spencer, who, it will be remem- 
 bered, was a near kinsman of that Lady Lyttelton 
 to whom was entrusted the charge of the Empress's 
 early childhood: 
 
 "Her Imperial ]Majesty had no ordinary charac- 
 ter. Brought up with the greatest care and solici- 
 tude by her Royal and devoted parents, she early 
 and ever afterwards showed the highest accomplish- 
 ments, not only in art but in literature. She was 
 herself an artist of no small merit, and her power 
 of criticism and influence in art was even of a higher 
 order. In this age, which had been so remarkable 
 for the enormous number of persons who have 
 joined in endeavours to alleviate the sufferings of 
 the human race, whether in peace or in war, I ven- 
 ture to think that no one stands in a higher position 
 than the Empress Frederick of Germany. Dur- 
 ing those wars, in which her illustrious husband 
 played such a splendid part, she exerted herself to 
 do all she could to alleviate the sufferings of the 
 wounded, and she had ever in peace used her en- 
 deavours to promote the same objects among the 
 suffering poor of her country. No one, I am sure, 
 will be remembered in the future with more affec- 
 tion and devotion on this account than her Majesty. 
 She was always s}Tnpathetic and energetic with 
 
LAST YEARS 371 
 
 regard to other matters. There was nothing which 
 stirred her sympathies or energies more than the 
 education and improvement of her own sex. She 
 did much in this respect in her adopted country; 
 but we cannot consider her life without remember- 
 ing the beautiful simpUcity and earnestness of it. 
 She M^as devoted to duty, and although she suffered 
 intensely during her life when her noble husband' 
 was afflicted with the terrible disease which took 
 him off, and during the sad years in which the same 
 malady afflicted her, she always showed a patient 
 endurance which will remain an example for all 
 mankind. I cannot but refer to her great charm in 
 private as well as in public life. It so happened 
 that very early in my life, before she was married, 
 she honoured me with her acquaintance. It was 
 onlj^ on rare occasions I had the privilege of con- 
 tinuing that acquaintance, but I have from time to 
 time within the last few years seen her Majesty, 
 and I shall always recall, as one of the most delight- 
 ful recollections of my life, the chyirm and influ- 
 ence of her conversation." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abeken, Herr, 243 
 
 Aberdeen, Lord, 48 
 
 Adelaide, Queen Dowager, 3, 28 
 
 Albert, Prince, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9; 
 his children's aflfection, 11, 12, 
 209; Exhibition of 1851, 16, 17; 
 view of German politics, 26, 27, 
 37, 38, 46, 47, 53, 113, 122, 134- 
 131, 136, 138, 139, 162, 165, 166; 
 training of the Princess Royal, 
 32-35; her betrothal, 36-38, 41, 
 45-50; and marriage, 60-68; 
 letters to his daughter, 71, 72, 
 74-76, 80, 81, 87-89, 103, 105- 
 107, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 124, 
 127-132, 135, 138, 148; visits 
 to his daughter, 119, 122; ac- 
 quaintance with Morier, 155; 
 first meeting with Bismarck, 
 162; theory of monarchy, 127- 
 130; narrow escape, 120; death, 
 149-151, 153 
 
 Alcott, Miss, 14 
 
 Alexander of Bulgaria, Prince, 
 310, 313 
 
 Alexander I, the Tsar; Alex- 
 ander II, 22, 263, 267, 278 
 
 Alexandra, Queen, 108, 109, 177, 
 263 
 
 Alice, Princess (Grand Duchess 
 of Hesse), 4, 6, 11, 12, 48, 60, 
 62, 106, 116, 131; wedding, 154, 
 197, 205, 212, 214, 222, 223, 233, 
 236, 237; death, 273, 323, 324 
 
 Althorp, Lord, 6, 8 
 
 Ampthill, Lord and Lady, 252, 
 284, 285, 286, 338 
 
 Anderson, Mrs., 50 
 
 Angeli, Von, 251, 256, 264 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 281-284 
 
 Augusta, German Empress, 17, 
 19, 25, 27, 39, 60, 77, 78, 154, 
 156, 157, 185, 214, 228, 230, 233, 
 246, 267, 305; death, 326, 327, 
 328, 353 
 
