More distressing for Bertie’s sisters was his decision to donate the Queen’s beloved Osborne House to the nation. To the princesses it had always been a beautiful holiday home filled with happy memories and the added attraction of having been personally designed by the Prince Consort. To Bertie it symbolised all the pain of his repressed childhood. What was more, he loved Sandringham and London and had no intention of escaping, as his mother had so often done, from the bustle and noise of the city to the peaceful seclusion of the Isle of Wight, which bored him.
Notwithstanding his love of the pleasures of life, the King had more in mind than redecorating his palaces. Throughout his sixty years of waiting, he had formed clear and incisive ideas about how to govern the realm. His talents might have been overlooked in Queen Victoria’s lifetime but now he would bring them to the fore. His charm, tact and diplomacy impressed not only his subjects but foreign ministers, too. As long as Bertie lived, peace in Europe seemed secure.
While the King’s cronies revelled in the glamour of court life, and the new Queen Alexandra basked in the affection of her husband’s subjects, her father’s accession did nothing to ease the burden of unhappy Toria. As her elder sister, Louise (who was created Princess Royal in 1905) continued to enjoy a semi-reclusive life with her small family, and Maud and her sailor prince disappeared to Denmark, Toria was obliged more frequently than ever to follow at her parents’ heels on their numerous royal visits. As her illnesses multiplied, her reputation for hypochondria spread; hearing that the princess had slipped and fallen during a ball at the height of the London season in 1903, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz commented acerbically, “But oh! Poor…Victoria’s fall, truly grievous, she who is already so delicate.”[135] Most of the family shared her sentiments.
It did not ease the unhappy princess’s burden to watch her younger cousins walking to the altar to be married. In February 1905, she attended the wedding of Uncle Leopold’s daughter, Alice of Albany, to Prince Alexander (Alge) of Teck, younger brother of Princess May, the Duchess of York. Although he was almost ten years older than his bride, there was much to commend the Eton-educated Alge. Handsome and dashing in his cavalry officer’s uniform, he had seen active service during the South African war and had even been mentioned in dispatches during the siege of Mafeking.
The wedding took place in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and was a ‘most cheerful’ occasion. A colourful gathering of royalties attended the ceremony, including Alice’s cousin, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; and among the bridesmaids were two other cousins, Daisy and Patsy Connaught the elder of whom was soon to marry the sober and scholarly, Prince Gustav of Sweden.
Following a honeymoon in Cannes, the newly-weds, at Uncle Bertie’s invitation, settled into apartments at Windsor Castle from where the lively Alice had easy access to all the parties and dances of the capital. The couple travelled frequently, visiting Alice’s brother, the Duke of Coburg, and representing King Edward in such distant places as South Africa and the Far East.
In spite of the age difference, it was a remarkably happy marriage that produced three children, May, Rupert and Maurice, the youngest of whom died tragically before his first birthday. The sorrow was made all the greater for his parents as they were away in Coburg at the time, visiting Alice’s brother.
Four months after Alice’s wedding, the royalties returned to Windsor for Daisy Connaught’s wedding. The beautiful Daisy had a choice of several eminently suitable candidates, among them the Crown Prince of Portugal and the arrogant King Alfonso XVIII of Spain, but in 1905, during a visit to Egypt, she met and fell in love with Gustav, heir apparent to the Swedish throne. By the end of the holiday, Daisy and Gustav were engaged and the wedding took place at Windsor on June 15th.
Daisy’s gentle nature and striking beauty soon won the hearts of the Swedish people.
“Daisy was unique:” wrote her cousin Marie Louise, “she possessed the most beautiful character and I can truthfully say was beloved by all who had the privilege of knowing her.”[136]
Two years after her marriage, King Oskar died and she rose to the rank of Crown Princess. Hers, too, was a happy marriage, resulting in a daughter, Ingrid, and five sons: Gustav, Adolph, Sigvard, Bertil and Carl Johann.
