Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria
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Like her Romanian counterpart, Queen Victoria Eugenie was not averse to discussing political concerns with members of the British Embassy accredited to her country. In a despatch to the British foreign secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain, marked “Very Confidential,” Britain’s ambassador to Spain, Sir Horace Rumbold, wrote at length about one meeting with Queen Ena. The conversation began with his congratulations on the “remarkable manifestations of loyalty to the Throne” on the occasion of King Alfonso’s name day. Rumbold went on to report that, though Ena noted that this was gratifying, “the attitude of the ex-politicians, however, had been very different, and Her Majesty went on to speak to me, very confidentially and at great length regarding the intrigues of ex-Ministers.” She told Rumbold that only one of King Alfonso’s ex-ministers had participated in any manifestation of support for the king, but several of them had sent Ena huge baskets of flowers. Ena admitted that a former cabinet minister had spoken to her the past summer (1924). Rumbold continued: “The Queen added that the ex-politicians were clearly trying to involve her in intrigue against the King. One of them had even gone so far as to hint to Her Majesty that the King would have to go, but that the Queen might remain as Regent. Her Majesty did not for a moment intend to lend herself to any such intrigues, and she could only suppose that the ex-politicians were trying to play on the constitutional tradition which they assumed that she had inherited as an English Princess.” Ena’s loyalty to Alfonso, it seems, was unstinting, for this remarkable attempt to get her to participate in a coup against the king failed. Rumbold concluded:
The ex-politicians have on their side, as the Queen justly observed, shown a petty feeling of jealousy towards the Directorate, which Her Majesty described as an unfortunate characteristic of Spaniards. There is therefore, a deadlock as between the Directorate and the former political parties. This would not so much matter if the person of the King were not involved…the King’s responsibility, has, in his recent utterances emphasised the association of His Majesty with the Directorate. This is, to say the least of it, unfortunate.7
Time would prove Sir Horace correct. The Queen of Spain was also viewed by the king’s political enemies as a possible weapon who could be used against him. But Ena did not have the inclination to play such political games. However much sadness the king may have brought into her life, Ena was not about to betray him.
By the 1920s, Queen Ena’s dress sense had reached a high level of sophistication. If Marie of Romania was acknowledged as the most beautiful queen in Europe, Victoria Eugenie was rightly considered the most elegant. Ena, though more subdued than Marie, nevertheless exuded a timeless image of dignity, elegance, and refined taste. Marie’s flamboyance tended to spill into her taste in clothes, making her look far too theatrical for some; but Ena’s cooler demeanor, reflected in her choice of clothes, rarely rubbed people the wrong way. Always at the height of fashion, Ena wore stylish outfits, usually bought in Paris and London, embellished with the finest jewelry and accessories.
Yet the queen had failed to generate a huge groundswell of love from her compatriots. After many years in Spain, the woman who had been born in England and reared by Queen Victoria could still not shake off the impression that she was in temperament, above all, British. She was admired and respected, yes; but loved by her subjects as Marie of Romania was, no.
In spite of the fact that Ena’s two hemophiliac sons, Alfonsito and Gonzalo, were always in danger from the most insignificant cut or fall, there was no Spanish Rasputin. Ena’s more distant relationship with her sons, especially Alfonsito, was in stark contrast to the Tsarina Alexandra’s—perhaps because Ena had a perfectly healthy son in the Infante Juan; or perhaps because Ena never had to wait for years to give birth to a son, as Alix did. Though she loved her sickly sons, Ena approached their illness very differently. Whereas Alix descended into near hysteria over Alexei, Ena went in the opposite direction, meeting adversity “with an exterior so calm and controlled that she was accused, particularly in relation to the illness of the Prince of the Asturias, of being hard and cold.” Because Ena chose to face hemophilia this way, her “manner of combating the agony…was misunderstood and made her more unpopular still,” according to one of her few very close friends, the Duchess of Lecera.8
For all the misery that Ena endured in Spain, not everything in her life was tinged by sorrow. The Queen of Spain had a strong, resilient streak, which allowed her to face the world. Unlike Alexandra of Russia, Victoria Eugenie did not hide from society. Whereas Alix could find nothing redeemable about life outside her palace walls, and kept her circle of intimates to her husband and a few friends, Ena ventured beyond the gates of the Royal Palace for entertain ment and recreation. She especially enjoyed attending ballets, concerts, operas, plays, and musicals, and became an appreciative connoisseur of Spanish singers and dancers.