 Augustenburg, Duke Christian of 
 Sonderburg-, 179 
 
 373 
 
 Augustenburg, Hereditary Prince 
 Frederick of Sonderburg-, 180- 
 183, 210, 211, 275 
 
 Austria, Emperor Francis Jo- 
 seph, 174, 197, 211, 280 
 
 Babelsberq, 90, 92, 96, 109, 110 
 
 Bacourt, Monsieur de, 78 
 
 Baden, Prince Regent of, 38 
 
 Ballardin, M., 306 
 
 Barclay & Perkins's draymen, 68 
 
 Battenberg marriage, the, 306, 
 309, 312 
 
 Bavaria, King of, 228, 241 
 
 Bazaine, Marshal, 228, 241, 317 
 
 Beatrice, Princess (Princess 
 Henry of Battenberg), 118, 356 
 
 Begas, 251 
 
 Benedek, 218 
 
 Benedetti, 230 
 
 Bergmann, Prof., 289 
 
 Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen, 
 Prince, 266, 267 
 
 Bernhardi, Theodor von, 157, 188 
 
 Bismarck, Prince, opinion of the 
 English marriage, 39; relations 
 with Crown Princess, 152, 153, 
 162-167, 256, 258, 275, ,285, 286; 
 relations with Morier, 157, 207; 
 accession to ofBce, 159, 166; 
 Dantzig incident, 168, 169; re- 
 lations with Crown Prince, 175, 
 285, 286; policy on Sches- 
 wig-Holstein question, 182, 185, 
 210-211; attitude to royal per- 
 sonages, 210; Austrian war, 
 210-212, 217-221 ; visit to Paris, 
 223; at a royal christening, 
 228; Franco-German war, 228- 
 230, 239-240, 245, 248; the Im- 
 perial Dignitv, 241, 242. 255; 
 "British petticoats," 256-258; 
 and Hinzpeter, 261, 267; and 
 the Regency of the Crown 
 Prince, 267-271, 283, 284; and 
 the Crown Prince's illness, 289, 
 290; relations with the Emperor 
 
374. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 and Empress Frederick, 302- 
 307, 308-312, 313-319, 321-326, 
 
 353, 360, 361; fall, 327, 328 
 Bleibtreu, 251 
 
 Bloomfield, Lady, 39, and Lord, 
 
 74, 136 
 Blumenthal, Field-Marshal, 217 
 Bornstedt, country life at. 111 
 Bottlcher, 303 
 Bouguereau, M., 333 
 Boyd Carpenter, Bishop, 66, 353, 
 
 354, 364, 365 
 
 Briihl, Countess Hedwig, 189 
 Brunnemann, Privy Councillor, 
 
 97 
 Brunnow, 87 
 Buccleuch, Duke of, 66 
 Buchanan, Mr., 45 
 Bucher, 238, 266 
 Bunsen, Baron, 27, 152 
 Bunsen, Mme., 25 
 Busch, 238, 266, 275, 306, 308, 
 
 319 
 
 Caxxikg, Ix)rd, 47 
 
 Carlyle, 110, 160, 360 
 
 Charles Anthony of Hohenzol- 
 
 lern. Prince, 97 
 Charles of Prussia, Prince, 279, 
 
 280 
 Charles of Prussia, Princess, 79 
 Charles of Roumania, Prince and 
 
 Princess, 214, 265, 277 
 Charlier, Mme., 10 
 Charlotte, Princess, 1 
 Charlotte, Princess (daughter of 
 
 the Empress), 117, 265-267, 
 
 277 
 Christian IX of Denmark, King, 
 
 180, 188 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph, 272 
 Clarendon, Lord, 30, 34, 42, 93, 
 
 125, 143, 144, 145, 147, 156, 252 
 Cobden, 45, 69 
 Cohurgers, the, 174, 185 
 Colenso, Bishop, 200 
 Connaught, Duke of, 106, 267 
 Consort, Prince. See Albert, 
 
 Prince 
 "Court Circular," official, 8 
 Craven, Mrs. Augustus, 302 
 Craven, Mrs. Dacre, 249 
 
