Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/472

 practically the head henceforth, who could take her uncle's place. Her brother-in-law Ernest, who was vain and quixotic, looked up to her for counsel, and in his judgment she put little faith. In her family circle it was now, more than before, on herself alone that she had to rely.

The forthcoming marriage of Princess Helena coincided with the coming of age of her second son, Prince Alfred. For her son and daughter the queen was anxious that due pecuniary provision should be made by parliament. This circumstance, coupled with the fact that a new parliament was assembling, led her to yield to the request of her ministers and once more, after an interval of five years, open the legislature in person (10 Feb. 1866). She came to London from Windsor only for the day, and she deprived the ceremony of much of its ancient splendour. No flourish of trumpets announced her entrance. The The queen gilded state carriage was replaced by one of more modern build, though it was drawn as of old by the eight cream-coloured horses. The queen, instead of wearing the royal robes of state, had them laid on a chair at her side, and her speech was read not by herself, as had been her habit hitherto, but by the lord chancellor. The old procedure was never restored by the queen, and on the six subsequent occasions that she opened parliament before the close of her reign, the formalities followed the new precedent of 1866. She was dressed in black, wearing a Marie Stuart cap and the blue riband of the garter. During the ceremony she sat perfectly motionless, and manifested little consciousness of what was proceeding. A month later she showed the direction that her thoughts were always taking by instituting the Albert medal, a new decoration for those endangering their lives in seeking to rescue others from perils of the &ea (7 March 1866).

Later in the year she, for the first time after the prince's death, revisited Aldershot, going there twice to review troops—on 13 March and on 5 April. On the second occasion she gave new colours to the 89th regiment, which she had first honoured thus in 1833, and she now bestowed on the regiment the title 'The Princess Victoria's Regiment,' permitting the officers to wear on their forage caps the badge of a princess's coronet.

The summer was brightened by two marriages. Not only her daughter Helena but her cousin and friend, Princess Mary of Cambridge, had recently become engaged. The latter was betrothed to the Duke of Teck, who was congenial to the queen by reason of his Saxe-Coburg connections. He was her second cousin, being the son, by a morganatic marriage, of Duke Alexander Constantino of Wiirtemberg, whose mother, of the Saxe-Coburg family, was elder sister of the Duchess of Kent, and thus the queen's aunt. On 12 June, dressed in deep black, she was present at Princess Mary's wedding, which took place at Kew. On 5 July she attended the solemnisation of marriage at Windsor of her third daughter, Helena, with Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.

Parliament had been conciliatory in the matter of grants to her children. Princess Helena received a dowry of 30,000l. and an annuity of 6,000l., while Prince Alfred received an annuity of 15,000l., to be raised to 25,000l. in case of his marriage. There was no opposition to either arrangement. But throughout the session the position of the government and the course of affairs in Germany filled the queen with alarm. It was clear that the disputes between Prussia and Austria in regard to the final allotment of the conquered duchies of Schleswig-Holstein were to issue in a desperate conflict between the two powers. Austria and Not otherwise could their long Prussia. rivalry for the headship of the German states be finally decided. The prospect of war caused the queen acute distress. The merits of the quarrels were blurred in her eyes by domestic considerations. The struggle hopelessly divided her family in Germany. The crown prince was wholly identified with Prussia, but her son-in-law of Hesse, her cousin of Hanover, and her brother-in-law of Saxe-Coburg were supporters of Austria. The likelihood that her two sons-in-law of Prussia and Hesse would fight against each other was especially alarming to her. Her former desire to see Prussia strong and self-reliant was now in conflict with her fear that Prussian predominance meant ruin for all the smaller states of Germany, to which she was personally attached. In the early months of 1866 she eagerly consulted Lord Clarendon with a view to learning how best to apply her influence to the maintenance of peace. She bade Lord Russell, the prime minister, take every step to prevent war; and in March 1866 her ministry, with her assent, proposed to the king of Prussia that she should act as mediator. Bismarck, however, brusquely declined her advances. Her perplexities were increased in May by her government's domestic difficulties. Lord Russell warned her of the probable defeat of the government on the reform bill, which they had lately introduced into the