THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR--THE KING’S ILLNESS
The outbreak and progress of the Franco-Prussian war were naturally
watched with the keenest interest at Marlborough House. Two of the
King’s own brothers-in-law were serving with the German forces, while,
on the other hand, he not only had many close ties with France,
but from childhood had always regarded the Emperor and Empress of
the French with special affection. When public subscription lists
were opened in aid of the ambulances, which distributed medical aid
impartially to the sick and wounded on both sides, King Edward gave a
liberal donation; and when the Empress Eugénie fled to England, one of
the first visits which she received at Chislehurst was from the King
and Queen Alexandra.
Exactly ten years after the first dread news of the Prince Consort’s
fatal illness had gone forth, it became known that the Heir-Apparent
was lying seriously ill at Sandringham. Not very long before, Princess
Alice, who was then staying at Sandringham, wrote the following note to
Queen Victoria:--
“It is the first time since eleven years that I have spent Bertie’s
birthday with him, and though we have only three of our own family
together, still that is better than nothing, and makes it seem more
like a birthday. Bertie and Alix are so kind, and give us so warm a
welcome, showing how they like having us, that it feels quite home.
Indeed, I pray earnestly that God’s blessing may rest on him, and that
he may be guided to do what is wise and right, so that he may tide
safely through the anxious times that are before him, and in which we
now live.”
Princess Alice little knew the days and nights of anxious misery that
were coming so swiftly upon her brother’s peaceful household, and
indeed upon the whole nation. The King sickened in London, but as soon
as he felt himself to be seriously attacked he insisted on going home
to Norfolk, where the disease was pronounced to be typhoid fever.
The King, his groom Blegge, and Lord Chesterfield, who had all been
at Scarborough with Lord Londesborough, were stricken simultaneously,
and public attention was soon wholly concentrated on the three cases.
Curiously enough, the groom and the peer both died, though in neither
case were any pains or expense spared. Doubtless King Edward’s youth
and excellent constitution stood him in good stead, but for many days
the issue was considered exceedingly doubtful.
The patient was nursed entirely by his wife and his sister, Princess
Alice, his medical attendants being Doctors Jenner, Gull, Clayton, and
Lowe. On the last day of November came an official notification:--
“The Princess of Wales has borne her great trial in the most admirable
manner and with singular equanimity. While fully aware of the gravity
of the Prince’s serious illness, Her Royal Highness has throughout been
calm and collected.”
But the patient’s state was known to be critical, and soon it was
announced that Queen Victoria was going to Sandringham, which she did
on 29th November.
The anxiety, succeeded by the most heart-breaking suspense, which
prevailed in the Royal family is well reflected in the following
extracts from the diary of the late Duchess of Teck, who was then at
Strelitz:--
“_November 25._--Read Gussy Alix’s letter to Mama about our poor, dear
Wales, who was attacked with the fever about the 19th or so, and is
under Dr. Gull’s charge, who says it must have its twenty-four days’
course, and that so far all is going on as well as can be expected.
“_December 1._--… When I finished my packet for the messenger, I
telegraphed to darling Alix, and flew up to Mama to consult her about
it.… From Alix somewhat better news reached us, after a bad telegram at
three from dear Alice.
“_December 2._--A rather better account of Wales.
“_December 3._--Wales improving.…
“_December 5._--… Better accounts from Sandringham, but poor Lord
Chesterfield dead.
“_December 6._--… Reassuring message from Alice.
“_December 8._--… Opened a telegram with anxious and distressing
news from Sandringham; poor dear Wales has had a relapse; his state
evidently very critical. _Gott helfe weiter._ We were much upset, and
with a heavy heart I closed my packet for the messenger and wrote
till dressing-time, though I had much difficulty in settling down to
anything.… Mama was very silent all dinner-time, but we never for a
moment suspected, what we afterwards learnt had been the case, that
she had received a worse telegram at five o’clock, and had in kindness
kept it from us.… I wrote _chez moi_ till a most alarming telegram from
Alice to Mama was brought me, with which I hastened to Gussy.… We cried
over the almost hopeless accounts together, which spoke of the end as
not far distant, provided dear Wales did not at once rally, and with
despairing hearts we joined the others in the blue drawing-room. Fritz
came in presently, and I read him the three telegrams received that
day, and a letter from Lady Macclesfield. Later Mama sent for Gussy and
me to wish us a sorrowful good night. I then went to my room and wrote
till nearly four, feeling sleep out of the question.