Her group of friends may not have been large, but it certainly was not as restricted as Tsarina Alexandra’s had been. And because these groups of aristocrats tended to elicit the jealousies of their other, often older and more staid counterparts, the gulf that arose among Ena’s supporters and those of King Alfonso and Queen Maria Cristina widened as the 1920s progressed.
With her children grown and living in various parts of Europe, Sophie and her favorite sister, Mossy, clung to each other for comfort. “All we both wish for,” wrote Mossy to their mutual English friend, Hilda Cochrane, “is to see as much as we can of each other. It wrings one’s heart to see her sad expression & to hear of all she has been through, but she is wonderfully brave.”9 True to their word, the devoted sisters met whenever they could, whether it be at Sophie’s home in Florence, or at Friedrichshof or Panker, Mossy’s other home in northern Germany.
Living in exile allowed Queen Sophie time to reflect upon the campaign of vilification pursued by the British press against her and King Constantine, as well as the British government’s actions toward her husband, and she might well have become embittered, never wanting to have anything to do with England. Queen Marie of Romania best summed up the close ties the Greek monarchs felt for England and their sense of betrayal at the hands of the English: “They cannot understand how the English nation can believe the horrible lies told of them.”10
But in fact Queen Sophie lost little of her love for the land that was her second home. Evidence that she had forgiven Britain for its behavior toward her husband during his turbulent reign surfaced as early as 1923, a year after she and King Constantine were forced to leave Greece for the second time. In recounting to his father a visit to Belgrade that year, the Duke of York added: “She [Queen Sophie] sent you & Mama many messages & is longing to come back to England.”11 Queen Sophie’s daughter, Lady Katherine, has noted of her mother, “She was very English in her feelings, absolutely”12
In 1928, Queen Sophie wrote a letter to King George V that highlights her longing for England and the difficulties she still faced. She did not insist on seeing her British relations, knowing that her presence might offend some:
You were kind enough to say to my son Georgie last year that you had no objection to my crossing to England, if I kept away from town and remained quietly in a small place. I wanted so much to ask you this once more…I am so homesick and dying to see dear England again. I have absolutely nothing to do with politics—have not seen William since 14 years and hardly ever hear from him—so hope I can give no offence by living quietly—and out of the world in a small place if my means permit.
I am too old and sad and tired to go out in society.…If you prefer my not seeing you I would not like to put you to any inconvenience. Else if you could meet me quietly somewhere, it would be a great joy for me to see you dears again after so many long and sad years.13
Queen Sophie’s longing for England would permeate the rest of her life. Throughout the 1920s, any reference to that country was always couched in terms of great affection:
How I love beloved England I cannot say! God grant we may soon go back again.14
<
br /> I am most dreadfully homesick to dear England & Birchington [in Kent]—If I could, I would never leave England.15
my beloved London…dear England.16
I fear this year we shall not be able to come to dear England—the expenses were too great—I hope next year—it may be possible. Its a frightful disappointment.17
When Queen Sophie did manage to visit, she dreaded leaving: “It is a great pleasure to be in dear England again. Alas there are only a few days left & then we shall be leaving again.”18 When she wrote those last words, she had but months to live.
