Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires

by Justin C. Vovk

  In 1904, Crown Prince Willy became involved in another romance, but this one led to the altar. This time, Dona was thrilled because Willy’s bride-to-be was a princess who came from one of Germany’s most prominent royal families. The woman who had caught the profligate crown prince’s eye was Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, whose pedigree and connections rivaled even the Hohenzollerns—the Mecklenburgs were reportedly “the oldest sovereign house in the Western World.” Cecilie’s brother, Frederick Francis IV, had been the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin since the age of fifteen; her sister was married to Crown Prince Christian of Denmark; and her mother was a Russian grand duchess and cousin of Alexander III. The official engagement announcement was made in September 1904 during a state dinner Wilhelm and Dona were giving for officials from Schleswig-Holstein. “The announcement was received with great enthusiasm,” reported the New York Times.526

  The wedding took place at the Stadtschloss in the unusually hot June of 1905. The official festivities began when Cecilie, accompanied by Empress Augusta Victoria, made her inaugural entry into Berlin on June 4. They rode in the gold carriage of the Prussian kings, used only on the most important occasions. Their carriage took the traditional route through the Brandenburg Gate. As they rode down Unter den Linden, thousands of well-wishers threw roses at the couple. Willy was the first crown prince of the German Empire to get married, prompting so many royal guests to flood into Berlin that it was “one of the most distinguished assemblages that could be gathered in Europe.”527 Sissy wrote how “Cecilie’s beauty, grace and charm filled me with astonishment.”528 In keeping with the traditions of the Prussian court, the empress took an active role in each stage of the wedding ceremony. On the morning of the wedding, June 6, she accompanied Cecilie in a gold state landau from Potsdam into Berlin. Just before the wedding, she placed the glistening Prussian bridal crown on the princess’s head. When Dr. Ernst von Dryander, the court chaplain, concluded the Lutheran ceremony, Willy and the new crown princess knelt to receive the emperor and empress’s blessing. As Dona embraced Cecilie, kissing her on each cheek, she turned to her son and said, “My dear boy, you have made a good choice.”529

  Like so many things in the Hohenzollerns’ lives, the wedding was overshadowed by family politics. George and May planned on attending the ceremony, but owing to the fickle relationship between Edward VII and Wilhelm II, their visit was cancelled on the grounds that the Prince and Princess of Wales had “other commitments.” Furious, Wilhelm responded by refusing to allow Crown Prince Willy to attend King Edward’s birthday celebrations that year. In the end, George and May were barely missed from Willy and Cecilie’s nuptials. The wedding went off smoothly, and it did not take long for the new crown princess to become loved in Berlin. She was an “uncommonly favourable” woman whose “grace and natural amiability charm everyone.”530

  Initially, the crown princess joined Dona in promoting charitable causes. One of the more forward-thinking philanthropic organizations they supported was the Central Association of German Actresses. One contemporary wrote that this group, under Dona’s tutelage, “has of late years done more toward elevating the stage than has ever been accomplished by members of the aristocracy who have seen fit to join the dramatic profession with that avowed object in view.”531 Cecilie hoped to forge deeper relationships with her new family in Berlin. She naturally looked to Dona for companionship, but the crown princess found her mother-in-law lacking in the ability to do so. The empress was “an excellent, kindly and extremely good and indulgent woman,” but she was too “absorbed in her housewifely duties” to truly be a close friend to the crown princess.532

  Since the Duchess of Teck’s death in 1897, the Princess of Wales had appointed herself the matriarch of the Teck family. Periods of grief as well as joy came with this role. One of the happier moments May experienced was the wedding of her favorite brother, Alge, to the king’s favorite niece and Prince George’s cousin Princess Alice of Albany, in February 1904. It was a propitious match that cemented the Tecks’ ties within the British royal family.