“_December 9._--Gussy rushed in with a rather more hopeful telegram:
‘Night quiet, exhaustion not increased, breathing clearer.’ God grant
he may yet rally and pull through! It was a relief after all we had
undergone, and thank God for it; the agony of suspense was hard to
bear.…
“_December 10._--On our return from church we found a telegram from
Sandringham, which Gussy tremblingly opened. _Es lautete, ‘a shade
better.’_ Thank God! I ran with it to Tante.…
“_December 11._--About noon Geraldo rushed in with two telegrams, one
sent off last night, the other this morning; both _heartrendingly sad_,
and giving next to no hope, but for the words, ‘Yet we hope.’ They were
a _cruel_ check to our faint hopes. We could think and talk of nothing
else.…
“_December 12._--Dolphus brought us a very hopeless telegram from
Alice: ‘Night restless, very delirious, no signs of improvement.’
After a while I went to my room and read the papers with accounts from
Sandringham and Windsor.…
“_December 13._--… To Mama’s _entrée_, where I found her, Gussy, and
Tante much upset over a very disquieting message from Alice, which
said, ‘Night without rest. No important change in the general state.
Breathing is weak. Anxiety increased.’ One can only look to God’s great
mercy for further hope!
“_December 14._--… Bülow congratulated me on the better accounts which
had just been received from Sandringham! It was the first I had heard
of it; just at that moment Wenckstern appeared with the telegram:
‘Quiet sleep at intervals, gravity of symptoms diminished, state more
hopeful.--Alice.’ God be thanked for this blessed change!… I read
aloud in Mama’s room, amid tears and sobs, the touching account in the
_Daily Telegraph_ of our dear Wales’s illness, of all that goes on at
Sandringham, of the prayers for him and the sermons preached about him.
“_December 15._--A much more hopeful telegram from Alice, as follows:
‘Bertie has passed a quiet night. The debility is great, but the
conditions are much more favourable.’ Thank God for this great mercy.”
The feeling aroused through the United Kingdom was far greater than
any public expression of emotion since the death of Princess Charlotte
in 1817. In every town, crowds waited anxiously for the issue of
newspapers containing the latest news of the Royal patient’s condition,
and the Government found it expedient to forward the medical bulletins
to every telegraph office in the United Kingdom. In the churches of
every religious communion, prayers were offered, though almost without
hope, for the recovery of King Edward.
At length, on 1st December, the King recovered consciousness, and his
first remark to those about him was, “This is the Princess’s birthday.”
The next coherent utterance came when he heard that Queen Victoria had
been at Sandringham. “Has the Queen come from Scotland? Does she know
I am ill?” he asked; but this slight rally did not continue, and soon
all the Royal family were summoned to Sandringham. On 9th December the
fever had spent itself, but the patient’s strength was considered to be
exhausted. Special prayers were offered up in all churches; and shortly
before the service in St. Mary Magdalene’s, Sandringham, the Vicar
received the following note from Queen Alexandra:--
“My husband being, thank God, somewhat better, I am coming to church. I
must leave, I fear, before the service is concluded, that I may watch
by his bedside. Can you not say a few words in prayer in the early
part of the service, that I may join with you in prayer for my husband
before I return to him?”
The Vicar, before reading the Collect, in a voice trembling with
emotion, which he vainly strove to suppress, said: “The prayers of the
congregation are earnestly sought for His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, who is now most seriously ill.”