“We three [King Ferdinand, Crown Princess Helen, and Queen Marie] sat there as though struck by lightning.”19 That was how Queen Marie described the reaction to Carol’s news that he had deserted his wife, child, and Romania to live with Lupescu abroad. Marie’s eldest son had done the unthinkable—again. Painting himself as some sort of persecuted victim, Carol announced his intention to give up his family and his position as heir to the throne. A distraught Sitta offered to go to Italy to try and talk some sense into her husband, but King Ferdinand, livid, put a stop to her offer. “You are going through this for the first time,” the princess was told. “For us it is the third time. He escaped the death sentence before only because of the Queen’s intervention. Now, nobody must intervene.” Rallying round to aid King Ferdinand and Queen Marie in this latest problem with their son were Barbo Stirbey and Ion Bratianu, the Liberal leader and premier whom Prince Carol disliked. Carol believed Bratianu had snubbed him by excluding the prince from leading a regency council while his parents were abroad. Bratianu’s close association with his brother-in-law, Prince Stirbey, Carol’s other hated nemesis, also added to the crown prince’s dislike of the premier. With this latest outrage, it did not take much for Bratianu to announce solemnly, “We can’t afford a psychopath as our next ruler, no matter what his intellectual accomplishments.”20
In the middle of December 1925, Carol wrote to Queen Marie: “Mama dear…I’ve had time to think things over, my decisions have become firm.” Carol then made an astounding suggestion. “The best solution I’ve been able to imagine is that one should find a way of declaring that I’ve been killed in a motor accident, let’s say drowned in the Lago Maggiore, so as to make things pass without any scandal.…As I’ll be dead for many, let me be dead for everybody. I’ll know how to disappear without leaving any trace.” Not surprisingly, Queen Marie described this news as “a dreadful letter that tore our lives to pieces.”21
Helen wrote to her husband, asking him to think again about what he was doing. Queen Marie also wrote an emotional letter:
What can I say to you, Carol my boy? What can a mother say to a son who is stabbing her in the heart for a second time…? You have everything: a country that needs you, a grand future to make yours, a lovely home, a beautiful and good wife, an adorable child, parents who loved you, whose right hand you ought to have been, parents who are going towards old age, who have given their lives to a mission you were to have completed. All this you give up, tear to pieces, throw away as though it were so much rubbish, and for what?22
Marie could not quite fathom how her eldest son, at thirty-two years of age, could have abandoned everything for a woman:
Love, Carol, does not mean the blind giving-in to all a man wants.…As I told you during that sad last interview in Sinaia, what I cannot understand is what is your conception of life? What is your conception of duty? What is your idea of love? Is love for you simply indulgence, simply a letting yourself go to your animal appetites till you are sick of the one who satisfies you, and then you pass on? Is there no fidelity in your code, no restraint, no accepting of duty, no keeping of promises given, no moral limit, no straight road you want to keep to? Nothing, nothing at all? No ideal, no vision, no dream of the future, only lust, only giving way to each passion which flits across your path?
Then, my boy, you are right to go, then we cannot understand each other, for we speak a different language, then indeed you are not worthy of standing above others, of being chosen as a leader for a people who need a shepherd, who need one capable of sacrifice, one who will love them enough to overcome himself for their sakes. If you recognize no duty, no fidelity, no obligation, then you are indeed unworthy of carrying on the torch.23
Queen Marie’s outburst failed to sway her wayward son. By the end of 1925, Carol got his wish when King Ferdinand and the Crown Council agreed that he was no longer in line to succeed his father. In the event of the king’s death before Prince Michael’s majority, a three-man regency would come into being.
To Queen Marie, these incomprehensible actions were like a stab to the heart. In January 1926, she wrote despondently to her son, Nicky:
Nicky boy.
you know the horrible strain we were all living under, how Carol was poisoning our lives with his behaviour.…He was reduced to a state of nerves near colapse [sic], so was Sitta….
Both Papa and I tried to make him see reason.…My interview with him was one of the saddest things I remember in life….
