DEATH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT--TOUR IN THE EAST
King Edward’s visit to Germany in the autumn of 1861 is explained by
Sir Theodore Martin, in his _Life of the Prince Consort_, to have been
made with another object in view besides that of seeing the military
manœuvres in the Rhenish Provinces. It had been arranged that he was
to make the acquaintance of the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who
was then on a visit to Germany, with a view to a marriage, should the
meeting result in a mutual attachment.
In spite, however, of every precaution to ensure secrecy, until at
least the inclinations of the principal parties should have been
ascertained, the project leaked out, and even before they met, it was
actually canvassed, much to the Prince Consort’s annoyance, in the
Continental papers. From these it soon found its way into the English
journals, where it met with general approval; but as the meeting, which
took place at Speier and Heidelberg on the 24th and 25th of September,
ended with the happiest results, no harm was done, though in other
circumstances it might have been extremely painful.
“We hear nothing but excellent accounts of the Princess Alexandra,”
Prince Albert notes in his diary on the 30th of September, and he adds,
with evident satisfaction, that “the young people seem to have taken a
warm liking for each other.” On 6th October the Prince Consort, writing
to the King of Prussia, says: “Bertie has come back in raptures with
his excursion to the manœuvres, and cannot speak sufficiently highly
of your kindness to himself, and to all the English officers.” About a
week later the Prince Consort was able to write to Baron Stockmar: “The
Prince of Wales leaves to-morrow for Cambridge. He came back greatly
pleased with his interview with the Princess of Holstein at Speier.…
His present wish, after his time at the University is up, which it
will be at Christmas, is to travel; and we have gladly assented to his
proposal to visit the Holy Land. This, under existing circumstances,
is the most useful tour he can make, and will occupy him till early in
June.”
The Prince Consort that same autumn went specially to London in order
to inspect the alterations that were being made at Marlborough House,
which was then being actively prepared as a residence for the Prince of
Wales; and on the 9th Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: “This is our
dear Bertie’s twentieth birthday. I pray God to assist our efforts to
make him turn out well.… All our people in and out of the house came in
to dinner. Bertie led me in by Albert’s wish, and I sat between him and
Albert.”
Prince Albert paid a hurried visit on 28th November to Cambridge in
order to visit the Prince of Wales. The weather was cold and stormy,
and he returned to Windsor with a heavy cold.
The next few days were spent by both the Prince Consort and Queen
Victoria in considerable anxiety. The seizure of the _Trent_ aroused
a great deal of bitter public feeling, and the fact that America was
convulsed by civil war did not make the position of Great Britain more
easy. The Government adopted a very resolute attitude, and the Prince
Consort, instead of allowing himself to be nursed through his feverish
attack, spent some hours in composing and writing a draft, on the
burning question of the day, to Lord Russell.
The story of those sad days is well known. As time went on, Prince
Albert grew slightly worse rather than better, but no real danger was
apprehended by those nearest and dearest to him, and Queen Victoria
would not hear of having the Prince of Wales summoned, until at last
Princess Alice, who behaved with extraordinary fortitude and marvellous
self-possession, felt that she must send for her eldest brother on
her own responsibility. She accordingly did so, and King Edward was
always, up to the day of her death, very grateful to her for her prompt
action, because it enabled him to arrive in time to be present at his
much-loved father’s death-bed. Although she was herself overwhelmed
with bitter grief, it was to the Princess Alice that all turned,
for Queen Victoria was so completely overcome that nothing could be
referred to her, and it was finally arranged that the Prince of Wales
and the Princesses Alice and Helena should accompany their mother to
Osborne, where she had consented very reluctantly to go.
The Prince of Wales returned immediately, in order to complete the
arrangements for the funeral, and to receive his uncle the Duke of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, his brother-in-law the Crown Prince of Prussia
(afterwards the Emperor Frederick), and the other foreign mourners who
were to take part in the last sad ceremony.
The funeral took place on 23rd December, the service being held in St.
George’s Chapel, Windsor. The chief mourner was, of course, the Prince
of Wales, who was supported, in the absence of Prince Alfred (Duke of
Edinburgh), by Prince Arthur. All those present were deeply moved by
the grief of the two young princes. They both hid their faces, and
after the coffin had been lowered into the vault the Prince of Wales
advanced to take a last look and stood for one moment looking down;
then, his fortitude deserting him, he burst into a flood of tears, and
was led away by the Lord Chamberlain.
Sad indeed were the days that followed. The effect of the Prince
Consort’s death on King Edward’s affectionate and sensitive nature was
terrible, and those about the Court felt that something must be done to
rouse him from his grief.
[Illustration: DEAN STANLEY
_From a Photograph by the Stereoscopic Co._]
As we have already seen, the Prince Consort, not long before his death,
had assented to his eldest son’s proposal of making a tour in the Holy
Land, and it had also been his earnest wish that His Royal Highness
should on that occasion be accompanied by the Rev. Arthur Penrhyn
Stanley, who had himself already taken a journey to Jerusalem. And
so, when the tour was decided upon as a means of rousing the Prince
of Wales from his stupor of grief, Queen Victoria made up her mind
that she would be guided by her late Consort’s wishes, and General
Bruce was commanded to write to Dr. Stanley, but not till he reached
Osborne was he actually asked whether he would consent to undertake the
responsibility.