The day following, an article in the _Times_ began: “The Prince still
lives, and we may still therefore hope”; and so the weary days dragged
on. On the 16th it was recorded that the patient had enjoyed a quiet
and refreshing sleep, and on the 17th, a Sunday, those of the Royal
family who were then at Sandringham were present at church, when, by
special request, the Prince and Blegge were recommended to the mercy of
God in the same prayer. That same day Queen Alexandra visited the poor
dying groom, and after his death, which occurred within the next few
hours, both she and Queen Victoria found time, in the midst of their
terrible anxiety, to visit and comfort his relations.
By Christmas Day the danger may be said to have been over, and on 26th
December Queen Victoria wrote the following letter to the nation:--
“The Queen is very anxious to express her deep sense of the touching
sympathy of the whole nation on the occasion of the alarming illness of
her dear son, the Prince of Wales. The universal feeling shown by her
people during those painful, terrible days, and the sympathy evinced
by them with herself and her beloved daughter, the Princess of Wales,
as well as the general joy at the improvement of the Prince of Wales’s
state, have made a deep and lasting impression on her heart, which can
never be effaced.…”
Queen Alexandra and Princess Alice now felt that their patient was well
enough for them to leave him for an hour or two in order to assist at
the distribution of Christmas gifts to the labourers on the estate. In
the ceiling of the room afterwards occupied by Queen Alexandra as a
bed-chamber, the mark of an orifice might be seen from which projected
a hook supporting a trapeze, by the aid of which the patient, when on
the slow and weary road to convalescence, could change his position and
pull himself up into a sitting posture.
Another memento of the King’s terrible illness is the brass lectern in
the parish church. On it runs an inscription:--
TO THE GLORY OF GOD.
A THANK-OFFERING FOR HIS MERCY.
14TH DECEMBER 1871.
ALEXANDRA.
“When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord, and He heard me.”
The last bulletin was issued on 14th January, and nine days later Sir
William Jenner was gazetted a K.C.B. and Dr. W. Gull was created a
Baronet--rewards which gave particular satisfaction to the nation.
It was whispered at the time that King Edward, under Providence,
really owed his recovery to one of those sudden inspirations of genius
of which the history of medicine is full. He seemed to be actually
_in extremis_, when one of his medical attendants sent in haste for
two bottles of old champagne brandy and rubbed the patient with it
vigorously all over till returning animation rewarded the doctor’s
efforts.
King Edward’s recovery was hailed with feelings of deep thankfulness by
the whole nation, and it was universally deemed appropriate that public
thanks should be returned to Almighty God for His great mercy. The
utmost interest was taken by all classes of society in the preparations
for the proposed National Thanksgiving. Mr. William Longman wrote to
the _Times_ urging that, as in 1664 and 1678, subscriptions should
be invited for the completion of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in
London as a perpetual memorial of the event.
During the interval before the day fixed for the National Thanksgiving,
King Edward and Queen Alexandra paid visits to Windsor and Osborne.
When they returned to London one of the first visitors they received
was Dr. Stanley, who had now become Dean of Westminster. It was
resolved that they should attend a private service of thanksgiving in
the Abbey, which the Dean thus describes in a letter to an intimate
correspondent:--
“I went to Marlborough House to suggest, through Fisher and Keppel,
that the Prince of Wales should come. He consented at once, and it was
agreed that he, the Princess, and the Crown Prince of Denmark, and if
in town, Prince Alfred, should come. I kept it a secret except from the
Canons. We met them at the great Western door; the nave (as usual) was
quite clear. They walked in with me, and took their places on my right.
I preached on Psalm cxxii. 1. The Prince of Wales heard every word, and
has decided that it shall be published, which it will be, and you shall
have a copy. It was one of those rare occasions on which I was able to
say all that I wished to say. They were conducted again to the West
door, and departed.”
The day fixed for the public National Thanksgiving in St. Paul’s was
27th February, and never, save perhaps on 22nd June 1897, did Queen
Victoria and her eldest son and daughter-in-law receive a more splendid
and heartfelt welcome. Thirteen thousand people were admitted to the
Cathedral, among them being most of the notable personages of the day,
including all the great officers of State.