 Daxtztc. incident, the, 167-170 
 Darwin, Charles, 199 
 Delane, John, 147 
 
 Delbriick, Prof., 274 
 
 De Ros, Captan, 103 
 
 D^roul^de, Paul, 337 
 
 Detaille, M., 333 
 
 Deutsche Revue, 352 
 
 Deutsche Rundschau, 316 
 
 Devonshire, Louise Duchess of, 
 
 95 
 Dino, Duchesse de, 78 
 Droysen, J. G., 34 
 Duff, Sir M. E. Grant, 356 
 Duncker, Frau, 158 
 Duncker, Herr Max, 136, 153, 
 
 158, 182, 184, 186 
 
 Edivbuhgh, Duke of, 63, 64, 69, 
 
 263 
 Edward VII, King, 6, 12, 14, 
 
 19, 20, 62-64, 69, 106, 109, 149, 
 
 159, 177, 260, 263, 280, 330, 344, 
 358, 363, 364 
 
 Eliot, George, 273 
 
 Elizabeth, I^andgravine, the, 329, 
 
 351 
 Elizabeth of Prussia, Queen, 134, 
 
 135 
 Ernest of Hanover, King, 73 
 Ernest of Saxe-Coburg and 
 
 Gotha, Duke, 3, 38, 41, 85, 174, 
 
 307, 322 
 Eugf-nie, Empress, 19, 20, 43, 44, 
 
 193. 222 
 Exhibition, of 1851, 15, 16, 17; of 
 
 1862, 154; of 1867 (Paris), 222 
 
 FARAnAY, 92 
 
 Faucit, Helen, 61 
 
 Fitzmayer, Colonel, 45 
 
 Frankfort Congress, 174 
 
 Frederick Charles of Hesse, 
 Prince, 247 
 
 Frederick Charles of Prussia, 
 Prince, 186, 217 
 
 Frederick, Grand Duke of Ba- 
 den, 181 
 
 Frederick, Prince of Nether- 
 lands, 266 
 
 Frederick, the Emperor — 
 
 As Prince Frederick William 
 of Prussia — First visit to Eng- 
 land, 15-18, 25; betrothal, 29- 
 32, 39, 43; visits England 
 again, 51; marriage, 61-70; ad- 
 miration of England, 85; pride 
 in his eldest son, 103, 103, 107, 
 108; New Palace at Potsdam, 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 109-111; country life at Bom- 
 stedt. 111, 11^2; military pro- 
 motions, 112, 116, 166; hope 
 of the Junkers, 116 
 
 As Crown Prince — Death of 
 King Frederick William IV, 
 133-135; his father's corona- 
 tion, 139-146; death of his fa- 
 ther-in-law, 149-152; visits to 
 England, 154, 175, 292, 293; 
 to Italy, 159, 224, 287; to 
 the Eas't, 225; to Paris, 225; 
 the Dantzig incident, 167-169; 
 relations with Bismarck, 167, 
 173, 175, 182, 210, 211, 219- 
 222, 239, 248, 268-272, 285, 
 286; admiration of England, 
 171 ; Schleswig-Holstein ques- 
 tion, 180-183; in the Danish 
 War, 184-188; hatred of war, 
 186, 221, 236; work for soldiers 
 and their families, 186, 222, 
 235, 240; family life, 188-197, 
 207-209, 256; the Austrian 
 War, 213-215, 217-221; free- 
 masonry, 106, 266; the Franco- 
 German War, 229, 235-240; 
 the Imperial Dignity, 242, 243; 
 regency, 267-271 ; illnesses, 
 255, 287-298; silver wedding, 
 279-282 
 
 As Emperor — Accession, 299, 
 300; journey to Berlin, 300; 
 State business, 301-302; rela- 
 tions with Bismarck, 302-305, 
 309-314; monetary position, 
 306-308; death, 314; Freytag's 
 reminiscences, 321-325 
 Frederick, the Empress, Physical 
 descriptions of, 58, 59, 160, 161, 
 362 
 
 As Princess Royal — Birth, 1, 
 2; christening, 3, 4; education 
 and childhood, 6-20; first meet- 
 ing with her husband, 15-19; 
 visit to Paris, 19, 20; betrothal, 
 29-31 ; training by her father, 
 33-35; confirmation, 47-49; an 
 accident, 50; marriage, 58-70; 
 arrival in Berlin, 74; reception, 
 75-83; the Old Schloss, 83, 84; 
 influence of and on her hus- 
 band, 85; conditions at the 
 Prussian Court, 86; Babels- 
 berg, 90; social preferences, 91, 
 92; visits of her parents, 92- 
 
