ROYAL ROMANCES OF TO-DAY
[Illustration: THE TSARITSA.]
ROYAL ROMANCES
OF TO-DAY
BY
KELLOGG DURLAND
AUTHOR OF
“THE RED REIGN,” “AMONG THE FIFE MINERS,”
ETC., ETC.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
DUFFIELD AND COMPANY
1911
COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY DUFFIELD AND COMPANY
TO
H. E. THE MARQUIS OF VILLALOBAR
A SLIGHT TOKEN OF A HIGH APPRECIATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD ix
PART I. QUEEN VICTORIA EUGENIE OF SPAIN
CHAPTER PAGE
I AN ISLAND PRINCESS 3
II GIRLHOOD 7
III COURTSHIP 15
IV A ROYAL WEDDING 24
V A BAPTISM OF BLOOD 36
VI WINNING A NATION’S LOVE 40
VII DON ALFONSO XIII 49
VIII A KING’S LIFE 54
IX COURAGE AND KINGSHIP 67
X THE PRINCE OF ASTURIAS 75
XI THE ROYAL NURSERY OF SPAIN 86
XII THE PRINCES AT PLAY 96
PART II. THE EMPRESS ALEXANDRA
FEODOROVNA OF RUSSIA
I “SUNNY” 107
II COURTSHIP AND A JOURNEY TO THE NORTHLAND 114
III ASSUMING THE BURDEN 124
IV MOTHERHOOD AND QUEENSHIP 134
V SPIRIT WHISPERINGS 149
VI FAMILY LIFE AT THE RUSSIAN COURT 169
VII THE GRAND DUCHESS OLGA 185
VIII TATIANA, MARIE AND ANASTASIE 193
IX THE TSAREVITCH 204
X THE END OF THE ROAD 210
PART III. QUEEN ELENA OF ITALY
I A MOUNTAIN PRINCESS 219
II THE ROMANCE 229
III VICTOR EMMANUEL 234
IV A ROYAL HONEYMOON 240
V ELENA THE MOTHER 249
VI SIMPLICITY OF THE ITALIAN COURT 256
VII THE HEROISM OF QUEEN ELENA 261
VIII ELENA THE QUEEN 267
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Tsaritsa _Frontispiece_
PAGE
The Queen of Spain 12
“The End Crowns the Work” 26
The Procession of Bull Fighters 44
Don Alfonso and His Heir 60
The Prince of Asturias 78
The Court of the Virgins at Seville 90
The Tsaritsa Is Honorary Colonel of the Uhlans of the Guard 118
The Five Children of the Tsaritsa 136
The Winter Palace, the Scene of “Bloody Sunday” 178
The Tsar and Tsaritsa at the Head of a Reviewing Party 212
Princess Milena of Montenegro, the Mother of Queen Elena 222
The Queen of Italy 232
Four Generations: The Prince of Piedmont, His Father
the King, the Dowager Queen Margherita, and her
Mother, the Duchess of Genoa 244
The Royal Children of Italy 252
Snapshots by Queen Elena: The King and Her Children 272
_“Your task is difficult,” remarked a friend to whom I had just
explained that I was writing the lives of the Empress of Russia, the
Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Italy. “Your task is difficult, because
these are three good Queens, and good Queens, like all good women, have
no history.” Now that I have told the stories of these three good
Queens, I wonder if my friend will not grant that they have been worth
the telling?_
FOREWORD
In the year 1907, the Woman’s Home Companion commissioned me to go to
Russia to write the story of the early days, courtship and marriage of
her whom the world knows to-day as the “Tsaritsa.” The following year,
the same periodical sent me to Italy to write a similar account of the
life of Queen Elena; and in 1910 I was once more sent abroad, this time
to Spain, to learn all about Queen Victoria Eugenie.
The chapters printed in the magazine articles constitute only a part of
the material which I gathered on these three trips, and consequently the
stories herewith presented are to my best knowledge and belief the most
complete records of these three Queens, which have yet been gathered and
published. It was necessary for me to rely almost entirely upon members
of the several Courts of St. Petersburg, Madrid and Rome for my
biographical data. In each capital I spent many months, cultivating the
acquaintance of all who were in a position to give me this material,
especially members of the entourages of these several sovereigns.
Accuracy was always my prime aim and the greatest care has been taken to
corroborate impressions and to check up each particle of information
which has been utilised. I have every confidence that the details
herewith presented may be relied upon by future biographers and
historians. Readableness has in no instance led me to sacrifice, or in
any way to exaggerate or alter literal facts.
I have endeavoured to present the stories of these three Queens mainly
from the standpoint of the heart interest which attaches to the romances
which have characterised each of their marriages.
I should be most ungracious if I were to omit expressing my cordial
appreciation of the valued co-operation which I received in St.