[Illustration: THANKSGIVING DAY, 1872: THE SCENE AT TEMPLE BAR
_From the “Illustrated London News”_]
The procession set out from Buckingham Palace at twelve o’clock. First
came the Speaker, the Lord Chancellor, and the Commander-in-Chief, in
their carriages, followed by nine Royal equipages, in the last of which
sat Queen Victoria, dressed in black velvet trimmed with broad bands
of white ermine, Queen Alexandra in blue silk covered with black lace,
King Edward in the uniform of a British general and wearing the Collars
of the Orders of the Garter and the Bath, Prince Albert Victor then a
boy of eight, and Princess Beatrice. The late Duchess of Teck, to her
great grief, could not be present, as her eldest son had sickened with
scarlet fever.
In the Green Park the procession was greeted by an army of 30,000
children, who sang the National Anthem as the Royal carriages drove by.
St. Paul’s was reached at one o’clock, and the Royal party were
received at the great West door by the Dean and Chapter. Queen Victoria
passed up the nave leaning on the arm of her son, who conducted Her
Majesty to a pew which had been specially prepared for the occasion.
The service began with the “Te Deum,” and after some prayers a special
form of thanksgiving which had been officially drawn up was said. Then
the Archbishop of Canterbury preached a short sermon from the text,
Romans xii. 5, “Members one of another.” The service concluded with a
thanksgiving hymn which had been specially written for the occasion.
The proceedings were over by two o’clock, and the procession returned
by a different route, along Holborn and Oxford Street, in the presence
of an enthusiastic crowd said to be the largest ever collected in
London. As the poet sings:--
Bear witness, thou memorable day,
When, pale as yet, and fever-worn, the Prince,
Who scarce had plucked his flickering life again
From halfway down the shadow of the grave,
Past through the people and their love;
And London roll’d one tide of joy thro’ all
Her trebled millions and loud leagues of men.
Two days later Queen Victoria wrote from Buckingham Palace to Mr.
Gladstone, who was then Prime Minister, one of those touching letters
which on many occasions drew still more closely together the ties of
loyalty and affection between Her Majesty and her people. The Queen
wrote that she was anxious “to express publicly her own personal
very deep sense of the reception she and her dear children met with
on Tuesday, the 27th of February, from millions of her subjects on
her way to and from St. Paul’s. Words are too weak for the Queen to
say how very deeply touched and gratified she has been by the immense
enthusiasm and affection exhibited towards her dear son and herself,
from the highest down to the lowest, in the long progress through the
capital, and she would earnestly wish to convey her warmest and most
heartfelt thanks to the whole nation for this great demonstration of
loyalty. The Queen, as well as her son and dear daughter-in-law, felt
that the whole nation joined with them in thanking God for sparing the
beloved Prince of Wales’s life.…”
[Illustration: THANKSGIVING DAY, 1872: THE PROCESSION UP LUDGATE HILL
_From the “Illustrated London News”_]
Although the Duchess of Teck had not been able to attend the
Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul’s, she returned to England in time to
take part in a great ceremony which took place on the 1st of May at the
Crystal Palace. Referring to this occasion, she writes:--“We drove
down to Sydenham with Louise as Alfred’s guests to attend the _fête_
in celebration of Wales’s recovery. Concert: Sullivan’s _Te Deum_,
Miscellanies with Titiens.”
The impression made by King Edward’s illness and marvellous recovery
upon the Royal family in general is well illustrated by the following
passage from a letter written by Princess Alice to her mother in
December 1872:--
“That our good, sweet Alix should have been spared this terrible grief,
when this time last year it seemed so imminent, fills my heart with
gratitude for her dear sake, as for yours, his children and ours.… The
14th will now be a day of mixed recollections and feelings to us, a day
hallowed in our family, when one great spirit ended his work on earth
… and when another was left to fulfil his duty and mission, God grant,
for the welfare of his own family and of thousands.”