 97; new residence in Berlin, 
 98-99; birth of Prince William, 
 100-114; New Palace at Pots- 
 dam, 109-111; country life at 
 Bornstedt, 111, 112; birth of 
 Princess Charlotte, 116, 117; 
 interest in politics, 86, 87, 98; 
 paper on ministerial responsi- 
 bility, 126, 127; nursery man- 
 agement, 123 
 
 As Crown Princess — Descrip- 
 tion of death of King of Prus- 
 sia, 133-135; anniversary of 
 marriage, 136; coronation of 
 her fatther-in-law, description, 
 139-147; colonel of Hussar 
 Regiment, 146, 198, 265; po- 
 litical views, 148, 157, 158, 175, 
 185, 187, 223, 284; death of her 
 father 149-153; relations with 
 Bismarck, 152, 162-165, 166, 
 169-172, 184, 185, 211, 212, 238, 
 239, 266, 267, 275, 285, 286; love 
 of England, 188; visits to Eng- 
 land, 153, 154, 158, 175, 267, 
 272, 273, 292, 293; love of 
 France, 245, 246; birth of 
 Prince Henry, 155; position in 
 Prussia, 155, 156; relations 
 with her husband, 157-159, 168, 
 169-172, 196, 197, 258, 270; vis- 
 its to Italy, 159, 275, 276; fa- 
 vourite newspapers, 173; pa- 
 triotism, 165, 175, 184, 185, 238, 
 239, 244, 267; popularity, 173, 
 
 198, 247; Schleswig-Holstein 
 question, 178-182; work for 
 army and other nursing, 187, 
 233^235, 248, 249; family life, 
 188-197, 207-209, 224, 225, 255, 
 256; artistic tastes, 188-190, 
 192, 193, 251, 252, 256, 264, 277, 
 278, 280; musical tastes, 189, 
 190, 191, 192, 195, 198; literary 
 tastes, 189, 190, 192, 195, 199; 
 as botanist, 190; interest in sci- 
 ence, 251; pistol-shooting, 190; 
 education of children, 194, 
 195, 208, 209, 259-261; social 
 preferences, 198, 199, 251, 252, 
 253, 273; religious position, 
 
 199, 204, 253, 278; art and in- 
 dustry, 205, 206, 223; bereave- 
 ments, 214, 216, 273, 274, 275; 
 work for soldiers and their 
 families, 222, 231, 233, 234, 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 235; visits to Paris, 226, 281; 
 work for education, 253-255, 
 280, 283, ^3; visit to Rossia, 
 263; affection for the old Em- 
 peror, 286; her husband's last 
 illness, 287-298 
 
 As Empress, 299-314; rela- 
 tions with Bismarck, 303-305; 
 influence over her husband, 
 303, 307, 308, 309-313; the Bat- 
 tenberg marriage, 309-313; her 
 first and la.st Court, 313; death 
 of the Emperor, 314- 
 
 As Dowager Empress — Re- 
 lations with Bismarck, 315- 
 
 318, 322, 323, 353, 361; rela- 
 tions with her son, the Em- 
 peror William II, 315-318, 329, 
 332; comparison with him, 318- 
 321 ; planning of Fredericks- 
 hof, 329-3^^2; life there, 340- 
 366; patriotism, 323, 324, 356, 
 357; visit to Paris, 332-337; 
 death of Empress Augusta, 
 326, 327, 332; the anonymous 
 letter scandal, 338, 339; col- 
 lections, 341-343; reading, 343, 
 344; gartlening, 344, 345; res- 
 toration work, 345, 346; per- 
 sonal tastes, 346-348; phi- 
 lanthropy, 348; character 
 sketches, 348-350, 354, 358- 
 361 ; views on royal biography, 
 352, 353; visits' to England, 
 354; artistic tastes, 354, 355; 
 musical tastes, 357, 358; re- 
 ligious position, 352, 353, 366, 
 367; last illness, 361-365; 
 death and funeral, 366-368; 
 tributes in the House of 
 Lords, 368-371 
 