While Alice and Daisy were celebrating their weddings, their cousin, Ducky, was living down the scandal of her recent divorce. For years she had known that her unhappy union with Ernie was irreparable and only respect for her grandmother had prevented her from making the final break. The whole family was aware that the couple were living apart – Ernie remaining in Darmstadt, while Ducky occupied her mother’s villa in Nice where she frequently entertained her lover, Grand Duke Kyril of Russia. Now that Queen Victoria was gone, there was no reason to prolong the intolerable situation and at last on 21st December 1901 the divorce was officially announced on the grounds of ‘invincible mutual apathy.’
The not unexpected news might have come as a relief to the Edinburgh family but to Ernie’s sisters it struck as a double blow. Not only had they been relying on Ducky to provide an heir for their native Grand Duchy but they also dreaded the scandal if, in the course of the divorce proceedings, the allegations of Ernie’s homosexuality should be made public. In an earnest attempt to limit the damage, Alix wrote a carefully worded letter to Nicholas’ sister, professing to pass no judgement on her cousin, while insinuating that she, not Ernie was to blame, and urging her sister-in-law to pay no heed to gossip.
Following the divorce, Ernie remained in regular contact with his little daughter, Elizabeth, who stayed with him for several months each year. In autumn of 1903, the Tsar invited them to join the Imperial Family at his hunting lodge in Poland where, within days of their arrival, eight-year-old Elizabeth fell seriously ill with typhoid. Her aunt, the Tsarina, believing that there was no cause for alarm, delayed sending for her mother so that by the time Ducky heard of the illness at the beginning of November, the little girl was already dead. Ernie’s sisters, Victoria and Ella rushed to Darmstadt for the funeral where Ernie and Ducky were briefly reconciled in grief.
Two years later, Ernie found a far more compatible wife in Princess Eleonore (Onor) of Lich. Unlike her predecessor, Onor was happy to take over many of Princess Alice’s charities and proved a very popular Grand Duchess of Hesse. In spite of Ernie’s alleged homosexuality, he found happiness with Onor, who bore him two sons: George Donatus and Ludwig.
For Ducky, life was far less serene. The Orthodox Church maintained its stance on marriage between first cousins, and, even if Kyril was prepared to defy that ruling, as a member of the Imperial Family he could not marry without the Tsar’s permission – permission which Nicholas felt unable to give.
While Ducky, morose and despairing, mooched around Nice, the eccentric Queen Elizabeth of Roumania suggested that she should resign herself to a single life and concentrate on serving others by founding a religious order!
Such was Ducky’s unhappiness that even her staunchly Orthodox mother pleaded with the Tsar to allow her to marry Kyril in secret but, with Alix vehemently opposed to the scheme, Nicholas stood firm.
From Nice, Ducky watched anxiously as Kyril saw active service with the Russian fleet during the Japanese War of 1904-5[¨] escaping death by a whisker when his ship, Petropavlovsk, was sunk by an enemy mine. Surely, she hoped, his heroic return would persuade the Tsar to lift the ban but Nicholas remained intransigent. Worn out with pleading and waiting, Kyril decided to take matters into his own hands. In autumn 1905, he arranged to meet Ducky at her mother’s home in Tergensee in Bavaria where on Sunday October 8th they were secretly married.
When the news reached Russia, Alix was incensed, and Kyril’s arrival at the Tsar’s home in Tsarskoe Selo a few days later did nothing to appease her anger. Denying the Grand Duke access to the Alexander Palace, she ensured that Nicholas imposed on him the full penalty for disobedience. Kyril was stripped of his titles and banished from the country. Only two years later, when Ducky ga
ve birth to a daughter and converted to Orthodoxy, did Nicholas agree to endorse the marriage and restore the Grand Duke’s titles. Still, relations with the Imperial Family were so taut that Kyril and Ducky opted to remain in Paris until after the birth of a second daughter in 1909.
It was, perhaps, as well that they remained away from St. Petersburg, for their exile coincided with one of the most horrifying and tumultuous periods in the reign of Tsar Nicholas II.