  If Alge was May’s favorite brother, the black sheep of the family continued to be Frank. He enjoyed making fun of royalty, something which offended Princess May’s sensibilities. He took particular delight in mocking his sister. Shortly after her wedding, Frank began calling May and George Master and Mistress York. He had earned Queen Victoria’s enmity by refusing to participate in or take seriously Mausoleum Day, December 14, the anniversary of Prince Albert’s death. The Tecks were aghast by Frank’s similar response to the funereal gatherings of Mary Adelaide’s family to commemorate the Duchess of Cambridge’s death.

  Frank publicly embarrassed his family and the monarchy when his name was splattered across the tabloid press when he started up an affair with an older, married woman. The situation threatened to tear the Tecks apart when Frank started giving the woman some of Mary Adelaide’s jewels, which had been bequeathed to May. These were no mere trinkets but consisted of a tiara, earrings, a necklace, stomacher, brooch, bracelets, and ring—all of which were covered with the emeralds that had once belonged to the Duchess of Cambridge.

  As this personal battle between May and Frank was taking place, a professional gambler approached the Tecks. He informed them that Frank owed him £10,000 and that he “threatened scandal if the loss was not made good.”533 Realizing something had to be done quickly to avoid a scandal, Princess May went to the king. The payment was made, but the royal family had reached the end of its rope with Frank Teck. Edward VII ordered Frank sent back to India for a second exile under the pretense of rejoining his regiment. Frank humiliated his sister when he promptly resigned from the army and refused to leave England. May’s place in the royal family, the expectation that she would one day be queen, and her absolute adherence to the monarchy meant there was no choice but for her to sever ties with her unrepentant brother. It was important that the Princess of Wales not be tainted by scandals, personal or otherwise. Along with her official duties, she was also the mother of the next generation of the royal family. She needed to be seen as pure, untainted, and ideally maternal.

  On July 12, 1905, she gave birth to her last child after an excruciating labor. The child, born at York Cottage, was a son whom the parents named John. Sir John Williams, the physician in attendance, remained at Sandringham for eight days after the birth to monitor the princess. During her convalescence, George brought her breakfast every morning at nine and then spent much of each day reading to her aloud from her favorite books. John was baptized nearly a month later, on August 3, at Saint Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham. A dazzling array of godparents were chosen from the four corners of Europe—from the southwest, the king of Portugal; from the southeast, George’s cousins Crown Prince Constantine and Crown Princess Sophie of Greece; from the northeast, George’s brother-in-law the king of Norway; and from the northwest, Princess Alice of Teck, May’s new sister-in-law. There are conflicting reports over whom the prince was named for. One theory states that it was in honor of George’s Danish cousin Prince John of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. A more widely publicized account is that he was named for George’s brother Alexander John, who died shortly after he was born in 1871.

  By the time of Prince John’s arrival, May was an active, attentive, though noticeably unaffectionate mother who took a dim view of pregnancy, childbirth, and the raising of small children. She echoed Queen Victoria’s sentiments and did not enjoy being “with child.” May detested how ill she felt during each pregnancy, as well as the limits it placed on her official duties. “Of course it is a great bore for me & requires a great deal of patience to bear it, but this is alas the penalty of being a woman!” she once wrote to her husband.534 Like other high-ranking women of that era, she saw her children on a limited basis, usually twice each day in the morning and at tea time. She also entrusted the care of her children to a governess. Some of these women were inept.

  One of them was even abusive.
Mary Peters harbored an almost obsessive desire for May’s two eldest sons, David and Bertie, but in different ways. With David, Peters was obsessively controlling. She always needed to have him with her. During her time employed by the Wales family, she did not spend even one day away from him. With Bertie, things took on a more malevolent tone. Peters obsessively resented the prince, whom she would summarily punish by refusing to feed him. Evidence has since emerged indicating that Peters misfed Bertie “so badly that he was afflicted for the rest of his life by digestive problems.”535 Determined to keep the children in her care as much as possible, Peters would twist and pinch the children’s arms when they were taken to have tea with their parents. When they began to cry in front of May and George for no obvious reason, they were quickly returned to Peters’ care. This abuse had a profound impact on Bertie. He developed a crippling speech impediment around the age of four or five, which lasted well into adulthood. It was only when a new, much-loved governess named Charlotte Bill was brought into the household that the abuse came to an end after the shocking length of three years. Bill—who, unlike the rest of the Wales’ staff, was not afraid of Peters—reported what was going on to the head of the household, who in turn informed an incredulous and furious Princess May. At first, Peters refused to vacate the premises, though she was gone by that night. A week later, she ended up in hospital after suffering a complete nervous breakdown.

