“We don’t know in what state we shall meet again, but we shall recognise each other and be together in eternity. I am certain of that.”
Rather than retiring to regain his strength, Prince Albert worked even more frenetically, as though he wished to achieve all he could in the little time he believed he had left. In the middle of May he visited Bertie at Cambridge, and suddenly, at the end of the month, announced that the family must return to London from Osborne in order to be present for the opening of the Royal Horticultural Gardens on 5th June.
The Queen, relishing the seclusion of the Isle of Wight, was horrified:
“Papa insists on our going to Town for no earthly reason but that tiresome horticultural garden – which I curse for more reasons than one – and have to leave poor little, sick Leopold behind here in his bed which makes me sadly anxious and adds to my low spirits!”[94]
To appease Prince Albert, she reluctantly returned to Buckingham Palace but she could not bring herself to appear in public for the official opening of the gardens and opted instead for a private viewing earlier in the day. Later that afternoon, Alice and her siblings accompanied their father to the opening where onlookers were shocked at how tired and ill he looked. None of them was as yet aware that this would be his final public engagement in their city.
“Am ill, feverish with pains in my limbs and feel very miserable,” he wrote in his diary in the middle of June but still he continued his engagements, entertaining numerous visiting royalties including Louis’ mother. He worried about Leopold; followed the disconcerting events in Italy, Austria and the United States; and held countless meetings with ministers to advise them on domestic and foreign affairs. The weather might have been warmer and drier than the previous year but neither heat nor sunshine brought him much joy as his letters made frequent references to how ill and exhausted he felt.
In an otherwise fraught and challenging summer, the only highlight for the Royal Family was a visit from Vicky and her family from the end of June until August. Unfortunately, even this cheery reunion served as a reminder to the Queen of her ‘great loss’.
“This happy family meeting with our children and grandchildren, while our dear Alice’s bridegroom is still here, makes me long and pine for her, who would have been so happy and so proud.”[95]
For Alice, seeing her sister again was sheer delight. Not only was Vicky able to help comfort their parents but also this was the first time that the sisters had met since Alice’s engagement had been officially announced. Now, as a soon-to-be-married woman, Alice could confide in Vicky just as she had done when they were children, and the Queen had no doubt that their conversation would turn to the intimate details of married life. Shortly before the visit, she wrote anxiously to Berlin:
“Let me caution you, dear child, again, to say as little as you can on these subjects before Alice (who has already heard much more than you ever did)…I am very anxious that she should know as little about the inevitable miseries as possible, so don’t forget, dear.”[96]
Whether or not the warning was heeded, the sisters enjoyed their time together. Vicky revelled in being once more at Osborne with all its memories of her happy childhood; and for Alice, the visitors’ presence helped to ease the pain of Louis’ departure for Germany in early July. The only discordant note came from a telegram from Baden-Baden, summoning Fritz home immediately as his father had been the victim of an assassination attempt. A student had fired a pistol point blank and had come so close to killing the King that the bullets actually passed through his collar. Fortunately, apart from a relatively minor wound to his neck, he was unharmed and recovered so quickly that Fritz was soon able to resume the holiday.
When the time came for the Prussians to leave, the Queen and Prince Albert bade them farewell ‘with heavy hearts.’ The following day, to commemorate the Duchess of Kent’s birthday, Alice and her parents visited the mausoleum at Frogmore which, the Queen told her uncle, was:
“…so airy, so grand and so simple that, affecting as it was, there was no anguish or bitterness of grief, but a feeling of repose.” [97]
Prince Albert was equally satisfied by the solemnity and serenity of the place, telling Vicky that it was very beautiful and ‘just what it should be’. Within a short time, he, too, would be laid to rest at Frogmore.
Chapter 10 –
A Strange Sort of Presentiment
On 21st August 1861, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert boarded the Victoria and Albert[l] at Holyhead en route to Ireland. Travelling with them were Alice, Lenchen and Affie, who had returned only three days earlier from a naval posting aboard the veteran of Trafalgar, HMS Euryalus, which had taken him as far afield as South Africa and the West Indies. On a calm sea, there was great excitement aboard the royal yacht as Affie described his adventures, and all three siblings eagerly looked forward to seeing their elder brother again.