Chapter 26 – Revolution Is Banging On the Door
Nicholas (Nicky): Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Alix: Tsarina Alexandra of Russia; daughter of Princess Alice
Ella: Grand Duchess Serge; Alix’s elder sister
Serge: Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich; Ella’s husband
Marie: Duchess of Edinburgh and Coburg, Serge’s sister
Victoria: Princess Louis of Battenberg; eldest sister of Alix & Ella
Grand Duke Kyril’s s flouting of the Tsar’s authority was but one of a series of misdemeanours committed by members of the Tsar’s extended family throughout the reign of Nicholas II. Each seemingly minor transgression, each affair, each morganatic marriage, and each breach of Nicholas’ authority, might have been insignificant in itself but together they amounted to a severe undermining of the autocracy.
As Russia struggled from medieval feudalism to industrialisation, the country was clamouring for reform. For centuries peasants in remote rural communities had accepted the distant Tsar as God’s anointed ruler but now, as they flocked into the overcrowded cities, attitudes were changing. Workers toiling in appalling conditions were easy prey for radicals who were demanding an end to the ‘tyranny’ of Tsardom. Even the most conservative thinkers were forced to accept the inevitability of a shift to a more democratic form of government.
While domestic conditions were changing, international relations, too, brought their share of challenges. If Russia were to compete with the rest of the industrialised world, she needed access to the Pacific but even the major port of Vladivostok was ice-bound for several months each year. The ideal solution would be to extend the Trans-Siberian railway eastwards through Korea but the neighbouring Japanese were totally opposed to such a plan.
It occurred to some of the Tsar’s advisors that it might be possible to take advantage of the situation in the east, not only to secure Korea and Manchuria, but also to improve the Tsar’s standing in the eyes of his people. The vast Russian ranks easily outnumbered the small Japanese army and an early victory would restore a sense of national pride and reunite the people behind their Emperor. Heedless of the warnings of the Finance Minister, Count de Witte, the ministers and Nicholas’ uncles painted an image of a glorious Tsar leading his army through a blaze of glory behind the Romanov double-headed eagle.
The dull reality was quite different from that heroic fantasy. The Japanese had no desire for war and would willingly have settled the matter through negotiation but, as Russian troops continued to move through the region, they had no alternative but to take up arms.
In January 1904, the Japanese struck the first blow, attacking the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, provoking Russia to declare war. A tide of patriotic fervour swept the country as crowds gathered to cheer the troops setting out on their long journey east.
Although already in the later stages of her final pregnancy, Alix threw herself wholeheartedly into the war effort. She opened a hospital at Tsarskoe Selo where she paid daily visits to the wounded and arranged for the men to learn various crafts during their recuperation.
“The great salons of the Winter Palace were turned into workrooms and there every day society flocked to sew and knit for our soldiers and sailors fighting such incredible distances away, as well as for the wounded in hospitals at home and abroad…Every day the Empress came to inspect the work, often sitting down at a table and sewing diligently with the others.”[137]
In the Kremlin, her sister, Ella, also threw herself wholeheartedly into the war effort, organising well-equipped ambulance trains and arranging packages of icons and gifts to be sent to the Front. As the wounded returned to the city, she made daily visits to the military hospitals, taking the time to talk to each patient and learn more about his background and circumstances.
“But the most remarkable achievement which was due to her, and to her alone,” wrote her lady-in-waiting, “was the organisation of women workers, drawn together from all stations of life, from the highest to the lowest, whom she united in the Kremlin Palace, where workrooms were arranged. From morning till evening all through the war, this busy hive worked for the army, and the Grand Duchess saw with joy that the immense gilded salons hardly sufficed to contain the workers…all her days were spent in this work, which assumed gigantic proportions.”[138]
In spite of the tireless efforts of the Imperial Family, the list of Russian casualties grew. Far from being a weak little enemy, the Japanese were well-disciplined, efficient soldiers capable of inflicting terrible losses on the massive Russian army. The proposed ‘short’ war was rapidly turning into a prolonged fiasco and patriotism was replaced by anger and resentment.