Petersburg from Harold Williams, Esq., from Miss Margaret Eager, for six
years Nursery Governess to the Royal Family of Russia; and in Rome from
Doctor Guido Pardo, whose energy, industry and wide knowledge of men and
affairs in Italy were all placed so generously at my disposal; and in
Madrid from El Señor Don Emilio M. de Torres, confidential Secretary to
His Majesty King Alfonso XIII, and El Señor Don Pablo de Churruca of the
Spanish Diplomatic Service.
The justification for the publication of this work in more or less
permanent form lies in my belief in the verity and authenticity of every
last detail, all of which were gathered at such considerable expenditure
of time and labour. Material so carefully gathered and verified should
be of certain service to future writers.
PART I
QUEEN VICTORIA EUGENIE OF SPAIN
CHAPTER I
AN ISLAND PRINCESS
Once upon a time, not so many years ago, there lived on a lovely island
of the sea, a beautiful, golden-haired, blue-eyed Princess. The mother
of this Princess was kind and good to everybody on the island and all
who knew her loved her. The father of the princess was a soldier, a
warrior who led men to battle, and who sailed over distant seas to fight
for the honour and glory of his country. The grandmother of the little
Princess was a great Queen, known and revered by the whole world, for
she enjoyed a long life and a long reign. The little Princess was born
in the fiftieth year of the reign of the good old Queen and so the
little Princess was called “the Jubilee baby.”
The Jubilee baby became the favourite grandchild of the old Queen who
loved to have the young Princess with her, and so it happened that the
training of the Princess was largely at the knees of the great
Queen,--and her nursery days were spent on the steps of a throne.
When the Princess was eight years old, her soldier father was sent to a
foreign land to fight in a cruel war. The ship that carried him and the
soldiers who left their homes with him, stopped for a few days at the
port of a friendly country and the officers, including the father of the
Princess, got off the ship to visit the strange country. It was a
pleasant land, a land of sunshine and flowers, where even in midwinter,
the fragrance of roses and orange blossoms filled the air. The island
home of the Princess was cold in winter, and harsh winds swept in from
the sea. The Prince, seeing all the beauty of the new land, would have
liked to linger in the balmy atmosphere where birds were as merry at
Christmas as in his own land at Easter. But he was on a stern journey,
fulfilling a great and responsible duty. The ship was about to start on
to its destination--the land of discord and strife where war was being
waged, and human lives were being sacrificed--where blood was running
and suffering and sorrow came with each day’s sun; the ship was about to
start on, and the Prince, thinking of the country whither he was going,
and of the land which he now was glimpsing like a beautiful dream,
thought also of the home he had left and his fair-haired, darling
daughter, her three baby brothers, and their mother whom he loved very
dearly. Then he sat down and wrote a letter to the little Princess. It
was the first time he had ever written a letter to her, because she was
still a wee girl and had never left his side. In this letter he told her
how beautiful was the land that he then was visiting, and he went on to
say to her: “Always be a good girl, and love your mother. If you do
this, when you grow up and are big, you too, will travel, and you will
come to this beautiful country. You will see for yourself that you will
like it and how happy you will be here.”
The little Princess was very pleased when she received this letter from
her father of whom she was extremely proud, and being the only one she
had from him treasured it like a relic. She never dreamed how
wonderfully prophetic were the simple words he wrote.
One short month later the Prince was dead. The shadow of this loss
deeply darkened the life of the little Princess and all her family, and
indeed the whole country mourned. A few years passed and the little
Princess grew up and was ever and always more beautiful and lovely of
character, as well as of face and form. When she was eighteen, there
came to visit her country the young ruler of the very land her father
had visited on his last journey--the land which he told her she would
one day visit and where she would be happy. The King of this land, as it
happened, was then only nineteen years old, and in quest of a Princess
to share his throne. When he saw the Princess of this story, he fell
instantly in love with her, and she with him--and after a wooing and
courtship they were married. So after all, the Princess did go to the
land her father told her she would one day see, and now the “Jubilee
Baby” is the Queen of that country, and the people there have become as
devoted to her as she is to them--and she is very, very happy.
Does this read like a pretty fairy tale, written for children? Possibly.
But it isn’t; at least, if it is a story and pretty, it is every word
true, for “the Jubilee Baby” was Queen Victoria’s thirty-second
grandchild, the daughter of Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of
Battenberg. The Isle of Wight of Southern England was the home of the
Battenbergs and Princess Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena--or Princess Ena, as
she was generally called--was Queen Victoria’s favourite grandchild.
When Princess Ena was eight years old, her father, Prince Henry, went
off to the Ashanti campaign in Africa and when his ship was detained a
few days at Gibraltar, he ran up to Seville, from where he wrote the
letter--the only letter he ever wrote to his little daughter--telling
her that one day she would come to Spain and be happy. This letter was
written in November and in December, Prince Henry died of a fever
contracted in the deadly climate of that part of the African coast. Ten
years later, King Alfonso XIII went to England, met Princess Ena and
within the twelve month, they were married and now she is Queen Eugenie
of Spain!