As Prince Albert had promised, Bertie was spending the summer stationed with the Grenadier Guards in the Curragh Camp in County Kildare. The posting was basically a reward for his good behaviour, for, despite his inaptitude for learning, he had done his best to apply himself to his studies at Oxford University and had made an excellent impression on his hosts during a recent tour of Canada and the United States. Now, he was reading Constitutional Law at Cambridge, and Prince Albert felt it was only fair to grant him his dearest wish for a military attachment during the summer vacation. Disregarding the misgivings of some of his tutors, who feared his fellow-officers might have a detrimental influence on the young prince’s morals, Prince Albert designed a programme by which his son would have the opportunity to master the skills of a military command and, through his own efforts, earn regular promotions. During the visit to Ireland, Prince Albert would have an opportunity to discover how well his programme was working.
The royal yacht docked at eleven-thirty in the evening and, following a comfortable night at the Vice-Regal Lodge, Prince Albert set out to visit the camp. To his delight he found that Bertie had adapted extremely well to army discipline and, although his progress was slower than he had predicted, he was proving to be a proficient officer. Onlookers observed the joy and pride in Prince Albert’s eyes as the Prince of Wales competently demonstrated his new skills with professionalism and dignity. It was a rare occasion when Bertie so impressed his father but, in that proud moment, Prince Albert was unaware that alongside his enjoyment of military life, Bertie was also relishing the favours of an actress named Nellie Clifton, whom his fellow officers had smuggled into his room to initiate him into the pleasures of the flesh. The consequences of what seemed to Bertie and his companions nothing more than a light-hearted liaison would prove to be far more devastating than he could ever have imagined.
On the 26th August, the Prince of Wales joined the rest of the family to celebrate his father’s forty-second birthday at Killarney House, the home of the Earl of Kenmere. By now the friction between the Queen and Prince Albert had eased and ‘the dearest of days’ was made all the happier since it was the first time in several years that both Affie and Bertie had been present for the occasion. Although Prince Albert missed Vicky and his younger children, who had remained in England, they had sent lovely gifts, which he received with delight, alongside a drawing from Alice which pleased him immensely. That afternoon, the family travelled to Killarney where they were greeted by a crowd of over ten thousand people and an impressive firework display. The next day, as they were taken out on the lake in a boat rowed by eight oarsmen, they were struck by the sheer beauty of the place which had, Queen Victoria remarked, exceeded her highest expectations.
That night, they stayed at Muckross Abbey, home of the Lord Lieutenant of Kerry, who had gone to great lengths to ensure that his guests would have a comfortable and quiet stay, in rooms overlooking the lake. Alongside imported Persian carpets and Parisian curtains, he had specifically order a piano from London for Alice to play. She was so delighted with its tone that she requested the name of the maker and, on d
iscovering it was manufactured by Messrs Allison and Sons of Wardour Street at a cost of only thirty-two guineas, she promised to be a client of the company in the future.
The restorative scenery and the genuine warmth of the crowds, made the visit to Ireland so memorable that the Queen requested ivy and ferns to be sent to Osborne as souvenirs; and, by the time the Royal Family departed for Balmoral on 29th August, all were agreed that the trip had been most beneficial to Prince Albert’s health and to Queen Victoria’s nerves.
After the turmoil of the past few months, the late summer days drifted into an atmosphere of serene contentment. The weather was particularly clement that year and, when Louis arrived at Balmoral in far better health than he had been at Osborne, he and Alice were able to spend much of the time outdoors. Throughout his six-week stay, they walked and rode in the glens, visited the tenants and endeared themselves to the local people. Only one problem clouded their vision of the wonderful future they would share: the question of where they would live once they were married.