By autumn, after nine months of fighting, the disillusioned Russians had grown weary of sacrificing their sons in the hopeless campaign. Disturbances broke out in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg and the reactionary Minister of the Interior was assassinated. Strikes threatened to bring St. Petersburg to a standstill and the unrest was in danger of spilling into greater violence.
“Revolution is banging on the door,” wrote the Tsar’s cousin,” Konstantin Konstantinovich.[139]
Ministers asserted that the only means of placating the revolutionaries was to create a constitution. For Nicholas and Alix, the suggestion that Tsar should hand over his authority to an elected council (the Duma) was unthinkable. At his coronation, Nicholas had taken an oath to uphold the autocracy and consequently felt duty-bound to adhere to the promise made before God. Alix urged her husband to be strong, dismissing the ministers’ reports of imminent revolution as scare-mongering and assuring him that the ordinary Russians loved their Emperor.
It was true that many thousands of his subjects still revered their Tsar. He was their Little Father who loved his people and only permitted the injustices they endured because he was unaware of their sufferings. If they could only reach him and tell him of their plight, he would surely deal kindly with their grievances. Encouraging such thoughts was a socialist priest, Father Gapon, who, in an attempt to prevent bloodshed, offered to lead a peaceful procession to the Winter Palace so that the people could petition the Emperor.
On Saturday 21st January 1905, Gapon, unaware that the Tsar was several miles away in Tsarskoe Selo, informed the Minister of the Interior, Prince Mirsky, that the following day he would lead over one hundred thousand people to the palace. At the thought of so vast a crowd, Mirsky panicked. He warned the Tsar that violence might erupt and advised him to stay out of the city, before summoning mounted troops to guard the bridges of the frozen River Neva to prevent the crowds from reaching the palace.
The next day, Sunday 22nd January, thousands of men, women and children walked peacefully through the streets of St. Petersburg with the sole intention of presenting Nicholas with their petitions. As the orderly procession neared the Neva bridges, many of the marchers held aloft icons and portraits of the Tsar and Tsarina to demonstrate their fidelity and trust.
With absolute faith in their anointed Emperor, the crowds ignored the soldiers’ warnings to turn back and, as the vast horde continued to advance, the terrified generals ordered the troops to open fire. Within minutes over a thousand of the Tsar’s devoted subjects were gunned down, dropping their blood-stained icons beside the corpses of little children.
As news of the massacre spread through the country, Moscow exploded into violence. The city had long been a hot bed of sedition and now, as revolutionaries incited the citizens to take up arms against ‘bloody Nicholas the Butcher,’ barricades rose in the streets. The entire Romanov fa
mily became a symbol of oppression and tyranny and the most obvious target for the revolutionaries’ anger was Ella’s much-maligned husband, Grand Duke Serge.
One member of the Imperial Family to escape the revolutionary wrath was Ella. Before the outbreak of war, her charitable works had earned her a saintly reputation and once the hostilities began her popularity soared.
“Moscow worshipped its Grand Duchess, and showed its appreciation by the quantities of gifts brought to her for her soldiers…Her personality was so inspiring that the coldest people took fire from contact with her ardent soul.”[140]
Even as the barricades rose in the streets, Ella ignored the police warnings to remain out of sight, and continued to make her daily round of the hospital wards. But Ella was not blind to the dangers. Serge had received several death threats while she herself was sent anonymous letters warning her not to appear with her husband in public.
The strain of such an existence was enormous, and a final blow to reactionary Serge was the realisation that the Tsar was planning to grant limited reforms. Unable to accept the changes and worn down by the stress of his position, Serge finally decided to tender his resignation as Governor General of Moscow.
In the early afternoon, February 17th 1905, as her husband left the Kremlin for the Governor General’s residence to clear his papers, Ella was working on her Red Cross projects when an explosion shattered the silence.
Queen Victoria's Granddaughters 1860-1918 Page 22