CHAPTER XIV

SILVER WEDDING OF KING EDWARD AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA--ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS LOUISE

Considerable preparations were made early in 1888 for the Silver Wedding of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, but it was well known that the Royal family were expecting daily to hear of the death of the old German Emperor, William I., which actually occurred just before the Silver Wedding Day, and everything in the way of public rejoicing was countermanded. Still, the 10th of March was not allowed to pass entirely unobserved. The whole of the Royal family then in England, preceded by Queen Victoria, called at Marlborough House to offer their congratulations in person, and for that one day the Court mourning was abandoned. The King and Queen Alexandra with their family lunched at Buckingham Palace with Queen Victoria, while in the evening the Sovereign attended a family dinner-party at Marlborough House, this being the first time she had ever been to dinner with her son and daughter-in-law in London. Queen Victoria, after leaving Marlborough House, drove through some of the principal West End streets in order to see the illuminations. Her Majesty also gave a State ball at Buckingham Palace in honour of the event, and the King and Queen of Denmark gave a grand ball at the Amalienborg Palace at Copenhagen.

Archbishop Magee (then Bishop of Peterborough) writes in a letter to his intimate friend and biographer, Canon MacDonnell, the following amusing account of his share in the rejoicings:--

“ATHENÆUM CLUB, _11th March 1888_.

“Did you ever in your eminently respectable life dance on the tight rope? And did you ever do so in the presence of Royalty? No? Then I have beaten you.

“For I have this day performed that exceedingly difficult feat, and dead beat do I feel after it. I suppose you saw (for it was announced in all the papers) that H.R.H. was to worship at Whitehall with all his family, to keep his silver wedding, and that the Bishop of Peterborough was to preach. Not an easy thing to do, under any circumstances, to preach to Royalty in a pew opposite you, and also to a large middle-class congregation on a special occasion. But only think of having to add to this a special allusion to the late Emperor of Germany’s death, and the present Emperor’s condition, and all this within the space of forty minutes, the utmost length that it is considered good taste to inflict on H.R.H. Add to this that he specially requested an offertory for the Gordon Boys’ Home, and of course implied some reference in the sermon to this. So that I had, within forty minutes, to preach a charity sermon, a wedding sermon, and a funeral one. Match me that if you can for difficulty.…”

In the unavoidable absence of the Bishop of London, Dean of the Chapels-Royal, the Archbishop of Canterbury was present, His Grace finally receiving the alms and giving the benediction. On the desk in the Royal Closet, in front of Queen Alexandra, was placed a beautiful bouquet of lilies of the valley, the emblem of the See and Province of Canterbury. Her Majesty quitted the chapel carrying the bouquet.

An enormous number of presents testified to the wide affection and respect in which the Royal couple were held. King Edward gave his wife a cross of diamonds and rubies, her favourite jewels; and from St. Petersburg, as a joint gift of the Emperor and Empress of Russia, came a superb necklace of the same gems composed of carefully selected stones. The five children of Queen Alexandra gave her a silver model of “Viva,” her favourite mare. Her Majesty’s eight bridesmaids, who were all alive and all married, gave the Royal bride of 1863 their autographs bound up in a silver book enshrined in a silver casket of Danish work.

The Freemasons of Great Britain presented Queen Alexandra with a very splendid diamond butterfly. The members of the Body-Guard were represented by a silver statue of a member of the corps, arrayed in the uniform originally designed by the Prince Consort. The Comte de Paris sent a large agate punch-bowl, studded with precious stones. Among the public gifts which afforded the King and Queen most pleasure was the Colonial Silver Wedding gift--a silver candelabrum adapted for electric light, and a fine twenty-one day movement clock to match. The Colonies became very enthusiastic over this gift, and more than £2000 was subscribed in small sums.

The King and Queen of Denmark gave a silver-gilt tea and coffee service; the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark, a valuable vase of Danish china; the Empress Eugénie, a silver model of a two-masted ship of the time of Henry VIII.; and the King of the Belgians, a large silver tankard and a collection of the choicest exotics from the gardens at Laeken. The Austrian Ambassador presented an autograph letter from the Emperor Francis Joseph announcing that King Edward had been appointed to the Honorary Colonelcy of the 12th Hussar Regiment in the Austro-Hungarian Army. The French Ambassador was also received in audience, and offered an expression of good wishes on the part of the President of the French Republic and the French Government.

The presents received by the King and Queen were arranged in the Indian Room at Marlborough House. A prominent position was accorded to the gift from Queen Victoria--a massive silver flagon of goodly height and proportions, the counterpart of one in the Kremlin. One corner of the Indian Room was filled with floral gifts, bouquets, wreaths, pyramids of lilies of the valley, and rich and rare exotics, sent by all classes of the community from all parts of the country and from the Continent.

In strong contrast to these rejoicings was the deep shadow thrown over King Edward and his family by the serious illness of the Emperor Frederick. All the arrangements of their Majesties were naturally dependent on the news received almost hourly from the sick-chamber at Potsdam, but even in the midst of his terrible anxieties the King did not disappoint the loyal citizens of Glasgow, whose Exhibition he had promised to open, and who gave him a right Royal welcome. At length the long-dreaded blow fell. On 14th June the Emperor Frederick breathed his last after a reign of ninety-nine days.