It was a hidious [sic] night-mare repetition of the Jassy business but this time still more sordid as he was married…finally Papa with bleeding heart, accepts his renunciation & casts him out of his heritage as he had demanded, declaring Michael crown prince—
There is the whole story, fearful, tragic, full of abominable sorrow, pain, grief, humiliation, shame for us all and a real storm of passion of every kind let loose in the country.
Everything around me is burning accutest [sic] agony, heart, brain, thoughts, and the fearfulness of the lot he has chosen for himself rises before me in flaming tortures.
How could he, how could he? how could he? Did he imagine that he could eternally play this with us & his country.
Is he mad? or has he gone down morally so completely that nothing real, nothing good, nothing honest, nothing clean touches him any more….
Remember we have only one son left now….
Grief, grief, bitter absolutest, most horrible grief.
Your Mama24
Queen Marie admired the way Helen handled herself when the crisis broke out, telling Carol that Helen had behaved “with a quiet dignity, worthy of her golden heart, forgiving disposition and admirable education.”25 Not surprisingly, Helen visited her mother in Florence as soon as she could. She did so in 1926, and they were by Queen Olga of Greece’s side when she died in Rome that year. Queen Olga’s body was taken to Florence, where it lay in the crypt of the Russian Church near that of King Constantine, her son.
Princess Helen’s father-in-law, exhausted by years of service to Romania, was badly shaken by Carol’s abandonment. Queen Marie rightly worried over her husband’s health, but was reassured by both the king and his doctors that he was well enough to withstand her absence from Romania. In the fall of 1926, Marie, accompanied by her children, Nicky and Ileana, embarked at last on a prolonged visit to the United States. Long keen on visiting America, Marie—whose wartime exploits were as legendary in America as they were in Europe—was encouraged to do so by the many letters she received from Americans, as well as by her desire to win help for Romania in the form of U.S. loans. Her American friends, the dancer Loie Fuller and the millionaire Sam Hill, also urged her to go.
Loie Fuller had made a name for herself before the Great War as an innovative dancer, whose odd, fluttering butterfly dances captivated European crowds. She and Marie grew friendly, united by their love for art and especially by Loie’s stint as a nurse at Jassy during World War I. In the postwar years, Loie introduced Marie to Sam Hill, a one-time gold miner turned millionaire with a penchant for building monuments. Like so many men before him, the North Carolina Quaker succumbed to the charms of Romania’s queen and gave Marie much-needed money for her numerous charitable endeavors. Having begun the creation in Washington State of the Maryhill Museum of Fine Arts, which was dedicated to Hill’s wife and to Queen Marie, Marie in turn agreed to go to America to open Hill’s latest monument. In addition
to fifty trunks of clothes she brought crates packed with gifts for the museum.
Marie’s trip began with a stop in Paris, where she met with her eldest son, now known simply as Carol Caraiman. He saw her off—without Magda (as she was dubbed by the press) Lupescu—for Cherbourg, where Marie boarded the Leviathan along with Craggie, her black spaniel, and nearly two hundred pieces of luggage (for herself and her children). The queen impressed those on board the Leviathan with her friendly ways, taking her meals in the main dining room and keeping away from alcohol as a sign of respect for America’s Prohibition laws. The press stalked her every move. Hungry for interviews, they were nevertheless politely declined, since the queen had signed a contract with the North American Newspaper Alliance to write about her impressions.
Marie’s first glimpse of the United States was fittingly that of New York City: the bustling embodiment of America, where millions of immigrants arrived to pursue the dream of a better life. The city renowned for its vibrant energy welcomed the queen with one of its famed ticker-tape parades, complete with military escort, blazing sirens, and blaring bands. The route from Battery Park to City Hall, lined with over seven hundred policemen, was packed with crowds in the thousands, who failed to let an earlier downpour dampen their enthusiasm for the famous queen. It was all heady stuff, even for this royal accustomed to adulation. “Marie—Marie—I heard my name cried out by thousands of voices.” She added that “It was all a little bewildering, very exciting & exceedingly flattering.”2