Plans were underway for a new palace to be constructed for them in Darmstadt but it would take two years to complete, and, in the meantime, the Queen felt it was only right that her daughter should be provided with a home befitting her station. She approached Louis’ uncle, the Grand Duke of Hesse, with a formal request that the young couple be allowed to live in the existing palace in Darmstadt until their new home was ready but the eccentric Grand Duke refused outright and suggested instead that they should settle with Louis’ parents.
“The rudeness and stupidity of this is too great!” huffed the Queen, who instantly decided that the only solution was for Alice and Louis to spend a good deal of time in England until the new palace was completed. Louis had no objections to the plan, which suited Queen Victoria perfectly, for it would save her a good deal of the trauma she had felt at Vicky’s departure.
Meanwhile, as Alice and Louis enjoyed the autumnal days, the Queen was again preoccupied with finding a suitable bride for the Prince of Wales. Although she had been impressed by his bearing and behaviour in Ireland, she was under no illusions that Bertie had suddenly been transformed into her ideal of a prince. Both she and Prince Albert concurred that he would easily yield to temptations of the flesh, and so, to prevent him from ‘falling’, he needed a beautiful wife as soon as possible. Louis’ sister remained a possibility, as did Princess Elizabeth of Wied, whom the Queen favoured despite Vicky and Stockmar’s rather ‘disappointing’ accounts of her appearance and manner. To his mother’s chagrin, however, when Bertie was shown her photograph, he professed no interest whatsoever in her.
A far more suitable prospect was sixteen-year-old Alexandra of Denmark, who was, in Vicky’s opinion:
“…the sweetest girl who ever lived, and full of life and spirits…She has always been strong and healthy as possible and has never ailed anything in her life except having the measles…I own Princess A. of Holstein is the only one of these princesses for whom I feel portée – it would be dreadful if this pearl went to the horrid Russians.”[98]
Negotiations with Alexandra’s parents were soon underway and, though the Queen feared that Bertie was unworthy of such a ‘pearl’, she was eager to find a way to bring them together.
The perfect opportunity arose in late September when the Prussian Army was carrying out a series of manoeuvres in the Rhineland at the same time as Alexandra and her family were holidaying in the region. With Vicky’s help, arrangements were made for Bertie to observe the manoeuvres, ostensibly to further his military education but in reality to enable him to meet the Danish princess. Vicky, of course, was on hand to furnish her mother with details of what took place during the meetings, and on 26th September she reported that, although Bertie was a little disappointed that Alexandra was not quite as beautiful as he had been led to believe, he was ‘pleased’ with her and she had made an impression on him ‘though in his own funny, undemonstrative way.’
When Bertie returned to Balmoral a few days later, the impatient Queen was frustrated by his lack of passion. ‘I don’t think he is…capable of enthusiasm about anything in the world,’ she complained to Vicky but, relenting a little, conceded that, while he was unlikely to open his heart to his mother, he was sure to do so to Alice, who remained his closest confidante.
Unsurprisingly after so brief an encounter, Bertie was not ready to make a commitment and, though the Queen bemoaned his lack of fervour, Prince Albert sensibly concluded that it was impossible to compel anyone to fall in love. His solution was simple: Alexandra and her parents should be invited to Windsor. If Bertie then decided that he wished to marry her, he must propose at once; if not, he must tell her so, since any other course of action would be ungentlemanly. Of course, it was vital to discover Alexandra’s opinion, and so, once again, Vicky was enlisted to contact her mother, Princess Louise, to find out what kind of impression Bertie had made on the young princess. When the Royal Family returned to Windsor at the end of October, Princess Louise replied that her daughter had been greatly impressed by the Prince of Wales and was eager to meet him again. Prince Albert forwarded the letter to Bertie at Cambridge, and he and the Queen were optimistic that it would lead to a happy conclusion.
For Prince Albert, the return to Windsor marked a return to his onerous commitments and, though he arrived home in good spirits, several international crises as well as his continuing involvement in the country’s domestic affairs quickly began to exhaust him. Throughout the autumn and early winter, he was preoccupied, too, by family matters which not only required a great deal of his time but were also emotionally draining.