The following year was notable for the first break in the King’s own family circle caused by marriage. But before the engagement of Princess Louise to the Earl of Fife was publicly announced, Queen Victoria paid one of her necessarily rare visits to Sandringham, spending altogether four days there. While there Her Majesty witnessed a performance of _The Bells_ and of _The Merchant of Venice_, given by Sir Henry Irving and the members of the Lyceum Company. The King’s tenants presented an address of welcome to his Royal mother, to which Queen Victoria gave the following gracious reply:--

“It has given me great pleasure to receive your loyal address, and I thank you sincerely for the terms in which you welcome me to Sandringham, and for the kind expressions which you have used towards the Prince and Princess of Wales. After the anxious time I spent here seventeen years ago, when, by the blessing of God, my dear son was spared to me and to the nation, it is indeed a pleasure to find myself here again, among cheerful homes and cheerful faces, and to see the kind feeling which exists between a good landlord and a good tenant; and I trust that this mutual attachment and esteem may long continue to make you happy and prosperous, and to strengthen, if possible, the affection of the Prince and Princess of Wales for the tenants of Sandringham.”

Although Great Britain was not officially represented at the Paris Centennial Exhibition of this year, the King once more showed his friendship with France by going over with his Consort in semi-_incognito_. Their Majesties carefully inspected the whole Exhibition, paying special attention to the British section, and finished by ascending the Eiffel Tower.

Princess Louise’s engagement was made public in the spring, and though it aroused almost as much surprise as satisfaction among the general public, yet those who were really in a position to know regarded it as the most natural thing in the world. Lord Fife had for years been admitted to the close intimacy of the King’s family circle. His was the only bachelor’s house at which Queen Alexandra had ever been entertained, he had long been a frequent and welcome guest at Sandringham, and when he took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords, the King had paid him the rare honour of appearing as one of his introducers. Although rumours of the betrothal of the King’s eldest daughter to various foreign Princes had for some time been rife, His Majesty had made no secret of the special importance which he attached to her marriage, for at that time it appeared by no means impossible that the Princess herself or her children might one day sit on the British throne. In these circumstances a foreign marriage of the particular kind which then seemed intrinsically probable would have been frankly unpopular with the British people, who would have pictured themselves as being perhaps one day reduced to bringing back their Queen, now wholly Germanised, from some obscure Grand Duchy.

King Edward on this occasion showed once more his intuitive sympathy with the feelings of his future subjects, for the news of the Royal engagement was received with an absolutely unforced outburst of popular enthusiasm, the more so when it became known that it was entirely a love match.

The King and Queen Alexandra with their three daughters went to Windsor on 27th June and visited Queen Victoria, who formally gave her consent to the engagement. On the receipt of the news at Marlborough House the fact was at once communicated to the Household, and the Marquis of Salisbury, the Prime Minister, was also officially informed. The Earl of Fife was received by Queen Victoria the same evening at Windsor Castle. In the House of Commons a Message from the Queen formally announced the intended marriage, and the First Lord of the Treasury gave notice of a motion to grant a suitable provision for the Royal bride, though owing to the great wealth of the bridegroom this was perhaps less necessary than it had been on the occasion of other Royal marriages.

The Earl of Fife (Alexander William George Duff), Baron Skene of Skene, Viscount Macduff, and Baron Braco of Kilbryde, County Cavan, was the only son of James, fifth Earl of Fife, and of the Countess of Fife, who was Lady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth Hay, daughter of the Earl of Erroll. He was born on 10th November 1849, and was educated at Eton. He succeeded his father in the Scotch and Irish honours on 7th August 1879, and was created an Earl of the United Kingdom in 1885. He sat as Viscount Macduff in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1879 as Liberal member for Elgin and Nairn. Lord Fife, who is one of the largest landed proprietors in Scotland, owning extensive estates in Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen, was created Duke of Fife and Marquis of Macduff in the peerage of the United Kingdom, on his wedding day, 27th July, having declined to take the title of Duke of Inverness.

The wedding was celebrated in the Chapel at Buckingham Palace, in the presence of Queen Victoria, King Edward, and Queen Alexandra, with their sons and two younger daughters, the King of the Hellenes, the Crown Prince of Denmark, and the Grand Duke of Hesse.

The King of the Hellenes has always been one of the favourite brothers-in-law of the King, who, with Queen Alexandra, went to Athens in the autumn to attend the wedding of the Duke of Sparta and Princess Sophie of Germany.

The following year was not very eventful. In March the King performed the ceremonies of finishing and opening the Forth Bridge in the presence of an illustrious assembly, including his son Prince George, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had travelled from Russia on purpose, the Duke of Fife, and the Earl of Rosebery, who entertained the Royal party at Dalmeny. The last rivet, which the King fixed, is on the outside of the railway, and holds together three plates. Around its gilded top there runs a commemorative inscription. At the hour appointed for the formal declaration of the opening of the bridge, the wind was blowing so violently that it was impossible for His Majesty to make a speech. He simply said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I now declare the Forth Bridge open.”

It was in March, also, that the King and Prince George attended a Chapter of the Order of the Black Eagle in Berlin, at which Prince George was invested with the insignia of the Order. Subsequently the Royal visitors took part in the Ordensfest.