[Illustration: THE KING’S RECEPTION BY SAID PACHA, VICEROY OF EGYPT, AT
CAIRO
_From the “Illustrated London News”_]
Dr. Stanley, though he regarded the proposal with reluctance and
misgiving, for he could not bear to leave his aged mother, to whom he
was most tenderly devoted, consented to do as Her Majesty wished. It
was ultimately arranged that he should meet the Prince at Alexandria,
ascend the Nile with him, and accompany him, not only through the Holy
Land, but on the Egyptian portion of the expedition.
On 28th February King Edward, accompanied by General Bruce, Major
Teesdale, Captain Keppel, and a small suite, was joined by Dr. Stanley,
the party at once proceeding to Cairo. “The Prince,” wrote General
Bruce to his sister, “takes great delight in the new world on which
he has entered, and Dr. Stanley is a great acquisition.” They visited
the Pyramids together, and then resumed their voyage, the Prince
characteristically persuading Dr. Stanley to read _East Lynne_, a
book which had greatly struck his imagination. When recording the
circumstance, Dr. Stanley adds:--
“It is impossible not to like him, and to be constantly with him brings
out his astonishing memory of names and persons.… I am more and more
struck by the amiable and endearing qualities of the Prince.… His Royal
Highness had himself laid down a rule that there was to be no shooting
to-day (Sunday), and though he was sorely tempted, as we passed flocks
of cranes and geese seated on the bank in the most inviting crowds, he
rigidly conformed to it; a crocodile was allowed to be a legitimate
exception, but none appeared. He sat alone on the deck with me, talking
in the frankest manner, for an hour in the afternoon, and made the
most reasonable and proper remarks on the due observance of Sunday in
England.”
A sad event which occurred in March was destined to draw closer
together the ties which were now binding His Royal Highness and his
chaplain, for on 23rd March the news was broken to Dr. Stanley that his
mother was dead. The Prince of Wales showed the kindest and most tender
consideration for his bereaved travelling companion, and was much
gratified that Dr. Stanley very wisely made up his mind to continue the
journey instead of hurrying home at once.
A few days later the Royal party reached Palestine, and it is
interesting to note that this was the first time that the heir to the
English throne, since the days of Edward I. and Eleanor, had visited
the Holy City. King Edward landed at Jaffa on 31st March, and both on
his entrance into the Holy Land and during his approach to Jerusalem
he followed in the footsteps of Richard Cœur de Lion and Edward I. The
cavalcade, escorted by a troop of Turkish cavalry, climbed the Pass
of Bethhoron, catching their first glimpse of Jerusalem from the spot
where Richard is recorded to have hidden his face in his shield, with
the words, “Ah, Lord God, if I am not thought worthy to win back the
Holy Sepulchre, I am not worthy to see it!”
The King, accompanied by Dr. Stanley, carefully explored Jerusalem
and its neighbourhood, riding over the hills of Judæa to Bethlehem,
walking through the famous groves of Jericho, and staying some time at
Bethany.
“Late in the afternoon,” writes Dr. Stanley, “we reached Bethany. I
then took my place close beside the Prince. Every one else fell back
by design or accident, and at the head of the cavalcade we moved on
towards the famous view. This was the one half-hour which, throughout
the journey, I had determined to have alone with the Prince, and I
succeeded.”
During Dr. Stanley’s previous journey to the Holy Land he had not been
permitted to visit the closely-guarded cave of Machpelah, but on this
occasion, thanks to the diplomacy of General Bruce, not only the King,
but also his chaplain, were allowed to set foot within the sacred
precincts. Even to Royal personages the Mosque of Hebron had remained
absolutely barred for nearly seven hundred years, and on the present
occasion the Turkish official in charge declared that “for no one but
for the eldest son of the Queen of England would he have allowed the
gate to be opened; indeed, the Princes of any other nation should have
passed over his body before doing so.”
King Edward, with his usual thoughtfulness, had made Dr. Stanley’s
entrance with himself a condition of his going in at all, and when the
latter went up to the King to thank him and to say that but for him he
would never have had this great opportunity, the young man answered
with touching and almost reproachful simplicity, “High station, you
see, sir, has, after all, some merits, some advantages.” “Yes, sir,”
replied Dr. Stanley, “and I hope that you will always make as good a
use of it.”
On the party’s return to Jerusalem, they witnessed the Samaritan
Passover, and Easter Sunday, 20th April, was spent by the shores of
Lake Tiberias.
During the journey from Tiberias to Damascus King Edward and his
escort lived in tents, an experience which he seems to have thoroughly
enjoyed. From Damascus the party turned westward, reaching Beyrout on
6th May, and after visiting Tyre and Sidon they proceeded to Tripoli.
On 13th May the King left the shores of Syria, visiting on his
homeward journey Patmos, Ephesus, Smyrna, Constantinople, Athens, and
Malta.
[Illustration: THE KING ABOUT THE TIME OF HIS MARRIAGE
_From Photographs by Hughes and Mullins, Ryde_]
It was very characteristic of King Edward’s readiness to take any
trouble to please those dear to him that wherever he went he collected
a number of flowers or leaves from every famous spot. These, after
having been carefully dried by him, were sent to his sister, the
Princess Royal, afterwards the Empress Frederick, who had a particular
taste for such memorials.
It was very soon after his return from the East that the King played
for the first time an important part in a family gathering--the wedding
of his favourite sister, Princess Alice, to Prince Louis of Hesse. The
bride was given away by her uncle, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,
but the young Prince of Wales acted as master of the house during the
quiet week which preceded the ceremony.