Queen Alexandra (1844-1925), Part III

[nelly]

Sometimes when you are reading the correspondence between QV and Vickie, you get the feeling that whatever Bertie's feelings were, in the end it was QV's opinion that determined the outcome.  "As regards Bertie's affair, one thing I think very necessary. . .that I should see the girl before B. sees her again so that I could judge, before it is too late, whether she will suit me. "  I guess if QV didn't like her, it wouldn't matter what the two most concerned parties thought  

[Grace]

That's correct, Nelly.  Bertie was really given little choice in the situation -- he either agreed to proprose to Princess Alexandra or face the wrath of his parents, which probably would have meant being effectively frozen out by them.

As has been said, Victoria and Albert had decided she was the only truly suitable princess, plus they feared he would become more morally corrupt after his adventures with Nelly Clifden.

[nelly]

Yess--Albert the Good seems to have become deranged by the Nelly Clifden adventure.  Poor Bertie--you have to feel sorry for him, getting lectured about his "fall" and "you must not be LOST!!!"

I'm willing to bet he would have married just about any princess who showed up just to get away from that!!  In the end, getting married didn't mean he stayed home, did it?

[grandduchessella]

Yet it was Albert in the end who proved more understanding and forgiving of Bertie than did QV.

QV definitely needed to sign off on the princess, not too surprising and she gave much more leeway than did some parental monarchs. The options were pretty limited--could you imagine Bertie married to Elisabeth of Wied (later Queen of Romania aka Carmen Sylva)? Yikes. Similarly, QA might have ended up the consort of then-Tsarevich Nicholas since the Russians were sniffing around. If this marriage had occured and Nicholas not died, there still would've been an Nicholas II and Alexandra but an entirely different one.

Royal matchmaking was a cross between chess (moving around the pieces, strategy and out-witting others) and dominoes with one royal match often triggering the others.

[nelly]

Well, it was right after Albert had his interview with Bertie that he went back to Windsor to die.  Then Victoria took over, shuddering at the sight of her heir, or so she said.  I think that letter does say it all--if QV wasn't comfortable with the girl, there would be no wedding and it didn't seem to matter what the wishes of the young people were.

The thought of the possibilities of what might have been if Bertie had married Elizabeth make me smile!!  Don't think it would have happened, QV would not have been comfortable with Carmen Sylva

[grandduchessella]

The interview between Albert and Bertie went really smoothly though, with Bertie suitably chastened. If fate, and illness, hadn't intervened the whole issue probably wouldn't be as well-known as it is now. It became hugely magnified in QV's mind after PA's death and the focus of much of her blame on poor Bertie.

QV enjoyed Elisabeth very much--and kept her in mind for Affie later as well--but given how her eccentricities developed, I don't know if she would've been the best fit at the Windsor court.  

[nelly]

I do agree that after Albert's death, QV went off the deep end, going so far as to blame poor Bertie for causing"beloved angel's" death.  I'm sure he couldn't wait to go off to the Middle East for his tour!!

QV really took a hard-headed view of royal marriages.  "Respecting Dagmar, I do not wish her to be kept for Affie; let the Emperor have her."  Love has nothing to do with it, does it?--except her own for Albert, of course!!

[grandduchessella]

She was mostly hard-headed when referring to the Romanovs--she didn't like them one bit.   Her aunt, Julia of Coburg, had married a Romanov--it was a childless disaster that ended in divorce.

Her children were lucky on the whole as she didn't force any of them into unwanted marriages, and even caved on ones she didn't wish for (Affie & Marie; Beatrice & Henry). She wanted suitable marriages but not loveless ones. This extended to her granchildren as well. Even in marriages that turned out badly (Ernie & Ducky) she'd originally had best interests at heart. Would that Ella and Alix had listened to her and not gone to 'horrid Russia' as QV put it.  

[Caleb]

Well I'm sure the Crimean war didn't help & the Russo-Turkish War. Also probably if Queen Victoria had heard about the situation with Alexander II's mistress, that would have helped (not!). Yes, I do think that Queen Victoria went into a depression after Albert died. I went into & still sort of am in a depression after my own father died, but the LORD is good & I think of the blessings I do have.

[TampaBay]

When it came to her children QV did a good job at match-making.  Her grandchildren is where she messed it all up to some degree.

TampaBay

[grandduchessella]

Her batting average wasn't too bad there either--it's just the most notable disaster was a huge one and involved 2 grandchildren.  :-/

She did well with:
GV&QM (and before that Eddy & QM)

Louise & Fife (in allowing the marriage even though he was 'just' an Earl at the time; she raised him in rank)

The other grandchildren she didn't have much imput with except to give her approval (which, granted, carried some weight) as with VMH & Louis Battenberg which she championed in the face of anti-Battenberg prejudice.

Plus, she had strong reservations regarding the marriages of Ella/Serge and Alix/Nicholas, which, sadly, turned out to be very prophetic.

[Caleb]

Also the disastrous marriage she "arranged" with Ernst Ludwig of Hesse & Victoria Melita.

[grandduchessella]

That's the one I mentioned in the first line of my post.

[TampaBay]

 

Louise & Fife (in allowing the marriage even though he was 'just' an Earl at the time; she raised him in rank)

Did not Louise and Lorne pave the way for the Fife marriage?

TampaBay

[grandduchessella]

It set the precedent of a modern British royal marrying into the peerage but Lorne was heir to a Dukedom. Bertie was against his sister's marriage by the way and when it came to Louise & Duff, he prevailed upon QV to raise him from an Earl to a Duke which she did on the wedding breakfast.