 Frederick the Great, King of 
 Prussia, 79, 109, 110, 192, 228, 
 262, 341 
 
 Frederick VII of Denmark, 
 King, 176, 179 
 
 Frederick William III, King of 
 Prussia, 57, 83, 98, 166, 192 
 
 Frederick WUliam IV, King of 
 Prussia, 18, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 
 36, 38, 55, 74, 83, 92, 93, 97, 98; 
 death, 133-135; political testa- 
 ment, 141-143, 157, 192, 282, 
 
 319, 329, 352 
 Freemasonry, 106, 266. 
 Freytag, 121, 166, 236, 321, 325. 
 
 Friedberg, Dr., 271 
 Froude, 160, 273 
 
 Galliera, Duchess of, 330 
 Garter, Order of the, 67 
 Geffcken, Dr., 170, 316 
 Geibel, 192 
 George of Hanover, King, 220, 
 
 221 
 Gerhardt, 289 
 
 Gerlach, General, 28, 29, 39 
 Germany in 1858, 53-57 
 Gerth, sculptor, 368 
 Gloucester, Duchess of, 3, 110 
 Godet, Pastor, 51, 151, 297 
 Goethe, 77, 189, 192 
 Gontaut Biron, M. de, 245, 246 
 Gontaut, Duchesse de, 246 
 Goschen, Mr. (afterwards 
 
 Lord), 272. 
 Gotha, Dowager Duchess of 
 
 Saxe-Coburg and, 4, 52, 113 
 Gower, Lord Ronald, 192, 193, 
 
 228 
 Granville, Lord, 22, 47, 93, 144, 
 
 174, 227, 230, 257, 285, 293 
 Orenzboten, 190 
 
 Hahdevburg, 55 
 Hagen, Prof., 251 
 Heine, 192 
 
 Henry of Prussia, Prince, 156, 
 209', 259, 260, 261, 266, 275, 
 
 277, 288, 313 
 Hertel, painter, 264 
 Hildyard, Miss, 50 
 Hintie, Prof., 141, 142 
 Hinzpeter, Dr., 123, 207, 261 
 Hol)bs, Mrs., nurse, 121, 123 
 Hodel. 267, 270 
 Hoffmann, 92, 251, 283 
 Hohenlohe, Prince, 237, 253, 268, 
 
 278, 281, 282, 302, 304, 310, 311, 
 328 
 
 Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Princess 
 
 of, 60, 75 
 Howard, Cardinal, 276 
 Humbert, Prince (afterwards 
 
 King of Italy), 224, 287, 300 
 Huxley, 199 
 
 Ihne, Herr, 331 
 Irene of Hesse, Princess, 288, 
 309, 313 
 
 Keeley, Mr. and Mrs., 61 
 
INDEX 
 
 377 
 
 Kent, Duchess of, 4, 30, 52, 63, 
 
 122; death of, 137 
 Kinglake, 273 
 Kohn, Baron, 307 
 Kreuz Zeitung, 130 
 Kruger, President, 356 
 
 Lees, Miss, 249 
 
 Leiningen, Prince, ^'2 
 
 Leo XIII, Pope, 271 
 
 Leopold I, King of the Belgians, 
 
 3, 30, 43, 47, 48, 49, 60, 63, 64, 
 
 102, 103, 149, 307 
 Leopold, Prince of Hohenzol- 
 
 lern-Sigmaringen, 227 
 Letze, Fraulein, 254 
 Loftus, Lord Augustus, 229, 230 
 Louis, Prince (Grand Duke of 
 
 Hesse), 117, 131, 154, 213, 222, 
 
 225, 237 
 Louis of Battenberg, Prince, 310 
 Louise, Queen of Prussia, 38, 62, 
 
 74, 98, 142, 192 
 Louise of Prussia, Princess 
 
 (Grand Duchess of Baden), 
 
 15, 16, 38, 39, 122 
 Lutteroth, painter, 264 
 LyeU, Sir Charles, 199, 200 
 Lyons, Lord, 281 
 Lyttelton, Sarah, Lady, 6-14, 17, 
 
