Page:The Queens of England.djvu/606

 544 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. rapid current of events made her a widow, the Dowager Empress of Germany. In 1863 the Prince of Wales married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. This event presented a magnificent spectacle in St. George's Chapel, and was the first royal marriage in that far back ancestral chapel since that of Henry the First in 1122. The Queen looked on from her private royal closet, but took no part in the ceremony. The pageant, costumes, jewels and decorations were most im- posing and brilliant. In 1866 Princess Helena married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Five years later the Prin- cess Louise married the Marquis of Lome. She had always declared she would never wed a foreign Prince, and now she is an English Duchess. Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, married next, in 1874, the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia. He was the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, succeeding his uncle, Ernst, brother of Prince Albert. The three younger children married in 1879, 1882 and 1885 respectively; Arthur, Duke of Connaught, to Louise of Prussia ; Leopold, Duke of Albany, to Helen of Waldeck, and Princess Beatrice to Henry of Bat- tenburg. Death has removed the Duke of Edinburgh, the Princess Alice and Leopold, and a number of grandchildren, but the line of succession is in evidence unto the third genera- tion, in the person of Edward, Duke of York, aged six years. Victoria has been blessed with gifted helpers in her Premiers. She called them in council, and the influence of such intercourse has been reciprocal. They have in turn been as pillars about the throne. In turn she has missed the help and companion- ship of such great minds and men as Melbourne, Peel, Lords John Russell, Palmerston, Aberdeen and Derby, as each has finished his work and left earth's arena. It was Lord John Russell who gave the vote to trading men by the Bill of 1832, and thirty-three years later tried to give the same privilege to the workingmen, and failed because the time was not ripe. For the man who persistently climbed and waited, and climbed eventually to the height of his lofty ambition, beside the throne, Victoria had a great respect and admiration, and it was her gracious pleasure to invest the Earl of Beaconsfield with the Knighthood of the Garter. Beaconsfield was an Im- perialist, and it was during his ministry in T877 that the Queen assumed her new title of Empress of India. "Imperial," he said, "meant ruling over many states, and her Majesty