Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/579

 dor, and was formally entertained in his rank of Prince of Wales by the sultan. He saw the sights of the city. His host reported favourably of his tact and manner, and while he did not anticipate that he would learn much from books, he discerned powers of observation which would well supply the place of study. But he detected a certain danger in an ease of demeanour which at times challenged his dignity and in the desire for amusement. A first sojourn in Athens, where he was to be a frequent visitor, and a landing at Cephallonia brought him to Marseilles. At Fontainebleau he was welcomed hospitably by the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, and on 13 June he rejoined his mother at Windsor. One unhappy incident of the highly interesting journey was the serious illness contracted by General Bruce in the marshes of the upper Jordan. He managed with difficulty to reach London, but there he died on 27 June 1862. The prince was thus deprived finally of the close surveillance which his father had deemed needful to his welfare.

While the court was still in deep mourning the marriage of his second sister, Princess Alice, to Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt took place at Windsor on 1 July 1862.

The International Exhibition of 1862, which the prince consort had designed, had been duly opened in May by the duke of Cambridge, to whom much court ceremonial was for the time delegated by Queen Victoria. The prince inspected the exhibition in the summer and received with charming grace the foreign visitors to one of whom, General do Galliffet, he formed a lifelong attachment. But the queen's chief pre-occupation was the scheme for the prince's marriage which King Leopold and the prince consort had inaugurated the previous year. In the summer the queen wrote to Prince Christian, formally soliciting the hand of his daughter, Princess^Alexandra, for her eldest son. Assent was readily given. At the end of August Queen Victoria left England to revisit Coburg, her late husband's home. On the journey she stayed with her uncle Leopold at his palace of Laeken, near Brussels. Her future daughter-in-law was with her father on a visit to Ostend, and Princess Alexandra came over to Laeken to meet Queen Victoria for the first time. The queen left for Coburg on 4 Sept. On the same date the prince set out to meet his mother and to begin what proved another long continental tour. On the 7th he arrived at Brussels, and paid his respects to Princess Alexandra at Ostend. Both were summoned by King Leopold to the palace of Laeken, and there on 9 Sept. 1862 they were formally betrothed. Next day they went over the battlefield of Waterloo together, and in the evening they attended a court banquet which King Leopold gave in their honour. They travelled together to Cologne, where they parted, and the prince joined his mother at Coburg.

The engagement was made public on 16 Sept. in a communication to the press drafted by Queen Victoria. It was stated that the marriage 'privately settled at Brussels' was 'based entirely upon mutual affection and the personal merits of the princess,' and was 'in no way connected with political considerations,' 'The revered Prince Consort, whose sole object was the education and welfare of his children, had,' the message continued, 'been long convinced that this was a most desirable marriage.' On 1 Nov. 1862 the queen gave her formal assent to the union at a meeting of the privy council. The announcement was received in England with enthusiasm. The youth and beauty of the princess and her association with Denmark appealed to popular sympathies. 'I like the idea of the Danish connection ; we have had too much of Germany and Berlin and Coburgs,' wrote Lady Palmerston (, Lord Houghton, ii. 83). In spite of the queen's warning, a political colour was given to the match in diplomatic circles. Prussia and Austria were steadily pushing forward their designs on the Schleswig-Holstein provinces which Denmark claimed. Public feeling in England, which favoured the Danish pretensions, was stimulated. In Germany it was openly argued that the queen and prince consort had betrayed the German cause.

Although the match was wholly arranged by their kindred, it roused a mutual affection in the prince and princess. But they saw little of each other before their marriage. On 8 Nov. Princess Alexandra paid her first visit to England, coming with her father to Osborne as the guest of the queen. There and at Windsor she remained three weeks, spending much of her time alone with the queen.

By Queen Victoria's wish the prince was out of the country during his bride's stay. On leaving Coburg he had invited his sister and her husband, the crown prince and princess of Prussia, to