Page:King Edward VII, his life & reign; the record of a noble career 1.djvu/28

 with happiness and gratitude to God." On November 29 the Queen wrote to her Uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, regarding the young prince: "Our little boy is a wonderfully strong and large child, with very large dark-blue eyes, a finely formed but somewhat large nose, and a pretty little mouth; I hope and pray he may be like his dearest papa. He is to be called Albert, and Edward is to be his second name." On December 6 the Court was moved, for a healthful change, to Windsor Castle, whence letters were written to "Uncle Leopold" and other dear friends, speaking of domestic happiness and affection as the true compensation for inevitable trials and vexations; expressing her delight in having two children now, a thing "like a dream" to her, and uttering, as wife and mother, her prayer that her boy might in all respects come to resemble his father.

On December 8 the Queen, by letters patent, created her son "Prince of Wales" and "Earl of Chester". The ceremonial of investment was, no doubt, "taken as performed", the Gazette stating that the Queen thus ennobled and invested him with the principality and earldom "by girding him with a sword, by putting a coronet on his head, and a gold ring on his finger, and also by delivering a gold rod into his hand, that he may preside there, and may direct and defend those parts".

We must now take note of the title "Prince of Wales". Until the time of Charles the Second, the connection of the heir apparent with his principality was maintained, in a curious way, by the arrangement that the Prince always had a Welshwoman as wet-nurse. The first receiver of the principality, as well as of the dukedom of Cornwall, under the special existing limitations, was Edward the Black Prince. The "entail", or limited succession, of the principality, was "to him and his heirs the Kings of England", and of the dukedom "to him and his heirs the first-begotten sons of the Kings of England". Hence, when a Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall succeeds to the throne, the principality merges at once in the Crown, and cannot exist again except by a fresh creation. If the prince has a son, the dukedom descends