 G5, 114 370 
 Lytton, Lord and Lady, 333 
 
 Macaulay, 360 
 
 Macdonald incident, the, 119- 
 
 121, 124, 137, 138 
 Macdonell, Lady, 215 
 Mackenzie, Sir Morell, 291, 294, 
 
 300 
 Magdeburg Cathedral, 73 
 MalakoflF, Duke of, 87 
 Malet, Sir Edward, 312 
 Malmesbury, Lord, 93 
 Manchester, Duchess of (Lou- 
 ise), 95 
 Manteuffel, Baron, 54, 5Q, 94, 97, 
 
 282 
 Margaret, Princess (daughter of 
 
 the Empress), 247, 332 
 Margherita, Queen of Italy, 247, 
 
 287 
 Marie of Roumania, Princess, 
 
 216 
 Martin, Dr., 100 
 Martin, Sir Theodore, 26, 46, 94, 
 
 126 
 
 Mary of Cambridge, Princess 
 (Duchess of Teck), 48, 68, 153 
 
 Mecklenburg, Grand Duchess of, 
 108 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, 3, 7, 23 
 
 Millet, J. F., 14 
 
 Monarchy in England, 2 
 
 Moltke, 43, 51, 238, 256 
 
 Morier, Sir Robert, 155, 156, 157, 
 167, 168, 172, 306, 207, 317 
 
 Motley, J. L., 160, 161 
 
 Moustier, 87 
 
 Napier of Magdala, Lord, 295 
 Napoleon, Emperor of the 
 
 French, 19. 31, 42, 166, 222, 
 
 225, 230, 231, 295 
 National-zeitung, 173 
 Neale, Countess Pauline, 79 
 Nightingale, Florence, 19, 187, 
 
 249 
 Nippold, Prof., 337, 348-353 
 Nobeling, 267, 370, 272 
 
 " OiJ) " Royal Family, the, 1, 23, 
 
 63 
 Ollivier, M., 226 
 Oscar, painter, 251 
 
 Paget, Sir Augustus, 58, 108 
 Paget, Walpurga Lady, 58, 108, 
 
 276 
 Palmerston, Lord, 30, 47, 63, 120, 
 
 137, 147, 177, 184 
 Perry, Mr., 18, 32 
 Phelps, the actor, 61 
 Playfair, Dr. Lyon, 273 
 Ponsonby, Mrs. 273 
 Poschinger, Margaretha von, 255 
 Putbus, Prince, 238 
 Putlitz, Frau, 307-309 
 Putlitz, Gustav, 103, 188, 196 
 Puttkamer incident, the, 313 
 
 Radziwill, Princess Elise, 16 
 Raglan, Lord, 103-105 
 Ranke, Prof., 353 
 Redern, Count, 383 
 Regnault, Henri, 334, 335 
 Reinhold, sculptor, 351 
 Reiss, Mr., 331 
 Renan, 200, 336 
 Ripon, Lord and Lady, 273 
 Roggenbach, Baron, 316 
 Roon, Von, 240 
 Rumbold, Sir Horace, 31T 
 
378 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Russell, Lord Arthur, 337 
 Russell, Lord John, 3, 120 
 Russell, Lord Odo. See Ampthill 
 RusseU, Sir. W. H., 228 
 
 Salisbury, Lord and Lady, 267, 
 
 269, 368 
 Saturday Review, 124 
 Saxe-Meiningen, Hereditary 
 
 Princess of, 117 
 Saxony, King of, 241 
 Schellbach, Prof., 91 
 Schleinitz, Baron, 124, 138 
 Schleswig-Holstein Duchies, 137; 
 
 historj' of, 177-181; the war, 
 
 183-188. 
 SeckendorflF, Count, 295 
 Sigismund, Prince (Son of the 
 
 Emperor Frederick), 196, 205, 
 
 209, 214-216, 224, ^225, 355 
 Smaller, G. W., journalist, 358, 
 
 360, *361 
 Sophia, Princess (afterwards 
 
 Queen of the Hellenes), 227, 
 
 228, 245 
 Spencer, Lord, 370 
 Stanley, Dean, 341 
 Stanley of Alderley, Lord, 174 
 Steibel, Dr, 331 
 Stein, 55, 56 
 Stockmar, Baron, 1, 10, 30, 33, 
 