Alongside making arrangements for Alice’s wedding and her future life in Hesse, he began preparations for the establishment of a separate household at Marlborough House for the Prince of Wales. His greatest concern, however, was for his youngest son, Leopold, whose health continued to cause immense anxiety. After contracting measles during the summer, Leopold had suffered from a series of nosebleeds and had been confined to bed for over a month. With winter rapidly approaching, Prince Albert feared that the cold and damp might exacerbate his condition and eventually decided that the warmer climes of the south of France would be more conducive to his recovery. Under the care of his doctor, Theodore Gunther, and a Groom-in-Waiting, Sir Edward Bowater, Leopold left Windsor on November 2nd, but before he and the party had reached their destination in Cannes, Sir Edward fell ill and was unable to travel for several days. By the time that Leopold and his attendants reached Avignon, it was clear that Sir Edward’s condition was serious, leaving Prince Albert in the difficult position of having to make precautionary arrangements for Leopold’s care in the event that his ‘minder’ should die. [m]
Meanwhile, news had reached Windsor that Vicky had caught a chill at her father-in-law’s coronation and, despite several days’ bed-rest, her recovery was so slow that she was regularly being bled. The Queen and Prince Albert were so alarmed at the number of leeches being used that they even considered sending their own doctor, William Jenner, to Prussia in the hope that he might prescribe a more beneficial treatment.
Stressed and exhausted by so many concerns and commitments, Prince Albert’s health rapidly declined. The incessant rain of November exacerbated his rheumatism; his teeth ached; digestive disorders prevented him from eating; and in the gloom of the season his familiar melancholy returned. The Queen, feeling equally low-spirited, was so worried that she urged him to relinquish some of his duties but he simply could not stop working. Perhaps it was his only means of distracting himself from a sense of foreboding and the awareness that he had little time left to accomplish all he hoped to achieve.
Prince Albert was not alone in his sense of foreboding. The Queen was also tormented by two portentous conversations she had had with the ghillie, John Brown, before leaving Scotland. Brown had described how he had lost three brothers and a sister within six weeks – all victims of typhus fever; and, as the royal party was leaving Balmoral, he said that he looke
d forward to seeing the Queen again soon and added ominously that he hoped that, in the meantime, there would be no deaths in her family.
These conversations gained a new significance in early November when news arrived from Lisbon that Prince Albert’s cousin and friend, Prince Ferdinand of Portugal, had died of typhoid, and his brother, King Pedro, was suffering from the same illness. The King’s death a short time later plunged both the Queen and Prince Albert into a deep depression as they contemplated the briefness of life and the ease with which families can be torn apart.
“It shows how uncertain life is!” the Queen sighed to Vicky, before going on to describe the conversations with Brown:
“But here are 2 deaths already. These 2 coincidences struck me so much…that they keep returning to my mind like as if they had been a sort of strange presentiment.”[99]
Within a month the Queen would realise quite how tragically accurate her premonition had been.
Chapter 11 –
Mute Distracted Despair
In mid-November 1861, a disturbing rumour came to Prince Albert’s attention: Bertie’s behaviour in Ireland the previous summer was, it was said, the talk of all the gentlemen’s clubs in London. It did not take long for the omniscient Stockmar to confirm the story, and, as the details of the liaison with the actress emerged, Prince Albert was shaken to the core. All his efforts to protect Bertie’s innocence had been in vain; the anticipated engagement to Alexandra could be jeopardised; and, if the press should hear of the escapade, the reputation of the monarchy, which he had safeguarded so diligently for the past twenty years, would be tarnished in an instant. Then, there was the possibility that the actress could be pregnant, or could resort to blackmail; but most wounding of all for Prince Albert was the betrayal of his trust. Against the advice of Bertie’s tutors, he had trusted his son to behave impeccably in Ireland but now it seemed that his faith had been misplaced and Bertie might well have embarked on a course which would lead him into debauchery.
Alice, The Enigma - A Biography of Queen Victoria's Daughter Page 11