  Once word of the Mary Peters imbroglio leaked out, criticism for May and George’s parenting erupted like a mushroom cloud. “The tragedy was that neither had any understanding of a child’s mind,” admitted May’s friend the Countess of Airlie. “They had not succeeded in making their children happy.”536 In private, the Princess of Wales could enjoy some shared activities with her children. There was no question that between herself and her husband, it was the princess who could be more fun-loving. According to David, when his father was not around, his mother “was an amusing woman.”537 This is rather surprising given George’s rowdy childhood. In his youth, he and his siblings shocked visitors at Marlborough House with their antics. Queen Victoria considered George and Eddy to be among the most ill-bred, ill-trained, raucous children she had ever seen. Young George once received a reprimand from Queen Victoria for some minor infraction and was ordered to sit under the dining room table. When the queen summoned him a few minutes later, the little prince reportedly emerged completely naked. The then Princess Alexandra was largely responsible for George’s unbecoming behavior, regularly encouraging her children to play practical jokes. When a stunned onlooker questioned her children’s behavior, Alexandra merely shrugged and admitted she had been worse at that age. By the time George was a father, he had shed the frivolous gaiety of his childhood. As an adult, the Prince of Wales had little use for jokes or lightheartedness. According to his son David, George “retained a gruff blue-water approach to all human situations. I have often felt that despite his undoubted affection for all of us, my father preferred children in the abstract.”538

  Compared to her husband, May was seen as much more affectionate. David once fondly wrote of his mother, “Her soft voice, her cultivated mind, the cosy room overflowing with personal treasures were all inseparable ingredients of the happiness associated with … a child’s day … Such was my mother’s pride in her children that everything that happened to each one was of the utmost importance to her. With the birth of each new child, Mama started an album in which she painstakingly recorded each progressive stage of our childhood.”539 The infanta Eulalia of Spain, a famous European courtesan, thought very highly of May’s parenting: “As a mother she stands unequalled; well may her children arise and call her blessed! Her heart has been their home since their birth; to them she has always been the mother and friend … and no shadow of the throne has ever darkened the happy youth of her charming sons and her idolized daughter.”540

  In October 1905, George and May set off for another extended international tour. This time their travels took them to India and the Far East. May was determined to go forward with as much knowledge as she could possibly have. She wrote before the trip, “We … are having a nice restful time. I am reading books on India which are most interesting, I read nearly all morning when I have not letters to write.”541 For this second trip abroad, the royal couple would be gone for eight months. Their children were once again being left in the care of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, who lovingly called her grandchildren “the Georgie pets.” The accommodations for this trip would be a cut above the colonial tour. Instead of the scrappy steamship Ophir to ferry them, George and May traveled on the HMS Renown, Britain’s newest ship of the line. They made their way to Genoa, where they boarded the Renown for India.

  When they arrived in Calcutta in late October, the British viceroy Lord Minto already had the Government House ready and waiting for them. It was the first time a Princess of Wales had set foot in India, and May was very glad that she had taken the time to read up on this ancient and beautiful country. “Thanks to the amount of Indian reading which I have done I really am not so ignorant about India as most of the English women here are,” she wrote back to Hélène Bricka, her old governess.542 May’s arrival in India was truly unique and went a long way to establishing the credibility of both herself and the monarchy in the eyes of the Indian people.