 33, 72, 81-82, 88, 94, 95, 97, 
 
 101, 108, 113, 122, 126, 135, 
 
 137, 152, 156 
 
 Stockmar, Baron Ernest, 72, 156, 
 
 159, 169, 170 
 Stoll)erg, Prince, 307 
 Story, Mr., 276 
 Strauss, 200 
 Sumner, Archbishop, 47 
 Sussex, Duke of, 3 
 
 Teign mouth-Shore, Canon, 365, 
 
 366 
 Tenniel, Sir John, 327 
 Times, The, 36, 69, 70, 123, 124, 
 
 138, 147, 169, 170, 173, 230 
 Titian, 264 
 
 Thiers, 245 
 Thomas, G. H., 143 
 Turr, General, 231 
 
 Uphues, sculptor, 354, 355 
 
 Victoria of Hesse, Princess, 309 
 Victoria, Princess, daughter of 
 
 Empress Frederick, 213, 214, 
 309-312, 332 
 
 Victoria, Princess of Schleswig- 
 Holstein-Augustenburg, 277 
 
 Victoria, Queen, 1, 2, 3; educa- 
 tion of her children, 4—6, 8, 10; 
 Exhibition of 1851, 16, 17; 
 marriages of her children, 24, 
 25; Princess Royal's betrothal, 
 29-31, 36, 37, 39, 42-44, 46-49; 
 a caricature, 28; birth of first 
 grandchild, 100-103; sees him 
 ,for first time, 121-123; de- 
 scription of the New Palace, 
 109; birth of Princess Char- 
 lotte, 116, 117; death of Prince 
 Consort, 149-151; relations 
 with Morier, 172, 207; rela- 
 tions with Bismarck, 184, 185, 
 311, 312; attitude in Danish 
 War, 177, 184, 185; Austrian 
 War, 213; Franco-German 
 War, 229, 230, 231; interven- 
 tion on behalf of France, 256, 
 257; visit to the Emperor 
 Frederick, 311, 312; the Bat- 
 tenberg marriage, 310, 311; 
 death, 362 
 
 Virchow, Prof., 292 
 
 Volkszeituncf, 173 
 
 Vossische Zeitung, 363 
 
 (' 
 
 Wacf., poet, 12 
 
 Waddington, M., 337, 356, 357 
 
 Waddington, Mme., 356, 357 
 
 Wagener, 289 
 
 Wagner, 357 
 
 Waldemar, Prince (son of Em- 
 press Frederick), 224, 274, 341 
 
 Walewski, 87 
 
 Wangenheim, von, 87 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 3 
 
 Werner, Anton von, painter, 251, 
 264 
 
 Westmorland, Priscilla Lady, 
 107 
 
 Wilberforce, Bishop, 47 
 
 Wilberg, painter, 264 
 
 William \, German Emperor; as 
 Prince of Prussia, 16, 17, 25, 
 26, 37, 39, 60, 65, 93; regency, 
 97, 98, 102, 115, 116, 201; suc- 
 cession as King William I, 133, 
 134, 137; coronation, 139-141, 
 143, 147, 148, 157, 165, 166- 
 169, 171, 172, 182, 183, 211, 
 
INDEX 
 
 379 
 
 318-220, 223; Emperor, 227, 
 228, 230, 234, 235, 241-243, 236, 
 257 ; attempted assassinations, 
 267-272; failing health, 285- 
 288, 294; death, 297, 298, 306, 
 307; character, 319, 320, 353 
 William II, German Emperor, 
 birth and christening, 100-107; 
 and Queen Victoria, 121-123, 
 141, 142, 194, 195, 207, 208, 
 209; education, 259-262, 265, 
 
 266; betrothal and marriage, 
 277; accession, 315-318; com- 
 parison with his mother, 318- 
 321; relations with his mother, 
 329, 332, 356, 364, 365 
 
 "Wittenberg, 73 
 
 Wodehouse, Lady, 22 
 
 Wrangel, Field-Marshal von, 73, 
 79, 94, 96, 100, 183, 228 
 
 Wiirtemberg, King of, 228 
 
NOV 25 !9I3