  The visit of the then Princess of Wales to India was an innovation of which many an experienced official was admittedly afraid … The presence of a woman where a woman had never been before, in a land where the status of women is so different … might easily have spoilt the issues most desired from the tour;… The ardent interest in the life of the people which the Princess showed won at once an eager response from them, and completed in a manner which India had never known its sense of gratitude to Royal favour … the Princess added a womanly sympathy which as a regal quality only existed for India as a tradition of the Great Queen [Victoria].543

  The Prince and Princess of Wales were awestruck by India’s majestic beauty, as well as by the incredible welcome they received from the people. At the opening ceremony of their visit, George made a moving speech about the deep impact the country had made on himself and his wife: “Here we are truly in a new world, and, from the moment when we arrived in your State to this hour, one charming impression has been quickly followed by another.”544 Along with Calcutta, the royal couple made visits to Bombay, Peshawar, Rangoon, Mandalay, Mysore, Benares, and Chaman. India made a deep and lasting impact on May, who later said, “when I die India will be written on my heart.”545

  The voyage home was in itself another international tour. The first stop was Egypt, complete with a visit to the Pyramids. “I did not ascend the Pyramid, it was too much of a climb,” May wrote to Aunt Augusta, “but I did ride a camel and rather really liked it.”546 From Egypt, the royal party moved on to Greece, where it truly turned into a family affair. George’s uncle was King George I of Greece. Known in the family as “Uncle Willy,” this brother of Queen Alexandra and Marie Feodorovna of Russia was chosen to be king of the Hellenes in 1863 at the age of eighteen. Thanks to the ambitious matchmaking of their father, King Christian IX of Denmark, the Danish royal family had a monopoly on Europe. They were directly connected with the royal families of Britain, Russia, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Serbia, and Germany. Edward VII once remarked that at the Danish royal family’s famed reunions at Fredensborg, one could hear seven different languages being spoken at any given time. George’s aunt Queen Olga of Greece—like so many of Europe’s other royal consorts—was a Romanov grand duchess and cousin to Alexander III. She was very fond of May and had been one of the voices encouraging George to propose to her. It was in Athens that George and May also met up with his parents and his sister Toria. Princess May, true to her academic nature, could not help but take advantage of the opportunity to see some of Greece’s historic monuments. In the company of her husband’s Greek cousins, she spent a day touring the Parthenon, the Propylaea, and the Nike Temple. George preferred
to visit one of his favorite spots in the country, the Tatoi Palace, located three miles north of Athens, which he said reminded him of Scotland.

  Of all the exotic places Princess May visited on this tour abroad, it was her visit to Spain in May 1906 before returning to England that had the greatest significance politically, dynastically, and historically. While still in India, the Prince and Princess of Wales learned of the engagement of George’s cousin Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (“Ena”) to King Alfonso XIII of Spain. As a young girl, Ena had been a bridesmaid at May and George’s wedding. Now it was young Ena’s turn. The only daughter of Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter, Beatrice, Ena was marrying the spindly, twenty-year-old king of Spain. However dazzling a dynastic marriage it may have been, it was still littered with obstacles. There had not been a union between the royal houses of England and Spain in more than four hundred years, not since Henry VIII’s daughter Queen Mary wed Philip II of Spain. Although it was undoubtedly an illustrious union between two powerful reigning houses, the greatest question to be overcome was that of religion. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the royal houses of Europe had divided themselves more or less into chiefly Protestant and Catholic camps. With few exceptions, the Catholic courts of Portugal, Austria, Spain, and Italy only married among themselves. The same was true for the predominantly northern Protestant nations like England, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian courts, and Germany. An Anglican English princess marrying the Catholic king of Spain was controversial enough to begin with, but when Ena—a favorite granddaughter of Queen Victoria—converted to the Catholic faith, a public relations nightmare ensued. Anti-Catholic sentiments in England were so strong that, after Ena and Alfonso became engaged, George wrote to May, “Beatrice is advised on her return to England to keep Ena quiet somewhere, at Osborne, and not to bring her to London as the feeling is so strong.”547